""A Perfect Storm Of Violence Is Near": The Revolution Begins...

The Daily Crux:Richard… when we spoke last spring, you suggested the protests and riots in the Middle East were the beginnings of the breakup of the American Empire, and would eventually find their way to the U.S. Sure enough, we saw the “Occupy Wall Street” protests pop up in September, and quickly spread to protests and even riots in almost every major city in the United States.

Now, in a recent issue of your Early Warning Report, you wrote that you believe a “perfect storm of violence is near.” Can you explain?

Richard Maybury: Sure… let’s start with a little background.

I wrote an article for Early Warning Report that appeared in the January 2010 issue – that’s also on our website now – that explains very briefly what Federal Reserve policy does to disrupt the economy.

Essentially, what goes on is the Fed injects money into the economy… but the money does not go to everyone uniformly. Some people get a lot, some get a little, and some get none at all.

Those who receive dollars typically do something with them, meaning they spend them. The Fed at that point no longer has any control over the dollars. The money goes wherever people want it to go. So these injections of money create “hotspots” in the economy. Back in the late ’90s, the tech boom was a symptom of that. The money the Fed had injected was going into tech stocks. In the next decade, it went into real estate.

Those are two examples of gigantic hotspots. But there are always hotspots all over the country that have been created by the Fed and are much smaller and get no publicity. When these hotspots occur, businesses see them and move into them. They establish offices and factories and other kinds of facilities to take advantage of the flows of new money.

If the Fed stops injecting money, the businesses start to go under. You see, in these situations, the businesses themselves are not investments, they’re malinvestments. When the artificial flow of money stops, these malinvestments begin to be shaken out. The corrections start occurring.

I believe that a really, really bad economic crisis – probably followed by a revolution – is highly likely in the United States. We’ve had malinvestment going back almost a century, since the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913… And there’s still a lot of it left over that’s never been shaken out anywhere along the way. It’s still there, and it’s such a big mountain of malinvestment that the Fed can no longer keep it alive.

I think that’s what we’ve been seeing in the economic problems in recent years. The landslide has begun and they can’t stop it. They are just going to keep making things worse until the amount of desperation in the country becomes overwhelming and millions of people are angry.

On top of the malinvestment problem, you have the fact that the welfare state in America is 70 or 80 years old now. And there are millions of people out there who have been taught to believe that the world owes them a living.

The government is broke and can’t continue paying. So at the same time the malinvestment is beginning to shake out, we have millions of people who are expecting to be taken care of… And the government can’t do it anymore.

To me, the two of these together spell revolution… And the protests and riots that we saw last year, I believe, are the beginning.

As you know, I’ve been predicting that these problems were going to produce riots for years. Last year they finally began. And unfortunately, I think it’s going to get a whole lot worse. In my mind, there’s at least an 85% probability that we are going to wind up with a full-blown shooting revolution before this is all over.

Crux: Wow, that’s quite a prediction… and something I guess most Americans would consider impossible.

Maybury: That’s a good point… Americans tend to think that revolutions happen to other people and other countries, but not to us. Well, there’s nothing all that special about this country, at least not anymore. We’ve got the same corruption as other countries now, and we’re going to have to pay the same price for it.

Crux: In your recent issue, you suggested that the cold winter months in the U.S. may cause these riots to calm down until spring, giving folks some extra time to make essential preparations… And so far, this seems to be the case.

Last time, we mostly discussed your investment recommendations – including owning plenty of gold, silver, and platinum bullion coins and generally sticking with investments that benefit from currency debasement and war. We only briefly talked about physical preparedness. Now that you see an imminent threat of unrest here in the U.S., can we talk some more about the physical preparations you recommend?

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Maybury: As I mentioned last time, I’m not suggesting any types of preparations that a prudent person shouldn’t have at all times anyway.

Life is full of uncertainties. There are hurricanes and earthquakes and all sorts of other things that can happen to any of us at any time. So in my opinion, you should always be ready to be self-sufficient for at least a month. Three months would be better, and six months even better. It just depends on what you can afford to do. But the idea is, you should be able to be totally self-sufficient – to be able to get along just fine in your home even if you’re cut off entirely from the rest of the world – for at least a month.

