Powering up America and upgrading power grids for artificial intelligence data centers, onshoring trends, and the electrification of the economy will require thousands of miles of new transmission lines nationwide. Existing lines will be upgraded, but new lines will also be needed, resulting in the seizure of private property via eminent domain.
According to Fox 45 Baltimore, the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) is a new plan to build a 70-mile 500,000-volt transmission line across three counties: Frederick, Baltimore, and Carroll. The line will connect a substation in southern Frederick County and supply the area with additional load capacity to handle surging power demand from AI data centers.
MPRP’s website explains that the new transmission lines will require the acquisition of private property through the use of an eminent domain, or government-mandated seizure to complete the construction.
“If PSEG and a property owner cannot agree on mutually acceptable value, PSEG may seek to use the power of eminent domain using the process set forth by the state of Maryland to acquire the necessary property rights,” the developer’s website states.
A local conservation group, The Valleys Planning Council, explained on Facebook that the new transmission system, which will tear up forests and farmland, is only being planned because lawmakers in Annapolis “do not allow new fossil fuel power stations, Maryland must import electricity from surrounding states.”
It’s becoming clear that the dark side of powering up America for AI data centers will be land grabs by the government through eminent domain.
In Maryland’s case, residents who do not comply with MPRP will see parts of their farms and forests snatched up for the infrastructure project.
However, the only reason the new transmission line plan exists is because of the so-called state managers in Annapolis, lawmakers, who are truly awful at their jobs. The genius in Annapolis waged war on fossil fuels and banned any new development of fossil fuel power plants at a time when power demand is rising.
So, instead of building clean NatGas power generation plants near the AI data centers, Maryland must import power from other states. Real efficient, eh?
To sum up, the dark side of the next AI trade will involve land grabs of private property. That’s likely to happen in Maryland and elsewhere. But also, we have to point out that the only reason this is happening are the progressives in Annapolis who push green policies.
Sigh, for the Maryland residents who have to deal with progressives not rooted in reality.
The 2016 presidential election was going to come down to two candidates, Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, whose ‘turns’ had come.
And then Donald J Trump rode down an escalator, took their ‘turn’ and the establishment has never been the same since. Because it was their ‘turn’.
In 2020, it was the ‘turn’ of Joe Biden, a man whose only political credential was that he had stuck around long enough to stick to things, like the Senate and the Vice Presidency.
Now in 2024, it’s Joe Biden’s ‘turn’ again. No one in his party was under the impression that he was the best candidate, the best campaigner or the best president, but damn it, it was his ‘turn’.
And now the Democrats are panicking because the candidate taking his ‘turn’ is imploding.
Biden’s debate meltdown has frightened Democrats, but they still have no answer for how to stop the car accident that everyone else could see coming from miles away. And no good strategy beyond getting the party leaders to confront their candidate and ask him to step down. But how do you take away Biden’s ‘turn’ when turns are the most sacred thing in politics.
It’s not an exclusively Democrat problem. The GOP put up Bob Dole against Bill Clinton and John McCain against Barack Obama because it was their ‘turns’. They let Mitt Romney go up against Obama a second time because it was his ‘turn’. And after Republicans lost two straight presidential elections because they ran establishment candidates taking their ‘turn’, voters were so sick of it that they did what they would have never done before and picked Trump.
Because it wasn’t his ‘turn’.
‘Turn’ politics mostly still rules.
Candidates past their prime go up to bat because they have the biggest networks of fellow politicians, donors and party activists. It’s as if Major League Baseball favored players on the basis of seniority and how well they networked, not based on how well they can pitch or hit.
But unlike sports, politics isn’t a meritocracy, it isn’t even a democracy, it’s an oligarchy.
Voters self-importantly think of elections as the big political competition, but that’s like judging companies based on the keynote addresses of their CEOs. Elections are the least important part of politics. All the really important parts of politics happen behind closed doors. What politicians do isn’t run for office, they network, they cut deals and they plan their careers.
That network, which we occasionally call by wholly inadequate names like the “establishment” or “D.C. insiders” is the reason Biden is up again in 2024. And why he can’t be gotten rid of.
People who naively think that Obama is secretly running the Biden administration don’t understand the network or how it works. Obama took on Hillary when it was her ‘turn’ in 2008. He won and brokered a deal that moved the Democrat network further leftward. And he did the same thing again in 2020, bringing in Bernie Sanders’ people and Elizabeth Warren’s people (and his own people) so that the Biden administration is even more radical and extreme than his was.
