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11 Comments

  1. Thank you, many of us needed that. A few corrections, my research indicates that the scoffers make up 8.13 % of the population. The increase is due to our purchase of RV solar cells and old car parts on Craigslist. The old car parts and solar cells have been added to the rest of our hoard…we have to check our doors!
    Other writers have also reminded us to maintain a sense of humor.
    Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

  2. I’ve been working in financial IT since 1993 and I can say first hand that companies spent an insane amount of money and resources preventing the Y2K bug. We took no chances at all. We were pulling computers off the server racks if they “looked too old to be safe.” We rewrote code just because a language was old and could be at risk. Nationwide the amount invested making sure money kept flowing had to be in the trillions, because these bugs were everywhere. Firmware, code libraries, diagnostic tools, even chips on hard drives. Network switches, computers, storage arrays, everything was impacted.

    Even with the company hiring everyone they could find, buying and upgrading almost every computer related component, and rewriting everything written in Fortran and COBOL, sometimes quadrupling our staff levels, we still worked insane hours.

    This flow of resources into IT is what really drove the dot-com bubble, because when we were done, nothing needed “upgrading” for the next 3 years. On Jan 1, 2000 a few things happened. There wasn’t a major infrastructure breakdown, tens of thousands of IT staff were no longer needed, and there was ZERO IT budget left for a long time to come.

    People really don’t understand how physically fragile this stuff can be. Even on 9/11, when the stock market was closed for about a week, it wasn’t closed to stop a panic. It was shutdown because there effectively wasn’t a stock market. The communication lines leading to NASDAQ, to the countless financial firms in that area and even just physically routed through NYC, were crushed. In a number of cases the tibco feeds we were getting vanished because those overseas feeds came into the US via companies resident in one of the WTC buildings. IWe had people running into buildings, escorted by firemen, just to grab hard drives out of computers before the building collapsed or water damage took hold.

    These two events have thought me the following: never have everything in one bank or one financial company, and never have everything financial in a “company” – always have a percent of your resources “in hand”.

    1. Would like to know more about the hard drive “rescues”. I don’t know any fireman who would allow a “civilian” into a building being evacuated for any reason.

  3. Why are we so quick to give the ‘Non’s’ a pass; they are not ‘bad’, just simply ‘wrong’?

    Brandon Smith was right. The vast majority of the ‘Non’s’ are too self-absorbed in frivolous pursuits to accept reality. Their country is falling around them while they are consumed with texting, cell phones, selfies, sports, recreation, leisure, entertainment, TV, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Pokemon GO etc. Yea, it’s fun. And it’s a lot easier than preparing to protect their love ones. Their suffering will be Biblical…

    This old coot remembers personal responsibility and refuses to give a pass to those who don’t take theirs seriously.

  4. Very good insights Mr. Bobbert. I have had similar experiences. Thru the years, I’ve developed a series of questions that I use to “pfish”, as the corporate people use the word to discuss the attempts of outside sources to steal inside corporate info. I do not attempt to steal their info, but just want to “feel them out” about their preparedness thinking. A well formed question, or comment based on the response, can often open up a very good conversation, or slam the door shut because of the person’s response. Many people I encounter are aware of the threats today, but don’t know what to do. With them, I share or suggest things that can help them. Thru the years, I’ve been surprised by the number of committed preppers I’ve found. Most are deeply committed Christians who see the “signs of the times” and the warning signs in our nation. Some have farms that are truly prepared for long term grid down, to buried cargo containers, to enough MRE’s they could open their own store fronts. All are quite about their efforts. We live in a region that has experienced many devastating natural disasters from 1000 year floods to hurricanes. One such storm broke over 8,500 power poles in one electric coop. Electricity at my home was out 4 weeks. Others were out 6 weeks. Some homes, two miles from rivers, had 8 feet of water that had never had any water in 70 years. NONE OF THIS, hardly made a blip on the major news media.

  5. I grew up around farming, gardening and ranching. Learned hunting, fishing and reloading. Got into hot-rodding and did all my home maintenance. Moved to a remote area, so I had a well-supplied pantry.

    About thirty-some years back, in the Mel Tappan era, I came across a magazine article which spoke of the skills, knowledge and possessions appropriate to the well-appointed survivalist.

    “Hey! Look at me! I’m a survivalist!”

    I had not known that.

  6. In my limited 2 years experience of becoming “prepared”, I’ve found that asking a person if they have a communication plan is a great place to start. People with children, both young and adult can relate. The number of natural disasters this year also makes it relevant. You can continue from there. With some people, the question is as far as I go. With others, it opens up a great conversation that can benefit us both.

  7. Mr. Bobbert, I liked the article and my only suggestion is to stop using Google(r) as your reference source. That’s what a “survivalist” would do…

    To “google(r)” something is now a pejorative, indicative of having “drunk the cool-aid” and “gotten on the bus”.

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