What happens in these kinds of economic and political crises is that a lot of transportation and communications systems get shut down. One of the ways that revolutionaries try to create disruptions is by blowing up power lines.  I would not be surprised to see that sort of thing here. So when I say self-sufficient, I mean even to the point of not having electricity for at least a month.

You should approach preparedness as if there’s going to be some sort of disaster, but you don’t know what it will be. Maybe it’s going to be a hurricane, maybe an earthquake, maybe a revolution, maybe some sort of epidemic.  The goal is to always be ready to be self-sufficient for short periods of times.
 
Crux: Can you share some of the specific preparations you recommend?

Maybury: As far as emergency supplies, you should have at least a month’s worth of food and water. In my opinion, the best food options are from Mountain House Freeze Dried. They have a shelf life of around 30 years if stored in a cool, dry place, they’re fairly good quality as these things go, and you don’t need to cook it.

So if you can afford it, a month’s supply of Mountain House Freeze Dried food is an excellent way to go. It also stores in a small area, which is a big advantage.

Along with food and water, you want to have medical supplies. One thing people often overlook is that in a disaster or crisis situation, the supply of drugs is often cut off. So if there is a type of medication that you absolutely have to have, you should talk to your doctor now about writing a somewhat larger prescription and stocking up, so you have a reserve supply if you ever need it.

In addition to basic necessities, all responsible persons should be able to defend themselves. I think the day is coming when you won’t sleep much at night if you don’t have the ability to protect yourself and your loved ones.

Of course, you not only have to own the right firearm, but you must have the knowledge to use it wisely and legally. So I would suggest that if you aren’t well-trained, you should go to a local gun shop and ask them about courses that might be given in your area. You might also check on the Internet for a National Rifle Association office in your area for information on self-defense courses.

This doesn’t mean you’re actually going to have to use a gun… But the more confident you are with a gun, the less likely you’re going to need it. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you have to confront a bad guy, being able to stand there with a weapon and look confident can be enough to diffuse the situation. On the other hand, if you’re standing there and your hand is shaking and you’re sweating and you’re clearly scared out of your mind, it can make him bold. The more helpless he thinks you are, the bolder he’s going to be. Learn to aim accurately and swear like a drill sergeant.

So you want to be confident, that’s got to be your main objective. And the way you gain confidence is through training and practice.

Now as far as specific weapons that you should own… to me, the absolute No. 1 weapon is a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with number 4 buckshot. And that’s not number 4 shot… It’s number 4 buckshot, which is something entirely different.

The 12-gauge shotgun – a good example is the Remington 870 – is an amazingly effective weapon. If you know how to use a 12-gauge pump shotgun, you are very well-equipped to defend yourself and your loved ones.

As an aside, I really like pump-action shotguns, like the Remington 870, because when you pump it, it has a very distinctive sound that most people recognize. In fact, the sound alone can save you from actually having to pull the trigger. If the bad guy has any brains at all, he’s going to run away when he hears that sound.

The next weapon I would get would be some sort of handgun. My favorite one for almost everyone would be the Glock 26, which is a 9-mm semi-automatic. It holds 11 rounds. It’s an excellent weapon – very reliable and very accurate.  If you need to carry a gun, it’s an outstanding choice.

There are a huge number of other kinds of small carry guns, and an instructor should be able to advise you on that. But if I had to narrow it down to just two specific weapons that are ideally suited for the average person, it would be the Remington 870 and the Glock 26.

There are numerous other items that folks may want to have on hand, but these can vary considerably depending on individual circumstances. If you’d like to learn more, I recommend picking up one of the many excellent books on preparedness.

But one last item I think everyone should have – and many folks don’t think about – are fire extinguishers. Very often, protests and riots literally turn into incendiary incidents… we’ve seen it time and again, as recently as this year in Los Angeles. So be sure you have lots of fire extinguishers and other fire-fighting equipment.

Crux: Any other general steps you recommend readers take?

Maybury: Probably the most important thing – assuming you’ve stocked up on the essential items we already discussed –is learning to think like people in other countries do.

