10 Ways to Get to Self-Sufficiency

The global economic collapse has become an eye-opening experience for many people. The ongoing crisis continues to create more joblessness at a time when the cost of essential items like food and energy continue to rise.

Inflation is only expected to continue due to excessive printing of money to compensate for the bursting economic bubbles, which were arguably created by printing too much money with artificially low interest rates in the first place, among many other scenarios.

The 2008 price shocks in oil followed by the financial collapse have led many people to begin taking measures to become more self-sufficient. And recently the ominous signs of food shortages, the weakening dollar and the rising price of oil all point to a similar atmosphere in 2011. Some have taken steps to conserve electricity, reduce spending and consumption, while others are planting kitchen gardens and installing solar panels on their homes. Even living off the grid is becoming a mainstream concept for those seeking independence.

Indeed, becoming more self-sufficient is proving to make common sense whether one anticipates more hardship to come or not. Sure, many of us would love to live completely off the grid without giving up everyday comforts, but this is not practical for most of us. However, there are many steps that can be taken to move towards self-sufficiency which can be relatively painless and quite rewarding.

The following are 10 suggestions that can lead to independent living:

1. Reduce your debt: Especially get your credit card debt under control, since it is entirely corrupt. Call your credit card companies and ask for a work out plan similar to what they received from the taxpayer bailout. If they don’t cooperate to your satisfaction, there are some reasons not to pay at all. Reducing debt can also be achieved by preserving what wealth you do have and one of the most surefire ways to do that in this age is to get your money out of fiat currencies and into tangibles. Land, firearms, food storage, fuels, precious metals, commodities, hard assets, etc.
2. Reduce your consumption: Evaluate your current budget and determine absolute necessity. Push your comfort level to find areas where you can scale back, and then identify comforts that you’re willing to sacrifice.
3. Reduce energy use: Change light bulbs to LED and not CFL. LEDs have a much longer life, better quality of light and a much lower power consumption. CFLs give off very strong electro-magnetic radiation and can cause irritability, headaches and more. LEDs will cut your energy usage by up to 75%! Have entertainment systems and computers plugged into a powerstrip that can be shut off completely to reduce “phantom charges.” This includes those kitchen appliances like the microwave, coffee maker, etc. Even though they are turned off, they are all still drawing electricity from the grid, especially televisions and it adds up to big wattage! Carefully plan shopping trips and other transportation needs to reduce fuel costs.
4. Store energy: Always have back-up propane storage and a large wood pile for a rainy day. Investing in a generator of some kind (even a solar panel and a deep cycle battery) will be money well spent.
5. Invest in food storage: With a falling dollar and rising food prices, why not create a food savings account? Get some good books, dehydrators and vacuum sealers for storage methods. The best storable food items are grains (rice, beans, flour), canned goods, seeds, and some prepackaged items.
6. Produce your own food: Replace your lawn with a garden, fruit trees, and keep chickens. Go on hunting and gathering adventures for nuts, fish, and wild game. Store extra garden seeds!
7. Learn new skills: Surf the Internet, read books, and take courses in practical skills like gardening, cooking with whole foods, composting, carpentry, alternative energy, natural health and wellness etc.
8. Start a side business: Turn your passion or hobby into a small side business to make some supplemental income. Who knows, it may become your path to full financial independence.
9. Install alternative energy: Start with small installations like a solar hot water system, a solar freezer, a solar attic fan, or a wood stove etc. If you have limited funds, tip-toe your way to independence.
10. Suggest solutions for your community: Start or join a local cooperative for food, products, and services. Engage your local community in discussions to take steps for self-sufficiency. Share your story and build support.

These steps will save money as we move closer to the ultimate prize of independence. Each action we take to live more simply frees us from the control systems put in place to make our lives more complicated, more toxic, and less independent.

10 Reasons to Become Self-Sufficient and 10 Steps to Help You Get There

We are now three to five generations removed from the rural backbone that strengthened America. The world at large has undergone a similar transformation as the promise of easier work has created a migration to big cities. These mega-cities could be seen as an experiment gone awry, as general well-being has declined. Crowded conditions and economic strife have led to rampant crime, pollution, corporate malfeasance and a dog-eat-dog type of competition that can be described as a temporary insanity.

The economic crisis we are living through has been the final straw for many people, as promises of a better, easier, and more creative life seem to have been sold to us by carnival-style tricksters who are laughing all the way to their bank.

Here are the top reasons for becoming self-sufficient; these are based on fundamental, systemic concerns for why undertaking this lifestyle change will not be a fly-by-night fad, but rather a long-lasting means for personal independence.

