Why do you carry a handgun? Why are you a “prepper?”

By Annie Wan

It seems today that some, especially on the left and in the MSM, want to cast gun owners, CHLs, and “preppers” as “Extremists”.  Somehow, because these individuals are planning for their own safety and survival, they must be crazy.

 This seems much like the grasshopper & the ant scenario, where the ants prepare for the long winter, and the grasshopper has not a care in the world, and simply depends on others for his welfare;  Until winter comes.

We all know how that story goes.  The ants are warm and happy, and the grasshopper is literally out in the cold.  Unlike the fairy tale, the ants won’t be able to take care of the grasshopper in a real world disaster.

Consider what FEMA did during Katrina.  Too many victims and too few supplies or volunteers, mixed with a  response time that makes turtles look fast.  Almost 2000 people died – many not from the hurricane, but rather in the aftermath.

Some of those who not only survived by thrived where “preppers”.  Individuals who were prepared for such an event, and took rehearsed action with previously procured supplies.

Preparation for disaster is not a foreign concept, borne from Extremist mentality.  It is a rather common one.  Take for example a business.  There are hundreds of thousands of businesses, even millions.  And even more business owners, as one owner often will own more than one business.  We are not talking about a small demographic.

Businesses often take measures to protect themselves from disasters.  We all know that earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires and other natural disasters occur.  They relatively infrequent – and yet businesses spend no small amount of time effort and money to plan and prepare for them.  From network backups, to fire suppression systems, to employee notification systems and burglar alarms.

But “If the fire department will come to your rescue, then why purchase and deploy a fire suppression system?”  How much damage will that fire do before the firemen get there?  What critical infrastructure could be damaged or destroyed by even a small fire?

The average response time for a fireman is 3-5 minutes.  In that time, a small fire can easily become a large fire.  Ravaging your business – or worse if your employees didn’t make it out in time.  By being able to combat the fire yourself, you lessen the risk of total loss.  The disaster has already occurred, but by being prepared, you can help prevent the worst case scenario.

My fire extinguisher is my safety net.  I don’t expect a violent threat to occur, but I am prepared if it does.

The idea of preparing yourself against a risk that is devastating, even though it happens infrequently, is not uncommon, nor alien to our culture or any other culture around the globe.  To cast such preparation and risk mitigation as an extremist idea is so incalculably incorrect, it’s not even imaginable.

Now imagine that you have a product not worth the hundreds of thousands or even millions or billions of dollars of inventory, but rather a product that is literally priceless -  Something precious and unique beyond all human comprehension.  Something like  human life.  Wouldn’t a prudent person take the some level of preparation and risk mitigation to protect that life?

In many countries the concept of storing some modicum of food and supplies for emergency is commonplace.  Every family has their small stockpile.  It is prudent preparation for the continued survival of your family.  (Or even the mitigation of discomfort due to temporary shortages of supplies on the market).

So why would we, here in America, think that such personal preparation is extremist?  There is nothing abnormal about preparing for disaster.  Whether it be a disaster of a personal nature like the loss of a job or home invasion, or a geographical nature like Katrina.  Being prepared is the smart thing to do.

That is why I am a “prepper”.

Preparation for personal disaster is also not a foreign concept, borne from Extremist mentality.  It is a rather common one.  Families often take measures to protect themselves from personal disasters as well.  We all know that burglaries, home invasions, and muggings occur.  They relatively infrequent – and yet people spend no small amount of time effort and money to plan and prepare for them.  From gated communities, to bolt locks on doors, to teaching kids to dial 911 and owning burglar alarms.

But “If the police will come to your rescue, then why own or carry a gun?”  How much damage or loss of life can an intruder inflict before the police get there?  Which family members could you lose to a mugger or home invasion?

The average response time for a policeman  is 3-5 minutes.  In that time, a killer can easily go from taking just one life, to taking dozens.  Murdering you – or worse your entire family.  By being able to combat the threat yourself, you lessen the risk of total loss.  The disaster has already occurred, but by being prepared, you can help prevent the worst case scenario.

My sidearm is my fire extinguisher.  I don’t expect a violent threat to occur, but I am prepared if it does.

That is why  I carry.

If you choose not to prep, or not to carry, that is your right.  But know that you are the grasshopper -   and the ants may not be able to take care of you come winter.

http://whyguncontrol.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-do-you-carry-handgun-why-are-you.html

Massive Solar Storm Could Knock Out Power, Communications, Navigation Systems

03.07.2012 - MASSIVE SOLAR STORM NOW HEADED STRAIGHT FOR EARTH. USA TODAY STATES IT MAY KNOCK OUT POWER, WORLD COMMUNICATIONS, NAVIGATION SYSTEMS, ETC

Update: 03-04-2012. With nearly 2.1 million sever request 'per-hour' to this website now, you most likely have heard about NASA warning the public, "to get ready for a once in a life time solar storm event". 

NASA researchers announced that a storm is coming--the most intense solar maximum in fifty years that could rival the the solar storm of 1958. But just like hurricanes often do, they become far stronger then anyone expected.The next solar maximum should be a doozy.Dikpati's forecast puts Solar Max at 2012.

But since we first published this update back in early 2010, a lot more information has since unfolded. Soon we will add some additional NASA footage here that is very troubling, that gives cause to exactly why NASA is so concerned.

Astrophysicist Alexei Dmitriev says that both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 satellites reveal that our sun, as well as our entire solar system, is now moving into an interstellar energy cloud. Opher, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University says this interstellar energy cloud is turbulent.  Dmitriev explains that this cloud of energy is exciting the atmospheres of our planets and especially our sun. As this interstellar energy cloud continues to excite/charge the sun, it causes the sun to become more active, resulting in greater output from the sun. IE: Bigger and more frequent solar storms and CME's resulting in the Carrington effect.  This interstellar cloud of electrical energy is also absorbed by the Earth, and scientist have found that it results in more earth quakes, all while dramatically effecting our weather here on earth. When asked how long will it take our sun to pass through this interstellar energy cloud, Dr. Dmitriev replied, "I don't know. But If I had to guess, I would say somewhere between two thousand to three thousand years." This interstellar cloud is a wispy band of charged particles through which our solar system is slowly moving through.

http://solarstormwarning.com/

Saudi Oil Pipelines Destroyed In Explosion, Sends Crude Soaring

by Tyler Durden

Among the many factors responsible for the jump in WTI to just shy of $109 over the past hour, and Brent to new records in various currencies, is the following news reported so far only by Iranian PressTV: "An explosion has hit oil pipelines in the flashpoint Saudi Arabian city of Awamiyah in the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province."

For the first time in decades, the Eastern Saudi Arabian volatile situation has reached the vital oil sector. A pipeline between Awamiya and Safwa has been reportedly targeted, and is under fire. Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority, mostly residing in the oil rich east, has been protesting for years against State sponsored discrimination. They are treated as second class citizens, denied public sector jobs, and vital development for their oil rich areas. Saudi Arabia's powerful Wahhabi religious establishment considers Shiites heretics, and constantly incites against them.

