The Late Prepper with JD Rucker JD Rucker

So, you've got your bugout bags, food supplies, water, ammo, alternative power supplies, barter items, and Bibles. You downloaded and printed out important documents and how-to guides in case the internet goes down. You have your plan mapped out and you've done a test run with your family. You're as ready as you can be for whatever happens in the near future, right?
Well, maybe. With over 70% of Americans either unfit or suffering from some sort of major medical ailment, chances are you haven't made yourself and your family as ready as you can be in case crap hits the fan. Chances are you can start improving your health situation, whether that means getting more fit or securing long-term medical requirements such as meds and equipment.
Get Fit
The first challenge isn't easy for most. For some, it's a matter of motivation. For others, you're just not able to make yourself more physically fit based on age, wounds, or conditions. I have a friend in her 70s who simply cannot get around very easily. She neither has nor needs bugout bags but she lives in a nice town, had plenty of food and water, and she carries her .22 wherever she goes.
Another friend is a prepping maniac. I'm actually jealous about how well-stocked he is in his suburban home. The challenge is he's nearly 300 pounds and three of the four other members of his family aren't skinny. I had a long conversation with him over the weekend about what he'll do if things get really bad, even in his nice neighborhood. He said he'll grab his shotgun and defend his property. That's good, but it doesn't replace the need to become fit enough to walk long distances, gather supplies, or hunt.
My status as a "late prepper" who didn't get going until 2021 sent me down a similar path. I started stocking up on supplies incrementally. My wife started a robust garden. I started learning everything I could about survival and I haven't stopped. Then, the wakeup call came last year. I was helping a friend move a couch and realized I'm not the stout running back that I was in school.
I've wasted far too much time before making it important to get fit. I am calling on all of my readers to not make the same mistake I did. When should you start improving your health? Right now. Today. Get started. Don't stop. As I noted, motivation is often the missing ingredient when it comes to eating better, exercising, and changing one's lifestyle. Well, look around. Things are already going crazy and we haven't even gotten to Election Riot Season.
Are you able to walk 10 miles with a bugout bag on your back? Could you carry a loved one to safety? Chop down a tree? Build a shelter? Fight? If any of these things are physically impossible for you, then there's nothing you can do other than build relationship with local people who can help. But if you can't do any of these things and you have nothing holding you back other than your physical fitness, then it's time to get motivated.
I've been on the keto diet for a while, but mostly for the sake of brain function. I like being as smart as possible and ketones help me to achieve that goal. But recently I've realized that I need to take advantage of the fat burning aspects of ketosis. That means exercising. It's been slower than I'd like but I've lost 15 pounds since Thanksgiving with 40 more to go.
I'm not a fan of trying to "guilt" people into doing something, but this is an exception. Don't be that person whose only excuse for not being physically ready to face apocalyptic challenges is that you're to fat, too weak, or generally too unhealthy. If you have the means today to improve your health, do it.
And it's not just fat people like me. Even those who are pretty fit can always use improvements. We've all heard many times about eating healthier but what does that really mean? The whole foods craze (not to be confused with the Amazon-owned grocer) is a righteous one on many levels. Sourcing your food, buying local, eliminated processed foods, reducing or e

(End of the American Dream)—Something really weird is going on.  Traditionally, prepping has been associated with those on the right of the political spectrum.
But now we are witnessing a dramatic shift.  These days, many of the most hardcore preppers are actually on the left.  These leftist preppers have become entirely convinced that we are headed for a catastrophic societal meltdown and they are determined to try to survive whatever happens.  And we are starting to see leftist fears about the future being reflected in movies and television shows.
For example, a new apocalyptic disaster movie entitled “Leave The World Behind” is getting millions upon millions of views on Netflix…
If society actually did begin to completely break down, you probably would never know exactly how or why. You’d be aware that something was wrong, but the specifics would get cloudy once phones stopped working, the internet was severed, and media networks turned to dead air. Ominous late-night electronic shrieks from the sky; explosions in the distance; planes and boats plowing into the ground, and animals flocking in eerie patterns would only hint at the chaos. A whisper network of survivors might convey contradictory rumors, but how would you know if any of it was true? That’s the unsettling premise of Leave the World Behind, the new Netflix thriller that compounds its terror through uncertainty.
This is definitely a movie for preppers, and the trailer for the film is quite startling…
As you can see, this movie explores a number of topics that preppers have been concerned about for a long time.
But there is nothing “conservative” about this film at all.
It was made by leftists and it is meant to be watched by leftists.  In fact, it is the very first movie from the production company that the Obamas have established…
In the movie, the characters have various theories for what’s causing these unsettling events: that it’s the work of hackers; that it’s a government conspiracy; that the US is at war with rogue forces using radiological weapons to make people turn against each other.
