Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“A radical does not mean a man who lives on radishes,” remarked Crook, with some impatience; “and a Conservative does not mean a man who preserves jam. Neither, I assure you, does a Socialist mean a man who desires a social evening with the chimney-sweep. A Socialist means a man who wants all the chimneys swept and all the chimney-sweeps paid for it.”
“But who won’t allow you,” put in the priest in a low voice, “to own your own soot.” – G.K. Chesterton, in his novel ‘The Innocence and Wisdom of Father Brown‘

Note from JWR:

Today we present another entry for Round 22 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest.

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from OnPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried foods, courtesy of Ready Made Resources.

Second Prize: A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of $350.

Third Prize: A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing.

Round 22 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

The Pressure Cooker: An Overlooked Preparedness Tool, by N.J.

[Introductory note from JWR: I have made some changes to the following text, regarding safety issues. ]

Storing food is an important part of preparing for disasters, natural or man-made. Much has been written about survival foodstuffs: what to store, how long it can be stored, and what foods are needed to form a balanced diet to aid in living through a TEOTWAWKI scenario. How to prepare food is almost as important as what sorts of food to store. In a disaster scenario, circumstances will change radically from the every day life of today, and food preparation and consumption will also change.

One common characteristic of many crisis scenarios is this: fuel shortages. In any significant societal collapse, economic breakdown, or military conflict, re-supply of fuels will be difficult or even impossible. Grid power and piped-in gas might be intermittent or unavailable. All cooking will be done using wood fires, wood stoves, camp stoves, solar ovens, and other “non traditional” (for 21st century first world individuals) methods. Unfortunately, the staple foods of survivalists, which are beans and rice to that make a complete protein source, usually require long cooking times. These long cooking times mean that large quantities of scarce fuels would be needed to prepare them.
This is where a handy and mostly unconsidered item is most useful: a pressure cooker.

Water boils at 212 degrees F (100? degrees C) at sea level. When the air pressure is higher than it is at sea level, water boils at a higher temperature. The pressure lowers the boiling point, but enables higher temperatures. (Liquids won’t generally go above their boiling point because they turn to vapor.) This creates superheated steam that forces heat through the food to be cooked. A pressure cooker at usually has fifteen pounds of pressure inside it when in use; at these pressures, water boils at 257 degrees F at sea level. This super heated, steam filled, environment inside the pressure cooker quickly cooks the food.

Pressure cookers have the following characteristics: A four-, six-, eight-quart, or larger saucepan has a clamp down lid; it may, or may not, have a rubber gasket used to generate a seal between the lid and the saucepan body; a ‘vent pipe,’ a small weight known as a pressure regulator [or “bobbler’]; and a special plug that serves as an over-pressure valve.

A small amount of water is placed in the cooker, along with the food to be cooked. For foods that can ‘foam,’ such as rice and beans, they may be placed in a small bowl inside the cooker. Food and liquid will be placed in the bowl, and additional water placed outside the bowl, to a depth of at least half the height of the bowl. Be sure to use a metal bowl, or a glass bowl that can easily handle the thermal shock of cooking, such as Pyrex or pre-1999 Corningware dish. Before sealing the lid on the cooker, look through the vent pipe and be sure it is clear. This step is extremely important; if the vent pipe is not clear, pressure can build up dangerously. This will cause the overpressure valve to release, spewing the hot contents of the pressure cooker over the walls, ceiling, people, stove, and anything else in its range. The lid should be sealed on the cooker, the pressure regulator placed on the vent pipe, and the cooker set on a heat source. The heat source may be a stove, a camp-stove, a barbeque grill, or a wood fire.

As the liquid heats, it boils and then makes steam. The steam fills the cooker, and pressure builds in the pot. When it reaches a level where it is equal to the force needed to ‘rock’ the pressure regulator, it will start to do so. A steady (but not fast) rocking of the pressure regulator indicates that the cooker is up to temperature, and so timing of the recipe may begin.
The pressure regulator should have a steady rocking motion. If the regulator stops rocking, and the heat under the pressure cooker is constant, immediately turn off the heat and leave it alone until it cools. The vent pipe may be clogged. Once the cooker cools, it should be opened and checked. If the vent pipe is clogged, clean it with a threaded sewing needle; pass the needle through the vent pipe and remove the clog.

