Comments

Episode-1387- Survivalist Fantasies vs. Stark Reality — 88 Comments

  1. Listen, I swear, I heard about the FEMA camps on a reputable conspiracy website… umm…. I mean news source. 🙂

    Glad to have you back! Hope you’re feeling well (I wont know ’til 4pm when I listen to this on the way home).

  2. The real threat of oil supply would be a situation similar to the 1970 oil embargo, but not an embargo, but something along the lines of terrorist destruction of oil facilities in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the middle east. A slight disruption in supply causes a greater than proportionate panic and high oil prices send economy in a tailspin /end tin foil hat

  3. great show Jack. Thanks.
    but you forgot about how they’re poisoning us with gmo’s & florida to reduce our world population to half a million. Its true- its on the american stonehenge!

    • I was born and still have family members in Florida and this gave me a hearty laugh.

  4. All I can say is AWESOME podcast Jack! We need more truth tellers like you in the liberty camp. I have wondered for many years why the liberty/libertarian community is so receptive to this nonsense. I don’t know the answer but it seems like you are just about the only one with a large liberty audience who speaks this truth. I am not going to name names here, but some of the smartest and most listened to liberty voices out there either sell this crap or buy into it. I have reached the point where I can’t even listen to them (or read them) any longer even though some of what they say is valid; they just no longer have any credibility in my eyes.

  5. Please do another episode destroying the evidence of the FEMA camps. It does seem like fear mongering, but there are a lot of questions that need to be answered.

      • Well you are bat shit crazy if you believe the current line of complete and total bullshit, you absolutely are.

        The current line isn’t, “hey if we are not careful one day people who would do such a thing could end up in power and do it again”. That is NOT a bat shit crazy statement but that is NOT the line of the current batch of bat shit crazy people.

        No, no, right now the line is, “they are currently building FEMA camps and already planning to do it, we have proof because we have videos and they are just waiting for the right moment to rip us out of our homes and lock us up”. IF that is what you are defending and it sounds as if you are, I would happily have an “I am Batshit Crazy, So Don’t Listen to Me” tshirt made up for you at my own expense!

        The problem with the above is they have been waiting for the “right moment” now for about 20 years of this bullshit. Additionally the “video proof” is the assertion that any and all empty looking old government buildings with a fence around them are “FEMA Camps”.

        So where do I send your shirt to?

  6. Seriously one of your better shows…not because the guests or content has been lacking, but because FEAR has become a common tool to sell (have you seen how splashy the Weather Channel has gotten?). As someone who has always canned, always tried to garden (I’ve lived in some very NON-rural areas), shopped at resale/garage sale-type things…I guess I’m a prepper by today’s label. But as that type of person I REFUSE TO LIVE OR BE MOTIVATED BY FEAR. Fear is crippling. And I chose to be forward moving. There was a time in the 70’s that between the gov’t and some preachers, my parents thought we were on the brink of the end. Do you know how much “astronaut” ice cream we ate? Having that as my gauge, I try not to get swept up in what is being said by analysts. Common sense, foresight, and experience go a LONG way to being prepared. Keep truckin’ Jack.

  7. Lisa,
    The community is receptive to it for two reasons. One, fear is an amazing intoxication. Its tendrils reach the rich and poor alike. Fear of the unknown is a powerful motivator, and sadly these times produce a great deal of nerve rattling fear.

    The second one is the most obvious. There is a great deal of money to be had in selling fear. Glenn Beck, Alex Jones, the entire ‘conspiracy media’ world circles the fear of people like hungry vultures. How many times have you heard some bombastic radio host preach Armageddon, then turn right around and tell you that it can be prevented if you’d only join their premium website for $9.99 a month? Or buy some secret werewolf anti-venom silver ointment for $30 a bottle? Snake oil merchants, the lot of them. There’s a reason why gold bugs get on tv and radio and preach the end to the American way of life and the end to the dollar. It’s because they sell gold and silver and can make a killing on the downside.

    I used to be in alternative media and got a whiff of it first hand. There’s a great many of them that see nothing other than advertiser clicks and sponsor programs… all about money. Always the money.

    • Yes /Ethan, I get that… but why do the liberty types seem to fall for it while no one else much does? I am just trying to understand why this crap appeals to liberty types and not much anyone else. I think some of it has to do with the understandable conspiracy mind-set. The liberty community often prides themselves on not being “sheeple” and then follow these false prophets of doom. And it’s not just a few in the liberty community; it’s a lot of people. I have been fairly active in voluntarist and agorist communities and it never ceases to amaze me when I hear the shit they believe. Alex Jones is a good example. It doesn’t much matter but it is a fascinating question (to me).

      • Self fulfilled prophecy. When one expects bad things to happen, bad things often DO happen. And when they do, the person expecting said bad thing to happen is now relieved to know that their apprehension was justified. When one spends thousands of dollars on canned food, ammo, and radiation suits, one expects to need said items. When the DOW hits 20k and there’s smiley faces in the clouds and everything is wonderful, all that ammo and stored food and nuclear sun tan lotion starts to make that person feel a little… GULLIBLE.

        So that’s another reason why the fear vultures in the alternative media keep up the heat on predicting doom and gloom. So long as they have a carrot to dangle on the stick, people will offer their own assumptions to fill in the blanks to justify all that madness. And at the end of the day, that’s all it is. Madness. Madness and stupidity. Those aren’t the weapons we need our sentinels to be wielding.

      • Alex is one of the biggest reasons people believe, he is an excellent salesman for it!

        Alex is effective because 80-85% or MORE of what he says is actually 100% true. When he reports what is being done he is always accurate, it is his WHYS and his conclusions that go off into the deep end and his bending of fact to fit fantasy. He will report accurately for instance on chemical spraying from airplanes but then insinuate that every plane is doing it (including the one taking your aunt Edna to Miami) and his minions go believe in it, etc.

