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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Preparing for Civil Unrest, Easy, DIY Beer, Reinventing Community


Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources


For Independent Minded People!

ISSN 2161-5543

In This Issue:

1.       Re-inventing a city

2.      Rep. Roscoe-Get prepared now for civil unrest

3.      Collapsible electric car introduced, Easy DIY Beer

4.      The Right to Free Speech becoming endangered

 

Good Government is not intrusive,
the people are hardly aware of it;
the next best is felt yet loved;
then comes that which is known and feared;
the worst government is hated."

-- Lao-Tzu
[Li Erh] (570-490 BC) 'Old Sage', Father of Taoism

 

How to Re-Invent a City

Every August for one week, the Burning Man festival takes place in a temporary city of its own creation, called Black Rock City after Nevada’s Black Rock Desert where it is located. This year, Black Rock City’s population will be 60,000 — bigger than Carson City, the state capital of Nevada.

Our real-world cities, meanwhile, are struggling to provide the services citizens need, limited by declining tax income, record debt, and increasingly complex social issues. Cities have no choice but find ways to do more with less. Many seek to harness the creative energies of citizens to fill the gaps, asking them to take a more active role in governance, service provision, and even in creating new services.

 

It’s easy to write off Burning Man as a hippie love fest in the desert. It has its own problems like any city, but that's selling it short, especially in one regard - its remarkable ability to foster participation. The event -- which for 26 years has expected participants to practice sharing, gifting, and radical self-reliance -- is an effective proving ground for experiments in community self-organization. In fact, participants build most of the city without any direct oversight from organizers.

 
First, Adopt the Right Mindset: There are No Spectators

Michel Bauwens, the founder of the Peer to Peer Foundation, believes that the proper role of government in our emerging networked society is that of partner in social production. This means that in a myriad ways government helps citizens help themselves. This turns the existing model of government as a top-down service provider on its head. Instead, government works in a bottom up fashion to empower citizens to provide for themselves.

Burning Man does exactly this. It fosters a culture of participation through its Ten Principles and provide basic infrastructure such as roads, sanitation, and safety, which, by the way, rely heavily on volunteer labor. Participants fill in the blanks beautifully with a seemingly unlimited number of options for care, connection, artistic expression, education, sustenance, and fun. At Burning Man, there are no spectators. Likewise, we increasingly need cities where every citizen is intimately involved in creating their city on a day to day basis.

 

Crowdsource The Budget

Almost none of the hundreds of art projects exhibited at Burning Man are fully funded by the festival. Many of them are crowdfunded through Kickstarter or Indiegogo. This requires active community participation, and it also organically vets projects ensuring that the best ideas are likely to be funded.


 

Don’t sow your crops until you’ve enriched the soil with Epsom Salts.  Sprinkle about a cup over every 100 sq ft (a 10’x10’ patch).

 

PM’s Compendium of Useful Resources

 

Survivalist congressman advocates preparedness, says likelihood of civil unrest is 'high probability'
You buy health insurance, car insurance and homeowners insurance. You buy life insurance as well, but Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, the senior Republican congressman from Maryland, has a different take on what life insurance really means.

"There are a number of events that could create a situation in the cities where civil unrest would be a very high probability," Bartlett - one of the country's most vocal advocates of preparing for the worst possible domestic situations - says in a new documentary called "Urban Danger," where he takes viewers on a tour of a cabin he maintains in rural West Virginia - a structure that is powered by the sun and by the wind.
"There are a number of events that could create a situation in the cities where
civil unrest would be a very high probability," says Bartlett, 86, in his video. "And I think that those who can and those who understand need to take advantage of the opportunity when these winds of strife are not blowing, to move their families."

Scroll down a bit to click on the link to watch the video here:


 

 


Researchers at MIT’s Changing Places Group and Denokinn have now begun testing the Hiriko Fold, a fully electric vehicle which is able to collapse into a more compact shape when parking. READ MORE...