After the cooking time is finished, the pressure cooker must be removed from the heat and cooled so that it may be opened. The only safe way to cool the cooker is to set it aside, where it will cool slowly. [DO NOT it in cold water or under a running cold water faucet, which could cause a dangerous rupture.] Typically, items such as green vegetables, which need only to cook for 1-2 minutes, should be cooled quickly. Root vegetables, such as beets, may cool slowly. If you are using a pressure canner, it should be cooled slowly. If it is cooled quickly, the contents of the jars in the canner might be drawn -out by the rapid change in pressure inside the canner. The cooker is cool when the pressure gauge bottoms or when no pressure is indicated by the bobbler.

This article is not an article about canning and much more information is needed before you can pressure can safely. Please consult other reference material that will explain the process for pressure canning in detail, including the precautions needed to do it safely.

A pressure cooker is useful in a survival situation because it saves a huge amount of fuel and may be used with ‘canned heat’ sources that were mentioned previously. If you are trying to maintain a low profile, you want to avoid much smoke from a cooking fire, the odor of cooking food, and cooking fumes, and other byproducts of every day life.

Rice and beans are considered a staple food for survival situations, as together they supply a complete protein. To cook rice and beans in a pressure cooker is straightforward:
Take a small bowl of the type described above, and place 1 cup of white rice and 1 1/2 cups of water in it. Add salt as desired. Place the bowl in the pressure cooker, add water around the bowl, seal, and place on the heat. When the pressure regulator begins rocking, start to time for four minutes. At the end of this time, remove the cooker from the heat, and place to one side, allowing the pressure to drop naturally. To cook beans such as navy beans or cranberry beans, soak one cup of beans in 4 cups of water overnight. Place in the same metal bowl, cover with 1-1/2 inches of water, place in the pressure cooker, seal, and heat. When the pressure regulator starts rocking, cook for ten minutes. Let the pressure release slowly. It is possible to cook beans without pre-soaking them, but presoaking them yields much better results. If you do not pre-soak the beans, they may not soften properly no matter how long you cook them. An additional tip: do not salt the beans and rice until after they are cooked. Adding salt to cooking beans makes the skins tough.

If not using a bowl to contain the beans, do not fill the pressure cooker more than half full, and add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil per cup of beans to prevent frothing and subsequent clogging of the vent pipe.

It is possible to use bowls that will nest, to cook the beans and rice at the same time. Experiment with this, to discover what tastes best to you, as it is easy to end up overcooked rice or undercooked beans.

Total time required for cooking when cooking rice and beans separately: 14 minutes, with time required to allow the cooker to cool.
Brown rice and navy beans both take ten minutes to cook – but as brown rice gas a shorter shelf life than white rice, many people concentrate on white rice in their long-term food storage setup.

The fuel savings in using a pressure cooker is huge: It takes 20 minutes to cook rice, and several hours to cook beans with a ‘conventional’ stove and pot. But by using a pressure cooker, you can both the beans and the rice in less time, using less fuel, than conventional cooking of the rice alone.

Additional Resources:

Cookbooks:
Numerous pressure cooker cookbooks may be found in your local library, or at an online bookseller such as Amazon.com. Popular cookbooks such as Joy of Cooking (Rombauer, Becker, and Becker) often have sections on pressure-cooking.

Note: Most pressure cookers come with recipe leaflets when you buy them. If you find a pressure cooker second hand, such as at a Goodwill store, then contact the manufacturer and they will more than likely send you all instructional material free of charge.[JWR Adds: Many of these manuals are now also available in PDF, and can be found with web searches.]

Food Preservation:
Greene, Janet, Hertzberg, Ruth, and Vaughan, Beatrice. 1992 (Fourth Revised Edition).Putting Food By. Plume Books: This is the best reference that this author has seen on the topic of food preservation. It covers many types of food preservation, including boiling water bath canning; pressure canning of meats, vegetables, and seafood; freezing; curing with salt and smoke; drying; root-cellaring. .

