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Tuesday, July 23, 2013

'Spend today, Worry tomorrow' policies come full circle for Detroit & America



Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
For Independent Minded People!
ISSN 2161-5543
 
 
"The common notion that free speech prevails in the United States always makes me laugh."
-- H. L. Mencken
From The Frozen Dog Ranch Files
 
 
In This Issue:
1.       12 Reasons to keep Vicks in your survival cache
2.      Hiding money
3.      No excuse list
4.      How will America pay its pensioners?
 
 
12 Surprising Reasons To Keep Vicks VapoRub In Your Cache
Had a bit of a cold last week and had to revert to my old friend Vicks, just to be able to breathe through .
This stuff has been around a long time and there has to be some other "alternative" uses that would earn it a place in my survival provisions.
I did a little bit of research before running across this article and I was pleasantly surprised.
Now granted, not all of these are strictly survival related, but they are definitely some interesting uses!
There are two scents that remind me being a sick kid: brandy and Vicks VapoRub.
Whenever I had a cold, those were mom’s go-to remedies.
She would make me a glass of hot water, honey, and brandy and then rub Vicks on my chest.
I always felt instantly better (and slightly tipsy). Vicks is an age-old mentholated topical cream intended to relieve head, throat, and chest stuffiness.
It uses menthol to elicit a response from receptors in the nose and chest and can work wonders on children with colds or chronic bronchitis.
Vicks has been around for over one hundred years and is one of the most widely used over-the-counter decongestants.
Lately, there’s been a lot of buzz about unique and unconventional ways to use this odiferous ointment.
You’ll be surprised to learn that Vicks VapoRub is a supposed treatment for so much more than just a congested chest.
1. Decongest Your Chest
The most common use of Vicks is to decongest your chest and throat area. When applied to the upper chest, it provides excellent relief of cough and congestion symptoms.
2. On Your Tootsies
Applying Vicks to your feet provides nighttime cough relief. Generously rub VapoRub all over your feet and cover them with socks. Within moments your cough will subside—in the morning you’ll wake up a new, hacking free woman.
3. Achy Breaky Muscles
Vicks relieves sore, overworked muscles. It increases circulation and provides almost instant aid. Use a generous portion and apply it all over the aching area. (Be sure to warn your bedmate as the stench can ensure a nookie-free night.)
4. Get Rid of Nasty Nail Fungus
Rub VapoRub on your toenails if you suspect you have a fungus. Within days, the nail will turn dark—this means the Vicks is killing the fungus. As your toenail grows out, the dark part will grow off and you will have fungus-free feet. Keep applying the ointment over a period of two weeks to fully cleanse nail beds of any remaining bacteria.  More at:
http://www.survivallife.com/2013/07/18/12-surprising-reasons-to-keep-vicks-vaporub-in-your-cache/


 
PM’s Roundup of Useful Resources…
 
Hiding Money
Governments and certain people will often try to take what really isn't theirs. When this happens it's your responsibility to make it more difficult for them to succeed.
There may be times when you need to hide and/or protect your assets and/or income. Some debts, after all, may not be fair, as well as some governments. I'll leave it to you to decide when it is ethical to use any of the following...
 
Healthy Snacks from NatureBox!

I just joined NatureBox to receive healthy and delicious snacks. You should join too! Use the SHARE10 coupon code to get $10 off your first box.
 
No Excuse List
No Excuse List offers a search engine that will let you type in what you want to learn and then return with a list of sites that will help you learn that skill. With an emphasis on presenting the best free education sites with a handful of paid sites that were just too good not to include in the list.
You have two navigation options, you can type in a keyword as described above, or you can click the here link to see a complete list of all the sites which is what I did. Highly rated sites are marked with a green check mark, and pay sites are clearly denoted with a coin symbol. If you mouse over the names of the sites on the list you’ll see some alt text that describes what they are and what they provide.
You can pick from the following categories – Academics, Art, Computer Programming, Cooking, eBooks, How To + DIY, Languages, Music, and Other.  http://www.noexcuselist.com/
 
The Nanny State-We love our government
Automatic license plate readers are the most widespread location tracking technology available to law enforcement. Mounted on patrol cars or stationary objects like bridges, they snap photos of every passing car, recording their plate numbers, times, and locations. At first the captured plate data was used just to check against lists of cars law enforcement hoped to locate for various reasons (to act on arrest warrants, find stolen cars, etc.). Increasingly, however, all of this data is being fed into massive databases that contain the location information of many millions of innocent Americans stretching back for months or even years.
 
The Parting ThoughtNot to worry in the land of the free!
 
 
 

As the Standard of Living Continues to Decline…
How will America pay its pensioners?
 
America’s “spend today, worry tomorrow’ practices are coming full circle.
 
Moody’s and other analysts are saying state governments are overly optimistic with the rate of return they expect from investments of their pension funds…CA, for instance, is betting on a 7.5 to 8% return while experts predict 4.5% if they’re lucky and a zero to 2% is the more likely scenario.
By most accounting standards, most state pension funds will run out of assets within as little as five years according to a Joint Senate Economic Committee report in 2013.
 
Combined state and local government pensions are underfunded by $4 Trillion.  The federal government cannot pay what it owes currently without borrowing and its unfunded pension liability was $761 Billion in 2011.  With more ‘boomers’ than ever retiring, it presents a dire picture.
 
Within 30 years our deficit could hit $125 Trillion dollars.  Detroit is just one example of political mismanagement…
 
Many of Detroit’s problems resulted from a lack of political competition. Democrats have dominated the city council, and there’s been a Democratic mayor since 1962. One-party government quickly became bad government, featuring a stream of crooked politicians, liberal, blue-state policies such as sweet deals for government unions. Now, though, the bill has come due for these liberal policies.

For decades, Detroit sustained itself through the usual suspects of bad fiscal management, thieving officials, and gold plated benefits to public workers. 
America has devolved into a collection of Detroits, each waiting their turn - something the Poor Man has been predicting for years.
 
Expect massive cuts in pension benefits and new dubious accounting methods for Social Security benefits…Imagine the riots which will take place if the government officially defaults on its obligations!
 
 
New Law Allows U.S. Military to Quell ‘Civil Disturbances’ Without Presidential Authorization
 
As media outlets focus on how the Internal Revenue Service is targeting conservative political groups and how the Justice Department is phone tapping the press, yet another game-changing story has slipped past almost unnoticed.
The Department of Defense issued a directive on February 27, replacing several older directives and changing the rules regarding federal military involvement in civilian law enforcement. In a major power grab, this rule change overturns a 200-year-old system that strictly limits the military from becoming involved in civilian law enforcement.
Whereas the Insurrection Act of 1807 explicitly states the military cannot be used in civilian law enforcement except by presidential authorization in the advent of an insurrection or foreign invasion, this new law change states that federal military commanders can use force to put down unexpected civil disturbances in cases where prior authorization by the president is deemed impossible.
While such a change may at first seem minor, the new rule’s chief danger lies in its vagueness. Reference page 16 of the new directive (emphasis added):
When permitted under emergency authority in accordance with Reference (c.), federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the president is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances .
 
The rule defines none of its key terms. Which of the thousands of “military commanders” are authorized to unilaterally intervene in a civil disturbance, or must such decisions be made by a higher-ranking military commander? What kind of “emergency circumstances” qualify as extraordinary? When is it “impossible” to contact the president? What qualifies as a “large-scale” civil disturbance? Do violent riots have to be under way while the president is being held hostage for this law to apply? Or can the rule be invoked against a rowdy group of protestors when the president is occupied elsewhere

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1 comment:

minimalist said...

Another informative piece!