But where did Obama come from? He came out of that network of radical activists, donors and government personnel now running the country. Obama is not a brilliant genius or one-man dynamo, he was a lazy and unoriginal activist lawyer, one of tens of thousands of Ivy Leaguers who join the political side of the network, who wanted to live out his egotistical ambitions.
And the leftist networks gave him the opportunity to do it in exchange for seeding it deeper across the Democrat Party, the government and the country. Then his time came.
Obama did not want Biden to succeed him. He pushed Biden out in favor of Hillary, and then tried to bring in a surprise candidate to run against him in 2020. But some things are sacred and not even Obama, especially once out of the White House, could take away Biden’s ‘turn’ twice.
It’s not really Biden’s ‘turn’ though. It’s the turn of the strategists, lobbyists, staffers, donors, allies and more nebulous figures known as ‘friends’ whom he accrued over the years. They’re invested in his success, and they’re profiting from it. And they won’t easily give it up.
Trying to replace Biden with Gavin Newsom (aside from the legal and logistical issues) would be a clash of two networks that would require either careful negotiations or outright civil war. It’s done all the time with primary rivals who become vice presidents or cabinet members, but displacing a sitting president who also won the nomination and has raised and spent a massive fortune would require a level of delicate negotiations akin to bringing peace to an African civil war.
Especially if that president is unstable, prone to fits of anger, and is insulated by the same political allies whose wealth and power depend on Biden winning a second term in office.
It’s not just about Jill and Hunter Biden. Joe Biden has tens of thousands of political mouths to feed. Money has been collected, favors promised, people have bought homes in D.C. bedroom communities, lobbyists have secured fat contracts and donors have opened up their wallets.
Replacing Biden with another candidate would upend much of D.C., put tens of billions of dollars in flux and create massive instability in this corrupt local economy. Much of D.C. would rather ride it out (especially since the campaign people will make just as much money if Biden loses) and preserve the integrity of the networks and the illicit pinkie swears that allow special interests to buy influence without having to worry if their man will suddenly be swapped out.
That is what “it’s his turn” really means.
It’s not impossible for the Democrats to replace Biden but despite all the ‘Orange Man Bad’ alarmism that is their only campaign slogan, none of them view him as enough of an existential threat to disrupt a political way of life which allowed a mediocre grifter like Biden to get this far.
People who don’t understand that were baffled that Biden would run and that he would get the nomination. After his disastrous debate showing, much of the party panicked and outsiders assumed that they would dump Biden. The truth is that the Democrats wish they could.
‘Turn’ corruption once again threatens the survival of the party and yet they can’t break away from it because parties are vehicles for careerism and cash.
The networks around powerful politicians build careers and move money. And those networks are running the country.
When people ask “who’s been running the country” after Biden’s debate performance, the answer is that it’s the same people who run most of the government. And have all along.
Politicians in a state of obvious mental decline like Biden or Senator Dianne Feinstein who go on introducing bills, signing legislation, tweeting and expressing strong opinions on issues in their press releases are not aberrations, they’re symptoms of a much bigger problem.
Not just Biden, but many, if not most, elected officials are figureheads who exist to broker favorable arrangements between their personal networks of donors and staffers, and those of other elected officials, and the ones in the bureaucracy that actually make policy. The revolving door between staffers, personnel, appointees and lobbyists who move between administrations, offices, boards, corporations, think tanks and firms is the actual force that runs the country more than most elections. Politicians play their part, meeting, greeting and signing off on what they’re told will be good for their careers within the networks they’re part of.
And if they build up enough cachet, one day it will also be their ‘turn’ to be at the top.
That’s why Democrats can’t solve their Biden problem. The issue isn’t one man’s decline, but a systemic crisis. Biden embodies what the Democrats (and the two-party system and politics really is) and while getting him out may fix the immediate problem, it won’t fix the system.
Biden is a test of how much the system is willing to risk and how high a public implosion it’s willing to tolerate to protect the sacred right of the ‘turn’. Will Democrats let their party go down to protect the system? Will they go on lying to their voters and their donors? Will the media, which briefly broke away from the lies after the debate, resume going along with the scam?
