The American Recovery

By Reginald Kaigler (DEMCAD)

We have nearly 50 million Americans on food stamps, but who cares? Welcome to the recovery.

The exact number of Americans collecting food stamps was a record 47,791,996 as of December 2012. That's 23,064,554 households.

Nearly 50 Million Americans on food stamps.

The story I have for you today is not only a painful sign of the times, but harbinger of things to come. When a Laney Supermarket closed down, so many desperate people showed up to get free food that the police almost had a riot on their hands. After enduring the mad rush, the police threw the food into the trash.

After the owners of the grocery store lost the property to the bank, they offered the food to a local church, but members didn't showed up. And that's when everything went south. Hundreds of people showed up to get the food. Apparently, the owners didn't care if the people grabbed the food. The police probably didn't care either, but the bank refused to release the food. Instead, it was taken to a landfill.

The people complained about the bank and frankly, I thought it was wasteful. But watching the news reporter interview the stereotypical, desperate, black, single, mom was unbearable. I know people are struggling (so am I), but having kids that you can't take care isn't going to make it better.

What happened at that grocery store was a snapshot of what's really going on in this country. The rich are the only ones experiencing a recovery. The middle class and poor are getting buried.

It's so sad to see what the country has become.

Anti-Gun Laws Could Get People Killed During COLLAPSE

 By Reginald Kaigler (DEMCAD)

There's foolishness and then there's Illinois. Remember Chris Rock's comedy piece about fighting crime by making people pay an insane amount for bullets? If not, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinklemay seems to have taken the idea and run with it. Preckwinkle is proposing a new set of taxes on firearms and bullets. The proposal calls for a nickel per round tax and an additional $25 tax for each firearm. Preckwinkleis convinced that this will lower crime and raise more tax revenue. After all, we all know criminals don't steal ammo. What's fascinating about this idea is that we know that it will not work. Chicago has some of the most extreme anti-laws in the country. Law abidding citizens are not allowed to carry firearms, yet the city has had 409 homicides this year alone. Granted, it's not as bad as the early 90s, but most of the crime is coming from gangs, not the average Joe at a shooting range.

Official proposes bullet tax to curb Chicago crime

But this anti-gun foolishness has sparked a rather gloomy thought in my mind about how these people will fair if law and order breaks down. What would happen to these anti-gun proponents in a full-scale collapse scenario? I'm not survivialist, but I think it's safe to say that by not preparing for a situation that requires self defense is setting oneself up for failure. Let me be frank, criminals don't care if you're anti-gun. If society breaks apart, people will become desperate and dangerous. A Glock 17 or a Sig Sauer maybe the only thing that prevents a single mother from getting raped or a married man from being stabbed to death by home invaders. I don't care if you like guns. I don't cars or cellphones, but I need a cellphone and car for my job. When it comes to guns, people will have to do what it takes to survive.

These anti-gun laws are setting people up for failure. It's conditioning people to not protect themselves and that is simply irresponsible. Why make it harder for law abiding citizens to protect themselves? I strongly recommend everyone buy a gun legally, learn how to use it, store it safely and legally carry it everywhere you can. If you're a single woman living by yourself, you maybe targeted by a predator. If you're a cute college girl living on a GUN FREE ZONE campus, remember you'll be a very attractive target for a predator.  After all, you're not supposed to have a gun. If you're living in a upper middle class neighborhood 20 miles outside of a city, the desperate city-dwellers people may target you before they focus on their broke ass neighbors.

People tell me all of the time to get out of the city, but what they don't realize is that most of the desperate people in the city will be looking for suburbanites with resources.

After all, many people will assume that a family with three late model cars will have food. The funny thing is that if society collapsed tomorrow and the lights went out, there would be millions of upper middle class citizens with 50 inch TVs, 60,000 dollar cars, 300,000 dollar houses and less than a week of non-perishable food.

No matter how you feel about guns, if you're serious about helping your family survive, you can't ignore the need for a gun. Don't like the TV shows like "The Walking Dead" convince you that if there's a social breakdown, you will be able to pick up a firearm and shot with the marksmanship of a Navy Seal. If you get a gun, make you know how to use it. You don't want your first shots to happen during a crisis. And forcing law abiding citizens to take on an additional tax burden may put good people in a bad situation.