Notes for Wednesday – November 11, 2015

November 11th is of course Veteran’s Day. If you value you freedom, then thank a veteran. It is also the birthday of General George S. Patton, Jr. (born 1885, died December 21, 1945). And this is the birthday of Hugh Everett (born 1930, died July 19, 1982), the American physicist who first proposed the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) of quantum physics, which he termed his “relative state” formulation. November 11th also marks Rhodesia’s unilateral declaration of independence (UDI), in 1965. Remember Rhodesia.

o o o

Today, we present another entry for Round 61 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chromlined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR type rifle to have quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul pmags 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  4. A Model 120 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $340 value),
  5. A $300 gift certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  6. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  7. Twenty-five books, of the winners choice, of any books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  8. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  9. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  10. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knifemaker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit,
  8. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  9. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 61 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Infectious Disease in the TEOTWAWKI World- Part 2, by Militant Medic

Bacteria, Virus, Fungi, Parasites, and Prion

Medicine.net defines an infection as “The invasion and multiplication of microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites that are not normally present within the body. An infection may cause no symptoms and be subclinical, or it may cause symptoms and be clinically apparent. An infection may remain localized, or it may spread through the blood or lymphatic vessels to become systemic (bodywide). Microorganisms that live naturally in the body are not considered infections. For example, bacteria that normally live within the mouth and intestine are not infections.”

There is a lot there, in that little definition and beyond, that the definition is not even accurate! Germs that normally live in your body can cause infections and do frequently. Any woman who has ever had a yeast infection knows this. Yeast are a natural part of a woman’s genital tract. Usually kept in check by the natural competition with other bacteria that live “down there” and by the natural acidity of the genital tract. However, if she takes an antibiotic that kills those competing bacteria, yeast can overgrow leading to a yeast infection. So we see the definition above is not even right.

First, I would like to present a few definitions we use a lot in medicine that some of you may not be familiar with. (Some of these are not textbook thorough but simplified for our conversation):

– Germ: any microorganism in existence. This includes bacteria, virus, parasite, fungi, and prions.

– Pathogen: a germ that infects you and makes you sick (i.e. Strep pyogenes, which causes strep throat)

– Commensal: a germ that generally lives in or on you but does not make you sick; it doesn’t help you either. (For example, staph epidermidis is a germ that lives on your skin but only in very rare cases makes you sick.)

– Symbiote: a germ that gains a benefit from living in or on you but that provides a benefit to you in return. A current buzzword for some of these are probiotics. (E. coli live in our intestines where they absorb nutrients but in return secrete Vitamin K– an important clotting factor– that our body absorbs and uses.)

Germs

Now let’s gain an understanding of each of the different types of germs. I tried to keep from getting too technical.

Bacteria are single-celled organisms that are prokaryotic (in that they lack a membrane-bound nucleus and other intercellular structures common to more advanced organisms). They are very small, usually no larger than a few micrometers (or 0.0001 inch) and come in a variety of shapes. They are found all over the earth from deep sea vents to the arctic. Obviously, we are most interested in the ones that inhabit or infect humans. We are filled and covered with bacteria, and it is estimated there are 10 times more bacteria on and in us than we have cells in our body! Most are commensals, which basically mind their own business and help keep more pathogenic bacteria in check through normal mechanisms of competition.

Bacteria can be classified in a number of different ways. Most are beyond the scope of this article. One classification that is helpful to understand is Gram staining. Gram stain is a purple dye that selectively stains cell walls. Gram positive bacteria (which have thick cell walls) stain purple, and Gram negative (which have thin cell walls) stain pink. The two most important Gram positive bacteria are the Strep and Staph family. An understanding of whether a bacteria is Gram positive or negative is important because many antibiotics are much better at killing one or the other. For example, antibiotics that target cell walls (like the penicillins) are much better against Gram positive bacteria with their thick juicy cell walls than Gram negative with their wimpy unappetizing thin cell walls.