Security forces have killed two protesters in Awamiya, Eastern Saudi Arabia. They are launching a series of arrests and raids on houses, schools and mosques.

This is Awamiya this evening, protesters have blocked the Police road after arrests in the town.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/saudi-oil-pipelines-destroyed-explosion-sends-crude-soaring

2/29/2012 7:21 PM ET | By Anthony Mirhaydari, MSN Money Will Fed push oil to $200 a barrel?

By Anthony Mirhaydari, MSN Money

Bernanke seems intent on yet another round of stimulus, long after it will do any good. That will open the door to inflation -- and within a few years, $7-a-gallon gas.

Winter's chill is giving way to the rebirth of spring. But it's not just the warmer weather that has investors in a celebratory mood. Stock prices have been blooming in a low-volatility rise that seems perfectly, well, natural.

And investors are enamored with the idea of economic deliverance at the hands of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, via a new round of stimulus involving hundreds of billions more in cheap dollars. He will keep stocks rising. He will solve our intractable problems. It's a cult of personality. And it's a mistake.

It won't be the economic salvation investors expect; Bernanke's about to unleash a hellish inflation that will burn the economy for years. It'll be a slow burn that eats away at the average American's already-diminished living standards through pricier food, fuel and other necessities at a time of stagnant wages, depressed wealth and diminished savings.

READ MORE AT:
http://money.msn.com/exchange-traded-fund/will-fed-push-oil-to-200-dollars-a-barrel-mirhaydari.aspx

Inflation at 8%, not 3.1% as the goverment would have you believe

(CNN) Forget the modest 3.1 percent rise in the Consumer Price Index, the government's widely used measure of inflation. Everyday prices are up some 8 percent over the past year, according to the American Institute for Economic Research.

The not-for-profit research group measures inflation without looking at the big, one-time purchases that can skew the numbers. That means they don't look at the price of houses, furniture, appliances, cars, or computers. Instead, AIER focuses on Americans' typical daily purchases, such as food, gasoline, child care, prescription drugs, phone and television service, and other household products.

The institute contends that to get a good read on inflation's "sticker shock" effect, you must look at the cost of goods that the average household buys at least once a month and factor in only the kinds of expenses that are subject to change. That, too, eliminates the cost of housing because when you finance your home with a fixed-rate mortgage, that expense remains constant until you refinance or move.

The group maintains that this index better measures the real-world impact of price changes, particularly for people on a budget. And, largely as the result of the recent run-up in gas prices, this "everyday price index" (EPI) suggests that Americans are being pinched far more tightly than the official inflation measure would have you believe.

And if the biased liberal media machine that is CNN would dare report this, then I bet the truth is closer to 16%...

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505144_162-57387655/inflation-not-as-low-as-you-think/

Latest Wikileaks dump shows Dems effort to throw 2008 election

By Anthony Martin


This morning Wikileaks began its latest document dump in a series of cables that it calls 'The Global Intelligence Files.' Part of the information contained in the files shows that the Democratic Party engaged in an effort to throw the 2008 election.
The Democrats may have succeeded, and the election results from 2008 may be entirely skewed.
At issue is internal communication within a company in Texas called Stratfor. The company bills itself as a 'global intelligence service' that offers confidential information to large corporations and political entities.
Among Stratfor's clients are the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Marines, Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.
In an internal email dated Nov. 7, 2008, a Stratfor operative sent the following information to the company's chain of staffers:

From: Fred Burton [mailto:burton@stratfor.com]
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2008 7:41 AM
To: secure@stratfor.com
Subject: Insight - The Dems & Dirty Tricks ** Internal Use Only - Pls Do
Not Forward **
** Internal Use Only - Pls Do Not Forward **
1) The black Dems were caught stuffing the ballot boxes in Philly and Ohio as reported the night of the election and Sen. McCain chose not to fight. The matter is not dead inside the party. It now becomes a matter of sequence now as to how and when to "out".
2) It appears the Dems "made a donation" to Rev. Jesse (no, they would never do that!) to keep his yap shut after his diatribe about the Jews and Israel. A little bird told me it was a "nice six-figure donation". This also becomes a matter of how and when to out.
3) The hunt is on for the sleezy Russian money into O-mans coffers. A smoking gun has already been found. Will get more on this when the time
is right. My source was too giddy to continue. Can you say Clinton and ChiCom funny money? This also becomes a matter of how and when to out.

Several key pieces of information are contained in this stunning admission by an operative of one of the most respected intelligence gathering corporations in the world. First, the Democratic Party engaged in election tampering, a felony, by stuffing ballot boxes in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Second, the Democratic Party paid Jessie Jackson six figures to keep his mouth shut about political issues during the 2008 campaign. It was widely known at the time that Jackson had no use for Obama. And third, Russian money went to the campaign of Barack Obama much as Chinese money went to the campaign of Bill Clinton during the 1990s.
These are serious issues that throw into question the integrity of the U.S. elections process and the lengths to which the political parties will go to secure a win, in this case, the Democratic Party and Barack Obama.

Ohio and Pennsylvania are merely the two areas where Democratic operatives were caught stuffing ballot boxes. How many other areas around the country were subjected to voter fraud without anyone getting caught?

A second Wikileaks cable indicates that 2008 Republican Presidential candidate John McCain decided not to pursue legal action against the Democrats for engaging in voter fraud. The candidate believed that to do so would have thrown the country into civil unrest, and thus, he let the matter drop.

Emails between Stratfor staffers indicate that McCain's actions were viewed as baffling, to say the least.

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-national/latest-wikileaks-dump-shows-dems-effort-to-throw-2008-election

Ron Paul To Ben Bernanke: "People Lose Trust In The Government Because You Lie To Them About Inflation"

by Tyler Durden 


Anytime Ron Paul sits across from Ben Bernanke you know sparks will fly. Sure enough, they did: starting 3 mins 50 seconds into the clip below, Ron Paul, guns blazing, asks the Chairman if he does his own shopping, if he is aware of what true inflation is, and if he knows that Americans don't trust the government because they are being lied to about inflation. And it only gets better, once Paul starts brandishing a silver coin. The punchline: "The Fed will self-destruct anyway when the money is gone" - amen.

And ironically letting the Fed keep on doing what it is doing will achieve that in the fastest possible way. In fact, letting the system cannibalize itself with no further hindrances may be the best option currently available - just go to town.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/ron-paul-ben-bernanke-people-lose-trust-government-because-you-lie-them-about-inflation

Greece Is Just A Preview Of What's Coming For The Rest Of Us

by Tyler Durden

All eyes are on Greece these days, with hopes the situation there can soon be resolved and the global recovery kicked into high gear.

Sadly, those hopes are misguided claims Ben Davies, CEO of Hinde Capital. In fact, he says, Greece's pain foreshadows the future awaiting the rest of the world.

It all comes down to simple math. Greece has increased its debts at a rate far faster than its income has grown. At some point, the debt became so large that the country could no longer service it.

What makes the rest of the PIIGS immune from a similar fate? Or Japan? Or the US? Or the OECD, in general?

