Survival And Prosperity

Chicago NATO Summit Overhyped?

Leaders from around the world are gathering in Chicago this spring for an important diplomatic summit hosted by President Barack Obama. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will hold meetings in Chicago from May 20-21, allowing the city to highlight its economic vitality, its arts and architecture, and its can-do spirit.

• This will be the first time an American city other than Washington has hosted a NATO summit.
• About 2,000 journalists from across the world are expected in Chicago to chronicle the events.

-From the Official Host Committee Website for the Chicago NATO Summit

It’s still a couple of days before the NATO Summit kicks-off here in Chicago, but activity related to the meetings is picking up. From Maudlyne Ihejirika and Rummana Hussain yesterday on the Chicago Sun-Times website:

After assessing the protests held thus far as a lead-up to the NATO Summit, “I think we’re off to a pretty good start,” Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said Wednesday.

That was after another day that saw protests downtown, including an Occupy Chicago-organized rally and march by about 150 people Wednesday morning, where participants demanded a year-long moratorium on foreclosure evictions in Cook County.

By Wednesday afternoon, McCarthy said, his police department had overseen four major protests he said involved less than 300 people — and made 12 arrests…

However, he said, “So far, the events have been orderly. We’re equipped. We’re trained. And at this point, we feel that we’re off to a good, successful start, and we’re actually excited to get this done.”

Partly due to the small sizes and relative calm of these initial protests, some are suggesting the summit- and forecasts of tens of thousands of protesters seriously-impacting law and order around the city- has been overhyped. Brian C. Thomas blogged in Your Doubting Thomas (part of the Chicago Tribune’s ChicagoNow website) yesterday:

Here we are. NATO week. Our media has been in a collective frenzy about NATO and the commensurate mass protests and road closures. For over a month, NATO has been the story with underlying fear and trepidation.

I want to yell at the television: Hey! We’re Chicagoans, we got this!

Major cities close down when there is half inch of snow– we’re open for business the day after getting dumped with 30 inches– guys, we can handle a couple protesters.

A word of advice, Brian. Don’t yell at the TV- lest you want your significant other to give you endless grief about it.

And here’s some anonymous comments I came across while reading a May 15 post on the unofficial Chicago Police Department blog Second City Cop:

• “There will be loser protesters but not near as many as they think.”
• “Personally, I’m not intimidated by a bunch of aging hippies and school aged narcissists.”
• “All they have to do is lock their mother’s basements where these malcontent idiots live and that will be about 50% fewer protesters out there spewing their nonsense and causing trouble.”

Mooooooommmmmm!!! All kidding aside, who knows how many protesters will be showing up in the Windy City to protest these meetings. But they’re already arriving. From Kim Janssen on the Chicago Sun-Times website yesterday afternoon:

They’re here, and more are coming — lots more.

The first major busload of out-of-town anti-NATO protesters arrived in Chicago Wednesday evening.

Sixteen hours after they pulled off from a dark New York street corner at 4 a.m., more than 40 tired but excited Occupy Wall Street activists stepped down onto a leafy Lincoln Park block at 7 p.m. wearing Robin Hood masks…

An additional 16 buses — funded, like the Occupy Wall Street bus, out of a $218,000 donation from anonymous donors and National Nurses United — are due to arrive in time for Friday’s “Robin Hood Tax” rally from Los Angeles, Oakland, Portland, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Providence and Washington, D.C.

While those who dismiss the upcoming NATO Summit and its “hype” are entitled to do so, it might be best to wait and see how things play out. There are a number of X-factors out there that probably don’t register on the radars of casual observers of these events.

More later…

Skinny Puppy, “Pro-Test” (2004)
YouTube Video

Sources:

Hussain, Rummana and Ihejirika, Maudlyne. “Top cop on NATO: ‘We’re off to a pretty good start.’” Chicago Sun-Times. 16 May 2012. (http://www.suntimes.com/news/12568934-418/top-cop-on-nato-were-off-to-a-pretty-good-start.html). 17 May 2012.

Thomas, Brian C. “Chicago and NATO: Have we proven we’re a first class cow town?” Your Doubting Thomas. 16 May 2012. (http://www.chicagonow.com/your-doubting-thomas/2012/05/chicago-and-nato-have-we-proven-we%E2%80%99re-a-first-class-cow-town/). 17 May 2012.