Other ‘Bidens’, some elderly, confused and inept like Joe, others middle-aged, confused and inept, like Kamala, and some even young, confused and inept like AOC, fill the system because they are how the system works. It’s not a meritocracy that elevates the best, a democracy chosen by the people, but an oligarchy that runs the system and is also the system.
Images posted on X show the Iranian Navy’s “Sahand” destroyer capsized at Bandar Abbas, a coastal city in the Strait of Hormuz. This is an embarrassment for Tehran as tensions in the Middle East remain elevated.
IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News agency reported the 315-foot frigate capsized and sank during repairs at a port on Sunday. The cause was likely due to water infiltration into the ship’s ballast tanks.
“As Sahand was being repaired at the wharf, it lost its balance due to water ingress. Fortunately… the vessel is being returned to balance quickly,” the official news agency IRNA reported, citing a statement from the country’s navy.
Images of Sahand were posted on X.
BREAKING 🚨
The Iranian warship Sahand has mysteriously capsized at the port of Bandar Abbas, according to ISNA reports. pic.twitter.com/VY0MRxP4pS
“The frigate recently led a flotilla of Iranian vessels deployed to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden amid attacks by Iran-backed Houthis on commercial ships in the region,” Iran International said, adding, “This is the third incident of an Iranian warship sinking in the past six years.”
Here’s what X users are saying about the incident:
This kind of capsizing in deeper water is called Sinking. Nothing mysteriously capsizes in port unless there is an explosion that makes a hole or someone creates an access for water to flood and the ship “sinks” by rolling over. This ship was sunk, deliberately or otherwise.
“One of Iran’s most modern frigates, the Sahand, has capsized in Bandar Abbas.”
“Since construction the ship had been upgraded to include a new AESA radar, 4-8 medium range air-defense missiles and double the number of anti-ship missiles.”
LG Energy, one of the biggest players in the EV battery space, reported a 58% drop in operating profits for the second quarter of the year, attributing the figure to the slowdown in EV sales.
The news came a day after another South Korean battery major, SK On, declared an emergency after 10 consecutive quarters of losses stemming from trends in EV demand that have missed analyst and company expectations.
LG Energy and SK On are, respectively, the world’s third- and fourth-largest EV battery manufacturers.
Reporting on the LG Energy results, which are preliminary, Bloomberg noted a tax credit under the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act that helped the company stay in the black, Excluding that credit, LG Energy dipped into an operating loss of some $180,000.
SK On, for its part, has had worse luck than its bigger rival, without IRA tax credits to help it through the rough times. The Financial Times reported on Sunday that the company had seen its net debt swell to about $10 billion over the last two years and a half, which was a fivefold increase in the period. The reason: EV sales have fallen short of projections—well short.
“We have our back against the wall,” chief executive Lee Seok-hee wrote in a letter to employees. “We should all pull together.”
The company appears to have made a string of sub-optimal decisions to get to this point, namely aggressive investments in Europe and the United States in anticipation of an EV boom, according to the Financial Times.
Unlike the South Korean battery makers, the two world leaders—BYD and CATL—are mostly exposed to their home market where EV sales are the strongest in the world, so they have been shielded by the disappointing sales numbers on the other two key markets for the vehicles.
DC Enforces Youth Curfew “To Keep Young People Out Of Trouble”
Earlier this year, the DC Policy Center, a non-partisan research and policy organization committed to promoting policies for a vibrant economy in the District of Columbia, reported that juveniles in the DC area have committed crimes at twice the national average. This alarming crime statistic underscores how the radical leftists running the nation’s capital have possibly lost some control over the youth.
Chief Pamela A. Smith spoke with @DCNewsNow about the summer youth curfew in effect, the importance of knowing where your children are, and how MPD works closely with young people to keep them out of trouble.https://t.co/i31bKrVcHv
— DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) July 5, 2024
In response to surging youth crime, DC officials enforced a summer curfew between 12:01 am local time and 6 am local time, seven days a week, for everyone under the age of 17.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the curfew went into effect on July 1 and runs through August 31.
“The Juvenile Curfew Act of 1995 (DC Code 2-1541 et. seq.) states that persons under the age of 17 cannot remain in or on a street, park or other outdoor public place, in a vehicle or on the premises of any establishment within the District of Columbia during curfew hours, unless they are involved in certain exempted activities,” Metropolitan Police wrote on their website.