Nothing.

Yes, Greece had a smaller, shakier economy and doesn't have a central bank to print its own currency at will like Japan or the US. But even those countries with a printing press learn that, after a certain point, expanding the money supply only complicates the problem of too much debt by inflating key economic input costs and dangerously weakening the currency.

The cold hard fact Greece is facing is that it's now at the point where extraordinary losses need to be taken. The problem is, no one wants to take them. And all the sturm und drang being exhibited by Brussels, the ECB, sovereign debt holders, and other world leaders is nothing more than a frantic game of hot potato.

The one thing we can be confident of is that at some point, these losses will be taken. The market will eventually force it.

And the second thing we can predict is: we don't know what will happen when they are. There is so much complexity in the counterparty exposure to Greece debt - as well as the much larger derivative exposure tied to this debt - that anything between "not much" and "worldwide financial conflagration" could be possible.

And that's just Greece. As other larger countries begin to sink under the weight of their sovereign debts, the risks to the global financial system increasingly escalates. Which is why Ben Davies has a hard time finding a good home for investment capital other than gold.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/ben-davies-greece-just-preview-whats-coming-rest-us

This Is Small Business in America: Burdened, Crushed, Doomed

by Tyler Durden via Charles Hugh Smith

If you make it increasingly costly and risky to open a small enterprise, then no wonder unemployment remains high.

You hear a lot about Kafkaesque stifling bureaucracy in Greece and other struggling European nations, but America's Status Quo is trying its best to destroy small enterprise with taxes and crushing bureaucracy. I am self-employed, and have been for most of my life. When I did take a paid position, it was in other small enterprises or local non-profit organizations.

I mention this because there is an unbridgeable divide in any discussion of small business between those who have no experience in entrepreneural enterprise (i.e. they've worked for the government, NGOs/non-profits or Corporate America their entire careers) and those who have.

There are all sorts of similar chasms that cannot be crossed and which quickly reveal a surreal disconnect from actual lived reality: for example, the difference between actually playing football--yes, with pads, a muddy field and guys trying to slam you to the ground--and being an armchair quarterback who's never been hit even once, never caught a pass or ever struggled to bring down a faster, bigger player. (And yes, I did play football in high school as a poor dumb skinny kid who mostly warmed the bench for good reason, but I lettered.)
At the extreme of this disconnect, we have armchair generals screaming for war who have no experience of combat or war as it is actually experienced.

You get the point: it's very easy for well-paid pundits who have never started a single real enterprise or met a single payroll to pontificate about "opportunity" and small business as the engine of growth, blah blah blah. It's also easy for those with no actual experience to reach all sorts of absurd conclusions about how easy it is to turn a small business into great wealth. (No, Bain Capital or other Wall Street outposts of financialization are not "small business.")

In real life, it's only easy to run a small business into the ground, especially when there's a thousand tons of junk fees, taxes and useless bureaucratic requirements on your back. Lest you think this an exaggeration, consider that it took two years and $200,000 to open an ice cream parlor in a vacant retail space




READ MORE

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-small-business-america-burdened-crushed-doomed

$200 Oil Coming

by Tyler Durden 


We have been saying it for weeks, and today even the WSJ jumped on the bandwagon: the sole reason why crude prices are surging (RIP European profit margins: with EUR Brent at a record, we can only assume the ECB will pull a 2011 and hike rates in 3-4 months even as it pumps trillions in PIIGS, banks bailout liquidity) is because global liquidity has risen by $2 trillion in a few short months, on the most epic shadow liquidity tsunami launched in history in lieu of QE3 (discussed extensively here in our words, but here are JPM's). Luckily, the market is finally waking up to this, and just as world central banks were preparing to offset deflation, they will instead have to deal with spiking inflation, because the market may have a short memory, it can remember what happened just about this time in 2011. And the problem is that when it comes to the inflation trade, the market, unlike in most other instances, can be fast - blazing fast, at anticipating what the central planning collective's next step will be, after all there is only one. And if Bank of America is correct, that next step could well lead to the same unprecedented economic catastrophe that we saw back in 2008, only worse: $200 oil. Note - this is completely independent of what happens in Iran, and is 100% dependent on what happens in the 3rd subbasement of the Marriner Eccles building. Throw in an Iran war and all bets are off. Needless to say, an epic deflationary shock will need to follow immediately, just as in 2008, which means that, in keeping with the tradition of being 6-9 months ahead of the market, our question today is - which bank will be 2012's sacrificial Lehman to set off the latest and greatest deflationary collapse and send crude plunging to $30 just after it hits $200.

How do we get to $200 crude? BofA's Francisco Blanch explains
READ MORE
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/200-oil-coming-central-banks-go-ctrlp-happy

Gasoline Prices Are Not Rising, the Dollar Is Falling

Panic is in the air as gasoline prices move above $4.00 per gallon. Politicians and pundits are rounding up the usual suspects, looking for someone or something to blame for this latest outrage to middle class family budgets. In a rare display of bipartisanship, President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner are both wringing their hands over the prospect of seeing their newly extended Social Security tax cut gobbled up by rising gasoline costs.

Unfortunately, the talking heads that are trying to explain the reasons for high oil prices are missing one tiny detail. Oil prices aren’t high right now. In fact, they are unusually low. Gasoline prices would have to rise by another $0.65 to $0.75 per gallon from where they are now just to be “normal”. And, because gasoline prices are low right now, it is very likely that they are going to go up more—perhaps a lot more.

What the politicians, analysts, and pundits are missing is that prices are ratios. Gasoline prices reflect crude oil prices, so let’s use West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil to illustrate this crucial point.

As this is written, West Texas Intermediate crude oil (WTI) is trading at $105.88/bbl. All this means is that the market value of a barrel of WTI is 105.88 times the market value of “the dollar”. It is also true that WTI is trading at €79.95/bbl, ¥8,439.69/barrel, and £67.13/bbl. In all of these cases, the market value of WTI is the same. What is different in each case is the value of the monetary unit (euros, yen, and British pounds, respectively) being used to calculate the ratio that expresses the price.

In terms of judging whether the price of WTI is high or low, here is the price that truly matters: 0.0602 ounces of gold per barrel (which can be written as Au0.0602/bbl). What this number means is that, right now, a barrel of WTI has the same market value as 0.0602 ounces of gold.

During the 493 months since January 1, 1971, the price of WTI has averaged Au0.0732/bbl. It has been higher than that during 225 of those months and lower than that during 268 of those months. Plotted as a graph, the line representing the price of a barrel of oil in terms of gold has crossed the horizontal line representing the long-term average price (Au0.0732/bbl) 29 times.

At Au0.0602/bbl, today’s WTI price is only 82% of its average over the past 41+ years. Assuming that gold prices remained at today’s $1,759.30/oz, WTI prices would have to rise by about 22%, to $128.86/bbl, in order to reach their long-term average in terms of gold. As mentioned earlier, such an increase would drive up retail gasoline prices by somewhere between $0.65 and $0.75 per gallon.