Hupping, Carol. 1990 (Revised Updated Edition). Stocking Up: The Third Edition of America’s Classic Preserving Guide Fireside Books: Another invaluable reference to home preserving of foods. More recipes that use honey, rather than white sugar to sweeten canned items. Not my favorite flavor, but others may like it. Very complete work, covering canning, freezing, juicing, drying, root cellaring, and preserving dairy products.

The Ball Blue Book of Preserving may be found where canning jars are sold. This book is another ‘bible’ of home preservation.

Internet Resources:
MissVickie.com: This web site has many pressure cooker recipes, and ‘Beginner Basics.’ It is an excellent resource.
There are many other useful canning and cooking web sites, too numerous to list! Use your favorite search engine to seek them out.

Available Brands of Pressure Cookers:
Two classic US companies, Presto and Mirror, have made Pressure Cookers for many years. In researching this article, I discovered that both companies have moved their manufacturing to Asia.
The All American company makes a pressure canner that may also be used as a pressure cooker, in sizes from 10 to 41 quarts. Their web site indicates that they are still made in the USA., and “[u]nlike other cooker/canners, these do not have rubber gaskets that will eventually wear out, but instead are machined to have a metal-to-metal seal and a positive action clamp to lock the cover to the base.”
Disclaimer: I have no commercial interest in any of these companies or suppliers.

JWR Adds: Used pressure cookers and pressure canners are often available quite inexpensively, or even free, through Craigslist and Freecycle. One important proviso: Make sure that your pressure cooker’s “bobbler” (weighted pressure release valve) is working properly. Without it, you essentially have a bomb on your stove. If your cooker has a pressure gauge, make sure that os functional.

It also bears mentioning that a pressure cooker is particularly useful in extending the life of stored dried beans. Once beans have been stored in excess of six years, they become so hard that even days of soaking beans will not soften them. But two viable solutions to this problem are grinding them, or cooking them in a pressure cooker.

Letter Re: Keep Ammo in Original Boxes?

Mr. Editor,

I’ve purchased ammo for self protection and for future barter. Is it best to keep the ammo in the original boxes (e.g. the nice green UMC boxes with the plastic insert that holds the rounds in place) and put those boxes into ammo cans? Or should I just dump all the ammo into an ammo can loose? I could fit many more rounds in each can by dumping them in loose, but I’m concerned about impacting the future barter value of the ammo. And also, if I end up selling some of the ammo before TSHTF, I would imagine keeping the rounds in the box would make the seller happier. Any thoughts?
Thanks for what you do. – Alex

JWR Replies: Unless space is at an absolute premium (such as for someone on a live-aboard boat) I recommend that you leave ammo in the original factory boxes, as it will be worth far more in barter, or in an eventual cash sale. Just as importantly, you will also be able to keep “like lots” together. (Usually lot numbers are printed on the inside of the box flaps.) There are sometimes subtle differences between lots, and the point of impact can vary a bit. This particularly important for long range rifle shooting. Also, although they are rare, ammunition recalls are not unheard of. Without lot numbers you’ll have no way of correlating ammo lots to recall notices. And, needless to say, store those in mil-spec ammo cans with soft seals.

Letter Re: FDA Restricts Over the Counter Sales of Bulk-Size Hemostatic Supplies

Sir;
I try to keep a gun shot trauma kit with my shooting range supplies; when I was ordering some new medical supplies from North American Rescue I was informed that the public can no longer purchase Quikclot ACS+ or any other such hemostatic from them. The operator proceeded to tell me that the [U.S.] Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began regulating these products mid-May because “they go inside the human body.” I was able to order some of my other products in the “scrape and light cut” size” but none of the larger quantity hemostatics. Perhaps some other SurvivalBlog readers might have some insight into this situation and can offer some advice. Regards, – “Pop N Fresh”

JWR Replies: That is a most unfortunate development. Much like last year, when Polar Pure iodine crystals were taken off the market, it sounds like another window of opportunity is closing. I strongly encourage readers to stock up on Celox and QuikClot while there is still some remaining inventory available from individual retailers. Several of our loyal advertisers– including Safecastle and Ready Made Resources–carry these products, and probably still have some left on hand. I’m sure that they would appreciate your patronage. BTW, please mention SurvivalBlog whenever you contact any of our advertisers. Thanks!

