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Let's talk disintermediation
My sense these days is that nobody except me and maybe a few others work on fridays in America, especially on a cold and icy day like today. It is a slow day. So...let's talk disintermediation.
dis·in·ter·me·di·a·tion
noun. reduction in the use of intermediaries between producers and consumers, for example by investing directly in the securities market rather than through a bank.
Here is a recent illustration of the benefit of traditional intermediation, such as investing through a bank. Some other traditional intermediaries are Catholic priests, corporate farms, and your local police. Together, these represent four areas that I find particularly interesting when it comes to thinking about disintermediation:
- Wealth/Capital (gold, bitchezzz!!!)
- Relationship with a higher power (God, bitchezzz!!!)
- Food (garden, bitchezzz!!!)
- Security (guns, bitchezzz!!!)
Over the years, I have found many ways to practice disintermediation in each of these areas. I have written articles and comments and posted photos on Zerohedge about some of these efforts. Today, I invite you to discuss with me our successes, failures, and hopes in the comments section below. I am thinking this will be similar to an open thread, except I would like us to keep to the topic of practicing disintermediation as much as possible.
Here are a few examples to get us started:
- A great way to safely store a little gold is by placing 1/10th ounce krugerrands in an L.L. Bean money belt, and hanging it in the closet with a bunch of other belts. Hiding in plain sight, and readily portable.
- I found it helpful to write a Gratitude List of the things I am most thankful for, and placing it in a place where I see it every day, not just in the church on Sundays. In my experience, Veggie Tales is right...a thankful heart is a happy heart.
- Most places in America still have a county agriculture extension office where one can get a list of the plants that grow well locally, when to plant them, when to harvest them, how to protect them from pests, and how to fertilize them, etc.
- For home security, it is hard to beat a 12 gauge shotgun, loaded with 00 buck, and a weapon mounted light. However, familiarity with a shotgun gained by target shooting or hunting is highly unlikely to provide one with the ability to effectively use the weapon for defensive purposes, and When you are Suddenly Surrounded by Violence and Killing It's Too Late to Train, so take a Tactical Shotgun Course. It is a load of fun, and you will be suprised to learn that getting the hit on big-slow badguys, when it counts, is often much more difficult than hitting little-fast birdies.
Health and education are two other areas that come to mind where disintermediation can serve us well.
This may be a disaster, but let's see how it goes...
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Thanks for the laughs, you could get a job writing for The Onion.
Trained by the US Military, and everything I write, is 100% real.
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4 years the best yet, ... but do you know why you make that statement?
Because as Mark Twain say's "Truth is always more strange and wild than fiction"
Nothing, I ever write about is not something that I have lived or seen.
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In the face of real knowledge, fools will always laugh, but men of wisdom will know the truth when they see it.
I think a few other warriors today on this site, ... concur that I have been there, and seen it, and lived it.
The trouble is pussy's think they know, but they don't know shit, ... like the guy today here talking about flashing his light, fuck all you got to do is 'rack' a pump-shotgun, its a universal sound, and any real man, knows what I'm saying; only a pussy would not know.
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I ask, is this fight-club, or pussy-club? You decide?
You are the reincarnation of Johnny Bravo, aren't you?
My other guess is Johnny Rico...
How is your girlfriend? Or did ya'll split up?
THE BEST HOME DEFENSE is to live next to the local chief of police's house.
THE BEST HOME DEFENSE WEAPON is a 22 LR pistol or rifle.
Cheap, high capacity, fast, light weight, affordable, not going to go through your neighbors walls, and if you hit somebody with a single 22 round and they are not going to want to fight anymore and hopefully they will recover and not die. And your house is not going to need expensive cleaning like it would with a shotgun.
Shotguns are big, bulky, relatively low cartridge capacity, slow to reload, require good depth perception to be accurate at various ranges due to arc travel of the shot, and even slugs may not penetrate even thin sheets of metal, say an aluminium sign. Shotguns are not even drop safe. That's what I learned owning a mossberg 500. A 20 guage would probably be a better choice than a 12 guage, and just as effective.
To my mind a shotgun compared to a 22 LR is like a big, noisy Harley chopper compared to a motocross dirt bike.
Having said all that, my favorite weapon: I never loved any firearm more than the HK P7M13. Fixed barrel, great front sights, almost as accurate as a rifle. Very safe with its squeeze cocker. A bit heavy and it shoots hot after a couple magazines but what a great gun. So great they stopped making them because nobody who owned one ever bought another gun, and now they are collectables.
Remember, a wise man walks with his head bowed. Humble, like the dust.