10 Reasons to Become Self-Sufficient

1. Freedom from Market Manipulation – The traditional market-driven investment vehicles are more and more obviously controlled by traders and banking institutions. The debacle of the private Federal Reserve Bank is just the icing on the cake to a previous decade full of Ponzi-type schemes, including JP Morgan manipulating silver prices, RICO investigations, Wells Fargo admitting to drug money laundering, fraud charges at Bank of America and an insider trading ratio of 4,000:1 compared to Joe Citizen Investor. Now, the institutionalized looting of retirement money is being planned amid municipal bond collapses and bankruptcies.
2. Hedging Against Inflation – Have you noticed the price of goods lately? Even Wal-Mart is silently raising its prices. People might have a choice whether or not to buy stocks or gold, but people have to eat — the current increases in basic goods portend hyperinflation, and will not ease anytime soon. Food shortages could make the problem exponentially worse.
3. Increasing Health and Wellness – It has now been revealed that some “organic” items have been falsely labeled. In addition, a host of “GMO-free” brands have been exposed as deceptive. GMO food lacks the nutritional value of what can be grown in the average backyard. Bio-Tech Terrorist and GMO-CorpraGod, Monsanto, has a sordid history and has continuously trampled on our trust. It is time that we do the work ourselves, and educate ourselves and loved ones about the dangers of consuming GMOs and highly-processed chemical-laden foods.
4. Building Community Strength – We constantly hear people say, “I don’t even see my neighbors, let alone know anything about them.” Of course not: 80-hour workweeks, American Idol and grabbing meals-to-go doesn’t exactly promote community interaction. With such little time to interact with our immediate community, it is no wonder why many people report feeling disconnected. In these trying times, it is a local community that can offer the best support.
5. Working for Yourself – Working hours are increasing, pay is often decreasing, and corporate executives are taking bigger bonuses than ever. This is leading to a prevailing disgust, as people are being forced to admit that they are living lives of near-indentured servitude. Even for those not working in corporations, working for someone else is rarely as satisfying as creating and working for something where every minute you spend is yours alone.
6. Having More Free Time – We have been taught to believe that life on a farm is arduous sun-up to sun-down drudgery where you collapse at the end of the day. This is not so much the case anymore. Sure, the setup of any farm or self-sufficient endeavor is often time-consuming and laborious, but new technologies and new skills of manufacturing food via permaculture and aquaponicsare offering low-cost start up and minimal maintenance, as these techniques serve to create symbiotic systems that are remarkably self-governing.
7. Generating Food and Energy Security – The planet is running out of food and traditional energy prices continue to climb due to to either demand or price manipulation. Climate volatility, market forces, GM foods and rising costs of harvesting and transporting food are all conspiring to create food shortages even in the First World. This trend will not reverse. And our oil-soaked way of life is being threatened by constant war, politicians and greed. We should be looking to the air, sun, geothermal and tidal/wave power to wean us from the energy grid.
8. Acquiring an Appreciation for Life – As one gets closer to life-giving forces, there is a natural appreciation for how things come into being. When you have created your garden, toiled there, selected the best for harvest and have prepared that food for your family and community, the significance of what you have taken part in can be transformative.
9. Restoring Balance – Nearly everything in our society is at a peak, or is drastically out of balance. The systems and governments to which we have looked for balance restoration are missing in action. We must take it upon ourselves to restore our own financial and environmental balance sheet. The best way to do that is to reduce our overconsumption or simply adapt a more minimal/downsized lifestyle. Tiny homes are becoming much more mainstream as people begin to awaken to the idea that less is sometimes more.
10. Becoming a Producer, not a Consumer – This is the best way to reduce your cost of living and increase your self-sufficiency. In the U.S. over 70% of the economy is based on people buying things. This is a clear sign of imbalance and, by extension, it is not sustainable. Furthermore, we also have seen corporations race to the bottom to find low-cost production on the backs of desperate people. The exploitation of the Third World to clothe, feed and entertain the First World is something that most people do not want to think about, but it is abominable. Again, new technologies are making it easier than ever to produce your own food, and even your own clothes.

As the cliche goes: Freedom is never free. But it sure beats the alternative.

A View From Space , August 27, 2011

TOPIC: The Number 3, Illuminati Events - Financial/Political/environmental, 3 Earthquakes in 3 Days, Denver Airport, Colorado, Year 1882, Steve Jobs Steps Down, Monoatomic Gold, KJVB, Richard Branson, New York Evacuation, Gaddafi Fall, West Memphis 3, DNA Evidence, Number 42

Steve Jobs Talks About Life And Death - Stanford Speech

Video - Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

With Jobs' retirement announced earlier this week, we went searching for this clip. Very motivating and moving short clip. Runs 1 minute. We've added the transcript and his full commencement speech inside. It's worth the read.





The complete speech.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation – the Macintosh – a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down – that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960?s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Camp FEMA: American Lockdown - FULL MOVIE

What The Founding Fathers Thought About Corporations

Citizens United. This is the 2010 Supreme Court case that shocked America, influenced an election, and reversed over 100 years of campaign finance laws. In this case, corporations were declared as people and as such declared to have the same rights as people do. It also opened the doors for corporations to pour unprecedented amounts of campaign donations into elections, and what’s more, these donations can be totally secret. Corporations can now literally and legally buy elections and shape the government like never before in our nation’s history.

The economic world we live in today is dominated by corporations. Huge corporations that boast massive profits and span continents. But corporations also wield political power and are lobbying heavily to be free from any and all government regulations that would make them responsible and liable. Republicans have been defending corporations since the late 1800′s and have literally gone on a history revising crusade to show that even the founding fathers supported corporations. But is this the case? What did the founders really think about corporations?

The origin of modern corporations can be traced all the way back to 17th century England when Queen Elizabeth I created the East India Trading Company. At first, corporations were small, quasi government institutions that were chartered by the crown for a specific purpose. If corporations stepped out of line, the crown did not hesitate to revoke their charters. Corporations generated so much revenue that they even began taking on increased political power. Corporations were also organized to finance large projects such as exploration, which leads us to the American colonies.

To say that the founding fathers supported corporations is very absurd. Its quite the opposite in fact. Corporations like the East India Trading Company were despised by the founders and they were just one reason why they chose to revolt against England. Corporations represented the moneyed interests much like they do today and they often wielded political power, sometimes to the point of governing a colony all by themselves like the Massachusetts Bay Company did.

But there is more evidence that the Revolutionary generation despised corporations. The East India Company was the largest corporation of its day and its dominance of trade angered the colonists so much, that they dumped the tea products it had on a ship into Boston Harbor which today is universally known as the Boston Tea Party. At the time, in Britain, large corporations funded elections generously and its stock was owned by nearly everyone in parliament. The founding fathers did not think much of these corporations that had great wealth and great influence in government. And that is precisely why they put restrictions upon them after the government was organized under the Constitution.

After the nation’s founding, corporations were granted charters by the state as they are today. Unlike today, however, corporations were only permitted to exist 20 or 30 years and could only deal in one commodity, could not hold stock in other companies, and their property holdings were limited to what they needed to accomplish their business goals. And perhaps the most important facet of all this is that most states in the early days of the nation had laws on the books that made any political contribution by corporations a criminal offense. When you think about it, the regulations imposed on corporations in the early days of America were far harsher than they are now. That is hardly proof that the founders supported corporations. In fact its quite the opposite. The corporate entity was so restrictive that many of America’s corporate giants set up their entities to avoid the corporate restrictions. For example, Andrew Carnegie set up his steel company as a limited partnership and John D. Rockefeller set up his Standard Oil company as a trust which would later be rightfully busted up into smaller companies by Theodore Roosevelt.

