How Prepared Are You?

Like when gas prices at the pump in the US hit all time highs, right before we started scorching the earth in the middle east. Then the next quarter, xom posted the largest quarterly profit in the history of the stock market. So was it the terrorists raising the price of oil? Or American speculators? All it takes is a bit of common sense, which I guess is the biggest oxymoron ever.

Price gouging also occurs when the oil refineries cutback or are shutdown which has happened in several locations across the US. If US oil cannot be processed, prices are going to soar.

I think you’ve got it backward. The reason that the US is bending over backward and taking oil by any means, is because the Saudis can get it from the sand for so, so much cheaper than we can that we have to prevent them from controlling the supply. OPEC made cuts in the last year that would have significantly reduced the supply worldwide, and driven the cost up, and we’ve been able to counter this somewhat on the short term by allowing more fracking and switching more to natural gas which we have a great deal of. Saudi Arabia wants to go public with its state run oil company, said I aramco if I’m not mistaken, and they would love nothing more than to release the IPO when the shit is at 100 a barrel. We don’t want that, because then we would be paying what Europeans pay and our entire infrastructure is dependent on cheap fuel.

If you recall, not long ago, Gaddafi decided that to help his impoverished nation, that he would sign a law allowing Libyan oil to be sold in exchange for gold rather than it being pegged to the US dollar. This guy had been to the white house and visited presidents through several generations of Americans. But when he did that, we were afraid that others would follow suit and that this sort of thing could become a trend among oil producing nations, and so suddenly he was a human rights violator, and we backed a small group of rebels who drug him into the streets and beat him to death on YouTube. I mean, way to make a statement America. That’ll let wealthy, intelligent and powerful men in oil producing nations know that no one is above being beaten to death in the streets on YouTube. Just better not try and make oil more expensive for us.

Like Saudi Arabia can get oil from underground for less than 10 a barrel. Really think about that for a minute. It needs to be over 60 a barrel for our fracking to be profitable, or even cost effective.

Like I said, there’s a reason they aren’t teaching finance to kids in public schools.

America got you out here scared of the boogeyman and awaiting the rapture, when the boogeyman is America.

The only reason we’re not living in the post apocalyptic world that you guys seem to yearn for is because we have the best bombs. Its not a coincidence that historically, “defense” and energy companies are among the best places to grow your retirement. If you’re not investing in those, then you’re doing your part to ensure that things eventually tilt against you.

I remember some time back [less than a yr ago], when all the news agencies were reporting the Syrian war conflict and creating a perception like it was going on all over Syria, there was this taxi driver live on Periscope just driving around Damascus and showing that there was no war in that city. People just went about their business like there was no war whatsoever. The media made it look like the conflict was bigger than it was. I’ve seen it happen a few times where the media took a local, isolated event and made a big deal out of it, scaring the public away. I don’t know if there’s law against it or if a particular city or region can sue the media, because these actions can lead to loss of tourism, and some of these places are dependent on tourists. Even worse if media does these things on purpose to advance someone else’s interests. Very few places remain in the world that still have censorship on media. Most of these places actually underreport such events for the sake of peace and stability.

I personally don’t really think that we could ever be prepared, not with what you are describing.

Perhaps putting our selves in the mindset of a dystopian world, imagining that, and how we would respond or react to it would help. But we would have to deal with that honestly.
What would I do? How would I be? Could I handle it? Could I be there for others to help them handle it? Would I work tirelessly to make for some bit of change?

Learning “to be” with much less, learning to delay gratification, learning to transcend our fears, learning to work hand in hand with others, learning to be content with self in a sense in whatever scene is unfolding, learning to have faith in some kind of future knowing that you are a self-determined person, learning not to leave it all to god or even not much of it to god.

Aside from that, we can’t really know if we could be prepared for it but we could prepare our inner selves for it in a way.

lol

By attacking Syria, did the US kick off WWIII?

Lol no

Is it still laughable if hundreds of Russian military personnel were killed? Once again it’s impossible to get reliable news from the media. So will the stock market tank in a few hours?

Stock up on the essentials people.

No the stock market won’t tank. The investment class is largely right wing. US showing military aggression gets thier dicks hard. If anything, this might start a short term rally that could be held up by an increase in the price of oil. Higher oil price is good for US energy in the long term because it incentivizes investment in alternatives because it makes them more cost effective.

An attempt to grow green bell peppers, mustard spinach, and beefsteak tomatoes indoors is on the agenda. If that goes well then…

…a citrus grove indoors next.

Have you ever done an extensive indoor garden? Are you planting in soil or water? Are you buying nutes or making them? You want to grow citrus trees indoors? You’re gonna need some serious lighting if you intend to harvest fruit.

Mr. wrote

Not yet. This is my year to experiment. Veggies= seeds in soil in window boxes. Hand pollination if they survive that long.

The lemon tree will only happen if I have a bit of luck with the veggies. Some people have green thumbs, I’m not one of them.

If you can spend a couple hundred bucks on a can fan, a decent grow light, some flexible ducting, some air pumps, and a handful of other bits, I can tell you how to grow anything you want in a closet, regardless of the climate outdoors. You can grow watermelons out of a 5 gallon bucket with a dwc setup and a 400 watt light. Fast too. Soil is messy, slow, and hard to monitor and correct nute levels. Hydro is easy, and can be immediately adjusted with a ph kit and an understanding of what’s in each of the 3 bottles of nutrients you’ll need. If you can grow a plant to harvest with a 400 watt light and some general hydroponics flora nutrients, then you can move on and learn how to do it organically.

5, or 7 gallon bucket. Net pot lid. Hydroton. General hydroponics dual diaphragm air pump. Black silicone air line. Diffuser stones. 400w or 600w switchable ballast grow light with MH and HPS bulbs. Digital not magnetic. 4 or 6 inch can fan and ductwork to draw heat off the lights. Light fixture should be ventable. Set that shit up in a closet, or if you wanna splurge and really do it right, get a grow tent. Cheap is fine. 2x4 feet, eBay, under 100 bucks.

Get some ph down and a digital tester and some calibration fluid, and a 3 pack of general hydroponics flora line nutrients.

With those basic bits, you can pretty much grow anything.

The natural light will be just fine and I already have everything for potting. This is an experiment to see if it’s even possible…for me…to get year round indoor growth without electricity. Eventually I’d like to build my own vertical wind turbine setup for off grid life, but that’s a ways down the road. Thanks for the hydroponic suggestion though.