At this point, we can be certain that, unless gold prices come down, gasoline prices are going to go up—by a lot. And, because the dollar is currently a floating, undefined, fiat currency, there is no inherent limit to how far the price of gold in dollars can rise, and therefore no ultimate ceiling on gasoline prices.


READ MORE
http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiswoodhill/2012/02/22/gasoline-prices-are-not-rising-the-dollar-is-falling/

Wyoming Introduces ‘Doomsday Bill’ To Prepare For Collapse of Federal Government

BY Paul Joseph Watson

Lawmakers in Wyoming have introduced a bill that would compel the state to prepare for a complete collapse of the federal government, laying plans for an alternate currency, a standing army raised via a military draft, and an aircraft carrier.

“House Bill 85 passed on first reading by a voice vote. It would create a state-run government continuity task force, which would study and prepare Wyoming for potential catastrophes, from disruptions in food and energy supplies to a complete meltdown of the federal government,” reports the Wyoming Star-Tribune.

Compared to the rest of the country, Wyoming’s public finances are in a relatively good condition, a fact that has spurred lawmakers to protect the state against contagion from other areas that could develop in the aftermath of a massive financial collapse.

The bill (PDF) lays the groundwork for how the state would respond in the event of a sudden devaluation of the dollar or “a situation in which the federal government has no effective power or authority over the people of the United States.”

“I don’t think there’s anyone in this room today what would come up here and say that this country is in good shape, that the world is stable and in good shape — because that is clearly not the case,” state Rep. Lorraine Quarberg, R-Thermopolis, said. “To put your head in the sand and think that nothing bad’s going to happen, and that we have no obligation to the citizens of the state of Wyoming to at least have the discussion, is not healthy.”

The bill has to pass two more House votes before it can be considered by the Senate. If passed, the task force would have until December 1, 2012 to submit a report to the governor detailing the continuity of government plan.

While authorities at both the state and federal level are making preparations for social dislocation, with FEMA recently ordering $1 billion dollars worth of dehydrated food, a total of 420 million meals, Americans who buy food supplies in bulk are being characterized as potential terrorists by the FBI.

Continuity of government plans implemented at the federal level are so sensitive that when the plan was last updated in 2007, Congressman Peter DeFazio was barred from seeing the details despite being a sitting member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Peter DeFazio (D – OR) was asked by his constituents to see what was contained within the classified portion of the White House’s plan for operating the government after a catastrophic terrorist attack, but was denied access, leading him to comment, “Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right.”

Five years later, the biggest threat posed to America’s survival in its current form of government stems not from terrorists but from the country’s huge unsustainable national debt and the possibility of another economic collapse.

A USA Today article published yesterday quoted three separate financial experts who all concur that the worst of the financial turmoil is yet to come, with trend forecaster Gerald Celente warning of an “economic 9/11″ that will provoke mass civil unrest fueled by anti-government sentiment.

http://www.infowars.com/wyoming-introduces-doomsday-bill-to-prepare-for-collapse-of-federal-government/

Gasoline Prices and Dollar Prices

By Joseph Svetlic

It's not that gasoline is more expensive; it's just that your dollars are worth less.  But neither the media nor the political establishment wants you to realize the real reason Americans are experiencing pain at the pump.
Surging gasoline prices are back in the news, and President Obama shows his concern for Americans by doing what he does best.  He gave a speech.  Happy now?

Of course the grumpy old conservative naysayers place blame on the Obama administration for the surging prices!  They point to the administration's denial of the Keystone pipeline and additional supply of Canadian oil sands as illustrative of an anti-energy policy that tries to dictate against the free market that we are all to drive flammable 40-mile/charge Chevy Volts.  They point to Obama's own Energy Secretary Stephen Chu, who believes that "[s]omehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe."  They point out that President Obama doesn't in fact have a problem with high gas prices; he just prefers a "gradual adjustment."  (Is four years long enough?)  They point to the reaction of Speaker Pelosi in May 2007 when the average national gas price was only $3.05/gallon, calling it the Bush administration's "failure" and accusing the Bush administration of years of policies favoring "Big Oil."  They point to the price of gasoline on January 20, 2009 being a bargain at $1.83/gallon, now having basically doubled and headed much higher.  Effective talking points all.

Well, I'm here to give the Obama administration and the media (but I repeat myself) their most potent rebuttal to these unfair attacks.  Here it is:

The real price of gasoline has gone down during the Obama administration.  Gas is actually cheaper now.
"What?!" you say.  "I just paid over $3.50 per gallon for a fill-up!  How can this be?"  Glad you asked.  Put down your Slurpee.  Let's go through this.  The dollars that you have in your pocket are pieces of paper that hold value only because they are "backed by a gun."  The "gun" being the United States Government and the Federal Reserve.  The dollars that you have in your pocket are "fiat money" (the term "fiat" is Latin for "let it be done"), not backed by anything of actual value since August 15, 1971.  Cash is just paper.  Call them Bernanke Bucks.

Read more:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/02/gasoline_prices_and_dollar_prices.html

Debt doomsday may come sooner than expected

The federal government could hit the debt ceiling sooner than expected — and possibly around the November election — according to a report out Friday.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill had hoped that last summer’s deal to end the nasty fight over lifting the debt ceiling would ensure the issue wouldn’t resurface until at least 2013.

But the Bipartisan Policy Center said Friday that the debt-limit doomsday could come earlier than that.

Analysts from the Bipartisan Policy Center projected that the United States will hit its $16.4 trillion debt ceiling between late November 2012 and early January 2013 due to lower-than-expected corporate tax revenues and the recent extension of the payroll tax holiday.

A number of other factors, such as the ongoing financial crises in Europe, volatile gas prices and how quickly the U.S. economy continues to grow could push the debt-ceiling deadline forward or backwards, according to the center.

“When the Budget Control Act of 2011 increased the debt ceiling last August, Congress, the administration, and outside analysts believed that this increase would allow federal borrowing under the limit well into 2013,” the center’s analysts wrote. “Due to unexpected circumstances … that belief appears increasingly likely to have been misguided.”

The current debt level is $15.4 trillion, according to the Treasury Department.

The center’s report echoes a warning from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner last week, when he testified before the Senate Budget Committee that the country would reach the debt limit “significantly” after the fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, but “before the end of the calendar year.”

“Those estimates will change, it’s a long way away and you know those estimates change a lot,” Geithner told senators. “But what we do try and do is update those estimates regularly, transparently and we’ll keep doing that as we have in the past.”

President Barack Obama’s fiscal 2013 budget also foreshadows an earlier-than-expected deadline. As of Sept. 30, the debt level is expected to hit $16.3339 trillion, running close to the statutory $16.394 trillion limit, according to the budget.

A grueling, weeks-long battle in Congress last summer ended with an agreement to slash $2.1 trillion from the federal budget in exchange for raising the debt limit by the same amount. The standoff pushed the country to the edge of default and triggered the first-ever downgrade of the nation’s credit rating.

