Has The War in Ukraine Changed your Prepping?

[joel]

No, it has been a war for twenty years.

 

[angie_nrs]

It seems the rhetoric has ramped up. Vlad said he will use weapons of mass destruction and that he isn't bluffing.
This whole thing, even from the start, seems very orchestrated to me.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ces-partial-military-mobilisation-Russia.html
With everything else that's going on in the world today, I doubt a nuke war would surprise me. It might be time to see God sooner rather than later, so I'm trying to get ready for that. With the supposed idiot in charge here, it would be a good time for Vlad to pull out the nukes if he was ever going to.

I still think this is all posturing and a show. I guess time will tell if I'm right or not b/c there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, except to prepare for the possibility.

 

[Haertig]

I still think this is all posturing and a show.

The Ukrainians probably don't think so. I hope Russia becomes an isolated, impotent nation after this. Like North Korea, except physically a little larger. They are well on their way, with China and India starting to back away from them, at least a little bit.

 

[Caribou]

The war in Ukraine has, by itself, done little to my prepping. When combined with all the other misfortunes around the world, I find myself focused.

 

[Magus]

Poopy pants Putin is shaking his nuclear wee-wee at Joe again. ROFL.
Keeps telling him
"it's Soviet ice cream cone, have lick comrade!"
Is Jo-Jo that dumb? we shall see.

 

[Neb]

While it is straight forward but Russia in Ukraine had effected our prepping.

The threat of continued inflation which is partially associated with the war has us buying more food preps faster than previously. It has also prompted us to buy stuff now rather than waiting.

Ben

 

[Magus]

I guess I'm paying more attention to keeping my fuel tank topped off and cans rotated. I've stopped storing ammo, I'm not kidding myself, I can't hunt and I doubt surviving a fire fight with a bunch of hoods.

 

[Dani]

The threat from Russia has not, I'll admit I am worried there, but what I see from our Biden Government has. . . We all know he is not in control and this last week if anyone had any doubt should know by now. He is a complete idiot putting out his hand to shake another when there is no one there, and recently not able to get off the stage because Jill was not there to help him. Every time Joe speaks, makes our country weaker. . . So very sad. Under Trump we were respected!!

 

[Alaskajohn]

I am in no way discounting the potential for Biden and the west from miscalculation and mismanaging the situations in Ukraine, but the long term threat to the west is China. And we are mismanaging this far more worse than how we screwing up in the Ukrainian conflict.

https://americanmind.org/features/florida-versus-davos/five-myths-about-china/

 

[Hardcalibres]

I am in no way discounting the potential for Biden and the west from miscalculation and mismanaging the situations in Ukraine, but the long term threat to the west is China. And we are mismanaging this far more worse than how we screwing up in the Ukrainian conflict.

https://americanmind.org/features/florida-versus-davos/five-myths-about-china/

Correct.

The GDP of China is almost exactly ten times larger than that of Russia.

That and their view of the world around them, makes China the bigger threat.

Ukraine and Taiwan are linked in so far as the reaction of the West to the Ukraine issue gives China a better understanding of what the West would do if they invade Taiwan.

However, recent events now make it clear that China is more likely to blockade Taiwan, and pose the challenge as to what the West can do in response, if there is no actual shooting going on.

Biden made it way too clear that he would not directly intervene in Ukraine (that is why it got invaded). Strategic ambiguity is apparently beyond him.......

I expect that China may well bring their plans forward based upon the current leadership weakness in the US and the West generally.

 

[Sourdough]

If things get snotty between U.S. and China give how stupidly and massively, we are dependent on China for cheap goods. We could see an "INSTANT" bump to 30% or 45% inflation. If they either jack prices or flat out refuse to sell to America.

 

[Caribou]

If things get snotty between U.S. and China give how stupidly and massively, we are dependent on China for cheap goods. We could see an "INSTANT" bump to 30% or 45% inflation. If they either jack prices or flat out refuse to sell to America.

I woke up to this fact over 20 years ago. That is part of the reason that I buy almost nothing from China. I buy American whenever possible. Yes, sometimes I pay more but I keep the money in the country, I keep industry in the country, and I'm not financing a country that has expressed a desire to destroy me. The list goes on.

 

[Magus]

If things get snotty between U.S. and China give how stupidly and massively, we are dependent on China for cheap goods. We could see an "INSTANT" bump to 30% or 45% inflation. If they either jack prices or flat out refuse to sell to America.