        This is one reason I think what we do at TSP is so important. One reason people buy into this shit is people like Alex are on a small list of those telling the truth about many things. So those craving truth believe his bullshit too!

      • @Jack
        This is why I “like” alex jones. (Guilty pleasure. he is fun to listen to).

        But the facts are that the, as I call them, Tier 1 problems are holy shit bad enough. Alex jones uses “analysis” to “figure out” the Tier 3 things.

        So in other words Tier 1 is obvious, its “factual”, and presented via news articles or whatever. The explanation is what everyone wants to know (usually it doesn’t matter) which I would call “Tier 2”. Alex Jones takes it up a notch to even beyond that, which is hazy on top of hazy. This is generally how “conspiracy theory” works in general. There are some BIG questions that should be asked/answered regarding the Sandy Hook shooting (for example), but some of the conspiracy theories are…. well they are what they are. They’re attempting to answer at clearly out of place, and ridiculous things.

        An example (from Sandy Hook) is why were news stations when the news breaking showing a different school and calling it Sandy Hook? That’s a good enough question. Alex Jones and others will give the why, and the why of the why.

      • It is NOT just the liberty types. There are just a whole other list of spokespeople taking advantage and reasons that appeal to other groups of people. For example the book “The Secret ” and the Thrive movement (from the movie) and these again take a small amount of fact and run to conclusions that are wrong. These 2 have people believing that they can change everything by positive thinking, that if they are not doing well it is their own fault for not positive thinking enough, etc…. and the advantage to the powersthatbe is that they are distracted and not taking action that would realy change things and that they waste time being self centered and blaming themselves

        • The Secret was created for one reason and it starts with an unlikely person. Robert Kiyosaki. Let me say I love the book Rich Dad Poor Dad but as it is written (like it is true) it is a blatant lie. Kiyosaki is also NO WHERE NEAR as successful as he claims especially BEFORE the books and business around them, that is his success story not real estate or investing.

          Robert though is a genius and used one line in RDPD to make it a success. He said, “I often recommended people join a multi level marketing company to get sales training, some of these companies provide excellent training”. Just one mouse fart of a mention. It was never brought up in the book again.

          Now what this did was lend credibility to the recommendation. Here is this rich guy that thinks really high level about money and he recommends MLM even though he doesn’t do it just because the training is so great.

          Soon the word of this “amazing book” spread though “downlines” in every company from Amway to FreeLife to Usana and well all of them. This drove sales as the true believers bought multiple copies to use as RECRUITING TOOLS.

          Of course popularity in such a segment drives sales, sales drive broader perceived popularity and next thing you know RDPD is a best seller outside the MLM demo because it is actually a damn good read and has many insights into money the sheep don’t understand. When it made it main stream the MLM drones bought even more some of them cases of the book again as recruiting tools.

          Rumor has it (likely true) that Kiyosaki was tied into some big names at Amway who gave it the initial push into the MLM world.

          So book like “The Secret” came into this new niche of something that should appeal to main stream but could be heavily sold into the true believers of the various MLM cults. The book was actually first heavily launched on a website (now out of business I think) that was a BOOK MLM.

          Flatly it was designed and modeled specifically to sell to MLM people anything beyond that is considered gravy!

    • HEY! I’ll have you know that the secret (shush for heavens sake!) werewolf silver anti-venom actually works! I’ve not been attacked once since I started applying it. So there. 😉

  8. What happens when the government cannot pay the interest due on the bonds it sold? I hear of countries potentially going bankrupt. Could that happen to the US? If it can and did what would happen?

    • When our nation can’t pay interest it just creates money to pay it with. By the way this has never happened so far anyway. The question you are asking supposes many things about economics that simply are not true, it also points to REAL PROBLEMS for the dollar and the US economy.

      Long term our economy has already been destroyed, but it won’t look like Germany in the 20s, that is a flat lie. Oh next time you buy into the Weimar Republic before you suck it all down and buy another gold coin, try this, look up “the golden era Germany” and see what happened for 10 years after the Weimar Republic which only lasted THREE YEARS by the way.

    • The federal reserve can and has purchased US Debt all day everyday. In fact, last I looked (and its been awhile because I don’t look at any news anymore) they were the biggest holder.

      Meaning, you would have to convince the federal reserve to no longer purchase debt. Not going to happen. This is why some time ago (what a year or so?) they discussed printing a “trillion dollar coin”. As ridiculous as it is, it wouldn’t change anything, because printing money, via congressional spending doesn’t “mean” anything.

  9. Jack-

    Glad to hear you are doing better. I sniffed out Solutions from Science along time ago. They took a 1500W solar generator for $1500.00 and put it on a slab of wood with roller casters for $4000.00. As soon as I saw that I clicked the X and said goodbye to them.

    Prep based on the reality of any given situation and it’s relevance to your life. Advice to live by.

  10. Excellent show , You continue to do much to bring good sense to the old survival community . It furthers the train of thought ” come let us reason together” . Wish your good sense could have been heard 30-40 years ago .
    Mark

  11. Jack

    Thank you so much for all of the material you have produced over time. I just bought a book on how to write a business plan and want to start a expandable permaculture farm.

  12. Good show, Jack. The sad thing is that the real changes to our economic/monetary system and changes in fossil fuel/energy are going to affect a ton of people, mostly for the worse. Worrying that the dollar is going to collapse or that we’ll be out of oil tomorrow keeps you from doing the reasonable things to secure your finances and energy needs.

  13. “Need more truth tellers like you in the Liberty Camp”?? Indeed!

    After weeks of deleting your podcast notices in my overflowing inbox, I finally decided to open one up and see what this is all about. And what do you know, the very first one I listen to I’m being called a kook-whack job that isn’t in touch with reality. Then I read the boot licking comments for even more of the same ridicule.

