Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
Your choice for urban survival resources
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
In This Issue:
1. A homegrown revolution
2. The Zombie Bank-fun stuff
3. The Working Poor Families Organization
4. Recipe for creating the ‘cuddle’ hormone
5. End of America-Senator Tom Coburn Warns
6. Everything in America is now a crime
7. Destruction by Design-Sen. Bernie Sanders
P. J. O'Rourke
The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to.
Shattered Dreams for Too Many Americans
Washington is destroying the future of our children…
“Business is up,” said Linda, and “that’s not a good thing.”
Linda runs our local church ’soup kitchen’ and food bank for the needy. They serve free meals twice a week and help families who have been devastated by natural or man made disaster.
The truth is that there are millions upon millions of American families that have been pushed to the edge of despair by the lack of jobs. In August 2009, only 10 percent of the unemployed had been out of work for 2 years or longer. Today that number is up to 35 percent.
One very disturbing sign of the times is that many churches are now holding "blue Christmas" services to comfort those who are going through hard times. Back during the "good times" such a thing would have been unimaginable, but now they are being held from coast to coast.
All over the nation, food banks, aid agencies and homeless shelters find themselves absolutely overwhelmed this winter.
Despite White House propaganda and mainstream news reports of how the ‘economy is slowly improving,’ there are many long term unemployed and the odds of finding a job that pays more than $10 an hour are slim. The one segment of the nation doing well are those making more than $180,000.
What is perhaps saddest of all is what this economy is doing to so many children.
The richest 1% of U.S. households had a net worth 225 times greater than that of the average American household in 2009, according to analysis conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. That's up from the previous record of 190 times greater, which was set in 2004.
According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
Poverty is absolutely exploding all over the United States. The number of Americans living in poverty has increased for three consecutive years, and the 43.6 million poor Americans in 2009 was the highest number that the U.S. Census Bureau has ever recorded in 51 years of record-keeping.
So, no, this Christmas is not "a season of joy" for many Americans. For example, a commenter on the Unemployed-Friends website identified only as "jobless_in_MA" says that her holidays are going to be quite depressing since she has been out of work for 2 Christmases in a row now.
No one in this country should go hungry or go without affordable medical care. If we can afford billion dollar aircraft carriers and multi-million dollar jet fighters to attack street thugs in the mountains of Afghanistan, we should be able to take care of our own.
There are many, many flaws in the medical program Obama pushed through as it doesn’t address costs, the need for Tort Reform or the shortage of nurses and doctors (we also have a shortage of vets in the US) and by all rights, it should eliminate the need for Workers Comp costs for small business owners…perhaps it is just a start.
Today, one out of every six Americans is now enrolled in a federal anti-poverty program. As 2007 began, "only" 26 million Americans were on food stamps, but now 42 million Americans are enrolled in the food stamp program and that number keeps rising every single month.
Sadly, there are millions upon millions of Americans that do have jobs and yet barely find themselves able to hang in there. Many Americans have been forced to grab whatever job they can find. In fact, the number of Americans working part-time jobs "for economic reasons" is now the highest it has been in at least five decades.
It is becoming increasingly more difficult to make a living in the United States. Today, half of all American workers earn $505 or less per week.
Could your family get by on $505 per week?
America's economic pie is rapidly shrinking. As our national wealth continues to be destroyed, even more American families are going to suffer. Indeed, watch for the price of oil to head up to as high as $120 a barrel in the coming year…that, of course, will mean another round of higher priced commodities such food. There are many reasons this will take place but I’ll skip the economics lesson this issue (suffice it to say it has more to do with greed and speculation than demand).
Here’s the Poor Man’s message to Washington-Stop killing us (I like making these little animated movies) http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/8198351
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EKS1dN-2Ao
A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one Year and out the other.
Free, Interesting or low-cost resources
Get it free-TV & Movies & More
http://www.crackle.com/c/Backwash/?cmpid=1662
Nimble ways to manage your social life
http://www.pcworld.com/article/214926/a_nimble_way_to_manage_your_online_social_life.html?tk=nl_wbx_h_topnews
When preparing fresh vegetables…save the scraps & trimmings. You can freeze them or turn them into soup quickly just by boiling them with a bouillon cube or two and water, then puree them until smooth!
Compare online & store prices instantly-check out this site:
http://www.SwoopThat.com
Opt out of catalog mailing lists. Holiday shopping frequently finds your name on a variety of mailing lists. If you want to stop the junk mail & save few trees, go to:
www.CatalogChoice.org
What Does the New HEALTH CARE LAW Mean for You?
The Affordable Care Act means that today, insurers can't:
deny coverage to kids with pre-existing conditions;
cancel your policy without proving fraud; or
put lifetime limits on benefits.
Also, your children may be able to stay on your insurance plan until they are 26; and, if you've been denied insurance due to a pre-existing condition, you may be eligible for coverage through your state's high-risk pool.
Learn more and search for insurance options available to you at healthcare.gov.
JOB TRACKER: Shining a Light on Outsourcing
Want to know what corporations are doing in your community? Just pick a ZIP code and enter it into our Job Tracker. Take 44115, in the Cleveland area: 47 companies sent jobs overseas, 130 had mass layoffs and 2,963 had violated safety and health laws.
Job Tracker is a publicly available, ZIP code-searchable database exposing companies that have been exporting jobs, laying off workers and violating safety, health and labor laws. Go to workingamerica.org/jobtracker to search your area.
"The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."
-- Proverbs
The News Roundup
Candice Miller R-MI sent this new pledge to me just before Christmas regarding-
reforms recommended by the transition team and are expected to be adopted as the new House rules are:
• Requirement for every bill to cite its specific constitutional authority and for every bill to be available online for the American people to read and review;
• A prohibition on the consideration of any “suspension” bill that creates a new program unless it eliminates or reduces a program of equal or greater size, also known as “cut-as-you-go;”
• A prohibition on the consideration of any “suspension” bill that increases authorizations, appropriations, or direct spending in any given year unless fully offset;
• And, for the first time among either party, a requirement that internal Republican Conference rules and resolutions are made available online for the American people to read and review: http://rules-republicans.house.gov/News/Read.aspx?id=442.
“Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors.”
–Lewis H. Lapham
Destruction by Design? The war on our middle class continues. Watch Sen. Bernie Sanders speech in the senate as how we’re being screwed.
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/senator-bernie-sanders-war-against.html
Rumor Central…Fiscal vampires push for new world currency
Over the years, several ideas to replace the dollar have surfaced. The latest is called the SDR, a fiat currency of the IMF (Int’l Monetary Fund) run by Swiss bankers and our Fed…the plan is to reduce the size of the US economy and remove the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. These vampires have been meeting in Switzerland over the past year.
Corporate America screwing the little guy
As the American unemployed continue to struggle, Wall Street is making record profits and shelling out huge bonuses. With the US government is spending billions on wars abroad but neglecting its own people at home the holiday season looks bleak. Economist Max Fraad Wolff says because so many people are without a job, the social division between profits and wages has tilted further towards profit.
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/max-fraad-wolff-corporate-america.html
The year 2011 will bring Americans a larger and more intrusive police state, more unemployment and home foreclosures, no economic recovery, more disregard by the US government of US law, international law, the Constitution, and truth, more suspicion and distrust from allies, more hostility from the rest of the world, and new heights of media sycophancy.
Everything in America is rapidly becoming a crime. Learn of some of the most ridiculous ‘crimes’ under our rising totalitarian government at:
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com/legalresources
Path to Freedom presents 'A Homegrown Revolution' A collaboration of selective media clips which feature their urban homestead and farm which focus on the need of radical action -- growing food in the city.
This self produced, short music video was shown at Peter Seller's Cultural Art's class at UCLA followed by a short presentation by urban farmer, Jules Dervaes founder of Path to Freedom. The class focus was on the art of slow food and among other guests invited were Michael Pollan, Alice Waters and Eric Schlosser.
Like Victory Gardens of yesteryear, start your own homegrown revolution, grow your own food in your back or front yard -- for more information visit the urban homesteaders at http://www.PathtoFreedom.com
Or on their online journal at: http://www.urbanhomestead.org/journal
The End of America - A Tsunami of debt is growing and will drown the United States by 2020
U.S. Senator Tom Coburn warned Americans this Sunday of an apocalyptic economic future, with Great Depression levels of unemployment and a destruction of the country's middle class.
The Oklahoma Republican told Fox News that unless Washington cuts spending and reduces the national debt, unemployment in the United States could rise dramatically from less than 10 percent today to 18 percent or more.
At the same time, Coburn says the nation's economic output could drop calamitously -- by 9 percent. Once that happens he predicts the middle class could be destroyed
A Tsunami of debt is growing and will drown the United States by 2020. Unfunded entitlemnet promises will be ruinous to keep and if cut will likely bring civil unrest. Sovereign insolvency is likely to spread across the Globe as higher interest rates are demanded for government borrowing. America faces a terminal decline as an economic Superpower as stagnation and high unemployment sap its strength.
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/end-of-america-tsunami-of-debt-is.html
What will the next generation think of us when they
Learn our government has cannibalized their country, their opportunities?
--The Men Who Sold out America
Guest Editorial
The middle class and its jobs continue to be wiped out, little or no relief in site-poverty to
increase. Today, nearly one out of every three families in the United States is considered to be "low income". Millions of American families are finding that they can barely make it from month to month even with both parents working as hard as they possibly can. Blue collar American workers from coast to coast are having their wages decreased at a time when it seems like the cost of virtually every monthly bill is going up. Unfortunately, there is every indication that things are only going to get worse and that average American families are going to be financially squeezed even more in the months and years to come.
The Working Poor Families Project has just released their policy brief for the winter of 2010-11. What they have discovered is that the number of working poor in the United States is higher than they have ever seen it before and it continues to increase at a staggering pace. The following are some of the key findings for 2009 that were pulled right out of their report....
* There were more than 10 million low-income working families in the United States, an increase of nearly a quarter million from the previous year.
* Forty-five million people, including 22 million children, lived in low-income working families, an increase of 1.7 million people from 2008.
* Forty-three percent of working families with at least one minority parent were low income, nearly twice the proportion of white working families (22 percent).
* Income inequality continued to grow with the richest 20 percent of working families taking home 47 percent of all income and earning 10 times that of low-income working families.
* More than half of the U.S. labor force (55 percent) has “suffered a spell of unemployment, a cut in pay, a reduction in hours or have become involuntary part-time workers” since the recession began in December 2007.
Unfortunately, things are not going to be getting any better for the working poor. In the new "one world economy" that our politicians keep insisting is so good for us, millions upon millions of American workers now find that they have to compete for work with laborers on the other side of the globe that are willing to work for slave labor wages. This is causing millions of jobs to leave the United States and it is forcing wages down.
Millions of Americans now find that they are making substantially less than they used to. If that has happened to you, perhaps you can take comfort in the fact that you are not alone. Or perhaps it is not that comforting. In any event, American workers are not just competing with each other anymore. Now there is the constant threat that all the jobs could just be sent overseas.
As wages are forced down, a record number of working Americans are finding themselves forced to turn to food stamps and to other government anti-poverty programs. Millions of Americans have been forced to take part-time jobs in order to supplement their incomes. Millions of others have been forced to take part-time jobs because that is all they can find.
This is all part of a long-term trend. The numbers don't lie. About the only people doing well are those on Wall Street and the very rich. Nearly every other segment of the population is getting poorer.
The following are 10 statistics that I have shared previously, but I think that they do a really good job of highlighting the plight that the working poor in this country are now facing....
#1 In 2009, total wages, median wages, and average wages all declined in the United States.
#2 Since the year 2000, we have lost 10% of our 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. Meanwhile, our population is getting larger.
#3 As 2007 began, only 26 million Americans were on food stamps, but now 42 million Americans are on food stamps and that number keeps rising every single month.
#4 Since 2001, over 42,000 U.S. factories have closed down for good.
#5 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in at least one anti-poverty program run by the federal government.
#6 Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.
#7 The number of Americans working part-time jobs "for economic reasons" is now the highest it has been in at least five decades.
#8 Ten years ago, the United States was ranked number one in average wealth per adult. In 2010, the United States has fallen to seventh.
#9 In 1976, the top 1 percent of earners in the United States took in 8.9 percent of all income. By 2007, that number had risen to 23.5 percent.
