{"id":5169,"date":"2017-01-25T14:02:54","date_gmt":"2017-01-25T14:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/?p=5169"},"modified":"2017-02-02T13:30:41","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T13:30:41","slug":"rich-preparing-for-meltdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/rich-preparing-for-meltdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Rich Preparing For Meltdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> <b><i><a href=\"http:\/\/apparitionhill.org\"> <span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial; font-size: small; text-decoration: underline;\">&#8216;Apparition Hill,&#8217; Irving, TX, 2\/4\/17, get tickets now!<\/span><\/a><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3127\" src=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/logoinside.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"45\" \/><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbimage aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/4\/4b\/Doomsday_Clock_graph.svg\/600px-Doomsday_Clock_graph.svg.png\" srcset=\"\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/4\/4b\/Doomsday_Clock_graph.svg\/900px-Doomsday_Clock_graph.svg.png 1.5x, \/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/4\/4b\/Doomsday_Clock_graph.svg\/1200px-Doomsday_Clock_graph.svg.png 2x\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"178\" data-file-width=\"1470\" data-file-height=\"436\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>Interesting it was, last week, when the\u00a0<em>Bulletin of Atomic Scientists<\/em> moved their &#8220;doomsday clock&#8221; (gauging the risk of humans destroying the planet) up thirty seconds to two-and-a-half minutes till midnight, the closest since 1953, when the first hydrogen bomb was tested (and closer than the three minutes during the height of Cold War tensions). Compare that to the seventeen minutes until midnight in 1991, after the collapse of Communism (&#8220;midnight&#8221; meaning, of course, some sort of an apocalypse).\u00a0It is certainly not a time of ataraxia.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">While, to many,<\/span> it seems like &#8220;happy days are here again&#8221; (as they are, for us pro-lifers, when it comes to matters such as upcoming Supreme Court picks and protection of Christian rights), it turns out that many of the wealthiest in America are investing in &#8220;apocalypse insurance&#8221;: storing supplies, building bunkers, buying firearms, and investing in gold coins in anticipation of societal chaos, whether from economic disintegration, war, or societal turmoil (including rebellion <em>against<\/em> the wealthy, as the disparity between rich and everyone else continues to skyrocket).<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>A &#8220;Russian revolution&#8221; in America? Or something that changes the way we all live? Could it be true that America&#8217;s richest are donning tin-foil caps?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>The &#8220;prestigious&#8221;\u00a0<em>New Yorker <\/em>Magazine had a recent cover, <em>below<\/em>,\u00a0on this trend among the rich, as have other mainstream media. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>We now present a smattering:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"horizontal attachment-large img-expandable landscape lazyload preloader loaded aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-690x533-1484862117.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 690px) 100vw, 690px\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-690x533-1484862117.jpg 690w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-320x247-1484862116.jpg 320w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-768x594-1484862116.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-200.jpg 200w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-400.jpg 400w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-800.jpg 800w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-500.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-600.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-1000.jpg 1000w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-1200x928-1484862239.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-640.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-144x110-1484862267.jpg 144w\" alt=\"An armed guard stands at the entrance of the Survival Condo Project, a former missile silo north of Wichita, Kansas, that has been converted into luxury apartments for people worried about the crackup of civilization.\" data-id=\"3304619\" data-ratio=\"1.295\" data-srcset=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-690x533-1484862117.jpg 690w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-320x247-1484862116.jpg 320w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-768x594-1484862116.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-200.jpg 200w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-400.jpg 400w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-800.jpg 800w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-500.jpg 500w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-600.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-1000.jpg 1000w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-1200x928-1484862239.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-640.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-144x110-1484862267.jpg 144w\" data-src=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/170130_r29354-690x533-1484862117.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-wc=\"63\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><em><strong>From The New Yorker:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-wc=\"63\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000;\"><strong>Survivalism, the practice of preparing for a crackup of civilization, tends to evoke a certain picture: the woodsman in the tinfoil hat, the hysteric with the hoard of beans, the religious doomsayer. But in recent years survivalism has expanded to more affluent quarters, taking root in Silicon Valley and New York City, among technology executives, hedge-fund managers, and others in their economic cohort.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p data-wc=\"184\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Last spring, as the Presidential campaign exposed increasingly toxic divisions in America, Antonio Garc\u00eda Mart\u00ednez, a forty-year-old former Facebook product manager living in San Francisco, bought five wooded acres on an island in the Pacific Northwest and brought in generators, solar panels, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. \u201cWhen society loses a healthy founding myth, it descends into chaos,\u201d he told me. The author of \u201cChaos Monkeys,\u201d an acerbic Silicon Valley memoir, Garc\u00eda Mart\u00ednez wanted a refuge that would be far from cities but not entirely isolated. \u201cAll these dudes think that one guy alone could somehow withstand the roving mob,\u201d he said. \u201cNo, you\u2019re going to need to form a local militia. You just need so many things to actually ride out the apocalypse.\u201d Once he started telling peers in the Bay Area about his \u201clittle island project,\u201d they came \u201cout of the woodwork\u201d to describe their own preparations, he said. \u201cI think people who are particularly attuned to the levers by which society actually works understand that we are skating on really thin cultural ice right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><em><strong style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;\">[<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2017\/01\/30\/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich\">Full story<\/a>]<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-wc=\"157\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>From The New York Times:<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-total-count=\"213\" data-para-count=\"213\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>Peter Thiel is a billionaire, the biggest Donald J. Trump<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"> supporter in Trump-hating Silicon Valley<\/span>\u00a0and, above all, someone who prides himself on doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-total-count=\"501\" data-para-count=\"288\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>So it makes perfect sense that right after President Trump <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2017\/01\/20\/us\/politics\/donald-trump-inauguration-speech-transcript.html\">proclaimed<\/a> that \u201cthe bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America,\u201d Mr. Thiel was revealed to have become in 2011 a citizen of a small country on the other side of the world: <a class=\"meta-loc\" style=\"color: #000000;\" title=\"More news and information about New Zealand.