    For what it’s worth Sir, I’m a veteran, I am a successful small business owner, I have a degree in environmental science & spent 12 years in first response, and my father worked for the department of defense for almost 50 years. I KNOW what I know, and I BELIEVE what I believe. And not because some “snake oil” salesman told me so.

    I would never dream of telling anyone what they should or should not believe therefore, I take considerable offense to someone (and their groupies) ridiculing me for what I know and believe.

    Although I may regret my decision because, obviously, you all have “it” all figured out, but I would like to request my email account be removed from your mailing list. I thought it was a survivalist blog. Just what the he’ll are you prepping for?

    You and your followers sound an awful lot like the hard left wing elites, admonishing people because they don’t think like you or subscribe to your philosophies. It’s ironic: my associates and I laugh at naive, arrogant people like you.

    So again, just so there’s no mistake, please remove my name and address from your mailing list and do not send me any more of your insightful tid-bits of knowledge. And remember this “just because you are not paranoid, doesn’t mean they are not out to get you!” Good day, sir.

    • You are welcome to believe what you believe, SO ARE OTHERS, and you are not wronged when someone has a totally different view than you and expresses it so.

      Few more things.

      1. Being a vet has no magic powers here, no one kisses your ass for it, we thank you for it but it doesn’t make you a hero in and of itself and it doesn’t make you right. We know that because many of us INCLUDING ME are veterans.

      2. People like you are really f’d up and don’t know it. I bet you claim to be for free speech but now are outraged that some of us exercise it from the side of liberty with well, INDEPENDENT THINKING.

      Likely you are the typical person that is led to depart with your dollars by all this hype and nonsense. Likely you have some complete bullshit fantasy in your head where you will “fight the NWO” like in Patriots or some other form of complete nonsense. Now that fantasy has been interrupted and it is completely normal that you are unhappy about it. No one made you listen did they, you chose to listen.

      Before bitching further, read the following http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/about-tspc/disclaimers-policies-2

      Free speech doesn’t mean shit if only people that say what you want to hear use it. Frankly grow the hell up.

    • “obviously, you all have “it” all figured out”
      Seems like pot calling kettle black. If somebody says an opinion you don’t like, you must have it figured out then. Meaning, you have it “all figured out”.

      “hard left wing elites”
      That’s hilarious. In fact I’d almost think there is probably more “hard right wing elites” that listen to jack than the opposite. But then again depending on your perspective and levels of brainwashing you’ll go straight to the opposite side of the dichotomy from where you are. “I don’t agree with him, therefore he must be part of the opposite. Since I consider myself right wing, he must be left wing!! Argggggg”.

      As a former Marine, who doesn’t put up with any bullshit whatsoever, I can assure you I’m not “left wing”. I’m me.

  14. BTW Mr. Moderator, I noticed as I was leaving that I do business with some of your advertisers. I’m thinking I should send them a transcript from your show, the comments and my retort, along with a notice that if they want support haters like yourselves, they will not receive any further business from me or my colleagues.

    You could’ve held that opinion from now until the day you died and I would have never known, but you are the one that chose to target a segment of your demographics and ridicule and slander them in the public arena. Not a smart business decision from my perspective. But hey, what do I know? I’m just a kook whack job that has lost touch with reality.

    • You know this show has been done from this angle since it was founded in 2008, if you want to drive a wedge between my sponsors and I good luck! Currently there are several dozen companies on a waiting list just for the opportunity to be on as a sponsor. I think you should go listen to Alex Jones, he will tell you what you want to hear. He will give you deadlines that will come and go and you can still believe his bullshit but hey you will hear what you WANT reenforced in your fantasy world.

    • =)

      ‘Bill’.. I’m having a real hard time believing this isn’t a flat out troll..

      ‘haters’ and ‘good day sir’ from the same person?

      If I’m wrong, would you care to post your counter arguments? IMO they might be more useful for debate than threats and expressions of outrage..

    • Bill, I saw nobody on here attack you and I’m pretty sure Jack did not call you out by name in the show. So why are you so angry and if you don’t agree why have you not posted your point of view? Going between Jack and the sponsors is a low thing to do man. Childish, really. I suggest that you calm down and walk away because this show and community are not for you. Quite frankly I hope you never find my show because I don’t want you either. Like Jack said, maybe you belong with the Alex Jones crowd.

    • I’m not sure the goal of this comment is. Jack too is a veteran and a small business owner. As for this episode this isn’t a secret correspondence that is being hidden from listeners or advertisers, it’s public for anyone to listen to so I’m not entirely sure why this would be a surprise to the advertisers. Jack has said all of these things in the past, many, many times just (as far as I know) not all in one podcast as the main topic. Are the advertisers are ignorant to what Jack talks about all the time? That’s doubtful. Every episode has underlying theme of disaster probability and preparing for the most likely disasters. Talking about these probabilities isn’t an insult and it shouldn’t be taken as an intentional offense or threat to anyone’s identity. Speaking one’s own opinion isn’t ridicule. He plainly stated what the episode was about and provided a summary on this very page so if someone didn’t want to listen to it they could skip it. And as was stated before it’s been like this since the beginning back in ’08.

      So in closing, what’s the end goal of this comment? Intimidation by threatening to reveal very public knowledge?

      • His goal is to feel heard and throw his ass around enough to make other people change because he demands such. His goal shall only ever be half fulfilled, he has been heard. He has also been “weighed, measured and found wanting”.

        He also exhibits megalomania! He wants me to give him a text transcript of my show so he can “turn me in” to my own sponsors. Only a megalomaniac would be so arrogant as to ask for such a thing.

        This is what happens when you think the whole world revolves around you. You think everything is personal so you actually feel the right to be offended by another person’s opinions. When that person doesn’t just not know you, they don’t even give half a shit about you. Yet you still think it is about you and that you have a right to be offended and the other person should shut up and get in line, NOW because you say so.

        Shit like the Alex Jones show plays right into the megalomania dynamic by FEEDING IT.