A person under 17 violating the curfew could face upward of 25 hours of community service. Parents or guardians could also face up to $500 fine or be required to perform community service.
DC police wrote that there are several curfew exemptions for minors, including running an errand for a parent, returning from work, and being involved in an emergency (view here).
The curfew comes as “data show juveniles make up the majority of arrests in DC for crimes like robbery and carjacking,” CNN noted in a recent report, adding, “For carjackings, which nearly doubled in 2023, the average age of those arrested was 15 years old. Guns are used in about half of carjackings, police data show.”
🚨National Harbor, a popular site outside Washington, DC in Prince George’s County, Maryland, just instituted an Emergency Juvenile Curfew due to “swarms of unsupervised kids engaging in fights, vandalism, and theft.” CPAC is held there, but I don’t think it’s their attendees. pic.twitter.com/h20F0OwL1R
Meanwhile, leftist corporate media outlets have been championing the latest FBI crime stats that show murder, rape, robbery, theft, and property crime are sliding in major cities. However, as we noted in “Admission Of Failure? Democratic Cities Stop Reporting Crime Stats To FBI,” some Democratic cities are just no longer reporting crimes to the FBI.
Do yourself a favor: Avoid Democratic cities where the failed progressive experiment has sparked crime and chaos.
If the socialist utopia of DC were actually working – which it never will – there would be no need for a youth curfew. Just north of DC, crime-ridden Baltimore also has a youth curfew.
Another Extended July 4th Weekend Of Historic Violence In Chicago: 109 Shot, 19 Fatally
In what could come close to a record-setting weekend of Chicago violence, 109 people were shot over the extended holidays since July 4th, local media reports.
“One hundred and nine people have been shot, 19 fatally, in gun violence across Chicago since Wednesday during the extended Fourth of July holiday weekend, police said,” ABC7 Chicago writes. The casualty count rose throughout the day as more police and hospital data was tallied, and came across news desks.
Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling and Mayor Brandon Johnson condemned the uptick in violent crime. “We have to really stop and think about the mindset of someone who will shoot a child, a helpless child an unarmed mother and think that that’s okay. And go about their days,” Snelling said. “Those people have to be taken off the street. They have to be put away if we’re not doing that. Then we’re failing other families.”
The victims were teens as well as men ranging in age from 16 to 36 years old, police data indicates. The demographic strongly points to most of these being gang-related shootings.
By comparison, there were 33 people total that died from violent crime across the entire nation, thus deaths in Chicago alone made up the bulk.
July 4th and the weekend closest to it tends to be the single deadliest holiday on the calendar year in Chicago, according to past data. This year’s Chicago violence is far and above that of last year’s.
The 2023 extended holiday weekend went from Friday night to Tuesday, during which time 57 people were shot and eight were killed.
“When we look at what happened this weekend, we always like to say that it’s a police issue,” Snelling continued during a press conference. “This is a societal issue. The police cannot be in everybody’s backyard. They cannot be in everyone’s home. They cannot invade every single gathering where there’s a possibility that someone may show up with a gun.”
For a sampling of some of the tragic weekend shootings via a local news affiliate…
Two people were shot, one fatally at about 11:51 p.m. in the 700-block of East 89th Place.
Minutes before that, one person was shot an killed in the 200-block of North Central Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood.
A man died in an exchange of gunfire Saturday night in South Shore.
A 26-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman were walking on the sidewalk when a white SUV pulled up and someone inside fired shots, police said.
A woman, shot in her leg, was taken to the same hospital in good condition.
At least 104 people were shot over the weekend, 19 fatally.
It’s the second-worst Independence Day weekend since at least 2014
Asked on Friday if the city’s anti-violence plan was working, the mayor’s deputy mayor of community safety ducked the questionhttps://t.co/1AZXzY1Zy7
Mayor Johnson on Monday noted the racial aspects to the crimes: “Black death has been unfortunately accepted in this country for a very long time.” He said further: “Let’s tell the full story of how we got here because if you skip a chapter, it won’t give us the ability to actually make the proper adjustments so that we can ensure that stronger and safer becomes a reality.”
In New York City, hotels that have converted into shelters for hordes of illegal aliens have been given over $1 billion in taxpayer money to keep them in business.
As reported by Fox News, the average hotel room for an illegal costs $156 per night, with some costing over $300 per night. As such, the city government has already spent at least $1.98 billion on housing for illegals, with 80% of that amount going to hotels or inns that have been converted into shelters, rather than to shelters operated by the city. Overall, the city has spent at least $4.88 billion on the mass migration crisis.
