The UN’s Arms Trade Treaty which covers everything from small arms to battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships – will enter into force on 24 December 2014, Christmas Eve. This treaty has not been ratified by our Congress but has the support of our Secretary of State, John Kerry who signed it and our President, who without expressly mentioning the treaty, said in a speech at the UN in September that all nations “must meet our responsibility to observe and enforce international norms.” The problem with that statement and this treaty is that we the people aren’t in control of what those ‘international norms’ are and as we have seen time and time again, those international norms might be detrimental to our country.
Many preppers and 2nd Amendment proponents believe that the Arms Trade Treaty will first lead to registration of all firearms and when that happens, historically the next step is confiscation through some means. Technically, no treaty can be put into action in the United States unless it has been ratified by a 2/3 majority of the senate. This fact is what most people cite when they are trying to refute any legitimate concerns about the UN Arms Trade Treaty or any other treaty’s potential effect on our country. This sounds well and good and serves to placate some, but for this fail-safe to have any weight you would first need to have a government that followed the letter of the constitution and additionally, that government would need to follow the wishes of the citizens they are representing.
Our government has proven time and time again that following the constitution is simply not something they feel they have to do when it stands in their way. For example, the senate has never voted on the Kyoto Protocol but that hasn’t stopped the EPA from enacting rules complying with the main goals of that treaty. Coal plants are being shut down left and right while the US and China recently agreed to let China keep growing their output of carbon emissions (with coal power plants) until 2030. There are many examples of policies that are enacted that fall well outside the bounds of Constitutional limits on power but that doesn’t stop our representatives does it? On any issue there is more brainpower spent on finding ways around the Constitution than actually following it with the seeming goal of every single facet of law being finally decided by the Supreme Court. It’s as if in our society, the rules we decided long ago to set for ourselves are only as good as the interpretations of people today and if every single thing can be challenged (and in some cases changed), we don’t really have a Constitution at all. What we have is a framework for legal arguments that only establishes a baseline which can be over ruled completely by a simple majority of ideology on the bench.
As for a government that listens to their constituents, that long gone relic of thought is promised by every single person running for office. “I feel your pain” The truth of the matter is that in this day and age, every politician is a benefactor of the same special interests. There are no democrat and republican sides whenever both are receiving money from the same companies. The elected politicians, by overwhelming majority do not care what you say or want because they don’t answer to you. Their actions directly contradict election results, polls and public outcry. The 2014 mid-term elections recently held should have sent a very strong signal to the leadership of both parties that the country wasn’t on-board with the policies of the current administration and the direction of affairs with the Congress, however; Obamacare and Amnesty both remain intact without so much as a whimper from our newly elected majority who promised for years to repeal it as soon as they were ‘in power’. To add insult to injury, the Republicans just released a 1 trillion budget proposal just over 24 hours before a procedural vote on it knowing that nobody would have time to read it. Same tricks but a different face is behind the podium. Why should we expect anything different from what we have been seeing?
Do you really feel that there is anything ‘your party’ is going to do to stop elements of this treaty from being implemented if it is in their best interests?
What’s so wrong with simply registering all guns?
What’s the harm in simply registering you say? It makes sense that government would want to know who has guns, so they can ensure that bad people don’t have them. You can’t argue with that logic can you? Well yes I can try. Registration will only be done by law-abiding people. The criminals they will try to get you to believe this registration would stop would never turn themselves or their guns in. If that were true, why wouldn’t criminals be lining up a police offices every day because we do have laws already, don’t we? How is this not obvious to everyone? I maintain that it is obvious to the people who are pushing for any restriction and by that I am referring to registration, of our 2ndamendment rights.
Do guns kill people? Yes they do, but deaths by guns are a small fraction of the total deaths in the US each year. If you want to know who really kills people you have to look at governments historically.
Yes, you read that right. Governments are responsible for more deaths of their citizens in the 20thcentury than any other unnatural cause. It is called Democide and is been documented by R. J. Rummel, formerly of the University of Hawaii Political Science Department. He writes:
Most probably near 170,000,000 people have been murdered in cold-blood by governments, well over three-quarters by absolutist regimes. The most such killing was done by the Soviet Union (near 62,000,000 people), the communist government of China is second (near 35,000,000), followed by Nazi Germany (almost 21,000,000), and Nationalist China (some 10,000,000). Lesser megamurderers include WWII Japan, Khmer Rouge Cambodia, WWI Turkey, communist Vietnam, post-WWII Poland, Pakistan, and communist Yugoslavia. The most intense democide was carried out by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, where they killed over 30 percent of their subjects in less than four years.
The best predictor of this killing isregime power. The more arbitrary power a regime has, the less democratic it is, and the more likely it will kill its subjects or foreigners. The conclusion is that power kills, absolute power kills absolutely.
But we live in a democracy in the United States and we elect our representatives. We have a rule of law and nothing like the atrocities you mention above would ever happen here. Really? I certainly hope not and so it is with much interest that I have and will be keeping track of what goes on after December 24th and into the future on this topic.
But Mr. Rummel’s statement has weight in historical precedence and is alarming when looked at from the context of where we are as a country today. One could argue that our regime has an increasingly disturbing amount of ‘arbitrary power’. That is power that they have assumed that is outside of the Constitution and the really fun part is they keep giving themselves more of it every day. Some of this power was enacted by law of course, but it is power nonetheless and it never decreases, it only becomes more vast. From the Patriot Act, to NSA Spying, to treaties with foreign nations, harassment of political parties, to illegal searches, illegal detainment without cause, to killing people without a trial and just yesterday they passed a bill which grants the government and law enforcement “unlimited access to the communications of every American”. How much power is that?
What does this mean to preppers?
Our second amendment was written expressly to give we the people a means to protect ourselves from a tyrannical government. This wasn’t about ‘letting us have’ weapons for hunting or shooting clay pigeons. The second amendment says that our right to bear arms ‘shall not be infringed’. It doesn’t say what type of arms meaning that you can assume they only meant musket loaders. It was intentionally open and only spoke to our rights, not the specifics of the weapons.
The Supreme Court even stated in the Heller decision that the second amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects an individual’s right to own firearms for traditionally lawful purposes, such asself-defense within the home. Even with that they left some ambiguity by allowing certain restrictions to gun ownership. This argument over who can have guns and what limits authority should put on gun ownership is not going away even with this ruling and it seems that challenges to the amendment could happen one day in that ongoing process we have called the courts. I can see that on the horizon again as new actions are taken in an effort to limit the ability American’s have of defending themselves because that is what it is all about. The UN and other anti-gun voices do not believe you have a right to self-defense. So you have to ask yourself why a bunch of representatives from countries that do not recognize the fundamental right to possess weapons are so keen to take ours. They prefer to give that power solely to the State which takes me back to Democide.
Why would we willingly give away our rights to self-defense when time after time it has been shown to be the ones we have the most to fear from are the very ones telling us we don’t need guns?
I have written before about the phrase “From my cold dead hands” and I haven’t changed my opinion. I do not say that phrase lightly, but I wonder if there will be a decision we face in our future that could have far-reaching impacts on the security of our lives. Each of us should carefully consider the larger picture of events that are happening in our world. We may not get the disaster you are expecting, that would necessitate throwing on our bug out bags and living under a tarp. We may face a different enemy who will come to us with a message of “common sense reforms” and wrap this all in a promise of “keeping everyone safe”. Take that with a grain of salt and remember the words of Alexander Solzhenitsyn in the Gulag Archipelago. Gulag was his literary-historical record of the vast system of prisons and labor camps that came into being shortly after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917 and underwent an enormous expansion during the rule of Stalin from 1924 to 1953. It is a fascinating read and warning to those who can see the echos of history in our country and around the world today.
“During an arrest, you think since you are not guilty, how can they arrest you? Why should you run away? And how can you resist right then? After all, you’ll only make your situation worse; you will make it more difficult for them to sort out the mistake.
And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say goodbye to his family?
Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?
The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! We did not love freedom enough. Every man always has handy a dozen glib little reasons why he is right not to sacrifice himself.”
For what it’s worth, I do not believe that we will most likely see bands of armed soldiers rounding up whole cities as they did during the Soviet Union days Solzhenitsyn lived through. I do think we will need to make a choice and I think we should be guarded even more so about how far we let things slip away from us. The arbitrary power that keeps building, if left unchecked would be the same as not resisting in Solzhenitsyn’s days. If you don’t put up a fight, you might not like what happens to you.
We say “What part of Shall Not Be Infringed Do You Not Understand” as a way of challenging anyone who believes that guns and firearms only belong in the hands of the military or police. It is an in-your-face type of confrontation that we employ to convey the frustration and absurdity of the issue in our minds. Perhaps that message should be one that we ask ourselves? Maybe we are the ones who need to remember “Shall Not Be Infringed” more so than the people who want to excuse away that right. Maybe the lessons of history and the rights we have shouldn’t be used as an argument with people who will never be persuaded. Perhaps, the message is one we need to take to heart and live out to the expectations of those brave men who recorded this phrase for us. We are the only ones who need to remember this right and by that same token, we are the only ones who can lose it willingly.
This web site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance the understanding of humanity’s problems and hopefully to help find solutions for those problems. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. A click on a hyperlink is a request for information. Consistent with this notice you are welcome to make ‘fair use’ of anything you find on this website. However, if you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. You can read more about ‘fair use’ and US Copyright Law at the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School. This notice was modified from a similar notice at Information Clearing House.} ~~~ Xaniel777
Obama fearing a revolution against him by the states, has moved swiftly by nationalizing nearly all National Guard Forces in multiple states; Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana,South Carolina – to name a few.
The Governors of the Great States of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia still have under their Command-and-Control the State Defense Forces to go against U.S. Federal forces should the need arise.
Also important to note:There are NO U.S. laws prohibiting National Guard troops from also joining their State’s Defense Forces.
This dilemma occurred during the Civil War with many “citizen soldiers” choosing to serve their states instead of the Federal Government.
Obama is angered by the several State Governors who have re-established “State Defense Forces.”
These forces are described as: “State Defense Forces(also known as State Guards, State Military Reserves, State Militias) in the United Statesare military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government;
State Defense Forces are authorized by state and federal law and are under the command of the governor of each state.
State Defense Forces are distinct from their state’s National Guard in that they cannot become federal entities.”
Mr. Obama is fearful of these State Defense Forces, in that he does not have control of said forces, and with the U.S. Military stretched to near breaking from multiple deployments and theatre actions in Iraq and Afghanistan,
these State military forces would be under the direct command and authority of the Governors in which states have said forces.
(Xaniel’s Note :And that was how it was originally designed by our forefathers in which to deal with an out of control Government, much like what we are seeing today ! )~~~Xaniel777
In essence, the Governors would have “de facto control” of the United States.
( Xaniel’s Note :AND AGAIN, this is the way it was designed by our forefathers to be ! Despite what the Federal Government thinks, it, (the Federal Government), works for the States which in turn, work for ‘ WE THE PEOPLE ‘.)~~~Xaniel777
Notice All Of Ramadan Celebrating Islamic Terrorist Camps
The two Governors leading this move are: Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota; and Rick Perry, Governor of Texas.