#10 According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010.
The United States is becoming poorer as a nation even as the boys up on Wall Street are busy grabbing a bigger share for themselves.
We are rapidly becoming a nation that will have a very small privileged class of ultra-wealthy and a very large class of "workers" that is just barely trying to survive.
So is the answer even more government handouts and even more government social programs?
Of course not.
There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress."
-- Mark Twain
What middle class Americans need are middle class jobs.
http://www.workingpoorfamilies.org/
I’m a new subscriber & had a chance to look through your previous issues too. You are indeed a passionate political muckraker. I enjoy your comments and resources and I’m making a small donation to the ‘cause.’ --Lifeworks/MaryAnne, TX
I am where I am because I believe in all possibilities
--Whoopi Goldberg
Parting thoughts-enjoy your New Year Celebration
I leave you with a bit of New Year’s trivia to brighten your celebratory weekend…
>>Bond with a midnight kiss. When the countdown ends & the ball drops (doesn’t Congress do enough of that), be sure to give your loved one a kiss-it will spur production of the cuddle hormone oxytocin which will fill you with love!
>>If that doesn’t work, try this recipe: In a large pitcher, stir together 2-½ cups of OJ, 1-½ cup of pineapple juice, ¼ cup apple juice, ¼ cup lime juice, ¼ cup of grenadine and a cup or so of bourbon…add 2 Tbs of light brown sugar until dissolved, cover & chill. Before serving, add 2 cups of 7-up and garnish.
>>The first New Year’s ball dropped from a flagpole at One Times Square at midnight in 1908. That ball was made from wood & iron weighing 700 lbs. Today’s ball weighs over 11,800 lobs.
>>The Rockettes home, Radio City Music Hall opened its doors in NYC in 1932 (has a wonderful Art Deco interior)…so who was better - the Rockettes or the June Taylor Dancers who used to appear on the Jackie Gleason show? You decide!
May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions!
Finally, here’s a fun little ditty called The Zombie Bank
http://economycollapse.blogspot.com/2010/12/zombie-bank.html
A hearty happy New Year to all of you!
The “getting-too-old-to-enjoy-it” Poor Man
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
http://www.OldBookNook.com
http://www.GreenIrene.com/Poorman
Don't Get Caught With Your Pantry Down-New 11th Ed.
http://tinyurl.com/PMBasics
Free Money assistance for women, businesses, more.
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?poorman11/mlesko
A Shallow Planet Production
Our Mission: To protect and promote your freedom, civil rights, financial well being and overall self reliance in these turbulent times.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
You could be a terrorist if...
Bruce’s Poor Man Recession Bulletin
Your choice for urban survival resources
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
In This Issue:
1. More examples of government waste-the craziest
2. How to restore the economy-interview
3. New Updates on our guest column page
4. 10 Signs the US is becoming a 3rd World country
5. Sell off those unwanted gift cards
6. Matt Lesko-the free money man
"I don’t want to scare anyone but I am considering investing in barbed wire and guns, things are not looking good.” --Anthony Fry to his investment clients.
Fixing America, You could be a terrorist if you…
I had extra time over the holiday week to sift through several articles forwarded to me by readers regarding how to fix America, how you could be a terrorist if you…and more. All of these have been posted to our site under the Guest Column tab and make for some provocative reading.
I also urge you to view the video interview John Stossel did with a Peruvian economist about private property rights, something which was ingrained in our founding principles and something which has been under attack in the US. Remember in Nazi Germany their thinking was that they could care less who owns the property, so long as they control it, something which has happened in our country where armies of petty bureaucrats spit on the rights of property owners. You’ll find the link to this interview below.
Finally, kids are expensive. Here are some ways to feed them free of charge.
“Kids eat free” deals at local restaurants usually require buying an adult meal, are restricted to certain days or hours, and may be limited to one or two freebies per adult meal purchased. Even with such limitations, however, they can save you a bundle if you eat out often.
But what if you’re traveling? Many national chains and thousands of local eateries offer discounts or free meals for children 10 and under, or sometimes up to age 12. To find free kid meals anywhere you happen to be, first visit a website that lists local free meal deals nationwide. KidMealDeals.com, KidsEatFreePlaces.com, AllKidsEatFree.com, and KidsEatFree.com are free sites listing thousands of restaurants offering free or discounted kids’ meals, organized by city and state.
Most likely you’ve heard of Matthew Lesko, the free money man. Over the years I’ve interviewed and promoted a variety of his useful information resources (and have personally used them). We’re now affiliates of his so please take a peek at his new selections at:
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?poorman11/mlesko
Paper money in moderate quantities has been found beneficial; but when
more than the occasions of commerce require, it depreciates and is
mischievous and the populace are apt to demand more than is necessary.”
— Ben Franklin (1787)
The weekly roundup - blackmail & more, how we spend…
How we spent our money
For a U.S. snapshot, Forbes turned to SpendingPulse, the economic research arm of MasterCard Worldwide, to break down Americans’ discretionary spending — all $1.13 trillion of it in 2009, slightly down from $1.16 trillion in 2008 — across 10 categories: air travel, auto parts and service, electronics and appliances, furniture, lodging, apparel, department stores, jewelry, luxury (excluding jewelry) and restaurants.
With personal savings on the rise in the wake of the latest downturn, that grand total looks like it will slip again, to $1.03 trillion, in 2010.
* Air Travel
Total Spent in 2009: $41.9 billion
* Auto Parts & Service
Total Spent in 2009: $164 billion
* Department Stores
Total Spent in 2009: $72.5 billion
* Electronics & Appliances
Total Spent in 2009: $99.5 billion
* Furniture
Total Spent in 2009: $88.8 billion
* Jewelry
Total Spent in 2009: $27.5 billion
* Apparel
Total Spent in 2009: $177 billion
* Restaurants
Total Spent in 2009: $392 billion
Redbox codes are the way to get free DVD rentals from video rental
kiosk Redbox. Redbox creates these codes to get more people into the
stores to use their services. You simply need to enter the coupon
code from the main screen online or just before checkout at your local
kiosk. When you do, you will receive a one-day free rental. Go to
www.redbox.com and register. You will get updates on new releases, you can
search for movies, and best of all get coupon codes by text message for
free movies.
• Get help online: Online bill comparison service BillShrink.com just
launched a free module that helps consumers compare TV plans. Packages
are ranked objectively by cost and provider. Within each suggested TV
package, BillShrink simplifies provider rates, terms, and conditions so
you can make easy comparisons. Another site, CancelCable.com, offers
information on how you can cut the cord entirely, save thousands of
dollars, and still watch your favorite shows for free using the Internet
hooked to your set.
Sell Your Designs Online: You don’t have to invest any money to sell
your T-shirt, baseball cap, apron, coffee mug, poster, note cards, or
other designs online. Zazzle.com, CafePress.com, and similar sites will
pay you a commission on sales your designs generate, and uploading your
designs is easy. Etsy.com allows you to sell your products directly.
Cash in on Your Gift Cards: To unload your unused or partially used cards, first go...
online to register for a free card-trading account (you can browse available
cards on the site without an account, but you need to register to
buy or sell). Sites such as PlasticJungle.com and GiftCardsAgain.com have
emerged as leaders in this arena. You can sell gift cards with a minimum
balance of $25. You can also exchange your unwanted or partially used gift
cards for purchasing power at stores like Amazon.com or donate the balance
to charity.
At Plastic Jungle, the process works like this: Once your account is set
up, you enter details of the cards you want to sell, which the site then
validates. If you don’t know some information, such as the remaining value
on the card, it can be verified by the Web site later in the process. The
site will create a prepaid shipping label for you to send in your card.
Once it is received and the balance is verified, they’ll send you a check.
A Single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic
--Josef Stalin
Congressional Traitors hard at work destroying your right to grow…
All those who voted for S.510 -- which includes the entire U.S. Senate, Republicans and Democrats alike -- are traitors to the freedoms upon which America was founded. They have thrust our food supply into the hands of tyrants who are just waiting to exercise their control and "authority" over as many people as possible.
Five years ago, I joked that people might one day be arrested for smuggling broccoli across state lines. Today, that joke has become a sad reality. The mere act of growing food and selling it to your neighbor without government permission is about to become a criminal act. And no, small farms are not "exempt" from S.510. They must provide financial information and apply to the FDA to be granted exemption status. That sounds a lot like slaves begging for mercy from the king, doesn't it? --Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History by Judge Andrew Napolitano
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030799_food_freedom_Wickard_vs_Filburn.html#ixzz18tqXntsn
It’s always ironic that in the eyes of the government, it’s always the other country that is bad or is a terrorist. Our government refutes that governments can carry out terrorism unless, of course, it’s what Washington terms ‘state sponsored terrorism’ which is precisely what many other countries call the United States.
2008 Prediction of economic collapse-ignored by Congress>Documentary
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/firewall-in-defense-of-nation-state.html
Paul Kruegman, economist interview on how to fix the economy-you decide
http://marcfaberchannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/paul-krugman-onhow-to-stimulate-economy.html
2011 Jobs outlook somewhat better-hiring up
http://financearmageddon.blogspot.com/2010/12/2011-jobs-outlook.html
Personal Property Rights-John Stossel Interview
Something which made America great, is now under attack in USA
http://peterschiffchannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/john-stossel-property-rights-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PeterSchiffBlog+%28Peter+Schiff++Blog%29
"A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law."
-- Justice John Marshall
(1755-1835) US Supreme Court Chief Justice
How Washington Protects Your Privacy & Liberty
Preserving trust in government is the highest good—at least for politicians. To create that trust, government continually spawns façades to make people believe their rights are safe. Few things better illustrate this charade than the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
In 2004, three years after the Patriot Act was enacted, politicians started to worry about the rising number of Americans grumbling about government intrusions.
The 9/11 Commission proposed creating “a board within the executive branch to oversee adherence to the guidelines we recommend and the commitment the government makes to defend our civil liberties.” Creating another office within the executive branch to report on executive branch activities was unlikely to produce anything more than extra jobs for Washington hangers-on. The White House edited the 9/11 commission’s report before it was publicly released, so the Bush team had no trouble with this toothless-tiger palliative
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/how-washington-protects-your-privacy-and-liberty/?utm_source=The+Freeman&utm_campaign=d2a92d3ab9-Freeman_Jan2010_Issue&utm_medium=email
This was written by one of my favorite authors & everything he has written is worth reading.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -- H. L. Mencken
Take a peek at Mike Rivero’s site…enjoyable!
http://whatreallyhappened.com/join
10 Signs America Is Becoming a
Third-World Country before Our Eyes
The folks at Casey Research recently unearthed a perceptive little article titled "10 Signs the U.S. is Becoming a Third World Country." The list speaks for itself, as I have been warning my readers of these flags for some time:
Rising unemployment and poverty (both are much bleaker than official reports portray, as government statisticians routinely "cook the books").
Economic dependence (debt above 90% of GDP).
Declining civil rights (Patriot Act and other privacy stealing mandates).
Increasing political corruption (not only the criminal trials and sex scandals that make for titillating headlines, but the insidious, below-the-radar payola system that corrupts government at all levels).
Military patrolling the streets- (we’ve detailed the hush-hush training of thousands of U.S. troops for deployment in urban America).
Failing infrastructure (bridges, dams, oil and gas pipelines, power grid).
Disappearing middle class (massive, permanent loss of blue-collar jobs).
Devalued currency (the inevitable result of chronic deficit spending).
Controlling the media (the FCC, having effectively co-opted the major networks, is now eyeing talk radio controls and internet "neutrality").
Capital controls (preventing free markets and free people from correcting and disciplining the financial misdeeds of big government).
"We're seeing one of the lowest mobility rates in a century," says Nathaniel Karp, chief economist for banking firm BBVA Compass. Karp says the recession has forced many people to stay put because they are unable to sell their homes, cannot find jobs or are unwilling to relocate for work if it means sacrificing a partner's stable position.
Six CA cities were among the worst in the nation for jobs, while OH, MI, NJ and IL had the worst state governments in terms of managing their budget or for its citizens.