For example, if you were born in Paris, one of the things you would learn growing up is that you should be on the lookout for spontaneous strikes.

My wife and I were visiting Paris and came up out of the subway one morning to find we were in the middle of a spontaneous strike against some business. It was quickly turning into a riot, and we were nearly caught in the middle of it without realizing.

Of course, Parisians knows that Parisians do this sort of thing, so they’re on the lookout for it all the time. You come up out of the subway and you look around and see if it’s safe or not.

That’s just one specific example, but Americans have to start thinking like that – developing those kinds of precautions that they take automatically as second nature. Unfortunately, I think it’s going to be an awful lot worse than things normally are in Paris, so you’ll have to be even more cautious than a Parisian would be.

For example, if you walk into a fast food restaurant and notice that there are no condiments set out for easy access – where you have to ask for them at the counter – that’s a sign it could be a high-risk area, that there may be lot of crime there.

These kinds of clues aren’t any big deal in the world we live in at the moment, but I think they’re going to become extremely important in the next few years, and possibly this year.

Another good idea if you can do it is to have a secondary vehicle that looks old and beat up. We have a president who’s teaching everybody that the rich are the enemy, and the 1% is the enemy of the 99%… So you want to be sure not to look like one of the 1%, whether you are or not. You want to be able to fade into the crowd if necessary.
 
Along the same lines… if you work in a white collar job, it’s a good idea to have some old clothes in your desk that you can change into on your way home if there’s a riot or some other kind of disturbance.  Again, the idea is not to stand out.

We’re living in a world now where being successful is dangerous. As the government – especially the president – keeps pushing more and more that successful people are the enemy, you’re going to have to be a lot more cautious about where you go and what you look like when you get there.

Crux: That brings up a good point. We’ve talked about the dangers of riots, mob violence, and crime… but what about police or government violence? Is this something readers should be concerned about as well?

Maybury: As far as violence from the authorities, you always have to be aware of the state of mind of the police. A policeman is just an ordinary person who maybe lives down the block from you and has some special training in law enforcement — but he’s not Superman, and he has emotions.

What happens in a civil disturbance situation is that very often, it goes on for hours and hours… and sometimes days. A police officer starts getting tired. There are people throwing nasty stuff at him. He may eventually get to the end of his rope. He might actually be a very nice guy, but he’s got a breaking point.

So you have to be watching the police, watch their faces – if you are in the neighborhood of a violent incident – to see how close the police are to their breaking point. Believe me, you don’t want to be around if they get pushed over the edge, because they have serious weapons and they know how to use them.

The same thing goes for the military. You may remember the Kent State massacre in 1970. That was a case where the National Guard troops were just pushed over the edge. They were left out there in the sun for hours and hours, and they didn’t know what was going on. Nobody really knows what triggered it off, but it ended with trained troops firing military weapons into crowds of helpless civilians. That’s the kind of thing that can happen.

They are human beings who have breaking points… And whenever you’re in the presence of law enforcement people who are armed, you have to assess how close they are to their breaking points. In my opinion, in almost every case that you run into like this, just get out of Dodge as fast as you can. Don’t hang around to see what happens, because you can wind up being a statistic.

Crux: We weren’t there for the 1970s riots, but it appears that over the past 10 or 15 years – especially since 9/11 – there has been a significant militarization of the police. Even some small town police forces are now equipped with SWAT teams and armored vehicles. Does this trend worry you?

Maybury: It’s interesting to look back on the history. The police back in era of the ’60s were very often just a bunch of thugs themselves.

There were so many nasty incidents, that a lot of police departments began to realize they needed a higher caliber of individual out there on the street — one who was better trained and had much better contact with the population.

If you go back to the 1940s and before, a cop was a person you knew personally. He was an individual who walked a beat past your house every day, and he was a friend. He knew the people on his beat. He knew what was going on in the neighborhood — who was likely to make trouble and who was a good person. He was a peace officer rather than a police officer.

Then along came the automobile and it became possible to put this individual into a car and have him drive around and cover a lot more territory. This appeared to be a good idea, except that the peace officer then lost contact with the population and no longer knew them as individuals.