Another classification that is helpful are anaerobic vs. aerobic. Aerobic bacteria can tolerate the presence of oxygen and include Streps, Staphs, Mycoplasma (the cause of tuberculosis), and Enterobacteriaceae (Salmonella, Klebsiella, E. coli, Yersinea (plague), and Shigella). Anaerobic bacteria tolerate oxygen poorly and will not grow well in areas with a lot of oxygen. Some examples of anaerobic bacteria include Clostridium (C. diff, botulism, gas gangrene, and tetanus), Fusobacteria, Corynebacterium (diptheria). Some antibiotics (like Metronidazole) only work against anaerobic bacteria.

Many of the classic diseases of mankind are caused by bacteria. These include scarlet fever, cholera, tuberculosis, syphilis, anthrax, bubonic plague, tetanus, gangrene, and leprosy.

Almost all bacteria can be killed by one antibiotic or another.

Viruses are small infectious particles (notice I did not say cells) that require a host cell to replicate and reproduce. Viruses come in a wide variety of forms, including plant viruses, animal viruses, and even viruses that infect bacteria and parasites. Viruses are so small they cannot be seen, even with the most powerful light microscopes.

Because they have to “hijack” your cells to divide, all human viruses are considered pathogenic. There are not any viruses that I am aware of that are commensals or symbiotes.

Many famous diseases of mankind are caused by viruses, including smallpox, polio, influenza, herpes, chickenpox, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis A, B, and C, right down to the lowly common cold (Rhinovirus). Viruses have been in the news a lot lately, as they are the cause of Ebola and Avian flu.

To my knowledge, we have discovered treatment for only a few strains of viruses, and I say “treatment” instead of “cure” because the medications we have discovered only slow and weaken the virus as opposed to kill them, but this is better than nothing. The few viruses we can treat are HIV, chickenpox, herpes, hepatitis B and C, and influenza. For all other viruses THERE IS NO TREATMENT. Understanding this one simple point is really important if you do not want to waste your antibiotics on a viral illness you cannot treat.

Fungi are a large family of eukaryotic organisms, which means they have membrane bound nuclei and other advanced cellular structures. They range in size from single-celled yeasts to very large underground branching structures that create mushrooms when ready to reproduce.

While fungi can be very damaging to plants, only a few bother humans. The pathogenic species are the Dermatophytes (Greek for “Skin Lovers”, which are the causative agents of ringworm, toenail fungus, athletes foot, and jock itch) and Yeasts (which can infect a woman’s genital tract or our skin). There is also a triad of geographically localized fungi that can also make you sick. These are Histoplasmosis (endemic to the Ohio River Valley), Coccidiomycosis (endemic to the central valley of California), and Blastomycosis (endemic to the Great Lakes region). These three usually cause lung disease, due to inhalation of the spores. A bunch of other fungi are less dangerous and generally only cause disease in people with weakened immune systems, like AIDS patients.

There are many good treatments against fungi, and all can be killed by one antifungal or another. Regular antibiotics (used to kill bacteria) do NOTHING against fungus and can actually make them grow more by removing their bacterial competition. (Just ask any woman who has had a yeast infection after a course of antibiotics.)

Parasites are a large family of critters where the parasite benefits from the host, while the host is harmed. While bacteria and viruses are technically parasites for our discussion, we will not consider them as such. We will also not be considering important but largely foreign parasites (like malaria) in our discussion.

We will be focusing on endoparasites (parasites that live in us, like worms) or exoparasites (parasites that live on us, like lice) of the human body. Parasites are multicellular and in this regard more closely related to humans than viruses, bacteria, or fungi.

Parasites are an additional concern because many act as vectors in spreading other viral, bacterial, or parasitic illnesses. The classic example is bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis), which was spread by fleas. If you could avoid being parasatized by the flea, you could avoid the plague.

We have good treatments against parasites, but the more closely the parasite resembles a human the more likely the treatment will hurt you as well. Significant side effects are common with many parasite treatments. Like viruses and fungi, parasites are usually unaffected by antibiotics.