Government Waste: 20 Of The Craziest Things That The U.S. Government Is Spending Money On
You are not going to believe some of the things that the U.S. government is spending money on. According to a shocking new report, U.S. taxpayer money is being spent to study World of Warcraft, to study how Americans find love on the Internet, and to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam. Not only that, but money from the federal government is also being used to renovate a pizzeria in Iowa and to help a library in Tennessee host video game parties.
These are just some of the examples in a new report on government waste from Senator Tom Coburn entitled "Wastebook 2010". Even as tens of millions of American families find themselves suffering through the worst economic downturn in modern history, the U.S. government continues to spend money on some of the craziest and most frivolous things imaginable. Every single year articles are written and news stories are done about the horrific government waste that is taking place and yet every single year it just keeps getting worse. So just what in the world is going on here?
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/government-waste-20-of-the-craziest-things-that-the-u-s-government-is-spending-money-on
Do you know what the Federal Register is? The Federal Register is the primary source of regulations for U.S. government agencies. In 1936, the number of pages in the Federal Register was about 2,600. Today, the Federal Register is over 80,000 pages long. That is just one example of how bad things have gotten.
Started a new business this year in AZ. Paid over $10,000 in fees for permitting, $10,000 in fee for elec hookup, $10,000 in fees for gas hook up and an extra $200 fee per month just for the “privilige” of having gas. Adding up all the fees to start our business, I don’t think we would do it again. We are now just getting to the point that we are making our bills each month, and so we are not taking a paycheck, and don’t anticipate one for at least another year. Our family has been in business for ourselves for decades ,and we know what we are doing, but the rising fees caught us off guard. Cities, municipalities, counties and states are raising all fees at astronomical rates to help offset the slump in their real estate income (since banks apparently don’t have to pay real estate taxes)…I’m telling you every business person I know is on their last leg.
16 U.S. Cities That Could Face Bankruptcy in 2011
The Poor Man reported previously about states which aren’t citizen friendly, now read about the cities which are likely to fail in the coming year…
2011 will be the year of the municipal default. At least that's what analysts like Meredith Whitney predict, as do bond investors that have been fleeing the muni market.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/16-u.s.-cities-that-could-face-bankruptcy-in-2011-535744.html
Is the U.S. about to get a case of the Moody’s Blues? Reuters reported today that the credit rating agency is unsettled by the deficit-increasing tax deal struck by President Obama and Congressional Republicans. Should the deal pass, it will "adversely affect the federal government budget deficit and debt level," Moody's said. That means it might be more likely to downgrade Uncle Sam’s credit rating in the future.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/moody's-warns-tax-deal-could-harm-u.s's-triple-a-rating-535717.html?tickers=MCO,TLT,%5ETNX
Just because it’s a law does not make it right or ethical!
Parting Shots…
My eyes are bigger than my stomach. Recently I mentioned the idea of starting a Naider’s Raiders type group to go after the wrongs in society. I met with potential attorneys to volunteer their help and nada, zilch, not interested. Well, the Poor Man can’t do it all by himself, so this idea has been put on the back burner for now.
Seems most everyone is running twice as hard just to stay in place.
For now, we’ll be doing some brainstorming on how to best use our resources in the coming year. Preliminary discussions already lead us to believe we need to focus more on our core activities. A large part of that will be to bring you, our reader, more useful resources in the coming year. Simply keeping up with the technology and marketing end is challenging enough.
We’ve completed the migration of our documents and hopefully, no longer have any incomplete CD packages out there…had one particularly irate fellow who thought we had cheated him. Hopefully, he’s now squared away and one of the reasons why we now provide download links to our reports vs. CD ROM packages for most items. Needless to say, I don’t like unhappy subscribers and fortunately, most feel we over deliver!
Judging from the feedback we get, many are amazed at how much quality information is included with each issue of this bulletin AND all at no charge!
We’re exploring even more useful resources to share with you in 2011, much of it we’re paying for which is why we appreciate your support in terms of purchases and in promoting our bulletin with your family and friends. Your suggestions and contributions are always appreciated so keep them coming.
I try to present a balance of money making ideas that won’t cost you an arm and a leg, useful free and low cost resources which will save you money and thought provoking reports and analysis of economic and world events in terms of how they affect you and America along with some fun stuff too!
Initially, I started this bulletin as a means of sharing resources with a small circle of like minded friends and it has expanded in content and in numbers. We’ll have 1,000 subscribers before the end of 2011!
Bruce ‘the Poor Man’
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
http://www.OldBookNook.com
http://www.GreenIrene.com/Poorman
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?poorman11/mlesko
Don't Get Caught With Your Pantry Down-New 11th Ed.
http://tinyurl.com/PMBasics
Your choice for urban survival resources
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
In This Issue:
1. More examples of government waste-the craziest
2. How to restore the economy-interview
3. New Updates on our guest column page
4. 10 Signs the US is becoming a 3rd World country
5. Sell off those unwanted gift cards
6. Matt Lesko-the free money man
"I don’t want to scare anyone but I am considering investing in barbed wire and guns, things are not looking good.” --Anthony Fry to his investment clients.
Fixing America, You could be a terrorist if you…
I had extra time over the holiday week to sift through several articles forwarded to me by readers regarding how to fix America, how you could be a terrorist if you…and more. All of these have been posted to our site under the Guest Column tab and make for some provocative reading.
I also urge you to view the video interview John Stossel did with a Peruvian economist about private property rights, something which was ingrained in our founding principles and something which has been under attack in the US. Remember in Nazi Germany their thinking was that they could care less who owns the property, so long as they control it, something which has happened in our country where armies of petty bureaucrats spit on the rights of property owners. You’ll find the link to this interview below.
Finally, kids are expensive. Here are some ways to feed them free of charge.
“Kids eat free” deals at local restaurants usually require buying an adult meal, are restricted to certain days or hours, and may be limited to one or two freebies per adult meal purchased. Even with such limitations, however, they can save you a bundle if you eat out often.
But what if you’re traveling? Many national chains and thousands of local eateries offer discounts or free meals for children 10 and under, or sometimes up to age 12. To find free kid meals anywhere you happen to be, first visit a website that lists local free meal deals nationwide. KidMealDeals.com, KidsEatFreePlaces.com, AllKidsEatFree.com, and KidsEatFree.com are free sites listing thousands of restaurants offering free or discounted kids’ meals, organized by city and state.
Most likely you’ve heard of Matthew Lesko, the free money man. Over the years I’ve interviewed and promoted a variety of his useful information resources (and have personally used them). We’re now affiliates of his so please take a peek at his new selections at:
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?poorman11/mlesko
Paper money in moderate quantities has been found beneficial; but when
more than the occasions of commerce require, it depreciates and is
mischievous and the populace are apt to demand more than is necessary.”
— Ben Franklin (1787)
The weekly roundup - blackmail & more, how we spend…
How we spent our money
For a U.S. snapshot, Forbes turned to SpendingPulse, the economic research arm of MasterCard Worldwide, to break down Americans’ discretionary spending — all $1.13 trillion of it in 2009, slightly down from $1.16 trillion in 2008 — across 10 categories: air travel, auto parts and service, electronics and appliances, furniture, lodging, apparel, department stores, jewelry, luxury (excluding jewelry) and restaurants.
With personal savings on the rise in the wake of the latest downturn, that grand total looks like it will slip again, to $1.03 trillion, in 2010.
* Air Travel
Total Spent in 2009: $41.9 billion
* Auto Parts & Service
Total Spent in 2009: $164 billion
* Department Stores
Total Spent in 2009: $72.5 billion
* Electronics & Appliances
Total Spent in 2009: $99.5 billion
* Furniture
Total Spent in 2009: $88.8 billion
* Jewelry
Total Spent in 2009: $27.5 billion
* Apparel
Total Spent in 2009: $177 billion
* Restaurants
Total Spent in 2009: $392 billion
Redbox codes are the way to get free DVD rentals from video rental
kiosk Redbox. Redbox creates these codes to get more people into the
stores to use their services. You simply need to enter the coupon
code from the main screen online or just before checkout at your local
kiosk. When you do, you will receive a one-day free rental. Go to
www.redbox.com and register. You will get updates on new releases, you can
search for movies, and best of all get coupon codes by text message for
free movies.
• Get help online: Online bill comparison service BillShrink.com just
launched a free module that helps consumers compare TV plans. Packages
are ranked objectively by cost and provider. Within each suggested TV
package, BillShrink simplifies provider rates, terms, and conditions so
you can make easy comparisons. Another site, CancelCable.com, offers
information on how you can cut the cord entirely, save thousands of
dollars, and still watch your favorite shows for free using the Internet
hooked to your set.
Sell Your Designs Online: You don’t have to invest any money to sell
your T-shirt, baseball cap, apron, coffee mug, poster, note cards, or
other designs online. Zazzle.com, CafePress.com, and similar sites will
pay you a commission on sales your designs generate, and uploading your
designs is easy. Etsy.com allows you to sell your products directly.
Cash in on Your Gift Cards: To unload your unused or partially used cards, first go...
online to register for a free card-trading account (you can browse available
cards on the site without an account, but you need to register to
buy or sell). Sites such as PlasticJungle.com and GiftCardsAgain.com have
emerged as leaders in this arena. You can sell gift cards with a minimum
balance of $25. You can also exchange your unwanted or partially used gift
cards for purchasing power at stores like Amazon.com or donate the balance
to charity.
At Plastic Jungle, the process works like this: Once your account is set
up, you enter details of the cards you want to sell, which the site then
validates. If you don’t know some information, such as the remaining value
on the card, it can be verified by the Web site later in the process. The
site will create a prepaid shipping label for you to send in your card.
Once it is received and the balance is verified, they’ll send you a check.
A Single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic
--Josef Stalin
Congressional Traitors hard at work destroying your right to grow…
All those who voted for S.510 -- which includes the entire U.S. Senate, Republicans and Democrats alike -- are traitors to the freedoms upon which America was founded. They have thrust our food supply into the hands of tyrants who are just waiting to exercise their control and "authority" over as many people as possible.
Five years ago, I joked that people might one day be arrested for smuggling broccoli across state lines. Today, that joke has become a sad reality. The mere act of growing food and selling it to your neighbor without government permission is about to become a criminal act. And no, small farms are not "exempt" from S.510. They must provide financial information and apply to the FDA to be granted exemption status. That sounds a lot like slaves begging for mercy from the king, doesn't it? --Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History by Judge Andrew Napolitano
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030799_food_freedom_Wickard_vs_Filburn.html#ixzz18tqXntsn
It’s always ironic that in the eyes of the government, it’s always the other country that is bad or is a terrorist. Our government refutes that governments can carry out terrorism unless, of course, it’s what Washington terms ‘state sponsored terrorism’ which is precisely what many other countries call the United States.
2008 Prediction of economic collapse-ignored by Congress>Documentary
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/firewall-in-defense-of-nation-state.html
Paul Kruegman, economist interview on how to fix the economy-you decide
http://marcfaberchannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/paul-krugman-onhow-to-stimulate-economy.html
2011 Jobs outlook somewhat better-hiring up
http://financearmageddon.blogspot.com/2010/12/2011-jobs-outlook.html
Personal Property Rights-John Stossel Interview
Something which made America great, is now under attack in USA
http://peterschiffchannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/john-stossel-property-rights-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PeterSchiffBlog+%28Peter+Schiff++Blog%29
"A legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law."
-- Justice John Marshall
(1755-1835) US Supreme Court Chief Justice
How Washington Protects Your Privacy & Liberty
Preserving trust in government is the highest good—at least for politicians. To create that trust, government continually spawns façades to make people believe their rights are safe. Few things better illustrate this charade than the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.
In 2004, three years after the Patriot Act was enacted, politicians started to worry about the rising number of Americans grumbling about government intrusions.
The 9/11 Commission proposed creating “a board within the executive branch to oversee adherence to the guidelines we recommend and the commitment the government makes to defend our civil liberties.” Creating another office within the executive branch to report on executive branch activities was unlikely to produce anything more than extra jobs for Washington hangers-on. The White House edited the 9/11 commission’s report before it was publicly released, so the Bush team had no trouble with this toothless-tiger palliative
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/how-washington-protects-your-privacy-and-liberty/?utm_source=The+Freeman&utm_campaign=d2a92d3ab9-Freeman_Jan2010_Issue&utm_medium=email
This was written by one of my favorite authors & everything he has written is worth reading.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -- H. L. Mencken
Take a peek at Mike Rivero’s site…enjoyable!
http://whatreallyhappened.com/join
10 Signs America Is Becoming a
Third-World Country before Our Eyes
The folks at Casey Research recently unearthed a perceptive little article titled "10 Signs the U.S. is Becoming a Third World Country." The list speaks for itself, as I have been warning my readers of these flags for some time:
Rising unemployment and poverty (both are much bleaker than official reports portray, as government statisticians routinely "cook the books").