Both of these State Governors stated they have: “…deep fear the President is destroying their Nation.”
Governor Pawlenty’s fear of Obama is that since Obama took office he has appeased America’s enemies and has shunned some of America’s strongest allies, especially Israel.
(Xaniel’s Note :Israel IS NOT our friend or ally, but a virus and drain on our Country and the World !! WAKE-UP PEOPLE)~~Xaniel777
Governor Perry has declared that Obama is punishing his State of Texas by dumping tens-of-thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants into the cities and small towns of Texas.
Governor Perry further recently stated:“IfBarack Obama’s Washington doesn’t stop being so oppressive, Texans might feel compelled to renounce their American citizenry and secede from the union.”
Back during the George W. Bush neocon regime, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in his UN speech summed up George W. Bush for the world.
I am quoting Chavez from memory, not verbatim. “Yesterday standing at this same podium was Satan himself, speaking as if he owned the world. You can still smell the sulfur.”
Chavez is one of the American right-wing’s favorite bogeyman because Chavez helps the people instead of bleeding them for the rich, which is Washington’s way.
While Washington has driven all but the one percent into the ground, Chavez cut poverty in half, doubled university enrollment, and provided health care and old age pensions to millions of Venezuelans for the first time.
Little wonder he was elected to a fourth term as president despite the many millions of dollars Washington poured into the election campaign of Chavez’s opponent.
While Washington and the EU preach neoliberalism – the supremacy of capital over labor – South American politicians who reject Washington’s way are being elected and reelected in Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia.
It was the Ecuadoran government, not Washington, that had the moral integrity to grant political asylum to WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange. The only time Washington grants asylum is when it can be used to embarrass an opponent.
In contrast to the leadership that is emerging in South America as more governments there reject the traditional hegemony of Washington, the US political elite, whether Republican or Democrat, are aligned with the rich against the American people.
The Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, has promised to cut taxes on the rich, taxes which are already rock bottom, to block any regulation of the gangsters in the financial arena, and to privatize Social Security and Medicare.
Privatizing Social Security and Medicare means to divert the people’s tax dollars to the profits of private corporations.
In Republican hands, privatization means only one thing: to cut the people’s benefits and to use the people’s tax dollars to increase the profits in the private sector.
Romney’s policy is just another policy that sacrifices the people to the one percent.
Unfortunately, the Democrats, if a lessor evil, are still an evil.
There is no reason to vote for the reelection of a president who codified into law the Bush regime’s destruction of the US Constitution,
who went one step further and asserted the power to murder US citizens without due process of law, and who has done nothing to stop the exploitation of the American people by the one percent.
As Gerald Celente says in the Autumn Issue of the Trends Journal, when confronted with the choice between two evils, you don’t vote for the lessor evil.
You boycott the election and do not vote. “Lessor or greater, evil is evil.”
If Americans had any sense, no one would vote in the November election.
Whoever wins the November election, it will be a defeat for the American people.
An Obama or Romney win stands in stark contrast with Chavez’s win.
Here is how Lula da Silva, the popular former president of Brazil summed it up: “Chavez’s victory is a victory for all the peoples of Latin America. It is another blow against imperialism.”
Washington, making full use of the almighty dollar, was unable to buy the Venezuelan election.
How will a Romney or Obama win be summed up?
The answer will be in terms of which candidate is best for Israel’s interest; which is best for Wall Street’s interest, which is best for agribusiness; which is most likely to attack Iran; which is most likely to subject economic and war protesters to indefinite detention as domestic extremists.
The only people who will benefit from the election of either Romney or Obama are those associated with the private oligarchies that rule America.
END
Thoughts at Perhaps the Most Perilous Time in World History
By Stephen Lendman, Contributor theintelhub.com October 16, 2012
Daily events should scare everyone. Consider the times.
Wars rage without end. More threaten. One conflict follows others. So-called democracies wage them.
Popular needs go begging. Conquest, occupation, colonization, and exploitation are prioritized.
Ordinary people are on their own sink or swim.
Rich societies plead poverty. Nothing’s available for social needs, they claim.
War making priorities matter most. So do policies favoring bankers, other corporate favorites, and super-rich elites.
Today’s upside down reality endangers everyone. Protracted global Depression deepens.
Policies adopted make things worse, not better.
Criminality is rewarded, not punished. What better explains than Friday’s headline announcement.
Imagine Nobel Committee members granting NATO their most coveted award.
Warmakers won their Peace Prize. Perhaps they’ll be encouraged to keep ravaging countries globally.
Why not when war is considered peace.
Leaders who wage them reap huge rewards. Peacemakers are vilified. So are social democrats. Hugo Chavez stands out.
Most Venezuelans love him for good reason.
He cares and shows it. He keeps promises he makes. He shares Venezuela’s oil wealth with everyone.
Voters rewarded him with six more years. He thanked them responsibly.
He’ll deepen Bolivarian principles. He called 21st century socialism a work in progress.
He wants it advanced and improved, saying:
“We are obliged as a government and as the state to speed up the administration of efficient responses and solutions to the thousands and thousands of problems that the Venezuelan people still suffer from.
We are obliged to be more efficient, precisely so we can continue every day with greater force.”
He’ll launch “Mission Mercosur.”
It’s the Common Market of the South.
He wants it used to advance Venezuelan development.
He has railways, deep-water ports, and other projects in mind.
He wants more jobs created and exports increased.
It’s “extremely important….to convert La Ceiba, Trujillo state and the Lake of Maracaibo into international ports. Further, we should start at once to begin the construction of the railway line between the Orinoco and the Caribbean,” he said.
He also wants social programs expanded. He’ll implement what he calls “micro missions.”
He wants local communities given more control. Let them prioritize needs.
“We are drafting up ideas, revising notes and the specific and fundamental objectives of the micro-missions, as there will be many. They will be applied in towns, regions, factories, schools and the different places where they are needed.”
“We must keep giving power to the people, that is the solution, it’s not the power of the bureaucracy and elites that is going to solve the problems of the people.”
He also announced a new social missions ministry.
It’ll work cooperatively with local communities.
At issue is helping all Venezuelans.
Under Chavez, those most in need come first.
In America, other Western societies and Israel, austerity is policy.
So is war making. People needs be damned.
They never mattered much.
Now they’re entirely off the table.
It’s been that way for decades. Today it’s worse than ever.
Imagine denying them during hard times when help is urgently needed.
It’s not forthcoming.
US policymakers promise deep social cuts ahead. They made plenty so far.
Republicans and Democrats are in lockstep.
Rhetoric alone differs.
Conquest, corporate favoritism, and benefitting super-rich elites matter.
Ordinary people are left high and dry.
Resources go increasingly for war and other ways to reward America’s privileged.
Warmakers may go global.
Perhaps they plan destroying all societies to save them.
Body counts don’t matter and never did. Only wealth, power, and privilege count.
That’s what makes their world go round.
Wage enough wars and they won’t have one.
Today’s isn’t safe to live in.
At age 93, Doug Dowd’s commitment for equity, justice, and peace remains strong.
His academic career spanned six decades.
He’s still writing cutting-edge books and articles.
He’s a radical economist in the best sense. He wants upside down societies right-sided.
By email, he sent this writer and others his latest thoughts. He covered much ground.
He headlined “We Must Stop Today’s Lurch Toward Disaster and Clear the Path Toward a Decent Society.”
Who can disagree! With America’s elections three weeks away, he’s justifiably concerned.
However it turns out, ordinary people lose.
At the same time, Republicans scare him most.
Democrats also are up to no good.
He urges third party activism.
Another way entirely is essential.
In 2008, Dowd hoped Obama might change things if only modestly.
Now he’s one of his sharpest critics.
At the same time, Romney is menacing.
He and like minded uber-hawks may “take us toward self-destruction.”
It’s time “We the People” used “our brains, energies, and values” responsibly.
Given the alternatives, Obama’s the best of two bad choices.
He’s woefully short of good enough. Once past November 6, working for “a strong, truly democratic” society is vital.
It won’t happen by accident. Wishing won’t make it so.
Nor will voting Republican or Democrat.
Something entirely different is needed.
What passes for normal in America includes wars without end, eroding social services en route to eliminating them, and police state harshness for non-believers.
Wars threaten to go global. Dowd is justifiably scared.
“Today’s weaponry is insanely more destructive both quantitatively and qualitatively than” decades earlier.
“Future wars are almost certain to bring life on the earth to an end.”
At the same time, it’s “unlikely that anyone will do what is necessary to bring government to sanity and decency regarding war.”
Bipartisan “enthusiasm” urges more. Syria and Iran are prioritized.
Romney seems especially eager.
What kind of leaders think blowing up countries makes sense.
What kind of people support them.
Real change is urgent, and not just on foreign policy.
Dowd discussed domestic needs. “Militarism is bad enough,” he said.
What about making matters worse by homeland social deprivation.
Vital services are being destroyed in plain sight, in real time.
They include healthcare, education, housing, and much more.
Devastating consequences are certain unless stopped and reversed.
Ordinary people must act on their own behalf.
No other way works.
Witnessing what’s ongoing “makes for screams,” said Dowd.
Elites benefit while millions most in need go begging.
Politicians are in bed with corporate crooks.
They don’t give a damn about life, liberty, equity, justice, and human need.
Policies they support show it.
Growing inequality is institutionalized. America’s heading for oblivion.
People needs are ignored.
Depression conditions threaten to become catastrophic.
Policymakers able to act don’t notice or care. Self-interest defines them.
They infest Washington like a metastasizing cancer.
The longer injustices persist, the worse they get. A race to the bottom assures disaster.
It’s happening in America, across Europe, and in Israel. Who wants to live this way?
Millions are unemployed. Poverty’s expanding exponentially.
So are homelessness, hunger, and overall deprivation.
Environment dangers are ignored.
Dowd quoted a frightening analysis, saying:
“It is clear that unless we make substantial changes in how and what we produce and consume the world will sink into irreversible and increasing dangers to air and water and much else upon which our very existence relies.”
“There has always been destruction and waste, of course, but in the past century their qualitative and quantitative explosion are on or over the edge of becoming lethal.”
“Modern ways of what, how, and the ways in which we produce and consume have increasingly poisoned what we depend upon for life.”
“The products we consumers depend upon for life, industry and agriculture depend upon for their profits. Pushed by their needs and desires, all too many producers – most, immorally, and successfully the giants among them – have through endless product changes and advertising brought out the foolish in consumers, and dangerous levels of waste of our natural resources.”
“We must awaken ourselves from such enhancement, now, for time is running out in our resources. Life was difficult for most before the age of consumerism. Because of our increasingly frail environment we have made it dangerously so.”
“It is no secret that today we are facing a planetary environmental emergency, endangering most species of the planet including our own, and that this impending catastrophe has its roots in the capitalist economic system.”
Try finding media scoundrels explaining what everyone needs to know. Western ones turn a blind eye.
