The End of America

by Pete Thorsen

  On the news they listed many more cities and counties throughout the nation that were filing for bankruptcy. The federal government was now going to expand their Homeland Security “Fusion Centers’ to include local policing. They said with cities, counties, and states cutting back so much that police coverage in the United States was really suffering.

  Their plan is for all policing to be done by federal officers who will replace local police, Sheriff’s departments, and State Police units. This will have to be a gradual change and many existing deputies and police officers will get additional training and orientation so they can keep their jobs but will now be federal officers. This will be a boon to local governments by saving them all the money spent on their police forces.

  I am having a hard time believing what I just heard on the news. Has no one ever heard of the US Constitution? Local policing is NOT part of the federal government’s job. I have bad feelings about this change. And where is the federal government getting all this money for this huge program? We now have a national debt of nineteen point nine trillion dollars already, an amount that we could never repay, ever.

  The Affordable Health Care Act has proven to be such a boondoggle that it has cost the United States trillions of dollars. There happened to be a provision in that piece of legislation that said the US government would cover any loss of profit for the health insurance companies due to the changes made by the law. This first year the government handed over to the insurance companies a cool trillion dollars. It seems that healthy people did not sign up for insurance and all the sick ones signed up for the best plans that basically covered everything. The losses incurred by the companies were real and would have to be paid for the next two or three years yet by the federal government.

  Plus all those people put on Medicaid thanks to the new health care law which the Fed paid about half the amount of and the states paid the other half. Millions went on Medicaid including all the illegals here in this country illegally!

  The number of people on food stamps was reported tonight as now up to seventy nine million. Where is all that money coming from? With so many out of work or working only part time there would be very little tax money for local or national governments either one. This can not possibly end well.

  Chapter Four

  Is this even America anymore? They just announced on the evening news that-

  “The US Congress today passed and the President has already signed the Retirement Savings Safety Act. The US government to insure that citizens of this country will not lose all their retirement funds in this time of economic turmoil will now require all retirement and pension accounts to contain at least fifty percent US government bonds.

  This will insure that even if the stock markets or other investment vessels collapse at least half of everyone’s retirement will be safe with the full backing of the US government. Because of the highly volatile nature of the current financial markets this will take effect immediately but brokers, businesses, and individuals will have forty five days to comply with this new law.”

  This is something that is done by dictators in banana republics not by the United States of America. There apparently is no Constitution anymore; they have proved that again and again. No wonder we have no local police or county Sheriffs anymore; the feds had this all planned for some time.

  I had suspected something was afoot when the Feds took over policing in the country. With the dissolution of all police departments and Sheriff’s departments into the all new Interstate Security Agency. This will make the stock market crash. Most retirement plans have a lot invested in the stock market and when those plans sell a lot of their stocks and with everyone doing so at the same time the market has to fall.

  And when it starts to fall fear will likely set in to make it worse. When the markets open on Monday everyone will see just how ‘highly volatile’ those markets are. Tomorrow is Saturday and I’m off work so I will try to cash out my IRA. And I will also take all our savings out of the bank. I don’t trust the government at all anymore.

  It is impossible to say what draconian act they will do next. I have a distinct feeling that there will be a Firearms Safety Act passed in the very near future now that we no longer have a Constitution anymore. While I am in town I’ll stock up on a bunch of ammunition tomorrow before they ‘save’ us from guns and ammo too. Flo agreed with everything I was planning but she did not want to ride with me in the morning.

  The bank was packed when I got there today. I calmly waited my turn which came quickly because I was in line when they opened. I was directed to the office of one of the many ‘vice presidents’ and was again shocked at the audacity and lawlessness of the federal government.

  “Hi, Frank. I want to cash out my IRA to pay some bills.”

  “Obviously normally that would not be a problem but the government has put a temporary ‘freeze’ on early disbursement in all retirement plans.”

  “Frank there is no possible way that is legal and you know it.”

  “Gil the bank’s hands are tied on this issue. We have no choice except to comply. They sent all banks a memo and any bank that does not comply will be dropped by the FDIC. And legally no bank can operate in the US without being backed by the FDIC. So they basically said comply or go out of business. The fact that I totally agree with you only makes this harder on us.”

  “How about regular savings accounts?”

  “No change as of right now. But I have a feeling they will step in to prevent bank runs either Monday or the next day. So yes, you can withdraw the total amount today.”

  Frank was nodding his head as he said this.

  “Yes I’ll close out my savings today.”

  “Do you have a safety deposit box with us?”

  “Yes we do. I should empty that too shouldn’t I?”

  “I could never recommend such a thing of course.”

  Frank was again nodding his head as he spoke.

