Survival – The Burning Platform

THE SEA GYPSY TRIBE – 2024 UPDATE

by Ray Jason

For over a decade I have been encouraging people around our Watery World to form Sea Gypsy Tribes. My belief is that they are the best defense against any catastrophe that may overwhelm Society. Here is my 2024 update.

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The basic concept remains the same. Essentially, it provides all of the survival benefits of land-based emergency “prepping,” but with the significant advantage of not being stationary.

Human history proves that when people have to choose between starving and marauding, they always attack. Having an ocean-ready sailboat, properly equipped and stocked, allows one to “Flee to the Sea!”

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The Pragmatic Musings of an American Nobody Trying Not to be Evil

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor…

– Ezekiel 28: 15-17

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation. I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other! So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to vomit you out of My mouth! You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.

– Revelation 3:14-17

It’s been said the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn’t exist. And, subsequently, perhaps the next greatest deception ever perpetrated on earth occurred when Fractional Reserve Banking was invented to create money out of nothing. Bubbles are created from thin air; as are the dreams of those who measure wealth by the fading fumes of fiat currency.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said: “The facts of life are conservative.” By definition, “facts” are real. Therefore, Thatcher’s quote could also be translated as: The realities of life are conservative.

Typically, conservatives do, in fact, try to live according to values and principles that have sustained people through the centuries: by telling the truth, acting honestly, producing more than they spend, saving for a “rainy day”, living on a budget, and fairly giving back to their communities by paying taxes and practicing charity.

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The Harvard University Hope Experiment

Source: LearnSomethingInteresting.com

During the 1950’s, Dr. Curt Richter from Harvard University performed a series of experiments using water, buckets, and both domesticated and wild rats which resulted in a surprising discovery within the field of psychology. In the first experiment, Richter placed his test subjects into large buckets half filled with water with even those rats which were considered above average swimmers, giving up and dying within a few short minutes. In the second experiment, Richter pulled each rat out just as it was about to give up due to exhaustion and let them rest for a few moments. Upon inserting the rats back into the bucket of water, Richter found that the rats continued to struggle to survive for up to 60 hours as the rats now believed that if they continued to push forward with enough effort put forth, eventually they would be rescued once again. Richter recorded in his notes, “after elimination of hopelessness, the rats do not die”.

What are the implications, if any, to current (and future) events and circumstances?

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An Offer You Can’t Refuse

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

We read to know we’re not alone.

Although that particular truism is often mistakenly attributed to the author C.S. Lewis, it was actually William Nicholson who wrote those words in his 1989 play “Shadowlands”, a story about C.S. Lewis.

Indeed. The power of words. And perhaps many of us out here in the interwebic blogosphere write to know we’re not alone as well.

Especially during times like these.

We use words to comfort and curse, to encourage, to promise, to teach, buy, sell, debate, learn, manipulate, lie, share, seduce, pray, preach, promote, warn, and even survive.

In the aforementioned play, “Shadowlands“, there is another quote that many now reading this may also find relevant to our times:

….pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Why must it be pain? Why can’t he rouse us more gently, with violins or laughter? Because the dream from which we must be wakened, is the dream that all is well.

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Everyone Wants to Win and Nobody Likes Being Wrong

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

The axiomatic adages contained in the title of this article would be labeled as common sense by most Americans; especially Americans because, in the United States, everyone loves a winner. It’s also true no one ever wins by being wrong – unless in the instances of dumb luck or corruption and these never ensure long-lasting success.

Of course, the inverse of this article’s title would be: Everyone wants to be right and nobody likes to lose. And, particularly, in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. The shining city on a hill.

Such are the stories we tell ourselves.

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Preparing for the Storm: The Perfect Storm.

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

Out here in the still-free internet, the ether lends itself to utilizing a wide array of digital media as the means to provide source attribution as well as to establish commonality and understanding amongst ourselves. This is, perhaps, the primary reason how internet blogs became the new town square in this millennium. In the old days it was courthouses and town halls, and pubs. Today, we meet in chatrooms, and on pages and threads.

It means if this blogger to were to write on how we’ve all become Sarah Conner in the Jeep riding into the storm at the end of the first Terminator film – a photo of that moment could be posted at the top of the article for emphasis. Or, better yet, a video of that scene could be hyper-linked into the text.

Truly, it is the best of times and the worst of times.

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Netflix’s ‘Bird Box’ Contains Clear Coding on Continuing in Cataclysms

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

A recent Netflix original movie has taken America by storm. The film is called “Bird Box”, starring Sandra Bullock. The online streaming service claimed it was viewed by more than 45 million accounts during the first seven days after its release; the best week ever for a Netflix film. Although I was, initially, hesitant to write about it, it’s now become such a big deal, I’m compelled to add my proverbial two cents.

The film became available for streaming on December 21, 2018 and since that time, it has propagated as a viral topic of conversation, instantaneously, online and in three dimensions. My kids mentioned it over Christmas break and the discussion continued to expand by means of social media, internet memes, and a plethora of articles both in print and throughout the electronic interwebs.

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BABY STEPS: You’ve Been Woke. Now Exit the Matrix.

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit……

Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues

– Revelation 18

There is an English salutation said to have been translated from a Chinese curse. It states: May you live in interesting times. Well, like it or not, we do. There is so much insanity occurring every day, on a global basis, it is difficult to process. So much so, that historians will one day look back on our time and scratch their heads in open-jawed, disbelief.