Most people have no idea what’s going on or how it harms them.
Bread and circuses matter more than their own welfare.
Worsening crisis conditions are not understood. Nor is knowing the urgency to act.
Change depends on grassroots activism.
Nothing else works and never did.
It’s not a left, right, or centrist issue. Survival’s at stake.
Everyone who cares must cooperate together or suffer.
Independent activism is key.
America’s two-party duopoly is too corrupt and dysfunctional to fix.
Another way is essential.
In the 1960s, Dowd was one of 18 anti-war activists.
Together they created “The Mobe: Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam.”
Diverse interests were represented.
Included were “socialists, communists, women, unionists, priests, Blacks, academics,” and other ordinary people who cared.
He and two others were invited to North Vietnam to observe things firsthand.
They met Pham Van Dong. He was prime minister from 1955 – 1976.
He served unified Vietnam in the same capacity until 1987.
“He told us that as long as our movement kept up its demonstrations, the US. would have to hold back from using its atomic bombs, and could not win the war without them.”
Anti-war efforts are always needed.
It’s important they become part of “wider political activism.”
Today it’s essential. “Mobe” and similar efforts helped end the Vietnam War.
Something similar today can work again.
It’s never easy, quick, or without dangers. Unless people try, conditions are sure worsen.
Inaction guarantees “more misery” for most people. It also assures eventual “war (to) end all.”
His new book is titled How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War.
Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
What type of emergency are you preparing for (economic collapse, terrorist attack, Electro-Magnetic Pulse, natural disaster, hyper-inflation, etc)?
Nobody knows what exactly the future holds; therefore nobody knows specifically how to prepare.
When selecting a weapon, the shotgun seems to prove more versatile than most of the others.
This jack of all trades weapon can do all things from put food on the table (bird shot) to defend against hostiles (buck shot) and put down wild predators (slugs).
I won’t attempt to argue that there are better weapons for some specific applications.
Many law enforcement agencies across the US have moved away from the shotgun toward AR platforms due to increased accuracy, effective range, greater ammo capacity, lighter weight and reduced recoil.
That said the specific mission of a law enforcement carbine is limited to tactical applications (not so great at shooting birds).
The shotgun is sufficient for combat engagements greater than 100 yards with slugs and is superior at ranges under 35 yards with Buck shot.
The vast majority of tactical engagements one would expect to encounter in an emergency SHTF situation would be within those ranges (beyond that a tactical retreat should be considered if practical).
A Shotgun Offers Variety!
The variety of ammunition is what makes the shotgun so versatile.
The ability to switch types of ammo depending on the application is equivalent to having several different weapons.
Loading a slug is ideal for hunting big game, engaging hostile threats at distances (or through barriers), and protection from wild animals (bear).
Loading a round of 00 Buck is equivalent to approximately 8 or 9 rounds of 9mm.
A round of birdshot is great for hunting small game (bird, snake, and squirrel) and also pretty good for breaching door locks at contact distance.
A 12 gauge flare round is a great way to signal people well over a mile away.
Additionally there are several variations of “less than lethal” 12 gauge shotgun rounds that offer you an opportunity to incapacitate an individual (rather than kill them) if the situation presents itself.
These rounds include bean bag rounds, rubber slugs, pepper rounds, etc.
The latter option (less lethal) may prove practical for many potential scenarios when you actually think about it (only having a “deadly force” option can really limit you both tactically and strategically).
Of all the types of shotguns available I prefer a good pump shotgun for a survival platform.
I feel a pump offers the best compromise of capacity, simplicity and durability.
Obviously a double or single barrel shotgun is simpler to operate and has less to malfunction; however, it is less ideal as a defensive arm due to limited capacity and slow reloads.
A semi auto would be faster to operate as a defensive weapon, however, they have many more parts to break, more prone to malfunction, and many do not reliably cycle low powered ammo (like less lethal rounds).
I think the Remington 870 is probably the best choice for a SHTF shotgun
Of the pump shotguns available, my personal preference is the Remington 870 with the Mossberg 590(and 500) being a close second. Take a look here to see the specification of the Remington 870.
Both of these shotguns have seen military and law enforcement duty. Also there is a huge aftermarket for accessories for them.
Common aftermarket accessories include side saddle shell holders (carry extra rounds), tactical lights (identify a threat in the dark), ghost ring sights, folding and recoil reducing stocks, rifled barrels, tube extensions and much more.
If at all possible I would stick to the 12 gauge platform for the survival shotgun with the 20 gauge being a suitable substitute for recoil sensitive individuals.
As I said, the shotgun may not be the “best” weapon for every situation, but for the “Jack of All Trades” weapon that will do most jobs reasonably well (and some of them best of all), the shotgun is hard to beat.
For years we’ve been sold the lie that the internet was the last great refuge for the freedom of speech.
People talk about how the internet has helped small business and independent media sites compete with the large corporations of the world.
But is that really true anymore? Was it ever true?
What most people fail to realize, is these corporate powers have rigged the system.
The whole thing is complete bullshit! 99.9% of people who use the internet use one of three search engines to find their information.
They primarily use one social network to communicate with their friends and family, and most of the video and news consumed online is done so through YouTube.
What’s the problem?
That’s a lot of power in the hands of a couple large internet corporations.
Now I know the powers that be would like you to believe that these corporations can do no wrong, but a growing number of people are starting to wake up to the fact that these large internet corporations are manipulating what you see, choosing when you see it and determining how you share it with your friends and family.
“What that can’t be” you say.
Well then let me share with you a small example of how the system is becoming increasingly rigged against small independent news websites. In fact, I’ll share with you an example from our own site.
The picture above is what I have to spend in order to have my posts shared with my friends and followers on Facebook.
You see, Facebook has a new policy that completely screws independent news companies and small business owners.
Even though over 15,000 people have subscribed to receive our updates, via our facebook page, the corporate bigwigs over at Facebook have decided that you no longer get to choose which type of media you actually see.
If I want my posts shared with the 15,000 people who specifically asked to receive them through facebook, I will now have to pay over $75 per article.
If more people subscribe, that price can get even higher.
Well, I can’t do that. I’m not selling products, I’m reporting on the news and helping people become better prepared.
So Facebook has effectively censored my posts, along with hundreds of thousands of other small business people and independent media companies, in favor of promoting posts that can now only be purchased by major media companies and large corporations.
Yes, we still have our loyal readers who come directly to the site, but how long will that last?
With a growing number of companies following the Facebook model of Censorship, the internet will soon resemble the crap we see on T.V. –
A couple of large corporations deciding what we can and can’t see, what news we can and can’t hear about and what product and services the drones should buy.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Fight back using their own technology against them.
At first I thought about leaving Facebook altogether, but then I realized I would be helping to perpetuate the problem.
Sometimes the best way to fight the war is from within the enemy’s camp.
While I refuse to share anything created by the corporate media; I will continue to share my posts (even if only a fraction of the people actually see them) I hope you’ll do the same.
While I am in no way against people making money, I would rather see small business owners have the opportunity to compete.
What’s most ironic about that statement is the fact that companies like Facebook are the ones out there talking about “greedy business owners” and supporting candidates who talk about the “evils of capitalism”, all the while screwing the small guy every chance they get.
Share and Promote independent media.
The Corporate bigwigs have all the money in the world to promote their propaganda.
The only way we can fight back is to start setting up our own networks and promoting each other.
As part of this effort we list a number of survival websites and then promote it on ever page on this site.
We will soon be setting up a section for independent news media.
While technically some of these people may be our competitors; if we don’t stand together, pretty soon none of us will have a voice.
While I may not agree with everything that’s said on some of these sites, at least the opinions expressed are not scrubbed through mass media filters.
Break out of the Matrix. Although I still think we should use some of these systems to spread other independent viewpoints – especially to those who haven’t woken up – it’s time to start networking outside the system.
Visit other independent websites.
Join the discussion and talk to people who are commenting at the end of articles.
Instead of wasting your time commenting on Facebook, where they decide who sees the message, start engaging in conversations with people on this site and other sites like it.
In fact, if you have a unique point of view or think you can help people that visit this site, please join the conversation.
Starting our‘way back machine’in the year 2001, we meet an interesting character(see this video)by the name of Jay Weidner.
Now Jay got me in a whole lot of trouble with Cathy by stating that i had retired from Major Software company with millions of dollars.
Cathy, rightly, wanted to know where i had stashed these millions since we were obviouslyNOTliving at that level.
Nope, sorry to say, no millions.
That part, Jay had wrong.
He doesn’t get much wrong, as historyshows.
He was correct about the data reporting [food shortages] for the year 2012….from way back in 2000/2001.
What is important to take away from that brief clip is that, in 2001, the data was reporting the language that we are now seeing in the msm, or the ‘mainstream media’(also known as ‘presstitutes’, and ‘whore press to the powers that be’, and ‘pimps for pedophiles’).
This language is all about up-coming, that is, predicted, food shortages, as we reported to our early readers in the years 2001/2002.
This meme was available to be seen then, as demonstrated by our reports of that time.
Now we are living it.
It has been no ‘accident’ of history that my radio interviews have frequently mentioned pies, and their production over these last 10 years.
It is also no accident that i frequently used the wording ‘calorie economy’.
This is a hint about the future.
Now that even the mainstreamwhorepress is reporting the exact language that we forecast way back in 2001, it may be appropriate to revisit your relationship with the food body of the planet.
In so doing, the idea of an expansion of the possible is encouraged by times such as these.
An example of the range of possibilities includes the idea of ‘sun eaters‘.
Now please note that as a linguist, i am compelled to point out that the site at the link above uses language in a ‘loose’ manner.
As an instance, i am unaware of the ‘wide reporting’ of this phenomena as cited in their opening statements.
Their lack of precision of statements aside, the phenomena is real, and has been documented, as well as hoaxed, for centuries.
There is even a particular protocol, or regimen, that the 3rd century CE Taoists used to ‘access sun (as) food’.
It is known in yogic centric traditions going back as far as records of hatha yoga extend; even being cited as an offshoot, or side effects of some of the body siddhis (special powers gained through enlightenment practices).
And please note that the leaner the biologic machine, the more efficient its functioning.
Stating this as a duality, it takes less food to maintain a healthy, lean body, than a healthy, fat body, as the lean body is simply used to getting more movement with fewer calories, while the fat body has a ‘mind set’ toward keeping those fat cells plumped up.
So, as a general rule, and a general state of health being assumed, it is better to face hard times and restricted caloric intake with as efficient a biologic machine as possible.
Lest you, the reader (assuming terrestrial humans only, all readers of other species exempted from the following), think yourself not the inhabitant of a biologic machine, i would like to note that 99 per cent of the mass of your body is primarily composed of only 6/six elements, and that carbon (by mass) is the second most plentiful.
Thus your biologic engine, the ‘body’(word actually derives from old english bodig meaning ‘trunk, torso, or shell’of an animal or plant), is in fact, composed of material that is tougher than uranium. At least as far as melting points go.
Such is our nature as humans that the siddhis are possible, and that possibility is clearly supported by the materials of which we are composed.
