You need as much food stored as you can manage, up to as much as a year. The reason isn’t just so you never worry about eating, but so that in extremis you can also share a bit with others.
Start with an extra month’s worth of food, then start rotating through, eating the oldest first. (It helps to date everything.) Then increase to 2 and 3 months. Better under the current circumstances, get 3 months food right off if you can.
Be sure you’re getting food you will actually eat - you want to start rotating it through your regular meal program. (In better times you could stock up some dried and freeze-dried emergency provisions from one of those businesses set up for the purpose, that you’d just put away for times when grocers are bare. But I believe they are very backed up right now, so you’d be waiting a month or more to get your order shipped.)
Don’t forget personal care items, pet supplies. Meds, too, if you can get some ahead.
Rant Commences: I was gonna say “Nuts X 2” re alanrgreenland’s comment above, but then realized that did not begin to encompass it. Just saw yet another random doofus on MSNBC blathering on about the advantage of wearing masks, but mind you, he reiterated about fifteen bleeping times “NOT N95.” No, by all means America, wrap a strip of gauze around your face and call it done. Gauze, N95…six of one, half-a-dozen (times a million) of another (viral load). Who cares if YOU get sick, or your wife does, or your dad, or your children? Just as long as TPTB get to deflect blame for their own incompetence and corruption. Whatever you do, don’t look at the giant corporations who are jacking up prices on their PPEs and dangling them for auction to the states. (Didn’t Amazon & Ebay shut down private sellers for doing a fraction of the same thing?) And don’t dare to inquire about who was paid what for those barges bound overseas stacked with the equipment our own hospitals need. Oh no. Don’t ask why our “leaders” knew this was coming months ago, but did nothing to compel manufacturers to begin production of supplies. Don’t ask the WHO why they had to be dragged kicking & screaming to a Pandemic declaration. Certainly don’t ask why our media was so unfashionably late to the party in cautioning their viewers that this was coming. No, don’t ask those questions. Instead, single out some random guy wearing a mask in the Piggly Wiggly and blame him.
We already have stories of people being stabbed because of their ethnicity. Is it really such a stretch to worry that some unstable nutjob will look for a scapegoat and attack people on the street because they’re daring to wear masks? I don’t find it an unreasonable fear when the drumbeat of vilification toward mask wearing is as relentless as the repetition of “China Virus” was.
Just a day ago, my daughter wrote to me about the masks I’d purchased for them a couple months ago. She told me when her husband wore one to the store “the first time he got some looks.” But now, she said “Lately there have been a lot more people with them.” I was delighted to see that. But now I find myself wondering what the thinnest fabric is that I could order from JoAnn’s so I can sew a cover that disguises the N95 when my son-in-law wears it. Oh, did I mention my daughter has had asthma since she was a year old? When I purchased these painting & sanding masks (NOT black market medical supplies), and when her devoted husband wears one out of the house, we are trying to Save. Her. Life. Neither you, nor anyone else, has to care about that. It’s not your job. It’s mine. And his. Save your own family. That’s your job.
It comes as a shocking surprise to me what a shattering rage I feel when I hear lies being spewed on air about using this simple protection, and the implied guilt directed at individuals who do. I’ve seen Ingrid Bergman’s film Gaslight countless times, but until now I’ve never fully comprehended the seething fury she expresses at the end when she confronts her murderous husband who has deceived and manipulated her into disbelieving her own sanity. OMG, I hate being lied to, or lied about. Rant Concludes.
I’m not sure why people discussing prep never mention these, but I bought a couple Aerogarden devices earlier this year. Kept one & gave one. As long as you have a power supply, you can grow year round, so especially good for people with solar or back-up generators. If you have the funds to invest in the jumbo “Farm” size, you can grow a ton of stuff. The photo here was taken about 5 weeks after I gifted the “Bounty” model–they planted assorted lettuces. You can get pods for bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, mini eggplants, herbs or buy empty pods to put any seeds you like in them–don’t see why you couldn’t do strawberries, small cucumbers, whatever, depending on your space.
https://www.aerogarden.com/
Hi
Can you get vegepods in the US? I have one in my garden - it’s 1m square and is like a mini greenhouse. If you google ‘vegepod’ hopefully there is a distributor close to you.
