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Some food for thought about Pres Trump's speech, customer service, and planning for contingencies. 1. Last night during his speech Pres Trump pointed out that so far $6.1M had been raised for the three affected families. He also pulled out a physical check (not a personal check) for $1M. He said softly "thanks Dan." I *do* wonder if the Dan of that donation is Dan Bongino. Dan's there at the RNC; he's a personal friend-acquaintance of Mr. Trump with access; and this is the kind of thing Dan can now do due to his success. 2. For years I have...

Its been sometime since I posted a prepper thread as my life took a unexpected turn in 2016 my wife had a debilitating stroke and I became a full time care giver. we relocated in 2019 from New Mexico to Indiana to be close to family. She past in 2021 so I have had my hands full for a while. But things have turned so dark lately what with all the food processing plant fires and supply chain problems crime, unrest and very dark administration posing and threatening daily I thought I needed to once again call for readiness should...

White House unveils $65B pandemic preparedness plan © Getty Images The Biden administration on Friday unveiled its $65.3 billion plan to improve the U.S.’s pandemic preparedness strategy in the midst of COVID-19 and as the country readies for any future biological threats. The White House plans to funnel the $65.3 billion over seven to 10 years to invest in the country’s ability to respond “rapidly and effectively” to future epidemics and pandemics, as the current COVID-19 crisis has disrupted society and killed millions worldwide. “The cost of the pandemic prevention pales in comparison to the enormous cost – in lives...

Check out Facebook's warning that interest in food preservation might be a sign of extremism among those who are "becoming too prepared." This is what I call "War by Venn Diagram." Everyone knows folks who can/prep are conservatives. This is just a sneaky way to harass them.

There’s a meme circulating on social media that goes like this… If you catch 100 red fire ants as well as 100 large black ants, and put them in a jar, at first, nothing will happen. However, if you violently shake the jar and dump them back on the ground the ants will fight until they eventually kill each other. The thing is, the red ants think the black ants are the enemy and vice versa, when in reality, the real enemy is the person who shook the jar. This is exactly what’s happening in society today. Liberal vs. Conservative....

Today, First Lady Melania Trump joined a conference call with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Youth Preparedness Council (YPC) during their annual summit. The Council was formed in 2012 to bring together youth leaders interested in supporting disaster preparedness. Through national and local projects, they strive to engage children and provide the tools and resources needed to educate them on disaster preparedness.Administer Gaynor provided welcome remarks and discussed the importance of YPC and the many achievements of its members. The Administrator then introduced the First Lady, who thanked the YPC members for allowing her to join the Summit...

  ENHANCING OUR PREPAREDNESS: President Donald J. Trump is working to ensure a fully stocked, resilient national stockpile and a domestic industrial base capable of meeting any future challenge. President Trump and his Administration are releasing a plan to restructure the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), implementing lessons learned from recent pandemics.Our next generation SNS will be improved by increasing supplies of critically-needed items, integrating predictive analytics to determine needs, leveraging technology to provide real-time visibility of supply chains, and reducing dependency on foreign supplies.Additionally, President Trump is signing an Executive Order providing the authority to ensure America is producing critical...

As we observe National Hurricane Preparedness Week, I call on Americans in hurricane-prone regions to take appropriate measures to help mitigate the devastation that these storms can produce. Through proper preparation, we can bolster our resilience against any challenge we face from these incredibly powerful storms. Accurate forecasting is crucial for communities across our country, which need advance notice to protect lives and property from hurricanes. My Administration remains dedicated to enhancing our hurricane tracking and prediction capabilities. As we have entered a new era of supercomputing, we have been able to increase our computing capacity and ensure the United...

RINGTOWN, Pa. - When Dan Wowak went to live alone in the wilds of Patagonia in 2016 for a chance to win a half-million dollars on reality television, he was allowed to bring 10 items. Toilet paper wasn't one of them. Wowak, a Mahanoy City native, did bring an ax and saw, a sleeping bag and a ferro rod, which you can strike to make sparks in just about any condition. He also chose fishing line and hooks, which proved invaluable. Over 51 days, he ate nothing but fish he caught in a lake: nine of them. "I lost 54...

