Jun 22

Today’s News 22nd June 2016

  • Britain Doesn't Need The EU To Thrive

    Submitted by Frank Hollenbeck via The Mises Institute,

    The United Kingdom will tomorrow vote either to leave or remain in the European Union. This is the most important European event of this century since it will likely have important domino effects for the rest of Europe.

    A recent poll showed that if the UK could keep free trade with EU nations, the British people would vote overwhelmingly to leave the EU. To drum up support for staying in the EU, the UK government and quasi-government agencies, like the IMF and OECD, have issued continuous warnings about the costs of such a divorce. The IMF recently reiterated its forecasts that Brexit would have a significant negative effect on the UK economy with a drop in GDP anywhere between 1% and 9% over the long term.

    The reality is that Brexit would probably only have a minor initial impact on trade or GDP and, on the contrary, would open up vast possibilities for the UK to exploit trade relations with other faster growing regions of the world without having to reach complex trade agreements that satisfy the vested interests of the other 28 members of the EU. 

    The impact of Brexit on trade has been grossly exaggerated. In today's world, a product has parts coming from all over the world. A BMW is only called German because of historical association. In reality, the steel in a BMW may come from Brazil or China, the upholstery from the UK, the engine from France, and the electronics from the USA. Labor costs are only 10% of a car and some may even be foreign labor. Also, profits are distributed to BMW shareholders and bondholders which are more likely to be sent to a hedge fund in Japan than to the mechanic in Dusseldorf. The world is massively economically integrated. Relatively free trade and free movement of capital is no longer an option for most countries, whether it is the UK or any of the other countries in the EU. That boat sailed years ago!

    Trade restrictions and capital controls are no longer a countries’ choice: either you participate in the world economy or accept living standards equivalent to that of North Korea or Venezuela. So the issue is NOT whether the UK will continue to trade mostly freely with the EU: it will, because today there is no other choice: and the same is true for the other countries of the EU. Despite French threats of a bloody Brexit, Germany, which runs its second largest  bilateral trade surplus with the UK, has little interest in starting a trade war, nor do most of the private interests in the rest of Europe.

    If the UK government is really concerned about trade, it has the power to significantly increase both its exports and living standards. It only has to remove any impediments to imports. We must never forget that imports are intractably linked to exports. What is true of the individual is also true for a nation. The ability to buy (foreign purchase of UK exports) is linked to the ability to sell (UK purchases of imports).

    The history of mankind is a struggle between the individual trying to retain freedoms and tyrannical governments trying to take it away from him. The EU was created to increase freedoms: the freedom of the movement of goods, capital, and people. As expected, it has devolved into an entity that does just the opposite with a myriad of rules and regulations that benefit large crony capitalist firms at the expense of small and medium sized enterprises that do not have the resources to jump through every EU hoop that is necessary to bring a product to market. Furthermore, the EU is moving in the wrong direction: that of limiting freedoms. It recently established a code of conduct to limit what it considers illegal hate speech. This code is so vague that it could include almost anything including criticisms of the EU. If this sounds familiar, it should! It was called the “ministry of truth’ in Orwell’s 1984.

    If the UK votes to leave the Union, the EU would lose a significant source of revenue since the UK pays a net amount of about 136 million pounds a week and historically has paid more to the EU that it has received from the EU. Since the EU already has unpaid bills of 19.6 billion pounds, it will find it very difficult to find additional resources from cash strapped countries such as France, Italy, or Spain whose debt to GDP ratios are already over 100%. With a higher contribution ratio, Germany will be required to fund more of the EU budget and may find it difficult to cover those countries that may soon find themselves unable to assume their share of funding. For example, Greece does not really contribute anything to the EU budget since Germany covers a majority of its contribution indirectly through EU loans to Greece. The same is likely to occur when Spain or Italy run into trouble.