To those readers ‘fresh off the ignorance boat’, let me answer the question that will ultimately occur “how can such things as sun eating and yogic siddhis be real? I see my own flesh and it is incapable of living off light.”
It is your mind imposing limits to the body, not the reverse. It is the mind of the perceiver that must first be educated, and the body follows.
Further, since both mind and body are illusionary at so many levels, we need not take either as too much of an impediment to our range of possibilities.
At its core, much of real education involves the removal of the barriers placed in our minds by our schooling.
Hmmmm…by the way, guess who wants those barriers placed on your mind by their schooling?
The prepared (educated) mind will constantly examine its own thinking as an integral part of the process of decision making in an attempt to seek out, and eliminate barriers to effective ‘viewing’ of the context in which the decisions must be made.
By actively seeking to expand the scope of mental vision, the prepared mind makes itself available to the opportunities placed about by universe.
As chance/universe favors the prepared mind, it promotes this expansion of vision within the species.
Universe is engineering change in humanity through change in the context of life here on earth.
Change, and chance, do NOT favor rigidity of thought, which is why fascism and dictatorships always fade, their point of view limits their understanding of the changing nature of universal context, and thus denies to them, opportunities that are plainly visible to the less inhibited mind.
So as our friend Sam Clemens notes, ‘i refuse to allow my schooling to limit my education’.
Or more pertinent to the times…..a man (or woman) standing in a field of plenty, with a mind trapped in a context that only sees weeds, will starve.
What are you seeing these days?
===========================
Copyright 2012, all rights reserved.
Remember ZuangZi says, “it’s your universe, you have every right to change it.”
This web site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance the understanding of humanity’s problems and hopefully to help find solutions for those problems. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. A click on a hyperlink is a request for information. Consistent with this notice you are welcome to make ‘fair use’ of anything you find on this website. However, if you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. You can read more about ‘fair use’ and US Copyright Law at the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School. This notice was modified from a similar notice at Information Clearing House.} ~~~ Xaniel777
On Tuesday, a federal appeals court ruled that the US government can indefinitely detain anyone under the National Defense Authorization Act.
This comes as a blow to the ruling that was given earlier this year, when US District Court Judge Catherine Forrest ruled that the NDAA was unconstitutional. So what does this mean for journalists and why was it overturned?
Note:Here’s three stories in the last 24 hours explaining why the United States government can not be allowed to have this power under any circumstance:
Soon Michigan may join the list of other states who have passed legislation checking the president’s power under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to indefinitely detain American citizens.
On Monday, September 24, constitutionalists and friends of liberty gathered at the Oakland County (Michigan) General Government Committee Meeting to support Commissioner Jim Runestad’s Liberty Preservation Resolution.
Blake Filippi of the Tenth Amendment Center (TAC) originally drafted this measure with the assistance of the Rhode Island Liberty Coalition.
Reports to The New American from those attending the meeting indicate that many residents attended the meeting, as well, and passionately defended the right of Americans to live without the specter of an all-powerful police state looming over their every action.
One citizen, Anna Janek, stood at the meeting and recounted a childhood living in fear of government and police in communist Czechoslovakia.
A follow-up meeting to consider the anti-NDAA proposal is scheduled for Monday, October 8 and 9:30 A.M.
Apart from the noble work being done in Oakland County, State Representative Tom McMillin (R-Rochester Hills, pictured above, at left) has introduced a bill in the state legislature that would prevent the president’s power to indefinitely detain Americans from crossing the Wolverine state borders.
McMillin’s measure, HB 5768, would prevent the arrest and indefinite detention of citizens of his state under the authority of relevant provisions of the NDAA.
No agency of this state, no political subdivision of this state, no employee of an agency of this state or a political subdivision of this state acting in his or her official capacity,
and no member of the Michigan national guard on official state duty shall aid an agency of the armed forces of the United States in any investigation, prosecution, or detention of any person pursuant to 50 USC 1541, as provided by the federal national defense authorization act for fiscal year 2012.
The day after citizens turned out to support the cause of freedom in Oakland County, over 40 concerned Michiganders attended the Michigan State House Oversight, Reform and Ethics Committee chaired by Representative McMillin.
Led by TAC state coordinator Shane Trejo, representatives from a coalition of groups devoted to the protection of individual liberty testified in favor of McMillin’s bill and the principle of due process. The organizations present at the hearing included People Against NDAA, Campaign for Liberty, Downsize D.C., the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, and the ACLU among others.
Notably, consistent defender of the Constitution Congressman Justin Amash (R-Mich.) appeared before the committee and spoke in support of HB 5768.
As readers may remember, Amash’s effort to repeal the indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA for 2013 was blocked in May when by a vote of 238-182, members of the House of Representatives voted to renew the president’s power to arrest and indefinitely detains Americans suspected of posing a threat to national security.
At the committee meeting in Lansing, however, no testimony in favor of the NDAA was heard.
Ina statement, Representative McMillin recognized Amash for his aid to the cause of liberty.
“I appreciate the support from Congressman Amash, who has fought against the federal law that enables the executive branch to arrest and indefinitely detain anyone on U.S. soil using the slightest thread of evidence or suspicion,” McMillin said.
“Michigan residents should not be party to what most people consider an unconstitutional infringement on the rights of citizens by indefinitely imprisoning someone under the most ambiguous of terms,” he added.
Other parts of Michigan are actively engaged in the good cause of fighting for liberty.
In Allegan County, County Commissioner Bill Sage is working with his colleagues and encouraging them to get behind a county resolution specifically supporting HB 5768.
It is primarily thanks to the tireless efforts of County Commissioner Sage that by a vote of 8-3, the Allegan County Commission passed a resolution reaffirming the principles of the McMillin bill.
Allegan County’s resolution explicitly rejects the exercise in that jurisdiction of the NDAA’s indefinite detention provisions.
The resolution reads:
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVEDthat the Allegan County Board of Commissioners condemns in no uncertain terms Sections 1021 and 1022 of the 2012 NDAA as they purport to:
1)Repeal Posse Comitatus and authorize the President of the United States to utilize the Armed Forces of the United States to police the United States of America,
2) Indefinitely detain persons captured within the United States of America without charge until the end of hostilities as purportedly authorized by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force,
3) Subject persons captured within the United States of America to military tribunals, and
4) Transfer persons captured within the United States of America to a foreign country or foreign entity
In order to protect these [constitutional] rights, it is time for Michiganders to speak up against this unconstitutional federal law.
On July 26, I presented the Allegan Liberty Preservation Resolution to the Allegan County Board of Commissioners with the intent of passing support for State Rep. Tom McMillin’s Michigan Liberty Bill, HB 5768,
which makes it illegal in the state of Michigan for any official of the state, be they National Guard or any other official, to assist in the investigation or arrest of any citizen of Michigan in connection to sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA.
The resolution also states that all agencies of Allegan County up to and including the Allegan County Sheriff Department and all police departments in the jurisdiction of Allegan County are instructed to decline requests from federal agencies acting under detention powers of Sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA that could infringe upon county residents’ constitutional rights.
It should be of the first priority of all our elected officials, from the governor, U.S. Senate, Congress, states senate, state representatives, right down the line to the board of commissioners, to aggressively defend our country and constitution in every avenue possible.
All Americans should be encouraged by the efforts underway in Michigan and elsewhere to enforce the Tenth Amendment and to prevent the unchecked growth of the power of the federal government.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
In the statement issued by PANDA, Dennis Marburger of Bloomfield, Michigan, explained the critical role of the Tenth Amendment in safeguarding the sovereignty of the states from the constant usurpations of Washington:
Thomas Jefferson called this the cornerstone of the Constitution.
When Freedom of Speech was under attack by President Adams in 1798, Jefferson went to Kentucky in order to fight back through his Kentucky resolves where he enunciated the concept of Nullification, which he called the “rightful remedy” to D.C.’s lawlessness and violations of the Constitution.
James Madison went to Virginia and and wrote the Virginia Resolves calling for state interposition between the people and Feds when the latter unconstitutionally endanger the former.
Thus was born “the Spirit of ’98”.
The State of Michigan joined other Northern states in employing noncompliance / Nullification to resist the Fugitive Slave Act and government sanctioned kidnapping in the 1850’s.
Finally, in a statement to The New American, Dan Johnson, the founder of PANDA, praised the people and lawmakers of Michigan for their commendable work on behalf of freedom.
“We are very excited about what is happening in Michigan right now and, with leaders like Dennis Marburger, Bill Sage and Ray Kirkus, we fully expect Rep. Tom Mcmillin’s bill to pass out of committee and onto a full floor vote in Michigan,” Johnson said.
By passing similar anti-NDAA resolutions, counties and states across American can proudly join several other state and local authorities in taking a stand against the federal government’s use of the NDAA to abolish centuries old due process and habeas corpus protections.
The New American will continue to report on all efforts nationwide to oppose the unconstitutional indefinite detention provisions of the NDAA.
Photo:Rep. Tom McMillin is joined at the State of the State Address by Gary Glenn of the American Family Association
WASHINGTON (AP) A multi billion dollar information-sharing program created in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 has improperly collected information about innocent Americans and produced little valuable intelligence on terrorism, a U.S. Senate report concludes.
It portrays an effort that ballooned far beyond anyone’s ability to control.
What began as an attempt to put local, state and federal officials in the same room analyzing the same intelligence has instead cost huge amounts of money for data-mining software, flat screen televisions and, in Arizona, two fully equipped Chevrolet Tahoes that are used for commuting, investigators found.
“The … investigation could identify no reporting which uncovered a terrorist threat, nor could it identify a contribution such fusion center reporting made to disrupt an active terrorist plot,” the report said.
When the program did address terrorism, it sometimes did so in ways that infringed on civil liberties.
The fusion centers have made headlines for circulating information about the American Civil Liberties Union, activists on both sides of the abortion debate, war protesters and advocates of gun rights.
One fusion center cited in the Senate investigation wrote a report about a Muslim community group’s list of book recommendations. Others discussed American citizens speaking at mosques or talking to Muslim groups about parenting.
The bipartisan report is a scathing evaluation of what the Department of Homeland Security has held up as a crown jewel of its security efforts.
The report underscores a reality of post-9/11 Washington:National security programs tend to grow, never shrink, even when their money and manpower far surpass the actual subject of terrorism. Much of this money went for ordinary local crime-fighting.
Homeland Security says the report is outdated, inaccurate and too focused on information produced by the program, ignoring benefits to local governments from their involvement with federal intelligence officials.
Because of a convoluted grants process set up by Congress, Homeland Security officials don’t know how much they have spent in their decade-long effort to set up so-called fusion centers in every state.
Government estimates range from less than $300 million to $1.4 billion in federal money, plus much more invested by state and local governments. Federal funding is pegged at about 20 percent to 30 percent.
Despite that, Congress is unlikely to stop the funding. That’s because, whether it stops terrorists, the program means politically important money for state and local governments.