Prions are infectious proteins that can cause other proteins to change shape, leading to harmful effects to the host. As they do not contain any genetic material and cannot reproduce in the classical sense, technically they are not living organisms. Prions were not discovered until 1982 and are rare. They are the causative agents of Mad Cow Disease and Kuru. Prion disease is transmitted by eating infected brain and spinal cord tissue. Once acquired there are no treatments and prion disease is universally fatal. So, don’t eat brains.

How Do Antibiotics Work?

Before we talk about how antibiotics work, I want to discuss something called Antibiotic Spectrum of Activity. Antibiotics are generally classified as Broad-spectrum, Intermediate- spectrum, or Narrow-spectrum. This refers to how many different types of bacteria the antibiotic can and will kill. I will discuss the spectrum of each of the antibiotics in greater detail below, but in general Broad-spectrum kill a wider variety of bacteria than narrow-spectrum, which kills fewer and more specific bacteria. While some may think “The antibiotic I want to take is the one that always kills the most different kinds of bacteria. Give me the broadest-spectrum you have!”, this is a mistake. Remember, most of the bacteria in your body either don’t hurt you or they actually help you, and sometimes just their presence keeps other harmful bacteria in check. Using a broad spectrum, like Clindamycin, to treat strep throat is like taking out a foxhole with a tactical nuke. You kill everything on the battlefield– good guys and bad. While it will cure the strep throat, it will wipe out all your friendly gut bacteria too, leaving you with a case of diarrhea, if you are lucky, and a case of Clostridium difficile colitis, if you are not. In general, the only time doctors use broad spectrum antibiotics is when there is not a narrow spectrum that will do the job (Clinda to kill MRSA) or you have a wound that potentially has a lot of different bacteria in it and you want to kill all of them (Augmentin for a dog bite). If you know the bacteria that is causing the problem, use a narrow-spectrum antibiotic that will kill the pathogen and only the pathogen.

WARNING!! Like other meds, many antibiotics can cause unpleasant side effects. If you are lucky, you just get a little loosening of the stools or a mild yeast infection. However, others can cause changes in red or white blood cells or liver or kidney problems. Many can also interact with other medications you might be taking. Before taking any drug you should read about it and gain an understanding of potential side effects you might experience. This is especially true if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. I have discussed some of the bigger potential complications below, but it is by no means an exhaustive list. Before starting an antibiotic you will need to evaluate whether the risks are outweighed by the benefits. In some cases, it’s easy. “The risk is a rash, but if I don’t take it I will die!” Obviously the benefits outweigh risks in this case. More difficult will be “I have a runny nose. It might be a sinus infection, but it could just be a virus and the only antibiotic I have will likely give me severe diarrhea.” This is a harder choice to make.

Letter: Another Note on Infant Nutrition

Hugh,

We raised six healthy kids on a diet best described as “locally grown, in harmony with the seasons”. Unless you’ve got the food stockpile of the century, you too will soon be eating primarily “locally grown, in harmony with the seasons” when those refrigerated rail cars quit rolling and are looted out. We live in the grain belt, and whole grains in one form or another play a major role in our diet as they have for much of mankind’s history. I’m not talking about white bread, Doritos, or noodles here but the “Staff of Life” freshly milled whole wheat, naturally sourdough raised bread, chapattis, whole grain corn meal mush, polenta, hominy, and tortillas, et cetera.

An Important Note to All: If you’re going to have to survive on a bin of corn and want to stay alive and healthy, you need to understand and use an ancient American Indian process called “Nixtamalization”. Ignore this at your own and your children’s peril. Back to the babies, we found a simple and I believe as old as mankind method to help them transition to solid food; that was to simply chew the food for them, almost to a liquid and yes, spit it back into a baby spoon and feed it to them. Starting with brown rice; fresh, steel-cut oats; millet; whole wheat bread; well cooked, low salt, non-oily, unseasoned, green and root vegetables; squash; and later a small amount of beans with meat mixed in. Lastly, but not really needed, was cooked, not raw fruit. Avoid sugar and honey like the plague; they don’t need any, ever.