    Germany already envies Britain’s decision not to join the monetary union. It laments losing monetary control of its currency. If Brexit is successful, Germany will find the option of regaining control over its monetary and regulatory policies seductive. We may shortly be talking about Germanexit. Yet, without Germany, the EU would then be a non-entity: good riddance, it would not be missed!

  • Did Bank Of Japan's Kuroda Just "Capitulate" Too?

    First it was The Fed's Janet Yellen coming "as close to capitulation on monetary policy's lack of efficacy," and now The Bank of Japan's Kuroda appears to have had an epiphany. In a stream of truth-filled consciousness unheard of for central planners, the governor admitted, among other things, that "monetary policy doesn't always turn out as expected," and that "many economists don't think financial markets always right," implying, of course, that he and his brethren know better. It appears that as central bank credibility collapses, so the central bankers themselves are having their own 'Greenspan'-moment when their life's work is finally proven entirely pointless.

    The results of monetary and fiscal policies don’t always turn out as expected, Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda says in an interview on TV Tokyo, aired early on Wednesday.

    Nope!

    His additional comments were just as ironic:

    • FX and stock markets sometimes move too much.
    • Many economists don’t think financial makets are always right.
    • Kuroda says his personality is cautiously optimistic.

    Nope!

     

    Given all that, now consider the following, excerpted from Kuroda’s opening remarks at the 2015 BOJ-IMES Conference:

    The issues I have raised so far are all complex, and there are no quick, definitive solutions for them. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that, at this one-and-a-half day conference, we will address the issues we currently face and find our way forward through lively discussions. I trust that many of you are familiar with the story of Peter Pan, in which it says, "the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it." Yes, what we need is a positive attitude and conviction. Indeed, each time central banks have been confronted with a wide range of problems, they have overcome the problems by conceiving new solutions. 

     

    *  *  *

    With that, Kuroda has just confirmed that DM central banks are literally relying on a fairy tale to keep the global economy and financial system afloat.

    At least he's being honest for once.

  • Is This The Big One? Large-Scale Motion Detected Near San Andreas Fault

    Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com,

    As if California doesn’t have enough problems already…

    The big one is believed to be due every century or so along major fault lines – and California is long overdue. Eventually, there is just too much built up pressure that must be released.

    Although experts don’t know when a major earthquake may hit the San Andreas fault, they expect that it is simply inevitable and have warned for years about mitigating the disaster to come.

    Sadly, few of those warnings have been heeded, and major destruction is likely to someday affect, directly or indirectly, most of the tens of millions of residents who live in or near Los Angeles and the surrounding area.

    Here are some of the simulations of what they officially say could happen. In reality, the damage and the secondary effect on social order could have an even greater impact:

     

    And the real world data is troubling as well.

    Now, researchers have been able to model that build up of pressure along the tectonic plates of the San Andreas using new GPS techniques that have allowed more information:

    Analysis of GPS data has revealed new areas of motion around the San Andreas Fault System.

     

    Using data collected by the EarthScope Plate Boundary Observatory’s GPS array, researchers identified 125-mile-wide “lobes” of uplift and subsidence. Over the last several years, the lobes, which straddle the fault line, have hosted a few millimeters of annual movement.

     

    […]

     

    Lead author Samuel Howell, a researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, explained in a news release. “Using this technique, we were able to break down the noisy signals to isolate a simple vertical motion pattern that curiously straddled the San Andreas fault.”

     

    Researcher Bridget Smith-Konter said: “The powerful combination of a priori model predictions and a unique analysis of vertical GPS data led us to confirm that the buildup of century-long earthquake cycle forces within the crust are a dominant source of the observed vertical motion signal.“

    Screen Shot 2016-06-20 at 7.18.39 PM

     

     "Using this technique, we were able to break down the noisy signals to isolate a simple vertical motion pattern that curiously straddled the San Andreas fault."

    As SHTF recently reported, the news is not good.

    According to the leading scientists in the study of tectonic plates and movements, earthquakes must periodically relieve plate pressure (about 16 feet worth of movement every century), but that has not happened on the San Andreas fault during that time period – in fact, the event is overdue.