If the United States maxes out its credit limit before the end of this year, that could set up another messy and acrimonious battle during the lame-duck session. Lawmakers already face a dilemma over expiring Bush-era tax rates and a potential fight over preventing the $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts that were borne out of the supercommittee’s failure last November.

Congress has to sign off on any increases to the debt ceiling, but the Treasury Department can employ a variety of accounting maneuvers to stall the absolute deadline before the country defaults on its debt. It did so last year, when the debt limit was actually hit in May but Treasury was able to delay the deadline until early August.

The Bipartisan Policy Center said it believed that the Treasury Department could punt the debt-limit deadline until February 2013 if the so-called extraordinary measures were again used.

A recent analysis from JP Morgan also estimated that due to the payroll tax holiday deal – which also included an extension of jobless benefits and a delay in steep pay cuts to doctors who serve Medicare patients – the debt ceiling will be reached in mid-December. But the investment banking firm said that with the various accounting measures, Treasury could delay the absolute deadline until February 2013.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73260.html#ixzz1nMvXK8Sz

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/73260.html

State Department quietly warning region on Syrian WMDs

By Josh Rogin 

 

The State Department has begun coordinating with Syria's neighbors to prepare for the handling of President Bashar al-Assad's extensive weapons of mass destruction if and when his regime collapses, The Cable has learned.

This week, the State Department sent a diplomatic demarche to Syria's neighbors Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia, warning them about the possibility of Syria's WMDs crossing their borders and offering U.S. government help in dealing with the problem, three Obama administration officials confirmed to The Cable. For concerned parties both inside and outside the U.S. government, the demarche signifies that the United States is increasingly developing plans to deal with the dangers of a post-Assad Syria -- while simultaneously highlighting the lack of planning for how to directly bring about Assad's downfall.

Syria is believed to have a substantial chemical weapons program, which includes mustard gas and sophisticated nerve agents, such as sarin gas, as well as biological weapons. Syria has also refused IAEA requests to make available facilities that were part of its nuclear weapons program and may still be in operation.

The State Department declined to provide access to any officials to discuss the private diplomatic communication on the record, such as the author of the demarche Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Tom Countryman. In a meeting with reporters earlier this year, Countryman expressed confidence that the United States knows where Syria's WMD stockpiles are, but warned that they could become a very serious security issue for Syria and the region going forward.
"We have ideas as to the quantity and we have ideas as to where they are," Countryman said. "We wish some of the neighbors of Syria to be on the lookout... When you get a change of regime in Syria, it matters what are the conditions -- chaotic or orderly."

Today, in response to inquiries from The Cable, a State Department official offered the following statement:
"The U.S. and our allies are monitoring Syria's chemical weapons stockpile. These weapons' presence in Syria undermines peace and security in the Middle East, and we have long called on the Syrian government to destroy its chemicals weapons arsenal and join the Chemical Weapons Convention," the State Department official said. "We believe Syria's chemical weapons stockpile remains under Syrian government control, and we will continue to work closely with like-minded countries to prevent proliferation of Syria's chemical weapons program."

The demarche made four specific points, according to other U.S. officials who offered a fuller account to The Cable. It communicated the U.S. government's recognition that there is a highly active chemical warfare program in Syria, which is complemented by ballistic-missile delivery capability. It further emphasized that that any potential political transition in Syria could raise serious questions about the regime's control over proliferation-sensitive material.

Third, the State Department wanted Syria's neighbors to know that should the Assad regime fall, the security of its WMD stockpile -- as well as its control over conventional weapons like MANPADS (shoulder-fired rocket launchers) -- could come into question and could pose a serious threat to regional security. Lastly, the demarche emphasized that the U.S. government stands ready to support neighboring countries to provide border-related security cooperation.

"It's essentially a recognition of the danger to the regional and international community of the stockpiles that the regime possesses and the importance of working with countries, given the potential fall of the regime, to prevent the proliferation of these very sensitive weapons outside of Syria's border," one administration official said. "It's an exponentially more dangerous program than Libya. We are talking about legitimate WMDs here -- this isn't Iraq. The administration is really concerned about loose WMDs. It's one of the few things you could put on the agenda and do something about without planning the fall of the regime."

The administration is also working closely with the Jordanians on the issue. A Jordanian military delegation was at the Pentagon Thursday to meet with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

In addition to the danger of proliferation, there is a concern that Assad could actually use his WMDs if his situation becomes desperate.

"The WMD program is in play now, and that's important because it highlights the innate danger that the existence of this regime poses to U.S. security and regional interests," the administration official said. "[The demarche] puts Syria's neighbors on notice and it reflects the recognition that a dangerous Assad regime is willing to do anything to save its own skin. If they are willing to kill the country to save the regime, they might be willing to do a great deal more damage throughout the region."

Some officials inside and outside the administration see the WMD activity as helpful, but lament that such a high degree of planning is not taking place on the issue of how to precipitate the downfall of the Assad regime as quickly and as safely as possible.

Over 70 countries met in Tunis today to develop a unified message on the transition of power in Syria and urge the Assad regime to allow humanitarian access. The Saudi delegation actually walked out of the meeting, complaining of "inactivity" and urging the international community to arm the Syrian opposition.
The Obama administration has consistently rejected calls by the Syrian National Council and others to prepare for a military intervention in Syria and no real strategy exists internally to force Assad from power, another administration official said.

"Our strategic calculus can't be solely about what comes after Assad without taking a hard look at how to bring about Assad's downfall as safely as possible," said this official. "The reality is, at some point, there will be a recognition you can't plan for a post-Assad scenario without planning how to shape the downfall itself. You can't separate the two."

Concern about a gap in planning for how to oust the Assad regime is shared by some in Congress, including Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who issued a statement today urging the administration to start directly aiding the Syrian rebels and protecting Syrian civilians.

"Unfortunately, speeches and meetings by themselves will do nothing to stop the unacceptable slaughter in Syria, which is growing worse by the day," the senators said. "We remain deeply concerned that our international diplomacy risks becoming divorced from the reality on the ground in Syria, which is now an armed conflict between Assad's forces and the people of Syria who are struggling to defend themselves against indiscriminate attacks."

In her prepared remarks in Tunis, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she supported more sanctions on the Assad regime but she declined to endorse any direct help to the Syrian opposition without the consent of the Syrian government, saying only, "We all need to look hard at what more we can do."

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/02/24/exclusive_state_department_quietly_warning_region_on_syrian_wmds

Self-reliance Expo draws ‘preppers’

By JAMES RAGLAND

Debbie Woody of Duncanville took aim at a target under the watchful eye of Steve Rabe from Project Appleseed at the Self-Reliance Expo at the Mesquite Convention Center on Friday.

Ron Douglas was settled in and prepared to endure a massive Colorado snowstorm four years ago when a pair of unexpected guests showed up on his doorstep.

“Everyone was snowed under,” said Douglas, now 38. “Our neighbors came over and said they had no food. All they had was ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise.” 

Douglas, raised by his Army-trained father to be self-reliant, was more than ready to help out with his emergency supply.

“We went down in our basement and said get what you need,” he said.

