Its so easy to get wrapped up in my own world right now that I forget that there are a zillion other things going on in the world that are worth noting. I mean, yeah, getting the Beta Site is a big deal (trivia: first reference to ‘Beta Site’ was here) but not everyone is interested in following someone else’s terraforming experience. So, whats been on my radar as of late?
Well, China keeps saying that it wants its military ready to resolve the Taiwan situation by 2027. Certainly theyve been making moves in that direction. But even China is smart enough to realize that having Uncle Sam’s undivided military attention is not always a great plan. That’s why, in my utterly worthless opinion, the next big global conflict that draws US military attention will almost immediately be followed by some other action that would normally not take place if the US weren’t otherwise engaged. For example, the US gets pulled into the Ukraine/NATO/Russia and China/NorthKorea/Iraq/Iran/whoever decides now is a good time to do their thing while the US is busy. And as more belligerents jump into the fray, more, lesser players see the opportunity and jump in to do their thing.
I know that US doctrine for the last few decades has been to be able to fight two wars at the same time, but that was back in the day when wars looked a good bit different than they do today. Between Russia’s actions, China’s buildups, Middle East rhetoric, and a few other players I’m overlooking, it seems like everyone is waiting to see who will draw the US’ fire first and then they’ll rush in.
All that to say, with the way everyone seems to be gearing up, arming up, and not shutting up, it feels like the potential for a war (or a facsimile thereof, in practice if not name) is at a rather high point. Thus, my concerns are about being ready for it. I’m not sure a Taiwan fight or a NATO/Russia matchup will affect my ability to buy Captain Crunch and toothpaste, but I am dead certain it will affect the markets enough to threaten my finances.
So, in my its-worth-what-you-paid for it opinion, there’s a lot of horses at the starting line and their just waiting for the starting shot. I’ve been wrong before, and Im probably wrong on this too, but it sure looks like everyone is just waiting for the music to start.
If the white house changes to a different party I would expect that to embolden our enemies. Especially if a “democratic socialist “ gets in there
Mr CZ, Given this scenario and timeline, do you accelerate your property development or take a more conservative approach? If the US gets directly involved in Taiwan defence China will likely strike American bases, possibly here. Get Beta Site prepared to the point you could bail to it with some basic comforts by 2027? Wish you the best, Al
Well, my plan wasnt to dawdle but I can only do so much in a certain amount of time with a certain amount of budget. I may not get it to “100%” of what I want within a year or two, but I can certainly get it to a point where I can hide out there, albeit without a few creature comforts.
But look at how much more your PM’s will buy you now. Silver closing on $70/oz should get you a little extra bullets, beans and band-aids.
The fact that the prices have gone so high are one of the things making me nervous and making me thingk I need to keep as much of the gold/silver as possible.
Hey CZ,
In the army, I was a signals intelligence analyst. They sent me to Monterey for a year to learn Korean so when it was time for us to boot Iraq out of Kuwait, I was stuck listening to the DPRK. Like you, our brass thought it would be an opportune time for the north to go south. It is a common misconception. I watched the north koreans move ammo, fuel, everything they had down to the DMZ over that first month or two. Everyone on the mission, myself included, understood they were not preparing to invade (that is propaganda) but were preparing for us to hit them when we got done with Iraq.
Even preppers with a skeptical view of the government and political intentions do not understand how completely influenced by the propaganda they are. Since WW2, who has actually attacked us? Ask a survivor of the USS Liberty? My fellow sig int veterans got hit hard, not by muslims…
As long as there is a 2A, the US will not get invaded. Red Dawn was obvious propaganda. We are safe from everything but ourselves. A second civil war is what I am worried about. They divide and conquer. Over and over, they do the same thing. We have been their hammer since WW2. We start wars, we invade, not others. We had a deal with Russia and NATO has broken it. How is that Putin’s fault? The UK is still pissed about the Crimean war and is getting payback on the US taxpayers’ backs.
Our economy is in the “everything bubble”. Bubbles do not end well. This one is really being prolonged and war will prolong it even longer. The longer a bubble lasts, the more damage it does when it pops. I do not think it is a coincidence this one is being prolonged. I think the American middle class and working people are the only thing that has kept the world free this long. They hate us. They try to take the 1A and the 2A from us constantly. I think they may have just given up on that and decided to end us from within.