    Scientists have renewed their warnings that the faultline “looks like it’s locked, loaded and ready to go.” As the L.A. Times reported:

    Southern California’s section of the San Andreas fault is “locked, loaded and ready to roll,” a leading earthquake scientist said Wednesday at the National Earthquake Conference in Long Beach.

     

    The San Andreas fault is one of California’s most dangerous, and is the state’s longest fault. Yet for Southern California, the last big earthquake to strike the southern San Andreas was in 1857, when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake ruptured an astonishing 185 miles

    […] “The springs on the San Andreas system have been wound very, very tight.

    If/when a major earthquake does hit the L.A. metro area, there will be a significant danger of societal collapse – with every major service from water, food, gas, electricity, transportation, sewage and more under threat of severe – and potentially prolonged – disruption.

  • A Week In The Life Of The American Police State

    Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse.”—Adlai Stevenson, 23rd Vice President of the United States

    If you’ve been caught up in the circus that is the presidential election, you’ve likely missed the latest news about all the ways in which the government continues to erode our freedoms, undermine our sovereignty, abuse our trust, invade our homes, invade our privacy, destroy our property, hijack our bank accounts, and generally render itself above the law.

    Then again, this is all par for the course from a militaristic government that is armed to the teeth, wages war against its own people, imprisons its citizens for profit, marches in lockstep with the corporate elite, and treats human beings as little more than cattle to be branded, bought, sold and butchered.

    The following incidents constitute a typical week in the life of the American police state.

    Not content with merely spying on our emails and phone calls, the NSA wants to spy on thermostats, refrigerators, and pacemakers.

     

    Reinforcing fears about how easily surveillance technology can be abused by government officials, local police in California are using money acquired through asset forfeiture to buy surveillance equipment that was then used to blackmail city council members.

     

    Small-town police departments continue to militarize their forces, acquiring military equipment such as BearCat armored vehicles and SWAT teams at an alarming rate.

     

    According to the Government Accountability Office, the majority of people in the government’s criminal face-recognition database have never committed a crime.

     

    The private prison business is booming, signaling a profitable windfall for investors and a death knell for any American unfortunate enough to run afoul of the many laws criminalizing otherwise legitimate behavior such as growing a garden on one’s front lawn or hosting a Bible study in one’s backyard.

     

    In fact, one Florida couple recently sued their town council after being threatened with fines under a law banning front-yard gardens.

     

    The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that as long as the government shows “good faith,” it can search your digital files as much as it wants.

     

    The FBI and other government agencies have been hiding cameras in city utility poles in order to carry out warrantless, covert surveillance on Americans.

     

    The USDA and EPA have been using SWAT teams to conduct raids on raw milk producers, beekeepers and lemon growers, among others.

     

    The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Americans have no expectation of privacy when it comes to credit card magnetic strips. Translation: swiping a credit card to determine its legitimacy is not a search under the Fourth Amendment.

     

    Sex scandals involving police officers—the latest involving police and sex workers in California—are revealing yet another sordid side of the abuses being perpetrated by government officials as they carry out their “official” duties.

     

    The University of Oklahoma is preparing to launch a 24/7 hotline for students to report incidents of microaggressions and bias.

     

    The government’s active shooter, crisis actor terror drills continue to blur the line between what is real and staged. In Fenway Park, a multi-agency counterterrorism exercise managed to fool even local media with its simulated explosions and gunfire, reports of active shooters and bombs, bomb-sniffing dogs, and fake victims, blood smeared on their faces, running from the park with hands in the air.

     

    The Drug Enforcement Administration is fighting for warrantless access to Americans’ private medical files, including what prescriptions you might be on, as part of its so-called war on drugs.

     

    Two police training academies have been suspended for what appears to be teaching the use of excessive force.