It’s based on a 2020 novel by Rumaan Alam, and directed, written and produced by “Mr. Robot” creator Sam Esmail. It’s also the first feature film from High Ground, the production company founded by former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama in 2018.
So why in the world would the Obamas want to make something like this?
That is a good question.
Hopefully somebody will ask them.
Once upon a time, leftists tended to mock preppers, but now anxiety about the 2024 election is motivating many leftists to become preppers themselves…
Doomsday “prepping” is seeping into the mainstream as Americans of all ages and political persuasions are becoming increasingly worried ahead of the 2024 presidential election about the prospect of a civil war.
Hoarding food, water and weapons was once associated with libertarian extremists, but as a rematch between President Biden and his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, seems all but inevitable in 2024, prepping has become a bipartisan activity, according to a Monday USA Today report.
“On the left, you have people afraid (Trump’s) going to declare himself dictator of the United States and people on the left are going to end up as targets in some sort of authoritarian system,” author Brad Garrett told the paper.
There really are lots of people out there that have convinced themselves that if Donald Trump wins the election he will make himself a dictator and establish a “fascist regime” in the United States.
Seriously, this is what they actually believe. And the fact that Joe Biden’s approval ratings keep getting lower only adds to their anxiety…
Only one-third of Americans gave President Biden a thumbs up on the job he is doing in the White House, according to a new national public opinion survey.
The president stands at 34% approval in a Monmouth University poll rele

When I was in college, then later as a struggling new father and husband, we learned to eat very inexpensively. There were weeks when I could get by on under $10 with Ramen noodles (the Dollar Store often had them at $0.10 a package), cheap fresh veggies (a cucumber was practically a full meal for less than a quarter), and generic packages of processed meat.
It’s a lot harder to do that today with inflation and growing food scarcity, but here’s the thing. If the crap hits the fan in any of an assortment of highly possible ways, many of us will be stuck trying to feed our families without the resources to do so very well.
Eating insufficient amounts of food can harm us physically. But even those who have stored away emergency food or are living lifestyles that allows them to produce their own may find themselves with a different challenge. There can be psychological repercussions from major dietary changes. You or members of your family may find eating beans and rice every day drives you a little bonkers.
I am hopeful that the current trajectory of the nation and the world can be reversed, but I’m not going to sit around and assume it will all end well. Knowing this, we are currently practicing “lean weeks” in which we live off the survival food we have rather than ordering out or getting fresh food from the grocery store.
I discussed this a bit on today’s podcast. I referenced this article by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper:
Rock-Bottom Meal Plan for Those Weeks When Money Is Tight
Things are tough in America and they’re likely to get tougher. Many of us are forced to reallocate our money from one necessity to another and often, the thing that suffers first is our diets. If times are tight, you might find this article helpful.
It’s a meal plan created from recipes and strategies in my new paperback, What to Eat When You’re Broke. We released this in PDF format recently and readers loved it. We got so many requests to put it in hard copy format that we couldn’t say no! So, it’s available on Amazon now as a paperback.
The recipes in this article are all included in the book, which I’m selling just above cost. I hope you enjoy it, and please, give us a review on Amazon to help more people to see it when they’re searching for a way to feed their family during difficult times.
Flat Broke Meal Plan
This meal plan is per person per week. Multiply it by the number of people in your family. I’ve tried to make it as varied as possible, and there are a few things included that are not the cheapest on the market. They’ve been added for nutrient value.
Obviously, if there are allergies or foods that your family won’t eat, feel free to substitute.
I shouldn’t need to say this, but it’s impossible to write one meal plan that will work for every single reader. If you are vegan, gluten-free, diabetic, suffer from food allergies, eat keto, or strictly follow a particular nutritional lifestyle, this may not work for you.
With that being said, let’s look at our menu! Stars * indicate that the full recipe is available in the book and you might also have your own recipes for these items.
Breakfast
Day 1: Oatmeal with brown sugar and banana
Day 2: Cornbread* with butter and jam
Day 3: Leftover cornbread, sliced and heated with a butter and brown sugar drizzle
Day 4: Peanut butter and crackers, apple
Day 5: Rice cooked with milk, brown sugar, and cinnamon
Day 6: Biscuits and gravy*
Day 7: Scrambled eggs and toast OR homemade pancakes with fruit
Lunch
Day 1: PB&J, apple
Day 2: Pasta salad with tuna* (or canned chicken)
Day 3: Bean burrito
Day 4: Tomato soup* and crackers
Day 5: Cold peanut butter noodles with shredded cabbage*
Day 6: Tortilla pizzas*
Day 7: Leftovers
Dinner
Day 1: Beef and vegetable soup* with frybread*
Day 2: Baked beans with mac and cheese (canned and boxed easy meal for busy days)
Day 3: Fried Gnocchi* with canned marinara sauce
Day 4: Crockpot white chicken chili*
Day 5: Pasta with mari

Yes.