Economic dependence (debt above 90% of GDP).
Declining civil rights (Patriot Act and other privacy stealing mandates).
Increasing political corruption (not only the criminal trials and sex scandals that make for titillating headlines, but the insidious, below-the-radar payola system that corrupts government at all levels).
Military patrolling the streets- (we’ve detailed the hush-hush training of thousands of U.S. troops for deployment in urban America).
Failing infrastructure (bridges, dams, oil and gas pipelines, power grid).
Disappearing middle class (massive, permanent loss of blue-collar jobs).
Devalued currency (the inevitable result of chronic deficit spending).
Controlling the media (the FCC, having effectively co-opted the major networks, is now eyeing talk radio controls and internet "neutrality").
Capital controls (preventing free markets and free people from correcting and disciplining the financial misdeeds of big government).
"We're seeing one of the lowest mobility rates in a century," says Nathaniel Karp, chief economist for banking firm BBVA Compass. Karp says the recession has forced many people to stay put because they are unable to sell their homes, cannot find jobs or are unwilling to relocate for work if it means sacrificing a partner's stable position.
Six CA cities were among the worst in the nation for jobs, while OH, MI, NJ and IL had the worst state governments in terms of managing their budget or for its citizens.
Government Waste: 20 Of The Craziest Things That The U.S. Government Is Spending Money On
You are not going to believe some of the things that the U.S. government is spending money on. According to a shocking new report, U.S. taxpayer money is being spent to study World of Warcraft, to study how Americans find love on the Internet, and to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam. Not only that, but money from the federal government is also being used to renovate a pizzeria in Iowa and to help a library in Tennessee host video game parties.
These are just some of the examples in a new report on government waste from Senator Tom Coburn entitled "Wastebook 2010". Even as tens of millions of American families find themselves suffering through the worst economic downturn in modern history, the U.S. government continues to spend money on some of the craziest and most frivolous things imaginable. Every single year articles are written and news stories are done about the horrific government waste that is taking place and yet every single year it just keeps getting worse. So just what in the world is going on here?
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/government-waste-20-of-the-craziest-things-that-the-u-s-government-is-spending-money-on
Do you know what the Federal Register is? The Federal Register is the primary source of regulations for U.S. government agencies. In 1936, the number of pages in the Federal Register was about 2,600. Today, the Federal Register is over 80,000 pages long. That is just one example of how bad things have gotten.
Started a new business this year in AZ. Paid over $10,000 in fees for permitting, $10,000 in fee for elec hookup, $10,000 in fees for gas hook up and an extra $200 fee per month just for the “privilige” of having gas. Adding up all the fees to start our business, I don’t think we would do it again. We are now just getting to the point that we are making our bills each month, and so we are not taking a paycheck, and don’t anticipate one for at least another year. Our family has been in business for ourselves for decades ,and we know what we are doing, but the rising fees caught us off guard. Cities, municipalities, counties and states are raising all fees at astronomical rates to help offset the slump in their real estate income (since banks apparently don’t have to pay real estate taxes)…I’m telling you every business person I know is on their last leg.
16 U.S. Cities That Could Face Bankruptcy in 2011
The Poor Man reported previously about states which aren’t citizen friendly, now read about the cities which are likely to fail in the coming year…
2011 will be the year of the municipal default. At least that's what analysts like Meredith Whitney predict, as do bond investors that have been fleeing the muni market.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/16-u.s.-cities-that-could-face-bankruptcy-in-2011-535744.html
Is the U.S. about to get a case of the Moody’s Blues? Reuters reported today that the credit rating agency is unsettled by the deficit-increasing tax deal struck by President Obama and Congressional Republicans. Should the deal pass, it will "adversely affect the federal government budget deficit and debt level," Moody's said. That means it might be more likely to downgrade Uncle Sam’s credit rating in the future.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/moody's-warns-tax-deal-could-harm-u.s's-triple-a-rating-535717.html?tickers=MCO,TLT,%5ETNX
Just because it’s a law does not make it right or ethical!
Parting Shots…
My eyes are bigger than my stomach. Recently I mentioned the idea of starting a Naider’s Raiders type group to go after the wrongs in society. I met with potential attorneys to volunteer their help and nada, zilch, not interested. Well, the Poor Man can’t do it all by himself, so this idea has been put on the back burner for now.
Seems most everyone is running twice as hard just to stay in place.
For now, we’ll be doing some brainstorming on how to best use our resources in the coming year. Preliminary discussions already lead us to believe we need to focus more on our core activities. A large part of that will be to bring you, our reader, more useful resources in the coming year. Simply keeping up with the technology and marketing end is challenging enough.
We’ve completed the migration of our documents and hopefully, no longer have any incomplete CD packages out there…had one particularly irate fellow who thought we had cheated him. Hopefully, he’s now squared away and one of the reasons why we now provide download links to our reports vs. CD ROM packages for most items. Needless to say, I don’t like unhappy subscribers and fortunately, most feel we over deliver!
Judging from the feedback we get, many are amazed at how much quality information is included with each issue of this bulletin AND all at no charge!
We’re exploring even more useful resources to share with you in 2011, much of it we’re paying for which is why we appreciate your support in terms of purchases and in promoting our bulletin with your family and friends. Your suggestions and contributions are always appreciated so keep them coming.
I try to present a balance of money making ideas that won’t cost you an arm and a leg, useful free and low cost resources which will save you money and thought provoking reports and analysis of economic and world events in terms of how they affect you and America along with some fun stuff too!
Initially, I started this bulletin as a means of sharing resources with a small circle of like minded friends and it has expanded in content and in numbers. We’ll have 1,000 subscribers before the end of 2011!
Bruce ‘the Poor Man’
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
http://www.OldBookNook.com
http://www.GreenIrene.com/Poorman
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?poorman11/mlesko
Don't Get Caught With Your Pantry Down-New 11th Ed.
http://tinyurl.com/PMBasics
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
10 Worst States, Be Mediator, Free Resources
Bruce’s Poor Man Recession Bulletin
Your choice for urban survival resources
Http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
In This Issue:
1. States of Disunion-worst states for retirees/citizens
2. States going broke in 2011
3. Rise of the police state-surveillance increases
4. Avoiding tow truck scams
5. Get free magazine subscriptions
6. The 4th branch of government
7. How to be a mediator-another potential source of revenue
He who does not have a dog to hunt with - must use a cat. --Brazilian Proverb
More market mayhem? 60 Minutes Hit it on the Head
American mainstream media has become rather servile in the past decade. Gone are the in-depth, microphone-in-your-face interview exposing corporate and political corruption. The reason is simple, we’ve gone from 250 media corporations in the 70s to about five conglomerates today and they cooperate on how they fashion what is “news” or info-tainment as most of them term it.
On Sunday, Dec. 19th 60 Minutes (link below to program) showed a brief glimpse of what they used to be with an interview and segment of how state governments are going broke, playing games with their budget numbers (something ordinary businesses would be jailed for) and how there gold-plated pension funds are bankrupting them and there is little hope of any kind of bailout from Washington. http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/pubs/mcc/videos.aspx
It’s nice to see vindication for what the Poor Man has been writing for the past year and half…folks, if mainstream media is awakening to the coming crash, you know it’s bad!
They are already rioting in England, Greece and other countries. Residents in South Korea are finding bomb shelters if the nut case who runs N Korea gets his way…it’s not a pretty picture and as we’ve warned for the past year, you never know which crisis will suddenly get out of hand and send civilization reeling.
As Greece faced a debt crisis, the government passed a series of strict austerity measures, including taxes hikes and cutting public sector pay.
The move sparked angry protests, strikes and riots across the country as unemployment skyrocketed and the crisis spread to other European nations. The move also incited a rush to online dictionaries from those searching for a definition.
Austerity, the 14th century noun defined as "the quality or state of being austere" and "enforced or extreme economy," set off enough searches that named it as its Word of the Year for 2010, the dictionary's editors announced Monday
Governments at all levels have financially raped the American public for decades, feathered their respective nests and it appears it is finally coming home to roost. Many of us would simply like to ‘make government disappear’ as these pirates, along with their corporate masters, have been hell-bent on a path of ruination of our great country.
States such as NJ, IL, MI and others which are going bankrupt have more tax scams than a boardwalk hustler.
After watching the 60 Minutes segment, my wife quipped ‘is this a sneak peak of what will be before Wiki leaks it?” You’ll find several links to video clips of the coming disaster at the tail end of this week’s episode.
Based on what you’ve seen and/or experienced during the past decade, do you still trust the government to do what is right? Have you taken the necessary steps to protect yourself from food & fuel shortages, social unrest and possible martial law as we‘ve seen in Europe?
Is the government scam finally being exposed to the world? I know I get more than a bit passionate about what our government has been doing to this country…I truly worry how my children will survive with what’s left of this country.
If you’ve not already read Martin Gross’ The Government Racket, grab a copy from your library. I believe that last edition was from 2000 - still a valuable read.
Finally, conservative vs. liberal - you decide on this insightful animated video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZrqdZFFb5c
“Promotion of human rights around the world is a vital & integral part of US policy”
--US State Dept (Statement is void in the USA)
Our Top Secret 4th Branch of Government
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/
Useful Stuff (It’s all useful to someone)
Mediation & Arbitration Training Certification
Lawyers are an expensive way to solve problems and many are turning to the use of mediators for workplace disputes, marital problems and more. Many local two-year colleges offer courses which can lead to ‘certification’ which allow you to work in the courts system and it can provide a lucrative sideline income. In many states little is required but most are headed toward occupational birth control in this area. You can always check with your local court system to learn more. There are how-to books, online training courses available as well. Many churches find this a useful service to offer and rarely require any kind of certification.
While there is no national body that conducts or sets the standards for legal mediation training, there are several well-known and respected organizations that provide such training. These can generally be found at universities across the country, as well as some that can be conducted entirely from home. Here is a current listing of such manuals posted to eBay:
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=mediation+books&_sacat=0&_odkw=mediation+courses&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
Read more: Legal Mediator Training | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_7294620_legal-mediator-training.html#ixzz18fUs5JAc
Free basic website - so easy to use, your mother could do it. When I first thought of the Poor Man concept I was unable to find anyone to help me create a website, so I taught myself and I keep learning…too bad I didn’t know about this beforehand!
http://www.webs.com/
80 percent of free government money is not called
“grants.” Of the $2 trillion in free government money that is given out
each year, only about $378 billion is referred to as grants. The rest are
direct payments, venture capital, or loans you do not have to pay back.
So, you won’t want to contact a government agency and simply ask for
information on grants, as you will miss 80 percent of the free money that
is given out.
Members of Congress can provide the best help. All elected officials
have people on their staffs who help people take advantage of government
programs. Senators and representatives are the most motivated people
in government to help you because, if they’re able to call a government
office and get you $50,000 for your business or $8,000 to train for a
new job, you’re likely to vote for them in the next election. (Find your
elected official at www.congress.org.)
$6,500 to “green” your home. Families with incomes up to $44,000
a year who applied have received an average of $6,500 to help lower their
heating and cooling bills via insulation, weatherstripping, replacement
or repair of furnaces, and more energy-saving projects. They’ve even
received assistance on issues revolving around carbon monoxide detection
and household appliance safety.
Having these energy-saving measures done to your home will save you close
to $500 a year on your heating and cooling bills. To submit an application,
contact the Westernization Assistance Programs Branch, EE44, U.S. Department
of Energy, at (877) 337-3463 or www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/wap_apply.html.
8,000 to improve your home and cut your utility bills. The Energy
Efficient Mortgages Program can be used to make energy-efficient improvements
in new and existing homes.
The cost of the improvements that may be eligible
for financing as part of the mortgage is either 5 percent of the property’s
value (not to exceed $8,000) or $4,000, whichever is greater. The maximum
mortgage limit for a single-family home is $160,950, plus the cost of the
eligible improvements. (Limits may be lower in some areas of the country.)