The brief encounter helped transform the married father of six into a sought-after survivalist whose two-day Self-Reliance Expo landed at the Mesquite Convention Center Friday.

The conference offers a range of exhibits and seminars, such as the “Suture Class” with Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy, “Cooking With the Sun” and “Intro to Bread Baking.”

“I started thinking there’s more and more people who have no idea how to be prepared for a catastrophe or natural disaster,” said Douglas, president of the National Self Reliance Organization and chief executive officer of Red Shed Media, an umbrella group of self-reliance companies.

Now, four years later, Douglas is in the vanguard of a new wave of survivalists, or “preppers,” whose fears of a doomsday event gained new life after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and again with the economic crisis that gripped the country.

“It’s everywhere now,” Douglas said. “You’ve got zombie movies, survivor movies, TV shows. People are concerned about the economy. People are losing their jobs.”

Douglas said he and his partners started their two-day expo in Salt Lake City three years ago and attracted a few thousand people.

“Now, we’ve expanded to four different cities,” Douglas said, adding that he expects 10,000 to 15,000 at each event, including the one that runs through Saturday at the Mesquite Convention Center.
The expos attract a colorful array of visitors and vendors, such as Craig Fairclough, a pitchman for Grandma’s Country Foods, a company he founded in his Sandy, Utah, garage in 1993.

Fairclough began selling spices and then added freeze-dried foods. Now the company, which he sold five years ago, sells dehydrated foods and outdoor camping gear.

“The main thing for those of us here is to be self-reliant so you don’t have to depend on the government or anybody,” said Fairclough. “It’s really tough to be outside in an emergency because people will kill for food.”
Some people drove from as far away as Iowa, Illinois and Alabama for the expo. Others, such as Sherri and Jerry Reid, were delighted the event was close to home.

“This is great,” said Sherri Reid, a 47-year-old consultant who said she and her husband, a retired military veteran, live on a two-acre lot in Rockwall where they grow herbs. “This is bigger than one that I attended in Dallas last year.”

Asked why she was drawn to the expo, the mother of five grown children said, “We’re becoming more mindful of teaching others how to be self-sufficient.”

Kim Heath, 54, a volunteer with Project Appleseed — which teaches American heritage and history as well as traditional rifle marksmanship skills — said more people are worried about their future.

“I really can’t talk politics,” said Heath, who runs the Self-Reliance expo programs with her husband Jim, 55. “The only politics we’ll talk about is 1775, nothing current. But I can say things have been financially tough for people.”

Red Shed Media announced Friday that one of its partners, Project Second Chance, will hold a national contest to select a military family later this year to receive six months of self-reliance classes in finance, food and water storage, gardening, canning and other survival skills.

Then, the family will be given a one-acre lot with a starter home in Iowa and the help of Self-Reliance vendors.

“This is going to be huge,” said Douglas, adding that he expects the program to grow each year once it has been tested.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/mesquite/headlines/20120210-self-reliance-expo-expected-to-draw-thousands-of-preppers-to-mesquite.ece

EOTWAWKI: Solar Flares, EMP could cause 400 Chernobyl-like meltdowns all at once

400 Chernobyls: Solar Flares, EMP, and Nuclear Armageddon [Fulll Length Version]

 There are nearly 450 nuclear reactors in the world, with hundreds more either under construction or in the planning stages. There are 104 of these reactors in the USA and 195 in Europe. Imagine what havoc it would wreak on our civilization and the planet’s ecosystems if we were to suddenly witness not just one or two nuclear melt-downs but 400 or more! How likely is it that our world might experience an event that could ultimately cause hundreds of reactors to fail and melt down at approximately the same time?  I venture to say that, unless we take significant protective measures, this apocalyptic scenario is not only possible but probable.

Consider the ongoing problems caused by three reactor core meltdowns, explosions, and breached containment vessels at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi facility, and the subsequent health and environmental issues. Consider the millions of innocent victims that have already died or continue to suffer from horrific radiation-related health problems (“Chernobyl AIDS”, epidemic cancers, chronic fatigue, etc) resulting from the Chernobyl reactor explosions, fires, and fallout. If just two serious nuclear disasters, spaced 25 years apart, could cause such horrendous environmental catastrophes,  it is hard to imagine how we could ever hope to recover from hundreds of similar nuclear incidents occurring simultaneously across the planet. Since more than one third of all Americans live within 50 miles of a nuclear power plant, this is a serious issue that should be given top priority![1]

In the past 152 years, Earth has been struck roughly 100 solar storms causing significant geomagnetic disturbances (GMD), two of which were powerful enough to rank as “extreme GMDs”. If an extreme GMD of such magnitude were to occur today, in all likelihood it would initiate a chain of events leading to catastrophic failures at the vast majority of our world’s nuclear reactors, quite similar to the disasters at both Chernobyl and Fukushima, but multiplied over 100 times. When massive solar flares launch a huge mass of highly charged plasma (a coronal mass ejection, or CME) directly towards Earth, colliding with our planet’s outer atmosphere and magnetosphere, the result is a significant geomagnetic disturbance.

Since an extreme GMD of such a potentially disruptive magnitude that it would collapse the grid across most of the US last occurred in May of 1921, long before the advent of  modern electronics, widespread electric power grids, and nuclear power plants, we are for the most part blissfully unaware of this threat and totally unprepared for its consequences. The good news is that there are some relatively affordable protective equipment and processes which could be installed to protect critical components in the electric power grid and its nuclear reactors, thereby protecting our civilization from this “end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it” scenario. The bad news is that, as of now, even though panels of scientists and engineers have studied the problem, and the bi-partisan congressional EMP commission has presented a list of specific recommendations to congress, our leaders have yet to approve and implement a single significant preventative measure!

Most of us believe something like this could never happen, and if it could, certainly our “authorities” would do everything in their power to make sure they would prevent such an Apocalypse from ever taking place. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. “How could this happen?” you might ask. “Is this truly possible?” Read and weep, for you will soon know the answer.

Nuclear Power Plants and the Electric Power Grid

Our global system of electrical power generation and distribution (“the grid”), upon which every facet of our modern life is utterly dependent, in its current form is extremely vulnerable to severe geomagnetic storms of a magnitude that tends to strike our planet on an average of approximately once every 70 to 100 years. We depend on this grid to maintain food production and distribution, telecommunications, Internet services, medical services, military defense, transportation, government, water treatment, sewage and garbage removal, refrigeration, oil refining and gas pumping, and to conduct all forms of commerce.

Unfortunately, the world’s nuclear power plants, as they are currently designed, are critically dependent upon maintaining connection to a functioning electrical grid, for all but relatively short periods of electrical blackouts, in order to keep their reactor cores continuously cooled so as to avoid catastrophic reactor core meltdowns and spent fuel rod storage pond fires.