A Senate Homeland Security subcommittee reviewed more than 600 unclassified reports over a one-year period and concluded that most had nothing to do with terrorism.
No evidence of criminal activity was contained in those reports.
The government did not circulate them, but it kept them on government computers.
The federal government is prohibited from storing information about First Amendment activities not related to crimes.
“It was not clear why, if DHS had determined that the reports were improper to disseminate, the reports were proper to store indefinitely,” the report said.
Homeland Security Department spokesman Matthew Chandler called the report “out of date, inaccurate and misleading.”
He said that it focused entirely on information being produced by fusion centers and did not consider the benefit the involved officials got receiving intelligence from the federal government.
The report is as much an indictment of Congress as it is the Homeland Security Department.
In setting up the department, lawmakers wanted their states to decide what to spend the money on.
Time and again, that set-up has meant the federal government has no way to know how its security money is being spent.
Inside Homeland Security, officials have long known there were problems with the reports coming out of fusion centers, the report shows.
“You would have some guys, the information you’d see from them, you’d scratch your head and say, ‘What planet are you from?’” an unidentified Homeland Security official told Congress.
Until this year, the federal reports officers received five days of training and were never tested or graded afterward, the report said.
States have had criminal analysis centers for years.
But the story of fusion centers began in the frenzied aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The 9/11 Commission urged better collaboration among government agencies. As officials realized that a terrorism tip was as likely to come from a local police officer as the CIA, fusion centers became a hot topic.
But putting people together to share intelligence proved complicated. Special phone and computer lines had to be installed.
The people reading the reports needed background checks.
Some information could only be read in secure areas, which meant construction projects.
All of that cost money.
Meanwhile, federal intelligence agencies were under orders from Congress to hire more analysts.
That meant state and local agencies had to compete for smart counterterrorism thinkers.
And federal training for local analysts wasn’t an early priority.
Though fusion centers receive money from the federal government, they are operated independently.
Counterterrorism money started flowing to states in 2003.
But it wasn’t until late 2007 that the Bush administration told states how to run the centers.
State officials soon realized there simply wasn’t that much local terrorism-related intelligence.
Terrorist attacks didn’t happen often, but police faced drugs, guns and violent crime every day.
Normal criminal information started moving through fusion centers.
Under federal law, that was fine.
When lawmakers enacted recommendations of the 9/11 Commission in 2007, they allowed fusion centers to study “criminal or terrorist activity.”
The law was co-sponsored by Sens. Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman, the driving forces behind the creation of Homeland Security.
Five years later, Senate investigators found, terrorism is often a secondary focus.
“Many fusion centers lacked either the capability or stated objective of contributing meaningfully to the federal counterterrorism mission,” the Senate report said.
“Many centers didn’t consider counterterrorism an explicit part of their mission, and federal officials said some were simply not concerned with doing counterterrorism work.”
When Janet Napolitano became Homeland Security secretary in 2009, the former Arizona governor embraced the idea that fusion centers should look beyond terrorism.
Testifying before Congress that year, she distinguished fusion centers from the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces that are the leading investigative and analytical arms of the domestic counterterrorism effort.
“A JTTF is really focused on terrorism and terrorism-related investigations,” she said. “Fusion centers are almost everything else.”
Congress, including the committee that authored the report, supports that notion. And though the report recommends the Senate reconsider the amount of money it spends on fusion centers, that seems unlikely.
“Congress and two administrations have urged DHS to continue or even expand its support of fusion centers, without providing sufficient oversight to ensure the intelligence from fusion centers is commensurate with the level of federal investment,” the report said.
And following the release of the report, Homeland Security officials indicated their continued strong support for the program.
On our survivalist web site we get lots of questions from people considering becoming Preppers/Survivalists.
In the course of these contacts we’ve met lots of different types of people and that gives me hope for the future.
We’ve been amazed how many people are waking up, as compared to 25+ years ago – when there was no one we could talk to!
Some people who have contacted us are sincerely looking for information on how to prep, while others are looking for an excuse not to prep.
Then there is another type of person considering prepping.
These people remind me of an old story about the Empire State Building.
As the story goes, a man rode the elevator to the outdoor observation platform of the Empire State Building.
Once there, he climbs over the fence and jumps off the platform, 101 stories up. As he passed their window, people standing at the 50th floor windows could plainly hear the jumper say, “I’m OK so far!”
And that’s how it is for most people.
As long as the problem is down the road, it’s not something to worry about today.
That is why we call people like that the “I’m OK so Far” crowd.
Time and again we have heard from people who tell us that their plan is to retire in 2015 and then they will look into getting some storage foods and a bug out place.
You see, their plans are based on their comfort zone, not on reality.
With all the worries the world holds for us today, we need to be cautious of being too complacent when it comes to our preparations for what is soon coming down the pike.
We all have our favorite pundits – for some of us that would be Gerald Celente, for others Alex Jones, some follow Steve Quayle and others. None of the pundits are predicting a rosy future.
Food Riots, Dollar Collapse and War are just a few of the concerns that face us in the near future.
Take a look at these headlines (Caution: if this stuff is news to you, it will probably piss you off):
For many people, understanding the rationale of global war is where their minds fall into cognitive dissonance, that is, the inability to deal with the reality of a specific situation, such as, “I know the government would never start an unjust war.”
It is this cognitive dissonance that keeps some from taking their foot off third base so that they can get to home plate.
Why would any rational, sane mind want global nuclear war with millions – possibly billions – dead????
Eugenics.
The elite are into death cults, and they are nostalgic for the days when they, TPTB, used to place a dead animal in the village well to kill off the surplus population.
Now these mad men have nuclear weapons and can do a lot more damage than placing a dead rat in a well.
Their stated goal is to kill off all but 500 million people, who will then have the honor of acting as their serfs/slaves.
The food shortage is a constructed crisis. Making gasoline from corn was a good method of making corn prices skyrocket.
Add to that a manufactured drought (HAARP/Chemtrails induced), and now there is no corn to speak of in the USA.
Cows at feedlots are now being fed spoiled candy and pastries due to the extreme drought and loss of the corn crop in the Midwest.
Many other crops are failing all over the world as well.
It’s an established fact that famine in coming to our near future.
And when it comes to the dollar collapse, the evidence is very clear to anyone who is watching.
Even Max Keiser said yesterday on Alex Jones that he predicts a 70% inflation rate by next Spring.
Let’s put that into perspective.
Eggs$2.50 per dozen now, after 70% inflation by Spring will cost $4.25
Gas at $3.90 will cost $6.63
and $50 worth of clothing will cost $85
The simple fact is that most Americans will not be able to cope with our financial future.
Precious few are coping today! If you don’t already have a supply of good, wholesome storage foods, get some now.
If you live in a high population density area and don’t have a place to get away to, find that place now!
The truth is that our immediate future is not rosy.
Still we have hope for a brighter future after the chaos and hope very much that many of the “I’m OK so far” and “Survival Tourist” types and others will join us in the future world.
But the need to begin prepping is real and it isnow.
I want to offer this invitation to you to contact us.
If you have any questions that we may be able to help with, please drop us a line.
Time is short.
Dan and Sheilaare the authors of Surviving Survivalism – How to Avoid Survivalism Culture Shock and hosts of the free podcast, “Still Surviving with Dan and Sheila”, both available at http://survivingsurvivalism.com/
For information about their survival community, or for other questions, they can be reached atsurviving@lavabit.com
END
Printable Gun Revolution Moving Forward Despite Corporate Second Amendment Fears
The company that rented out the 3D printer that was to be used in the testing and design phase of a group’s revolutionary gun manufacturing concept took their equipment back last week, however, a persistent Cody Wilson explains he and his organization aren’t deterred in their efforts to bring the idea to fruition.
Stratasys’ letter to Wilson.
Their idea is nothing short of a slap in the face to gun legislation everywhere: an open-source site where gun enthusiasts from around the world convene to share and download gun design blueprints and files.
When Stratasys Inc, the 3D printer manufacturing company that leased the printer, caught wind of what Cody Wilson and his organization Defense Distributed were planning to use their printer for, they issued an email last week stating they would need to confiscate their printer prior to it even being used.
“They came for it straight up…I didn’t even have it out of the box,” Wilson told Wired’s Danger Room.
Wilson, a 2nd year University of Texas law student, and his group raised $20,000 last month to fund an operation known as the Wiki Weapon Project.
The project’s goal was to produce a firearm solely using a 3D printerto manufacture all parts. Once the plans are tested and finalized, the group would then upload the files to the Internet for literally anyone to download, print and ultimately assemble.
The email was addressed to Wilson himself and came on behalf of Stratasys’ Legal Counsel, stating:
“It is the policy of Stratasys not to knowingly allow its printers to be used for illegal purposes. Therefore, please be advised that your lease of the Stratasys uPrint SE is canceled at this time and Stratasys is making arrangements to pick up the printer.”
“The only protest I had, the only exchange back I had was, “Well, legal counsel, our opinion is if these weapons are title I weapons, we don’t need registration, we don’t need license, we don’t need anyone’s approval to do this. This is totally legal, this is America,” you know? Patriotism,” Wilson told Infowars.com.
“That wasn’t good enough for them, and they emailed me back and they said “Look, we’re not gonna get into a legal debate about it. We want it back,” and so fine.”
Stratasys legal counsel may very well be in the wrong.
As CNET’s Rick Brown explains, it matters what type of gun you’re planning to produce, and whether or not you’re planning on selling your services as a gunsmith or the manufactured weapons.
“If you aim to sell your services as a gunsmith (e.g., “I charge $50 an hour to make a gun”) or you intend to sell the weapon once you’ve made it (e.g., “I charge $500 for this particular gun”), you need to obtain a federal manufacturer’s license. [1140] If the weapon is for personal use, no manufacturing license is required.”
Since 3D printed firearms manufacture is still in its infancy, actually in its conception phase, it still falls into a sort of legal gray area, however, Wilson believes Stratasys has been disingenuous in their statements to other media.
“So Stratasys is saying and suggesting to other people, “Well, they can follow the law like anyone else.” The suggestion is that we weren’t going to. They’re pretending and hiding behind the law, when really they just don’t want to associate with the project. That’s disingenuous and they mistreated us and fine, I’m not in some personal vendetta against them, it’s just… they’re pretending.”
Companies like KTordnance.com sell unfinished frames to start a custom built firearm.
Indeed, the idea that a company can overbearingly control what people do with their product is bordering on an old world manufacturer mentality in which industries would control what people did with their technologies to the point of managing channels of distribution and production.
“No that’s not what this machine is. This machine’s about doing anything with the machine,” Wilson says.
The printer abduction was nothing to write home about.
Wilson says Stratasys hired third party couriers to retrieve their equipment.
Previously, Defense Distributed ran into trouble when their first open donation site Indiegogo canceled their account and refunded all donations a mere 22 days after its open.
Indiegogo sent Defense Distributed an email saying its funds had been frozen due to “unusual account activity,” and followed up with an explanation that it had violated Indiegogo’s terms of service, which don’t allow the sale of “ammunition, firearms, or certain firearm parts or accessories.”