LIVE SOMEWHERE SAFE IS ALWAYS THE BEST STRATEGY. BE INVISIBLE, DONT MAKE ENEMIES, enjoy your life dont live as in a chalrles bronson movie, that's not a life.
laosuwan
"THE BEST HOME DEFENSE is to live next to the local chief of police's house."
Are you out of your fucking mind?
No but I am out of the usa
private community with two crusiers parked at the one entrance each night. zero crime.
You're clear on the fact that the cop is crime, right?
not in this country, it isn't. back in asia, yes. in usa, sure. but here, no. that's why I say its where you live that makes you safe, not how many guns you have.
So what is happening with the honeybees? Why are they all dying off in what is called colony collapse disorder. No one talks about this or it's economic impact because no one wants to talk about this. I come from the land and I see things happening that should not be happening. I am not the only one who sees the issue but must be damned close to the only one who does. Losing pollinators is a far bigger deal than peak oil or global warming. It is time to think about this because without pollinators you will not eat.
I blame fipronil. I used to have to have a license from BASF to sell fipronil and the buyer also had to have a license. To obtain the license you had to take a class that BASF provided and pass a test. I am no fan of licenses but it was BASF who required the license and not the .gov. 2008 happened and BASF abandonded this practice; now you can find fipronil in many RTU insecticides at Wal-mart. Every homeowner Joe is spraying it everywhere without realizing what it is that they are spraying.
Fipronil is amazingly effective on social insects because it does not kill right away and easily spreads throughout the nest. It only takes one insect to take it back the nest and wipe the colony out. Used properly by someone who knows what they are doing, this chemical is amazing in what it can do. If you have ants chewing on your house, they will be fucked and you do not need to use much.
The disintermediation here is that do we really need Wal-mart and other retailers to be selling this chemical to people who do not understand the chemical's mode of action?
And we should all be doing our part by learning about, and then keeping bees. It is extremely rewarding.
I've noticed CCD for years now. For the past 10 yrs, I could count the honey bees on 1 hand that I've seen. About the same for bumble bees. There are a few more mason's. It's not just the bees. Look around & the bird & butterfly population isn't what it used to be either. I'm blaming the chemtrails & RF radiation from smart meters & cell towers being put up every fricken mile. None can home with it.
Read bioinitiativereport.org/conclusions then take readings of your house for both RF & dirty electricity. The sheer number of maladies are mind boggling. We are being FRIED. Great for ACA & the medical industrial complex.
I think it was MsCreant that has planted a good habitat to attract bees. I'm going to give it a shot this year with clover. Can't hurt.
It is so neat. I am not lying, thousands of bees (and a sprinkling of butterfies and moths too). I have red and a little bit of the lavender. You had asked if there was a beekeeper around, and there was indeed one, but his hives are over a mile away. Just so you have all the facts before you go for it. Clover is great for so many reasons.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/12/healing-properties-red-clover/
I hope you share your results with me.
Many thanks!
isn't it amazing????
Anyone can walk into a supermarket anywhere in the world and buy chemicals that can wipe out nature but to sell insurance or cut someone's hair you have to study for years and you need a license and have to take a test?
this is what happens when you combine democracy and corporations.
I've always thought it highly ironic Roundup has a picture of a dandelion which is one of the most nutritious plants in the world. People want a pristine perfect lawn to impress the neighbors and poison their pets, children and themselves to achieve it. Ultimately, when the pollinators are gone I guess they can eat their poison grass.
Miffed;-)
Yeah. Dandelions are great and I encourage them in my garden. Baby leaf in the shade is very tasty. Roots are good for you too.
So do not disintermediate the Orkin man?
Some additional plans for home security:
#1 a dog. For example.
Imagine a dog that's been trained to for sure identify family members and be friendly with them, yet to identify anyone else as enemy/food.
Add in a trap that squirts BBQ sauce at the intruder, train the dog to attack dummies covered in BBQ sauce and... this will gladly complement a shotgun.
#2 a trap. Such as:
a potato-gun rig modified so instead of firing a potato it fires a spike. The same kind of pipe used to fire the potato... make a smaller or larger pipe section to be fired with a pointy thing on the end.
And mount it UNDER the floor. With a nice convenient hole to go up through.
Caution: if you have pets or children this may not be worth the risk.