If an extreme GMD were to cause widespread grid collapse (which it most certainly will), in as little as one or two hours after each nuclear reactor facility’s backup generators either fail to start, or run out of fuel, the reactor cores will start to melt down. After a few days without electricity to run the cooling system pumps, the water bath covering the spent fuel rods stored in “spent fuel ponds” will boil away, allowing the stored fuel rods to melt down and burn [2]. Since the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) currently mandates that only one week’s supply of backup generator fuel needs to be stored at each reactor site, it is likely that after we witness the spectacular night-time celestial light show from the next extreme GMD we will have about one week in which to prepare ourselves for Armageddon.

To do nothing is to behave like ostriches with our heads in the sand, blindly believing that “everything will be okay,” as our world inexorably drifts towards the next naturally recurring, 100%  inevitable, super solar storm and resultant extreme GMD. The result of which in short order will end the industrialized world as we know it, incurring almost incalculable suffering, death, and environmental destruction on a scale not seen since the extinction of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago.

The  End of “The Grid” As We Know It

There are records from the 1850s to today of roughly one hundred significant geomagnetic solar storms, two of which in the last 25 years were strong enough to cause millions of dollars worth of damage to key components that keep our modern grid powered. In March of 1989, a severe solar storm induced powerful electric currents in grid wiring that fried a main power transformer in the HydroQuebec system, causing a cascading grid failure that knocked out power to 6 million customers for nine hours while also damaging similar transformers in New Jersey and the United Kingdom. More recently, in 2003 a solar storm of lesser intensity, but longer duration, caused a blackout in Sweden and induced powerful currents in the South African grid that severely damaged or destroyed fourteen of their major power transformers, impairing commerce and comfort over major portions of that country as they were forced to resort to massive rolling blackouts that dragged on for many months[3]. 


During the Great Geomagnetic Storm of May 14-15, 1921, brilliant aurora displays were reported in the Northern Hemisphere as far south as Mexico and Puerto Rico, and in the Southern Hemisphere as far north as Samoa[5]. This extreme GMD produced ground currents roughly ten times as strong as the 1989 Quebec incident. Just 62 years earlier, the great granddaddy of recorded GMDs, referred to as “The Carrington Event,” raged from August 28 to September 4, 1859. This extreme GMD induced currents so powerful that telegraph lines, towers, and stations caught on fire at a number of locations around the world. Best estimates are that the Carrington Event was approximately 50% stronger than the Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1921[6]. Since we are headed into an active solar period, much like the one preceding the Carrington Event, scientists are concerned that conditions could be ripe for the next extreme GMD[7].

Prior to the advent of the microchip and modern extra-high-voltage (EHV) transformers (key grid components that were first introduced in the late 1960’s), most electrical systems were relatively  robust and resistant to the effects of GMDs. Given the fact that a simple electrostatic spark can fry a microchip, and many thousands of miles of power lines act like giant antennas for capturing massive amounts of GMD spawned electromagnetic energy, the electrical systems of the modern world are far more vulnerable than their predecessors.

A growing number of scientists and engineers have become concerned about the vulnerability of both the grid and modern microelectronics to debilitating damage from severe electromagnetic disturbances. These could come either in the form of naturally occurring extreme GMDs, like what occurred during the 1921 and 1859 super solar storms, or an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) resulting from the deliberate detonation of a nuclear device at a high altitude above the earth.

READ MORE (LOTS MORE):  http://whentechfails.com/node/1545

George Soros Warns Of Financial Collapse, Class Warfare And The Rise Of Evil

by Gus Lubin

George Soros warns of financial collapse and class warfare in a chilling interview with Newsweek's John Alridge.

“At times like these, survival is the most important thing,” he says, peering through his owlish glasses and brushing wisps of gray hair off his forehead. He doesn’t just mean it’s time to protect your assets. He means it’s time to stave off disaster. As he sees it, the world faces one of the most dangerous periods of modern history—a period of “evil.” Europe is confronting a descent into chaos and conflict. In America he predicts riots on the streets that will lead to a brutal clampdown that will dramatically curtail civil liberties. The global economic system could even collapse altogether. 

“I am not here to cheer you up. The situation is about as serious and difficult as I’ve experienced in my career,” Soros tells Newsweek. “We are facing an extremely difficult time, comparable in many ways to the 1930s, the Great Depression. We are facing now a general retrenchment in the developed world, which threatens to put us in a decade of more stagnation, or worse. The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system.

These days Soros is holding mostly cash -- he calls gold "the ultimate bubble --  along with European bonds he picked up in the MF Global firesale -- judge for yourself whether they were a cutthroat investment or altruistic support for Europe.

In Davos this week, expect Soros to give the counterpoint to Angela Merkel and Mario Draghi's optimism on the eurozone.

http://www.businessinsider.com/george-soros-warns-of-financial-collapse-class-warfare-and-the-rise-of-evil-2012-1

QE3 has already begun in Europe

Most Americans associate a covert action with the CIA, not the Fed. But that’s exactly what Ben Bernanke did at the end of November.

The Fed chief authorized a coordinated action that lowered pricing on US “dollar swaps” by 50 basis points (0.5 percent) to its key allies in central banking. The Bank of England, the ECB, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of Canada are each a party to the agreement.

This was done, purportedly, “to ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and businesses and to help foster economic activity,” the Fed’s release said.

In reality, though, the Federal Reserve has just extended essentially unlimited lines of credit, camouflaged as a swap to the world in US dollars.

And now the strapped European Central Bank can and has tapped the Fed for very cheap money — cheaper than US consumers can borrow for, if they can get access to credit at all.

Essentially, we just bailed out Europe’s banking system with the full faith and credit of the United States.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/qe_has_already_begun_in_europe_hSNc4HF0HbA69zCjd6AkJK

DHS Officers Armed With Semiautomatics Set Up Unannounced ID Checkpoint

By Paul Joseph Watson

Residents of Leesburg, Florida were shocked to see their local Social Security office turned into a random Homeland Security checkpoint Tuesday morning, as DHS officers armed with semiautomatic rifles and accompanied by sniffer dogs checked identifications of locals.

“With their blue and white SUVs circled around the Main Street office, at least one official was posted on the door with a semiautomatic rifle, randomly checking identifications. And other officers, some with K-9s, sifted through the building,” reports the Daily Commercial.

The activity was part of Operation Shield, an unannounced drill conducted by the DHS’ Federal Protective Service centered around “detecting the presence of unauthorized persons and potentially disruptive or dangerous activities.”

Thomas Milligan, district manager for the Social Security Administration office, said staff were not informed their offices were about to be stormed by armed FPS officers. DHS officials refused to answer questions asked by local media and left with no explanation at noon.

“Part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, FPS is the federal law enforcement agency that provides integrated security and law enforcement services to over 9,000 federally-owned and leased buildings, facilities, properties and other assets,” states the report.

Indeed, the FPS is used for a variety of roles, not just limited to setting up unannounced ID checkpoints.

As part of the reinvention of the Department of Homeland Security to serve as a tool of political repression, the Federal Protective Service is used by the DHS to track the political activities of peaceful advocacy groups. The FPS was seen arresting photographers in Portland last November during an OWS rally.

In 2004, the FPS arrested a veteran for the crime of complaining to his local VA office in Des Moines.