Wilson contends he read the terms and doesn’t believe he violated them. “My reading of their terms is we didn’t give anyone the option to sell or buy firearms. The exchange was they give us money, we give them information. That’s the project. Not firearms, not ammunition.”
Ever the tenacious micro-entrepreneur, Wilson didn’t let the account cancellation thwart his group’s drive to succeed.
They raised their $20,000 goal last month, circumventing Indiegogo by inserting Paypal and Bitcoin donation widgets on their original site.
Since Wilson was running into dead ends, he figured he had nothing to lose by going to Austin’s ATF branch to once and for all absolve himself of any criminal wrongdoing.
“And they were more than happy to talk to me, but they said, “Actually, it’s interesting you came because we were looking for you” and that’s not something you want to hear,” laughed Wilson.
“The ATF involvement was mostly at my direction. A lot of people say, “Why go to them?” but at this point I can’t get any answers from our lawyers. I’m not getting anywhere in reading the law myself.
Everything’s intentionally kinda vague and ambiguous. And the technology’s really kind of outpaced the regulations…And so began a sort of quasi-interrogation.
They were writing things down and asking me who I was. I told them who I was and what the project was. And I explained 3D printing to them, and so it went from imposing to really friendly.”
Ultimately, Wilson took away he’d have to do something he’d been avoiding; turn his company into a legal entity and get licensed.
“ We’re gonna have to do the license because that’s the world we live in, apparently. And I think that’s unfortunate and I think it’s silly. Maybe it’s not so silly because this is firearms we’re talking about.
But look, this speaks to the attitude toward micro-entrepreneurs and the attitude towards ideas in general in this country. You can’t do anything without somebody’s permission.
I believe that. You interested in the natural world? You want to do something with chemicals? People are gonna look at you like you’re suspect.
Like you’re some kind of drug dealer. You can’t do anything of any consequence with any curiosity in this country without being weighed, measured, forced into some institution or system that ties to register everything.
I’ll be in every database from now until the end of time because I was simply curious.”
Wilson adds, “I want to be sure that people know that there are no right answers to this. Is it Title I is it Title II? Well that’s a test case, and I’m not gonna be that guy in front of some article III judge saying, “But I thought it was fine.”
Another hurdle that’s in the near future is the Undetectable Firearms Act which makes it unlawful to manufacture a firearm that is not detectable by a walk-through metal detector or x-ray machines, but Wilson isn’t giving up his secret on how he’s planning to bypass this piece of legislation: “ We’ve been pretty public about telling people what we’re doing but I’m not sure I want to give away the legal strategy here. Let’s keep it a secret. Bottom line, we’re gonna follow the law.”
Getting another printer after the seizure won’t be a problem as various people have already contacted Wilson, but he says his top priority at this time will be to take care of the legal side of things as a preventative effort to any prosecutors who may choose to exercise too much discretion.
The precedent that would be established in offering open-source blueprints for 3D printable guns would definitely be detrimental to any effort geared towards disarming the population.
Riding the wave of recent domestic terror incidents, the gun-grabbing lobby is in an all-out frenzy to portray gun owners and gun legislation as murderous and contradictory to the good of the people.
Largely ignored, however, is the fact that a population left helpless and dependent on the state and their police is exactly what the founding fathers were trying to prevent in crafting the Second Amendment.
It remains to be seen if a printed gun will actually work, and Wilson admits even he’s a little skeptical.
“People say, well people didn’t know you could print guns with this technology. I don’t know if you can. That’s what this whole thing’s about. We’re willing to try, you know? How’s that so controversial? And it seems the closer I get, the further I am away from trying.”
One thing’s certain; if Defense Distributed succeeds in their efforts, as long as there’s a free Internet and someone has a 3D printer, all you’ll really need is ammo.
Below is the video Defense Distributed released in July:
END
20,000+ Supporters to Ron Paul: Please Run as an Independent or Libertarian!
You are at the right place and at the right time not only to educate Americans about the principles of personal liberty, sound money, free markets and a sensible pro-America foreign policy, but also to continue the Revolution and lead us to victory.
We the undersigned don’t want to change the GOP — we want to change America.
We pledge to “write in” your name on the presidential ballot this November 6th no matter what happens until then.
Please consider quitting the GOP and officially announcing your candidacy as an Independent.
This web site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance the understanding of humanity’s problems and hopefully to help find solutions for those problems. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. A click on a hyperlink is a request for information. Consistent with this notice you are welcome to make ‘fair use’ of anything you find on this website. However, if you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. You can read more about ‘fair use’ and US Copyright Law at the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School. This notice was modified from a similar notice at Information Clearing House.} ~~~ Xaniel777
The world is on now on the brink of a global credit crisis that could be far worse than the tumultuous events of 2008.
The ongoing sovereign debt crisis in the southern reaches of the Eurozone indicate that bank runs in the region will continue, and that more bank closure “holidays” will be declared.
Under a bank holiday, virtually all deposits could be frozen and irredeemable for days, weeks, or even months.
The key question is: Will this crisis spread to the rest of Europe and then even to the United States?
I urge SurvivalBlog readers – particularly those in Europe – to be proactive, to stay “ahead of the power curve.”
While the Generally Dumb Public (GDP) wakes up some morning to hear news of a bank holiday, you will have long hence prepared yourself.
Digits Lost in the Ether – Redeemable Mañana?
Most people don’t realize that printed U.S. currency and minted coins amount to less than $800 billion, worldwide.
That is just a small portion of the aggregate Money Zero Maturity (MZM) money supply that now exceeds $7 Trillion.
So what is in your bank account is just electronic money, and there is absolutely no way that even a fraction of depositors could get physical cash to redeem the digits in their accounts.
If there is a bank holiday declared, there will undoubtedly be severe restrictions on cash withdrawals when banks re-open.
Given the precedent of the limits on withdrawals of a few institutions during the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, I predict that withdrawal restrictions could go on for many months.
Here are 20 Reasons why America’s next bank holiday will be a nightmare:
1. A bank holiday will create a virtual blackout of information on not just checking and saving accounts, but also automated mortgage payments, CDs, and more.
Our presently quite transparent banking system will suddenly become opaque.
Your bank balance will become invisible.
Your handy-dandy online banking web page will be replaced by a “Service Temporarily Unavailable” notice.
The willingness to accept checks will evaporate in less than a day.
The FUD factor (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) will be overwhelming.
2.Most businesses will no longer honor personal checks, corporate checks, or bank money orders.
Showing a merchant your most recent bank statement isn’t likely to sway him. Again, the FUD factor will rule.
3.All checks in the U.S. are cleared through the automated clearinghouse (ACH) network.
Most of this network is inside of banking system firewalls.
Many Federal, State, and local tax payments are also handled through ACH.
(A similar network exists for European banks – the Pan-European Automated Clearing House (PE-ACH), under the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) system).
4.Credit cards might not be accepted.
The FUD factor will dictate that anything even peripherally related to the banking system will be suspect.
(Even though the credit card companies have their own credit clearing mechanisms that are only attached to the banking milieu.)
5.Except for a few grandfathered recipients, Social Security payments are now made exclusively via bank direct deposit.
6.Military monthly pay, housing allowances, and ration payments are now made exclusively via bank direct deposit, in CONUS.
That is true virtually across the board (Active component, Reserve, and National Guard.)
Ditto for monthly military retirement payments.
7.Many State and Federal employees no longer get physical paychecks. They too, are trapped in the “direct deposit only” world.
8.Many Americans are now very dependent on bank debit cards (also known as a bank cards or check cards.)
In fact, many people don’t even carry more than a few dollars in their wallets.
If our world suddenly goes “cash only” most people will suddenly be out of cash.
9.ATMs, debit card transactions, and online banking can be shut down in minutes.
This huge vulnerability of banking customers has already been evidenced by a few minor glitches.
10.Online payment systems like PayPal will be sharply degraded, because they rely on their ability to move funds to and from banks.
More importantly, online payments are inextricably tied to credit card processing.
If credit card processing is suspended, then online payments will be “dead in the water.”
11.Many regular monthly payments such as mortgages, insurance premiums, and some utilities are automatically debited from checking accounts.
These will all come to a screeching halt.
12.SWIFT wire transfers will probably be suspended, freezing a good portion of global commerce.
Similarly, International ACH transactions (IATs) will also be shut down, since they access the U.S. ACH network.
13.The ability to process credit card payments will be dubious, at best.
Many merchants will wisely “just say no” to credit cards, even if their countertop POP terminals are still functioning and show available credit.
And the fact that many credit cards are now just debit cards in disguise will only add to the reluctance of merchants to take any credit cards.
14. Point of purchase (POP) processing of credit and debit cards at gas stations has become ubiquitous.
Nearly everyone now uses the “pay at the pump” option. Gas and diesel could become “cash only” transactions.
15.Most American families keep less than $300 in cash at home at any given time, including their kids’ piggy banks.
For most families, that wouldn’t cover even one month’s rent.
16.Formerly distributed as “Food Stamps”, the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), provides benefits to low income families through Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card payments.
These cards look much like credit cards.
And like checks, EBT payments are all routed through the ACH network.
Again, this is a network that is inside banking system firewalls.
If the banking system goes into holiday mode, then it may take days or even weeks to get EBT processing back on line.
If the EBT payments stop, we can expect riots in metropolitan areas in less than a week.
17.Gift cards will be “iffy.”
“open loop” (or “network”) cards and traditional “closed loop” cards.
Open loop cards are issued by banks or credit card companies and can be redeemed many places.
It is likely that only closed loop cards will be honored by the issuing stores, because merchants will fear that open loop cards might have been zeroed out elsewhere.
(If they can’t confirm the available balance, the card will be refused.)
18.Most Internet vendors are almost entirely dependent on credit card processing.
If that processing system is disrupted, then mailorder firms will either have to cease operations, or have them slow to a snail’s pace, and be restricted to only non-bank money orders.
19.Reversion to U.S. Postal Service money orders (commonly called “PMOs”) will only be partially viable solution.
This is because many small town and rural post offices don’t keep enough cash in their tills to be able to hand you $1,000 when you go to cash a PMO.
You may be thinking, “Oh well, I’ll just ask them to write me a blank PMO, in exchange.” Nope.
A recent change to postal regulations designed to curtail money laundering banned money order-for-money order issuance. Bummer.
And if you are considering using “Forever” postage stamps, hold your horses.
Under a hygiene regulation published in the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM), postal clerks are not allowed to cash out (“buy back”) stamp booklets unless they are still in their sealed clear plastic master packages.
So it might take decades to use up your Forever stamps, or you will be forced to liquidate them on the gray market at a slight loss.
20.Bank safe deposit boxes will probably be inaccessible. Plan accordingly.
Preparing For The Largest Wealth Transfer In The History Of The World
Posted by MoneyBags73 – June 16, 2012
Details of a GAO audit of the Federal Reserve’s eye-popping secret $16 trillion-dollar bailout reveals that Federal Reserve board members gave their own banks $4 trillion.