When we got into the 1960s with all the protests, the police had been psychologically cut off from the population.  It was a whole lot easier for the police to attack the civilian population in the ’60s than it was in the ’40s when they knew them personally.

The police departments recognized this problem and ever since, they’ve been on a campaign to re-establish connections with the population and get to know them personally.  But it still hasn’t gotten back to where it was in the ’40s and earlier… It’s nowhere close to that, and I don’t think it will be any time soon.

But the militarization to me is more a symptom of just how bad things have gotten in some places, rather than a reversion to the sentiment of the 1960s. In most places, the police are still a lot better than they were in the ’60s and ’70s, but conditions are a lot worse.

Again, I think we have a bunch of human beings who are being faced with situations that would take a Superman to handle.  The mobs have been taught that the world owes them a living, and they plan to collect one way or another.

Crux: Finally, you said you believe there’s an 85% chance that we will see a new American revolution before this is all over. In that scenario, do you anticipate the federal government targeting freedom-minded individuals like yourself in an attempt to hold on to its power? Do you anticipate having to move out of the U.S.?

Maybury: Honestly, I think about that all the time… And the short answer, is I don’t really know.

The problem is I don’t think the revolution will be confined to just the United States… I expect it’s going to be worldwide.  Socialism is dying everywhere, and its death is making a world-wide mess.

In my opinion, practically any other place in the world will be as or more dangerous than this country. Unlike any other place in the world, the U.S. has a British common law heritage and the heritage from the 1776 revolution.  It has this ideological framework to fall back on.

The rest of the world doesn’t. There are a few places that are similar to America, but there’s no place quite like this one… where the country was founded on an idea. The U.S. wasn’t founded on loyalty to a piece of real estate or to a regime, but to ideas that were articulated by the American founders.

I think it’s much more likely that America will come out in relatively good shape compared to just about any place else in the world, except maybe Switzerland. Switzerland is kind of a miniature version of what America was intended to be.

As far as the persecution of people who believe in liberty, it’s within the realm of possibility… But where would I go to avoid that fate?  I don’t know. Again, the whole world is sliding into violence and chaos.

One reason I’m growing increasingly optimistic is there is a significant movement within the military against the idea of infinite government. When push comes to shove, I think these military folks are likely to form their own movement in opposition to whoever it is that’s backing the federal government. And those kinds of groups might be – in fact I expect they will be – very amenable to protecting people who believe in liberty. After all, they did take an oath to support and defend the Constitution.

But frankly, I’d be a fool to try to predict what’s going to happen. All you know is there are going to be huge numbers of individual groups, and small groups of people who are going to be trying to survive and who are going to be trying to push things in the directions they think are beneficial to them. Beyond that, you don’t know how it’s going to shake out.

While I don’t expect to leave the U.S., I will be prepared to do so if necessary. It’s always wise to leave your options open – to have a backup plan. Just as it’s wise to diversify your investments, it’s wise to diversify your preparedness plans.

A good overall strategy is to give yourself as many options as possible, so that when a serious event occurs you can grab the best option. That’s the strategy I recommend… and the one I live by.

Crux: We’re out of time unfortunately… Any parting thoughts?

Maybury:I do realize that predicting a revolution – a violent, shooting revolution – sounds crazy to many people. But when you stop to consider the number of countries that are already close to it – or in it as we speak – along with the violence in the streets of America recently and the government’s hopeless insolvency, I’d argue that it actually isn’t crazy at all.

If any of your readers would like to learn more about what we’re recommending to our subscribers, we’ve put together a 12-page special report compiled from relevant articles in my newsletter, Early Warning Report. It’s called “Getting Started – Your Strategic Plan.”

We’re making the report available for just $35, if they call 1-800-509-5400. Or, it’s completely free with a subscription to Early Warning Report. The normal price of a subscription is $300 per year, but for Daily Crux readers, I have arranged a special offer of $159, which includes the “Getting Started” special report.

Crux:Thanks so much for talking with us again, Richard.

Source: www.thedailycrux.com