For those who need more evidence, how about statements from the founders themselves. As we all know, big banks are also considered corporations and here is what Thomas Jefferson thought about them. In an 1802 letter to Secretary of State Albert Gallatin, Jefferson said,

“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (around the banks), will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Thomas Jefferson also said this in 1816,

“I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

Jefferson wasn’t the only founding father to make statements about corporations. John Adams also had an opinion.

“Banks have done more injury to the religion, morality, tranquility, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation than they can have done or ever will do good.”

These statements make it pretty clear that corporations were not trusted by the founders. The founders knew that huge corporations only preyed upon the people. But as the founding generation began to fade away, corporations began using their power to gain political favor and eventually that political favor would turn into political power. And corporations would take advantage of a war to do it. As the Civil War raged across the land, corporations made an effort to take advantage of the situation, selling products at high prices, especially to the government. Corporations even sold to both sides throughout the war. Basically, corporations proved even then that they had no allegiance to any country when great profits were at stake. Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican to be President also had plenty to say about corporations…

“The money powers prey upon the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. The banking powers are more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. They denounce as public enemies all who question their methods or throw light upon their crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe.”

And in a November 21, 1864 letter to Col. William F. Elkins, Lincoln wrote,

“We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood … It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.”

Unfortunately, Lincoln’s suspicions were anything but groundless. They were in fact, prophetic. After the Civil War, corporations began aligning themselves with Republican politicians, who proved themselves to be up to the task of helping corporations gain more power. Corporations had free reign and total power over its workforce and could sell virtually anything they wanted even if the product was a bad one. Corporations treated workers like slaves. Wages were extremely low. Workers received no benefits, no vacation days, no health insurance, no workers compensation. President Grover Cleveland witnessed how corporations treated its labor force and had this to say in 1888,

“As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear, or is trampled beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.”

To put it bluntly, corporations didn’t care about its workers or the people who bought their products. The only rule of the game was to make as much profit as possible, no matter what. As the 19th century ended and the 20th century began, corporations were getting bigger and bigger. Many began buying up smaller companies, becoming monopolies that controlled whole industries. This practice eliminated competition and as a result, prices had skyrocketed and no one could challenge them. That was, until Theodore Roosevelt became the President. Theodore Roosevelt did not hate corporations. He simply wanted them to treat workers how they deserved to be treated and to serve the public faithfully and honestly. He believed in honest competition and fair prices. Roosevelt believed that government had not only a duty, but a right to regulate corporations just as the founding generation had done, stating that,

“The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.”

And in his State of The Union Address in 1902, Roosevelt stated his intentions toward corporations.

“Our aim is not to do away with corporations; on the contrary, these big aggregations are an inevitable development of modern industrialism, and the effort to destroy them would be futile unless accomplished in ways that would work the utmost mischief to the entire body politic. We can do nothing of good in the way of regulating and supervising these corporations until we fix clearly in our minds that we are not attacking the corporations, but endeavoring to do away with any evil in them. We are not hostile to them; we are merely determined that they shall be so handled as to serve the public good. We draw the line against misconduct, not against wealth.”

To that end he fought for corporate regulation, he fought for fair wages for workers, he fought for safe and healthy work environments, and he fought to protect consumers. And the people loved him for it. Roosevelt’s policies toward corporations were immensely popular. He busted up so many giant corporations that he became known as a “trust buster”. The busting up of these corporations created a lot more competition for customers and for employees, resulting in higher wages and lower prices and more jobs. And you know what? Corporate profits did just fine.

Teddy never stopped fighting for workers and consumers even after his presidency when he said this as the Progressive Party candidate for President in 1912,

“We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers. Wherever in any business the prosperity of the businessman is obtained by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices. We will not submit to that kind of prosperity any more than we will submit to prosperity obtained by swindling investors or getting unfair advantages over business rivals.”

Roosevelt didn’t win the presidency in 1912, although he most certainly would have if the Republican ticket hadn’t been split. But Woodrow Wilson would continue the fight for workers and consumers. As America entered the 1920′s, corporations began to gain political favors once again as business minded Republicans controlled the White House and Congress. Regulations were being stripped away and banks as large entities were on the rise. These banks and corporations abused the stock market which would lead to the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Corporate profits had surged throughout the decade and unfair speculation had caused economic bubbles that had to burst.
Corporate bosses also flexed their muscles over America’s legal system, spending great deals of money to get away with nearly anything. In a statement of sarcasm that speaks to this despicable practice, Senator George Norris, after an industrialist was acquitted of charges of corruption, said that “We ought to pass a law that no man worth $100,000,000 should be tried for a crime.”

The Franklin Roosevelt era would bring new calls for corporate regulation and corporate tax hikes. These new regulations once again kept corporations honest and protected consumers. Workers also benefited from these new regulations, getting fair wages, pensions, and safe working conditions. Corporations were taxed at a rate of 91% and even with all of that, corporations still made huge profits. Life changed dramatically for the middle class. People had jobs with livable wages and promise for the future. Corporations once again served a purpose as consumers were treated fairly and the economy soared. Unemployment was also very low. But these trends did not last long as corporate greed would once again fuel another grab for political power. Corporations began aligning themselves more and more with the Republican Party, and as this relationship grew, corporations found a way to make record profits. Throughout the 1980′s up to today, corporations have outsourced millions of American jobs to cheap labor overseas. As a result of this, corporate profits have broke record after record, while the unemployment rate has jumped higher and higher. Corporate tax rates began getting lower and lower, while more tax loopholes were created to help corporations evade most of them altogether. When the Republican Party took control of government in 2001, they went on a crusade on behalf of corporations (how could they refuse, they were on the payroll), to blame workers for economic downturns and outsourcing. Corporations also decided to take advantage of a national tragedy. After 9/11, there was an understandable push to go to war against terrorists hiding in Afghanistan. But corporations, as in other times of war and tragedy, began pushing for a war against Iraq. And they got their wish. Corporations have since made billions in war profits off of the War in Iraq and have proven once again that profit is far more important than the lives of soldiers. Lincoln was right. This is yet another reason why corporations need to be put in their place. As Henry Ford once said, “Do you want to know the cause of war? It is capitalism, greed, the dirty hunger for dollars. Take away the capitalist and you will sweep war from the earth.”