Nicola
Hi
Did you see the news this evening? Apparently they are ‘seriously considering’ the wider use of facemasks (aka for the general public) and are watching what comes out of the CDC ‘with interest’.
On my walk today, more people with facemasks. The chemist was totally blocked off with a big plastic sheet and a small ‘peep hole’ for want of a better word, to pass through prescriptions etc.
N
Coronavirus: A Dangerous Geo-Political Blame Game Erupts
This is another Great, and Informative Video, all the way around.At the risk of seeming emotional, I DO NOT care for the blame game. It does nothing and is harmful but we don’t have to draw conclusion on something when in real time we did for whatever reason what we thought was right. China didn’t try and send the virus here. They weren’t the ones that made our decisions. Trump didn’t even have in the pipe line respirators, masks and the basic tools to fight this beast. Even if they knew Chris what we knew here they couldn’t have done a damn thing. This virus has essentially just hit the world stage and to gather all the right people, retool to mass produce, I think it has been a miracle that we may, that’s may lose 200,000 good folks to death. So, in very short order we are starting to catch up. Had we really done nothing then 2-3 million would have died in the US! So, thank goodness we didn’t allow this to just go on without a fight and I imagine some serious Folks were contemplating just that. So, leadership did make the right decision and the people have done an amazing job of keeping the death toll under control and the health care system still viable. My feelings are always: sticks and stones may break my bones but names can NEVER hurt me is what this is all about. China keeps the rhetoric alive because of their political circumstance and so do we in an election year. Politics. Politicians are the scourge of the earth and it is my hope that the swamp be emptied and for this next election year. I want a majority in both houses. I expect a" large and bold" infrastructure build and thankfully we have a pretty good builder in the White House right now. Coincidence?
To conclude, this is NOT a WWIII type bantering. Just politics, and the blame game shouldn’t even be written about. It’s a non issue unless we are determined to incite ourselves bad outcomes. I just ignore this stuff normally but, you are my go to guy and every word you speak I am compelled to respectfully listen to. All I care about Chris is today, the cause I’ll fight for today is VIRUS CONTAINMENT not political rhetoric. I think in the not to distant future the fight won’t be with China but with ourselves when we start to rebuild and the good folks are hungry. They see who benefitted from the bail out and all eyes will again look at the Rich. How they live in such luxury on all our dimes. I think the biggest fight will be between the classes and the Rich are going to get so much of their ill gotten gain clawed back as they didn’t earned it. They haven’t been all that supportive of the middle class who worked their asses off as they skimmed their penny’s and became grossly Rich. China is the last ones I’m worried about.
I like Ms. Birx’s, she a very pleasant person and I haven’t been anything but impressed with her honesty and Lady like postures. She’s simply brilliant. She’s saving a lot of lives, I can forgive her an incomplete thought or two, she’s not a politician. I know their all bullshitting. I seen her comments, she was talking about data and because of China’s bogus reports it effected the data. We often here at PP state that we are only as good as our data, what goes in matters. I think you could have made this clear. It doesn’t matter what we think, what matters is the data and China did for a fact negatively effect the models and the truth is this combined data with the other date around the world DID cause decisions to be made because of the data. I believe that was her LARGER point. I’m certain of this. Chris, you have been a national asset, Adam as well and I for one appreciate everything you both have done. I really love that Charles H. Smith is a part of the dream team. He simply speaks the language that all can understand, and he’s brilliant at it. Certainly not condescending, he is simply a great writer of thoughts and he speaks clearly. You know he’s right and you can pretty much end your research once Charles defines what you are looking for. I love the dude. I favor him above all others. Checks in the mail Charles. Peace
I’m not familiar with the source nor their reputation so thought I’d ask here on Peak Prosperity. I appreciate your reply. Greg
I see a lust if videos at the link you provided. Which one are you referring to?
I’m 100% sure there were analysts and supervisors at the CIA, DIA, etc. who saw the pandemic threat in China very early (late December?) and started sending urgent memos up the chain of command trying to get someone’s attention. But for reasons of incompetence, corruption, politics, or even personal animus they were ignored, reassigned, fired or whatever it took to effectively shut them down.