That's it. That's the article. Well, it could be, because IF you have the means and IF you have the space and IF you're physically capable of raising chickens, then you definitely should consider buying and raising them. I was saying this before eggs became so expensive in the United States that people started smuggling them from Mexican supermarkets. Now, it's really a no-brainer. Here are three reasons why...
Better Taste
For a long time I didn't really buy into the notion that fresh eggs were any better than store-bought eggs. Then, I tried some. My aunt raises chickens as does my wife's sister. Both of us had separate opportunities to try actual "farm fresh" eggs that were laid within 24 hours of us eating them by chickens who were raised in backyards. Don't let anyone tell you they are no different from grocery store eggs. It's not even really a comparison. Then, there are the health benefits which I'll leave for you to research, but I've heard farm fresh eggs are simply more nutritious.
Cheaper in the Long Term
Chickens are actually pretty cheap to buy. Building or buying a chicken coop can cost anywhere from a couple hundred dollars up to however much you want to spend on them. The feed and other regular expenses are rising, though they're not terribly expensive just yet. Compare that to the price of eggs and suddenly it's clear how around one egg per chicken per day can add up in the long-term to tremendous savings.
Indefinite Supply of Protein
Let's call it what how we see it. The powers-that-be are in the process of eliminating and eventually outlawing natural forms of protein that aren't insects. They want us eventually eating lab-grown meats or cricketburgers as our primary source of protein, and by "eventually" I hope everyone understands we're talking about months or years, not decades.
Chickens properly raised and cared for can produce anywhere from three or four eggs per week to an egg per day each. That's 5-8 grams of protein, not to mention other crucial nutrients, produced per chicken per day. Combine that with a freeze-dried protein bucket (promo code "prep2023" for 10% off or "prep2030" for 15% off orders over $777) and you'll have a long-term supply of real protein from real animals instead of relying on the government's mealworm lines.
If you're thinking about buying and raising chickens, you're not alone. According to the article below by Tyler Durden over at Zero Hedge, people are becoming more and more interested in the idea...
Egg Crisis Sparks Soaring Interest In Backyard Farms
Covid supply chain snarls turned millions of Americans into "preppers" overnight. The run on toilet paper, food, guns, ammunition, and other essential items for survival pushed millions to consider preparedness for a crisis.
Remember all those old-school preppers? The media used to refer to them as "extreme" and even called them "tin-foil hat conspiracy" folks, but during the shutdowns, those folks were right, and the mainstream media got it wrong.
The next shortage underway is eggs. Readers have seen our notes on supermarkets nationwide running out of eggs. The egg shortage is so severe that last week the US Customs and Border Protection reported that egg smuggling from Mexico erupted.
And why is that? Well, a dozen Grade A eggs in the US have topped $4.25 at supermarkets. In Mexico, a 30 count of eggs is about $3.40.
US egg prices have topped the national average gasoline per gallon price at the pump.
As a result of the egg crisis, internet search trends on Google show Americans are panic searching where to find egg-laying hens for their backyard.
The search trend "where to buy chickens near me" erupted to a near multi-decade high.
"Buy chickens near me" searches explode across the US.
Besides the Covid spike, "how to raise chickens" has spiked to levels not seen in a decade.
Over the last several years, food insecurity has pushed many Americans to create 'little backyard farms'- something their parents or grandp

America is on the path toward a massive Amoxicillin shortage. Anyone who has tried to get it recently either lucked out on the first try or had to search again and again for a pharmacy that could fulfill the prescription. We are on the verge of a full-blown antibiotic crisis and the Biden-Harris regime has it on the backburner. It's not that they don't want to fix it. It's that the United States is so beholden to China for pharmaceuticals that the regime doesn't have an easy fix.
Around 90% of the ingredients used to make drugs like Amoxicillin come from China. This is an ugly situation to be in with a supply chain crisis and tensions rising. Winter is coming. This isn't the time to be short on drugs that can prevent a simple infection from becoming life-threatening.
This is why we started working with a company that ships Amoxicillin and four other antibiotics to telehealth patients. Those who have read my work or heard my shows for the past year or so know that proper preparedness has been one of my biggest pushes and being prepared medically is on the top of the list. One does not have to be a full-blown "doomsday prepper" in a bunker to make common sense choices as negative situations continue to rise in America.
Of all the problems we face as a nation and as a people, this is the one that has the fewest options available for both our government and for individuals. We can debate the insanity of becoming dependent on China some other time. Today, we need to focus on solving the problem, and for individuals that means stocking up on antibiotics that can be stored long-term (use promo code "RUCKER10" for $10 off).