     

    Belying its claims of neutrality, among the 426 organizations the IRS has been accused of targeting for increased scrutiny, a large subsection of the groups have the word “tea” in their name, 33 have “patriot,” 26 refer to “liberty,” and several others have “occupy” in their name.

     

    The FBI is pushing Congress for access to Internet browser history without a warrant. The agency also wants to keep its biometric database secret and exempt from privacy laws.

     

    Using video analytics technology that can detect “suspicious” behavior, the government is looking to tap into surveillance cameras in order to identify “people and objects who could present a threat, or individuals and items that might have been involved in a past crime.”

     

    According to recent figures, people with severe untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed in a police encounter.

     

    Michigan is creating a pilot program to allow police to carry out roadside drug testing, opening the door to further forced searches in violation of a driver’s right to bodily integrity.

     

    If a new tech start-up gets its way, landlords and employers will eventually be able to strip-mine intimate data from your Facebook page, including entire conversation threads and private messages.

     

    Facebook may also be listening in on your phone conversations all of the time.

     

    According to EPA data, drinking water sources in communities across America may be contaminated beyond what is being reported.

     

    Despite government efforts to appear transparent and receptive to input on its drone programs, secret documents reveal that the government’s secret drone task force ignored public concerns about drone surveillance.

     

    Taking the risk of government surveillance to all-new levels and moving us that much closer to realizing the fictional world of Minority Report, “biohackers” are putting microchips and magnets in their bodies to enable them to communicate electronically with their surroundings.

     

    Further legitimizing corrupt asset forfeiture schemes, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled that law enforcement can seize private property that was used in the commission of a crime, even if evidence of wrongdoing was illegally obtained by police.

     

    Despite a mounting body of evidence—and dead bodies—proving that tasers can kill, police officers continue to use the so-called nonlethal weapons recklessly, leaving those victims who survive the shock permanently disabled.

     

    As a testament to the transformation of the nation’s public schools into quasi-prisons, more than 1.6 million high school students now attend schools with police on campus but not a single guidance counselor.

     

    In Oklahoma, highway patrols are rolling out a new asset forfeiture program that allows them to access and transfer any funds on prepaid credit cards directly to police bank accounts.

     

    Finally, in a recent interview, former congressman Ron Paul voiced what so many of us have  been warning for years now: we no longer really have democracy in America.

    Rather, as I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, what we have is a political distraction that keeps us oblivious to the steady advance of the police state, deaf to the cries of its victims, blind to the damage its wreaking on our communities and silent in the face of tyranny.

    As always, I am asked: what can Americans do about the incessant assault on their freedoms?

    For starters, wake up. Stop allowing yourselves to be easily distracted by pointless political spectacles and pay attention to what’s really going on in the country.

    The real battle in 2016 for control of this nation is not being waged between Republicans and Democrats in the ballot box. The real battle for control of this nation is taking place on roadsides, in police cars, on witness stands, over phone lines, in government offices, in corporate offices, in public school hallways and classrooms, in parks and city council meetings.

    Wake up, America. The real battle between freedom and tyranny is taking place right in front of our eyes, if we would only open them.

  • Indonesian Navy Fires Warning Shots At Chinese Fishing Boats In The South China Sea

    There was another incident in the South China Sea this weekend, and shockingly it did not involve the US.

    The Indonesian navy said that it had fired warning shots on Friday at Chinese fishing boats operating in the Natuna Sea, an area that Indonesia claims as an exclusive economic zone. The incident is the third confrontation of its kind this year the FT reports. China's foreign ministry said that one boat had been damaged and one sailor shot (a claim that Indonesia has denied) during the altercation, which China believes to have occurred in "traditional Chinese fishing grounds."

    Indonesia's fisheries minister Susi Pudjiastuti reportedly said on Twitter that the shots were fired "according to procedure" as the navy defended Indonesia's sovereignty.