To take advantage, contact the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development by writing to the department at 451 7th St. S.W., Washington,
D.C. 20410, visiting www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/eem/energy-r.cfm or
calling 202-708-1112.
Land a job, thanks to the stimulus package. The people who have money
to spend are those who received stimulus funds. These are government agencies,
contractors, and even subcontractors who are hiring people, buying
equipment and supplies, looking for caterers for their parties, or are
flush to donate to your charity.
To find out who received this money in your area, contact the office of
your senator or representative or your governor’s office. Almost every
state has a website describing who is getting what. At the time of this
writing, it has been more than 22 months since the stimulus bill was
passed and only about 40 percent of the funds have been spent so far. To
research, go to www.recovery.gov.
Subscribe to Your Favorite Mags for Free
Take advantage of the free magazine subscriptions available on the
Internet. I currently get about 30 free magazines a month. One way is by
doing surveys for www.erewards.com. You do their surveys and after the
money adds up a little, you can trade it in for subscriptions or a number
of other things, but I think the subscriptions are the best buy.
Another option is to go to www.slickdeals.net. They have a free magazine
forum. Sometimes you have to fill out a short survey to get a subscription;
in other cases, you just fill out a form with your name and address
and you’re set.
If you haven’t heard of Fiverr (www.fiverr.com), you better take a look at it. Fiverr
is a website where members can post what they call “gigs”. Gigs are generally
services you offer for five dollars. It can range from video recording to sharing
advice, for five dollars.
How to Avoid Tow Truck Scams
If you run into problems on the road this winter, you should be wary of tow trucks you didn’t call that offer to help.
There’s a chance that those tow truck drivers will offer services at an extremely high price and or may keep your car hostage until you pay high towing and storage fees. A tow for a simple flat tire, for instance, could result in a $1,600 bill for towing and storage.
The insurer Allstate recently issued a warning about the rise of such scams. (I suggest using a AAA membership).
http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/how-to-avoid-tow-truck-scams/
The Family Handyman site offers a lot of DIY projects online
http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Saving-Money/Energy-Efficiency/how-to-seal-attic-air-leaks?pmcode=IAFEC960&_mid=825032&_rid=825032.643000.574912
"We now have so many regulations that
everyone is guilty of some violation."
-- Donald Alexander
Former IRS Director
This week’s dose of political reality
As for fiscal health, six of the 10 worst states for retirees on TopRetirements.com's list were among those just identified by a Pew Center for States report as being in "fiscal peril."
The report, "Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril," showed that "some of the same pressures that have pushed California toward economic disaster are wreaking havoc in a number of other states, with potentially damaging consequences for the entire country."
Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin joined California as the 10 most troubled states, according to Pew's analysis.
Of note, TopRetirements.com's Brady suggested that retirees and would-be retirees might want to avoid states in fiscal peril because these locales might be expected to face decreasing services and increasing taxation.
States of Disunion
Topping his website's list, Illinois's fiscal health could be the worst of any state, observed Brady. "It even borrowed money to fund its pension obligations," he said. As for California, he said the Golden State — though it does have a warm climate — is expensive and its finances are in disarray. What's more, he added, it has paid some bills with vouchers.
New York wasn't mentioned as being in fiscal trouble by the Pew Center, but it does have "very high taxes, including property taxes." In fact, Brady said New York has the second-highest tax burden and fifth-highest per capita property taxes. Plus, he said, the Empire State has a "dysfunctional state legislature." As if that wasn't bad enough, it's terrifically expensive to live in New York. The only benefit to living in New York, he said, is that pensions are exempt from income tax
http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/111588/the-10-worst-states-for-retirees?mod=fidelity-readytoretire&cat=fidelity_2010_getting_ready_to_retire
State “Repeal Amendment” Would Check Central Government
“The same people driving the lawsuits that seek to dismantle the Obama administration’s health care overhaul have set their sights on an even bigger target: a constitutional amendment that would allow a vote of the states to overturn any act of Congress. Under the proposed ‘repeal amendment,’ any federal law or regulation could be repealed if the legislatures of two-thirds of the states voted to do so.” (New York Times)
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
--George Orwell
Rise of the Police State
The is assembling a massive database on thousands of Americans, many of whom have not been accused of any crime, the Washington Post's Dana Priest and William Arkin report. The reporters' latest look at the country's ballooning national security system focuses on the role that local agencies -- often staffed by people with little to no counter-terrorism training -- have played in combating terrorism since 2001. Read to find the 5 most disturbing parts of this expose>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20101220/ts_yblog_thelookout/the-5-most-surprising-revelations-from-the-posts-monitoring-america-investigation
Americans Are Under Government’s Watchful Eye
“Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.” (Washington Post)
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
There are so many clear signs that our political establishment and financial system are based on fraud... from the ponzi scheme debt levels of western governments to their farcical elections to the mindless distractions that continually dribble out of the mainstream media. -Simon Black
Parting guest commentary…
The U.S. is descending into a police state. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before the redux of the “Un-American Activities Committee.”
Perhaps the final nail in the coffin is that in addition to their far-reaching, unchecked power for surveilling their citizens, U.S. federal agents also have nearly unlimited powers to confiscate any asset in the country that they suspect may be involved in criminal wrongdoing.
Law enforcement officials often use that tired expression “ignorance of the law is not an excuse...” The truth is that U.S. Code comprises hundreds of thousands of pages of obscure, conflicting, Byzantine regulations. Each of us is guilty of something right now... and perhaps that’s the point.
There are 4.2 million security cameras in public places in the U.K. That’s one camera for every 14 citizens. The average person there gets captured on film about 300 times as he makes his rounds each day.
Security cameras surround George Orwell’s London residence where he lived from 1904 till his death in 1950. Ironically, this is where the man penned his novelized warning about the panoptic police state, 1984. There are two cameras viewing his back window and another nearby camera is aimed at the front door of his favorite pub.
It’s far, far too late to heed any warnings from 1984, however. But there is another book from which we could all take a little inspiration…
What would happen if a few very capable lovers of liberty were to take matters into their own hands?
What could they possibly to fight Leviathan?
They could see to it that our representatives never have a chance to become corrupt or entrenched enough to wreck our lives for their own political gain. They could convince Congress to observe term limits…even if it required extreme measures to get Congress to listen…
“Four angry individuals believe deadly force is justified to restore the Constitution and regain our liberty. If their plans succeed, ‘The thieves that have stolen our liberty will pay with their lives…or resign if the voters agree, professional politicians will be forever barred from serving in Congress.’
“The Department of Justice begins a vengeful and bloody hunt for the ‘terrorists,’ but the hunt itself threatens our remaining liberties. When the first senator is ‘term-limited,’ it is clear the terrorists will not be easily found — they are inside the federal government, and they have carefully prepared.
“The same questions asked before the American Revolution are asked again: Is deadly force justified to defend liberty? Under what conditions? When will it be too late?”
An Act of Self-Defense may be fiction, but it’s timely, to say the least. It’s also a very plausible way that things could work out in reality.
Sure, it’s entertaining, but it’s also a warning about what to expect…and about the plans your government is making for you right now.
Thank you Simon, I couldn’t have stated it any better!
Mayhem Meltdown - End time stuff, the coming revolution…plus-how long are we going to put up with TSA crap? Write your congress-critter & here’s a funny ‘Grandma Got Run Over by the TSA’ humor…think about, our rights have been violated, billions spent on so-called security, yet not one terrorist caught. Who is really being violated?
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/steve-quayle-mayhem-meltdown-dec-17.html
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/steve-quayle-mayhem-meltdown-dec-17.html
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/gerald-celente-coming-revolution.html
That’s all for this issue of Poor Man Madness…Merry Christmas to all!
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
http://www.OldBookNook.com
http://www.GreenIrene.com/Poorman
Don't Get Caught With Your Pantry Down-New 11th Ed.
http://tinyurl.com/PMBasics
Your choice for urban survival resources
Http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
In This Issue:
1. States of Disunion-worst states for retirees/citizens
2. States going broke in 2011
3. Rise of the police state-surveillance increases
4. Avoiding tow truck scams
5. Get free magazine subscriptions
6. The 4th branch of government
7. How to be a mediator-another potential source of revenue
He who does not have a dog to hunt with - must use a cat. --Brazilian Proverb
More market mayhem? 60 Minutes Hit it on the Head
American mainstream media has become rather servile in the past decade. Gone are the in-depth, microphone-in-your-face interview exposing corporate and political corruption. The reason is simple, we’ve gone from 250 media corporations in the 70s to about five conglomerates today and they cooperate on how they fashion what is “news” or info-tainment as most of them term it.
On Sunday, Dec. 19th 60 Minutes (link below to program) showed a brief glimpse of what they used to be with an interview and segment of how state governments are going broke, playing games with their budget numbers (something ordinary businesses would be jailed for) and how there gold-plated pension funds are bankrupting them and there is little hope of any kind of bailout from Washington. http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/pubs/mcc/videos.aspx
It’s nice to see vindication for what the Poor Man has been writing for the past year and half…folks, if mainstream media is awakening to the coming crash, you know it’s bad!
They are already rioting in England, Greece and other countries. Residents in South Korea are finding bomb shelters if the nut case who runs N Korea gets his way…it’s not a pretty picture and as we’ve warned for the past year, you never know which crisis will suddenly get out of hand and send civilization reeling.
As Greece faced a debt crisis, the government passed a series of strict austerity measures, including taxes hikes and cutting public sector pay.
The move sparked angry protests, strikes and riots across the country as unemployment skyrocketed and the crisis spread to other European nations. The move also incited a rush to online dictionaries from those searching for a definition.
Austerity, the 14th century noun defined as "the quality or state of being austere" and "enforced or extreme economy," set off enough searches that named it as its Word of the Year for 2010, the dictionary's editors announced Monday
Governments at all levels have financially raped the American public for decades, feathered their respective nests and it appears it is finally coming home to roost. Many of us would simply like to ‘make government disappear’ as these pirates, along with their corporate masters, have been hell-bent on a path of ruination of our great country.
States such as NJ, IL, MI and others which are going bankrupt have more tax scams than a boardwalk hustler.
After watching the 60 Minutes segment, my wife quipped ‘is this a sneak peak of what will be before Wiki leaks it?” You’ll find several links to video clips of the coming disaster at the tail end of this week’s episode.
Based on what you’ve seen and/or experienced during the past decade, do you still trust the government to do what is right? Have you taken the necessary steps to protect yourself from food & fuel shortages, social unrest and possible martial law as we‘ve seen in Europe?
Is the government scam finally being exposed to the world? I know I get more than a bit passionate about what our government has been doing to this country…I truly worry how my children will survive with what’s left of this country.
If you’ve not already read Martin Gross’ The Government Racket, grab a copy from your library. I believe that last edition was from 2000 - still a valuable read.
Finally, conservative vs. liberal - you decide on this insightful animated video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZrqdZFFb5c
“Promotion of human rights around the world is a vital & integral part of US policy”
--US State Dept (Statement is void in the USA)
Our Top Secret 4th Branch of Government
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/
Useful Stuff (It’s all useful to someone)
Mediation & Arbitration Training Certification
Lawyers are an expensive way to solve problems and many are turning to the use of mediators for workplace disputes, marital problems and more. Many local two-year colleges offer courses which can lead to ‘certification’ which allow you to work in the courts system and it can provide a lucrative sideline income. In many states little is required but most are headed toward occupational birth control in this area. You can always check with your local court system to learn more. There are how-to books, online training courses available as well. Many churches find this a useful service to offer and rarely require any kind of certification.
While there is no national body that conducts or sets the standards for legal mediation training, there are several well-known and respected organizations that provide such training. These can generally be found at universities across the country, as well as some that can be conducted entirely from home. Here is a current listing of such manuals posted to eBay:
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=mediation+books&_sacat=0&_odkw=mediation+courses&_osacat=0&_trksid=p3286.c0.m270.l1313
Read more: Legal Mediator Training | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_7294620_legal-mediator-training.html#ixzz18fUs5JAc
Free basic website - so easy to use, your mother could do it. When I first thought of the Poor Man concept I was unable to find anyone to help me create a website, so I taught myself and I keep learning…too bad I didn’t know about this beforehand!
http://www.webs.com/
80 percent of free government money is not called
“grants.” Of the $2 trillion in free government money that is given out
each year, only about $378 billion is referred to as grants. The rest are
direct payments, venture capital, or loans you do not have to pay back.