Economics and Investing:

Kevin A. sent us the link to a video clip about Mandelbrot protege Nicholas Taleb, of “Black Swan” fame: The Risk Maverick: Present Economy Worse than Depression.

Mac F. recommend this basic, commonsense article: Money Shaky? 10 Ways to Get Your Financial Footing

Items from The Economatrix:

Fed President Says Inflation To Increase

GM Borrows Additional $4 Billion From Treasury Didn’t publicly disclose how it would use the money.

Fed Changes Rules to Benefit Government Carmakers

California Faces its Fiscal Day of Reckoning

Propane Suppliers Quietly Reduce Size of Refills Consumers unaware they are getting less for the same price

Recession Turns Malls Into Ghost Towns

Four Letters Re: Dealing with Uninvited Guests

Mr. Rawles,

I have read and enjoyed your blog for some time now and thank you for it daily.

Regarding the recent post on control of head lice, I have found simple light cooking oil to be startlingly effective. Massaged through the afflicted’s hair and scalp and left for a few hours the oil is meant to suffocate the lice and eggs. I have used this several times, once I needed to repeat the processes to be effective, but in most previous infestations, once was enough.
This treatment can be made apparently more effective by including some Tea Tree oil in the mix. Hope this helps, – Regards, JeMe.

 

Jim:

I keep getting such great info that I would not usually think of. Thank God that your readers are thinkers as well. Regarding, the letter dealing with uninvited guests I saw in my local Florida newspaper about using Listerine for lice. It reportedly works the first time. SurvivalBlog readers should do Internet searches on herbal or all natural cures for dealing with these uninvited guests, for the pets as well. Thank you for the web site. – Dawn

 

James,

With reference to “Dealing with Uninvited Guests”, there is an easy way to get rid of head lice. Using copious amounts of cheap hair conditioner on hair, then leaving it in, stops the nits from being able to cling on to the hair shaft. You must comb it through well to ensure every hair is coated. Once they drop off they don’t survive long without a host (a matter of hours). You need to treat the whole family otherwise it just passes on the problem. When my daughter was young, we spent a small fortune on head lice products and nit combs, until my local hairdresser told me about the conditioner trick.

To help prevent infestations, add a couple of drops of tea tree oil to a final hair rinse.
Blessings and prayers for your Memsahib, – Luddite Jean

 

JWR:

I have “been there, done that” with head lice and my daughter. Toxic concoctions like “Rid,” “Kwell,” etc are costly and worthless. When my daughter was 8 years old she would come home from school scratching her head. We finally figured out it was head lice. I went on internet and read up and decided that getting “Rid” or some Permethrin based solution would be best so we tried it. The lice would just swim around in the “killer” liquid on my daughter’s scalp. We tried another brand with Lindane and the same result. Be aware that many of the “Lice Information” web sites are fronts for a particular (useless) product. I went back to the internet where there were many “kook” solutions like suffocating the lice in olive oil – what a waste of olive oil. There were other “green” concoctions which were designed to suffocate or poison (naturally) the head lice. I concluded that all the kook remedies were worthless and were debunked on most of the mainstream web sites as worthless – good luck trying to suffocate the nits and adult lice. It really drove me mad to think of my beautiful daughter with her beautiful long hair having “bugs” crawling around on her head. I wanted them dead and I wanted them dead now. I was desperate. Then I read some where about merely using plain old hair conditioner – i.e. putting it on after a shower in copious amounts and leaving it in – and mechanically removing the noxious lice with a metal nit comb. I was tired of poisoning my daughter (read the labels – it is poison) and from what I read the prescription medication was way more toxic. So we tried it – we bought two quality metal nit combs and slathered on the hair conditioner and carefully followed the instructions that came with the nit combs. We mechanically removed the nits and the live adult head lice. You get a cup of hot water and dunk the nit comb and watch the “body count” of the adult lice add up. It is satisfying to physically remove them one by one. After two days there were no more adult lice to be found. The nits were another matter and for the next couple days we went through my daughter’s hair strand by strand and pulled out each nit with our finger nails as the nit combs were ineffective in removing all the nits. It took a total of three to four hours over the course of three or four days to remove the adult lice and all the nits. Victory – free at last. A few months later when we found the early stages of a new infestation we knocked it down quickly in just two days.