    Aaron Connelly, a Southeast Asian researcher at the Lowy Institute added some insight as to why the Chinese fishing vessels were down near the Natuna Sea "Chinese fishing fleets, whether directed by the state or not, are going further and further south because they have overfished the waters near Hainan. It may also be strategically driven because Indonesia has stepped up fisheries enforcement in the Natuna Sea and China may want to send a message that it won't be pushed around." Again we note that it is critical to understand that China is quite focused on mitigating any further social unrest, and as pork prices have increased, another source of protein would be from the fishing industry. If the waters near Hainan are indeed overfished, then it makes complete sense that the vessels would extend further south.

    As a quick reminder, here is a map showing the overlapping claims that many countries believe they have in the South China Sea:

    Here is a different version that shows China's claim being noticeably close to the Natuna Sea where this incident took place:

    The incident further drives tensions in the region, and occurs just as China has threatened to leave the UN Sea Convention if a court ruling from The Hague sides with the Philippines in a South China Sea territorial dispute.

  • Hillary Clinton Rants That "Trump Would Throw Us Back Into Recession"

    After a Gallup poll was released earlier this month showing that 53% of Americans prefer Donald Trump for handling the economy compared to 43% who prefer Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee felt the need to address the issue during a speech on Tuesday.

    "Liberals and conservatives say Trump's ideas would be disastrous. The Chamber of Commerce and labor unions. Mitt Romney and Elizabeth Warren, economists on the right, the left and the center all agree: Trump would throw us back into recession." Clinton said in Columbus, Ohio, adding that "Trump would take us back to where we were before the crisis. He'd rig the economy for Wall Street again. That will not happen on my watch, I guarantee you."

    Clinton also took the time to criticize Trump on his comments about debt: "The United States of America doesn't do business Trump's way, and it matters when a presidential candidate talks like this, because the world hangs on every word our president says. The full faith and credit of the United States is not something we just gamble away. That could cause an economic catastrophe, and it would break 225 years of ironclad trust that the American economy has with Americans and the rest of the world."

    Hillary also took a page out of Trump's book and let loose a barrage of Twitter posts. One tweet said that Trump's tax plan would add $30 trillion to the national debt over 20 years:

    Which is quite ironic since the Obama administration has almost doubled the national debt by itself.

    Here are some additional tweets from Hillary that look to continue the narrative.

    * * *

    Speaking of rigging the economy for Wall Street, we seem to remember Goldman Sachs paying Clinton a lot of money to give speeches, the transcripts of which still have not yet been released. However, that is something that many Americans will choose to overlook we have no doubt.

    And of course, Trump has responded on Twitter:

  • UBS Warns Its Clients They May Not Be Able To Trade At All After Brexit

    With less than two days until the outcome of the Brexit referendum, traders around the world know two things: in a scene reminiscent of Lehman Sunday, everyone will be ready to trade the nanosecond the first results are released resulting in a supernova of volatility and an unprecedented burst in volume or… markets will simply grind to a halt as banks refuse to take risk positions and execute client orders, all bids and offers are withdrawn as the last trace of liquidity evaporates, and central banks are forced to start trading with each other in the open market.

    As the following just released warning from UBS to its clients reveals, it will probably be the latter, to wit:

    Regardless of the outcome, we may see an increase in volatility and an impact on trading volumes. In the event that extreme market moves occur in an environment of limited liquidity, our principal spreads may widen for both electronic and voice trading, liquidity may reduce and prices may turn indicative (i.e., non-tradable) for periods of time.

    Full UBS email.

     

  • Japanese Mint Employee Stole 15Kg Gold Bar "To Cover FX Trading Losses"

    With USDJPY collapsing in fits and starts and the nightly nattering nabobs of Japanese officialdom sparking mini risk flare-ups in FX markets, we can easily comprehend a part-time currency trader mounting up some losses. But it appears 54-year-old Japanese Mint employee Yutaka Umeno turned the leverage dial to 11 and having lost it all, decided the appropriate solution was to to steal a 15 kilo bar of gold "to cover his FX losses."