How do you do that? Well, you divide and divide and divide. Look at us, everyone is scared of everyone else. Everyone is angry. Everyone feels like a victim and is blaming anyone they can. For each Tucker, telling people to unite and put God first, we have a 100 influencers peddling hatred and violence. Civil wars are ugly. Iirc, we lost more men at Gettysburg than in all our foreign wars combined. We will not be the hegemonic power afterwards. We will have nukes like Russia, but that is an all or nothing option. Do you destroy the world? Maybe, if you have nothing to lose… not a great option if you have kids or grandkids though.
I wish I had a clever solution for you. I do not. My only advice to people is make yourself as independent as possible and try to survive. Afterwards, we will need smart and strong people to rebuild. And to remember.
I think Dan is correct, the threat is internal. Internet rumblings mention terrorist inflows during the Biden administration, and potential Mumbai-style attacks on a grand scale. That is not to say it is likely, but it is more likely than a Red Dawn invasion. Tactics on a local scale may be more important than national strategy – and offer a more attainable goal for preppers.
IMHO, no nation, or honestly, group of nations, will make the mistake that Japan did in WW2 and make any kind of initial attack while leaving our industrial base intact.
I firmly believe that this is the entire reason the DPRK exists, is to be the stalking horse for an EMP attack on the continental US to destroy the control structures for the electrical grid and oil and gas production. All of them are willing to sacrifice the Hermit Kingdom if the US decides to go nuclear in response.
At that point, all of the financial and geopolitical stuff becomes unimportant from our point of view.
Are you prepared?
Dan,
Might re-check those numbers on Gettysburg! We lost more Americans in the Civil War than all the other wars in our history combined, maybe that is the statement you meant to say. Still bad either way!!
Hey 3rdMan
That is strange
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war
shows ww2 having more casualties than the civil war
i was a history buff in high school, competed and won academic competitions at the state, national and international level… this feels like someone is rewriting history.
maybe I am just getting old
405,000 deaths for WW2 and 655,000 deaths for Civil War based on your link. Make sure you look at the correct line.
You seem to be a bit confused.
The civil war deaths in combat are listed at 214,938.
The ww2 deaths in combat are listed at 291,557.
I think you will see this is the case if you look again more carefully.
The Civil Wars (both sides) total casualties were over 1.1 million while WW2 was around 1.07 million. Casualties is not just death but includes injuries regardless of cause, that did not cause death.
Speaking of war casualties, don’t forget about the tens of millions of Americans that have been killed and injured by the ‘jab’. It’s estimated that 30 million Americans have been disabled to some extent by this bioweapon.
As long as there is a 2A, the US will not get invaded. Red Dawn was obvious propaganda. We are safe from everything but ourselves.
Perhaps, no truer words were ever spoken.
Kudos
100%. March of 2026?
Nothing like a good war to get the economy back on track. I made the mistake of saying that once in front of my old boss back in ’78. He was a WW I (that’s a one!) veteran. With scowl and a look of contempt he spat ‘…you wouldn’t say that if you ever held a friend while he coughed up chunks of his lungs after breathing poison gas!…’ Boy, did I feel like an ass.
LBJ said to the warpigs, get me re-elected and I’ll keep the war going for you in Vietnam. Remember how rich Dick Cheney got from his company Haliburton building bases in the sandbox? Dozens of our soldiers were also electrocuted in the buildings wired with substandard contractors. All kept hush hush of course.
This whole fractional reserve unlimited debt fiat shit bubble is about to burst, and I wouldn’t put starting a war for financial gain past the cretins in charge at all.
To be more specific, the war will be to consolidate their gains into a new financial system behind the color of martial law brought on by the military conflict.
You can see the train wreck but there is no stopping it short of actions no one seems willing to take.
An interesting fictional take on this is “Mongol Moon” by Mark Sibley. It assumes a tacit agreement among the many enemies for a share of the spoils. I suspect something like that arrangement rather than one country risking everything.