So, you won’t want to contact a government agency and simply ask for
information on grants, as you will miss 80 percent of the free money that
is given out.
Members of Congress can provide the best help. All elected officials
have people on their staffs who help people take advantage of government
programs. Senators and representatives are the most motivated people
in government to help you because, if they’re able to call a government
office and get you $50,000 for your business or $8,000 to train for a
new job, you’re likely to vote for them in the next election. (Find your
elected official at www.congress.org.)
$6,500 to “green” your home. Families with incomes up to $44,000
a year who applied have received an average of $6,500 to help lower their
heating and cooling bills via insulation, weatherstripping, replacement
or repair of furnaces, and more energy-saving projects. They’ve even
received assistance on issues revolving around carbon monoxide detection
and household appliance safety.
Having these energy-saving measures done to your home will save you close
to $500 a year on your heating and cooling bills. To submit an application,
contact the Westernization Assistance Programs Branch, EE44, U.S. Department
of Energy, at (877) 337-3463 or www1.eere.energy.gov/wip/wap_apply.html.
8,000 to improve your home and cut your utility bills. The Energy
Efficient Mortgages Program can be used to make energy-efficient improvements
in new and existing homes.
The cost of the improvements that may be eligible
for financing as part of the mortgage is either 5 percent of the property’s
value (not to exceed $8,000) or $4,000, whichever is greater. The maximum
mortgage limit for a single-family home is $160,950, plus the cost of the
eligible improvements. (Limits may be lower in some areas of the country.)
To take advantage, contact the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development by writing to the department at 451 7th St. S.W., Washington,
D.C. 20410, visiting www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/eem/energy-r.cfm or
calling 202-708-1112.
Land a job, thanks to the stimulus package. The people who have money
to spend are those who received stimulus funds. These are government agencies,
contractors, and even subcontractors who are hiring people, buying
equipment and supplies, looking for caterers for their parties, or are
flush to donate to your charity.
To find out who received this money in your area, contact the office of
your senator or representative or your governor’s office. Almost every
state has a website describing who is getting what. At the time of this
writing, it has been more than 22 months since the stimulus bill was
passed and only about 40 percent of the funds have been spent so far. To
research, go to www.recovery.gov.
Subscribe to Your Favorite Mags for Free
Take advantage of the free magazine subscriptions available on the
Internet. I currently get about 30 free magazines a month. One way is by
doing surveys for www.erewards.com. You do their surveys and after the
money adds up a little, you can trade it in for subscriptions or a number
of other things, but I think the subscriptions are the best buy.
Another option is to go to www.slickdeals.net. They have a free magazine
forum. Sometimes you have to fill out a short survey to get a subscription;
in other cases, you just fill out a form with your name and address
and you’re set.
If you haven’t heard of Fiverr (www.fiverr.com), you better take a look at it. Fiverr
is a website where members can post what they call “gigs”. Gigs are generally
services you offer for five dollars. It can range from video recording to sharing
advice, for five dollars.
How to Avoid Tow Truck Scams
If you run into problems on the road this winter, you should be wary of tow trucks you didn’t call that offer to help.
There’s a chance that those tow truck drivers will offer services at an extremely high price and or may keep your car hostage until you pay high towing and storage fees. A tow for a simple flat tire, for instance, could result in a $1,600 bill for towing and storage.
The insurer Allstate recently issued a warning about the rise of such scams. (I suggest using a AAA membership).
http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/how-to-avoid-tow-truck-scams/
The Family Handyman site offers a lot of DIY projects online
http://www.familyhandyman.com/DIY-Projects/Saving-Money/Energy-Efficiency/how-to-seal-attic-air-leaks?pmcode=IAFEC960&_mid=825032&_rid=825032.643000.574912
"We now have so many regulations that
everyone is guilty of some violation."
-- Donald Alexander
Former IRS Director
This week’s dose of political reality
As for fiscal health, six of the 10 worst states for retirees on TopRetirements.com's list were among those just identified by a Pew Center for States report as being in "fiscal peril."
The report, "Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril," showed that "some of the same pressures that have pushed California toward economic disaster are wreaking havoc in a number of other states, with potentially damaging consequences for the entire country."
Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin joined California as the 10 most troubled states, according to Pew's analysis.
Of note, TopRetirements.com's Brady suggested that retirees and would-be retirees might want to avoid states in fiscal peril because these locales might be expected to face decreasing services and increasing taxation.
States of Disunion
Topping his website's list, Illinois's fiscal health could be the worst of any state, observed Brady. "It even borrowed money to fund its pension obligations," he said. As for California, he said the Golden State — though it does have a warm climate — is expensive and its finances are in disarray. What's more, he added, it has paid some bills with vouchers.
New York wasn't mentioned as being in fiscal trouble by the Pew Center, but it does have "very high taxes, including property taxes." In fact, Brady said New York has the second-highest tax burden and fifth-highest per capita property taxes. Plus, he said, the Empire State has a "dysfunctional state legislature." As if that wasn't bad enough, it's terrifically expensive to live in New York. The only benefit to living in New York, he said, is that pensions are exempt from income tax
http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/111588/the-10-worst-states-for-retirees?mod=fidelity-readytoretire&cat=fidelity_2010_getting_ready_to_retire
State “Repeal Amendment” Would Check Central Government
“The same people driving the lawsuits that seek to dismantle the Obama administration’s health care overhaul have set their sights on an even bigger target: a constitutional amendment that would allow a vote of the states to overturn any act of Congress. Under the proposed ‘repeal amendment,’ any federal law or regulation could be repealed if the legislatures of two-thirds of the states voted to do so.” (New York Times)
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
--George Orwell
Rise of the Police State
The is assembling a massive database on thousands of Americans, many of whom have not been accused of any crime, the Washington Post's Dana Priest and William Arkin report. The reporters' latest look at the country's ballooning national security system focuses on the role that local agencies -- often staffed by people with little to no counter-terrorism training -- have played in combating terrorism since 2001. Read to find the 5 most disturbing parts of this expose>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20101220/ts_yblog_thelookout/the-5-most-surprising-revelations-from-the-posts-monitoring-america-investigation
Americans Are Under Government’s Watchful Eye
“Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.” (Washington Post)
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
There are so many clear signs that our political establishment and financial system are based on fraud... from the ponzi scheme debt levels of western governments to their farcical elections to the mindless distractions that continually dribble out of the mainstream media. -Simon Black
Parting guest commentary…
The U.S. is descending into a police state. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before the redux of the “Un-American Activities Committee.”
Perhaps the final nail in the coffin is that in addition to their far-reaching, unchecked power for surveilling their citizens, U.S. federal agents also have nearly unlimited powers to confiscate any asset in the country that they suspect may be involved in criminal wrongdoing.
Law enforcement officials often use that tired expression “ignorance of the law is not an excuse...” The truth is that U.S. Code comprises hundreds of thousands of pages of obscure, conflicting, Byzantine regulations. Each of us is guilty of something right now... and perhaps that’s the point.
There are 4.2 million security cameras in public places in the U.K. That’s one camera for every 14 citizens. The average person there gets captured on film about 300 times as he makes his rounds each day.
Security cameras surround George Orwell’s London residence where he lived from 1904 till his death in 1950. Ironically, this is where the man penned his novelized warning about the panoptic police state, 1984. There are two cameras viewing his back window and another nearby camera is aimed at the front door of his favorite pub.
It’s far, far too late to heed any warnings from 1984, however. But there is another book from which we could all take a little inspiration…
What would happen if a few very capable lovers of liberty were to take matters into their own hands?
What could they possibly to fight Leviathan?
They could see to it that our representatives never have a chance to become corrupt or entrenched enough to wreck our lives for their own political gain. They could convince Congress to observe term limits…even if it required extreme measures to get Congress to listen…
“Four angry individuals believe deadly force is justified to restore the Constitution and regain our liberty. If their plans succeed, ‘The thieves that have stolen our liberty will pay with their lives…or resign if the voters agree, professional politicians will be forever barred from serving in Congress.’
“The Department of Justice begins a vengeful and bloody hunt for the ‘terrorists,’ but the hunt itself threatens our remaining liberties. When the first senator is ‘term-limited,’ it is clear the terrorists will not be easily found — they are inside the federal government, and they have carefully prepared.
“The same questions asked before the American Revolution are asked again: Is deadly force justified to defend liberty? Under what conditions? When will it be too late?”
An Act of Self-Defense may be fiction, but it’s timely, to say the least. It’s also a very plausible way that things could work out in reality.
Sure, it’s entertaining, but it’s also a warning about what to expect…and about the plans your government is making for you right now.
Thank you Simon, I couldn’t have stated it any better!
Mayhem Meltdown - End time stuff, the coming revolution…plus-how long are we going to put up with TSA crap? Write your congress-critter & here’s a funny ‘Grandma Got Run Over by the TSA’ humor…think about, our rights have been violated, billions spent on so-called security, yet not one terrorist caught. Who is really being violated?
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/steve-quayle-mayhem-meltdown-dec-17.html
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/steve-quayle-mayhem-meltdown-dec-17.html
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/gerald-celente-coming-revolution.html
That’s all for this issue of Poor Man Madness…Merry Christmas to all!
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
http://www.OldBookNook.com
http://www.GreenIrene.com/Poorman
Don't Get Caught With Your Pantry Down-New 11th Ed.
http://tinyurl.com/PMBasics
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Disposable Americans, Storage Unit Wars-Making a Buck
Bruce’s Poor Man Recession Survival Bulletin
Your choice for urban survival resources
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
In this issue:
1. Amazon Advantage-another selling tool to consider
2. Storage unit wars-make some money
3. Basics of solar cooking
4. Online Privacy from the fed-don’t hold your breath
5. As the world squirms-prediction of hyperinflation in 2011
6. Dumbing down of US continues-the video
7. YouTube time machine
8. Disposable Americans
Peter Dickinson on Christmas…
The threat of Christmas hung in the air, visible already in the fretful look of passersby as they readied themselves for the meaningless but necessary rites of false jovialities and ill-considered gifts.
Storage Wars-another way to make some money
Following the popularity of Pawn Stars, two new programs have begun airing on cable stations, Storage Wars & Auction Hunters. All of them feature a lot of fat guys having a good time buying and selling goods they get on the cheap.
I wrote about this a bit at the beginning of the year but with the advent of these entertaining adventures of entrepreneurial Americans, I wanted to remind readers of this avenue of making some extra cash. Yes, it’s a gamble as one is not allowed to go inside and look through the boxes which have been stored. The door is opened for all to view and the bidding begins!
I’ve done several of these auctions over the years and it is interesting. One guy got a 21ft boat & trailer, 750cc motorcycle (the key was taped to the gas tank), tons of tools, etc. for $250. Another guy got a $2000 power tool and a cigar box full of US silver coins for $425. We’ve seen units sell for as little as $5 and as high as $1400 (that unit had two snowmobiles).
You never know what you will find. Sometime just junk (always wonder why folks pay to store garbage which should have been donated a long time ago). Other times valuable tools - it can be a crap shoot.
What I suggested in my 45 Ways to Make a Living Without a Job CD is to form a syndicate or buying club. Friends of ours in CA did this and profited nicely from this sideline. Each member put up $200 into the pool. Two people were designated as the buyers. Contents were hauled back to the home and sorted through by the group who frequently found coins and valuable jewelry, antiques, household goods, etc. If someone in the group wished to purchase something, they voted to come up with a fair price and those funds were placed back into the fund. Items were sold via eBay, local auctions, Craigslist and at frequently held garage sales. Lots of fun for the those who are inclined to gamble a little and who enjoy sifting through mountains of stuff!
Decades ago when I first began writing, I interviewed Ron Popeil, or as you might know him as Ronco products or his little kitchen oven he promotes on TV. Ron told me that for every 10 products he purchased and promoted, seven were outright failures, two broke even and one made a lot of money. Over the years I’ve interviewed other successful entrepreneurs including Dr. Jeffrey Lant, Dan Kennedy, Ben Suarez and others.