Some of the contracts agreed upon between the city and various hotels include a deal for $5.13 million per month with the Row NYC hotel, located in Midtown Manhattan. In South Jamaica, Queens, the Crowne Plaza JFK is being given $2 million per month to continue renting out its 335 rooms to illegals.
In September of 2023, the city secured a contract with the Hotel Association of New York City (HANYC) for $1.3 billion over the next three years. In January, another deal was signed between the city and HANYC for $76.69 million to provide “last resort” shelters to illegals at 15 different hotels across the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn through July.
Business owners in the surrounding neighborhoods have noted the decline in economic revenue for their businesses and others around them, as the tourists that would normally stay in such hotels and subsequently patronize their own businesses have been replaced by illegals who have no money.
“Our taxes are being used to pay for the migrants, and where are we supposed to make revenue?” asked William Shandler, manager at the Iron Bar located across the street from the Row hotel.
“How as a business could we function?”
Republican Councilwoman Joann Ariola also criticized the gutting of the tourism industry in favor of illegals, pointing out that hotels were built to be used by tourists, “not for sheltering the masses of people pouring over our borders every day.”
“These locations were meant to boost the economy of this city,” Ariola continued, “but instead they’ve become a net drain and are costing us enormously.”
Watch: Chaos Erupts During White House Press Briefing Over Biden-Parkinson’s Questions
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre got into a heated exchange with multiple reporters, where she declined to answer why aParkinson’s specialist had been to the White House at least nine times in the past year.
Jean-Pierre admitted that Biden had seen a neurologist three times during his presidency as part of his annual physical, but then began to demur when asked for specifics about the visitor logs.
“Ed, I also said to you for security reasons, we cannot share names. We cannot share names,” she told CBS News senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe, who said she should be able to answer questions regarding Biden’s health.
“You cannot share names of others he would’ve met with, but you can share names in regards if someone came here in regards to the president,” O’Keefe shot back.
“We cannot share names of specialists broadly. From a dermatologist to a neurologist. We cannot share names,” she replied. “There are security reasons—Ed, I hear you. I cannot from here confirm any of that because we have to keep their privacy. I think they would appreciate that too.”
Watch:
🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: In a very animated White House press briefing, a combative and frustrated @PressSec@K_JeanPierre admits @JoeBiden has seen neurologist 3x but refuses to give other details.
“Out of security & privacy, I am not giving names” but denies treatment for Parkinson’s.… pic.twitter.com/G7Ws8kNJxG
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) July 8, 2024
As we noted on Saturday, evidence has emerged that Dr. Kevin R Cannard traveled to the White House’s medical clinic at least nine times, meeting with either President Joe Biden’s personal physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, or a naval nurse who coordinates care for the president and other senior officials. O’Connor notably gave Biden a clean bill of health after his February annual physical.
The visits spanned July 28, 2023 with the latest being March 28 of this year, according to visitor logs.
According to Cannard’s physician profile page, he is a “neurologist and movement disorders specialist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center” who specializes in treatments for “early Parkinson’s disease.” Since 2012, he has served as the “neurology specialist supporting the White House Medical Unit,” per his LinkedIn page.
His most recent paper was published in August 2023 in the journal Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, and focuses on the “early-stage” of the crippling disease.
Since Biden’s health is O’Connor’s primary responsibility, it is highly probable the meeting was about the commander in chief, according to Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tx), the doctor for both Presidents Obama and Trump.
“It’s highly likely they were talking about Biden,” Jackson told The Post. -NY Post
“He should only be [regularly] treating the president and the first family,” Jackson continued.
Walter Reed cardiologist Dr. John. E. Atwood was also present during a Jan. 17 meeting, the NY Post reports.
According to Jackson, who has never treated Biden, O’Connor and Biden’s family are trying to “cover up” Biden’s declining cognitive health.
The big pickup truck went rolling down the dirt road, kicking up dust as Phil Gleason drove past workmen in hardhats and yellow vests digging a well for a new solar-powered home.
Miles away from any strip mall or cookie-cutter subdivision, the off-grid community known as Operation Self-Reliance bloomed with housing construction in the Utah desert.