SCC. “It Begins.” Second City Cop. 15 May 2012. (http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2012/05/it-begins.html). 17 May 2012.

Janssen, Kim. “Busloads of protesters head to Chicago for NATO Summit.” Chicago Sun-Times. 16 May 2012. (http://www.suntimes.com/12572016-417/busloads-of-protesters-head-to-chicago-for-nato-summit.html). 17 May 2012.

Tags: 2012 NATO summit, Chicago, Chicago Police Department, CPD, Garry McCarthy, Illinois, NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Occupy Chicago, Occupy Wall Street, police, protests, Robin Hood Tax, Second City Cop

Quote For The Week

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

-Friedrich Nietzsche (German philosopher. 1844-1900)

Tags: Friedrich Nietzsche, insanity

Spring Break!

Like every May the past couple of years, this one is turning out to be no different in how hectic it is. Graduation days, birthdays, moving days, something days, maintenance, cleaning, the list goes on- aargh! As such, I’m going to take a little break from Survival And Prosperity- my spring break- until next Tuesday, May 15, when new material will appear again on the blog.

TCB,

Christopher E. Hill
Editor

“Jaan Pehechan Ho” from Bollywood film Gumnaam (1965)
YouTube Video

1st Annual Arizona Survivalist Show To Take Place On May 19

Now this sounds like it would not only be informative for preppers/survivalists/others, but also a lot of fun if you like vintage military aircraft. Plus, it’s for a good cause.

From the Facebook page of the 1st Annual Arizona Survivalist Show that’s scheduled to take place in Mesa on May 19:

Hey check out our upcoming event called the 1st Annual Arizona Survivalist Show. We have some excellent vendors lined up who are fully involved in this movement and we think you will be pleasantly surprised at the variety. If the “survival / prepper” movement interests you in even the slightest, then this is the event you need to attend.

This is also a great “2 for 1” event, as your cost of admission gets you into an incredible air museum, plus you can meet and purchase supplies from local “survival / prepper” vendors. Come out and support the museum.

I understand that 36 vendors have committed to the show to-date, including:

Preparing Wisely
Zero Hour Power
Foodwise
Honeyville Foods
Desert Food Storage
Urban Survivalist 1
Freedom Military Supply
Stop-N-Shop Military Surplus
Last Mag – Simulated Training
Outdoor Gear Barn
Arizona Citizens Defense League
Medd Packs USA
The Tactical Medic
Patriot Youth Corps
Solar Penny
Common Sense Prepardness
Hostile Hare – Nick Klein
Burr Ridge Wood Products
Independence Training
The Clipper Shack
Elite Readiness
COSTCO
Marauders Tactical Training
Gear Up (Tim Ralston)
Helton & Co. Inc.
Deanna Householder – Wonder Oven
Thrive In Glendale
Ed Spietz – local author
Premier Tactical
Relocation – Move Phoenix
Freeze Dry Guy
Darrell Palmer – Grain Fed Storage Meat
National Guard
Tank N Barrel
Thrive – Mesa
American Key & Safe

In addition, mini-seminars are scheduled to be held every 30 minutes in a designated education area.

Mark your calendars. Wish I could be there!

You can view a flyer for the event by clicking on the thumbnail graphic below:

Tags: Arizona, Arizona Survivalist Show, Mesa, preppers, survivalists

Training For The Apocalypse On Nat Geo Channel Tonight

Last Thursday, I blogged about the April 30 premiere of Training For The Apocalypse on the National Geographic Channel. From the IMDb website:

A documentary chronicling the journeys of survivalists, truth-seekers and prophets united in their preparations for global cataclysm and the near-extinction of humanity as they struggle to make sense of the world they live in now.

If you didn’t get a chance to watch the premiere, it will be re-broadcast tonight, Monday, May 7, at 6 PM Eastern Time on the National Geographic Channel.

Tags: preppers, survivalists, Training For The Apocalypse, Training For The Apocalypse TV show

Poll: 2 In 10 American Adults Believe End Of World Coming In Their Lifetime

Do you believe the world will end during your lifetime?

