I thought it would be a good time to state what my perceptions are of the dynamically unstable era we are entering into, and what people like you and I could do to lessen the effects of things like economic collapse, rampaging government agencies, lying, using politicians, the complete logjam in Washington and the associated gridlock of the political process, and the need to replace virtually everyone in Washington, whether they are elected, appointed, or rusted in place bureaucrats. Same thing with State, County, and local governments too. The alternative to doing any, some or all of these steps, is to give up on limited government, natural law derived rights, the Bill of Rights as we’ve known it, and surrender to an officious, invasive, tyrannical government at all levels, dictating policy, enforcing unconstitutional laws without mercy or oversight, and even interment in a government compound, and death by government, as horrible as that sounds. With NDAA passing in the House of Representatives, the spinelessness of the Republican members of the House in opposing it, and the planned distractions of a variety of created crises now afflicting the US and Western Europe, Dark Times are likely coming, and coming soon.

  I am a follower of the teachings and philosophies of Claire Wolfe, the authoress of such great books like “The Freedom Outlaw’s Handbook”, and other works as well. I am also a devotee of Michael Savage, and Mark Levin, whose “Liberty and Tyranny” is excellent, and should be required reading for every aware, concerned, activist, liberty loving American. I have read many other works of a Liberty and Libertarian bent, way too many textbooks on Macro and Micro Economics, research too many areas of interest or necessity to mention here, but study every day and wish economic circumstances had allowed more preparation for what I see is coming than we are likely to have, but there is nothing to do about that but do what we can with what resources and tools each of us has at present, or might get in the next few months.

  Nobody is going to be fully prepared for what’s coming, but I no longer worry about losing any physical possessions other than my personal firearms, a few family mementos, and that’s it. I gave up hoping for a normal life; the house with a white picket fence, 2.4 children, loving wife and mate, steady good paying job, and a sure retirement and a stable economic and political environment in the background of it all, gradually beginning in 2001 and continuing on till now. A “normal” life, like we convinced ourselves en masse was our birthright if we just played the Middle Class game/hustle by all the rules all our lives, was a sham and a delusion. All of that is gone, and was based on an illusion anyway, so I no longer miss what might have been, at least for myself. But the ongoing war on the Middle Class has been successful, and many former members of the Middle and Upper Middle classes are now experiencing the expected results of outsourced jobs, an illegal alien invasion, the socializing of costs and privatizing of benefits by Crony Capitalists, and their Government partners in crime, in the US and around the world. Socialism, the Progressive Movement and ideology, and its attendant concentration of wealth, power, and resources more and more with an elite Oligarchy at the top, no matter their professed political party, has been successful. I and many others who thought things would turn our right if we just had the “right” degree, in the “right” field, at the “right” time, and worked for decades to achieve the “American Dream”, all would be well. Yeah, right.

  The Great Depression of the 21^st Century is here, and it will be a backdrop to everything else that is likely to happen in the next few years in the US, and around the world. I research and follow the tech/space development-settlement/genetic engineering/cybernetics/artificial intelligence/Transhumanism areas, and the scientists, engineers, researchers, etc, either think there’s nothing wrong, or that because they work in an “exalted, specialized hi tech/advanced degree area,, “it won’t affect me or X”. They are mistaken, as is everyone else in most fields and careers. It will affect every area of American life, from real estate values and home and commercial property sales, to space settlement and development, to Transhumanism, technological development of all kinds, genetic engineering and cloning, Internet 2.0, and the free exercise without conditions, or permission, of rights and freedom and liberty here and around the world. No realm of endeavor or pursuit will remain untouched by the economic chaos I and many others see as inevitable, thanks to decades of mismanagement and the growth of government and it’s implied and expressed powers at every level, from small town to city/municipality, county, state, and Federal Government most of all. Many people see the solution to all problems in giving gov’t more and more power in exchange for liberty and rights, and others see gov’t as a cancer, growing ever larger and consuming resources and capital while creating a Police State like no other in human history, capable of great evil and ulcerating to exercise power over all life and every area of life thereof. This is a fundamental, irreconcilable conflict, and it is rapidly coming to a head.