 

Storing Leftover Seeds

Remove the moisture-absorbing silica gel packs from your vitamin jar (or other source)  and place one along with leftover seeds into a jar and seal tightly and keep it refrigerated until next spring.  Most seeds kept in this fashion will last up to three years.

 

Brewed and fermented spirits were a staple of the frontier economy of colonial America. Beer, for example, was available in almost all households and consumed at almost every meal. Beer-making provided a use for surplus grain, which could not otherwise be transported for sale in distant markets over the primitive roads of the time. Beer was safer to drink than most of the water that one could obtain from wells and streams. Beer had nutritional value, and in a world where most everything was scarce, one did not allow good carbohydrates to go to waste. Thus beer was a routine part of the diet of frontier families and a vital source of nutrition. If it made you feel better during the hard times, that was also a good thing.  http://eartheasy.com/eat_homebrew.htm

 

SteriPen

A portable water purifier that uses UV technology to kill viruses and bacteria in water.  Will purify up to 16oz at a time…easy and lightweight. Good for foreign travel and emergencies. Requires 4 AA batteries. Available at various prices on eBay or at:




 
Even though global literacy rates are high (84%), Americans are reading less and less deeply.

 

The Nanny State Updates…

 
Pew Report: Middle Class Has Suffered 'Worst Decade in Modern History'
The U.S. middle class has shrunk drastically over the last 10 years as Americans' net worth has plunged, wages declined and standards of living slipped away, according to a report released on Wednesday.


Middle-income earners, long seen as the solid center of the country, are pessimistic and place the blame squarely on U.S. lawmakers, banks and big business, the findings by the Pew Research Center showed.

"America's middle class has endured its worst decade in modern history," researchers wrote.

 
Since 2001, median household income has fallen from $72,956 to $69,487 in 2010, the report said.

The median household net worth, which is the value of assets minus debt, dropped from $129,582 to $93,150 over the same 10-year period, according to Pew, which analyzed U.S. data along with its own survey of nearly 1,300 adults who consider themselves middle class.


 

The Swine Flu vaccine in 1976 caused more death and illness than the
disease it was intended to prevent.
 
 
 


The Parting Thought- The Right to Free Speech

 
Sometimes articles are more than just interesting, but very important to us here in the United States. Recently I was reading an article by Tangerine Bolen in the Guardian (which is based in the United Kingdom). In it she says;

I am one of the lead plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit against the National Defense Authorization Act, which gives the president the power to hold any US citizen anywhere for as long as he wants, without charge or trial.

 

When Obama signed the bill into law, he announced that although he signed it he wouldn't use it (and what exactly would it be needed for then?). You can read his statement here:


Judge Katherine Forrest issued a temporary injunction in May to stop the worst parts of the law (Section 1021) from going into effect in May, but US government lawyers then argued that the administration can ignore the judge's ruling. On August 6 Obama's lawyers appealed the injunction formally.

 

What does the law provide for? According to Bolen, in her Guardian article;

...US government lawyers had confirmed that, yes, the NDAA does give the president the power to lock up people like journalist Chris Hedges and peaceful activists like myself and other plaintiffs. Government attorneys stated on record that even war correspondents could be locked up indefinitely under the NDAA.

Judge Forrest had ruled for a temporary injunction against an unconstitutional provision in this law, after government attorneys refused to provide assurances to the court that plaintiffs and others would not be indefinitely detained for engaging in first amendment activities.

 

The bottom line is that so far, when asked to do so, the government's lawyers have refused to offer any clear definition of what an "associated force" is, which leaves them free to define it as they wish. In other words, the law gives the government virtually unlimited power to lock up anyone who criticizes what they do.

 
At the hearing in early August Obama's attorneys again refused to define what the law allowed. Worse, when they were specifically asked if NDAA's section 1021, the part which allows reporters to be detained without trial (and for an unspecified period of time), had been used by the US government after the injunction was issued, they would not say. They essentially asserted the right to ignore the law and the courts. Judge Forest replied that if it section 1021 has been applied the government would now be in contempt of court.