I'd swallow that pill.if nothing else to see these lazy idiots wake up!

 

[Magpie]

Hard one to answer. Russia itself does not worry me (as in an invasion) but the effect of the conflict on costs and production of fertilizer, oils, food, etc is unsustainable. I have prepped to the extent I can afford to.

I see this war as a hybrid on two fronts- boots on the ground and old-fashioned military tactics such as scorched earth etc over there; but cyber-warfare across the rest of the world. I also am aware of the lengths other countries/agencies will go to, this includes EU /Nato/IMF and yes, America, to blame Russia for whatever.
War is business, after all. I'm under no illusion that western countries won't play dirty and also have their own agenda. It will be interesting to see the deals that have been done when all this is over. Remember, Russia took Crimea and part of the Donbass region years ago and no one did anything.

What worries me more are the other spats that are beginning to escalate behind the scenes in other parts of the world. Serbia and Croatia, China and Taiwan, India and Pakistan, Albania and god knows who else. There is a rapid rise of Far Right parties across Europe- see Sweden's elections last week. And always on the fringes are Turkey; making deals and 'helping'.
I am as prepared as I can be. But- the world, food and commodity prices will never be the same, and that has to be accepted. As said above; normal will change. Covid began the process.
But there is a bigger picture here- a downward spiral of decency and acceptance when folks feel their civil liberties and equality are being taken.

I worked in the Peace process as part of my job in community development. Whether you agree with people's politics or not- as long as you can debate, with respect, in the same room there is hope for humanity and peace; but as long as you leave someone out, there will never be. This leads to angry, unemployed people, who have time on their hands to grow more angry and racist, and deliberately undermine any good work that has been put in place following WW2; which has led to us having the lifestyles we have enjoyed.

None of this is meant to offend anyone in any way; its just my thoughts on the bigger picture.

 

[bkt]

Because 100% of the information about Ukraine, it's regions, and the military actions the Ukrainian government has taken against its own people since 2016 comes from the news media, I can't be certain of anything. Russia, and Putin in particular, have never been viewed by me as the good guy. Maybe they are in this case, maybe not.

One thing is certain. Our own government and its bureaucratic agencies are friends to no one. If you think the U.S. is the good guy on this issue, you're mistaken.

Just as it was obvious to me that the sars-cov2 pandemic was a red herring, it is equally obvious we are being pushed, by our government, into a global war and nukes are on the table. It's interesting, isn't it, how we've torpedoed our own economy, severely damaged the supply chain, impaired our military from the top down, spent the last couple decades dividing us internally so we can't agree on anything, and now we want to pick a nuclear fight with Russia?

Hypothetically, if people in our government wanted to destroy America, what would they do differently?

Anyway, has this changed my prepping? Not really. But I am accelerating my efforts because I don't think we have a long time before really bad events hit.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I think the initial Ukraine war events pushed me to increase my food prepping. However, the push for "Green" power and the miss handling of water issues in the Western USA have me shifting gears towards long term in-house solutions for food and power. The current picture is the US will be fighting high inflation until depression sets in and that is a hard scenario to plan to....

 

[Morgan101]

If things get snotty between U.S. and China give how stupidly and massively, we are dependent on China for cheap goods. We could see an "INSTANT" bump to 30% or 45% inflation. If they either jack prices or flat out refuse to sell to America.

This I agree with completely. The ****** on Walll Street and in the corporate board rooms have completely sold their souls to the devil to increase profits. If leadership had any brains they would bring all of that manufacturing back to the U.S. and China would fail under its own burden. IMHO the American public has no idea how dependent we are on China. If China shut us off it would be devastating.

 

[Hardcalibres]

Here is a graphic about year on year trends and a good list of what the US bought from China last year. Note that despite the pandemic and logistical disruptions, the trend is very much towards greater dependency.....

It is also worth noting that the proportion of China's total trade that goes to the US is only 17%. They have now diversified their exports, so that they are not even very dependent upon the US anymore. Look through the list - it is hard to imagine how the US could establish alternate supply for all those things in any reasonable amount of time.

https://tradingeconomics.com/china/exports/united-states

 

[Sourdough]

The Russian "SMO" in Ukraine has not changed my prepping.

The war of the American Government against the people of America has massively raised my fear of the future in America.