Good digestion starts with the enzymes in your mouth, and bland, properly cooked whole foods chewed to a liquid and fed back are, in our experience, a better, completely natural, and loving way to start out those precious little guys and gals. There are no storage issues either. We never did trust Gerber, and they all did just fine. – Sergeant Dad

Economics and Investing:

Silly Season and Silly Fiscal Policy

o o o

Social Security Administration Spending Hit Record in FY2015; $6,345 For Every American With a Job – Sent in by G.G.

o o o

Items from Mr. Econocobas:

Millennials Ditch Big Banks and Go Local With Their Money – Personally, I have done the same thing howbeit for a different reason, but I don’t find this shocking at all being on the front end of the millennial generation. Get your money out of the big banks and get local, credit union or otherwise.

More Misery Ahead for Greeks as Economy Set to Shrink Again – You can’t fix a debt/liquidity crisis in the long term with more debt.

Items from Professor Preponomics:

Brazil: How could so much go wrong?

(Miami Herald)

The Crippling Effect of Obamacare on the Middle Class (Zero Hedge)

China Trade Data Clouds Economic Outlook, Disappoints Analysts by Wide Margin in October (Reuters)

Financial Troubles Run Deep in the Holy See: Even the Vatican’s Pension Program is Running a Deficit (New York Times) Commentary: …and the Vatican agrees to push Philip Morris cigarettes for a fee.

Readers’ Recommendations of the Week:

Reader S.B. suggested The Uglies

This is a book series that would be of interest to both young and old survival blog readers. They are an easy read, originally targeted towards teens and young adults. It’s a book about ultimate government control and the fight by a small group of young people to escape it.

The government raises your children. Once you have your mandatory surgery, everyone is the same (socialist utopia). You are assigned a job. No money is used. You are assigned your lifestyle based on popularity points (think youtube and facebook). You are not allowed to leave the city limits. When I read the series years ago, it seemed far fetched. Now, not so much.

o o o

K.S. wrote in to recommend Ted Koppels new book Lights Out. It is a detailed look at the nations powergrid and its vulnerabilities.

o o o

E.C. suggested Code of Conduct, by Brad Thor stating: I would suggest this novel as a good “think about a real Pandemic situation” story, with some thriller novel aspects. This author seems to have “the touch”, as does Mr. Rawles. He also seems to try to be specific and authentic about government aspects, travel, weapons, and other parts of writing a believable story.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Ready Made Resources is having a Veterans Day sale. They are adding two boxes of Infrared Chemical Lights (a $70 value) and a Surface Trip flare for those Chemical Lights (a $25 value) to either the PVS-14 3rd Gen+ or the PVS-14 2nd Gen+ Night Vision packages. All standard accessories come with the units along with a 10 year warranty. They also have a one week return policy if you are not 100% satisfied. Thank you, Veterans, for your service.

o o o

This is a very uncomfortable thought. Sniper Attack on California Electrical Grid an Inside Job? (CNN) – T.A.

o o o

As if being traumatized by the handicapping (or loss) of a child was bad enough, the government now adds insult to injury. Government Has Broken Vaccine Injury Compensation Program – D.S.

o o o

Texas School Reportedly Fired Two Employees Who Raised Concerns About a Transgender 6-Year-Old Yet another reason to get your kids out of public schools. – D.S.

o o o

SurvivalBlog reader G.P. sent in the link to this article with some excellent photos from the November 9th, 1965 blackout that left most of the Northeast without power for hours.

o o o

Reader B.B. sent in this interesting link on Mountain men and Their Weapons.