They all share something in common - chance favors the prepared and testing & refinement is always needed. The message is that it is often necessary to break out of your comfort zone and research new ideas or to put a new twist on an old idea. (I once interviewed Ms. Barrows of Mayflower Madame fame…turned out, we share the same birthday).
You can locate these auctions by looking at the classified sections of local newspapers and free shopper type publications. Here are couple of sites to use as well.
http://www.auctionzip.com/storage.html
http://www.storageauctions.com/
Santa is jolly because he knows where all the bad girls live!
Tips, tricks and tools
Some will rob you with a six-gun;
And some with a fountain pen.
Trapped in Bank of America Hell
Are you one of the lucky ones? Have a good job, live in a nice neighborhood, enjoy your cozy home? Think foreclosure only impacts the reckless or the unemployed?
Think again
Get the full story here: http://www.prwatch.org/node/9818
http://www.banksterusa.org/
What’s next for insolvent banks & our economy/Charlie Rose interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbDDJeQXob8&feature=player_embedded
Oodle Relaunches Classifieds Using Facebook Social Graph
Oodle launched a new version of its classifieds platform using
Facebook's social graph. The ''social marketplace'' powers both the
Facebook Marketplace and Oodle. It's also available on smartphones.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y10/m12/i16/s04
>>>
A follow up to the free PDF we provided in the last issue for selling on Amazon:
We have a service you might be interested in, we have a great program for independent publishers and artists that lets you include your titles in the Amazon.com catalog. It's called Amazon.com Advantage.
As an Advantage member, your titles will appear more often when customers search our catalog. We'll display a picture of each book, music CD, or video cover alongside reviews, excerpts and other information designed to spark sales. Amazon will keep copies of your titles in our inventory to offer immediate availability to buyers.
A complete program description, including information on how to sign up, is located at the following URL:
http://www.amazon.com/advantage
Find out what eBay buyers want
http://www.auctionyen.com/videos/want/index.html
Wind Power is losing, Solar getting bigger
As federal grants for such projects dwindle, wind power efforts will slow to their lowest point in four years. Solar projects on public lands however, will start converting sunlight to electricity this year, mostly in California.
The YouTube time machine
Your afternoon productivity will probably suffer…this site aggregates thousands of news broadcasts, sports highlights and other videos representing every year since 1860...pick a date, specify what types of clips you want, and the site cues up just about anything. (how do they get stuff from 1860)?
http://www.Yttm.tv
“Manna from Heaven”.
The history of Aloe goes back to Alexander the Great and it is mentioned in the Bible many of times. What makes this product so special is the actual process of Aloe where all of the great healing abilities of Aloe are captured, not destroyed or altered. http://www.Symmetrydirect.com/Optimum
The Basics of Solar Cooking
Sunshine is the most reliable resource we have, so why not use it? Uses for solar energy are abundant, but most don’t consider cooking with it. Solar cooking takes the power of the sun, reflects and focuses it in such a way as to produce a remarkable heat source. This is done using reflectively coated walls around the food. Think about how warm the summer sun makes a stone or the interior of a car. Similarly, a solar cooker intensifies the suns rays and makes them hot enough to cook an entire chicken or roast dinner.
Click below to find an easy to use overview of using solar to cook with.
http://www.cookingschools.net/resources/the-basics-of-solar-cooking/
Reason.tv: Ayn Rand and the World She Made - Q&A with Anne Heller
Anne C. Heller's critically acclaimed and best-selling 2009 book, Ayn Rand and the World She Made, is new in paperback (we're tempted to say that it makes a great Christmas gift, though it's clear that Rand didn't believe in the holiday or the altruism that attaches to it!).
Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with Heller about Rand, whom the biographer says remains the great explicator of capitalism's virtues and remarkably undervalued by the literary establishment.
Click here to watch.
Spybot Search and Destroy
This program is used for removing those pesky adware / spyware files on your computer. By now, most people understand the vast threat out there when it comes to malicious files that are sometimes tied to programs you download. If you are not aware of the potential threats I will give a bit of an overview.
Spyware is defined as a type of malware designed to collect information from your computer about you without your knowledge. It can do many things from changing your computer settings to causing really slow connection speeds on your computer. This program is designed to take care of these and many other problems for you.
If you'd like to learn more about Spybot, click here.
Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas." ~ Johnny Carson
Round up of government nonsense
Do you remember the good old days the when it used to be illegal for governments to spy on their citizens? I don't either... but I'm told that it used to be illegal. Oh how times have changed.
PM Predicted little would change with the elections…more proof
A tax-cut compromise between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans – a harbinger of a new era of divided government in Washington – has cleared the House, sending the $858 billion bill to the president's desk. The bill, which passed 277 to 148, provides a two-year extension for all tax cuts that were due to expire Dec. 31 -- including for families earning more than $250,000 a year -- and extends unemployment insurance benefits through next year.
Feds call for online 'privacy bill of rights'
The Commerce Department is calling for the creation of a "privacy bill of rights" for Internet users to set ground rules for companies that collect consumer data online and use that information for marketing and other purposes. Gee, why don’t they just get rid of that Constitution bashing un-Patriot Act?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/16/feds-call-for-online-privacy-bill-of-rights/
Hyperinflation to start within a few months…as the world squirms
John Williams of Shadowstats has repeatedly warned that our economy is not doing as well as some would have you believe. From unemployment to GDP to current and future liabilities, there are fundamental problems that will not be resolved anytime soon - in fact, they're likely to get worse.
The end result according to Williams? A hyperinflationary depression.
http://jimrogers1.blogspot.com/2010/12/john-williams-hyperinflation-will-start.html
Dumbing down of America & the west continues..
As PM says, the reason is to make the populace easier to control!
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/deliberate-dumbing-down-of-america-and.html
EDITORIAL: A death panel for government
Ronald Reagan observed that a federal program is the nearest thing to eternal life on this Earth. With President Obama's budget forecasting nearly doubled expenditures by the year 2020, governmental red ink appears equally immortal. Next year, Congress should pilfer an idea from the Texas state legislature that would give wasteful departments the dignified burial they have long deserved.
"I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph." ~ Shirley Temple
Parting thoughts---financial cannibalism
Last issue showed how banks and government watch every financial move Americans make…not in the name of national security, but in the name of grabbing money from you by charging you with some kind of crime…this is the new cornerstone of their recovery strategy; everyone is fair game for surveillance, and the threshold for asset seizure is minimal.
The more laws government passes, the more new classes of criminals it creates, the more assets the government can seize and the more control it can exert. That is what the Un-Patriot Act was truly about. It was never meant to protect American citizens, rather it allows the government to prey on its citizens, stripping them of their rights.
No on can keep up with the thousands of laws government passes each year…The system that they've created is one in which suspicion equals guilt, all without due process. Once they deem you suspicious, they can freeze your accounts and seize your assets, thus taking away whatever resources you might have to defend yourself and prove your own innocence.
What happens when the US dollar is dumped as world currency of choice?
The first thing is denial by our central bank (Tim Geitner) even though it was reported that a meeting, sans the US, took place recently by Arab nations, China, Japan & Russia to discuss dumping the dollar as the reserve currency. China is already buying less dollars (debt) as our government/Fed continue cranking up the printing press.
I still recall buying a home when interest rates were skyrocketing to 11, 12, 14% and higher and felt lucky to find one at 8.5% (I swapped my VA Certificate of Eligibility to another Vet-owned home mortgage along with $20,000 cash) and was happy! Land contracts were popular and state usury rates kept the interest somewhat reasonable…now, few states have such usury laws thanks to credit card companies.
In other countries which experienced massive inflation, such as England in the 80s and post war Germany, social structure bordered on collapse when folks often experienced 100% inflation rates every 24-hours.
Just think, in 2011 46 states face huge budget shortfalls and the fed will no longer bail them out. In Arizona, they’ve put up government buildings for sale, in CA which devotes 11% of its budget to prisons (more than education) it is releasing prisoners early. One southern state is buying life insurance policies on its employees in hopes of collecting the proceeds once he or she dies!
This is why state governments pass more and more laws too. By creating new classes of criminals, they collect more fines which supplement their budgets. (recall the story in the last issue of how Florida is sending in SWAT teams on so-called licensing violations for small businesses as to avoid Constitutional protections).
'Hotwatch orders,'--- government agents are able to write their own administrative subpoenas to surveil US citizens; they request the records of phone companies, Internet service providers, video rentals, and even frequent flier / customer loyalty programs at airlines and grocery stores.
Friends, I do believe our nation is teetering on the edge of massive disruption and the continued violations of Constitutional law by government terrorists is not a good sign!
Better perfect your black market and barter skills now.
Disposable Americans…an interesting site I ran across that I feel is worth sharing.
Disposable Americans, is what millions in this country have become. Thrown away, tossed out, laid off, and disposed of, during the Great Recession. Millions of Americans have seen their dreams turned into nightmares. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their savings, their homes, and even their lives. American families have been devastated. Who are these people? They are your neighbors, your friends, and your family members.
http://disposableamericans.net/index.php/home
Keep these folks in mind as you celebrate the holiday and this is why the Poor Man created the site and newsletter. It’s been our goal to share resources and to expose how practices have hurt America.
Yours for survival, the Poor Man…“Anyone who believes that men are the equal of women has never seen a man trying to wrap a Christmas present." ~ Unknown
Have a blessed Christmas!
Enjoy the Poor Man’s holiday photo spread on face book…
Share this album with anyone by sending them this public link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100257&id=1375151530&l=ae2d54ddad
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Frazzle Free Freebies
Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
Your choice for urban survival resources
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
In This Issue:
1. 1926 Humor from Disney & the Skillet Lickers
2. Frazzle free holidays
3. How your bank spies on you, electronic pick pocketing
4. Which consumer goods will rise in price
5. Who really owns our country-you & I are not in the club
6. When will the economy collapse-the answer
7. Making money on Amazon-free PDF report
Our advisors tell me that Quantitative Easing & weakness in the US Dollar will continue throughout 2011, allowing gold to continue rising…silver dollars in our area have been selling for $27 ea in ‘junk silver condition.’
Top Searches for 2010
Sunday’s edition came through a bit garbled as I forgot to transfer the content to the better version of our word processor…or maybe it was so blasted cold and snowy that my brain froze. I kind of forgot how blasted cold it can get and why I’m happy to work primarily from home!
Google and other released their Top 10 Searches for 2010 and it should come as no surprise that…
In a nutshell, 2010 has been a year of global struggles ranging from the debt crisis, soaring unemployment, political turmoil to achievements in the medical and scientific fields, and catastrophic tragedies caused by both man and nature.
More folks are becoming more than a little concerned about the global financial turmoil, inflation and the bad government policies which brought the economic crash upon us.
That, gentle reader, requires a reminder of what I wrote a couple of weeks ago…gold prices will go higher and whenever gold shoots higher, that nearly always means commodity prices shoot higher. The people always have to pay the price for bad government and Wall Street decisions.
As we get closer to the holiday, I’m going to include additional videos to make you think, to make you laugh…we can always use more of that!
As more nations default, as most recently seen in Ireland, Our economy will suffer even more due to QE! Most banks which were bailed out are in worse shape now due to toxic mortgages. Most likely, the middle class will be completely destroyed in the coming years due to even more inflation.
As I wrote on Sunday, despite the recent election, nothing in Washington has changed.
You might find Ron Paul’s interview about Soviet style economy on the horizon for US voters of interest. Draw your own conclusion. You will also enjoy my favorite judge & his Freedom Watch show from Fox News.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRzmn5sHmH0&feature=related
http://peterschiffchannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/andrew-napolitano-on-tax-and-spend.html
Parody of how the fed will fix the economy-cute!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnkMmUsi4Gc&NR=1
Japanese parody of our TSA using dirty old man inspector…cute
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=118_1290452447
Here’s the sad reality on who REALLY controls this country & it’s not the politicians. Learn who is truly ruining America, from my favorite guy, George Carlin.
http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=george+carlin+who+really+controls+america
It ‘aint mine [the National Debt], I didn’t sign those check(s)…perhaps you
Should hit up those generous lobbyists for some cash as we’re broke thanks to you!
--John & Mary Q Taxpayer
Our Weekly round-up: tips, tricks, freebies
GIMP: http://gimp.org (free download)
An open source program used to create & edit - free alternative to Photoshop.
