I also tend to lean toward the possibility that there may be preparations underway to deal with some sort of very large and destructive natural event that the government sees coming, but is not talking about.

The event could be a pole shift. I'm not talking about a magnetic pole shift. I'm talking about a physical pole shift. And not a gradual one...

I don't have any kind of absolute faith about that. I'm just saying that it's one possibility.

If so, it's something that is utterly beyond the capability of the human race to do anything about, and that includes our governments. But they would certainly have some knowledge of its imminence through evidence being gathered by the science community. It would not be in their interests to inform the public about it, as it would cause a general panic, and that would cause massive disruption to commerce, transportation, communications, and everything else...thus becoming a huge disaster in itself...prior to the natural disaster.

The government, however, would want to make its own preparations and have authoritative mechanisms in place to deal with the event when it came....as best they could...with an eye toward salvaging themselves and as much of our civilization as possible after it was over.

A natural disaster on such a scale would be a far more serious problem than any war with Iran or anyone else...short of total nuclear war involving the arsenals of Russia, the USA, and the other nuclear powers. It would be a worldwide disaster that no government has any power to stop from happening.

So the pole shift I mentioned is one possible thing that could be leading to government preparations for emergency powers.

Another possibility is an impending collision with some kind of large interstellar object...

Again, there would probably be nothing the government could do to stop it, and there'd be no point in them telling the public about it ahead of time and causing general panic...but they would want to prepare for dealing with the aftermath, and that would require emergency powers.

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The above are simply a couple of possibilities regarding natural events. I don't hold any particular faith about them, just raising possibilities.

At any rate, I think it's a bit more likely that the emergency powers are being set up in regards to an impending natural disaster than in regards to an impending war...or a financial collapse...but it could be either one of those too, I suppose. Or it could be something else.

As for the smart crackers here making the usual scornful remarks from their comfy fireside chairs about "tinfoil hats", "little green men", and other such snide cliches, I will remind you that my grandfather was repeatedly warned by my grandmother in 1938 that the Germans were going to soon occupy Czechoslovakia, there was going to be a major war shortly after that, and they had to get out of central Europe before it happened and get to somewhere safe, like North America. He laughed at her worries scornfully and said, "That's ridiculous. Nothing is going to happen here." He had a lucrative business in Prague, about 50 employees, and he wasn't about to relocate to anywhere else. He refused to even consider the possibility that the status quo might come crashing down. He scoffed at any suggestion of danger.

He was wrong. It did happen just as she had warned, and when it did they lost everything except some of my grandmother's personal jewelry which she wore on the plane ride out of Prague the day after the Germans crossed the border. They got out a few hours before the airport was closed by the new German administration, leaving behind his business, their home, all their possessions, their country, their friends, and their bank accounts. They did not wear tinfoil hats. They flew first to England, then by ship to North America, and ended up eventually in Canada.

If a worldwide event of some kind is on the way, though, we will not have a safe North American haven to run away to this time. We'll have to make out the best we can right where we are.

As Jackson Browne once said, "Don't think it won't happen just because it hasn't happened yet."

They didn't think the Titanic could sink either. It hadn't happened yet.