Notes for Tuesday – November 10, 2015

November 10th is remembered in the United States as the “birthday” of the U.S. Marine Corps. Coincidentally, the 10th is also the birthday of the late Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, born in 1919, died December 23, 2013. He didn’t design a lot of different guns, but one of his few designs was the prototype for what turned out to be the world’s most widely produced assault rifles. Once an iconic symbol of international communism, the AK’s curved magazine profile has in more recent years become just a symbol of citizens being well-armed.

o o o

Today, we present another entry for Round 61 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chromlined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR type rifle to have quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul pmags 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating both an AquaBrick water filtration kit and a Stainless Medium Scout Kelly Kettle Complete Kit with a combined retail value of $304, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A FloJak EarthStraw “Code Red” 100-foot well pump system (a $500 value), courtesy of FloJak.com,
  3. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  4. A Model 120 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $340 value),
  5. A $300 gift certificate from Freeze Dry Guy,
  6. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  7. Twenty-five books, of the winners choice, of any books published by PrepperPress.com (a $270 value),
  8. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  9. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  10. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knifemaker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. APEX Gun Parts is donating a $250 purchase credit,
  8. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  9. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 61 ends on November 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Infectious Disease in the TEOTWAWKI World- Part 1, by Militant Medic

Before we start, here’s a quick disclaimer: I am a physician who has been practicing for 11 years, so I hope I know what I’m talking about, BUT this information is written for a TEOTWAWKI scenario where routine hospital based care is unavailable and the only antibiotics you have are ones designed for pets. This article is written for the desperate times ahead. Please do not use it as a guide to infectious diseases or how you should provide care to your family now. If you or a family member are ill and the hospitals are still staffed with knowledgeable and compassionate doctors who have all the great drugs Big Pharma can produce, that is where you should go for care. I assume no liability if you use this information in a scenario in which it was not intended. So once again: this article applies to a TEOTWAWKI scenario where all you have is pet antibiotics. It should not be used to guide medical decision-making for any timeframe prior to that event.

So, “it” has hit the fan, but fortunately you had seen the writing on the wall and gotten your act together. You have food, water, shelter, defense, and first aid. You’re ready for anything.

Included in your first aid inventory is a good selection of antibiotics, and now the time has come to use them, but your OPSEC wasn’t as good as it should be and word has gotten out that you have antibiotics. The people are coming from far and wide. (If you don’t think people will travel for medical care, you are wrong. When I did a medical mission in Honduras, people were walking for 10-20 miles through the jungle to see us; so, it will happen.)

Let’s walk through a few scenarios. Here are the “patients” you have waiting in your front yard “waiting room”:

