Comments

Episode-812- My Thoughts on 7 of Our Biggest Global Threats — 29 Comments

  1. Hi Jack, This is a bit off topic for this program, but I just saw this film and thought you would love it. http://backtoedenfilm.com/#movie
    Love your show. You calm me down when I get hyper after listening to the latest fear news.
    Margaret

  2. Jack, the link for the show that comes in my email notification of update did not work yesterday of today. Are you doing something different?
    Thanks

  3. I think there’s a certain ‘evolution’ that goes on with folks who are new to the prepper mindset. Many find the lifestyle by accident due to some life event that jolts them into a reality of the delicate nature of our livelihoods.. whether that be a loss of a job, or the death of a loved one, or even a tin-foil hat story on the internet that rings too true for our likings. Either way, we travel a path that begins with fear, then with knowledge, preparation, a sense of security, and finally it becomes a lifestyle shift. I like the way you have approached the topics of today’s show in a matter-of-fact way to help folks move past that fear-based prepping mentality to a more knowledgeable level of understanding. It’s like taking a shortcut to our destination and bypassing some of the potholes. There are some of us who’ve always had a little bit of understanding of living a more self-sufficient lifestyle thanks to our much older parents, and hopefully we are raising another generation that will embrace our decisions and lifestyle as their own without the hardships that go with discovering the path on their own.

  4. These are some of my favourite episodes which break down everything we should look out for in black and white. Bought my 72 hour kit last week and already have a berkey and an Excalibur. Have listened to every podcast so far and your five minutes with Jack. Thanks for all you do Jack. I have grown immensely in my mindset in the past few years and intend to do some more in 2012.

  5. Jack, one comment about the flu – hyper immune response… I understand that eating a Paleo Diet can cure people with autoimmune diseases (MS, uticaria, …) I wonder if there is a link between the level of inflammation of the body (caused by gluten or any other irritant) and these extremely hyper insulin responses seen by some people? Maybe the body is more alert or sensitive if constantly being irritated by gluten exposure.

    *Remember what Louis Pasteur said at the end of his life… “Its not the disease its the environment” If you constantly eat insulin spiking foods (sugar, wheat…) You will create an environment in your body where the bacteria or virus can THRIVE…

    So Be Healthy, Be Smart, Eat Paleo, and have the best year of the life!
    Happy New Year TSP Community!

    • You know, I was tempted to say something myself. When Jack said that, I kept having the Pathology Triangle running through my brain. That’s a triad of circumstances that bring about disease. Now, I learned this in Plant Pathology but I believe that it is somewhat applicable to human biology as well. Environment– in this case the internal ecology– is important. I’m thinking Jack is far more likely to survive a pandemic than is someone his age who is diabetic, on six different meds, and has inflammation issues (and we all know someone like that, don’t we?). Think about this, Jack– what’s the tomato that’s going to get hit with blight– the one fed with cruddy chemicals or the one fed superior compost and rock dust?

    • This is an interesting idea. I wouldn’t rule out that there is a link between diet and cytokine storm, but it’s not an autoimmune condition. Autoimmune diseases target our own cells or proteins, whereas cytokine storm is targeted at the pathogen, but harms the individual indirectly rather than directly as a result of the actions taken by the body to fight the infection. For example if there’s an infection in the lungs, cytokine storm can cause fluid to accumulate in the lungs which blocks the airways.
      I would be really interested to see the effect on diet and cytokine activity however. Really interesting point.

  6. I more worried about Japan bombing mainland USA again – like they did during WW2. Although the fear is they will use Manga based toys instead of the fire balloon bombs they used back in the day.

  7. Sorry Jack, I don’t buy into the Peak Oil theory. But I was impressed and agreed with the rest of your topics

    • @PiPBoy believe what you want but I don’t get it, it isn’t a theory, it is a fact. Oil is a finite resource, you can debate the time line, and I am the first to admit I don’t know how long it might be but you can’t really think that you can pump it forever do you?

      • Some people believe in abiotic oil, even though no field has ever regenerated, at least not on a level that would be fast enough to matter in a human timescale – maybe PiP is one of these abiotic believers… I am not.

  8. Jack. I have to disagree with you that if Iran were to obtain a nuclear bomb that they would not hesitate to explode it over the United States causing an EMP. This would leave them to destroy Israel why we would be busy trying to save our own ass. I don’t think they would care about what China and Russia would say or do. Love the show.