If you DON'T, most intruders (even police-state storm-troopers) do NOT wear body armor protecting from an upward projectile. It does exist but it's cumbersome so most don't think they ought to use it.
x
In my house I am never more than three steps from either a gun or an edged weapon. We have had home invasions in my town of 110K. One was so violent on a family that had moved in three weeks earlier to a new construction home that they just walked away from it. A month later a mover showed up and packed their things. It doesn't matter where you live any longer. It is a damn shame. As to knowing your neighbors it is huge. As to efficacy of the 12ga pump gun I am all for it. I shot a large male coyote coming to my call at a dead run almost in self defense as he wasnt slowing down. He was at 20 yards dead run at me coming to my mouse squeaks when I hit him full in the chest and face with 3inch #4 buckshot. He did two full somersaults backwards and what was left of him was not worth trying to skin out. My 12ga pump has 00 buck and is among other weapons in the home. If all hell really is to break loose I am on the road and getting the hell out of the Chicago suburbs. Trouble is my other family members are in farm country in either MIchigan or Ohio. If you look at a map I pretty much have to get around or through Chicago to go east. Oh well, hope it doesn't come to that. I have been once in a situation where my life was threatened by another individual in a mugging situation. I already had one foot in my car and one hand on the steering well when a hand appeared on my shoulder. If I had a handgun I wouldhnt have had time to draw. I backhanded him in the nose as hard as I have ever hit anyone and heard his head hit concrete and I drove off. This was in beautiful Detroit around 7 mile road at 5 in the morning on my way to work. Believe it or not I had one half second notice as I got a strong smell of alcohol. That probably got my adrenalin going enough to do that kind of damage with back of closed hand. I was picking up a guy who worked for me and he lived in the hood. Defending your life man to man is not something to relish but needs doing. I pray every day for our land, our leadership or lack of it and our future. I am running on here, thanks Hedgeless.
beerhunter
"I shot a large male coyote coming to my call at a dead run almost in self defense as he wasnt slowing down. He was at 20 yards dead run at me coming to my mouse squeaks when I hit him full in the chest and face with 3inch #4 buckshot. He did two full somersaults backwards and what was left of him was not worth trying to skin out."
Oh bullshit.
You computer ass-hats can talk tough from your easy chairs tapping on a keyboard and sipping your malt. You talk tough but when you are faced with someone who is going to kill you, 99% of you will piss your pants and your shotgun will be taken away from you, shoved up your ass and your brains blown out.
This is a lot more complicated and takes a lot more courage than you could ever imagine or have.
jmk
I'm not an asshat
I am not in an easy chair
I sip no malt
I do not talk tough
I am not talking about being faced with someone trying to kill me
I am not a pants pisser
I responded to an obviously false hunting story. It wasn't about being attacked by an enemy. It was a fake story about shooting an animal. I said the obvious: it's a false story.
U n d e r s t a n d ?
Bedbugs. I have a friend who looks over my place in Wisconsin and I just talked to him. I was checking with him on the place and he had just returned from a Syngenta sponsered fishing event in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. The event is a comp for paying way too much for Syngenta products, i.e. bribe. My friend stated that he thinks that he was attacked by bedbugs in the hotel because he ended up getting all of these bite marks on him. This is not good.
I have spent many years in the chemical industry in sales and I have attended symposiums on the recurrence of bedbugs. Everything my friend said matched what bedbugs do. He stated to me that he didn't think it was that big of problem and really was not aware. I asked how many bites he had and he said around 15. That is a major infestation. I asked him where his suitcase was and he had left it in his truck over night in the sub zero temps. Good.
Bedbugs are almost impossible to get rid of once you have them in your domicile. I am not sure how you can disintermediate some insects other than avoiding them. With all of the international travel these days, bedbugs spread like dandelion seed. What are we planning on doing about that?
This is what you need: Diatomaceous Earth Food Grade 10 Lb
It will take a few weeks to solve the bedbug problem, but this all natural approach will work.
DE works great. also in the garden.
bed bugs are making a major comeback since DDT was banned and by then everyone had forgoten how to do natural control.
DE works for flea control on daags.
In asia we drag out the matress or sheets and hang them in the sun all day, ... bed-bugs gone and dead.
But this way for 15,000 years or more, its called SUNSHINE, almost all indoor pests hate the sun.
Thank-you for a serious post. We are all worried about the future, for ourselves, children and grand children.
I 2nd that. Well done Horseman. I would venture to say that you might have got a lot smarter since you quit drinking?
Given your self sufficiency studies (I'm working on getting out of the city at the moment, so looking at all kinds of stuff) you may (or may not) find this interesting, regarding soil health.
Can't know too much!
At risk of being off topic as it relates to prepping (tho I have)..
I was at an industry conference the past three days, one that I had not attended in several years, I was struck by the radical change occuring in product distribution. Dis-intermediation decribes it succinctly.
There is a revolution taking place wherein traditional two-step distribution (which came about as a means of efficiently getting goods from manufacturer to consumer) is going away. The 'Warehouse Distributors' were individually owned entities selling to separately owned 'Mom & Pop' stores.
