E-Mail 'Should I Bug Out or Survive in Place?- Part 2, by Jonathan Hollerman' To A Friend

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1. This is one of the most thought out article I have ever read on the dangers we face with pandemics, etc. Too bad we can’t make it required reading for our congressmen that could possibly make a difference in preparing

   1. Even if you could make it required reading it wouldn’t matter.
      The elites in Washington don’t care about the commoners during a pandemic..they have their high dollar government funded escape plans and locations. Your well being is of little concern to them.

2. With all the commentaries about hackers, what probability exists for hacking of the control systems for electrical generating systems? How long could an outage last ?

   Or, hacking of the software that controls the “reloading” of EBT cards? How long before there is nationwide rioting and looting?

   1. Hey DesertRat, I wouldn’t expect a hacking of EBT cards. With an effective communication outreach program, the government could quickly quell and solve the problem though some rioting and looting could occur but likely wouldn’t lead to mass societal collapse.
      The cyber threat is wide open. It all comes down to the hacker, their sophistication, their objective, etc. A lot of media outlets discuss the recent Ukraine power outage caused by hackers, but that was only a warning shot fired by Russia. It was not designed to destroy the grid, it was designed to be a temporary nuisance and warning to Ukraine and the rest of the world. They didn’t destroy any serious infrastructure and was more of a forced power outage than a serious attack on their grid.
      If hackers go after our HV substation transformers and destroy more than 10 or so of them, we are completely screwed. Those take 12-18 months to build and our country no longer exists in any meaningful way if it goes more than a few months without electricity.
      Google the “Aurora Project Transformer” to see one way hackers could literally blow up a generator through a hack. Also note that after that test was done and the vulnerability was discovered, NERC (National Energy Regulatory Commission) instructed the power companies to protect against the threat……. only 2 out of hundreds of companies have complied.
      Even though it is often discussed, Aurora is only a single threat to the electric grid (and not a permanent one). There are thousands of other unprotected SCADA equipment that make up an electric grid and other critical infrastructure. At any moment, a sophisticated hacker could target our HV transmission infrastructure and destroy it. If that happens… buckle your seat belts.
      There are limited groups/countries that would be willing to do such an attack (even though most have the ability to do so at any time), because of mutually assured destruction. If they destroy the US by taking out our grid long-term, they are in fact destroying their own country as the loss of the US buying power would crash nearly every economy around the world. Most of our enemies that would like to destroy us don’t want to risk their own destruction in the process. North Korea is extremely concerning in this area as their economy is non-existent already and their leader is mentally unstable.
      The other big threat is terrorists getting their hands on the cyber warfare technology and zero days needed to destroy the grid. Through jihad, they might be more willing to use it even though it would hurt their own countries. Most people are unaware that Iran has the fourth largest Cyber Army in the world ad uses tens of thousands of proxy hackers… that could be a real problem in the future.
      Be sure to watch the Showtime documentary “Zero Days” which was phenomenal in its discussion of Stuxnet and the threat of cyber warfare in our near future. Most people (even preppers) are unaware of the full extent of the cyber threat. If you want to know more on the Aurora SCADA threat, this is a very good article… http://www.powermag.com/what-you-need-to-know-and-dont-about-the-aurora-vulnerability/?pagenum=1

   2. In addition to Mr. Hollerman’s excellent information and links, consider checking out Ted Koppel’s book “Lights Out”, which discusses potential cyber (and other) threats to the electric grid pretty thoroughly.

3. I agree that an EMP event is most likely, but is also least predictable.
   In my case, my nearest Bug Out location is 600 miles away, making it a daunting task to attempt to determine when such an event is likely.
   Moving there permanently is out of the question at this point, and packing up and running every time Kim Junk Poo rattles his sabre is also not practical

4. If you have no place to bug out too, you simply must make the best of it you can. As one of “urban preppers” you thrash allow me to retort. If you do not bug out fast as you say, you will not get very far with thousands if not ten thousands doing the same will clog the roads. I do not feel even the most diligent prepper will flee in the first few hours of most situations. I do agree my chances of survival is slim in the city and neighborhood I am in so I have spent years thinking of the best way to extend my time. While I will not go into details I have come up with ideas I have never seen written elsewhere. I would like to say about those thousands of starving people in urban setting that you state makes the “bugging in” impossible; where do you think they will go? Are they going to hang out in a city with no resources, or will they start thinking ” hmmm, I bet those country folks have food ( farms, livestock)”. After all, to city folks that’s what we see on tv. The key, in my opinion, is to survive the initial few days or couple weeks. Yes I have the best plan possible I feel to do this then, hopefully, I think I will actually be alone in my neighborhood and yes I have a mapped plan for utilizing the empty blocks and homes for defense and protection after that. Fire is my only “big” concern in this concept. I do not believe “bugging out” is the only option.

5. Someone with IMF told me that they are planning a “currency conversion” Which is an economic collapse. I wrote an e-mail explaining what I was told. Here is the deal. If 7 billion people realize that central banks and fiat currency caused an economic collapse they will turn on they whole system. We are the next to coalesce into an economic zone according to her. Asia in the next ten years or so. She told me the trigger that will start the process of our long slide to the bottom. So far it has been staved off. It will start when the debt clock reaches 20 trillion. It was supposed to happen in February. Somehow the debt clock has been turned back at least 4 times. That will just cause the first shock to the system as she and people like her will have anything in the US stock market convert to other currencies. This is the “correction” we hear about. Like I mentioned if the world populations see that debt and fiat currencies /central banks are the cause of this there will be not only a complete loss of faith which is what makes it work but an outright revolt against them. As this approaches we hear more and more about North Korean Satellites orbiting around our country and Bill Gates has been talking an awful lot about a Pandemic. I think most of us are aware of Agenda 21 or agenda 2030. Won’t they need an excuse to make the greatest economy and strongest dollar to ever exist in modern history reset?? There is a lot more that has brought me to this conclusion from interacting with this family. Alaska has several earthquakes today. That was a comment I found odd from my friend from IMF. She said have somewhere to go in case of a natural disaster in you area when telling what to have prepared for the coming collapse. She said that in addition to 3-6 months of food and medicine.

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