As the saying goes, "Nothing is certain but death and taxes." I would add, "and anti-price gouging legislation in times of crisis." Yet price increases in the face of sudden shortages are an important impetus to restore supply and demand market conditions that are closer to normal. As many of us have experienced in the past few weeks, buying toilet paper, hand sanitizer and face masks has become more difficult and more expensive. The reason, of course, is that unusually large numbers of people are rushing to buy these and other products that might prevent the spread of the coronavirus....

Vice President Mike Pence today participated in a discussion with nearly 50 of our Nation’s governors to provide an update on the work of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, to continue coordination with governors and state and local officials to respond to and prepare for the coronavirus, and to thank governors and state and local leaders—particularly state and local health officials—for their important and tireless work. The Vice President along with White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Ambassador Deborah Birx, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Director Bob Redfield, U.S. Northern Command and North American...

With apologies if this is a repeat thread, the embedded video at the linked YouTube post holds an excellent analysis by John Correia, founder of Active Self Protection, of how the shooting and armed response went down.I tried first to link to the Reddit thread where I saw this video because viewing the video through Reddit apparently skips an annoying "sign in" step at YouTube, but Reddit appears to be unwelcome at Free Republic. Nor do I know how to embed the video from YouTube itself. You may need to sign into YouTube with a Google account. Sorry about that....

Going solar isn’t necessarily any protection from California’s new “planned” power outages, and local residents and businesses are enduring a lot more than just a few inconveniences. Bloomberg’s Chris Martin has a story on California’s troubles with one of my favorite headlines ever: “Californians Learning That Solar Panels Don't Work in Blackouts.” Apparently, many of California’s would-be Earth-savers had no idea that just putting solar panels on their roofs doesn’t mean they’ll have power when PG&E switches it off. As Martin explains:

A precautionary boil water advisory has been issued for nearly 900 households in parts of Pittsburgh’s West End neighborhoods after a water main broke on Mount Washington Saturday afternoon. The boil water and flush advisory applies to portions of Ridgemont, Westwood and Elliott, according to the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. Many residents in the area had no water service or experienced low water pressure due to the break, which occurred around 3:30 p.m. along a 16-inch water main on Virginia Avenue at Kearsarge Street, the PWSA said. PWSA officials said the break was isolated and normal water service was...

I have been working on a knowledge base of topics related to prepping and SHTF situations. It is geared towards making people more self sufficient with topics ranging from unarmed self defense to small space gardening to how to sew your own clothes. I'm one of those types of people who believe that we are going to go out with a whimper, not a bang, so there is a lot of content on how to do your own repairs, build your own stuff and live a more frugal lifestyle. In order to get access you need to send me a...

A federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday turned down a request for a temporary restraining order that would have stopped the Trump administration’s plan to send test messages to more than 200 million cellphones later in the day. Judge Katherine Polk Failla rejected arguments from lawyers representing people who objected because they believed that the government should not be able to control what messages Americans receive on their devices. At a news conference outside the courthouse after the decision, plaintiff Liane Nikitivich said she was “not sure how terrorism is defined and who will be found to be a terrorist”...

REMINDER: Tomorrow, 10/3 at 2:18 PM EDT, there will be a nationwide test of the Wireless Emergency Alert system, in coordination w/ @FCC. You’ll get a message on your phone with a tone & vibration. This is not a text & your phone number is not shared with anyone.

North Carolina residents rushed to stack up on food, water, toilet paper and other necessities as 'monster' Hurricane Florence is set to touchdown in the state early this weekend. A rowdy crowd was shown in a Facebook video shared by an employee from the supermarket off Glenn School Road in Durham Tuesday pushing one another and shouting as they hurried around the store to gather their supplies. Police officers were even spotted making their rounds around the Walmart to ensure the safety of shoppers. One officer is seen restraining a young boy as another shopper drops several bottles of water.

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- It was a chaotic scene at the Walmart on Glenn School Road in Durham as people scrambled to get water and other supplies. An ABC11 Eyewitness recorded the video as people pushed, shoved, tugged in efforts to get their cases of bottle water and other supplies and Walmart workers and security tried to keep order.

OCALA, Fla. In mid-2016, a regional task force that spent almost two years exploring ways to improve safety on a crowded Interstate 75 decided to take a conservative approach: make changes to the highway rather than build or expand other roads. Then Hurricane Imra blew into Florida and thousands of people trying to flee its path got stuck, many of them in Ocala and points north and south. Now, a new road with a potential route through Marion and Alachua counties may be back on the table, if not exactly speeding ahead. "I think they are going to do it...