  I suggest if you haven’t secured a firearm or firearms for defending your life and property, now is the time to do so. Same goes for ammunition, spare parts, and above all, training and familiarization with your chosen power tools so your ability to wield these items is second nature, and could be done in your sleep. A supply of food, medicine, clothes, fuels, water, alternate means of cooking and shelter is of prime importance over and above any other material things. Reading about other such socio-economic-political collapses in the past to familiarize yourself with how those brave souls who survived hard times in their times did so, and lived to tell about it, would be a good investment of your time and effort. The time to follow the Kardashians, Lindsay Lohan, any Television and most radio is over. The time to read and study, harden your mind and body, toughen yourself up for what may be required of you is at hand. Make preparations now for your survival and to make sure when the time comes to fight for freedom, defend you and yours, and create an alternative to any “help” a government agency may offer, that “help” with strings attached won’t be needed, you and yours will be ready. If your family, trusted friends and proven neighbors do this, when “helpful” government types show up to offer “help”, you won’t need their assistance and can compel them to move on and offer aid to someone else, if anyone of sound mind, advanced preparation and enlightened awareness would be likely to take any help from government. Government isn’t there to help you. So don’t depend on them for anything.

  If you haven’t broached the subject of preparing for hard times, defending one’s home and neighborhood with neighbors and others whom you perceive are open to cooperation and networking/preparing to defend a neighborhood or subdivision, now is the time to broach the subject with them in a manner you think best. Find out if the neighbors and the people in the neighborhood can be depended upon to back each other up, or if they are potential enemies to be dealt with as circumstances dictate. But you must do this now, and if they pass the tests for security and trustworthiness, work with them. If they do not, leave them alone and beware of them. Don’t talk to them anymore about anything, and keep them under surveillance, and guard against them. It’s always someone you know who turns you in.

  My own family is worthless as far as helping me to prepare for the Dark Times that are coming. Two of my cousins are degreed “Professionals“, work for the State of Colorado, and want nothing to do with the “crazy loser” they see me as. Same goes for my brother, who is very educated, lives on the outskirts of Golden, away from all the “dirty working class scum; “I got my education, degree(s) and did it all by myself- If you didn’t, it’s NOT MY FAULT- help yourself, and Big Brother Knows Best.” “They’re (the State/Gov’t) are just going to round up people like you and take away your guns and throw you in prison or shoot you anyway, so go to hell.” Thanks a lot. he goes on to state that "You don’t have a Professional degree and “I’m not going to respect you till you get a degree and prove yourself (to his satisfaction and standards), so don’t bother me.” “It’s too late for you anyway, you should have gotten a Professional Degree years ago - you’re too old, so just go away and don’t darken my doorstep with your presence”. That’s my brother, gotta love him - NOT !!!

  I am not planning on having much more contact with my brother, and in fact I consider him one of the “Enemy”, as likely to turn me in as to get up in the morning. He would walk 50 miles to save a dime but not ten feet for kindness. He is not a part of my planning or prepping for what is coming. As far as I’m concerned, my brother and his family are already “casualties of war”, and I do my best to forget that they live or ever did. They’re on their own, and I hope his $14 million dollars buys all of them security, and his advanced degree(s) help him and his fed gov employee wife and advanced placement public/private school educated kids prepare, and that his Fed Gov employee neighbors prove able and trustworthy, and not the enemy next door. His problem, as I have too many of my own problems he does nothing to help me with anyway.

