Can America Survive 32 more Months of This?

It amazes me how far the United States has fallen in the sixteen months since Joe Biden’s inauguration. A third of the way through his term, we have twice that long to wait before the next inauguration.

Thirty-two months until another president takes office. That’s a long time before someone rescinds policies designed to promote green energy at the expense of oil and natural gas. If gasoline prices have almost tripled since Biden was elected, how high will they go in the next thirty-two months? How many independent truck drivers will still be on the road in January 2025? Are we expected to live through three more winters of the highest energy prices on record?

How high will inflation be by the time Joe leaves office? Will it be fifteen percent? Twenty? Fifty?

Will the economy have collapsed by then? How many people will have lost their jobs, or their homes? How far will the stock market have dropped? Will there be any farmers still producing food, or will they have all gone bankrupt? If there is food on the shelf, will you be able to afford it?

Will there still be war in Ukraine, and will our tax dollars still be supplying them with weapons? Will China have invaded Taiwan?

I am shocked at the rapid rate of collapse brought on by the policies of the Biden Administration. It appears as if everything he has done has damaged the country.

Killing Fossil Fuels

On his first day in office, President Biden revoked the permit for the Keystone pipeline and started reversing all the pro-fossil fuel policies his predecessor had put into place. He also implemented drilling restrictions and tighter fuel economy standards. Under President Trump, the country became a net exported of oil and gas, producing more than we could consume. As a result, the price of gas was less than $2 per gallon.

Biden also re-joined the Paris Climate accord on his first day in office, which requires the U.S. to slash its greenhouse emissions and meet aggressive standards. The only way to achieve this is by using less coal, gas and oil.

Oil and gas producers, drillers, exploration companies, and distribution companies got the message and stopped investing money on a product the President hated. That had an immediate impact as companies stropped investing in oil and gas production. Now, less than 18 months later, when the country needs more gas and oil, there is none to be found. Joe shut it down.

He also burned our bridges with Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest oil producers and a long-time ally of the United States. Biden insulted the Crown Prince, calling Mohammed bin Salman a pariah. He also stated the U.S. would no longer sell them weapons after he was president and ended U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. As a result, Saudi Arabia has done nothing to ease the global oil shortage. Now Biden must go begging to countries like Venezuela looking for oil, further reducing the United States’ stature on the world stage.

If you’re looking for the reason gas prices were high before the Russians invaded Ukraine, there they are.

Making us Look Weak

When he bungled the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden showed the world that we would not stand by an ally, and he made the United States look weak. Do you think it is a coincidence that Russia invaded Ukraine less than six months after we ran from Afghanistan with our tail between our legs, leaving billions of dollars of military equipment behind? We not only turned our backs on the Afghan security forces, we turned our back on their people, including many who helped us. Today, they are starving while the Taliban drive around in new U.S. armored vehicles and carry new M4s instead of old AK-47s.

The rapidness with which the collapse of the Afghan government took place also made it appear that our intelligence agencies were weak. Regardless of whether it was their predictions that were wrong or Biden and his team ignored them, when we came out a few months later and said Russia was going to invade Ukraine, most of the world didn’t believe us.

Have you noticed that Putin invaded Crimea when President Obama, who chose not to enforce the line hew drew in the sand, was in office and then invaded Ukraine while Biden was president, but stayed quiet when Trump was president? Do you think that’s another coincidence?

We are Being Invaded

Pallets of baby formula, which cannot be found on store shelves, are being shipped by the government to the border to feed to feed babies who are not legally in this country. In effect, the Biden Administration is putting illegal aliens ahead of its citizens. That’s not a bad summary for their immigration policy.

On his first day in office, Biden issued an executive order that revoked many of the policies President Trump used to slow illegal immigration. Then his acting DHS secretary issued a 100-day pause in deportations. That, combined with the welcoming language Biden used during the campaign, created a wave of immigrants that flooded the border.

Once immigrants arrived here, Biden refused to obey U.S. law and return male Mexicans to Mexico. Instead, many were bundled onto airplanes and shipped them across the U.S. Biden’s Spokesperson, Jen Psaki, then lied about it in a press briefing, saying only unaccompanied children were on the planes. Well, everyone is somebody’s child, but a 32-year-old isn’t considered a child.

Let’s Not Forget the Inflation

Biden inherited an economy that was bouncing back from a year of COVID closures. The market had recovered, jobs were coming back, and people were beginning to feel confident about the future. In less than a year, there were signs that the Biden spending plans were causing inflation, yet he wanted to spend more. Trillions of dollars more to “build back better.”

There are two sides to the inflation problem: too much money and not enough supply. A president who wanted to control inflation could attack the supply side of the problem by making it easier to produce more. A president who wanted to keep inflation low would stop dis-incentivizing oil production and fracking and would expedite drilling permits and pipelines. This would not only lower food costs by reducing the transportation costs of just about every other item. Prices for fertilizer, plastics, packaging, and energy would fall.