  1. Your wife has a sore throat without a runny nose or cough. It hurts to swallow. Little red spots are scattered across the back of her mouth, and her tonsils are swollen and beefy red without white spots.
  2. Your son cut his hand a few days ago, and now the cut is red, hot, and oozing puss.
  3. Your other son also cut his hand while salvaging some stuff from a nursing home. His wound too is red, hot, and oozing puss.
  4. Your grandson (who never got his vaccinations, because your son didn’t believe the “lies” of big pharma) is having coughing fits that take his breath away and end in a “Whoop” of inhaled air.
  5. Your other grandson (again who had no vaccinations) has broken out with a fever, runny nose, and rash that consists of small fluid-filled blisters on bright red spots on his skin. They itch, and when one area gets better another area gets worse.
  6. Your third grandson (again who had no vaccinations) has headache, vomiting, muscle aches, a fever of 104.2, and weakness of his left leg muscles. Ten days ago, you chastised him for drinking untreated water from a creek. He didn’t know but it was downstream from a big FEMA refugee camp.
  7. Your neighbor’s wife has a fever, abdominal pain, and vaginal drainage. You know she was raped on a trip to the farmer’s market one week ago.
  8. A farm hand seemed okay yesterday but woke with a fever to 102.9, chills, coughing, body aches, runny nose, and a headache. His nasal drainage is yellow-green.
  9. Your teenaged daughter has not been drinking enough since you ran out of “flavor enhancers” for your water. Now, she has a fever of 101.5, painful urination, urinary frequency, and urinary urgency. Her urine smells “strong”.
  10. Your prepper neighbor (who has a special filter to remove the fluoride from his city water) has been struggling with a toothache for a few days but now he can barely open his mouth. He has a fever of 102.3, jaw pain, and swelling on the right side of his face. He took some penicillin he had stocked and it seemed to help a little, but then his symptoms got worse.
  11. Your neighbor ran out of food a while ago and has been shooting and eating prairie dogs out of desperation. He was okay yesterday but woke in the middle of the night with fever and now has fever to 103.7, headache, chills, muscle aches, and diarrhea. He also says his “glands” are swollen in his neck, armpit, and groin.
  12. Another neighbor was out hunting when he drank untreated water from a creek. Upstream he found a beaver pond. He presents with abdominal pain, copious watery (non-bloody) diarrhea, and a fever to 102.2.
  13. A boy from down the road was caught looting a house and was hit in the abdomen with three rounds of 00 buckshot as he ran away. He presents with a swollen painful abdomen that is rock hard and fever to 105.6. He is incoherent and having hallucinations. The buckshot is still in his body. His father begs you to save him, and he says he will give you his cherry 1965 Mustang fastback if you do. (If he hadn’t spent so much time and money on that car he might have been able to get some preps of his own and wouldn’t have had to resort to looting houses for food.)
  14. Your neighbors son presents with fever, fatigue, headaches, vomiting, and diarrhea, and has been unable to sleep. Dad hoped it was just a virus and would pass, but this morning he had a seizure and the father brings him to you. Two months ago the child found a bat in their grass in the middle of the day. He picked it up and got bit, but the wound seemed to heal without complication.
  15. Your aged mother has had a sore throat, low grade fever of 100.6, and stuffy nose for four days. There are white patches on her tonsils. It hurts a little to eat or drink.
  16. A farmer from down the road (whom you don’t like very well) tells you he has been trading food for sexual favors from the desperate unprepared women of the nearby town. He says there is an ulcer on the head of his penis. Otherwise he feels fine. It does not hurt, but he is worried he might have “picked something up from one of those whores!”
  17. A coworker has shown up for help. You had talked to him about prepping, and he was on the path when the balloon went up. He presents with bloating, watery diarrhea that has streaks of blood in it, abdominal pain, and a fever to 104.7. He says the diarrhea smells like horse manure. He also says he recently had a suspected strep throat and took Clindamycin for it. (It’s the only antibiotic he had), and while the throat got better, the diarrhea (which he suspected to be from the antibiotic) has been present for nine days now and is getting worse.
  18. A neighbor’s child has been struggling with an illness for about a few days but over the last 24 hours has worsened significantly. She awoke this morning with a very stiff neck, high fever, severe headache, and severe nausea. She also has broken out with a blotchy purplish rash on her lower extremities that does not go pale (blanch) when you push on it. Father is here begging for help.
  19. A neighbor has been ill for about five days. Started with two days of non-bloody vomiting and then evolved into watery non-bloody diarrhea. Had a fever of 101.3 at the beginning of the illness but does not have one now.
  20. A neighbor ran out of food a few weeks ago and has been out foraging in the forest. He has pulled a lot of ticks off his body. He presents with fever to 102.5, muscle aches, a headache, and a rash on his thigh that looks like a bullseye with concentric rings of redness.

Wow! Do you have your work cut out for you. They are all coming to you for help. You’ve got the antibiotics, but which one do you use for each of your “patients”. Are these bacterial infections that will respond to antibiotics or will you waste your precious antibiotics treating an untreatable virus? If it is a bacteria, will you pick the right antibiotic and heal your patient or will you pick the wrong one potentially making your patient worse, while at the same time wasting a precious resource you cannot easily replace.

Understanding how to identify and treat infectious disease is an often misunderstood subject within the prepper community. Few of us have real medical training, and many of us rely on word of mouth or tradition. Some of us make the mistake of thinking all antibiotics are the same. It is my intention to provide a basic understanding of infectious disease and its treatment.

Two Letters Re: Love Thy Neighbor…Trust No One

HJL:

I’ve got the same issue on my one acre in a small town in Georgia. Great soil but with neighbors that think it is theirs. In my case a 45-foot section of board fence drew a line. I continue to fence the corners and plant hedge material when nephew labor is available. Periodic extra tall posts seem decorative now but will make a splendid support for barbed wire. My intent is to make it possible to fence it quickly from stored supplies should misfortune befall us. I hesitate to go ahead and install the fence because the location, while better than where I live, is still not ideal.

