You and your family are most certainly not on the right side if you are unaware of the potential in 2013 for infrastructure crippling solar flares. I have been pouring over the scientific literature, and there is ample reason for concern and preparation. I certainly do not like the looks of a NASA warning of a once-in-a-generation space story. The potential for a crippling of earth’s technology infrastructure has low appeal.
Are you familiar with the negative potential of a terrorist-related EMP attack, which would not need to be a high altitude attack to cripple a major city? Major population centers are at highest risk. I cannot imagine a condition where a family would not want to be prepared. What is the downside of preparing yourself for an event with devastating potential? I suggest that you conduct a personal audit of your family’s vulnerabilities.
The more important the city and surrounding suburbs, the more the potential for chaos. In the past, I have suggested devoting 1% of your liquid net worth to personal security. If you should feel that my minimal 1% target seems desperately high, my guess is that you may not have conducted much of a vulnerability/risk analysis. Remember at the start of your analysis, all non-EMP-shielded electronics systems will become instantly kaput. I doubt you would wish to be in an elevator or traveling on a high-speed interstate or in a small plane in such a setting. And, of course, that’s just scratching the surface.
Inertia is a big problem for most folk. Who the heck wants to spend much time worrying about personal security? Well, I probably am more paranoid and conservative than are most of you. In truth, I wrap personal and financial security in the same comfort blanket. I spend time daily on personal security issues as well as on financial issues. I refer to my program as adopting The Swiss Way. The Swiss, due to a land-locked, neutral status, became expert on personal security many decades ago and follow through with a practical approach to financial security. The Swiss are expert on currency theory and inflation as well as on the long-term value of precious metals. This thinking is ingrained in the Swiss psyche.
OK, so here is a great starter move the most reticent among you can take. Set up Faraday cages for your most important electronics gear. Click to Amazon.com and punch in J.M. Cremp’s ammo boxes and order a few .50 caliber metal military surplus ammo boxes. Place a fully charged Apple iPad, for example, in a cardboard box. (You do not want your sensitive electronics touching the metal surface of your .50 cal ammo box.) Insert your boxed iPad into a EMP bag, available from techprotectbag.com, drop it in your .50 cal ammo box, and crank your metal box shut. You will instantly have created a first rate Faraday cage. Your cage will protect your vital electronics from terrorist-related EMP problems or solar flares. You can protect lager equipment with steel, aluminum or copper metal trashcans that you have lined with cardboard (including the lid). For a great test, place a turned-on FM portable radio in your trashcan (VIDEO: Inexpensive Faraday Cage Design) and then open and close the lid a few times. Your radio will continue playing with the lid open, but will turn off with the lid shut, which chokes off FM availability.
With little effort, you can make some cheap and easy moves that will stand you and the fam in a much improved position should solar flares become the problem NASA is warning about for 2013. And you have spent peanuts in the process. Kinda puts a smile on your face, does it not? In part D, I will suggest some pretty cool special items for your Faraday box. You may not have thought about this group.
Warm regards,
Dick
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Knowing what you know about the precarious finances of some states—and seeing the progressive erosion of your individual rights in others—where would you live today if you could live anywhere in America?
Let’s focus on what’s important: your family.
Choosing the right state to live in may never have as great a significance to your family’s future wealth and prosperity as it does today.
But if you let inertia get the best of you, then you won’t give the issue the thought it deserves—or that you deserve, for that matter. Because there may come a time when the opportunity will be gone and you have regrets.
Thinking about relocation is no minor issue. There are questions about leaving family behind, not being able to sell your home, and all the other headaches that come with the decision. But for now all you’re doing is gathering intelligence. There’s no harm in that. You may find you’ll be able to have your cake and eat it too.
The first benefit I see is that the very idea of relocation gets you thinking about the current affairs in your own state. And it helps you get your gears cranking to strongly consider the pros and cons of someday making relocation a reality.
 As a plan of attack, I would first look to states with no income taxes. You can see them on Richard Young’s Liberty and Freedom map. Go there first. If you’re a small business owner, then you know your profits are taxed at your income rate, unlike major corporations, which pay the corporate tax rate. Half of all noncorporate revenue comes from a small business like a sole proprietorship, partnership, or subchapter S, according to the IRS. There are a lot of you out there.