  15. On the BBC show I just watched last night, “experts” were promising crippling oil shortages starting in 2013. The BBC is never wrong, so peak oil must be imminent. Quick, what are we to do? 2013 is just around the corner, uh… :-$

    • In 1985 I had a science TEXT BOOK in school in 8th grade that taught we only had 35 years of oil in TOTAL, not just to peak oil but no more oil in 35 years.

      Now I am weird with numbers so you have to trust me but that book was published in 1979, 6-10 year old books were not uncommon at the time. Well that would be we should be completely out of oil in 1979 + 35 = 2014 OMG run run run, we are out of oil. Sigh! Again this was in a Jr. High School Text Book!

      This is why I don’t believe in much of the current hysteria bullshit, I lived though the 70s and 80s. I have heard this bullshit before. I remember the projections of GLOBAL COOLING on the nightly news etc.

      • About the same time we had a “Weekly Reader” magazine that specifically said we would run out of natural gas in ten years. I have always wondered if the science was wrong or there was another motive for that article.

        • sigh the answer to the question is one word, yes

          Is science wrong? Yes

          Is there another motive to the article? Yes

  16. As a side note, when you are the only person travelling, your motorcycle in practice is getting you better milage. As a whole Motorcycles TECHNICALLY get worse gas milage than a pickup truck. Let me explain:

    Pickup truck (1/2 ton) getting 15mpg weighs roughly 7k lbs.
    600cc Motorcycle (inline 4) gets about 45mpg weighs roughly 400lbs.

    Don’t think I even need to show the math to explain how the pickup truck is TECHNICALLY getting better milage, at 3 passengers you are break even and once you exceed 3 passengers (or 3 passengers, plus any large object) is ACTUALLY getting better milage.

  17. Jack you just said something that REALLY struck a cord with me and I’ll be looking to discuss with you later. And that is the definition of what “these people” are doing, which is extracting value.

    A business or somebody who is “helpful” is seeking to provide value to other people. Value is meant in the sense that its something they need, want or desire, which can then be turned into increased value. (Let say, a survival plan that makes sense and works, rather than a flawed shambled plan based on confusion and fear).

    What these people are doing is the opposite. They’re extracting value until the host they’re preying on realizes they’re not actually receiving any value, in fact, have wasted their time being afraid, confused, and further away from living their life how they want to. I guess the positive in me, might say they believe their own shit, but maybe that’s not true. The classic “they’re too stupid, or their an evil genius” situation I think applies.

    Their “business” model is only sustainable at the rate of “a new sucker is born”. Unfortunately the hucksters say that’s every minute.

    • Oh I wanted to add this in now that I heard the end of the podcast. “I will no longer participate in this bullshit”.

      I stopped viewing ANY “news” whether mainstream or otherwise about I guess 2 months ago. I was able to take a good look at myself, my family, our lifestyle, where we are going, and have come out the otherside so unbelievably focused. Why? I don’t have the negativity theatrics going on to distract me. I literally have NO idea what’s going on in politics. None. I don’t even go to sites that I may accidentally look at a headline because that is all it takes. I know, because I’ve done it, where I went to my yahoo email account, saw a headline for a split second, and went and told my wife about it later (because it was so ridiculous).

      The point? If we stop distracting ourselves with bullshit, we might be able to focus on our own sphere of influence, and what you may find out its VERY small, but you’ll also realize there is only one way to grow it, and its through your own actions.

  18. 2nd
    jack i have a great respect for your opinions, the 2nd is about fighting the feds, the federalist paper are pretty clear about it. along with Jefferson’s writings,
    off the top of my head Vietnam the two wars we are in now. we lost all of them.
    oath keepers and 2/3 of active solders would join our side imho.
    Washington said we should have three for ever one the governments got.
    yes we can not take out tanks or air craft but the fuel trucks we could. there is a lot to learn from Washington. on how to fight a war against over whelming force, ho chi Mon, studied him also.
    he only one two battles but won the war we just 52 billionaires to join us and we are good to go :]
    james d

    • If you think the people of this nation are going to fight and win a shooting war with the federal government you need some LONG logical reflection and deep fucking dose of reality. Likely you know very little about the military and LESS about Oathkeepers of which I am a founding member.

      • Any chance of getting Stewart Rhodes on for a show to discuss what Oath Keepers have been up to lately?

  19. So I’m relatively new to Jack, glad to be MSB, glad to be a permaethos founder — and glad to be getting to know Jack enough to find things we disagree on. Perfectly happy with that and it is to be expected, I’m sure I’m going to keep learning a ton from him. Yeah, I got riled listening to this podcast, that isn’t bad at all. Nothing wrong with re-checking my thinking. And a heck of a lot of it was also clarifying. My response to a lot of far out or less believable fear-hype is “look, that doesn’t need to be true for you to be horrified into action, what is openly agreed to on public record is enough!”

    I think one of the worst things about getting hung up in the fear mongering is that we spend time arguing over just exactly how we are all going to hell — instead of finding another direction, or at least making the trip comfortable!

    I think it bothers us all more when we disagree with someone we think will think exactly as we do, it is heresy! This old clip of an Emo Philips routine goes right to the point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ZBKIyCbppfs#t=162

  20. Loved this podcast! One of my pet peeves is the amount of BS being passed off as real on the Pathfinder facebook forums. It seems very few people take the time to verify the source. Worse yet are the memes that have no source link. Those I dont even worry with. I know my fellow Pathfinder brothers get annoyed with me over the number of times Im forced to shoot down straight up bull shit, but I cant let it pass. My favorite is where a small segment of a talk is given (usually from Obama) thats actually so far out of context that its blatantly deceptive and IMO close to being criminal. How many times must I read that China is sending troops to invade Galveston? Holy Jeez Louise!