A separate component of Homeland Security, VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response), recently received an expansion in funding from Congress that will see 2011′s figure of around 9,300 checkpoints increased with the addition of 12 new VIPR teams, who will be used to carry out security checks at bus depots, train stations, ferry ports and highways.

The extra money is being demanded despite the fact that there is “no proof that the roving viper teams have foiled any terrorist plots or thwarted any major threat to public safety,” according to an L.A. Times report.

http://www.infowars.com/dhs-officers-armed-with-semiautomatics-set-up-unannounced-id-checkpoint/

Statistics That Show That The Middle Class Is Dying Right In Front Of Our Eyes As We Enter 2012

by ilene 

 Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class that the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, that is rapidly changing.  The statistics that you are about to read prove beyond a doubt that the U.S. middle class is dying right in front of our eyes as we enter 2012.


The decline of the middle class is not something that has happened all of a sudden.  Rather, there has been a relentless grinding down of the middle class over the last several decades.  Millions of our jobs have been shipped overseas, the rate of inflation has far outpaced the rate that our wages have grown, and overwhelming debt has choked the financial life out of millions of American families.  Every single day, more Americans fall out of the middle class and into poverty.  In fact, more Americans fell into poverty last year than has ever been recorded before.  The number of middle class jobs and middle class neighborhoods continues to decline at a staggering pace.

As I have written about previously, America as a whole is getting poorer as a nation, and as this happens wealth is becoming increasingly concentrated at the very top of the income scale.  This is not how capitalism is supposed to work, and it is not good for America.

Today I went over to Safeway and I was absolutely appalled at the prices.  I honestly don't know how most families make it these days.  I ended up paying over 140 dollars for about two-thirds of a cart of food.  That was after I "saved" 67 dollars on sale items.

When the cost of the basic things that we need - housing, food, gas, electricity - go up faster than our incomes do, that means that we are getting poorer.

Sadly, if you look at the long-term numbers, some very clear negative trends emerge....

-The number of good jobs continues to decrease.

-The rate of inflation continues to outpace the rate that our wages are going up.

-American consumers are going into almost unbelievable amounts of debt.

-The number of Americans that are considered to be "poor" continues to grow.

-The number of Americans that are forced to turn to the government for financial assistance continues to go up.

 
After you read the information below, it should become abundantly clear that the U.S. middle class is in a whole heap of trouble.

The following are 30 statistics that show that the middle class is dying right in front of our eyes as we enter 2012....

#1 Today, only 55.3 percent of all Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 have jobs.

#2 In the United States today, there are 240 million working age people.  Only about 140 million of them are working.

#3 According to CareerBuilder, only 23 percent of American companies plan to hire more employees in 2012.

#4 Since the year 2000, the United States has lost 10% of its middle class jobs.  In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs.

#5 According to the New York Times, approximately 100 million Americans are either living in poverty or in "the fretful zone just above it".

#6 According to that same article in the New York Times, 34 percent of all elderly Americans are living in poverty or "near poverty", and 39 percent of all children in America are living in poverty or "near poverty".

#7 In 1984, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older was 10 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger.  Today, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older is 47 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger.

#8 Since the year 2000, incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you adjust for inflation.

#9 The total value of household real estate in the U.S. has declined from $22.7 trillion in 2006 to $16.2 trillion today.  Most of that wealth has been lost by the middle class.

#10 Many formerly great manufacturing cities are turning into ghost towns.  Since 1950, the population of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania has declined by more than 50 percent.  In Dayton, Ohio 18.9 percent of all houses now stand empty.

#11 Since 1971, consumer debt in the United States has increased by a whopping 1700%.

#12 The number of pages of federal tax rules and regulations has increased by18,000% since 1913.  The wealthy know how to avoid taxes, but most of those in the middle class do not.

#13 The number of Americans that fell into poverty (2.6 million) set a new all-time record last year and extreme poverty (6.7%) is at the highest level ever measured in the United States.

#14 According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation.

#15 According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, America has lost an average of 15 manufacturing facilities a day over the last 10 years.  During 2010 it got even worse.  Last year, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day shut down in the United States.

#16 Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

#17 Most Americans are scratching and clawing and doing whatever they can to make a living these days.  Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.

#18 Food prices continue to rise at a very brisk pace.  The price of beef is up9.8% over the past year, the price of eggs is up 10.2% over the past year and the price of potatoes is up 12% over the past year.

#19 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row.

#20 The average American household will have spent a staggering $4,155 on gasoline by the end of 2011.

#21 If inflation was measured the exact same way that it was measured back in 1980, the rate of inflation in the United States would be well over 10 percent.

#22 If the number of Americans considered to be "looking for work" was the same today as it was back in 2007, the "official" unemployment rate put out by the U.S. government would be up to 11 percent.

#23 According to the Student Loan Debt Clock, total student loan debt in the United States will surpass the 1 trillion dollar mark at some point in 2012.  Most of that debt is owed by members of the middle class.

#24 Incredibly, more than one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps at this point.

#25 Since Barack Obama took office, the number of Americans on food stamps has increased by 14.3 million.

#26 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.

#27 In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".  By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods".

#28 According to a recent report produced by Pew Charitable Trusts, approximately one out of every three Americans that grew up in a middle class household has slipped down the income ladder.

#29 In the United States today, the wealthiest one percent of all Americans have a greater net worth than the bottom 90 percent combined.

#30 The poorest 50 percent of all Americans now collectively own just 2.5%of all the wealth in the United States.

Sadly, this article could have been much, much longer.  There are so many other statistics about the middle class that could have been included.

For even more insane economic numbers that show just how dramatically the U.S. economy is declining, just check out this article: "50 Economic Numbers From 2011 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe".
What is even more frightening is that this is about as good as things are going to get.

We have already had "the economic recovery", such as it was.

Now we are heading for another major financial crisis.  Just like back in 2008, the entire world is going to feel the pain.

But we never recovered from the last financial crisis.  We are like a boxer that is not ready to handle another blow.

And who is going to get hurt the most?  It will be those at the bottom of the food chain of course.  Tens of millions of Americans that are living in poverty will experience a massive amount of pain, and millions more Americans will fall out of the middle class and will join them.

If you have a good job, do your best to hang on to it.  If you don't have a job, do your best to get one while you still can. Jobs will become very precious in the years ahead.

But also try to do what you can to become less dependent on the system.  Almost anyone can find ways to make some extra money on the side.  Yes, it will likely cut into your television time.  If someday you were to lose your job you don't want to be left with zero income.

Right now, the U.S. economy is slowly dying and as time goes by the number of middle class Americans it will be able to support will continue to decrease.

Yes, it is like a perverse game of musical chairs, but this is where we are at.

I encourage all of you to think about how you plan to make it through the collapse that is ahead.

Sticking our heads in the sand and pretending that everything is going to be okay is not going to help anyone.
But if we all start planning for the storm that is ahead, and if we get others around us to wake up as well, that is going to do a great deal of good in the long run.

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/30-statistics-show-middle-class-dying-right-front-our-eyes-we-enter-2012