Medical professionals have been ringing the alarm bell of late, but the warnings are getting drowned out by a partnership between government, corporate media, and Big Pharma to focus solely on getting as many people to take the Covid jabs as many times as possible. There's money, power, and access on the line for those who are supposed to be revealing the medical truth and unfortunately for us the Covid jabs are the only priority. According to Prevention:
There’s no clear answer. The ASHP lists out several pharmaceutical companies that have reported amoxicillin shortages and noted that they didn’t provide a reason for the lack of supply.
But amoxicillin has “become restricted in the supply chain due to increased use,” says Stephanie Field, M.B.A., director of pharmacy business services at Corewell Health West. Meaning, demand for the drug has ramped up as a slew of illnesses circulate.
It’s also possible that supply chain issues that have plagued nearly every industry since the pandemic began are at play here, too, says Crystal Tubbs, Pharm.D., associate director of pharmacy services at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. “Shortages in general can be caused by supply/demand issues, shortages of raw materials or other ingredients needed to manufacture the drug, logistics interruptions and/or challenges with manufacturing facilities,” she explains.
According to Red State:
Translation: Big Pharma is too busy counting their billions from the utterly ineffective COVID vaccines they are still pushing to care about mundane drugs that actually work. The problem has become critical, as the Daily Mail notes.
The Children’s Hospital Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics joined forces to urge the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to declare a Public Health Emergency in order to assist strapped hospitals.
Declaring a state of emergency would allow Secretary Becerra to distribute financial assistance to states, work with companies to produce more treatments and supplies, loosen licencing requirements that will help alleviate healthcare staffing shortages, and expand hospital capacity.
Maybe if it was an issue among illegal immigrants they might care. But I digress.
A sick child’s parents have no patience for muddled supply chain blaming, even as earlie

Editor's Commentary: I know the article below only qualifies as a true "late prepper" article for a handful if our audience, but it's an interesting read nonetheless if only to spark ideas that we can use in our lives. As much as I wish we could all just pick up from where we are, find a secluded homestead with all of the necessary survival gear already set up, and wait out the apocalypse quietly tucked away, that's just not reality for most.
I will be posting more articles with more useful tips and tricks. To be fair, I've been so busy during election season that I haven't had much time to work on my own preps, let alone offer tips. But the election is done so it's time for me to get into it all again, especially considering the election means we're closer now to whatever might make us use our preps.
For those who are actually considering moving to a safer area, it may behoove you to consider one of our newest sponsors and their amazing bunkers. I covered the article below in a short segment on the latest episode of The JD Rucker Show. Below is the article by J.G. Martinez at The Organic Prepper.
Most of us are not exactly farmers and will have a hard time growing or raising what we intend to eat if we just one day decide to start living off our harvests. It is a fact. Hunters and fishers obviously will have an edge after the collapse, but sadly, I am almost sure that in a tribal environment, my social position would not be too high.
That said, maybe joining a tribe after some age won’t be as romantic as it seems. Maybe a better idea, in order to live longer, is to stay low profile and semi-hidden, with only a few close friends and family nearby. At some age, you need some peace.
For many old-school survivalists of times already gone, the proper approach was a complete farm. The amount of work involved with this path is plenty.
The more land you have to take care of, the more problems!
I’ve seen this a few times. Hard-working people who made a few bucks with three or four crops in a row expanded their business by buying another farm somewhere else, and…bang!
With twice the land, their problems multiplied exponentially, and the need for further investment followed.
However, maybe for many of us, the ideal location is not a full-size homestead or a large compound.
A micro-retreat may be the solution.
The word “micro” suggests that something minimal should come to mind. My technical background immediately clicks when I think about anything related to a production facility, and I imagine a highly productive but compact environment.
I have always been fascinated by those overlanders’ custom-built rigs over a Mercedes Unimog chassis. They are compact and space-efficient but comfortable enough for prolonged stays. This is a remarkable example of a well-done micro-habitat.
Also, think about the tiny house movement. Some of those properties are designed for boondocking – living away from civilization and services. (Want to know how to keep your family fed when you have to use a micro-retreat? Check out our free QUICKSTART Guide to building a 3-layer food storage system.)
A micro-retreat doesn’t have to be a micro-producer.
Depending on your family group, or whatever the flavor of “clan” you may have, you could craft a small place quite productive with proper planning, provided you know your climate and your skill level. You could even disguise it as a “vacation” property. The beauty of this is that nobody has to know that your gun safe is in a hidden portion of the basement in your “hunting cabin.” Or, nobody has to know that those PVC DIY empty shelves in your basement will be to grow microgreens to complement your food supply.
Such planning will make your life easier. There will be less investment to make, you will work smarter and not harder (something that will make your senior years more pleasant!), and generally, it will be much easier to keep your place clean and well-maintain