 
The lawsuit is an attack on a bad law, not an attack on Obama. Bolen admits in her article that she voted for the president, and isn't particularly thrilled about suing his administration. But I for one am happy she decided to do it.

The right to free speech is the most important freedom we have

 
“Until the next revolution”, the Poor Man

 
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A Shallow Planet Production

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Taking back America from Dysfunctional Politicians-If you have the cajones

 
Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
For Independent Minded People!
ISSN 2161-5543
In This Issue:
1.       Taking America back from dysfunctional politicians
2.      Start your winter garden-Free
3.      FreeStuff Hunter
4.      FEMA Camps-Disturbing video from Jesse Ventura
5.      How much food do you need to stockpile?
 
Learn how we can take back America from dysfunctional politicians-without firing a shot!  Or will Americans get what they deserve because they lack the cajones to act?
 
He who knows he has enough is rich.
- Tao-Te-Ching
 
From Political Insanity to Self-Sufficiency
 
Had a lengthy conversation with an older lady friend of mine in Nebraska this week.  She sells antiques at various malls and she used to sell on eBay.  Like many others, she tired of eBay’s non-stop fees and rule changes so she quit.  I’m nearly at that point too since so few are buying anything except oddities or necessities.  Lately, my fees make profit margins non-existent.
 
Our conversation progressed to how our elected leaders do nothing and cannot be trusted…even at her age she’s ‘boiling mad’ at the government which has this ‘devil-driven need’ to control your life when they can’t even get the economy right.
 
We compared notes on how life used to be, how folks cared about what was happening to our country.  “No one gives a s___t about much of anything except in their little world; most have blinders on and no ambition about bettering themselves or being a good person.”
 
My economic mentor, Gerald Celente kind of summed up how we feel in a recent article…
 
Gerald Celente, called the "Martial Artist of Trend Forecasting." Founder of the Trends Research Institute in 1980, Celente provides insight and direction in anticipation of what the future might bring, and encourages his readers and listeners to prepare for the unexpected.
 
Celente discuss parallels amongst ancient and modern countries, those who seemed at the height of civilization, and who allowed their governments to be overtaken by insanity, plunging their countries into war and calamity and destroying their economy.

Calling these leaders "freaks," Celente observes how masses of people seem to be willing to follow these leaders straight into the bowels of hell, no matter the cost, with blinders on and no logic to support their decision. People seem to have a consistent set of expectations that the world will always be as it always was and now reality is rocking the boat in a particularly painful way.  Only a few, it seems, have awakened to the fact that government is not your friend and becoming self sufficient in your only salvation.
 
NOTE:  This is why the Poor Man created his site and newsletter.  It’s my attempt at building community and in sharing resources…one of the few ways we have for regaining control of our hijacked country.
Get rid of ants by sprinkling baby powder in and around their visible entry points and along your doorway and windowsill - ants won’t ‘cross the line!’
 
PM’s Compendium of Useful Resources
 
Gardening is a great and rewarding hobby as well as a good way to save money on your food budget. However, buying seeds and especially young plants to get your garden started can be very expensive. Would you like to greatly reduce or even eliminate those costs? Wintersown.org can help by teaching you how to use recycled containers and free seeds to give your garden a free head start.
 
Free Stuff Hunter.com
If you like to find bargains and get free samples, SuffHunter.com is for you. The Web site condenses hundreds of merchandise offers into one handy spot. You'll find a lot of free stuff for seniors here, everything from a new pair of jeans to a bag of chips. But remember, only request the samples you'll really use. Also, some offers require you to provide an e-mail address.
 
Looking to eat well on a budget? Here's how to make nutrition affordable:
http://www.naturalnews.com/036899_organic_food_saving_money_shopping_tips.html
 
How much food do you need to stockpile?
Much debate surrounds how much any one family needs to stockpile. Agricultural economics experts like Bill Knudson of Michigan State University believe that stockpiling can cause more harm than good. When masses of people purchase large quantities of food at once, supplies are depleted and prices rise.How much you choose to stockpile is up to you, but don't forget to consider the context in which you make your stockpiling decisions and what kind of sales and coupons you encounter.  We recently purchased $200 worth of groceries for $122 using coupons (plus we got credit for a 20 cent a gallon reduction on our next fuel purchase for using our loyalty card).
 