Republicans are now on the verge of stripping away all corporate regulations and worker’s rights. But it was the 2010 Citizens United decision that really made corporations into political powers. Not only were corporations declared to be people but corporations also now have the power to buy elections at will. The problem with this Supreme Court decision is that it goes against everything the founding fathers believed in. In the Constitution, it says “We the people…”, not “We the corporations…”. The founding fathers never addressed corporations in the Constitution because it never occurred to them that corporations would be perceived as people. And why would they have? Corporations don’t eat, they don’t breathe, they don’t vote, they don’t fight battles in wars. Remember all the limitations the founders placed on corporations mentioned earlier? In the Constitution, the founders speak only of the people. The founders did not limit lifetimes of people, nor did they outlaw a persons right to donate to political campaigns. They also did not limit people to specific life goals like they did with corporations. This should make it absolutely clear that the founders never intended for corporations to be people. The decision by the clearly activist, conservative majority of the court is an abomination that can never be Constitutionally justified. Now it is our duty to call on Congress to bring forward a Constitutional Amendment that bans corporate personhood and bans corporations from interfering with government and legal elections that only real people have the right to donate to and vote in. Because whatever these greedy, arrogant CEO’s and Republicans think, its the opinion of the founding generation that matters most. Corporations are not people. People are people.

A Huge Housing Bargain -- but Not for You

he largest transfer of wealth from the public to private sector is about to begin. The federal government will be bulk-selling the massive portfolio of foreclosed homes now owned by HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to private investors -- vulture funds.

These homes, which are now the property of the U.S. government, the U.S. taxpayer, U.S. citizens collectively, are going to be sold to private investor conglomerates at extraordinarily large discounts to real value.

You and I will not be allowed to participate. These investors will come from the private-equity and hedge-fund community, Goldman Sachs(GS_) and its derivatives, as well as foreign sovereign wealth funds that can bring a billion dollars or more to each transaction.

In the process, these investors will instantaneously become the largest improved real estate owners and landlords in the world. The U.S. taxpayer will get pennies on the dollar for these homes and then be allowed to rent them back at market rates.

On Wednesday, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Treasury Department issued a Request for Information (RFI) concerning the disposition of the inventory of foreclosed homes owned by the federal government.

An RFI is ostensibly a way for the federal government to get input from the private sector on how to accomplish the goals laid out in the request. But that's really just a facade, as the RFI was structured by the investors to begin with.

In reality, the RFI is a way for the members of Congress to find out if they can get away with bulk-selling these homes to private companies without incurring the wrath of their constituents, taxpayers and former owners of the properties.

Assuming taxpayers don't push back, the next step will be to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP). The RFP will be the bid and plan for these homes by investors.

The way to keep taxpayers from pushing back is to structure the RFI so that the real intention, the bulk sales, is masked by feel-good goals, such as stabilizing neighborhoods and increasing the supply of rental properties.

As intended, the mass media are playing their part in classic style. Every major newspaper in the U.S. has run articles discussing the plan as a rental conversion, allowing readers to assume that Fannie, Freddie and HUD will be renting the properties directly to families who need housing. And although there is an allowance for these kinds of rentals, it is a minor political facade to the obvious true goal of bulk-sale privatization of these homes.

The investors in this program have been waiting for this opportunity since the portfolio of homes owned by HUD began to spike in 2007, when foreclosures surged first in the "Rust Belt," principally Ohio and Michigan.

Since then, of course, the systemic collapse of housing has engulfed all of the major urban coastal regions of the U.S., as well as Phoenix and Las Vegas, and caused the homes owned by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are now under the direct control of the U.S. Treasury Department, to spike as well.

Even before this crisis occurred, HUD, i.e. the U.S. government, was the largest improved real estate owner in the world, because of its portfolio of foreclosed homes, which is classified as "real estate owned" (REO). The entire massive HUD REO Portfolio is quietly managed by a handful of private firms already, a group listed as Management and Marketing Contractors.

These M&M companies are principally owned by and employ former high-ranking government officials from the various germane agencies -- the Treasury, HUD, FHA and others. And they will provide the necessary access to the current government employees who are tasked with bringing this program to fruition. Once the privatization is complete, those government employees will move from their positions, and many will take up new employment at one of the M&Ms or the new vulture funds.

I am not currently aware of any way for retail investors to participate in this process.

It is probable, however, that once the privatization has occurred and the properties are generating rental income for the investors, the initial investors will cash out by forming real estate investment trusts (REITs), real estate operating companies (REOCs) or limited partnerships (LPs) that will be made available to retail investors.

Technology Keeping Internet Freedom Ahead of Censorship

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Efforts by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to regulate the Internet may become irrelevant if the new technology being developed succeeds as expected. When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled against the FCC last December, the FCC rewrote its rules to allow them to regulate the Internet anyway through the whitewash called “net neutrality.” Verizon immediately filed suit to overrule the new attempt, and a House subcommittee in March voted to invalidate the actions of the FCC. But the new rules remain in place until the issue is decided.

All of which may be irrelevant as new technology, called Telex, is being developed as a “work-around” for any such attempts by the FCC. Alex Halderman (pictured above left), an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Michigan, is one of the developers of the software. In a recent interview he explained that people living under Internet censorship are already able to connect to third-party servers outside their country, but that it doesn’t take long for the government to find these servers and block them. Telex, on the other hand, turns the entire Internet into an anti-censorship device. He says:

First, there’s software that you install on your computer. And then there are devices that we call Telex stations that internet service providers (ISPs) outside the country…put on…the wires that are carrying traffic.

So, if you’re in China, and you want access to a banned site like YouTube, you just type YouTube.com into your browser, and the Telex station will see that connection, and disguise it as something innocuous. You might be watching YouTube, but to a censor, it will just seem as if you’re visiting a harmless, non-blocked site.

