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Oscar Winners, Sports Stars and Bill Gates Are Building Lavish Bunkers (hollywoodreporter.com)
turkeydance quotes a report from Hollywood Reporter: Given the increased frequency of terrorist bombings and mass shootings and an under-lying sense of havoc fed by divisive election politics, it's no surprise that home security is going over the top and hitting luxurious new heights. Or, rather, new lows, as the average depth of a new breed of safe haven that occupies thousands of square feet is 10 feet under or more. Those who can afford to pull out all the stops for so-called self-preservation are doing so -- in a fashion that goes way beyond the submerged corrugated metal units adopted by reality show "preppers" -- to prepare for anything from nuclear bombings to drastic climate-change events. Gary Lynch, GM at Rising S Bunkers, a Texas-based company that specializes in underground bunkers and services scores of Los Angeles residences, says that sales at the most upscale end of the market -- mainly to actors, pro athletes and politicians (who require signed NDAs) -- have increased 700 percent this year compared with 2015, and overall sales have risen 150 percent. Any time there is a turbulent political landscape, we see a spike in our sales. Given this election is as turbulent as it is, "we are gearing up for an even bigger spike," says marketing director Brad Roberson of sales of bunkers that start at $39,000 and can run $8.35 million or more (FYI, a 12-stall horse shelter is $98,500). Adds Mike Peters, owner of Utah-based Ultimate Bunker, which builds high-end versions in California, Texas and Minnesota: "People are going for luxury [to] live underground because they see the future is going to be rough. Everyone I've talked to thinks we are doomed, no matter who is elected." Robert Vicino, founder of Del Mar, Calif.-based Vivos, which constructs upscale community bunkers in Indiana (he believes coastal flooding scenarios preclude bunkers being safely built west of the Rockies), says, "Bill Gates has huge shelters under every one of his homes, in Rancho Santa Fe and Washington. His head of security visited with us a couple years ago, and for these multibillionaires, a few million is nothing. It's really just the newest form of insurance."
No. It's the blog where you realize that the people you respected all your life aren't as high and mighty as you naively thought, and also suffer from many imperfections and lunacy that all of us suffer from.
But the fact that even those top people admit and recognize that it's a dead race between Trump and Hillary on who is worse as an individual, each being utterly horrible in their own characteristic way, should be a telling tale.
Of course, we will bury this revelation under a few tons of smoke-screen by utilizing people's fascination with bunkers and apocalypse-survival that entertainment has thankfully banked on and deeply spread far and wide.
So essentially a company in Utah that builds basement shelters is claiming it has lots of superstars who buy their bunkers... but it can't tell you who because NDAs. But all the superstars rush to Utah because their sales are up 700% they say.
And Bill Gates may also have a bunker because someone in an Indiana shelter company says that he spoke to an unnamed head of Gate's security team who told him Gates has them.
But hey, its from marketing director Brad Roberson, so in no way is this marketing!
Whether Obama has been merely thoughtful and cautious or actually indecisive and passive is something that can be debated, but whatever it is it has created something of an impression that he lacks an appearance of decisiveness and strong leadership.
I kind of wish he had made some bold moves, even if they weren't necessarily the most ideal moves, simply to demonstrate he was moving forward and not settling for a status quo ante.
I would think a superior solution to a fixed bunker would be some kind of specialized boat designed for long endurance. Wind turbines, fold out solar panels for electric power. Water could be supplied by marine water makers. Food supplies could be supplemented by fishing.
Simply being out on the water gets you away from the most common threats. Maybe there are mobile pirates you have to worry about, but there will always be fewer of them than roving mobs of people with cutting torches.
If you were super rich, why not look into retrofitting an oil drilling platform into a sea bunker?
The article talks about battery power and long-life food but not climate control, water or sewage.
That's because an entire industry has grown up around scamming survivalists. Whether it's Jim Bakker selling $160 buckets of potato soup (and you can poop in the bucket later!), Glenn Beck's hugely overpriced gold or these guys selling luxury underground bunkers, the goal and method are the same as any other con; gain the mark's confidence using lies and half-truths, then take them for every penny they can get.
Building a bunker that could actually be lived in is secondary to increasing the profit margin, so they skimp on the basic construction and spend a little on cheap frills to hide the deficiencies. That's why the kitchen picture Ultimate Bunker website looks like every piece of shit house that's had superficial improvements done by someone trying to flip it for a profit.
Ron Paul a fascist. Give me a break. I'll assume you are a little to the left of Mao.
They're not anti-gun. They're anti-the American people having guns. There's a big difference.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
He had flown off carriers during the Vietnam war and had gone through nuclear training. His training had basically taught him that in at least a limited nuclear exchange, most of the stuff simply wouldn't go off. Nucs, at least then, were delicate things that were expected to often be shaken enough in the boost phase that many simply wouldn't work. It was a really fun exercise, to be honest. Studying how much concrete boils off from a particular size explosion, etc. This thing had decontamination showers, weapon lockers, a buried well head, steel shuttered loop holes for firing at mutants, a secret passage leading to a door hidden behind a bookcase, the works. Since he could pay for it from petty cash, it was no problem financially, just like the elite today.
Admit it, everyone here would do the same if they could. If for no other reason than the systems design exercise. Better keep it secret!
Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
Ouch....that's kinda pessimistic, isn't it?
I don't have a ton of supplies, or bunker, but I am stocking up on arms and ammo. And I have friends that will all try to hook up if shit does bad. I don't expect it, but you never know.
And if nothing else, if hillary gets in....guns and ammo prices will skyrocket and stock will plummet.
I figure just in case tho...I'm trying to learn some survival skills. I have been teaching myself to garden naturally, how to preserve food, etc....to make myself valuable to others if things go tits up.
Again, I don't expect it, but its never a bad thing to at least have some sort of game plan.
I saw what happened in a mini version of it with Katrina, and you don't wanna be stuck in the middle of shit like that when the lights go out. So, it helps to at least have some rudimentary thoughts on what you'd do IF.....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........