Build Gradually: Don't think that you need to immediately go out and buy 12 boxes of spaghetti at one time. Remember, you will be building your stockpile gradually. Once it is built, you will find it easy to keep it stocked.
Use Online Calculators: There are also online calculators that can help you figure out how much food you will need for your size family. Try the Food Storage Calculator at About.com.
 
AARP SCSEP Training
The AARP Foundation offers no-cost job training to people age 55 and over with low incomes through the Senior Community Service Employment Program. Funded by the AARP Foundation and a grant from the United States Department of Labor, this free senior citizen education program is designed to help mature individuals get the job related skills they need to enter, or to re-enter, the workforce.
The AARP Foundation serves more than 70 SCSEP programs throughout the U.S. Search for programs by state on the AARP website. If your state isn't on the list, you may call the Department of Labor (1-877-US2-JOBS) to find out if there is a SCSEP center in your region that is not associated with AARP.
 
Medicine
The Free Medicine Foundation is a partnership program to aid seniors and families in need of medication. The application process can be time-consuming, but it's worth looking into if the cost of prescription medication hampers your budget.
 
Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn't smoke
unless it's heated above 450f
 
The Nanny State Updates…
 
The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation. It is this one-two punch -- Congress spending more than it can tax or borrow, and the Fed printing money to make up the difference -- that threatens to impoverish us by further destroying the value of our dollars."
-- Dr. Ron Paul
 
Of course, most Americans get what they deserve from elections.  By re-electing the same clowns, they get screwed again and again! In reality, the public doesn’t really decide anything, they just select from the options they are given by the powers that be.
 
Americans love war…
Ever since I’ve been a kid, Washington has enjoyed declaring war on something…poverty, terrorism, drugs, and I’ve lost track of how many “conflicts” we’ve been involved with since I was born…Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan and so on…  Wars, for the most part, are a stupid waste of life and resources which could be put to positive use.  They’re almost always a case of old men asking young men to defend their political or corporate interests.  Once upon a time, we used to be the freest nation on earth.
Now, politicians have declared war on Americans
Spy drones, Patriot Act, FINCEN and now even FEMA.
This is the scariest information and video I’ve ever seen…
 
Jesse Ventura: Conspiracy Theory - POLICE STATE/FEMA CAMPS (Censored Episode)…more on FUSION centers being set up to house anti-government citizens-Warning, Very Disturbing!
 
When the government tells you they’re going to protect you, get ready to lose freedoms
 
This episode aired once, then was removed from ever airing again due to pressure from the US government, that alone should tell us a lot! As of right now it looks like the show will NOT return for a 3rd season due to TOO much pressure from the government. Again, that should tell you ALL you need to know about all these episode AND the content they cover.

"Police State" It's been said the government has a plan to declare martial law and round up millions of United State citizens into concentration camps. Jesse may have found a conspiracy in plain sight as he investigates the proliferation of law enforcement Fusion Centers around the country. And they may be connected to hundreds of detention centers ready to accept prisoners at the stroke of a Presidential pen.
Learn more at: http://www.prisonplanet.com  or Read the full story & resources at:
 
Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers, that is
why it is found in some medicines.
 
The Parting Thought- Taking America back from politicians
We need a revolution because our current system is no longer a system for the people! People have the power, but fail to use it…
How Citizens Could Take Back Control of the Country-if they had the cajones
 
Simply put…all citizens need to quit being obedient servants instead of scratching their head wondering ‘how did we lose control & become the servant instead of the master?’
 
   I’m not prone to violence so I wouldn’t advocate the violent overthrow of the government under normal circumstances, but I know many are beginning to feel the government has gone too far and perhaps other means are necessary.
 