  21. I respect your opinions, Jack, and you have a good grasp on history but I believe your viewpoint on the true purpose of the 2nd Amendment is inaccurate. Even Jefferson stated that the real reason for citizens to retain the right to be arms is as a last resort to prevent against tyranny in government. Yes, it’s about maintaining peace inside the Republic and for personal defense but we the People have a right to overthrow any government who oppresses the People. The Declaration of Independence states this as well, “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…” I do agree with you that having the right to overthrow our government and actually doing so are very different stories. The fight against today’s government would be even more difficult than when we fought the British, especially because very few people these days believe in true liberty and are willing to put their life, liberty and sacred honor on the line to do so.

    • @Alan A again you can argue the opinion of one founder till you are blue in the face it won’t matter. Frankly Jefferson wanted a revolution every 20 years so I don’t take the words of TJ to be gospel.

      Again though I would not care if half the founders were on record saying this IF YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING TO FIGHT A WAR WITH OUR GOVERNMENT you are fucking delusional. Got it?

      All the talk of such things is fantasy realm bullshit, it isn’t going to happen, period. And no 2/3rd of the military is not going to come over to “our side” what ever you delusional individuals even think that is. There is no “our side”, such doesn’t exist!

      “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

      Duh! Militias do not exist for the purpose of insurrection in this case we are told they exist for the “security of a free State”, yes your founders were statists, gasp!

      Frankly this fantasy comes from a belief that IS NOT TRUE. That the constitution’s restrictions applied to the states. I am sorry to pop your bubble but the bill of rights as written DID NOT apply to the states. As written the state of say South Carolina could have banned guns the day after BOR was ratified and there would not have been shit anyone could have done about it. The restrictions in the BOR were ONLY MEANT to apply to the federal government NEVER the states.

      We did NOT fight the British, THE COLONIES along with FRANCE fought the British. This is in large part why the constitution put so many restrictions on the central government and ALMOST NONE on the state governments. If you go here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incorporation_of_the_Bill_of_Rights#Specific_amendments you will find that most of the amendments didn’t become incorporated at the state level until the 1930s or later, GO THAT? HELLO?

      It is the court system that rewrote the law and now restricts the states by the federal constitution that is only to apply to the State not the states, GOT IT?

      The second provided so that the federal government could not disarm the private individual, it did so though to primarily protect the states from the State, not to allow farmer Joe and his buddies to object to unfair taxes. Frankly that happened almost at once, it was called The Wiskey Rebellion and who did PRESIDENT WASHINGTON send to put it down, the military? the army?, nope, the militia.

      The level of ignorance to our constitution is such that neither liberal nor conservative understand it.

  22. Great Show! I’ve bought into bullshit a time or two. It’s defeated by constantly asking, “why do I believe this”. Yeah, a lot of the fear building is from FEMA, or police dept spending on super swat team gear, or USDA buying a bunch of bullets, but this is just what governments do, they get in the habit of increasing revenue buy inventing shit to buy. All the dept. buy stupid stuff, but when it’s guns or bullets people freak out. The dept or education buys crap, the dept. of cultural whatever the f**k buys just as much nonsense. Most dept. are themselves nonsense. Also, a good side effect a BS gov spending is that we have construction industry that could fix any problem we have in a relatively short amount of time. Grid down, EMP, giant mutant rats chewing utility lines etc. This country can build lot of shit, but gotta admit, modern construction sites are ridiculously efficient regardless if their funded by the most inefficient system ever. So we are efficient at building BS? All right I’m done, good show.

  23. While I was listening to this podcast, I kept thinking about the 1983 movie “The Survivors” with Robin Williams. It is a bit of an underground cult classic and a personal favorite of mine that shows someone going from one extreme of thinking to the other, and ultimately back again. It also shows the element of marketing fear to gullible people, all in the name of profit.

    I came into the preparedness mindset in a very round about way, and at one point started to slide into the whole Alex Jones mindset. In some ways I am ok with that because initially fear was a big motivator for me to get my shit together and make some necessary changes in my lifestyle, and my attitude about how I would handle a crisis. Thankfully, I kept most of those initial impressions of what was going on in the world to myself, so I avoided the kook label.

    Over time, I had to admit that much of what I was being told was either complete bullshit, or at least being twisted to present a conclusion that was not necessarily sound. I still enjoy listening now and then, but take it for what it is, entertainment.

    I am sure this podcast riled some feathers among the faithful, but that is ok because we all need a reality check now and then to keep us grounded. I don’t always agree with Jack, but on this one he is spot on.

  24. You said we are being set up for a “strong” president. Then I heard Michael Savage say that he thinks Perry will be the nominee due to sending national guard to the Texas border. Do you think this could be the start of pushing him as the strong man we need? I know they were showing a picture of him looking tough on a boat at the border a week or so ago. I can see where he could fit the totalitarian side when he tried to push the Gardisil on teen girls.

    • Perry had his shot and blew it and his is no strong man, he is a weasel.

  25. I *almost* didn’t listen to this podcast. What a mistake that would have been! This has been my favorite podcast to date and I eat up your permaculture information like a fiend. But, for some reason, I loved this podcast and it made me uncomfortable at the same time. I have always had a strong tendency to worry ever since I was a little girl (I’m 27 now) so I bought into a lot of the fear in the alternative news. I knew deep down that I didn’t believe what they were telling me, but I also couldn’t disprove them. So, I ended up in a spiral of anxiety about all the bad stuff going on out there. After finding this podcast 2 years ago, things changed. I finally had someone to listen to with common sense. I also matured to the point where I could examine my own beliefs and why I believed them. This podcast pushed any remaining fear away from me though. In the beginning of this podcast, I was slightly uncomfortable (mostly because I had already given up on most of the fantasies you talked about), but by the end of the podcast, I had so much hope about the future and my life.

    Jack – you do a great job with this podcast (even when you are sick!) and know that it really, really, REALLY helps people figure out how to live a mentally and physically resilient life.