Second, if you make the move before your kids, don’t worry—they’ll find you. Better yet, if you move to a right-to-work state, they may even find a job. College grads are moving to where the work is. From 2000 through 2010, right-to-work states realized the fastest growth in their college-educated population compared to forced-union states.
Next up, you want to be able to defend yourself by living in a strong Castle Doctrine state.
Four states make the cut according to the three criteria outlined above: Florida, Texas, Wyoming, and South Dakota. Plan visits to each of them.
Florida’s a big state, so maybe break it up into north and south research trips. South Florida is always a great place to go in the winter months. You might like the Panhandle in the summer.
There’s a lot to like about Texas, even though Rick Perry didn’t exactly make the case for why. For starters, it’s the jobs capital of the country. Your kids might be able to tell you about the music scene there, especially at Austin City Limits.
A customer told me last week that Jackson Hole, Wyoming, got three feet of snow. If you like to ski, it is the place to be this season. Dividing your time between Jackson Hole and your favorite place in Florida has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
I remember going to see the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota as a kid one summer. We had a Winnebago and went to most of the national parks. It was a great family vacation. You might have done the same when you were a kid, or plan to in the future. Anyway, it’s a great way to get some history and gather more intelligence on where you may want to live.
Check back regularly for updates to the Liberty and Freedom map, as we’re adding new data all the time.
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With the GOP primary in full gear, Americans who are focused on the Constitution and individual liberty and responsibility should take a moment to reflect on what has happened so far. The choices for voters are not shaping up well. Choosing between Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Barack Obama is like choosing between eating turnip greens, mustard greens or strychnine. Two can leave a bitter taste in your mouth, but one can kill you. Meanwhile, Congressman Ron Paul has been ignored by the national media and by voters in many states. Paul should taste like devil’s food cake to liberty loving Americans. What gives?
Even in light of the American nation-building failures of the last decade, GOP primary voters are put off by Congressman Paul’s anti-war positions. One wonders what they find so appealing about the failed exercises in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even Rush Limbaugh said this week that it’s time to get the hell out of Afghanistan.
A Pew Research Center poll has found that Americans are willing to use military force to end Iran’s nuclear program. In the GOP, 62% of voters believe the United States should help Israel attack Iran. The media has whipped Americans into an anti-Iran fury. There, however, is little proof to date of Iran’s intent to build nuclear weapons or its capability to do so.
A recent poll showed Congressman Paul leading president Obama in a nationwide race by 2 percent. Americans as a whole seem to be on board with a message of liberty and resistance to foreign wars. Likely pushing Paul over the top was one of the president’s former constituencies, Woodstock liberals. The antiwar message of the kids at Woodstock has followed them through adulthood into their retirement years. The Woodstock-baby boomers hate the military industrial complex and are piling into Ron Paul’s voter base. But those Woodstock liberals don’t vote in GOP primaries, so Congressman Paul is temporarily out of luck.
Americans elected both of their last two presidents on an antiwar message. Watch the two videos below for a reminder of what voters were looking for in 2000 and 2008. It wasn’t a new war.
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The A-10 Thunderbolt II, affectionately nicknamed “The Warthog,” was developed for the United States Air Force by the OEM Team from Fairchild Republic Company, now a part of Northrop Grumman Corporation Aerospace Systems Eastern Region located in Bethpage NY and St. Augustine FL. Following in the footsteps of the legendary P47 Thunderbolt, the OEM Team was awarded a study contract in the 1960s to define requirements for a new Close Air Support aircraft, rugged and survivable, to protect combat troops on the ground. This initial study was followed up by a prototype development contract for the A-X, and a final flyoff competition resulting in the selection of the A-10 Thunderbolt II.
Selection of the A-10 Thunderbolt II for this mission was based on the dramatic low altitude maneuverability, lethality, “get home safe” survivability, and mission capable maintainability designed into the jet by the OEM team. This design features a titanium “bathtub” that protects the pilot from injury, and dually redundant flight control systems that allow the pilot to fly the aircraft out of enemy range, despite severe damage such as complete loss of hydraulic capability. These features have been utilized to great effect in both the Desert Storm conflict of the 1990’s and in the more recent Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, and Global War on Terror engagements.
In 1987, the ™A-10 OEM Team and all A-10 assets were acquired by Grumman Corporation from Fairchild Republic Company, and are now part of the Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems Eastern Region, presently partnered with Lockheed Martin Systems Integration as a member of the A-10 Prime Team.