For decades, Americans have been the victims of hollow campaign promises by members of each party.  Each promises a better, brighter future, but the sad truth is thanks to each party, America has never looked more dismal.  Government policies have helped decimate the middle class while enriching their Wall Street masters.  They’ve bankrupted our nation, turning it into a third world debtor nation in many respects…yet, they live high on the hog with generous tax payer funded perks and retirement plans.
 
For most Americans, hard work and thrift are no longer the means of getting ahead; they’ve been shortchanged by the ‘system.’  They’ve been cheated, lied to, hosed, made fools of…
 
I am more afraid the globalist threat than I am of the terrorist threat; terrocrats at the federal and state level are more dangerous to this country and its national security.  We have the best government money can buy goes the old saying, bought and paid for by what I call the Washington-Wall Street Cartel.
 
It still bothers me that so many  government worker bees and drones continue to enforce stupid laws which are actually counterproductive to our national well being (our convoluted tax code, our marijuana laws, eminent domain laws, etc.).  I guess the old adage of ‘you don’t bite the hand that feeds you,’ applies here.
 
My plan would only work if at least 60% of the population would participate; but since most citizens are sheep or wouldn’t have the brains to initiate the following, this is a pipe dream for now.
Ironically, only places like the US (once the land of the free) - with its collectivist population drowning in taxes, regulations and an ever-growing police state - needs a liberty movement. When a government controls and dominates everyone, it’s usually called Communism.
 
Here’s what can be done - but only on a collective basis
 
1.  All businesses must stop serving politicians, bureaucrats and their families.  No haircuts, no dry cleaning, no eating at my restaurant, no car repairs, etc. 
2.  Stop obeying stupid laws.  Bar owners in some areas are attempting to thwart the Nanny States which have prohibited tobacco use by ignoring the law.  If enough people stopped obeying blindly to the need, for example, of high regulatory fees to have a hot dog cart, they might get a message.
3.  All citizens need to learn about Jury Nullification to halt judicial abuse and stupid laws.  It only takes one juror to say ‘not guilty,’ and the poor schmuck who got busted for having a few joints would go free.  (More info at our site).
4.  Withold taxes…a tough one but again, if enough people put their taxes into escrow accounts not to be released to local governments until they stopped gold plated pension programs for government workers and actually delivered the services taxes paid for (in Detroit less than 50% of city street lights work, but everyone pays for them)..
5.  Stop your children from enlisting into the armed forces for one year.  This might be a challenge as with our dismal job outlook, many our youth join just to get a paycheck and training.  We weren’t attacked by Afghanistan or Iraq yet we’ve spent untold billions and years there fighting for people, who for the most part, could care less about America.
6.  Stop using money.  This will confuse them.  Start using barter or community created money – see our Grass Roots Money section at our PoorManSurvival.com site for proven alternative money systems including BitCoin, the digital currency.
 
Amazing how the founding fathers saw this coming 200+ years ago.

They could see the future clearly because they were breaking free from the exact same standard of living under the English monarch of the time - Taxation running rampant, personal rights being removed, freedoms extracted on a daily basis, etc
 
Sounds like America circa 2012, doesn’t it?
 
In short, collectively, we need to boycott or shun the government.  We need to simplify the government (it shouldn’t dominate every aspect of our lives).  The goal with these actions is to telegraph our dissatisfaction; eliminate stupid laws and useless federal agencies which strangle growth with endless red tape, especially those which duplicate what states are already doing (we don’t need 51 education departments).

Boycotting officials can be done on a local basis.  We’ve all heard reports of communities which ban front yard gardens or raising chickens, banning the sale of Girl Scout cookies or lemonade from home.  This kind of behavior can be stopped if you organize locally…stop providing services to these bureau-twits!  This is a form of shunning, once a common practice among many communities.  Become a community organizer! Non-violent and it sure communicates dissatisfaction!
 
However, as a good friend of mine who used to be a Marine guard for LBJ once said, There aren’t enough real Americans left in this country to hold up the American Flag!  Too many of us just follow along “with the program” like good little corporate plantation workers, saddled by government debt for generations to come.
 
“Until the next revolution”, the Poor Man
 
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A Shallow Planet Production