Here’s the text of the PDF summary released by Senator Sanders highlighting the culprits identified in the GAO audit on the Federal Reserve’s conflicts of interest.
During the financial crisis, at least 18 former and current directors from Federal Reserve Banks worked in banks and corporations that collectively received over $4 trillion in low-interest loans from the Federal Reserve.
U.S. Senator Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) Washington, D.C. June 12, 2012
1.Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, has served on the Board of Directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2007.
During the financial crisis, the Fed provided JP Morgan Chase with $391 billion in total financial assistance.
JP Morgan Chase was also used by the Fed as a clearinghouse for the Fed’s emergency lending programs.
In March of 2008, the Fed provided JP Morgan Chase with $29 billion in financing to acquire Bear Stearns.
During the financial crisis, the Fed provided JP Morgan Chase with an 18-month exemption from risk-based leverage and capital requirements.
The Fed also agreed to take risky mortgage-related assets off of Bear Stearns balance sheet before JP Morgan Chase acquired this troubled investment bank.
2. Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, served on the New York Fed’s Board of Directors from 2006-2011.
General Electric received $16 billion in low- interest financing from the Federal Reserve’s Commercial Paper Funding Facility during this time period.
3. Stephen Friedman. In 2008, the New York Fed approved an application from Goldman Sachs to become a bank holding company giving it access to cheap Fed loans.
During the same period, Friedman, who was chairman of the New York Fed at the time, sat on the Goldman Sachs board of directors and owned Goldman stock, something the Fed’s rules prohibited.
He received a waiver in late 2008 that was not made public.
After Friedman received the waiver, he continued to purchase stock in Goldman from November 2008 through January of 2009 unbeknownst to the Fed, according to the GAO.
During the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs received $814 billion in total financial assistance from the Fed.
4. Sanford Weill, the former CEO of Citigroup, served on the Fed’s Board of Directors in New York in 2006.
During the financial crisis,Citigroup received over $2.5 trillion in total financial assistance from the Fed.
5. Richard Fuld, Jr, the former CEO of Lehman Brothers, served on the Fed’s Board of Directors in New York from 2006 to 2008.
During the financial crisis, the Fed provided $183 billion in total financial assistance to Lehman before it collapsed.
6. James M. Wells, the Chairman and CEO of SunTrust Banks, has served on the Board of Directors at the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta since 2008.
During the financial crisis, SunTrust received$7.5 billion in total financial assistance from the Fed.
7. Richard Carrion, the head of Popular Inc. in Puerto Rico, has served on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2008.
Popular received $1.2 billion in total financing from the Fed’s Term Auction Facility during the financial crisis.
8. James Smith, the Chairman and CEO of Webster Bank, served on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Directors in Boston from 2008-2010.
Webster Bank received $550 million in total financing from the Federal Reserve’s Term Auction Facility during the financial crisis.
9. Ted Cecala, the former Chairman and CEO of Wilmington Trust, served on the Fed’s Board of Directors in Philadelphia from 2008-2010.
Wilmington Trust received $3.2 billion in total financial assistance from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.
10. Robert Jones, the President and CEO of Old National Bancorp, has served on the Fed’s Board of Directors in St. Louis since 2008.
Old National Bancorp received a total of $550 millionin low-interest loans from the Federal Reserve’s Term Auction Facility during the financial crisis.
11. James Rohr, the Chairman and CEO of PNC Financial Services Group, served on the Fed’s Board of Directors in Cleveland from 2008-2010.
PNC received $6.5 billion in low-interest loans from the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis.
12. George Fisk, the CEO of LegacyTexas Group, was a director at the Dallas Federal Reserve in 2009.
During the financial crisis, his firm received a $5 million low-interest loan from the Federal Reserve’s Term Auction Facility.
13. Dennis Kuester, the former CEO of Marshall & Ilsley, served as a board director on the Chicago Federal Reserve from 2007-2008. During the financial crisis, his bank received over $21 billionin low-interest loans from the Fed.
14. George Jones, Jr., the CEO of Texas Capital Bank, has served as a board director at the Dallas Federal Reserve since 2009.
During the financial crisis, his bank received $2.3 billion in total financing from the Fed’s Term Auction Facility.
15. Douglas Morrison, was the Chief Financial Officer at CitiBankin Sioux Falls, South Dakota, while he served as a board director at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank in 2006.
During the financial crisis, CitiBank in Sioux Falls, South Dakota received over$21 billion in total financing from the Federal Reserve.
16. L. Phillip Humann, the former CEO of SunTrust Banks, served on the Board of Directors at the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta from 2006-2008. During the financial crisis, SunTrust received$7.5 billion in total financial assistance from the Fed.
17. Henry Meyer, III, the former CEO of KeyCorp, served on the Board of Directors at the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland from 2006-2007.
During the financial crisis, KeyBank(owned by KeyCorp) received over $40 billion in total financing from the Federal Reserve.
18. Ronald Logue, the former CEO of State Street Corporation, served as a board member of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank from 2006-2007.
During the financial crisis, State Street Corporation received a total of $42 billion in financing from the Federal Reserve.
Corporation faces criminal charges for concealing own study in which cows died after eating its genetically modified cornDr Eva Sirinathsinghji
Biotech giant Syngenta has been criminally charged with denying knowledge that its genetically modified (GM) Bt corn kills livestock during a civil court case that ended in 2007 [1].
Syngenta’s Bt 176 corn variety expresses an insecticidal Bt toxin (Cry1Ab) derived from the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis(Bt) and a gene conferring resistance to glufosinate herbicides.
EU cultivation of Bt 176 was discontinued in 2007.
Similar varieties however, including Bt 11 sweet corn are currently cultivated for human and animal consumption in the EU.
The charges follow a long struggle for justice by a German farmer whose dairy cattle suffered mysterious illnesses and deaths after eating Bt 176.
They were grown on his farm as part of authorised field tests during 1997 to 2002.
By 2000, his cows were fed exclusively on Bt 176, and soon illnesses started to emerge.
He was paid 40 000 euros by Syngenta as partial compensation for 5 dead cows, decreased milk yields, and vet costs (see [2] Cows ate GM Maize and Died, SiS 21).
During a civil lawsuit brought against the company by the farmer however, Syngenta refused to admit that its GM corn was the cause, claiming no knowledge of harm.
The case was dismissed and Gloeckner remained thousands of euros in debt.
Gloeckner continued to lose cows and many more had to be put down due to serious illnesses, compelling him to stop using GM feed from 2002.
He approached the Robert Koch Institute and Syngenta to conduct a full investigation. However, only one cow was ever analysed and the data are still unavailable to the public.
Unsurprisingly, no causal relationship between the GM feed and deaths was determined; and there is still no explanation for the deaths.
But in 2009, the farmer learned of a feeding study allegedly commissioned by Syngenta in 1996 that resulted in four cows dying in two days. The trial was abruptly terminated.
Now Gloeckner, along with a German group called Bündnis Aktion Gen-Klage and another farmer turned activist Urs Hans, have brought Syngenta to the criminal court to face charges of withholding knowledge of the US trial, which makes the company liable for the destruction of the farmer’s 65 cows.
Syngenta is also charged with the deaths of cattle in the US trial and on Gloeckner’s farm, which should have been registered as “unexpected occurrences”.
Most seriously, the German head of Syngenta Hans-Theo Jahmann, is charged for withholding knowledge of the US study from the judge and from Gloecker in the original civil court case.
Gloecker’s cows not alone
This is by no means the only account of mysterious deaths associated with Bt GM feed.
In India where livestock are left to graze on post-harvest cotton, thousands of livestock deaths have been recorded in different villages across central India where Bt cotton is grown (see [3]Mass Deaths of Sheep Grazing on Bt Cotton, SiS 30).
Shepherds’ own observations and post-mortem analysis carried out in the laboratory revealed abnormal liver, enlarged bile ducts and black patches in the intestine.
The shepherds said that the sheep became “dull/depressed” after 2-3 days of grazing, started coughing with nasal discharge and developed red lesions in the mouth, became bloated and suffered blackish diarrhea, and sometimes passed red urine.
Death occurred within 5-7 days of grazing. Sheep from young lambs to adults of 1.5-2 years were affected.
One shepherd reported getting diarrhoea from eating the meat of an affected sheep.
The vets declared that the toxicity could be due to the Bt toxin but this could not be proven as results were confounded by additional pesticides used on the fields.
The shepherds were however, advised against letting the sheep graze on any more Bt cotton plants.
Five mortalities were reported in 2003 and subsequently, 38 individuals had their blood analysed and all were positive for antibodies specific to Cry1Ab, suggesting an immune reaction to the toxin.
As is often the case, intimidation and denial by government officials meant that there were no further investigations into the matter.
Cause of deaths unknown
There is still no explanation provided by the authorities as to the cause of death of Gloeckner’s cows.
The biotech industry claims that Bt toxins are quickly digested in the stomach and are only effective in insect target species.
However, a recent study has found the toxin in the blood of over 80 % of women and their unborn children tested in Canada [5].
Because naturally existing Bt toxins from the soil bacterium have been used for a long time, long-term toxicology and health risk assessments on Bt proteins in GM crops were not done.
However, there are important differences between the naturally produced toxins that can be washed off the crops, as opposed to genetically modified toxins that are part and parcel of the GM crop.
Independent studies have shown that basing health assessments on flawed scientific assumptions is not only arrogant, but foolish.
Scientific studies dating from the 1990s have identified Bt toxins as potent immunogens, with Cry1Ac inducing immune responses in mice similar to the cholera toxin [6].
Farm workers dealing with Bt cotton have consistently reported allergic responses requiring hospitalization in some cases (see [7] More Illnesses Linked to Bt Crops, SiS 30).
Binding of Cry1Ac to the intestine of mice has been shown, with concomitant diarrhea symptoms [8].
A meta-analysis of 3 month feeding studies in laboratory animals found that Bt maize led to changes in blood protein levels indicative of abnormal liver metabolism (see[9] GM Feed Toxic, Meta-Analysis Confirms, SiS 52).
A recent study finds Cry1Ab toxic to human kidney cells, causing cell death at low doses (see [10]Bt Toxin Kills Human Kidney Cells, SiS 52).
To conclude
Safety assessments of new GM products surely need to be tested independently, not controlled by the very industry pushing it onto the market place.
Conflicts of interests are obscuring data that are crucial to our farming industry and animal welfare, as well as human health.
Ho MW and Burcher S. Cows ate GM maize and died.Science in Society2004, 21, 4-6.
Ho MW. Mass death in sheep grazing on Bt cotton.Science in Society30, 12-13, 2006
Ho MW. GM ban long overdue, dozens ill & five deaths in the Philippines. Science in Society 29, 26-27, 2006
Aris A, Leblanc S. Maternal and fetal exposure to pesticides associated to genetically modified foods in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. Reproductive Toxicolology, 2011,31, 528-33
Vázquez RI, Moreno-Fierros L, Neri-Bazán L, De La Riva GA, López-Revilla R. Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ac protoxin is a potent systemic and mucosal adjuvant. Scand J Immunology1999 49, 578-84.