The OEM Team has maintained continuous involvement in the modernization of the jet, integrating the Inertial Navigation System in the 1970s, developing and installing the Low Altitude Safety and Targeting Enhancement ground collision avoidance system in the 1980s, and the Night Vision Imaging System in the 1990s, and has demonstrated particular leadership in the planning and analysis required for managing the structural integrity of the airframe through the various changes in flight maneuver spectra, mission, and force structure.
The A-10 Aircraft Structural Integrity Program began with the initial A-10 OEM development contract, with the definition of materials and processes, design analyses, component and full scale testing, and data collection and analysis on an aircraft by aircraft basis, to validate analyses and accurately predict fatigue damage for the optimization of inspection intervals and maximization of aircraft availability. The A-10 OEM Team continues to be a key member of the A-10 ASIP Team, providing loads and structures analysis, performing full scale and component testing, developing structural reinforcements and non-destructive inspection techniques to prevent structural failure, analyzing manufacturing methods for aircraft improvements and providing overall weapons system expertise for the support of the warfighter.
-A-10 Thunderbolt II Specifications-
Primary Function: A-10 –close air support, OA-10 – airborne forward air control
Contractor: Fairchild Republic Co. (FRC acquired in 1987, now part of Northrop Grumman ISER)
Power Plant: Two General Electric TF34-GE-1 00 turbofans
Thrust: 9,065 pounds each engine
Wingspan: 57 feet, 6 inches (17.42 meters)
Length: 53 feet, 4 inches (16.16 meters)
Height: 14 feet, 8 inches (4.42 meters)
Weight: 29,000 pounds (13,154 kilograms)
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 51,000 pounds (22,950 kilograms)
Fuel Capacity: 11,000 pounds (7,257 kilograms)
Payload: 16,000 pounds (7,257 kilograms)
Speed: 420 miles per hour (Mach 0.56)
Range: 800 miles (695 nautical miles)
Ceiling: 45,000 feet (13,636 meters)
Crew: One
Initial operating capability: A-10A, 1977; A-10C, 2007
Inventory: Active force, A-10, 143 and OA-10, 70; Reserve, A-10, 46 and OA-10, 6; ANG, A-10, 84 and OA-10, 18
A-10 Thunderbolt II Armament:
One General Dynamics 30 mm GAU-8/Avenger A seven-barrel Gatling gun; up to 16,000 pounds (7,200 kilograms) of mixed ordnance on eight under-wing and three under-fuselage pylon stations, including 500 pound (225 kilograms) Mk-82 and 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms) Mk-84 series low/high drag bombs, incendiary cluster bombs, combined effects munitions, mine dispensing munitions, AGM-65 Maverick missiles and laser-guided/electro-optically guided bombs; infrared countermeasure flares; electronic countermeasure chaff; jammer pods; 2.75-inch (6.99 centimeters) rockets; illumination flares and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles.
Source: Northrup Grumman
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On May 8, Indiana voters get a chance that perhaps no group of voters has ever had. They can defeat a Senate candidate who doesn’t even live in their state. The senator is full of odd quirks. He lives in Washington D.C., but represents Indiana, votes liberal but calls himself a Republican, and is friends with President Obama until he’s up for election. The senator’s name is Dick Lugar, and it’s time for Indiana GOP primary voters to reject him as their Senate candidate.
Lugar is known as “Obama’s favorite Republican,” because of his close relationship with the president, and his penchant for voting alongside the liberal Commander-in-Chief. Lugar even campaigned for Obama in 2008 and served on the president’s inaugural committee. Lugar outrageously voted to confirm uber-liberal activist justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Voters should be reminded that the court is only one vote away from a liberal majority, with the possibility of up to three justices to be named by the president elected in 2012. Conservatives can’t afford to have a senator from Indiana who won’t fight for conservative justices who interpret the law as written, not as they would have it written.
Look at Lugar’s votes and you will soon understand why he cannot represent conservatives in Indiana’s Senate race in 2012. Lugar voted for TARP, for the SCHIP expansion of government health care, for the auto industry bailout, for benefits for illegal aliens, and to against the second amendment rights of citizens of Washington D.C. Lugar is rated D+ by the NRA. That should be enough to disqualify the senator for constitutional-conservatives tired of politicians who disregard their oath of office to protect the constitution.
It’s time Indiana opens the trap door under soon-not-to-be Senator Richard Lugar.
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