We like to envision this technology as a … response to government-level censorship…

Telex is the next advance in technology from the “mirroring” that supporters of WikiLeaks used to duplicate its information the day after the original WikiLeaks site was shut down. In a Twitter message posted afterwards, “WikiLeaks now has 355 sites … thanks to YOU.” With that mirroring technology, removing the files Wikileaks exposed to the world through the Internet will likely be impossible. Not that the FCC isn’t going to try, however. As noted by Charles Scaliger at The New American, “The U.S. government has shown that it is not only willing but capable of censoring Internet content and of punishing those deemed guilty of collaboration with purveyors of censored content. It is a very small step from the crusade against WikiLeaks to broader efforts to purge the Internet of all dissent labeled as ‘hate speech.’ ”

It is not at all difficult, for example, to imagine the federal government…barring all online criticism of the Federal Reserve, in the interest of preserving financial stability (i.e., the status quo).

The battle over control of the Internet has rather little to do with barring files from WikiLeaks. It’s much more important than that: it’s control over the flow of information to citizens. And that means overriding the guarantee under the First Amendment that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…” As Founder James Madison wrote: “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with [the] power which knowledge gives.”

Senator Joe Liberman, on the other hand, has little interest in letting citizens arm themselves with such knowledge. In fact, his out-sized response to the threat that the WikiLeaks files might shed some light on how the government works behind closed doors indicates the seriousness of that threat. He successfully pressured Amazon to cease from hosting part of WikiLeaks’ operation. In his announcement, Lieberman said that Amazon’s “decision to cut off WikiLeaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies WikiLeaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material.” But after other sites picked up and duplicated the information in locations in Sweden, Lieberman demanded that “any other company or organization that is hosting WikiLeaks immediately terminate its relationship with them.”

Which is precisely the point. Lieberman doesn’t like his government to be embarrassed or have its credibility tarnished by such revelations. He certainly wouldn’t want the voters to discover secrets that might threaten its legitimacy. That explains the push by the FCC to extend — bully is a better word — its way into regulating the Internet through the opaque notion of “net neutrality.” Jonathan Finegold observed:

One hundred years ago, or even 40 or 50 years ago, such a tyrant as Lieberman would have most likely been a feared man in whatever country he could enforce his censorship. Today, men like Lieberman are nearing irrelevancy. What greater satisfaction can there be than seeing a despot stripped on his power?

And the stripping of that power comes from the simple fact that individuals seeking freedom are more highly motivated to retain their freedom than is a government in trying to take it away. The operation of individual creativity, such as reflected in Telex and the coming generations of Internet safety from censorship, will always be at least one step ahead of the government. As Finegold concludes:

Today we have seen bureaucracy in retreat. Once the state is fully denied the use of its force, through the market, we will witness a complete rout.

14 Conspiracy Theories That The Media Now Admits Are Conspiracy Facts

How many times have you heard the mainstream media dismiss certain points of view as "conspiracy theories"? It seems as though one of the easiest ways to brush something off is to label it as something that only "conspiracy theorists" would believe. Well, you know what? A whole lot of the time the "conspiracy theorists" are right and the mainstream media is wrong. In fact, we owe a great debt to "conspiracy theorists" because they will go places and investigate things that the mainstream media would never even touch. The reality is that the mainstream media only tells us what the government and the big corporations want us to hear, and much of the time it is those in the alternative media that are left with the task of trying to figure out what the real truth is. So don't look down on conspiracy theories or conspiracy theorists. In a world where almost everything we are told is a lie, the truth can be very difficult to find.

The following are 14 conspiracy theories that the media now admits are conspiracy facts....

#1 Fukushima Uninhabitable

Back in April, I published an article entitled "Much Of Northern Japan Uninhabitable Due To Nuclear Radiation?" At the time, almost everyone in the mainstream media was insisting that Fukushima was nothing like Chernobyl and that those that lived near Fukushima would be able to return to their homes fairly soon.

Well, it turns out that those of us that feared the worst were right after all. Just consider the following quote from the New York Times....

Broad areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could soon be declared uninhabitable, perhaps for decades, after a government survey found radioactive contamination that far exceeded safe levels, several major media outlets said Monday.

#2 U.S. Military Attack On Libya

At the beginning of this year, nobody would have dreamed that the U.S. military would have attacked Libya this year.

But it happened. At first those that tried to warn about an upcoming conflict with Libya were called kooks, and even up until recently many in the media were still trying to deny that NATO was arming and training the rebels.

Well, the truth is that NATO had special forces on the ground even before the conflict began.

The "rebel groups" (which include large numbers of al-Qaeda fighters) would have been soundly defeated by Gaddafi if not for relentless air strikes by the U.S. military and NATO.

Instead of a straightforward invasion like we saw in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. military and NATO systematically developed, trained and equipped "rebel groups" within the country and have used them as the ground forces for this campaign.

That way the goals of the U.S. and EU could still be achieved, but in the end they would have less blood on their hands.

As the conflict winds down, now even the New York Times is admitting that we have trained and equipped the rebels....

“We always knew there would be a point where the effectiveness of the government forces would decline to the point where they could not effectively command and control their forces,” said the diplomat, who was granted anonymity to discuss confidential details of the battle inside Tripoli.

“At the same time,” the diplomat said, “the learning curve for the rebels, with training and equipping, was increasing. What we’ve seen in the past two or three weeks is these two curves have crossed.”

Sadly, there is still a very good chance that U.S. troops could end up on the ground in Libya.

Many prominent officials are already calling for the U.S. and the EU to provide occupation forces. Richard Haas, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, has authored an opinion piece for the Financial Times entitled "Libya Now Needs Boots on the Ground".

If that happens, it will likely end up being a situation very similar to what we have today in Iraq.

#3 Widespread Use Of RFID Chips In Humans

The doubters said it would never happen. They said we would never see the day when RFID chips were implanted in humans on a widespread basis.

Well, today there are examples of this all over the world. One of the most stunning examples recently has come out of Mexico. According to the Washington Post, "thousands of worried Mexicans" have been having "satellite and radio-frequency tracking products" implanted in their skin in order to protect themselves against abduction.

#4 $2000 Gold

It was only a matter of months ago that we were told that gold was "in a bubble" at $1400 or $1500 an ounce.

Well, gold recently crossed the $1900 an ounce barrier, and appears poised to go much higher as global financial instability intensifies.

#5 Obama Wants To Impose Backdoor Amnesty

Those that warned that Barack Obama was going to impose amnesty for illegal immigrants by executive fiat were called "nuts" and "conspiracy theorists".