Another aspect of this is the extensive instructions on the web sites and written instructions about how to treat bedding etc. If you followed all the recommendations you would spend hours on decontamination and spray toxic poisons around the bed and house. Thankfully. head lice can only live in hair/scalp otherwise they die fairly quickly. We found that merely washing the pillow case and sheets was sufficient without spraying poison in the carpet and all over the place another bad toxic idea. I shudder when I remember one of the coaches of my daughter’s baseball team spraying lice “killer” in the batting helmets and when I asked it was because of widespread lice in the local school. Nice. My daughter had her own helmet and we told all the other kids it was only for my daughter to use. Notes: Where we went wrong – we took our daughter to her pediatrician early on to have her head checked out and we told that the nits were old and there was no current problem. Wrongo bongo. The full blown outbreak occurred days later. We called back to request the heavy duty prescription medication and were told to try the over the counter stuff as the prescription medication was really toxic and they only prescribe it when absolutely necessary. Lice have adapted and have developed immunity to the over the counter medication so aside from it being toxic it is worthless and expensive – I saw this with my own eyes. I tried it over and over – to the limits on the warning instructions. Also, when you go on the Internet you read a bunch of politically correct nonsense about how kids who spread head lice are not “dirty and unkempt” but some parent(s) at my daughter’s school were sending a kid(s) to school with head lice – It’s not the kid’s fault but I disagree, the parents were dirty, inconsiderate slobs in my opinion.

So, bottom line – get two or more quality nit combs, slather on the (non-toxic) hair conditioner, follow the combing instructions and remove the adult lice and as many nits as possible and then physically remove all the remaining nits one by one with your finger nails as those nits really glue themselves to the hair. Carefully dispose of the adult nits you remove – I treat them as if they were black plague contagions – and wash the bedding every day until you don’t find any more adult lice and have removed all the nits. Mechanical removal has several advantages – it is non-toxic, it uses common hair conditioner (easily stored), it is inexpensive, and most importantly it works. It may be the only method that actually works. In a true survival situation you could substitute olive oil or some other similar substance in place of the hair conditioner. Hopefully we will never have to deal with the problem again but all the dread is gone and we are equipped, once and for all to deal with this problem because we have lots of hair conditioner and three quality nit combs. Simple solution – the best solution – Keep is simple.

On another note, I just finished reading “Patriots”. It was a great read, and I could not put it down. Thank you – John M.in California

Economics and Investing:

From frequent content contributor KAF: Congressional Budgeters Predict 10.5 Percent Unemployment Rate Next Year

Also from KAF: The Inside Story of Bank United. (How all those Option ARM loans came back to bite them.)

Items from The Economatrix:

Three More Banks Closed This Week

Federal Reserve Cannot Account for $9 Trillion

The Economy is Down But The Cost of Living is Going Up (Most canned vegetables at Wal-Mart were 50 cents per can last summer, now they are 72-to-74 cents per can.)

US to lose AAA Rating?