Findings from a recent poll show you wouldn’t be alone. From a press release on the Ipsos website last Tuesday:

One in seven (14%) global citizens agree ‘the world will come to an end during my lifetime,’ according to a new poll by global research company Ipsos on behalf of Reuters News. One in ten (10%) believe ‘the Mayan calendar, which some say ‘ends’ in 2012, marks the end of the world’ and another one in ten (8%) admit they ‘have been experiencing anxiety or fear because the world is going to end in 2012.’ The poll was conducted among 16,262 adults in 21 countries.

(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)

The belief that the world will end soon appears to be more accepted among American adults. The Ipsos poll showed that 22 percent of adult respondents in the United States agreed with the statement “the world will come to an end during my lifetime.”

Personally, I would have found the survey even more interesting if Ipsos had asked not just about “the end of the world” but “the end of the world as we know it,” or TEOTWAWKI.

Yes, there is a difference.

You can read the entire press release on the Ipsos website here.

Tags: 2012, December 21 2012, Ipsos, Mayan calendar, Mayan prophecy, Mayans

Quote For The Week

Gold is a great thing to sew into your garments if you’re a Jewish family in Vienna in 1939, but I think civilized people don’t buy gold, they invest in productive businesses.

-Charles Munger, Vice Chairman and partner of Warren Buffett at Berkshire Hathaway, in a CNBC interview last Friday, May 4

Tags: Berkshire Hathaway, Charles Munger, gold, Warren Buffett

New ‘Doomsday’ Flu Virus Comes With Instructions

Before I work on those episode reviews of Doomsday Preppers, I’d like to share with you something I find a bit worrisome- the newly-created “Doomsday” flu virus, as some are calling it. I wouldn’t be that concerned if this so-called “superflu” didn’t also come with “instructions.” From Margaret Munro on the National Post (Canada) website this past Wednesday:

One of the most controversial genetically altered microbes ever created was unveiled Wednesday — complete with instructions on how to engineer the hybrid flu virus in the lab.

The details, published in the journal Nature, have been under wraps for months because of fears they might be misused by bioterrorists.

The virus was created by a team led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka at the University of Wisconsin-Madison… Working in a secure lab, the researchers took a gene from H5N1 and gave it to H1N1, the flu virus that caused the human pandemic in 2009. The researchers then played with the hybrid in the lab to create four mutations that are contagious in ferrets, which are considered good proxies for humans.

The researchers “demonstrate that H5N1 viruses do have the potential to cause a human pandemic,” says a report accompanying the study in Nature.

While the strain of H5N1 that’s now circulating isn’t highly-contagious among humans- it is wicked deadly. It’s claimed the mortality rate is 59 percent in officially-confirmed cases.

However, while contagious, the new hybrid flu virus wasn’t found to be lethal in the ferrets (“good proxies for humans”). This was emphasized by flu expert Earl Brown of the University of Ottawa, who is skeptical about a bioterror agent originating from this work. From the article:

Brown said an experienced virologist could take the information in the Nature paper, order up the necessary genes from a scientific supplier, and engineer hybrid flu viruses resembling the ones in the Wisconsin experiment.

“If you put your mind to it you could do it, but you would have to be good,” said Brown. But he added he doubts the virus would be much of a threat since the Wisconsin team found its hybrid virus, though scientifically intriguing, was not lethal when it was transmitted between ferrets…

Brown said he agrees with erring on the side of caution, but noted the research on pathogens is heavily regulated already and scientists have an incentive not to misuse pathogens with the potential to kill them.

Still, I’m concerned about potential “evil geniuses” out there who are in the position to provide their services to the highest bidder (Pakistan’s “Dr. X,” allegedly).

Even more so, influenza virology experts or others that may consumed by ideology- and without the fear of death- who might also be in a position to produce a lethal “Doomsday” flu virus.

One last thing. How come various Canadian mainstream media outlets are running this story while their American counterparts aren’t touching it for the most part? The new hyrbid flu virus was created in Wisconsin, after all. Trying not to “scare” the American public? Some will wonder.

Source:

Munro, Margaret. “‘Doomsday’ flu virus unveiled.” National Post. 2 May 2012. (http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/02/doomsday-flu-virus-unveiled/). 4 May 2012.