Well, it has happened. The Obama administration has now instituted "backdoor amnesty" for illegal immigrants and even plans to provide them with work permits.

#6 U.S. Government Provides Weapons For Mexican Drug Cartels

For a long time there were those that claimed that the U.S. government was providing guns to Mexican drug cartels, but nobody wanted to listen.

Well, it is all now a matter of public record. It turns out that the U.S. government facilitated the transfer of thousands of guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

The following is a brief excerpt from a CBS News report that discusses the fierce opposition that many ATF agents expressed to allowing thousands of guns to be given into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels....

On the phone, one Project Gunrunner source (who didn't want to be identified) told us just how many guns flooded the black market under ATF's watchful eye. "The numbers are over 2,500 on that case by the way. That's how many guns were sold - including some 50-calibers they let walk."

50-caliber weapons are fearsome. For months, ATF agents followed 50-caliber Barrett rifles and other guns believed headed for the Mexican border, but were ordered to let them go. One distraught agent was often overheard on ATF radios begging and pleading to be allowed to intercept transports. The answer: "Negative. Stand down."

CBS News has been told at least 11 ATF agents and senior managers voiced fierce opposition to the strategy. "It got ugly..." said one. There was "screaming and yelling" says another. A third warned: "this is crazy, somebody is gonna to get killed."

Amazingly, three of the key ATF officials involved in putting thousands of guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels were recently promoted.

#7 Fluoride Is Harmful

Incredibly, the federal government is finally admitting that high levels of fluoride in our drinking water can be harmful. In fact, the feds have reduced the "recommended amount" of fluoride in our drinking water for the first time in 50 years.

We probably won't see them ban fluoride any time soon, but for them to even acknowledge a problem with fluoride is a major step. In a recent article on CNN, it was reported that the federal government is now saying that high levels of fluoride in the water have now officially been linked with fluorosis....

The Department of Health and Human Services and Environmental Protection Agency are proposing the change because of an increase in fluorosis -- a condition that causes spotting and streaking on children's teeth.

#8 The Federal Reserve Favors The Big Banks

We were always told by the media that the Federal Reserve was "above politics" and that it did not show favoritism.

Well, we all know now that the Fed is deeply corrupt and about the only people that they actually help are their friends.

It turns out that the Federal Reserve very quietly showered the big banks and their friends with hundreds of billions of dollars in loans at rates that were substantially below market during the financial crisis. While Wall Street was being flooded with easy loans, none of the small banks that were deeply suffering and no average Americans got any money.

#9 Cell Phones Linked To Cancer

For years, "conspiracy theorists" have been claiming that cell phone use can cause cancer.

Well, the mainstream media is starting to catch up. Some very startling scientific studies have come out recently that are hard to ignore.

The following is an excerpt from a recent CNN article about one of these studies....

At the highest exposure levels -- using a mobile phone half an hour a day over a 10-year period -- the study found a 40 percent increased risk of glioma brain tumors.

#10 The Credit Rating Agencies Are Corrupt

We have all been taught that the credit rating agencies are supposed to be objective.

But in the real world things are not that simple.

For example, just a short time after long-term U.S. government debt was downgraded, the head of Standard & Poor's is resigning, and is being replaced by Douglas Peterson, the former COO of Citigroup.

Do you think the former COO of Citigroup is going to come down hard on his former comrades over at the big Wall Street banks?

Also, a whistleblower has come forward with some stunning revelations about Moody's. The following is what former analyst William Harrington says was going on over at that credit agency during the financial crisis....

"The track record of management influence in committees speaks for itself -- it produced hollowed-out (collateralized debt obligation) opinions that were at great odds with the private opinions of committees and which were not durable for even a short period after publication"

#11 Prescription Drugs Kill A Lot Of Americans

Growing up, I never even imagined that prescription drugs could be dangerous. I had complete faith in the medical community and the government to only allow drugs on the market that were fully tested and proven to be 100% safe.

Well, I was dead wrong. The truth is that adverse reactions to prescription drugs kill a huge number of Americans every year. A recent Vanity Fair article entitled "Deadly Medicine" began with the following statement....

Prescription drugs kill some 200,000 Americans every year. Will that number go up, now that most clinical trials are conducted overseas—on sick Russians, homeless Poles, and slum-dwelling Chinese—in places where regulation is virtually nonexistent, the F.D.A. doesn’t reach, and “mistakes” can end up in pauper’s graves?

#12 Bisphenol-A Is Linked To Infertility

A very common chemical known as bisphenol-A is found in thousands upon thousands of our plastic products. It also turns out that it has some really nasty effects on the human body.

Fortunately, some in the mainstream media are beginning to acknowledge this. Back in October, one of the largest UK newspapers published an article entitled "Bisphenol-A now linked to male infertility" which made the following unequivocal statement about the dangers of BPA....

Bisphenol-A (BPA), known as the "gender bending" chemical because of its connection to male impotence, has now been shown to decrease sperm mobility and quality.

#13 The "Super Congress" Is In The Pocket Of Wall Street Interests

The amount of money that has been donated to the campaigns of those on the "Super Congress" is absolutely astounding.

Just check out what a recent CNBC article had to say about the matter....

Overall, according to the center's research, the dozen super committee members have raised more than $50 million from the finance, insurance and real estate sector since the 1990 election cycle.

How much influence do you think 50 million dollars is going to buy?

#14 The Targeting Of Christian Groups

We are increasingly hearing from the Obama administration and some members of Congress that we need to be really concerned about "homegrown terrorists" and "Christian extremists".

For example, during a recent Congressional hearing U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee warned that "Christian militants" might try to "bring down the country" and that such groups need to be investigated.

In addition, according to a shocking document obtained by Oath Keepers, the FBI is now instructing store owners to report many new forms of "suspicious activity" to them. According to the document, "suspicious activity" now includes making "extreme religious statements" and believing in "radical theology".

Not only that, a Department of Homeland Security report on "right wing extremism" from April 2009 lists the following people as potential terrorists....