One thing not on everybody’s radar is California. Ten years ago they passed a law that said all inground fuel tanks must be replaced by ten years with double walled tanks. Times up and a lot of gas stations could not afford to make the change. Cost 2 million/station. So they are closing. Phillips is closing their gasoline refinery in days and Valero is closing their refinery in April. That’s twenty percent of California’s special blend gas going off line. Chevron is closing a lot of their gas stations starting now. Can’t ship gasoline by tanker from the Gulf coast due to the Jones Act. They banned pipelines from out of state. They are hoping to buy gas from India or Korea. How are people getting to work with wide spread shortages and very high prices? That will kill their economy. California is also a big part of the American economy. Interesting times that is happening right now.
Just wait until California requires EVs to run on their special blend of electricity.
The stupid – it burns!
the interesting thing about that is California buys a good portion of their electricity from Arizona, from coal plants!
china can’t even deal w/ the indians. russia has taken a licking from a second world power, tho putin is grinding them and our equipment to dust. korea can’t feed its troops even. no one, no axis can challenge us. best they could do is blow the panama canal, but they need it and our commerce dollars too badly themselves. the next war will be here and it likely starts in virginia.
Virginia? Democrats run the whole state now. Governor, Lt Gov. And an attorney General who wanted to murder the former speaker of the house and his children. Both chambers of the house are Democrat majority. There’s dark times ahead for conservatives in VA. Will that boil over into a larger conflict? Hope not. But hope isn’t a plan.
yeah, that’s why it starts here. the “elected” don’t represent the real majority. folks in the western half are about done with richmond.
China is collapsing internally, demographically and financially, in ways that are second, third, and fourth order effects of policies and actions long past so there are no handles or switches available to stop it.
Typically when a governmental system in China (“dynasty”) “loses the mandate of heaven” then the government falls and China reverts back to a federation of three to eight states. Eventually one becomes strong enough to conquer the others and the whole cycle starts over again.
It is possible that we are watching the end of this cycle currently, and the CCP are not fools and are well aware of their history. It is absolutely a concern that they might start a conflict to spur nationalistic sentiment behind the ruling regime to try to prolong their period of rule. The critical time period is now to about 2030.
Our long horizion geopolitical competitor is India, not China.
There are a bunch of things that none of us can control.
We can control ourselves. Sharpen your mind, strengthen your body, and build your community.
I’m not going to predict what will happen because my record isn’t very good at that.
My fear is that we’ll see big problems domestically: whether the Left gears up or whether it’s the Chinese or Muslims doesn’t really matter if it hits transport or power hard – to me, big disruptions in either are about the worst that could affect me.
definitely wouldn’t be prepping to some fictitious Chinese war mongering >>> they had the absolute once-in-century opportunity during the Biden snooze – didn’t act on the gaping hole – sure as shit aren’t coming during Trump or Vance ….
China is getting beat back across the Pacific every single day – about to lose their beachhead in Venezuela – Canal Zone to follow – already lost their naval base advance in Chile …..
not sure yet – but its looking like Prez Trump might be going after China in Africa >>> the entire Biden placed ambassador line-up for Africa is being replaced – China and the Muslims might be getting some Trump attention …….
Yeah trump attention going after them like they are a 13 year girl I hear he is also going to personally design the new US battleship Lots of gold spray painted geegaws lol. Dementia addled pedo
Its been a year of the new golden age everyone enjoying it
“Dementia addled pedo” that would be Joe Biden according to his son Hunter and other family members who would know.
Gold prices are certainly enjoying Orang Flailer in Chief PEDOCRAT
No mention of the regime change happening in Venezuela and how it is positively impacting gold, silver and oil. War is always good for the speculators who can stomach the volitility it causes.
“What percentage of my assets should be in gold & silver? Whatever percentage you don’t want to lose” ~ Bill Holter
“Gold & silver are the only two assets in the world that can’t go bankrupt in a world going bankrupt” ~ Bill Holter
Keep stacking folks.
Do we have the resources and reserves to fight a high attrition war with china at the end of a several thousand mile supply line? Do we even have enough artillery shells after supplying Ukraine, let alone other resources. Add the potential internal upheavals we are worried about.
I have no idea what will happen either. But, I do suspect there will be no shortage of targets.
My unprofessional observation is that one of these major players such as China or Russia will make a major move over there for what they wish to acquire after they unleash whatever terrorist they have roaming around within our borders as sleeper agents. Their distractions will be hard targets such as electric grids, water works and shopping centers to make us turn to internal problems and play catch up. Remember the server farms around the big apple the secret service found at the UN capable of shutting down cell towers? Just another cog in the plan.