The old model is in it's death throes, not yet gone but increasingly unable to compete with more the efficient model of manufacturer direct to consumer via the web, utilizing ever more efficient logistics (one of which is, surprisingly, USPS).
Great Post HH
lex
Cool name.
I wouldn't quite call that disintermediation: the cost may be hidden for the extra layer, especially combined costs are lower than previous models, but cost isn't the question.
Disintermediation means removal of that layer because it has a risk-cost: not every time does it happen but when the middle-man is needed & won't show up, for various reasons, you need to directly supply yourself. Then what do you do?
Those shippers are that middle layer.
"Once, the people turned their labor and thinking over to their machines, thinking that the machines would set them free. But that only empowered other men, who owned the machines, to once again enslave them".
Excellent.
http://www.inverseengine.com/
Attribution to original thought.
Good call HH. It should make for some interesting conversations. I look forward to reading the posts.
Nice post HH...I'm a huge believer in "What you think about, you bring about." I even wrote that down on a sticky note so I wouldn't forget. Thinking about things which you are grateful for keeps the positive aspects of life front and center...
Indeed, what you think about you bring about.
You will be what you will be.
I hear ya' on the neighbors thing. I'll describe a few of mine for you:
The closest ones live a couple of hundred feet away, and are a very pleasant elderly couple. Totally trust the .gov, can't conceive of it ever going south. Totally unarmed.
The next closest live a couple of hundred yards up the hill, just bought the place a couple months ago. Kommifornia transplants. Enough said.
The next closest live 1/4 mile away, two related sets of inbreds who LOVE cops and the state, worship firemen and teachers, and think that neither public nor private sector unions can do any wrong. The only one of my neighbors that I've gotten to know who I remotely even trust is nearly 70 years old and has a heart condition that would probably be fatal if he gets put under too much stress.
Worse yet, I can't afford to move. Survival for me and mine will be 99% luck. :-(
well, may be, and I've been there, but moving isn't just about dollars.
Fuel, foot-power, bicycle, being able to carry less & get by, hitch-hiking, working for a cruise-liner to get on a ship & not coming back (up to you to go the passport / immigration route to make it 'legal', like that should matter)...
It's ironic the NSA knows each and everyone of us, but, from at least what I've seen, ZHers don't seem to connect that often with each other. Talk about a huge disadvantage...!
Even if I were to meet a fellow ZH denizen out here in FEMA region X, it would be my luck that he would be an FBI stoolie or somesuch attempting to incite me into doing something stupid.
That's why the PTB and NSA fear most the "LONE RANGER", the "LONE WOLF",
The guy that has no friends, they guy that talks to nobody,
Sort of like the guy in V for Vendetta, he got all his stuff to make explosives from conventional sources, no friends means no stools, no tracking, ... not a fucking thing they can do, no mobile, no internet, ...
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The system doesn't fear an army of clowns on the internet, or a group of prepper's in a town hall, the SYSTEM fears the 'lone wolf', cuz NOTHING can stop him,
Bruce Lee used to say "You cannot stop a man who wants to BITE your ear off" ... think about those words of wisdom.
even better: it will be fonestar claiming he can sell you a way out for some bitcoins.
Nicely done, HH, and a fresh way of looking at self-reliance.
Middle men, whether bankers, MDs, whatever, like to be seen as experts. Usually, they are just over-priced gate keepers.
And heres another problem......a lot of the people out here in the country where I live today are from the city. They don't want anything to do with you. They buy their 40 acres and are in their own little world. They think anyone farther than 2 doors down isn't a neighbor. They act like if you live say 2 miles away your in another state. Getting these stupid fucks to band together will be nearly impossible. I'm fortunate we got 3 ducks in a row with a large amount of property however I still insist if things get 'that bad' that LUCK will be 80% of your chances for getting thru it alive.
Try as you might you can only partially prepare for insanity.
And now that we've had our crazy talk as defined by the mainstream will be probably get a QE notice this weekend and 500+ points on the DOW next week and we'll be the crazy ones again as usual. It's hard to stick with a plan when it keeps getting screwed with.
RSNOBLE,
And you'll find out that ten years from now you'll still be "The new folks down the street". It'll take them another twenty years till you're accepted. And then years after that you'll be friends.
That's about right,
On the one hand you can buy rural land near an old buddy, then you fit in fairly quick and get invited to party's and maybe 6 months know everybodcy.
On the other hand, if your an outsider or even worse a 'city slicker', it might take 20 years, but your still 'that guy from the city'.
Rural people never did and never will take to strangers,...its why they survive and you dont'.