-those that believe in "end times" prophecies

-those that believe abortion is wrong

-those that stockpile food, ammunition or weapons

-those that are against same-sex marriage

-those that believe in "New World Order" conspiracy theories

I don't know about you, but when the federal government starts targeting people based on their religious beliefs, that makes me very nervous.

This world is officially going crazy. So don't blame "conspiracy theorists" for wanting to dig around and get the facts. The mainstream media sure doesn't give us much of the truth.

As the world continues to fall apart and as the propaganda from the mainstream media gets even more blatant, the hunger for the truth is only going to grow.

Who knows? Perhaps before it is all over you will be a "conspiracy theorist" too.

Another shocking, blatant coverup attempt

Zell am See, Austria

One of my favorite books is the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant– West Point graduate, Union commander, former President, and failed businessman. It’s a bit long-winded, but brutally honest, and much of the first volume deals with Grant’s personal experiences as a young military officer during the Mexican War.

The Mexican War was a turning point in American history; fought between 1846-1848 after the US annexation of Texas, it represented many unfortunate firsts for the United States:

1) It was America’s first war of conquest. US politicians had been aching for years to complete the westward expansion, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the war ceded all Mexican territory west of the Rio Grande to the US, essentially the entire southwest through California.

2) It was the first time that the US press was involved in a war. Reporters were usually on the battlefield, even ‘embedded’ in troop encampments. The government used the press to influence popular support for the war, as indicated by this excerpt from the Hartford Weekly Times dated February 5, 1848:

“The course of duty on the part of our country is very plain. Mexico should be completely occupied as to prevent any thing like a government on their part, and so as to secure the entire revenues of the country.”

3) The war was also the first time (of many, many more to come) that the US government outright lied as a pretext to declare war. The official story spun by President James Polk at the time was that Mexican forces invaded the United States, unprovoked, and ‘shed American blood on American soil.’

This account has been rejected by historians, as well as by Grant in his memoirs:

“We were sent to provoke a fight, but it was essential that Mexico should commence it. It was very doubtful whether Congress would declare war; but if Mexico should attack our troops, the Executive could… prosecute the contest with vigor. Once initiated there were but few public men who would have the courage to oppose it.”

Grant later writes, “Experience proves that the man who obstructs a war in which his nation is engaged, no matter whether right or wrong, occupies no enviable place in life or history.”

Not much has changed. The next 165 years of warfare in the United States are filled with lies, deceit, false flag operations, imperialistic conquest, and state-sponsored media propaganda. Those who dared question the official stories were vilified and dismissed as unpatriotic conspiracy theorists.

The most recent example was the capture and death of Osama bin Ladin in May 2011 by the famed SEAL Team Six.

There are so many questions, so many holes in the official story– the conspicuous location in a small town surrounded by Pakistani military, the handling of the body in accordance with a Muslim tradition that doesn’t exist, the refusal to provide any real evidence to verify the claim, etc.

US mainstream media largely gave Obama a pass on these questions and focused instead on the nationwide euphoria over the news.

Now the United States Congress is trying to lock down, once and for all, any further hint of question about the event with a new bill, HR 2819. The bill prohibits any “officer or employee of the Federal Government from providing information about the mission to kill Osama bin Laden to any person outside the Federal Government…”

This essentially silences anyone who might be able to shed some light on the event.

The gag order would remain in effect until the CIA and Defense Department conduct their own ‘investigations’ and brief Congress; in other words, several years at least.

It’s ironic that the government often relies on an insipidly weak logic when it erodes the privacy of its citizens. If you don’t like how USA PATRIOT Act provisions allow then to tap your telephone or check out your rental history, they say, “Hey, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear!”

Obviously the same reasoning doesn’t apply to them… and it’s another example of the tragic farce that is modern government.

Things the School System Didn't Teach You

Charles Sykes is the author of DUMBING DOWN OUR KIDS. He volunteered for high school and college graduates a list of things they did not learn in school. In his book, he talks about how the liberal, feel good, politically correct garbage has created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and set them up for failure in the real world. You may want to share this list with them.

Rule 1: Life is not fair; get used to it.

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school.
You won't be a vice president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping; they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you screw up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes. Learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes, and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades; they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This, of course, doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Sarah Roney: From Where I Stand: A Teenager's Voice from Inside the Culture of Death (Post Columbine Letter)

On April 20, 1999, there was yet another gruesome shooting in Littleton, Colorado. Kids killing kids. And again, the entire nation in its uproar is trying to figure out why.

I am eighteen years old. I live in a small town near Madison, Wisconsin. A small town just like the ones where these horrifying shootings always seem to take place. Every time those stories come on the television, I can't help but notice how easily it could be my small town next. And I want to know why this is happening just as badly as any parent or police chief or anchorman.

The thing is, I am right in the middle of it. I am in the same age group as all of these high school kids. So I may have some insight for the world that has been otherwise unattainable since these shootings started some years ago.

The night of the Littleton shooting, as I was flipping through the various news channels that were covering the story in Littleton, Colorado, I heard something that struck a chord in me. An anchorman was interviewing the mother of a victim in the Jonesboro shooting. His question was:

If you look at America in the 1950's, you will find that this kind of thing never happened; whereas if you look at America today, this kind of thing is becoming more and more frequent. Why do you think this is happening?

The woman, of course, could not answer the question. In fact, she didn't really even try. But I did. I thought about it for a long time that night. And again the next morning, when my favorite morning radio talk show asked its listeners why they thought this has been happening. Many people said it's the parents of the kids. Many people suggested television and video games. Many people even turned to popular musicians, looking to put the blame somewhere.

But I will tell you what I think it is. What I, a regular teenager riding on the coattails of Generation X, blame it on. It is not the parents or the movies or the rock stars. It is America. It is this culture of death, this culture in which liberals and feminists and activists are so anxious to let anything be "OK" that the once tightened, knotted rope of society is unraveling right beneath us.

Don't you see? There can be no order without discipline. All of those things people think are causing children to run into a school and shoot their teachers and peers and even kids they don't know—the movies, the video games, the parents, the rap artists—they are only reflections of our society. Society breaks down, from one big metaphoric "family" into 50 metaphoric "families" and so on and so on, until you have the actual family, the one with the parents and the kids and the dog. It is not one thing or two things; it is the attitude of an entire "familial" nation being reflected back at us in the kids.