\" href=\"http:\/\/topics.nytimes.com\/top\/news\/international\/countriesandterritories\/newzealand\/index.html?inline=nyt-geo\">New Zealand<\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" data-total-count=\"819\" data-para-count=\"318\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>In these uncertain times, it may be smart to have a backup country. But the news that one of the richest citizens of New Zealand was a naturalized American who was born in Germany set off an immediate furor in the island nation, with questions being raised about whether being a billionaire gets you special treatment. <em>[<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/01\/25\/technology\/peter-thiel-new-zealand-citizenship.html\">Full story<\/a>]<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" style=\"text-align: center;\" data-total-count=\"819\" data-para-count=\"318\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\"><strong>From CBS:<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body-text story-content\" style=\"text-align: left;\" data-total-count=\"819\" data-para-count=\"318\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>Some upper-income Texans are headed down below, not Australia, but below the surface.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"wrapper\" class=\"body-wrapper\">\n<div id=\"page-content\" class=\"main-white page-block-container\">\n<section class=\"page-columns\">\n<section class=\"page-column two-column columns-left\">\n<section id=\"main-story\" class=\"column-item\">\n<article class=\"article-bucket content\">\n<div class=\"story\">\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/cbsloc.al\/2ezDJcx\">An investor group is planning for a doomsday scenario by building a $300 million luxury community replete with underground homes. <\/a>There will also be air-lock blast doors <span class=\"vm-hook-outer vm-hook-default\"><span class=\"vm-hook\">designed<\/span><\/span> for people worried about a dirty bomb or other disaster and off-grid energy and water production.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>Residents will enjoy an equestrian center, 18-hole golf <span class=\"vm-hook-outer vm-hook-default\"><span class=\"vm-hook\">course<\/span><\/span>, polo fields, zip lines and gun ranges. Retail shops, restaurants and a row of helipads are also in the works. For those looking to \u201cget away,\u201d they\u2019ll also be able to enjoy three white sand beaches and a neighborhood spa.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>\u201cWe\u2019ve evolved it into long-term <span class=\"vm-hook-outer vm-hook-default\"><span class=\"vm-hook\">sustainability<\/span><\/span> instead of a survival community,\u201d Trident Lakes CEO Jim O\u2019Connor told the <em><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/m.chron.com\/news\/houston-texas\/texas\/article\/See-the-Texas-luxury-community-that-plans-to-have-10598625.php\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Chronicle<\/a><\/em>, adding that the 400 planned condos will house about 1,600 people. \u201cThe concept is to build a community that will last two centuries or longer. That means we\u2019re looking at designs that include earth structures that won\u2019t be exposed to the elements.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p data-wc=\"157\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-medium-16-9 size-medium-16-9 wp-post-image aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cbsdallas.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/11\/screen-shot-2016-11-12-at-9-06-05-am.png?w=640&amp;h=352&amp;crop=1\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cbsdallas.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/11\/screen-shot-2016-11-12-at-9-06-05-am.png?w=640&amp;h=352&amp;crop=1 640w, https:\/\/cbsdallas.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/11\/screen-shot-2016-11-12-at-9-06-05-am.png?w=150&amp;h=83&amp;crop=1 150w, https:\/\/cbsdallas.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/11\/screen-shot-2016-11-12-at-9-06-05-am.png?w=300&amp;h=165&amp;crop=1 300w\" alt=\"(TridentLakes.com)\" width=\"640\" height=\"352\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><em><strong>From BBC:<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>Chance the Rapper says he wants to move there and tech billionaire Peter Thiel has become a citizen. Wellington-based journalist Ben Collins asks whether New Zealand is becoming a &#8220;utopia&#8221; for Americans looking to leave.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>Forget bunkers in the forest full of food tins and bottled water &#8211; it seems New Zealand, with a population of 4.4 million, has become the best option for a new breed of American survivalist.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>When the <a class=\"story-body__link-external\" style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/business\/news\/article.cfm?c_id=3&amp;objectid=11788452\">New Zealand Herald <\/a>revealed this week that Silicon Valley tech billionaire Peter Thiel had become a citizen and purchased a lake-front estate it perhaps shouldn&#8217;t have been a surprise.\u00a0<em>[<a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-38766821\">Full story<\/a>]<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>Division? Political rancor? Demonstrations? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #000000;\"><strong>We have all of that &#8212; in just the past few days.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><b><i><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">[Return to<\/span><\/i><\/b><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"><b><i><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.spiritdaily.com\/\"><b><i><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\">www.spiritdaily.com]<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;\">[February retreat in Vero Beach; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/store.spiritdaily.com\/product-p\/gi-776.htm\" target=\"_blank\">details here<\/a><\/span>]<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;\">[March retreat in <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/store.spiritdaily.com\/product-p\/ret-9.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Atlanta<\/a><\/span>]<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-story-p\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;\">[<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"http:\/\/store.spiritdaily.com\/product-p\/sa-1.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Special Reports<\/a><\/span>]<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"gsp_post_data\" \r\n\t            data-post_type=\"post\" \r\n\t            data-cat=\"uncategorized\" \r\n\t            data-modified=\"120\"\r\n\t            data-created=\"1485352974\"\r\n\t            data-title=\"Rich Preparing For Meltdown\" \r\n\t            data-home=\"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Apparition Hill,&#8217; Irving, TX, 2\/4\/17, get tickets now! Interesting it was, last week, when the\u00a0Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved their.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiritdaily.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}