“Think of all the dependencies when we’re in the cities,” said Mr. Gleason, 74, the community’s founder. “We have to drink the water they give us. We have to deal with trash pickup and pesticides.”
“I’m not saying it’s all bad. It wasn’t what I wanted. I needed to do something else.”
Operation Self-Reliance is both a plan of action and a work in progress, Mr. Gleason said with pride. It is a trumpet call for people yearning to break free of the bonds of city life.
Years ago, Mr. Gleason envisioned such a place for like-minded people, built on the time-honored idea of “sustainable self-sufficiency” like the early settlers.
It would be a place where people could live closer to nature, feel safe, raise families, and grow food.
The initial challenge was that “essentially, we had no money,” Mr. Gleason said. “We had no land. We just had a concept.”
But it was a valid concept nonetheless, he said—one based on solid principles of individual self-sufficiency and years of detailed research.
In 2018, Mr. Gleason presented his idea at a boating party on Lake Powell. Three guests stepped forward and offered to invest in the project.
After months of searching for the right place to build, Mr. Gleason discovered a 1,240-acre property was up for sale in a remote location about 100 miles south of Salt Lake City.
The land had once been a working farm used for growing corn, barley, winter wheat, and alfalfa, but it now mainly lay fallow, waiting for someone to infuse it with new life.
Around the middle of 2019, Mr. Gleason broke ground on the project, and the first few homesteaders moved in.
Today, there are 140 people in 50 families—75 of them children—living off the grid in passive solarized homes made out of brick, concrete, or compressed blocks of earth.
When fully built, the model community will accommodate more than 200 homesteads, each with a two-acre plot for raising animals and growing fruits and vegetables.
“We’re building a self-reliant community of agricultural producers,” Mr. Gleason told The Epoch Times. “Part of the agreement is they’ll become agricultural producers.”
Becoming a producer could be as simple as having a small garden, he said.
“You could have a greenhouse. But you’ll need the infrastructure. If you’ve got a one-foot garden and a tree, you’re an agricultural producer.”
However, before joining the community, each prospective homesteader must agree to a set of terms and conditions, the most important of which is developing a three-year transition plan for using their two acres productively.
On that small plot of land, they will agree to build a minimum 600-square-foot passive solar house, barn, greenhouse, freshwater well, and sanitation system approved by the local health department.
Mr. Gleason said the price of a two-acre parcel is $25,000; it costs about $200,000 on average to develop fully in alignment with the contract.
Even so, the contract does not allow for simply purchasing the land and locating a recreational vehicle. The aim is to build a community of permanent homes for agriculture.
“We’re more like gardeners. We’re not farmers,” said Jesse Fisher, the community’s social media and events organizer. “We encourage everyone to have their little cottage industry.”
Unlike survivalists or “preppers,” estimated at some 20 million strong, Operation Self Reliance isn’t waiting for doomsday or interested in riding out the apocalypse. It’s about immersing oneself in a self-contained and sustainable community as a way of life, Mr. Gleason said.
“We’re not preppers but we lean in that direction,” he said.
“Some of us don’t even like to be called preppers. The bulk of us—we want a sustainable lifestyle. You’ve got to work with the Earth.”
Still, “prepping is big business,” according to a recent Finder study.
It found that 29 percent of the adult population in the United States spent $11 billion on emergency supplies in 2022. The most commonly purchased items were food and water.
Two-fifths (40 percent) of Generation Z said they “spent money on doomsday supplies in the last 12 months,” and nearly the same number of Millennials (39 percent) said the same, according to the study.
The pandemic undoubtedly brought home the need for stockpiling supplies.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency reported a 50-percent jump in the number of people who were capable of surviving an emergency for 31 days from 2017 to 2020.
Though not a prepper in the cataclysmic sense, Mr. Gleason said he learned to appreciate the preparedness mindset half a century ago.
At the time, he was working as a building contractor in Idaho, living with his wife and three young daughters in a 29-foot recreational vehicle that ran on propane as winter was fast approaching.
“What we hadn’t counted on was that it had turned bitter cold. It was almost zero degrees outside and inside the RV. The water froze. The food froze,” he said.
He said the family had little experience with off-grid living, but they had an electric blanket.
“So we put the three babies between us and the electric blanket on us. We took other blankets and coats, put them on us, and turned the blanket on high. We were OK,” Mr. Gleason said.
At 3 a.m., the entire RV park suddenly lost power, leaving the family shivering in the cold.