In addition to that I have researched IR flood lamps to be used in conjunction with less expensive NV gear. (Scot’s review of Armasite’s Spark) The combination in a defensive scenario seems to be the right application of resources. I can deploy five of those Sparks for the cost of one PVS-14. If I thought I needed offensive capabilities, nothing short of a PVS 14 would do. I have recently come to understand that there are active gang members in this little spot of a town, so the research has begun. The utility of NV vs IR and the availability of a larger tract outside of town is what I am talking about. I would still have to deal with those fine fellows, but distance helps. The current house is five feet from the property line on one side. – R.V.

o o o

Hugh,

Great topic. I, myself, have over the years in my prepping learning curve been had by both the good and bad types. There is a saying that “try not to live up to my expectations” and a lot of people these days attain that status without even batting an eye. When I was in Colorado Springs in the late 1980’s, I met up with some families who were into the survival mode and fellow church members. We ended up pooling resources and having a central family with a remote location to watch over “stuff’ stored with them. We sometimes were not in contact for a month or more, and one day I got a call from a fellow member who was upset because he had been unable to reach these people. I ended driving out to their home only to find a bank-owned “for sale” sign and a vacant home. Back then it was a little harder to track down a person(s). The loss for everybody in the group was both physical and even more a mental let-down because of the mutual trust we thought we enjoyed. Our “group” never recovered, and we parted ways. It was a bitter lesson and also a sign of the times, even more so today. We no longer have, as a country, the spirit of treating people as we would treat ourselves, and that is a sad commentary about our nation.

On the bad side, my living in the country in a remote section of Northern Texas presented an opportunity that some low-lifes just could not pass up, when they burglarized my home, killed my dog and cat (beaten to death), and stole about 15K in personal property. The property was covered by insurance, but the loss of both my beloved animals was the real tragedy. Nothing was ever recovered, nor were the parties identified. I have since moved from TX to AZ and from there moved to Northern Nevada. I have made contact with people in all those locations who where aware and committed to improving their survival chances. Today, I am extremely cautious about groups or people and their motives. I trust in God and prepare the best that I am able. I am not a pessimist; instead, I have discovered that I am a realist, who tries to apply common sense, which today seems to be a rare commodity in the country. Do not give up but pray for guidance and trust those who only have as much to lose as you do. Get off your rear and realize we are at an end game situation, and the days of doing nothing and waiting for a better tomorrow are in our past, not in our present. – John in NV

News From The American Redoubt:

Here is a follow-up to a sketchy item from last week’s column: Idaho rancher’s wife: ‘I saw them murder my husband’

o o o

Casper, Wyoming: Enforcing The New Smoking Law

o o o

Eye on Boise: Idaho tax changes in the works

o o o

SurvivalBlog reader C.T. from Idaho wrote in: Fox News reported that Italy is under siege & political revolt over the Italian’s Mafias long held control over Italian politics and how the Mafia and their politicians are getting filthy rich off of the Social Welfare programs they’ve created by flooding Italy with illegal aliens. Exact same mafia corruption happening in Idaho and nationally, thanks to Open Borders that is supported equally by both political parties. The Voice of Idaho posted a video online of at least one group protesting this.

Economics and Investing:

SurvivalBlog reader GJM writes in: This is one example of what my “hegemony warnings” have been about. Like Brazil back in ’90s, it’s only one domino; but unlike anything else so far, it’s a game-changing big one. Ultimately, America either goes to war to maintain a slowly-degrading status quo…or accelerates to fast-fall… War with China means war with Russia means war with Iran means…

Fast-fall has the likelihood of being very fast and falling very far. No military retiree would get a tiny shard of his expected retirement; no police officer will ever get a pension—or much of a paycheck, for that matter; no EBT cards would magically transform into Doritos in the hands of the riotously grumpy; and the supply of pacifying Air-Jordans magically making their way into the flammable portions of America’s grim gothams would quickly evaporate. Congress would quit pretending to have seances over Social Security and would just bury that damnable, decaying old FDR Ponzi scheme, and so on…a lot of so on.