My current physical residence is in a good but not ultra-great location for the future I clearly see coming to Europe and North America. I have some hard decisions to ponder.

 

[Dani]

I will say that I am very worried about Russia now. They have called up 300,000 reservist. It will probably take about a month to make that happen. That is a lot of people to call up. What will happen after that, I don't know. We are on the verge of WW3 and not something I am looking forward too. I have 2 boys that have already served and 2 others who haven't, but in young 30's so could be called up? I am worried about our country. We as a Nation are no longer following what Jesus taught. We are ruled by a lot of satanist that follow him. Just look what is around our own country. . . . The transgender movement is just insane but yet people are supporting this? We already know, at least I hope people know, about all the child abuse, torture and sacrifice that has been happening, especially with the elites. Putin sees what has been going on. . .

 

[Bacpacker]

Here is a graphic about year on year trends and a good list of what the US bought from China last year. Note that despite the pandemic and logistical disruptions, the trend is very much towards greater dependency.....

It is also worth noting that the proportion of China's total trade that goes to the US is only 17%. They have now diversified their exports, so that they are not even very dependent upon the US anymore. Look through the list - it is hard to imagine how the US could establish alternate supply for all those things in any reasonable amount of time.

https://tradingeconomics.com/china/exports/united-states

Ukraine hasn't really had any affect on what I've been doing, other than the hit it added onto inflation. That had already been shooting up since day 1 of biden going in office, but it has had a big affect on top of what biden started. I had been pushing to bump up food stock's since Trumps time was winding down. A good portion of that has been what I've been growing and storing. But also on various other supplies such as hardware, and the raised beds I continued to build this year.

Hard calibers I agree with your assessment about China. IMO pushing China to become a major economic power was fully intentional many years ago. There is NO WAY the US would have willingly transferred a major portion of their manufacturing base to a communist country otherwise. Certainly not a lot of the production of major military hardware, components, even IC chips, and raw materials. That was about the only way to start weakening the US to the point we will have a hard time fighting a major drawn out war, such as what it would be to go up against China. With their numbers they could bleed us dry and we will run out of materials before long. It'd take 2-5 years to built our industries up to support a war of that type. On top of that where is the skilled labor going to come from to build and maintain that industry. As it is right now, we have a hard time finding instrument technicians. There just isn't much of a pipeline for people to learn at.

 

[Caribou]

If China cuts us off from trade like Russia cut off Europe we'll be in as big a hurt as Europe is. I don't care about the Walmart crap nearly as much as the microchips and medication that our leaders have let go to the control of our enemy.

 

[Hardcalibres]

........

Hard calibers I agree with your assessment about China. IMO pushing China to become a major economic power was fully intentional many years ago. There is NO WAY the US would have willingly transferred a major portion of their manufacturing base to a communist country otherwise. Certainly not a lot of the production of major military hardware, components, even IC chips, and raw materials. That was about the only way to start weakening the US to the point we will have a hard time fighting a major drawn out war, such as what it would be to go up against China. With their numbers they could bleed us dry and we will run out of materials before long. It'd take 2-5 years to built our industries up to support a war of that type. On top of that where is the skilled labor going to come from to build and maintain that industry. As it is right now, we have a hard time finding instrument technicians. There just isn't much of a pipeline for people to learn at.

I assess that the offshoring trend was >90% about simple economics - labor in China costs/costed a tiny fraction of what labor costs in the US.

The senior executives of US corporations could have kept the manufacturing in the US - but they wanted those big profit linked bonuses more.

Consumers in the US could have voted to keep manufacturing in the US by choosing to buy only US made products - but they wanted that cheap junk more.

Part of growing Western decadence has been this trend to assume that these big problems are beyond individual responsibility (ie up to some one else to fix) and to just think about the present - well the future is almost here - and almost no one in the West can claim innocence for what is coming.

I also doubt the US could recreate any significant proportion of that lost manufacture - people in the West are well past wanting the hard work that those jobs were about.

Once upon a time, we might have hoped that robotics would make local manufacture possible again - but the reality is that even those products would have to be made offshore now.

 

[angie_nrs]

America has already been infiltrated from within. China controls congress (think Feinstein and Swalwell) and big business including Big Pharma. All that money increasing the net worth of legislators comes from somewhere, even at the State level. They hide in the shadows so that the regular American doesn't see it, but they are there calling the shots and making us weaker by the day. There's a reason Biden is burying us. It's not an accident.