“That experience rewired my brain,” Mr. Gleason said. “I wasn’t worried about world events. I was worried about keeping my babies warm and fed and able to drink. I felt helpless.”
That sense of utter vulnerability would turn into a wellspring of inspiration years later.
Mr. Gleason eventually came up with the idea of Operation Self-Reliance, an agricultural cooperative combining individual resources and talents for the good of the community.
Once an agricultural co-op surpasses 200 members, it can continue “generationally.”
And as rising crime and inflation make city life less tenable, he said, more people now view off-grid living as a workable alternative.
Among the more popular off-grid communities in the United States are Breitenbush Hot Springs in Oregon, Earthaven in North Carolina, and Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri.
Vivos xPoint is another off-grid community comprised of 575 survival bunkers built by the military during World War II near the Black Hills area of South Dakota.
Mr. Gleason said he has plans to build another Operation Self-Reliance project on 1,300 rural acres located in Snowflake, Arizona.
He said the important thing is understanding what his off-grid community projects are not.
“We’re not a political statement,” he said. “We’re not a religious statement. We don’t have a militia.
“I think we’re pretty run-of-the-mill families. We’ve got contractors, engineers, educators, health care, professionals—a lot of IT people—salesmen, mechanics.”
Mark Miller, 65, is a retired federal government first responder who’s been living off the grid at Operation Self-Reliance in Utah for the past three years.
He and his wife built their 5,000-square-foot home out of compressed concrete form blocks. They are now working to create a park and gathering space for the entire community to enjoy.
“I like the idea of working for myself. Doing agriculture—maybe having a bed and breakfast out here,” Mr. Miller said. “It’s the freedom to be able to do what I want for my property.”
That includes having the freedom to grow as much food as he needs in a 100-by-300-foot garden—whether it’s corn, cantaloupe, watermelon, or in the greenhouse he plans to build.
“The dirt out here is terrible, so we have to bend it to our will … and make it work,” he said.
As a government first responder, Mr. Miller said he went to video document “man’s inhumanity to man” inside the athletic dome in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
“And I mean, I saw the worst of the worst”—murders, rapes, looting, beatings, he said.
“And I’ve been everywhere you can think of.”
Far from the horrors of Katrina and American cities in decline, Mr. Miller said he finds peace in the company of neighbors at Operation Self-Reliance.
“Sometimes, I think they’re too close. Other times, I think they’re not close enough,” he said. “I’ve become friends with 50 families. I love every one of them.”
Tyler Ellingson, 35, is a software developer from Eagle Mountain, Utah, who recently decided that living off the grid at Operation Self-Reliance was the way to go.
He now spends every weekend building an 800-square-foot solarized home that he, his wife, and their three young children plan to move into next year.
At Eagle Mountain, the Ellingsons enjoy all the luxuries of modern city life—air conditioning, plumbing, a lovely house, and a nice yard. What they lack is “authenticity” from those around them.
“Everybody out here is authentic and willing to help,” Mr. Ellingson said. “If you get stuck in the snow, in town, you call somebody and pay them to help you. Out here, it’s your neighbors.”
He said that living in a small community of like-minded people is about building close relationships, even if it means suffering together.
“When you suffer with people, it builds unity—it builds community,” he said. “I have tons of neighbors” in Eagle Mountain. “We say ‘hi’ to each other. That’s the extent of it.”
Out here, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains and wild rye, his neighbors are more like an extended family.
“Out here, it’s all about the community working together to build something bigger than ourselves,” Mr. Ellingson said.
For Brandon Wilson, 44, a man of deep faith, “the short answer” for why he made the move to Operation Self-Reliance is, “God led us here.”
Though living off the grid intrigued him, he said, it was a distant cry from city life in South Weber, Utah, with his wife Shari and six young children.
“We had no intentions of moving,” said Mr. Wilson, a pediatric and family chiropractor in Ogden, Utah.
“We thought that would be our place for the next 40 years. In a lot of ways, it made little sense to us to come here. We felt strongly this was where we were supposed to go—especially after we found it. It became clear we have a purpose being here.”
He said that raising and homeschooling five boys and a daughter in a safe and wholesome environment is central to that purpose.
“Our culture has shifted away from that one-on-one interaction with our neighbors. Here, you have to rely on your neighbors because there are so many challenges to face,” Mr. Wilson said.