  For myself. I can reload ammunition, am quite well acquainted with firearms and their use, having been a shooter since 1974. I have worked a wide variety of jobs since I was 12 years old, including carpenter with my father, who had a carpentry business, and we did it all. I also worked for a major grocery chain, a food processing and packaging company, have been an armed security guard, loaded and unloaded trucks, done warehouse work, and been a jack of all trades, but have been forced to work for only $10/hour due to the Depression, and do not get anywhere near 40 hours a week, more like 8 to 30 in the winter months, and am lucky to get that. So my ability to prepare for what’s coming is less than it might be, thanks to hard times and less than full time hours at a menial job far below my abilities. I can work out a course to Mars and back, but can’t find a job in contemporary society because I’m 53, “past my prime, and too old” to be of any use to government at any level, and to the job culture extant, with it’s conflicting demands, arbitrary requirements and rules and regulations, and surplus of semi-skilled workers in my demographic, a result of the Great Baby Boom of 1946-64. There are simply too many people and not enough jobs for all of them, and the tail end of the Baby Boom generation, more properly termed “Generation Jones”, for the fact they want for much and receive little for their hard work and age and experience, do without and they are the “expendables”, in the new “normal” in US work structures. I’m Gen Joneser, whether I like it or not. Surplus to society and not wanted for anything the “New World Order” requires.

  Because of that, I am an Atlas Shrugged man, and have cast off the requirements of a nation that devalues and dismisses anything I have done that has intrinsic value or might do to be productive, hence I am an excess person. I have given up on a “normal life”, when no matter what I do, there will be no more “normal” for me, or for many other people either. Hence I am making a way of life for myself outside conventional means and ways, and want to help others to prepare for becoming extraneous themselves, and respond in a creative way that makes viable alternatives to an increasingly officious and tyrannical government possible, and lessens the need or power of a parasitic welfare state/Crony Capitalist economy that serves itself and it’s masters more than a free market As I would not be a slave, neither would I be a Master, hence I will not help a bankrupt corrupted crony capitalist system that uses people as drones to keep the system going till it collapses from its own faulty constructs and diluted, worthless fiat money. The overly complicated, bankrupt hollow work structure and job culture that infests the US and Western culture as a whole has outlived it’s time and is a drag on real progress. Time for it to go.

 I have my list of suppliers, firearms, tools, food (both Mormon plan and dehydrated/freeze dried) clothing, etc, that fellow members could use to supply themselves or family/friends/fellow preppers. If you don’t already have your own list, or want to exchange lists, I encourage that and want your list(s).

• For Long Term, Freeze Dried foods, I found a place on S. Broadway in Englewood called Farris Survival that is a small shop and they are preppers, Libertarians with Tea Party sympathies and ties, and have Mountain House Foods, bulk foods like Oats, different kinds of wheat, peas, beans, Quinoa, Triticale, raw brown sugar, 15, 30 and 50 gallon barrels for water storage, organic oats, barley, rice, beans of different types, millet, winter wheat, Berkeley water filters, and books, pamphlets on survival and related subjects, and this store is on the east side of S. Broadway, in Englewood, at 3336 S. Broadway/phone # 303-781-0343.
• I buy my firearms at Green Mountain guns, on S. Yarrow St. in Lakewood, just north of Hampden, in the Mission Trace shopping center, on the far southwest side of the retail complex. They have a selection of hunting, defense, recreational and collector rifles, shotguns, revolvers and pistols, both new, used and on consignment, and can order for you what they don’t have in stock. A supply of ammo, carrying cases, reloading supplies, scopes, accessories etc for firearms. 303-985-7240
• I go to the Army Navy Surplus store at 3524 So. Broadway in Englewood, right down the street from Farris Survival on the east side of the street on the east side of Broadway. I get Carhartt’s, boots, socks, gloves, hats, cold weather underwear and protective gear, packs, camp and cooking gear, Coleman fuel for stoves and lanterns, etc. They are a genuine small business and they deserve your patronage and appreciate it.
• The local ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints near you likely has food, canning and preserving supplies and equipment, and skilled experienced people who would be willing and able to help others outside their church to learn to can, preserve, store, and cook and use a variety of food and preserved goods both. I’m getting this information together and will have some phone numbers and e-mail addresses soon.

I will post more very soon, and would like to read responses to all of this, and consider networking in a cell structure and using the power of networks, the Internet, and modern technology as well as good old fashioned working class and do it yourself American Ingenuity, for our Constitutional Republic as it should be, and our nation and people as high and as far and as much as they can as a distinct nationality spoken of from the founding to the present time : E Pluribus Unum, Out of Many, One.