    As Asahi.com reports, a Japan Mint worker is accused of swiping a 15-kilogram gold bar valued at around $650,000 from under the noses of his colleagues…

    Yutaka Umeno, an officer at the Japan Mint's Tokyo Branch near Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward, has been arrested and charged with stealing the gold bar, which was displayed in the Tokyo Branch’s Mint Museum, Saitama prefectural police announced June 20.

    The ingot, which measures about 20 centimeters in length, 10 cm in width and 6 cm in height, was found at a pawn shop here, north of Tokyo.

    Umeno, 54, who lives in Saitama city’s Nishi Ward and works for the general affairs division at the Japan Mint, has admitted to a charge of theft and told police he did it to “compensate losses made by foreign exchange trading.”

    According to the investigators, Umeno made a subordinate remove the gold bar from its display case in the museum on Jan. 5 this year. He lied to the colleague, saying that he needed it for work purposes, which was a plausible reason as the museum sometimes loans the ingot for educational use.

    Perhaps even more intriguing is The Mint did not realize the large gold ingot was missing for five months!!

    The crime came to light when the worker who removed the bar from the case became suspicious after Umeno, who kept working there, did not return it for five months and reported it to another superior officer.

     

    On a number of occasions after the theft, staff members inquired with Umeno about the location of the bar. Umeno left his post at the Tokyo branch in the middle of the day on June 14. Three days later, a member of his family contacted police after he had not returned home. Saitama Prefectural Police apprehended him therafter.

     

    Yasuhiro Ichiba, the mint’s assistant director of the general affairs department, offered an apology at a press conference in Osaka on Monday. “We will endeavor to ensure that a recurrence does not take place,” he said.

    We wonder why the Mint worker did not steal share certificates or Yen… maybe it's a 'tradition' to steal 'valueless' yellow rocks?

  • Blackouts Loom With California In Power Grid Emergency: "All Customers Should Expect 14 Days Without Power"

    Submitted by Mac Slavo via SHTFPlan.com,

    The entire Los Angeles metropolitan area and most of Southern California can expect blackouts this summer.

    The power grid is under direct threat as a result of the unprecedented, but little reported, massive natural gas leaks at Alisco Canyon that was ongoing for  four months as an intense summer heat wave sets in.

    According to Reuters:

    California will have its first test of plans to keep the lights on this summer…

     

    With record-setting heat and air conditioning demand expected in Southern California, the state’s power grid operator issued a so-called “flex alert,” urging consumers to conserve energy to help prevent rotating power outages – which could occur regardless.

     

    Electricity demand is expected to rise during the unseasonable heatwave on Monday and Tuesday, with forecast system-wide use expected to top 45,000 megawatts, said the California Independent System Operator (ISO), which manages electricity flow through the state. That compares with a peak demand of 47,358 MW last year and the all-time high of 50,270 MW set in July 2006.

     

    That could put stress on the power grid, particularly with the shut-in of Aliso Canyon, following a massive leak at the underground storage facility in October [Editor’s Note: which was not stopped fully until mid-February 2016].

    The large-scale natural gas disaster – which curiously escaped media frenzy and widespread environmental concern – has resulted in the shutdown of key storage facilities that supply most of the power for the southern portion of the state.

    As summer demand for electricity to cool homes and businesses kicks into high gear, power plants are planning to shut down, with supply shortages triggering controlled blackouts and brownouts.

    Reports say that “all customers” should expect to be without power a total 14 days – 2 weeks time – out of this summer. Some 21 million Californians stand to be directly affected:

    All customers, including homes, hospitals, oil refineries and airports are at risk of losing power at some point this summer because a majority of electric generating stations in California use gas as their primary fuel. In April, millions of electric customers in Southern California were warned they could suffer power outages on up to 14 days this summer due to the closure.

     

    […]

     

    Unlike some other gas transmission systems that can store large amounts of so-called linepack gas in pipelines, like PG&E Corp in northern California, SoCalGas cannot function with only pipeline or storage supplies.