Dollar Falls to Four-Month Low Against Euro

Stocks Hit ’09 Low on Ratings Fears; Stocks Dip

Geithner Vows to Cut US Deficit on Rating Concerns

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Today, prayer is still a powerful force in America, and our faith in God is a mighty source of strength. Our Pledge of Allegiance states that we are ‘one nation under God,’ and our currency bears the motto, ‘In God we Trust.’ The morality and values such faith implies are deeply embedded in our national character. Our country embraces those principles by design, and we abandon them at our peril.” – President Ronald Wilson Reagan

Notes from JWR:

I laughed heartily, reading this Times of London online article about the mainstreaming of survivalism: Swine flu…recession…should we all be reading Neil Strauss to survive? It must be bad: survival manuals are racing up the book charts. Ordinary folks are preparing for the worst. The author started out describing the book “Emergency” by Neil Strauss, but then took a hard right turn and went on to spill copious ink–or should I say bits or pixels–about my novel.) The reviewer has a real gift for comic writing.

—

Today we present another entry for Round 22 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. A proviso: It is strongly opinionated and overtly political–so not everyone will agree with him–but despite our differences of opinion, I believe that it has some good food for thought.

First Prize: A.) A course certificate from OnPoint Tactical. This certificate will be 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 between $500 and $600, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried foods, courtesy of Ready Made Resources.

Second Prize: A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of $350.

Third Prize: A copy of my “Rawles Gets You Ready” preparedness course, from Arbogast Publishing.

Round 22 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Five Months Till Armageddon–A Dark View of the Future, by H.I.C.

I believe that America is facing a perfect storm…A rapidly cooling climate, a committed socialist president taking over during an economic crisis, and an unfinished war with fanatical murderous thugs. I am only 49 years old, but I think my Father’s generation faced a similar storm starting in 1929. I believe we could handle any one of these problems by itself, but maybe not all at once. I wish I could suggest that we have more time and perhaps our economy will recover before a second crisis event occurs. Since the banking crisis started in August of 2007, and recessions typically last 2 -to-3 years, it should right itself by late 2010 if our government does not do something stupid. However, they are stupid and I believe we only have five months left to prepare.

I believe the climate is turning much colder due to a drop in sunspot activity. The most recent climate data shows this even if Al Gore insists on a recount (apparently Al flunked both math and science). I mention this because during the last Little Ice Age (1300-1850) global temps dropped by 3ÀöC, the farmland north of where Interstate 80 now transits reverted back to frozen marshlands, the Pacific Ocean cooled, and the resulting drop in moisture caused a prolonged drought in the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. Perhaps a change to the climate of the primary agricultural areas of the US may affect your personal survival planning.

The drop in sunspot activity will also decrease the Earth’s electromagnetic field (Van Allen Belts) and ozone layer so in addition to cooling the planet it also and makes us more susceptible to solar induced damage to our nationwide electrical grid. If you here warnings about Solar flares or Solar mass ejections, wear sun block and a hat, and unplug your sensitive electrical equipment. If you are using solar panels expect a reduced output and be prepared to unplug and protect them as well.

Recently-elected President Obama is an immature Pollyanna with disturbing Marxist/Socialist friends and tendencies. He is taking over as the economy is rapidly contracting due to the falling stock market and declining home values. This crisis was actually caused by 25 years of expansionist policies of the US Federal Reserve, the US Treasury Department, and the US Congress. The massive bailout bill will not stop this, but instead will continue to feed the debt-based economy and currency expansion that caused it. Federal nationalization of the commercial banking system is just the beginning. Obama is loading up his cabinet with the most partisan members of the Clinton Administration. While Government intervention into banks and businesses is already occurring, it is likely that they will also nationalize/regulate individual retirement accounts, taxable investments, and individual rights and choices of work, travel, and association. This is not what he tells us he plans to do, this is what socialists always do, this is the change you can not afford.

We have fought to contain the terrorists in the Middle East and are finally winning in Iraq. However, keeping them there will require a continual military presence. Obama has promised to pull back the US military from Iraq, perhaps worldwide, and may reduce the size of the regular Army to fund his civilian defense force. What we learned about terrorist is that any pull back in our military posture will encourage them to strike us again. The only way to win is to aggressively pursue them and the only way to loose is to pull back and let the extremists take over the Iraqi and Saudi oil fields.