Didnt the same intelligence “failures” occur in the lead up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and 9-11, etc.? And this pandemic was much easier to see coming early on than either of those. So the narrative will be: “No one could’ve seen this coming!” The analysts and agents who tried to sound the warning will feel justified but extremely bitter and there will be NO RECKONING for the mid- and upper-level managers who received the warnings from their own people but silenced them.
So the big question in my mind is, “Was this incompetence or did some evil political calculation dictate letting the pandemic get a running start at us?” Roosevelt needed an attack on the US to arouse the public so they could be led into WWII, so he and his advisors “missed” the intelligence warnings. Whose agenda benefits from the US allowing a pandemic to get up a full head of steam before we start getting serious about stopping it?
On another note (of failure and corruption), if I ran the zoo here in the US I’d defund the WHO and the CDC and create something new to replace them with competent people. Every institution has a life cycle and those two are clearly incompetent at the one thing they’re supposed to do. The rot runs throughout them so it would be best to start over rather than risk accidentally keeping staff and an institutional culture that are at the core of the problem. Merely removing a couple of executives would be insufficient to cut out the cancer completely. But we’re in a totally corrupt, Fourth Turning world so the chances of that are slim (until things get REALLY bad).
”Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWPWHU8x6kE
IMO In an alpine environment I’d put my time and energy into ordering bags of dried beans and rice to store as well as canned goods. Growing on a deck will be an extra short season as the ground retains some heat longer than pots on a deck. You could try growing a few things just as extra food, but to survive , you wouldn’t want to count non what could be growing on a deck. If you want to see a commercial year round operation, check out: https://altiusfarms.com in Denver.
Why this now?
Link
https://www.foxnews.com/us/california-derails-train-coronavirus-aid-ship-usns-mercy-feds-say
Hi folks,
In case you haven’t already seen this, the first US case report of COVID-19 related acute hemorrhagic necrotizing encephalopathy has been published online. This is a rare encephalopathy that has been described as a consequence of other viral infections such as influenza. I figured this might be of interest to you and your other viewers. I came across this because I’m a radiologist specializing in neuroradiology.
While I agree that you should not poke a bear, it is good to know if the bear has rabies and will attack or if you can ignore him and make him go away. The Chinese Communist Party fits this in my opinion. If you want to blame anyone it is clear that the WHO bears a great deal of responsibility, They delayed and covered for China for a long time. They gave one set of guidelines to Asian countries and another to Western countries. Remember that our government is layered with bureaucrats below the politicians and the mindset of a bureaucrat is to listen to other bureaucrats(even the WHO) first and CYA when the problem expands. I have lived my life with a distrust of government. Part of this stems from where I grew up but a large part comes from dealing with agency officials(state and federal). I am never surprised when things blow up from incompetence.
I agree with Tom. Before WW2, the “Overton Window” did not allow the US political class to even consider discussing going into a war - after the US experience in WW1. Pearl Harbor was required to change the zeitgeist. It was then permitted to consider the option.
Likewise, Trump had to really push against the establishment to put his China Travel Ban in place. A whole host of interests didn’t want the US to prepare for this pandemic. They just hoped it would go away. Mainstream media - and Joe Biden - ridiculed Trump, calling im racist and xenophobic for instituting the travel ban. Did Trump act more cautiously as a result? I’m sure he did.
Could he have pushed against all the Dems who work in government, who leak stories intended to humiliate Trump to the New York Times at every opportunity, to become more prepared? If we think back, perhaps we can remember - he was being impeached at the time. That was a distraction.
US pandemic preparations probably had to wait for Italy’s example before the bureaucracy started to get off its collective butt. Video of real Italians dying make a much larger impression than a paper intelligence report or intercepts from the NSA which only a small number of people actually see.
Now, for sure the blame is being heaped on China for domestic political reasons. But if you want to go grade-school on this, and talk about ratcheting up the threat of WW 3, to me it is quite clear that China started it first.