“Wait a minute,” they will say, “let us get this straight:”

Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was overseeing an investigation into President Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia because Trump was said to have obtained damaging information on Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton; but, during the same time period, Schiff was engaged in obtaining damaging information from Russians on Presidential Candidate Donald Trump?

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Stucky Q.O.T.D. —– Prep or Death?

You prepped your ass off in anticipation of the Shit-Meets-Fan day. You’re ready for the Zombies. You have water, lead, and toilet paper. You will survive!!

Question: When is voluntary death preferable to surviving?

I’m talking about Siege-of-Leningrad level of survival. Will you eat your dead loved ones, just to survive? Where do you draw the line?

“Mmmm …. dinner!”

Me? I’m probably toast within half a year, tops.

I’m an asshole Boomer. I have lived at the zenith of the most prosperous nation in human history. I have lived better than Kings of any era, at least in terms of creature comforts: I have instant access to inside plumbing, the most comfortable foam bed in history, cool air when I’m hot, warmth when I’m cold, soft clothes, comfortable shoes, the best medical care, virtually any food from any part of the world and always in abundance, gas on demand so I don’t need to gather wood, a refrigerator to preserve food (and all kinds of other nifty gadgets), transportation on rubber instead of four legs, and on and on and on.

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The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide: Are You Ready for a Long-Term Water Emergency?

Guest Post by Daisy Luther

Are you truly prepared for a water emergency?

How long could your family survive if the water stopped flowing from the municipal supply and none was available at the store? If the answer is not “indefinitely” then you need to check out my new book, The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide: Harvest, Treat, and Store Your Most Vital Resource.

This comprehensive book contains life-saving information about how to:

Store fresh water
Collect rainwater
Purify water from lakes and rivers
Dig a well for groundwater

In addition to harvesting water, you’ll gain the tools to keep large stores untainted for long periods of time, test the water you collect for dangerous toxins, and treat water-related illnesses that are commonly contracted during a disaster.

This book is very research heavy, with the latest in-depth information about the contaminants lurking in our water supplies and water-borne illnesses, as well as tips for conservation and sanitation during times when your lifestyle is decidedly off-grid.

I hope you enjoy this excerpt from the book.

The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide

If you’ve been prepping for a while, you’ve probably heard of the survivalist’s “Rule of Three.” You can survive:

Three minutes without air.

Three days without water.

Three weeks without food.

If a disaster has hit and you’re still breathing, then your next concern has got to be water.

Have you ever watched any of those survival shows on the Discovery Channel where people are dropped off in the middle of nowhere and left to survive with limited tools and supplies? In nearly every single episode, the biggest issue is finding and purifying water. Often, they wait so long that they become desperate and engage in risky behavior, like drinking water from a stagnant pool. In one particularly notable episode, the contestants had to be rescued because they became too weak from dehydration to seek water.

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12 Survival Lessons from Ukraine: “Nothing Provides as Much Valuable Information as Real World Situations”

Guest Post from SHTFplan.com

Editor’s Note: FerFAL has been a leading voice in the preparedness movement before there ever was a preparedness movement. In the early 2000′s Fernando personally witnessed financial and socio-economic collapse on a massive scale in Argentina. He witnessed the complete meltdown of his country’s currency and can speak first-hand about what hyperinflation looks like. As you might expect, following the Argentine destabilization FerFAL witnessed the panic, desperation, and violence that one might expect when the world around you collapses. He wrote about his experiences in his widely popular The Modern Survival Manual: Surviving the Economic Collapse. His book is loaded with practical information and advice, and remains a must-read for anyone who is serious about actionable strategies to prepare for similar events in their own locales. His most recent book, Bugging Out and Relocating: When Staying Put Is Not An Option, delves into strategies for getting out of Dodge and finding a new home so that you can avoid what he lived through in Argentina.

In his latest article, generously shared with our community and originally posted at his website The Modern Survivalist, Fernando highlights twelve survival lessons we can learn from the Ukraine conflict. As he can attest, nothing provides as much valuable information as real world situations.

12 Survival Lessons from Ukraine
By Fernando “FerFAL” Aguirre

The war in Ukraine is a tragic event but it’s one that we can all learn from. Nothing provides as much valuable information as real world situations where ordinary people are forced to deal with extraordinary events. At the end of the day, the war in Ukraine gives us plenty of examples of what works and what doesn’t, and while personal experience is important, the wise person learns from other people’s mistakes so as to not repeat them himself.
There are several articles explaining what people are going through in eastern Ukraine right now. This article over at dailymail provides a good visual image of what people are going through. There’s also a thread in survivalist boards where a Dunbass resident that goes by the name of George1980 has been posting, sharing his experiences. I highly recommend reading it if you have the time.

Using this information, here are twelve important lessons based what has happened so far in Ukraine:

1) Artillery & infantry beats survivalist hero fantasies. Every. Single. Time.

Maybe the most obvious lesson to be learned is how miserably all these fantasies about forming survival groups, living in a retreat while fighting against impossible odds would ultimately fail. There’s simply no surviving against an occupation force when facing them as an individual or small group. Houses, towns and even entire cities can eventually get surrounded and overpowered. A single house or compound represents a laughable resistance to organized armed forces, let alone ones with artillery and air support at their disposal. Once shooting at your position is no longer fun, they’ll just blow you up. It’s as simple as that.

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