  26. How timely was it that yesterday Ready Made Resources posted a comment on Facebook about some company running out of food and actually said, ” Panic now, beat the rush.” I was like, Jack just talked about selling with fear.

      • It was on their Facebook page at 8:54pm on Tuesday (22nd). It is still there. Not sure how to link it but I took a screenshot. I can send you.

  27. I’m asking because I’m not sure I understand. The US dollar is not fiat money because it is backed by debt. But if the debt is going to be paid in the same US Dollar how is that different than fiat money? It is not back by any other commodity.

    • Fiat is backed by nothing, period but a fiat a fiat is a declaration. That is why they call it fiat.

      The dollar is backed by a GLOBAL system of debt and frankly there is no need to pay the debt in dollars. All currencies float freely in the FOREX.

      Problem is that people are conditioned to believe fiat=bad and it sure can be. Saying our money is debt backed though isn’t to say it isn’t as bad as fiat, it is to say in many ways it is worse.

  28. Thanks for the wonderful work you do Jack! I live a semi-hermitty life up in the Colorado mountains, and your podcast makes the fact that I live a half hour from anywhere a pleasure. I’ve been listening almost every day for a couple years now while setting I set up my off-grid homestead, and am trying to catch up on older episodes when I get time. I agree with most of Jack’s perspectives. My one big divergent opinion is with climate change, but I’m by no means looking for an argument. I did disagree in this particular podcast about how Jack grouped people that believe in AGW into some sort of idealistic lump with the same agenda–I know he didn’t mean it literally, but it seemed like way too general of a blanket to cast. Because of the moral implications of the issue, I researched AGW rather extensively and find the science to be mostly valid. In one episode (it was a ways back and I can’t recall which one) I heard Jack say the globe is getting warmer, but it has nothing to do with human activity and in this episode he said it is cooling. Is there an episode or an article or some sort of nucleus of information that Jack has posted that explains how he’s come to his conclusions about the issue? I’ve searched the site and found a few small spiels here and there, but nothing that is terribly extensive. I have researched plenty of “denier” arguments and have found them to not hold water, but I consider Jack a critical thinker so I would love to know the sources of his opinions on this topic. Thanks for any help with this and keep on doing what you are doing Jack!

    • AGW is a religion and like most the followers are unaware of the agenda, only those who are the priests are aware of it.

      I implore you to watch this video,

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c4XPVPJwBY

      I defy anyone to watch it and dispute one fact again just one fact presented in it.

      It isn’t that climate change isn’t real and it isn’t that man doesn’t cause a Fing lot of “regional climate change” and massive pollution.

      But those in charge of the religion you believe in (faith is a belief unsupported by facts) ignore regional climate change and REAL POLLUTION on a daily basis. They ignore 18 highly toxic substances produced by car exhaust and focus on the one YOU EXHALE as does every single member of the animal kingdom.

      Please watch the above video and realize that someone who is genuinely concerned about the environment like me is SCREAMING to people to see the real problems and real pollution while most of you are following a faith based on a graph and “authoritarian worship”.

      Again it doesn’t matter what the goals of the faithful are, only what the goal of those leading them are.

  29. And before I do dig in to that video, can I just get clarification on the question about whether you believe the globe is cooling or warming (but not warming because of human activity)? I just want to be clear on where you are coming from as I dig through it. I’m not trying to be hostile here, just trying to understand your perspective.Thanks.

    • @Dan, what I believe personally hasn’t a fing thing to do with that video.

  30. Okay, I’ve already seen some questionable information in it and I’m less than 5-minutes in, would it then be a waste of my time for me to go through it and point those out? I started doing that because that is what you requested in your last post. Now I must say I don’t really get where you are coming from then. I really am not trying to be combative here.

    I highly respect your opinions and want to get my head around why you have this one because I don’t fully understand your perspective on it, that’s all.

    If there is some podcast or some place I can go to just learn your ideas on it, I’ll leave you alone. I would prefer you not wasting your time on this anyway because you do such amazing things with your time–like Permaethos–that are way more important. I’m just trying to learn yet it seems you have judged me rather heavily by merely asking for some information–I’m just trying to get the facts.

    I would like to clarify my perspective a bit just to give you an idea of where I’m coming from…. I don’t want to give full details on message boards but I work for the Federal/State government in your least favorite sector–education. And I agree with almost everything you say about public education–actually I don’t think I’ve heard a thing I don’t agree with in that realm but I would be offending most of my colleagues if I voiced that opinion on a daily basis. And I’m not technically a teacher and don’t believe they are all heroes as you often point out. I’m working on my path out of that sector. But perhaps you’ll be happy to learn that I’ve funneled some grant money (stolen-from-the-people-money) into creating a food forest at our school. I’m not happy we have the money, but I’m trying to do the best we can with it and am using all the stolen money that pays me to create my path to self sufficiency and spreading the seeds of permaculture and resilience to students when I can. I’m not happy we stole it in the first place, but if I don’t use it for these means, someone else will come along and will most likely use those resources to reinforce our broken system as opposed to make paths out of it.

    And you seem to believe that I have “authoritarian worship”. Which feels misguided to me-especially considering you know almost nothing about me. I don’t really have neatly packaged political philosophy but I think the closest I’ve heard to my beliefs is Agrarian Anarchy.

    There are certainly forces encouraging the belief of AGW in the political realm for political ends, and some of that energy definitely makes its way into the science. But to believe that the entire peer-review scientific process has come under some global marketing campaign as opposed to utilizing facts to draw conclusions strikes me as tin-foil-hattish. I’m just trying to gather facts and if they aren’t going to come from the people devoting their lives to understanding the science, who are they supposed to come from? Opinions about the facts of course can be evaluated, but the “facts” have to come from somewhere and I’m just trying to understand what facts you are using. As you pointed out the other day in your show, you would probably want a professionally trained architect or engineer to design a skyscraper, not a laymen. Does that make you an authoritarian worshipper?