Tags: biological terrorism, bioterrorism, Doomsday flu virus, Earl Brown, H1N1, H5N1, hybrid flu virus, influenza virus, pandemic, superflu, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Yoshihiro Kawaoka

‘Doomsday Preppers’ Discuss Buying Abandoned Missile Bases

I’ve always been fascinated by those hardened underground complexes built to house, service, and launch our nation’s intercontinental ballistic missiles. So I found it extremely interesting that preppers Ed Peden and his spouse, Dianna Ricke-Peden, who were featured in episode 7 of the National Geographic Channel TV series Doomsday Preppers, owned a company that sold abandoned missile base properties. I wrote about the couple back on March 19:

Ed and Dianna Peden live in a decommissioned Atlas missile site west of Topeka, Kansas. Ed, a retired teacher, first became interested in the complex back in the eighties when the specter of nuclear war hovered over the world…

According to the show, the missile base cost $4 million to build in 1960. Ed bought it in the eighties for $40,000. Like the Rogers family, Dianna and Ed plan on bugging-in, closing their 20-inch-thick blast-proof front door to the outside. Stocked with 12 months of food and supplies, the Peden’s renovated 20,000 square-foot bunker is very secure with its 18-inch-thick walls, an 8-foot tall steel and barbed-wire perimeter fence, a recently-installed automatic gate, and a new 360-degree security camera system.

And just this morning, I came across a video of these “Doomsday Preppers” that was posted on the CNN Money website yesterday in which Ed and Dianna talk about their business selling decommissioned missile sites and the tremendous interest these days in buying such properties. It turns out that getting a mortgage for these underground bunkers can be a real challenge. Interesting stuff:

Tags: Dianna Peden, Dianna Ricke-Peden, Doomsday Preppers, Doomsday Preppers episode 7, Doomsday Preppers TV series, Doomsday Preppers TV show, Ed Peden, missile bases, nuclear war, underground bunkers, underground shelters

The Utility Of Gold WTSHTF

This morning, I found the latest issue of Peter Schiff’s Gold Report- which I chose as my “Resource Of The Week” back on July 6, 2011- in my e-mail inbox. The free monthly e-newsletter comes from Euro Pacific Precious Metals, of which Schiff is the CEO. While reading about the contents of this month’s issue, my attention was drawn to the following:

Mark Motive argues that we shouldn’t laugh at the ‘preppers’ who prepare for disaster – it might be time to learn from them instead.

Inside the May 2012 edition I found the article by Mark Motive, which is the pen name of an investment strategist/journalist who is also the chief author and editor at Plan B Economics (planbeconomics.com), a source for alternative insights into finance and economics. In “Gold and Financial Preparedness,” Motive talks about preppers and the debate over the utility of gold when the poop hits the fan. Motive wrote:

For example, if the dollar were destroyed by hyperinflation, a new currency would eventually be formed because the barter system is extremely inefficient. (The need for coincidence of wants creates a very high hurdle for the barter system.) Because they are fungible, divisible, portable, and non-perishable, currencies significantly improve societal wealth by reducing transaction costs, enabling lending, storing surpluses, etc.

Because it is the universal language of commerce, gold could be the new currency, but eventually a more flexible paper-based system would once again arise. Here’s the critical idea: whether or not that system is convertible into gold, gold could be used to transition wealth from the old currency system to the new. As a store of wealth, gold serves as a way to transition assets from one monetary regime to another.

Throughout history, gold has been used as a means to manage these types of transitions. During times of distress, people have converted their wealth into compact chunks of gold to take with them as they escaped a dictatorship or endured a failing currency. Gold is universally accepted as a store of wealth, meaning that it can endure what other stores of wealth (stocks, bonds, paper money… even land) cannot. This is why gold can help preserve wealth across economic transitions. Arable land, and the food that it produces, may not have the same benefits.

Motive acknowledges that “there is no single, simple answer for protecting wealth and preserving life during an economic collapse.” But the discussion of preppers and gold in the article is an interesting one nevertheless.

If you already receive Peter Schiff’s Gold Report, look for the latest issue- and this article- in your e-mail inbox. If you don’t already get it, you can subscribe to it for free here.

(Editor’s note: I am not responsible for any personal liability, loss, or risk incurred as a consequence of the use and application, either directly or indirectly, of any information presented herein)

Tags: arable land, bartering, fiat currency, gold, gold-based currency, hyperinflation, Mark Motive, Peter Schiff, Peter Schiff’s Gold Report, preppers, real estate, survivalists, U.S. dollar, wealth preservation