Just as that anchorman suggested, something was different about the 1950's. We were conservative. We had boundaries; we had a definite knowledge of right and wrong throughout the entire nation. We didn't have feminists pushing women so hard to go get a job; that a woman who didn't have a job was somehow "bad," thereby leaving kids at home with inadequate parental guidance and often times with parents who were truly unhappy. We didn't have liberals fighting so avidly to legalize everything that it was at the point of completely blurring the line between good and bad. We didn't have a nationwide media surge dedicated to sex and violence so intense that if you weren't playing killing video games at age 14, then you were trying to choose between contraceptives beforehand or abortion afterwards. We didn't have disputes over whether or not we should help someone who is dying die sooner—over whether or not we should assist them in committing suicide. And we certainly didn't have a President who was in favor of NATO bombing and killing children in Serbia come on the television to grieve the loss for the families of children killed in America.

We live in a loosely tied society, a culture dedicated to death. If you don't want the kid, kill it. If you don't want to live out the rest of your God-given days, kill yourself. Or better yet, have someone else come help you do it. I guess, no matter how horrible or gruesome or gut-wrenching it may be, it was just a matter of time before someone got that "killing-as-a-means-to-an-end" idea stuck in their head for the part between birth and death as well. Everything that happens in families and cities and states and countries is the mirror image of the big picture. We are falling apart as a society. Am I—some random normal teenager in Farmertown, U.S.A.—the only one who sees that? It's sad and it's hard to believe, but what's worse is that it's scary.

I think it's time for our—America's—Mom and Dad to ground us—to say, "If you don't shape up by the time I count to three…" And then really count to three. Because we are running wild and pretty soon we're going to be too far from home to ever get back.

There was once a great saying by a famous man that has rung true throughout the history of mankind—in every family and in every society and in every social group and in every religion—it was a frighteningly true statement that cannot be disputed. I am reminded of it now, in the wake of yet another indescribably tormenting result of a nation gone haywire…

By their fruits you shall know them.

Sarah Roney

April 21, 1999

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Who is Sarah Roney? Says her mother…

…Sarah is an amazing person. She just turned 19 … She is a gifted musician, poet, writer, singer and artist. She is a composer and bass player in a rock band. She is making a CD of her own music. She is also a very beautiful girl, former prom queen, tennis team captain, and has friends in both the "jock" group and the "gothics." Her friends know that she is a firecracker conservative Christian, an outspoken and opinionated leader but is tender and kind and accepting of people with other points of view. She learned to think critically and to "wonder" about things in our very talkative family. …

Her mother also says that…

She wrote her article at the computer in her bedroom, all alone, in one hour and no adult even touched it with revisions.

2012 The TRUTH You're NOT being TOLD The clock runs out Sep 25th 2011

Dec 2012 or sooner? Yes much sooner, the clock runs out September 25th THIS YEAR. The truth the governments of the world are keeping from you. This seminar presented by Alex Retrov and Krystal Alexander-Hille will wake you up to the truth behind the 2012 doomsday prophecy. Dec 21st 2012 is a fake date created by the 'Illuminati' to catch us completely unprepared for the horrific events to come in September THIS YEAR . The clock runs out this year, NOT 2012. See the overwhelming evidence for yourself!

NOTE: From the age of 14, Alexander Retrov started channeling his then Spirit
Guide. Several life changing events led him to the King’s Chamber of the Great
Pyramid in Egypt where he remembered his past life as Akhenaten, connected
to his Cosmic Self, to Source, and remembered his purpose as a Keeper of
Light and channel for the awakening of others. However Alexander Retrov is
not only a psychic, tarot reader and channel, but also firmly based in
scientific proof, geological evidence, and astrophysical fact.

In the first half of the seminar Alex will give you all the facts; the facts the
government and power-monger of the world are deliberately keeping from
you to keep you controlled and avoid mass panic. This is not just another
conspiracy theory, this is not fear mongering, this is evidence-based truth.

Following the break, Goddess Facilitator and Mentor, Krystal Alexander-
Hille, along with Alex, will give you strategies and understandings of what you
can do physically and spiritually to survive the imminent changes.

Krystal Alexander-Hille has worked with numerous spiritual teachers in
countries such as Germany, England, Ireland, India, Egypt and Australia. A
fully qualified life coach, Krystal now focuses on being a Goddess Facilitator
and Mentor who works with women and couples to fully empower the creative
state of Source and reawaken it on the planet.

Many people have some pieces of the puzzle. However Alex not only knows
the final picture, he will also show you how all the pieces fit together.
The truth will not only shock you, it will literally shake your planet.
Will you be safe? Will you survive?
It literally could be the most important 4 hours of your life.
Can you afford NOT to know the truth?

A View From Space , August 20, 2011

TOPIC: History is Almost Never True, East/West World Economic-Political Parties-Crown Heads All the Same Bloodline, Rothschild Family, Vril & Thule Societies, Normalizing Ideas, Three Wars, Warburgs, Federal Reserve, Rockefellers, Standard Oil, I.G. Farben, Henry Ford, Hitler's Ancestry, WWII, Debt, Charles Taze Russell/Jehovah's Witness, Lord Arthur Balfour, The Round Table, Creation of Israel, Dulles Brothers, Germany, Angela Merkel, Meerholz Germany, Frederick Barbarossa, Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha Connection, Antarctica

Conspiracy Cafe: 2011-08-18: Singularity

Was Anders Breivik a cyborg? The advances in robotics. Pentagon making synthetic organisms. The Blue Brain project. Singularity: sentient, self replicating artificial intelligence a pet project of the elites at Ames Research facility. Richard A. Clarke's warning about a decision point on resistance. Fringe. Anders Breivik returns to Utoya. The murder of Australian Prime Minister Holt. BBC DJ Murdoch's latest victim? Hacking suspect from 9/11 hotspot Delray Beach, Florida. We have the POWER British government. Paedophilia among the stars. Jersey Island mass stabbing. ARK movement related to serial killers. UK raids safety deposit boxes again. Obama's battle bus. U.S. jobs to China. EU says more union. On Conspiracy Cafe it's Singularity.