(And note that we’ve just imported 30 million new and additional little hunger gamesters, largely third-world, asymmetrically military-age males, almost none with loyalty or affection for this country, quite a few not-infrequently outrightly hostile, who also won’t be getting their free fortified Wheaties): China to Allow Direct Conversion Between Yuan and Swiss Franc

Either way, that Fantasy Football chart is going to end up seeming a whole lot less important.

o o o

True Nat’l Debt $65T, Gov’t Spending ‘Lost Touch with Reality’, sent in by G.P.

o o o

Items from Professor Preponomics:

The U.S. Distriibutes Lots of Wealth: Where Does It Go? (Mises Wire)

Share of First Time Homebuyers Falls to 28 Year Low (Bloomberg Business)

For Every Job Created Companies Spent $269K on Buybacks (Market Watch)

U.S. GDP Hot Spots (Visual Capitalist)

Deutsche Bank: OH How Broken are the Financial Markets Around the World (Zero Hedge) Commentary: Keep a close eye on the matter of liquidity.

Payrolls Report is Likely to be the Deciding Factor for Rates (Bloomberg Business) Commentary: Unless the Fed can find another reason.

Sprint Chairman Confirms: Lay-Offs will be in the Thousands (Kansas City Star)

Giants Tighten Grip on the Internet (Wall Street Journal) note: subscription required

Economics: Understanding the Free Rider Problem (an overview from Wikipedia)

Odds ‘n Sods:

On Both Sides Of The Atlantic: Coming Soon To The Politically-Vulnerable Near You. Puppetmasters don’t move an underground irregular military into your community out of “compassion”, any more than they agitate low-achievement and frustrated isolates and enclaves already among you into becoming the pawns of irregular militaries (e.g.: The “New” Black Panthers) of the future, out of “compassion”. Acid or base is not added to a previously-stable compound out of empathy for the acid or base; it’s added to move pH and destabilize the compound, so that it can be altered–an old thing destroyed, a new thing made of its constituent remains—for new uses. Whatever new compound or whatever new order is made of the raw, burnt, mulch of The West, be sure that neither your vision, your will, or any of mine is ever to be among even the gravest of trace ingredients:

German Town: Migrants Riot in Church, Steal From Stores, Defecate on Gardens

And all around us, the walls of our strength and the insights of our heritage continue to crumble. – GJM

o o o

Sent in by JBG: How Law Enforcement Can Use Google Timeline To Track Your Every Move

o o o

As if cameras in smart TVs wasn’t enough: Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s watching you Data mining is in, and you would be surprised at how much a company can tell about you by your watching habits. You might be even more surprised at how quickly they can discern this information. And to top it off, if the database exists, it can be obtained… by anyone who wants it bad enough.

o o o

From RBS: The 5,554-page Trans Pacific Partnership Text Released- and it ain’t real pretty.

“’The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership runs 5,554 pages,’ declared Sessions, in a statement issued Thursday, soon after the release of the text. ‘This is, by definition, anti-democratic,’ he charged. ‘No individual American has the resources to ensure his or her economic and political interests are safeguarded within this vast global regulatory structure.’”

o o o

Evidence of vaccine injuries memory-holed from U.S. government website – Sent in by D.S.

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“After all, who would you rather be hanging with when the collapse comes: Michael Moore, or James Wesley Rawles?” – Mike Adams, writing in Natural News.

Notes for Monday – November 09, 2015

November 9th (1938) “Kristallnacht” Be forewarned, folks: Once a group in any society has been singled out, they can be systematically attacked. Someday it may be “Constitutionalists” who are targeted.

o o o

SurvivalBlog reader “jollyrogerf14” (a friend up in Montana) has started several Gunbroker.com auctions for some scarce guns. Part of the proceeds will benefit SurvivalBlog, so please consider bidding! Thanks, – JWR