“Part of being out here is that it reintroduces kids to boredom. They’ve got to create their fun.”
Along with the peace of mind the Wilsons enjoy, there is the improved physical health that comes with life in a small community of resilient people.
“We feel better being out here. It’s a lot calmer,” Mr. Wilson said.
Since October 2023, the Wilsons have been living in a temporary 300-square-foot “tiny house” at Operation Self-Reliance.
The plan is to build a 1,200-square-foot homestead out of blocks of compressed earth.
Mr. Wilson said he still maintains a chiropractic office in Ogden, driving nearly 200 miles to and from work three days a week.
At home, he loves being with his family and watching his children grow up in a world where material possessions are less important.
“There’s no traffic. You can actually see the stars out here—the Milky Way,” said his oldest son, Bron, 13.
Tom and Kathy Barnes said they have no regrets about giving up 530 acres of agriculturally productive land in Payson, Utah, to work on just two acres at Operation Self-Reliance.
The couple now grows fruit trees and raises pigs, turkeys, chickens, and goats, living on the bounty in relative comfort.
“We had a lifestyle like this on 530 acres,” Mr. Barnes said. “This is two acres, so we downsized. We decided it was better to be out here.”
On their tiny parcel, the couple built their 3,000-square-foot solarized home, a red barn, and 17 raised garden boxes.
“Hopefully, we’re going to get citrus in this greenhouse. These grow boxes alone can grow what you want,” Mr. Barnes said.
How much food can they grow?
“All we need,” Mr. Barnes said.
“Plus some,” Mrs. Barnes added.
“It was a lifestyle choice,” she said. “We have a goat to milk every day—not too bad.”
One advantage of living off the grid is “people, people, people,” Mr. Barnes said. “The project is the community.”
“For us, this is not intimidating. We understood the principles” of living off the grid.
Another upside is having no monthly utility bill thanks to the 4,000-watt solar power array the couple had installed.
Mr. Barnes said that solar power alone is enough to run two freezers, two refrigerators, and two air conditioning units, with plenty of wattage to spare.
“So far, I’ve already covered $6,700 in the last 18 months,” he said. “It’s not going to take long to pay off the $35,000 cost of solar panel installation.
A short drive up the dirt road, Rebecca and Bill Sampson, formerly of Colorado Springs, Colorado, are in the process of building their new home.
“We’re going to build our house out of stabilized compressed earth block,” Mrs. Sampson said.
Recently married, the Sampson’s had been looking to move into a more rural setting to escape the “craziness” of the city.
“We were looking at possibilities. My niece sent me the information about here,” Mrs. Sampson said. “As we contemplated it and prayed about it, it seemed like the right thing to do.”
“If we want to get into the state of the world, I feel so grateful to have been led out of the cities. I think the cities are going absolutely crazy.”
Mrs. Sampson said there’s a definite learning curve to growing fruits and vegetables inside her new greenhouse.
Five Most Affordable Housing Markets For Non-Homeowner Households
House hunters are keeping a close eye on the 30-year mortgage rate, trending over 7%, as home prices continue rising to new record highs. The combination of high rates and elevated home prices has sparked the worst affordability conditions in nearly four decades, a harsh reality for millions of Americans.
A new report from real estate research firm ResiClub analyzed Zillow data, revealing the five most affordable and unaffordable housing markets among the fifty largest metro areas.
Let’s begin with the five markets with the highest percentage of non-homeowner households who can afford the purchase of an average-priced home in their market:
Pittsburgh, PA (25.6%)
Detroit, MI (23.1%)
St. Louis, MO (22.6%)
Oklahoma City, OK (22.5%)
Cleveland, OH (22.4%)
Pittsburgh and Detroit might not be glamorous metro areas—full of deindustrialization and crime—but a family may have a better shot at finding an affordable home than many metro areas located on the West Coast.
As for the five markets that have the lowest percentage of non-homeowner households who can afford the purchase of an average-priced home in their market… Many are located in California:
San Diego, CA (2.6%)
San Jose, CA (2.7%)
Los Angeles, CA (2.8%)
San Francisco, CA (3.7%)
Salt Lake City, UT (3.8%)
ResiClub pointed out that a whopping 52.3 million out of 134 million US families do not own a home. Given the tight lending conditions, only 7.9 million, or 15.1%, can afford to buy an average-priced home in their local market.