    I researched AGW so heavily because I felt morally compelled to shape my life in a way that would mitigate harm on others. I certainly don’t trust the global cabal of governments to solve the problem–and you are absolutely right that any type of cap and trade/carbon tax or whatever proposed solution is just going to make the undeserving bureaucrats rich and solve almost nothing. But that doesn’t relieve me of my duty to design a life that if everyone followed that design (not expecting that of course), the lifestyle would not harm others.

    You are doing more for the environment than all the activist organizations in the country combined most likely. I’m not questioning your commitment to the environment. Your reach is making more positive change than 350.0rg ever will. I’m not advocating for a particular solution or asking you to change what you are doing, I’m just trying to see where you are coming from because I respect your views. That’s all. But I’m open to changing if I see the right facts, and you seem like you would have some good information with how certain you seem to be about the issue.

    Again, I’m not an argumentative person and I really hate that the first time I’ve decided to comment on here seems to feel like it has negative connotations. I respect what you do immensely, and maybe will just keep my comments to the permaculture shows from now on because those are the areas where we can all agree.

    Thanks for all you do!

    • I will not waste my time and energy. I love things like this video, it saves me my time. If you don’t want to watch it don’t but don’t demand that I answer you when I have given you an answer.

      If you want to know my position, watch the video, if you don’t want to don’t. Don’t ask me to spend my time and energy duplicating information.

    • Also those that believe in AGW do exactly that BELIEVE IN IT, it is a faith, it is a religion. I have pointed you to facts, likely facts you fear, people fear having FAITH challenged.

      I don’t debate faith, I point to facts because that works if the person has an open mind.

    • You said, “Okay, I’ve already seen some questionable information in it and I’m less than 5-minutes in, would it then be a waste of my time for me to go through it and point those out? ”

      Well there is a challenge in today’s show offering anyone a 100 dollar bill that can factually prove wrong anything in this video.

      Would it be a waste of you time? Likely it still would because saying something is “questionable” is not a factual disprovable. Yes it is authoritarian worship. You didn’t research crap. You began with a preconception, moved forward with a perception bias and read propaganda that reenforced your forgone conclusion.

      Likely you don’t even know the actual reason that even climate scientists funded by government to say AGW is real, say it is real as in the actual mechanism of the supposed cause. You likely don’t even know the actual claimed scientific cause and how CO2 relates to it, VERY FEW DO.

      It isn’t just CO2 because scientifically it can’t be. CO2 has a saturation limit, it can only directly reflect UV up to that limit and we have known this since about 1880 by the way. This is scientific fact that even your vaulted graph producers will not deny.

      Here is the truth about CO2s ability to reflect UV light, this again is scientific fact, a fact you likely don’t know.

      The carbon that’s already up in the atmosphere absorbs most of the light it can. CO2 only “soaks up” its favorite wavelengths of light and it’s close to its saturation point. It manages to grab a bit more light from wavelengths that are close to its favorite bands but it can’t do much more, because there are not many left-over photons at the right wavelengths.

      The natural greenhouse effect is real, and it does keep us warm, but it’s already reached its peak performance. Throw more carbon up there and most of the extra gas is just “unemployed” molecules.

      And any actual honest climate scientist will agree with this, they have to, it is chemistry and physics and proven scientific law.

      And yet they still have a way they blame CO2 and it sounds at least scientifically plausible. And most people such as yourself that say they have researched it, are unaware of the facts I just gave you and the actual explanation.

      To say one has researched AGW with out even knowing these facts is like saying one has researched the internal combustion engine yet can’t tell you what a crank shaft is or even for that matter what a spark plug does.

  31. Well you assume A LOT that is not true about me, but I’ll put the ad-hominems aside. The reason I said “should I waste my time” was because you said “What I believe personally hasn’t a fing thing to do with that video.” It was not the content of the video that I thought might be a “waste”. I just don’t get how you use it as your initial response while it simultaneously “hasn’t an fing thing,” to do with what you believe–because why you believe what you believe was the focus of my question. So I’ll go through the video and take your challenge. It’ll take some time, but I’ll shoot it your way when I’m done.

  32. And I’m not saying the factual information I saw was questionable, it was the conclusions he was obviously going to be making with them that might be considering the title of the video. Most of the denialist arguments are based in fact, it’s the conclusions from those facts that tend to fall short from my perspective. And I agree the AGW crowd can get religousy, but so can denialists–as can almost any structure of belief–even survivalism.

    I don’t know if I can take down his facts, but I’m venturing to guess I can make a pretty good dent in his conclusions… No $100 in that case but worth a shot anyway. We’ll see when I get the time. Again, no ill-will, just trying to understand. Loved the fall garden show!

    • See you are starting with a clear perception bias, you are judging conclusions that haven’t been made. This is a religion for you people, facts don’t matter.

      FTR you can’t take down his facts and you can’t even dispute his conclusions with facts. There is a reason I quit explaining this to people, this man explains it better than I can. It is impossible to factually debate what this man is saying, his sources are checked 5 times before they are put in a presentation.

      See and you call it a denialist argument, that is because this is an article of FAITH. The entire DENIER argument shows this to be the religion and the farce that it is.

      And I see you had no answer to my question above or my assertion that CO2 has a saturation limit. You clearly DO NOT even know how climate scientists say CO2 causes global warming, you don’t know the most basic scientific facts and you call people like me a denier?

  33. Well I wasn’t going to get into the nitty gritty at this juncture because I figured he would bring it up in the video and I would address all the issues at one time… But I’ll do a bit now if you want.

    On my perception bias… I only watched a few minutes but…
    -He started off the video with a snippet about how other planets in the solar system are warming and I have looked into this argument in the past as a potential evidence against AGW and found it to be lacking. So my “perception bias” was based on past research not some feeling from beyond. The title of the video is called “Why Global Warming Failed…” so I was making the crazy leap of believing he will eventually use that fact as part of his argument as to why CO2 from humans is not the forcing variable. Maybe he won’t, or maybe he will bring in some new evidence I’ve never heard, I don’t know, but that is what I felt was “questionable.”

