Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I lived in a gated community once. Served on the HOA board as a matter of fact. The gates around the community were not even enough for the "elderly" community to feel safe. They viewed every little thing they didn't recognize as an immediate threat. We paid thousands of dollars on top of our gate maintenance to have a "security" vehicle occasionally drive through the property. Security didn't do anything other than occasionally stick "Parking Violation" stickers on vehicles of people who already lived there.
And these elderly people STILL COMPLAINED about vandals, vagrants, drifters, etc., wandering through the community.
Gates are fine, but they provide a false sense of security. If someone wants in bad enough, they'll figure it out.
I lived in a gated community once. Served on the HOA board as a matter of fact. The gates around the community were not even enough for the "elderly" community to feel safe. They viewed every little thing they didn't recognize as an immediate threat. We paid thousands of dollars on top of our gate maintenance to have a "security" vehicle occasionally drive through the property. Security didn't do anything other than occasionally stick "Parking Violation" stickers on vehicles of people who already lived there.
And these elderly people STILL COMPLAINED about vandals, vagrants, drifters, etc., wandering through the community.
Gates are fine, but they provide a false sense of security. If someone wants in bad enough, they'll figure it out.
""""
The gates around the community were not even enough for the "elderly" community to feel safe. They viewed every little thing they didn't recognize as an immediate threat. """
Sir, are the king of posts.
Right there you absolutely NAIL IT!
The US has tens of millions of anxious seniors. Fox news and right wing radio have greatly contributed to their anxieties by hyping scare stories one after another for the last 25 years. I saw some research today that stated those over 65 were 7 times MORE LIKELY to share "fake news" then the youngest groups...
7 times more likely....
The sad thing is most of these folks are already lost to reason. They have lived their lives in a country where racism is deeply embedded , they have faced endless propaganda from FOX, and of course the natural inclination of Human (especially older ) to fear difference . They are some pretty large hurdles to overcome...
You know, that new, legal pot you can now buy across the counter in Oregon and Washington is considerably more potent than the "weed" you might have toked as a kid back in the 60's or 70's. Just sayin'.
....
Quote:
Originally Posted by drinkthekoolaid
Ok.
How is this relevant?
I think he, like all the Lefties posting here, are PWP.
(Posting While Polluted, derived from an expression we used back in the 70's))
It's pretty plain that the border wall with Mexico is a survivalist program. As much as they try to deny global warming, rich people well know that it is happening, and the first areas to become uninhabitable will be the tropics. They want a defensible barrier where they can hold off tens of millions of refugees fleeing an ecological disaster. Essentially, they want to make America into a gated community.
On the fun side, wait until they try to pull eminent domain on those border ranchers. The Bundy Ranch standoff would be a Sunday school picnic by comparison. When they try to chop ranches in half, deny cattle ranchers access to the Rio Grande or cut Indian reservations in half you will see Americans in armed conflict with their government. Flying around in those black helicopters might be hazardous to your health.
Anybody who thinks we could really build a wall coast to coast for only $40 billion still believes in the tooth fairy. I worked up a quick guestimate on the project and came up with a minimum of $130 billion, and probably a max of around $300 billion. Then you have to maintain the thing. Forget the steel spike wall. The scrappers would be tearing it down behind you before it ever got built.
Meanwhile, dig those tunnels. We all know how the Great Wall worked for China. It didn't. By the time a civilization falls to invaders, it has already collapsed from within.
Remember, just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
This thread is already inundated with plenty of non prepardness subforum trolls.
I would think you would be interested in some new topics. The big problem with this forum is that it is morbund. It's composed of a few people endlessly rehashing the same topics they were endlessly rehashing 5 years ago.
Civilizations don't collapse overnight. It takes decades to centuries of stress. One of those stressors is climate change. The Late Bronze Age collapsed because of a persistent drought in the Mediterranean. That triggered a vast population migration. Doubtless it started peacefully, but it didn't stay peaceful long. If you want to see how civilizations collapse, study history. It has happened before. Here is the Bronze Age collapse.
We don't have any records of the Anasazi collapse in the American SW, but archaeology seems to show that it was also due to an extended drought. Thanks to the European book burners, we have no idea why the Mayan civilization collapsed, but three out of four of the leading theories are ecological in nature, either climate change, crop disease or soil depletion resulting in famine. The fourth theory is warfare, which goes right along with famine.
The massive Germanic invasions into the Roman Empire were also associated by climate fluctuations. The Huns were driven into Europe by drought in the late 4th century, forcing Germanic peoples into Roman territory. That's what forced the Angles and the Saxons into Britain. The tribes then proceeded to raid Roman settlements. Typical raiding bands had about 15,000 to 20,000 people, and a total of about 750,000 raiders attacked a Roman population of around 11 million. Continual raiding led to the eventual fall of Rome in the late 5th century.
The Mongol invasion of Europe was triggered by the failure of rains and the grasslands of Mongolia.
By now you should be seeing a common thread. Climate change triggers massive population movements. The cause of the climate change is irrelevant, all you have to admit is that it's happening.
Now let's move from history to current events.
Where are the invaders going to come from? Mostly they are going to come from US foreign policy. Thanks to the religious nuts, the US has banned most foreign aid for population control since 1961. Say hi to many millions of new neighbors on our southern border. A decade later, in 1971, Nixon opened the War On Drugs, and started shipping military aid to Central America. The US actually started making cash payments to Nicaraguan drug lords during the late '70s-early '80s. Ollie North went to prison for it, but Congress provided the funds. It wasn't long before the drug cartels took over whole governments.
The caravans from Central America that are on the news now are fleeing death squads. They really do need asylum, and their presence at the border is trivial. There are only a few thousand of them. What we really need to worry about is an ecological collapse that pushes millions of people in a mass through Mexico to our border. That many people would cause a collapse of Mexico, and many Mexicans would be forced by starvation to join the mass movement.
As long as the migrants are helpless peons, a wall will serve a temporary purpose, but millions of people are not going to willingly lie down and die. The US military could not handle an armed incursion by millions of people, particularly if it goes on for year after year. Turning America into a gated community is not going to work. Sticking your head in the sand and prepping for TEOTWAWKI is not going to work.
This is already way too long, so I'll reserve possible solutions for later. It's time for survivalists to engage their gray matter and start looking at conditions beyond their compound chain link.
I've suggested that we take half of our foreign giveaways for a year and build a wall with it - or as much as $25 billion will provide. That's 5x what President Trump is asking for. And it's only half of foreign aid.
$5.7 billion is not the bottom line for the wall, it's maybe a 10% down payment. Once that has been spent, the feds typically use "sunk costs" to justify spending much more.
There were some critical areas that needed a barrier, so Congress appropriated funds for a fence of those areas in 2006 with strong bipartisan support, and Dubya signed it into law. Done deal. No wall, just a nice fence.
By the way, aren't we waiting on the check from Mexico to clear? I thought Mexico was going to pay for? What? Empty rhetoric?
I wonder why so few people have absolutely no understanding of economics.
Does General Motors insist that its employees and suppliers get paid directly by the customer?
Why doesn't General motors wait for its customer's check to clear, before building any trucks?
I wonder why so few people have absolutely no understanding of economics.
Does General Motors insist that its employees and suppliers get paid directly by the customer?
Why doesn't General motors wait for its customer's check to clear, before building any trucks?
"Economics" covers a lot of ground. GM doesn't ship vehicles without a contract.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