A president who wanted to see Americans with plenty of food on their plates would help farmers and meat producers make more food, not criticize and blame them for the problem. If Biden wanted to bring people together, he could make them all wealthier and improve our standard of living. Instead, he is concentrating on attacking the rich, harming the business that employ people, and giving free money and services to people who are not citizens and should not be in the country.

The Lesson of Joe Manchin

We have Senator Joe Manchin to thank that inflation isn’t twice its current rate. He almost single handedly stopped the Build Back Better program and a few other votes that Biden and his left-wing Democratic party tried to pass. Legislation that would have exacerbated inflation and harmed the economy.

That’s an important lesson. That shows you how important it is that the Republicans get a majority in both the house and the senate in the elections later this year.

I will not sit here and tell you that everything will be rosy if we elect Republicans, but right now, the only way to stop the progressive agenda espoused by President Biden (or those behind the curtain that are pulling the strings) is to get rid of the Democratic majority.

That might not stop the bleeding, but it should stop the damage from getting worse.

The then question becomes, can we–as a country and as individuals–hang on until someone with more sense than Joe Biden comes along and changes things for the better? And let me state for the record, if Kamala Harris ends up president in the interim, she is unlikely to be an improvement.

Can you Last Another Thirty-Two Months?

If things keep going just like they are, can you make it another three years?

What if gasoline hits $10 or $12 a gallon next year, food costs double, and inflation hits 25 percent? How long can you last then? How long can you heat your house if energy costs continue to skyrocket? Are you ready to cut back on buying almost everything and doing almost nothing that costs money? Do you have a side gig if you lose your primary job due to a recession, or worse, a depression?

Are you prepared if China invades Taiwan? It would not surprise me to see China launch an invasion in the last half of Biden’s presidency when he is at his weakest. Are you able to live without all those “made in China” items? How much prescription medication do you have on hand in case supplies dry up?

When Should You Use your Preps?

This kind of slow disaster we expect over the next few years differs from a catastrophe that strikes in moments. That changes everything. This changes some things, leaving us in a strange in-between place where you don’t know if you should use your preps or not.

Your preps are there to save your life, so if you reach the point where you cannot afford food, cannot pay for heat, or might be in danger of losing your house, use your preps.

For example, I would not eat from my prepper pantry four days a week, so I could afford to eat steak the other three, but I would use those resources if I had no other way to feed my family. I’d eat rice and beans, macaroni and cheese, oatmeal, and other low-cost foods from the grocer before I relied on my food pantry. When the time comes that I cannot afford those, I would use my preps. If we end up like Venezuela, where you cannot even buy the basics like flour and sugar, then I would turn to my prepper pantry. That’s what it is there for.

Likewise, I would try to negotiate with the bank, take advantage of federal or state programs, and fight foreclosure, but if I had no other alternative, I would sell some guns, some ammo, or my few rolls of silver if it bought me some time and started the eviction and foreclosure process all over again. (I expect all three of them would have appreciated in value in that scenario.) Besides, in that kind of situation, your bank might go bankrupt before you do.

Look for Ways to Escape the System

During the next thirty-two months, and for some time beyond that, things are going to be rough. What is bad today will probably get worse. While it may be getting late to prepare extensively by stocking up, it is never too late to prepare mentally.

Prepare yourself and your family to weather the worst. Prepare to do without things you think are important, but you can live without. Find ways to acquire food without going to the store. Find a way to escape the rules that apply to everyone else. For example, install a wood stove (search eBay, Craigslist, FB marketplace, or antique stores for a used model near you), and spend your weekends chopping firewood to cut your heating bill.

Find costs you can cut, like reducing your insurance coverage or raising your deductible. Scale back your phone plan or see if you can get on a “family plan” with someone else to save. Audit your credit card bills and ditch some of your subscription services. Speaking of credit cards, don’t use them to finance your lifestyle. Rising costs are not an excuse to run up your bill.

Look for low-cost or no-cost ways in which to entertain yourself. For example, your library might loan you eBooks, which you can download and read without leaving your house. They might also have DVDs. Explore hobbies that can pay for themselves or maybe even earn you a little on the side.

Be Resilient

Just when we thought COVID was over and things were going to get back to normal, we get slammed with inflation, an energy crisis, a food shortage, a border crisis, a war, and the threat of more. Worse, after reading this, you may agree that we’ve got more bad news ahead of us. We can’t stop it, but we can prepare ourselves to face it. We can strengthen our hearts and our minds to persevere, to sacrifice, to be tough and independent, and to survive.

The next few years may be bad. It could be the worst you’ve ever seen, but that doesn’t mean people haven’t lived through worse. Eventually, things will get better. Things may improve after this year’s election. Maybe in thirty-two months. Maybe in seven years. In the grand scheme of things, when viewed in the totality of your lifetime, that’s not very long. You can get through it if you don’t give in. Be tough, be resilient, be prepared, and be patient. One day, you will look around and realize the worst is behind you.

Our job as preppers is to make it to that day.