    -What evidence are you using to ascertain that I “Clearly don’t know” the basic facts. Have I tried to explain them at any point? Why are you being so needlessly hostile? I really feel like you are jumping to a lot of conclusions about me with only a few snippets of information.

    -On your saturation argument:

    http://www.skepticalscience.com/saturated-co2-effect.htm

    And I’m just trying to have a conversation here, I’m not trying be standoffish or anything, everyone’s entitled to their opinions and I’m just trying to learn why you have yours, I’m not trying to change it. Obviously I’m not going to be “converting” you or anything and I am open to a “conversion” to the other side if I find compelling evidence. I want things to be copacetic, I’m a big fan… I’ll take a look at the video and get back to you.

    • I love how people cite links like this with no vetting of the source. This site exists for no reason other that to be pro AGW propaganda.

      The explanation is also incorrect based on actual Global Warming theory and since you cited it I am going to now say that is proof you don’t know the answer to my question.

      The only thing close to right on your link is the mention of water. Now understand I am not about to give you the “water vapor” objection I am going to give you the actual current climate scientist “consensus” on why CO2 causes AGW and why the saturation limit doesn’t matter and YES it does claim that CO2 is the real cause. I DO NOT AGREE WITH IT but at least I know what it is, the people at the site you used, DON’T have a clue.

      The theory is simple and takes barely more than a sentence to explain. Here you go,

      CO2 has reached its reflective saturation limit, we accept that. However, rising CO2 levels cause a rise in relative atmospheric humidity and water vapor is amount the most powerful global warming forces. So CO2 causes higher humidity and that causes global warming. This is the OFFICIAL IPCC explanation that there is a supposed consensus on.

      Now if you don’t know that and again if you take the link you just provided as factual again you don’t, it is again like claiming to have researched the ICE and not knowing what a spark plug does.

      Of course the claim that this all happens in the upper atmosphere, etc. was debunked by NASA, yep.

      NASA ran an expirment to confirm or deny what this page you have cited SORT OF SAYS and found that the numbers didn’t add up. Far more of the heat coming into the atmosphere went back out then the climate models claimed. NASA of course said, didn’t disprove AGW just well, um the numbers were off and well it is not quite clear what it means but global warming is still real.

      If read the actual study the language is far more eloquent but that is the jist of it.

  34. And if you have another source that rebukes the information in the link above, please send it my way. I’m not trying to be snarky, I really am just trying to learn. Thanks.

  35. Perhaps I don’t understand then, how is the article and IPCC’s statement contradictory? I’m not seeing it somehow. They don’t focus on the same elements for sure but it doesn’t seem like they contradict each other. In the article they say:

    “This is how the Greenhouse Effect works. The Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapour absorb most of the heat radiation leaving the Earth’s surface. Then their concentration determines how much heat escapes from the top of the atmosphere to space.”

    So the article is saying that the concentrations of CO2 and water vapor (humidity) determine how much heat escapes. The article does not point out that CO2 has reached its reflective saturation, but it does not contradict the IPCC’s statement. The article is not saying that CO2 is not saturated, it is saying that saturation does not stop the greenhouse effect. That is my interpretation.

    Maybe I’m just missing something. So please point out the contradiction that you see if you have a moment.

    As for vetting my sources… I agree my source has an obvious agenda (and everyone has an agenda as you have pointed out in past shows). It is run by one scientist–you can read about him in the about section–and he is not a climate scientist. But if you tab over to the “intermediate” and “advanced” tabs of the articles, he provides all the studies that he is using to write his articles and seems to have a pretty open policy on dissenting opinions on his comment boards. In the same way you advertise survival-based companies, he of course has a niche market and selling products to those markets. I take that into account, but if I threw out all the information from people that might gain to have a certain opinion, I would have nothing to go on. Ben Davidson–the presenter in the video has an agenda–I’m sure he wants us all to visit his website, but does that mean none of his information is credible?

    I’ll try and find that NASA article and take a look at why the article’s whole premise might be BS as well. If you happen to recall the title, shoot it my way.

    Thanks

    • If you can’t see how your source contradicts the actual explanation the climate scientists give at IPCC and you can’t admit that you had no fucking clue as to the actual explanation, we are done, I have no more time to waste on you.

  36. I have always considered the greenhouse effect description in the article I posted to be the “actual explanation”. And based on the IPCC snippet you gave, I’m not seeing the contradiction, so I guess I’ll try and look through the IPCC’s conclusions more thoroughly because I’m obviously missing something. I’ve been searching for the statement you posted but haven’t found it yet–but I’ll keep looking. And yes we should just end this, this negativity is good for no one. Thanks for the discourse and best wishes.

  37. Okay, I don’t want to waste anymore of your time, but I’m going nuts trying to find the line you posted from the IPCC. I’ve been searching through the various reports to no avail. Can you please just post the link to that statement so I can see its larger context? I’ll be done with this thread after that. Sorry to bother you.

    • It is not a LINE again you are wasting my time you are trying to discuss the ICE and don’t know what a crank shaft or a cam shaft is or what a spark plug does. God of course it isn’t one line, my god. Wow, just wow.

  38. You wrote:

    “CO2 has reached its reflective saturation limit, we accept that…. This is the OFFICIAL IPCC explanation.”

    The first sentence sounds like it was pulled from a report. Were you using the royal “we” and this was your own summation? Where in the IPCC reports does it mention reflective saturation limits? That’s all I’m looking for, just trying to learn. How am I ever going to learn about a crankshaft if the person describing it would prefer defamation over simply posting a link. I’m really not trying to bug you here but I’m obviously getting under your skin, and I regret that. If you don’t know where they mention the reflective saturation limit in the IPCC reports, then don’t worry about it and have a good day.