  “I happen to have my key with when I grabbed these other bank papers from home. I should just look in there so I remember what it contains.”

  “That is a good idea to check it every so often. I’ll help you with that first and then we’ll go to a teller and cash out that savings account.”

  Frank provided a bag ‘just in case’ I wanted to take anything from my safety deposit box. After that was done we went to a teller and I cashed out the savings. While I was talking to the teller Frank looked at my checking account and said.

  “You seem to have more in your checking account than you normally carry in there.”

  It was plain he thought I should take some or most out of the checking account also. I’m slow but not a total idiot so I took all the checking account money out except for what I knew I needed for a check I had wrote out yesterday plus a little. After that check cleared I would only have ten or twenty dollars left in there until my next check was direct deposited.

  I sincerely thanked Frank for his help and left the bank. I did stop and buy a good supply of ammunition on the way home. I had gone through the limited number of guns I had and took a quick inventory of the ammunition that I had at home last night. I figured this would very likely be a one time only chance to get any ammunition I ever wanted so I bought quite a bunch for every gun I owned.

  When I got home I told her about everything that happened at the bank.

  “Frank obviously thinks drastic things will be happening very soon. I trust his thoughts because they are same as mine. We should try to think of anything we can do to get ready for what we don’t even know is coming. Does that make any sense?”

  “Well you got all the cash we have available. The IRA is likely gone forever. There will never be any Social Security for either one of us in the future. You still have your job and that will still support us at least until who know what next happens. There is no chance whatever that I could find a job at this point.”

  “I agree with all that. I’m thinking we should maybe spend some of this money w
e have now on things that will help us or things that will not be available in the future.”

  “Do you think things will get so bad there is no electric power?”

  “If the power did go off we could get by. We have the gas range in the kitchen for cooking and heat if necessary, and the wood stove for heat or even to cook on if it came down to that. I still have the hand pump that I could put on the well so we would have plenty of water, it just would not be very handy. We have some oil lamps but could use some more lamp oil. We could try to find some more garden seeds but it is a little early for them to be out yet in the stores.”

  “We should buy a bunch more canning lids and some more jars. I have some but we should get more. We should buy more toilet paper and socks and underwear for each of us. I could get some more thread.”

  “I still have some fishing gear but I should buy some fishing line because what I have is likely rotten by now. I could walk down to the river to go fishing. We should fill all the gas cans we have and put some fuel stabilizer in it so it will last awhile. I’ll probably have to use the chain saw to get more firewood for next winter. I’ll check the propane tanks and see if they are down enough to get them refilled.”

  “Maybe we should buy even more food even though we have quite a bit right now. We should maybe drive all the way over to Walmart and just walk the isles some tomorrow. I agree things are happening so fast that who knows what will happen next week or the week after. All the stuff we said so far is stuff we would need to buy anyway sooner or later.”

  “That’s a good idea. We will drive to Walmart tomorrow and spend some time shopping in there.”

  “I think we should take your pickup just in case we buy too much stuff to fit in the car.”

  “OK the pickup it is.”

  So this morning we left for Walmart in the pickup. We started shopping and it wasn’t long before Flo sent me back to pickup another cart because the first one was about full. When the second one was also full we kept shopping but just wrote things down on a list then when we had gone through the entire store we took turns watching the full carts while the other shopped. We ended up with five very full carts at the check out.

  Flo suggested and I agreed to use our credit card. We asked for assistance to get the carts out and someone was called to help us out with the carts. We put all the stuff in the back of the pickup and I covered it with a tarp that I had brought with for just that purpose. Nearby was a dollar store and we stopped there and bought a bunch of useful stuff. That amounted to quite a bit too when we were done.

  Then our next stop was a regular old hardware store to pick up a few things on our list that we had not yet found (like strike-anywhere matches). They had just got in the seeds and we were one of their first seed customers which was extra good because the rack had not yet been picked over. We used our credit card for all purchases including filling the truck gas tank on the way home. Finally done we headed home. That shot the whole day by the time we got everything put away.

  That evening on the news they said there had been a cyber attack on several of the nation’s banks. It was the most serious attack to date and all banks in the United States would have to be closed on Monday to assess and repair the damage done by the attack.

  With the banks closed the US stock exchanges would also be closed. What a load of bull. When we heard the announcement Flo and I looked at each other and shook our heads. If the government wanted to have a ‘bank holiday’ why didn’t they just say so instead of lying about some bogus ‘cyber attack’.

  While I was at work the next day Flo called the propane company to have them come and fill our tanks. She told them there was no rush but they said the truck would be nearby tomorrow anyway and would stop then. On the way home I stopped and filled the gas cans I had brought with. I again used the credit card. When I got home I added stabilizer to all the gas cans to make it last longer being stored.