Back in February, China was putting a whole lot of effort behind the “the US infected China with the virus” campaign. I even got to hear this very story first-hand from a semi-official Chinese source. The narrative didn’t get much traction - at least not outside China. Inside China, I suspect that’s what a lot of the people believe. Their foreign minister even started spouting this line, which caused Pompeo to summon the Chinese ambassador. Convincing a big chunk of your population that “the US did it” - do we imagine that might have a deleterious effect on US-China relations?
So. Yeah. If there’s a WW3, for sure, China will have started it, for much the same reason - to escape blame. The whole US-blames-China thing is a pale shadow of the intense, coordinated CCP propaganda campaign that has now been going on for at least 6 weeks.
The researchers tested numerous materials and finished masks and found that non-woven polypropylene (think those reusable shopping bags) are better than cotton initially and do not stretch from heat sterilization methods so that they retain there droplet resistance for much longer.
Details including sewing instructions at:
https://makermask.org/
More evidence for Hydroxychloroquine.
https://www.news4jax.com/health/2020/03/23/doctor-says-he-successfully-treated-covid-19-patient/
Could be a good sign.
As I am an ex-intelligence agent, who worked in Asia for the NSA, and other agencies, I am absolutely certain none of this embryonic pandemic in China was missed by our intelligence capabilities from its very inception…right up until now.
The proper notifications and briefings on the subject would have been made to the consumers of our intelligence collection efforts. Humint, Elint, Sigint, Comint, would have focused tasking on the issue, along with other assets.
Since we record the entire planet’s electromagnetic environment 24/7, and keep these recordings for decades, the intelligence community would have in its possession a tremendous amount of raw data, including cell-phone transmissions, all radio transmissions (such as from Chinese officials in the field responding to issues), any broadcast transmission of any sort (including scrambled/cypher transmissions).
This information is recorded so we may take our time sifting through it searching for interesting data. We can replay, for example, a particular day, in a particular place, during a specific time period…and not only discover something interesting, but locate exactly where the interesting event took place, and who was involved.
Should we become aware of an interesting event, sometime in the future…say via the debriefing of a field agent…we can confirm the report by reproducing the time of the reported event, and looking at the area involved, with our recordings.
Therefore, we can go back in time to before patient zero, and inform ourselves of the events leading up to the issue at hand. We would detail the Chinese personnel involved, both civil and government, such as the Doctors and technicians involved in the Wuhan bio labs…the incidents of espionage committed by Chinese agents, with access to Western, Level 4, Bio Labs…such as the Canadian L4 lab, which we know was targeted by them.
We would also possess the complete genome of all the pathogens held in all of our labs and those held by the United Kingdom. And, we would have our bio experts examine samples of the virus in question, and review all technical reports, classified, or not.
We would know with certainty, whether this pathogen was modified in a lab…there would be no doubt, whatsoever. We would know with certainty, if the virus was the product of natural mutation, or artificial genetic modification. We would know with certainty, if this pathogen was sourced from one of our labs, or if it was modified by the Wuhan lab.
Now, what a politician does with all this wonderful information is up to them. Ours is to decide IF we TELL them…and WHAT we decide to tell them…and, WHO we decide to tell, or not. In addition, we decide the manner, by which, anyone is told, anything. A report can be tailored to the psychological underpinnings of the one being briefed, such tailoring can be changed from one group to the next…from one official, to the next.
The Community has no checks, or balances, upon it. The person we decide to brief has no way of knowing, if the information is actual, fictional, or tailored to his personality.
And, no elected official in our government, has the ability to cause us any great trouble, or have any way of effectively threatening the Community.
Congress may threaten to punish us via our budgets, and we make a great show of expressed anxiety in this regard. But, this is only a performance we exhibit for our manipulation of them…as we are not dependent upon the official budgets for our funds…at all.
Knowledge is power. The Community has all human knowledge. Who has more power, an elected individual, whom WE GUARD and EDUCATE, and who will be gone from bothering with in short order, or the primaries of the Community, who are not elected, nor subject to appointment by a transient politician?
I left the Community, once I became philosophically aware of the guiding values of those running it, and discovered my own values did not harmonize. These people are all gone now, replaced by others, whose value sets differ.
Perhaps there is still hope for Humanity. But, certainly, not for all of Humanity.