The President and the people now running DHS, FEMA, the Justice Department, and Interior Departments believe in the power of the Federal Government like a prostate religion. While they would not think this far ahead, it is inescapable that when they meet with resistance from the people the will use the US patriot act against us. Since he will be so busy spying on the vast right wing conspiracy, I expect a terrorist attack on major US cities could again occur within 6 – 8 months of Obama taking the oath of office and turn the economic crisis into a full blown depression.

No matter what the trigger event, President Obama, and his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, stated that they will use this crisis as an opportunity to turn the county socialist. Some of the conditions I have described have distinct warning signals, such as censorship of the internet and talk radio or onerous gun control laws, but some of them are naturally occurring and completely unpredictable. I don’t believe it much matters what the event is, I believe that the result will be the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Civil War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death).

Scenario 1: Collapse of the Banking System, Devaluation of the US Dollar, and Civil War.
The US credit market has already frozen up once (Oct 08) due to the failure of several investment banks and credit insurance companies. Without a systematic effort to draw down the risk exposure of these banks to bad home loans and derivatives it is nearly certain that many of the largest commercial banks will fail as well. The FDIC does not have the money to pay off account holders, so the US Congress will just print more money and effectively nationalize the banks.

I expect that the world economy will continue to slide into a multi-decade depression with the Dow dropping to 2,000 and unemployment reaching 20%. I expect this to cause rioting, starvation, and civil war occurring in every state and country. If we can not feed them, I expect that over one third of the world population could die due to starvation and disease.
The US may literally split politically between the urban dominated cities of the Northeastern states trying to tie themselves to Europe and the rest of the US dominated by the Midwest, Rocky Mountains, and Ohio Valley which will tie themselves to domestic agriculture and re-industrialization. Only the far western fringe will remained tied to trade with China and the Pacific Rim. There should be no expectation of receiving by Federal Retirement, Social Security, Medicare, or 401(k) money. In fact, I expect that the US Dollar will be abandoned by most folks long before it is officially replaced by silver coins. Before this time most folks will prefer to trade using storable food, ammo, and labor as the coin of the realm.

Scenario 2: Multi-City Terror Strike and Loss of Constitutional Rights.
It is also very possible for a deeply planted terrorist cell living in the US pull off a coordinated strike using conventional explosives to rapidly disperse a chemical or radioactive agent. They may attack the large cities, the critical Military bases, shipping channels, ports, and locks, and our remaining overseas Navy and Air Force Bases. These strikes will kill a few civilians, but mostly they will force the permanent evacuation of our major cities and ports.

They will cripple Washington DC, but will not kill off many of our politicians. The initial reaction from the Obama Administration looks like suspending the Constitution and our rights to gun ownership, private property, free association and travel. I believe they will quarantine the cities, suspend air travel, limit interstate travel by citizens, and turn the electronic eavesdropping ability of the NSA on the American people.

What is left of the economy will crash. Few people will have jobs and no one will be able to buy food and fuel on the open market. We will have to survive on what we have stored, what we can grow, trade, or what little the government can supply.

While rolling blackouts are inevitable, maintaining natural gas and at least the semblance of electrical power will be a priority. No doubt maintaining power in the remaining cities will come first. Most of the oil refineries will be affected and the gas and diesel that is refined will not be distributed evenly. Our system of intensive, almost industrial scale farming will collapse, and that year’s crop will fail due to the loss of irrigation. People will starve while crops rot in the fields.

Preparedness Measures

SurvivalBlog is full of detailed advise on preparing so I will only hit a few highlights.

Prepare yourself physically:
Every possible scenario will be physically and mentally stressful.

Have a Plan B:
Have a bug-out kit ready at all times, store fuel, and maintain your ride.
Have a hard copy of important papers, account and insurance numbers and phone numbers.
Have portable weapons and ammo ready to haul.

Logistics and Planning:
Route selection is very, very important.
What to drive, what to pack.
Avoid the swamps (the inner cities).

Long Term Considerations:
Build a survival retreat in a viable agricultural area.
Plan on needing a lot more supplies than you think you might.
Plan and decide how to deal with the Feds (hint: lie, lie, lie).
Plan and decide how to deal with unprepared people