Vázquez-Padrón RI, Gonzáles-Cabrera J, García-Tovar C, Neri-Bazan L, Lopéz-Revilla R, Hernández M, Moreno-Fierro L, de la Riva GA. Cry1Ac protoxin from Bacillus thuringiensis sp. kurstaki HD73 binds to surface proteins in the mouse small intestine. Biochemical Biophysical Research Communications 2010, 271, 54-8.
Sirinathsinghji E. GM feed toxic, new meta-analysis confirms.Science in Society 52, 30-32, 2011
Sirinathsinghji E. Bt Toxin Kills Human Kidney Cells, Science in Society 54, 36-38, 2012
END
Nine Healing Herbs You Can Grow Yourself in a Healing Garden
Herbs have been used for centuries to sooth and to heal.
According to Wikipedia:
Herbs have long been used as the basis of traditional Chinese herbal medicine, with usage dating as far back as the first century CE and before.
Medicinal use of herbs in Western cultures has its roots in the Hippocratic(Greek) elemental healing system, based on a quaternary elemental healing metaphor.
With such a long history of use, herbs most certainly have a place in the survival garden.
With that in mind, today I offer a few suggestions to get you started in creating your own healing garden.
Healing Herbs for the Healing Garden
Basil: People don’t usually think of basil as a healing herb and yet traditionally, it is called the “king of herbs”.
It is used medicinally as a natural anti-inflammatory and is thought to have mild antiseptic functions.
Some healing uses are for flatulence, lack off appetite, nausea and cuts and scrapes.
It is also superb on spaghetti and in pesto but then you already knew that.
Basil is an annual plant so you will have to start anew each year.
German Chamomile:Chamomile is one of the most popular herbs in the Western world.
Its flower heads are commonly used for infusions, teas and slaves.
These in turn can be used to treat indigestion, anxiety and skin inflammations.
As a tea, it serves as a mild sedative to help with sleep.
Feverfew: This perennial is a member of the sunflower family and has been used for centuries in European folk medicine as a remedy for headaches, arthritis, and fevers.
The name feverfew comes from a Latin word meaning “fever reducer.”
It’s many uses include easing headache pains – especially migraines.
This is done by chewing on the leaves.
A tea made from the leaves and flowers is said to relieve the symptoms of arthritis.
Lemon Balm:Lemon balm is a member of the mint family.
Considered a calming herb, it has been used as far back as the Middle Ages to reduce stress and anxiety, promote sleep, improve appetite, and ease pain and discomfort from indigestion.
Even before the Middle Ages, lemon balm was steeped in wine to lift the spirits, help heal wounds, and treat venomous insect bites and stings.
As with many other herbs in your healing garden, lemon balm promotes relaxation and a sense of calm.
Parsley: While not one of my favorites, there is nothing like a sprig of parsley to take away bad breath.
It is no wonder that this biennial (meaning it lives for two years) is used to decorate and garnish plates in the fanciest of restaurants.
When brewed as a tea, parsley can help supplement iron in a person’s diet, particularly for those who are anemic.
Drinking parsley tea also boosts energy and overall circulation of the body, and helps battle fatigue from lack of iron.
Other uses?
Parsley tea fights gas and flatulence in the belly, kidney infections, and bladder infections.
It can also be an effective diuretic.
Sage: Did you know that the genus name for sage is “salvia” which means “to heal”?
In the first century C.E. Greek physician Dioscorides reported that sage stopped bleeding of wounds and cleaned ulcers and sores.
He also recommended sage juice in warm water for hoarseness and cough.
In modern times, a sage tea is used to sooth mouth, throat and gum inflammations.
This is because sage has excellent antibacterial and astringent properties.
Thyme: Back during medieval times, thyme was given to knights before going in to battle.
The purpose was to infuse this manly man with vigor and courage.
These days, thyme used to relieve coughs, congestion, indigestion and gas.
This perennial is rich in thymol, a strong antiseptic, making thyme highly desirable in the treatment of wounds and even fungus infections.
Thyme is a perennial that does well, even in cooler, Pacific Northwest climates.
Rosemary: Long ago, rosemary was known as ‘the herb of remembrance.’
Even today, in places like Australia and New Zealand, it is used as a symbol of remembrance since it is known to help sharpen mental clarity and stimulate brain function.
You might recall that many statues of the ancient Greeks and Romans show men wearing sprigs of rosemary on their heads – signifying mental acuity.
The needles of the delightfully fragrant rosemary plant can be used in a tea to treat digestive problems.
The same tea can also be used as an expectorant and as a relaxing beverage that is helpful for headaches.
Other healing uses include improving memory, relieving muscle pain and spasms, stimulating hair growth, and supporting the circulatory and nervous systems.
Lavender: I saved my personal favorite for last. Of course it helps that I have an abundant amount of fragrant lavender in my yard.
A tea made from lavender has many uses with one of the foremost being it’s ability to have a calming effect on a person’s mind and body.
To that end, lavender can promote a sense of well-being and alleviate stress.
It is also useful for dealing with various gastrointestinal issues such as upset stomachs and and flatulence.
Lavender from my yard
Because it is a strong antiseptic, lavender tea, when applied topically, can help heal cuts, wounds and sores.
It can also be used to mitigate bad breath.
How to Make an Herbal Tea
The process of making a pot of herbal tea is in itself healing.
Perhaps that has something to do with the proactive effort involved in doing something positive for one’s own self and well-being.
And luckily, brewing an herbal tea is easy.
To make an herbal tea, first bring some cool water to a boil.
While waiting for the water to boil, fetch a non-mental container that will be used to brew the tea.
A quart mason jar works nicely or this purpose.
You do not want to use a metal container since the metal may interfere with the purity and taste of the tea.
Add 2 tablespoons of fresh (or 1 tablespoon of dried herb or crushed seed) to the empty pot or jar for each cup of water.
Then, and this is the important part, add an extra 2 tablespoons of fresh (or 1 tablespoon of dried) herbs “for the pot.”
So, for example, if you are making 2 cups of hot tea, you would use 6 tablespoons of fresh herbs or 3 tablespoons of dried herbs.
Pour the boiling water over the herbs and let them steep, covered, for about 5 minutes give or take.
There is no exact time since everyone’s strength preference is difference.
When ready, strain the herbs and pour the tea into a cup.
At this point you may want to garnish your heavenly – and healing – cup of tea with honey, citrus fruits or addition herb springs.
For iced tea, increase the quantity of herbs in the basic recipe by 1 1/2 to allow for dilution from the melting ice.
The Final Word
In reading about these herbs, you may have noticed that many are reputed to have the same or similar healing qualities. Do they work?
I can personally vouch for Rosemary and Lavender which I have used as both a tea and as an essential oil.
I leave it up to you though, to be the final judge.
One thing that is true is that with a little time and for a nominal cost, you can grow the makings for healing teas, infusions and balms in your own garden.
Add a dose of sun and some rich pitting soil and you will be set to go.
Just keep in mind that while perennial plants will flourish over the winter and will be there for you the following spring, annual plants must be reseeded or restarted every year.
If you would like to learn more about the healing properties of various herbs, the University of Maryland Medical Center has an excellent web site with a lot of useful information about herbs and other alternative medicine topics.
Click on “herbs” then scroll down the right to the particular herb you would like to learn about.
Also note this disclaimer: I am not a doctor and anything I write should not be construed as medical advice.
If you have a serious condition, consult a physician or nurse practitioner if one is available.
There are lots of neat prizes and all you need to do is sign up for my new newsletter and send me a couple of emails.
Now how easy is that?
From the Bargain Bin: Today I present some suggested books on the topic of herbal healing and aromatherapy.
Speaking of aromatherapy, if you are just getting started, get some clove, tea tree and lavender essential oils and everything else can follow as budget allows.
Her wisdom and vision have inspired an entire generation of herbal healers, and her insights into the healing power of plants have helped people everywhere embrace more natural, healthy, and radiant lives.
I read every book I could get my hands on and dabbled at creating synergy’s (a combination of two or more oils that create a chemical compound that is greater than the some of its individual components).
My bible then, and even now, is this book.
Aromatherapy for Dummies: Another good book that will help you get started understanding and using Aromatherapy.
And you know how I love the “dummies” book series.
Clove Oil: Clove oil should be a component of every survival first aid kit.
For less than $10, you have a multi-purpose product that takes up little room but solves a myriad of unwelcome and unexpected ailments.
Travelers – this especially applies to you!
Top 14 Essential Oil Set: This well-priced set included Bergamot, Clary Sage, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus, Grapefruit, Lavender, Lemon, Lime, Patchouli, Peppermint, Rosemary, Spearmint, Orange & Tea Tree.
Mountain House Sale: For the month of June, Emergency Essentials will be offering all Mountain House products at a discount of 20% to 25%. Shipping cost is $6, $9, or $12 depending on the size of your order and never more. (And you know how heavy food items can be.) Be sure to check out the Freeze-Dried Mountain House Pouches which offer a great way to sample the various food items before investing in the larger #10 tins.
END
Cure all Illnesses in 3 minutes!!! Spread LOVE not HATE!!!
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
For we were all educated by one Spirit so as to form one body
—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free
—and we were all given the one Spirit to be a part of.
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.
And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?
If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
If they were all one part, where would the body be?
As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!”
And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!”
On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor.
And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment.
But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.
This web site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance the understanding of humanity’s problems and hopefully to help find solutions for those problems. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. A click on a hyperlink is a request for information. Consistent with this notice you are welcome to make ‘fair use’ of anything you find on this web site. However, if you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. You can read more about ‘fair use’ and US Copyright Law at the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School. This notice was modified from a similar notice at Information Clearing House.} ~~~~ Xaniel777
****NOTE**** Subscriber “72542” just sent me this:
“The Have More Plan”.I thought that I would pass along that the original version of the book is available for reading or download (free) at the Pioneer Living website (http://www.pioneerliving.net/havemoreplan.htm).
Isn’t that cool!?! Thanks for sharing that Mark!!
These are the big books — those books that try to cover everything needed and neccesary to know on a homestead, big and small, modern and primitive. There’s not a lot of titles I’ve found that do a good job, but a few pass the mustard (I think) and those are the ones I’ve mentioned here.
“The Have More Plan” by Ed and Carolyn Robinson “The Encyclopedia of Country Living” by Carla Emery “Back to Basics” compiled by Reader’s Digest or newer version edited by Abigail Gehring “The Backyard Homestead” by Carleen Madigan “The Idiot’s Guide to Self-Sufficiency” by Jerome Belanger and “The Foxfire book Series” by Eliot Wigginton
This web site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance the understanding of humanity’s problems and hopefully to help find solutions for those problems. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. A click on a hyperlink is a request for information. Consistent with this notice you are welcome to make ‘fair use’ of anything you find on this web site. However, if you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. You can read more about ‘fair use’ and US Copyright Law at the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law School. This notice was modified from a similar notice at Information Clearing House.} ~~ Xaniel777
DaniMartExtras, Too 