And There Shall Be Rolling Blackouts

they say rolling, but could they be more permanent?

“Oh, mother.” As my single daughter, mother of two, rolled her eyes and said to me as she was rooting around in the refrigerator looking for something to make for supper. “You know I’m not a prepper, I never got into that stuff. Besides I’m too busy to give it any energy. I have two kids to feed and a business to run.”

This is the same daughter who couldn’t be bothered to even acknowledge the country was in the midst of campaign season during the 2000 Bush Jr. and Al Gore presidential election.

Here is the actual conversation;

“Hey, sweetheart, who are you thinking about voting for this time?”I asked while I gave my coffee a quick stir before taking that first sip.

“Mom, I have been really busy. I haven’t had time to pay attention to who is running.”

“Oh, come on. You must have heard something, like on the radio or in conversation. Make a guess at who is running.” I coaxed.

“Well, ok. Ummm, I do know there is a guy named Caucus running in Iowa.” Dear daughter offered after she gave it some thought.

“ You are messing with me right?” I choked as coffee was forcefully expelled from my mouth in total shock.

“No, I heard somewhere that a guy was running in Iowa and his last name was Caucus.” She said sincerely. I can’t remember that actual words after that, except I think I went berserk.

She scares me. And she is a smart business woman, but she simply doesn’t pay attention. I tried, please believe me, I tried to get her on board the prep train.

Soooooo, I am dedicating this particular newsletter to all those people who aren’t paying attention. We all have people in our lives like my daughter. You love them to the moon and back but the light bulb moment never happened for them. You may need to make a real hard copy of this report and smack them over the head with it. Ya gotta’ try at least.

Let’s begin;

I have held off with all the hysteria of power outages and rolling blackouts for as long as I can. My gut is telling me “it’s what’s for dinner.” We’ve been spoon fed China hackers and Russia as being the most serious actors wanting to take down our power grid. That could be true but there is evidence of natural causes too, of which the reason of the power outage won’t matter, in any case. Natural or man caused, the effect is the same. There is no electricity, period! I’m of the opinion, however, that it WILL happen and life as we know it will be decidedly different. Maybe before the end of this year, even.

We have all experienced a few hours or even a few days without electrical power. Remembering the stillness, the darkness of the night where every creek and bump of the house bites your ass like a monster in the closet. But what can we expect after a few weeks without power? Your experience could be exceptionally different than say mine, but rest assured there are universal similarities within this country.

You can expect;

For a few days after the power going out people will be sitting around waiting for government agencies to help. When the realization sets in that there is no help coming, fear and panic take over and unusual behavior can become a problem.

After about 7 to 10 days, what was normal civilized behavior now becomes strained. During this time crime, looting and general chaos is powered by hungry, desperate and angry people. Despartation and lawlessness is the nightmare of the day and after trying to confiscate citizens weapons, even the police simply go home to protect their own families.

If we catch wind that the power is not expected to return any time soon, regular citizens are left defenseless against the violence and chaos. If we are lucky the military may be called to round up and cart off the troublemakers. However, the most likely scenario, given our current administration, will be paid mercenaries or NATO troops from another country. Thanks to Obama era executive orders still in play. These foreign peacekeepers will show no mercy to troublemakers or to you.

Now is the time when you will see an increase of illnesses and diseases. These will occur due to unsanitary conditions and injury. Also, prescription medications will be running low or become tainted. Normal loving people will do unspeakable acts just to get their hands on precious medication for a loved one. Read “One Second After” by William Foresten.

Doctors and nurses are usually the last ones to leave their stations but even they feel helpless and drift home to stay. Nursing homes, prisons and hospitals run out of food and the fuel to run the generators becomes depleted. Hospitals and nursing home are left abandoned and the cell doors at the prisons are opened to let horrible atrocities upon an already devastated public.

In the book, “One Second After,” food and fresh, clean water, and a helpful community were the primary ingredients to survival, but then came winter. The book became a series of 3 books, the power outage lasted 3 years, if memory serves me correctly. There were very few people that survived. In the book the fictional little town didn’t see the need to prepare because they didn’t think it could possibly happen in the United States. They were wrong and simply weren’t paying attention. It cost them their lives.

The word we are looking for here is normalcy bias. Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings. Consequently, individuals underestimate the likelihood of a disaster, when it might affect them, and its potential adverse effects. The normalcy bias causes many people to not adequately prepare for natural disasters, market crashes, and calamities caused by human error. About 70% of people reportedly display normalcy bias during a disaster.

I took that from wikipedia, but the essence of a normalcy bias is having never experienced a crisis or disaster. There is nothing to compare their life experiences to.

A better example might be this old Chinese proverb- “The best time to dig a well is before you are thirsty.”

“But I have never been thirsty, you say. Therefore, why should I dig a well?” I have heard, serval times actually, people say they don’t want to live in a world where they are thirsty.

If you have stuck with me this long, you are one of those that “get it.” We are witness to the planned takedown of these United States. It is their contention, their ultimate goal, that this country become like a 3rd. world country. As a population, we will beg for their solution and accept anything they offer. But you knew that.

It is MY contention that where there is a will, there is a way. The secret is knowledge.

In Field and Stream magazine publication a few years back, they interviewed a fellow who had been out hunting with a group of buddies. Somehow he wondered out too far and became lost. He spent several nights out in the wilderness alone before he was rescued. The interviewer asked him how he survived his ordeal with only a hunting knife.

The man that had been lost said “The more you know, the less you need.”

Read that again, the more you know, the less you need.

Together, you and I will embark on a survival journal. The information that follows most likely won’t show up anywhere else. Most blogs, podcasts and books share tactical survival skills. By all means, seek those out and learn from them.

What I offer here is the more feminine side of things. We women are generally the support staff in a long term situation. As it should be even though we are tough as nails and can shoot a hair off a frog at 200 paces. It is the support staff that keeps the group alive and fed.

The series of articles that follow will be directed to the supporting elements of any crisis or disaster situation. I have had several requests to share what I know. I am happy to do it and thank you for asking.

I give this information freely and with love, so please feel free to print it and save it for future reference or for the up and coming next generation of domestic divas in your family.

First on deck is all about water. Purifying it, finding it, diseases and illnesses from it, what you need to know. The United States drinking water has been relatively free from these, with the exception of an occasional bug that sneaks into a public water system. Anyway, we’ll get into that next.

Please, be patient. I run a farmers market and it is market time. I will try and keep up.

See ya in a few days.