    Planned rolling brownouts have been done on a regular basis in Southern California since the days of Enron and the California energy crisis of 200o-2001, but the situation is getting more dire.

    As demand spikes, customers can expect to pay more for electricity, even as supplies threaten to be cut off, leaving families, residents and businesses in the dark.

    All this, as California’s historic drought problems continue to plague the state and restrict available services.

    As Tess Pennington notes:

    This puts stress of the other electrical grids who then compensate for the loss of energy to that existing grid. When these events take place, there is an overwhelming increase of power in homes and commerce to either generate heat, air conditioning or electricity. When this need overwhelms the grid, the utility company intentionally “shuts off the power to an area in order to reduce the load on an electricity generation and grid. The utility company turns it back on, and then shuts the power off in a different area, with outages in any given area typically lasting 60 to 90 minutes, according to the California Energy Commission. This is a last resort measure of utility companies to avoid an even worse situation — a total power blackout.

    Of course, there is plenty of room for unplanned blackouts as well, as an increasingly vulnerable power grid nears the perfect conditions for a grid down scenario.

    In the worst case scenario, these massive power outages, particularly if they are sustained for longer periods (authorities estimate up to 2 weeks without electricity is likely, though not necessarily in consecutive days), could interrupt other vital services – including grocery deliveries, water, gasoline at the pumps, and even communications.

    The larger question is whether or not they want the grid to fail.

    It is simple economic fact that the power companies stand to make more money of a power shortages during a crisis than they do during abundant and cheap energy.

    Homeland Security and other government agencies have been preparing in secret for a grid disaster for several years now

    Former DHS secretary Janet Napolitano ominously warned ahead of the Grid Ex II multi-agency drill that an unprecedented collapse of the power grid is imminent, and could result from a cyber attack, an EMP or a massive natural disaster:

    The outgoing Homeland Security Secretary has a warning for her successor: A massive and “serious” cyber attack on the U.S. homeland is coming, and a natural disaster — the likes of which the nation has never seen — is also likely on its way.

     

    […]

     

    An electrical grid joint drill simulation is being planned in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Thousands of utility workers, FBI agents, anti-terrorism experts, governmental agencies, and more than 150 private businesses are involved in the November power grid drill.

     

    If the power grid fails, a lack of electricity and food delivery are only the first wave of troubles facing the American people. Police could face major problems with civil unrest. Of course, there also would not be any electric heating or cooling, which easily could lead to many deaths depending on the season. (source)

    It seems that it is a matter of when, not if.

    That’s why having an off-grid, alternative source of energy is essential for any prepper or level-headed individual, though many communities are now discouraging solar by requiring that it be connected to the grid and regulated by energy companies.

    At a minimum, with an admitted potential for two weeks with the light out, you should have a one month supply of food for your family, as well as basic emergency supplies (including candles, flashlights, batteries and other light sources).

    It is also prudent to:

    1. Follow energy conservation measures to keep the use of electricity as low as possible, which can help power companies avoid imposing rolling blackouts.
    2. Look into alternative power sources to supply your home with power.
    3. Have ways to prepare food off the grid.
    4. Keep your car tank at least half full because gas stations rely on electricity to power their pumps.
    5. Be aware that most medication that requires refrigeration can be kept in a closed refrigerator for several hours without a problem. If unsure, check with your physician or pharmacist.
    6. Know where the manual release lever of your electric garage door opener is located and how to operate it. Garage doors can be heavy, so know that you may need help to lift it.
    7. Keep a key to your house with you if you regularly use the garage as the primary means of entering your home, in case the garage door will not open.
    8. Have money on hand in case stores are not processing credit cards.

    (Among other good ideas. Read more from Tess Pennington’s Are You Ready Series: Rolling Blackouts and Power Outages)

    This isn’t just planning for the possible, this is planning for the inevitable, and even the California authorities admit it.

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