    Gary Eitel
    Annapolis, MD

    • @Gary, yea save for the fact that we have things call subs, all with things called nuclear missiles and to do so would insure we turned Iran into a waste land with them. They are not as stupid as the TV leads you to believe.

    • We are on it, I am restoring this weeks to a back up server right now until we fix the issue.

  9. Since last winter all the NASA talk about a possible late 2012 early 2013 solar flare CME taking down the electrical connections has had me wondering and working on what we might do to survive and wait it out. Maybe North America won’t be engaged when it happens, could be in a distant zone, but I am not betting. Thanks Jack, always enlightened from your presentations.

  10. Nice reference to Michael Savage, I have been an avid listener for about two years to his show. I don’t agree with him on a few things, but I agree that Iran is dangerous and with all that hardware in the strait, I see a ‘Stark’ like event happening

  11. Iraq did not have any gas or WMD to use on or troops. Scott Rittier (former weapons inspector) explained that in his book which came out well before the invasion. The inspectors did a good job of eliminating the weapons plants in Iraq and all stockpiles expire within 5 years. You can not stockpile the stuff, it goes bad and loses it’s effectiveness. Other stuff is in the book like the portable weapons labs, these where weather labs. All the stuff that we learned about years later is pretty much in his book.

    There is all kinds of crazy science going on to develop viruses, bio weapons all over the place and it is not regulated. Lyme disease and west nile virus came from plum island weapons lab in long island, there’s tons of info on that .. If a virus escaped from a lab, do you think they are going to admit it ?

    • @surfivor,

      I was taking about the FIRST Gulf war, the one I was involved in. There was plenty of both chem and bio shit the first time around. I was only about 20 miles away from one of the dumps that our guys stupidly blew up. Once that happened our entire advance had to change to an upwind movement.

      You don’t hear much about GWS anymore but I have a few buddies that still struggle with it. It could be from anything but it sure seems that exposure to the chem weapons we destroyed is a prime candidate.

    • Jack,

      I seem to hear alot of claims that GWS was related to vaccinations given to soldiers, maybe also depleted uranium. I’ve heard that soldiers are sometimes given alot of vaccines that are not FDA approved, experimental and stuff like that ..

      • @surfivor, if it was vaccines there would be a lot more with it and a lot of people that were not in Combat Arms. As for DU, possible but not as probable as blown chem stocks. There is a high correlation between victims and proximity to such events. Just like AO in Nam, it will be 10 more years of so before the people that already know fess up.

        On the vaccines though it is true that you get a lot of them. The whole “not approved” stuff though is BS.

  12. I am fully aware that our subs and military outside CONUS would not be effected but someone would have to be giving the orders!

    • I can only hope that an EMP blast wouldn’t completely cripple our domestic, ground-based military communications. Let’s hope the trillions we’ve spent on defense have accounted for that contingency!

  13. I have read numerous books on peak oil and it is real. The late Matthew Simmons goes into great detail in “Twilight In the Desert”. It is a bit more technical reading. Jack mentions “The Long Emergency”, which I own and have read twice. Highly recommended. Richard Heinberg has numberous books, “The Party’s Over” is the best of the peak oil books, in my opinion.

    • Agree completely, and I second those book recommendations. I would also add Mike Ruppert’s “Collapse”, which is both a book and a movie. I think this is a far more serious problem than what Jack mentioned in the show – it’s not just $9 gas. Our entire civilization is built on the context of cheap, high energy returned on energy invested oil. That era is coming to a close. Before we get to $9 gas, the economy will collapse. Energy & economics are highly coupled – Nicole Foss would be a great guest to interview on the subject – she really gets the coupling; also bring back Chris Martenson.

  14. When discussing Pandemics, there was a discussion on how the healthcare system would be maxed out if 15% of the population needed hospital service.

    As a 25 year hospital administrator I would put that number at closer to 1%. The current US hospital finance plan (Medicare / Medicaid) has forced hospitals to remove “Surge Capacity” to be efficient and competitive. Hospitals have about 5 beds per 1,000 population, and are usually (non pandemic) at about 65% capacity. {empty beds don’t pay the bills…}

    Medical prepping is a personal responsibility.