  Tonight on the news they said though they were working day and night on the bank’s computer problems they would be closed again on Tuesday. I don’t think they can get away with many more days using this excuse and I would think the banks will have to open on Wednesday. I wonder what new illegal restrictions will be in place when they reopen?

  Sure enough on Tuesday night the President himself came on TV with a ‘special announcement’.

  “Good evening. As you know the banks have been closed for two days due to a serious cyber attack. The banks will open again in morning at their regular times but this situation is still not totally resolved and I have signed several Executive Orders to address the remaining problems.

  Most account information has been compromised and there is a chance thieves could steal money right from your accounts with the banks thinking that it was you removing that money. For that reason there will be temporary restraints on funds in the banks. Because stolen money is most often moved out of the country all movement of money out of the United States will be temporarily halted. No money transfers, no money wires, no transfers of funds of any type out of the USA. International businesses can contact their banks and exceptional arrangements may be made in some cases.

  This does not affect any money coming into the United States. Also because thieves always want to use cash there will be limits in place on cash withdrawals at all banks. The limit is five hundred dollars for individuals and one thousand dollars for licensed businesses per week.

  Again you can contact your bank and exceptional arrangements may be made in some cases. Hopefully these problems will be cleared up soon and these exceptional measures can be dropped but for now to unsure the safety of your money these restrictions will remain in place. This in no way puts limits on your credit card use, on your debit card use, check usage, direct deposits, or in-country bank transfers. Thank you for your patience during this cyber crisis.”

  Well that clears things up on what their next step will be. These restrictions will never be dropped but more restrictions might be coming down the road at any time. Then I thought I knew what had happened.

  “The United States is broke. That is what this is all about I bet.”

  “What do you mean ‘broke’? We have been way in debt for awhile now. I know the twenty one trillion we owe is a lot but how can we be broke?”

  “That is what the retirement fund money grab was all about. Pension and retirement funds amount to close to twenty trillion dollars in the United States. They said they would take half of that so about ten trillion. But I don’t know if that would be enough so they are not letting any money leave the USA now but they are letting it in.

  I’m guessing other countries realized we could never make good on all of our debt and they are trying to dump all the US bonds and currency they have now. The stock market will crash. It will likely lose seventy five percent of its value at least. When the markets crash the banks and insurance companies that are all heavily invested in the markets both here and abroad will go bankrupt. And when the US stock markets collapse it will domino to all the markets throughout the world.

  The whole world will fall into total economic collapse. All the fiat money that every country has been printing gobs of will be about worthless. International sellers will not accept other countries currency for payment, at least for awhile. Right now just about all international trade is done with the American dollar but that will stop. Maybe at some point things might straighten out again but in the mean time it will be a very rough time everywhere both here and in other countries.”

  “How long will things be bad here?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know if things will ever be the same again. Ever.”

  “But you’re just guessing. It might be just what the President said. And even if the currency does fall apart things might not get so bad. And obviously they will do everything they can to get everything back to normal as soon as possible.”

  “Hey I hope I’m totally wrong about this. We will see what happens tomorrow. I think the stock market will fall
so much they will shut it down early. Anyway we have already done everything we could do.”

  “I guess you’re right that we can do nothing else right now except see what the future brings.”

  Chapter Five

  The next day the Dow dropped over three thousand points before they stopped trading. The Dow had dropped so fast that controls that were in place kicked in and stopped all trades for a two hour ‘cooling off’ period. When trades started again the market fell even faster causing them to close early for the day. Flo and I watched the news together that night and I never said ‘I told you so’. There was no pleasure in being right. The news did not say much about the rest of the world other than to say ‘the markets were lower in other world markets today’.

  “I believe things are going to get pretty bad. I wish I thought that they wouldn’t but that just isn’t the case. I am so glad we live in the country instead of in the city.”

  “No matter what happens we will be way better off than most people. Thank goodness we prepared as much as we did.”

  “I agree we did what we could to get ready but we were pretty late getting started. Now I see that those people that I thought were loony about getting ready for the end of the world were not so loony after all. Too bad we did not start getting ready a couple years ago.”

  “Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. We saw what was coming just soon enough to really help ourselves. If we had started a couple years ago that could have been better but we are still sitting pretty good here.”

  “Yes we are not sitting too badly. We have wood and propane that will last us through next winter if we are a little stingy with them. We have a lot of food on hand and the means to grow more and harvest nature’s meat. We have enough gas on hand for me to harvest more firewood and haul it home. If we can keep everything we have it will hold us for some time.”