CamStudio: http://camstudio.org (free download)
Lets you record all screen & audio activity on your computer and create video files.
CCleaner: http://ccleaner.com (free download)
Removes unused files from your pc allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up space.
Give Away Of The Day: http://giveawayoftheday.com (free download)
Unique site that offers you a free license digital product daily.
PDF to Word Converter: http://pdftoword.com (free online tool)
Easily create editable Word Doc files from PDF content – for legit purposes only!
Tweet Deck: http://tweetdeck.com (free download)
Great for staying in touch with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and more.
8 Weeks to a Frazzle Free Christmas
Well written and a lot of family-oriented useful ideas, links & resources
http://www.familieswithpurpose.com/frazzle-free-christmas.html
Another useful tool worth checking out…
I really enjoyed browsing through the posts of your blog and I would
like to tell you about Shoeboxed.com. Shoeboxed.com is a web app that
helps entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small businesses get their paper
clutter organized and digitized -- specifically we scan and data enter
paper receipts for taxes, bookkeeping, and the IRS, a task that is
notoriously painful.
You can make money selling via Amazon’s FBA program-learn how here.
http://www.sellfba.com/selling_on_amazon_fba_9-17-10.pdf or try
http://www.sellfba.com/mstdownload.html
Free eBook
Suzanne Wells - This is great free ebook. This ebook is a business plan for 1 person to build an Amazon book business in 90 days generating $400 a week profit - only spending 5 hours a week on the business.
http://ebaysellingcoach.com/f/90_Day_Amazon_3.pdf
Moms can make a connection. I’ve always heard that holidays are the loneliest time for many and suicide rates often spike as a result. If you know of someone who is lonely, perhaps just lost a loved one, share some time with them and direct them to this site where they can join an online community.
http://www.MomsLikeMe.com
Michelle Madhok founded a couple of sites for busy moms to make life a bit more fun
www.SheFinds.com and www.MomFinds.com
Our government steals, excuse me, seizes a lot of goods from citizens. They do auction quite a bit of it off (the Poor Man used to auction the City of Phx surplus & seized goods) and you can save some cash. Try this site:
www.USA.gov/shopping/shopping.shtml
Donate your left over holiday greeting cards this year to St. Jude’s Hospital. They’ll turn them into new cards & resell them for their Ranch for Children. Send to:
Recycled Card Program
100 St. Jude’s St.
Boulder City, NV 89005
If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you,
it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun."
-- Dalai Lama
[Tenzin Gyatso] (1935-) 14th Dalai Lama of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism
How Bankers Spy on You…
Big Banker is watching you—more closely than ever.
With lenders still skittish about making new loans, credit bureaus and others are hawking services that help banks probe deeply into your financial closet. The new offerings include ways to look at your rent and utility payments, figure out your income, gauge your home's value and even rate your banking habits based on details like whether your direct deposits have stopped. More at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704865104575588803958385376.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_personalfinance
Electronic Pick pocketing-thanks to that other Big Brother crap-RFID
New technology our gov’t uses to spy on you, is now used by crooks!
http://www.wreg.com/videobeta/?watchId=8ba6f8fc-90a2-4711-90ea-1884ec348310
Several services and commodities will rise in price in 2011
-Postal Rates
-Gold (most likely silver too)
-Ammunition
-College tuition
-Coffee
-auto insurance, health insurance
-new car prices
-Water rates-if you are serviced by a government, your rates will increase
-Fast food - Mickey Dee’s has little choice as the price of wheat rises, most everything else will too. The Poor Man predicted this 4 or 5 issues ago and prices went up the next day!
"One of the greatest problems that we as a free people face today is that for the past 100 years trial judges in the U.S. have routinely misinformed jurors that they were bound to accept the judge's opinion of what the law is; which law to apply; and whether or not they had to find a defendant guilty. In so doing these judges have welded shut this all important safety valve, which our Founders so wisely provided our society -- and the result has been an explosive one."
-- Mike Robbins
Source: Fully Informed Jury Association Activist
FREE-online marketing guidebook
http://cdn1.infusionsoft.com/site/infusionsoft.com/media/pdf/nd/Internet-Marketing-Guidebook.pdf
>>><<< Here’s a wonderful example from FL of how government bypasses the Constitution
SWAT teams invade black-owned barber shops
http://reason.com/archives/2010/12/13/the-swat-team-would-like-to-se
"This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty. ... The right of self defence is the first law of nature:
-- St. George Tucker
(1752-1827) American lawyer and professor of law at the College of William and Mary
Gold is being pushed by fear and a bad economy, inflation and TV marketing. Ten years ago the ratio between silver, gold and platinum was 17 oz. of silver to 1 oz. of gold and 3oz. of gold to 1 oz. of platinum. That ratio had stayed pretty static for over 50 years. Today, the ratio is 59 oz. of silver to 1 oz. of gold and 1.2 oz. of gold to 1 oz. of platinum. Fear, government spending and heavy marketing by TV gold resellers has pushed the perceived value of gold very high compared to silver or platinum. The rule is to buy low and sell high…but even silver prices have headed north.
Gold is at an all-time high. Will it go higher? Probably, but at some point it will turn and when it does, its value will likely drop very fast. If you have gold or you are thinking of buying gold, you need to follow the economy very closely. Watch for a noticeable improvement in the business sector GDP, new jobs, end of government bailouts and end of spending…it could happen or at least the perception. This is when gold may start dropping. Gold has served in this role for thousands of years, but laws created by governments that have grown too big to put this role in doubt today. Gold Confiscation is still on the books. My personal thought is to always take personal possession of your gold and silver.
* November's Producer Price Index (PPI) for finished goods surged 0.8%, almost double most economists' estimates. On an annualized basis, that's equivalent to nearly 10% inflation!
Moreover, the inflation is not stemming just from rising energy prices. Overall, the cost of food rose 1 full percentage point in November, equivalent to 12% annual inflation.
The dollar may drop 11 percent versus the euro next year as investors shun U.S. assets and drive bonds lower, according to Citigroup Inc. Happy New Year!
Parting Shots
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the more socialist our government becomes the more corrupt the system/politicians becomes? We seemed to have developed a culture of fraud in this country. There doesn’t seem to be a week that goes by where there isn’t a news report about a politician who lies about an affair, their military record, political favors and financial payoffs, etc?
Data brokers have long been used by our government (especially the IRS) to track Americans. Back in 1996 when I wrote a lengthy how-to manual on protecting your assets, privacy and identity from government pirates, greedy lawyers, ex-spouses, etc…one of the things we predicted was the move toward outlawing cash while promoting use of easily monitored credit and debit cards…in 2018 the UK will outlaw the use of paper checks!
Since your cash probably won’t be worth much in the near future, perhaps you will no longer care that our government monitors your spending habits.
When will the economy collapse?
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/when-will-america-collapse.html
With that in mind, I urge you to pick up your copy of Terrorizing Ourselves: Why U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Is Failing and How to Fix It by clicking here.
Another parting bit of humor & insights on free speech, or the lack of it with my favorite TV consumer guy, John Stossel.
http://peterschiffchannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/john-stossel-free-speech-expelled.html
I always like to leave you with a bit of humor…
You Gotta Quit Kickin my Dog Around - 1926 cartoon from Disney w/ musical accompaniment from the Skillet Lickers…nice satire on how a few of us escape government crap…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ3rXbFn8qE&feature=related
That’s it for this week from the Poor Man - Clinically proven to eliminate government terror rats on contact.
Your purchases & suggestions are always appreciated. We’ve recently added a new affiliate program to our site - Solarrific.com (our ID=259) which offers a variety of solar products including rechargeable battery charger, light sticks and other goodies - they do not sell to the public per se which is why you need to use our ID.
We’re also in the process of setting up as a reseller of Paladin Press books & DVDs…more on that in the next issue…busy, busy, busy!
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
http://www.OldBookNook.com
http://www.GreenIrene.com/Poorman
http://market.solarrific.com/?Click=259
Don't Get Caught With Your Pantry Down-New 11th Ed.
http://tinyurl.com/PMBasics
A Shallow Planet Production
Your choice for urban survival resources
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
In This Issue:
1. 1926 Humor from Disney & the Skillet Lickers
2. Frazzle free holidays
3. How your bank spies on you, electronic pick pocketing
4. Which consumer goods will rise in price
5. Who really owns our country-you & I are not in the club
6. When will the economy collapse-the answer
7. Making money on Amazon-free PDF report
Our advisors tell me that Quantitative Easing & weakness in the US Dollar will continue throughout 2011, allowing gold to continue rising…silver dollars in our area have been selling for $27 ea in ‘junk silver condition.’
Top Searches for 2010
Sunday’s edition came through a bit garbled as I forgot to transfer the content to the better version of our word processor…or maybe it was so blasted cold and snowy that my brain froze. I kind of forgot how blasted cold it can get and why I’m happy to work primarily from home!
Google and other released their Top 10 Searches for 2010 and it should come as no surprise that…
In a nutshell, 2010 has been a year of global struggles ranging from the debt crisis, soaring unemployment, political turmoil to achievements in the medical and scientific fields, and catastrophic tragedies caused by both man and nature.
More folks are becoming more than a little concerned about the global financial turmoil, inflation and the bad government policies which brought the economic crash upon us.
That, gentle reader, requires a reminder of what I wrote a couple of weeks ago…gold prices will go higher and whenever gold shoots higher, that nearly always means commodity prices shoot higher. The people always have to pay the price for bad government and Wall Street decisions.
As we get closer to the holiday, I’m going to include additional videos to make you think, to make you laugh…we can always use more of that!
As more nations default, as most recently seen in Ireland, Our economy will suffer even more due to QE! Most banks which were bailed out are in worse shape now due to toxic mortgages. Most likely, the middle class will be completely destroyed in the coming years due to even more inflation.
As I wrote on Sunday, despite the recent election, nothing in Washington has changed.
You might find Ron Paul’s interview about Soviet style economy on the horizon for US voters of interest. Draw your own conclusion. You will also enjoy my favorite judge & his Freedom Watch show from Fox News.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRzmn5sHmH0&feature=related
http://peterschiffchannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/andrew-napolitano-on-tax-and-spend.html
Parody of how the fed will fix the economy-cute!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnkMmUsi4Gc&NR=1
Japanese parody of our TSA using dirty old man inspector…cute
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=118_1290452447
Here’s the sad reality on who REALLY controls this country & it’s not the politicians. Learn who is truly ruining America, from my favorite guy, George Carlin.
http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=george+carlin+who+really+controls+america
It ‘aint mine [the National Debt], I didn’t sign those check(s)…perhaps you
Should hit up those generous lobbyists for some cash as we’re broke thanks to you!
--John & Mary Q Taxpayer
Our Weekly round-up: tips, tricks, freebies
GIMP: http://gimp.org (free download)
An open source program used to create & edit - free alternative to Photoshop.
CamStudio: http://camstudio.org (free download)
Lets you record all screen & audio activity on your computer and create video files.
CCleaner: http://ccleaner.com (free download)
Removes unused files from your pc allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up space.
Give Away Of The Day: http://giveawayoftheday.com (free download)
Unique site that offers you a free license digital product daily.
PDF to Word Converter: http://pdftoword.com (free online tool)
Easily create editable Word Doc files from PDF content – for legit purposes only!
Tweet Deck: http://tweetdeck.com (free download)
Great for staying in touch with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and more.
8 Weeks to a Frazzle Free Christmas
Well written and a lot of family-oriented useful ideas, links & resources
http://www.familieswithpurpose.com/frazzle-free-christmas.html
Another useful tool worth checking out…
I really enjoyed browsing through the posts of your blog and I would
like to tell you about Shoeboxed.com. Shoeboxed.com is a web app that
helps entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small businesses get their paper
clutter organized and digitized -- specifically we scan and data enter
paper receipts for taxes, bookkeeping, and the IRS, a task that is
notoriously painful.
You can make money selling via Amazon’s FBA program-learn how here.
http://www.sellfba.com/selling_on_amazon_fba_9-17-10.pdf or try
http://www.sellfba.com/mstdownload.html
Free eBook
Suzanne Wells - This is great free ebook. This ebook is a business plan for 1 person to build an Amazon book business in 90 days generating $400 a week profit - only spending 5 hours a week on the business.
http://ebaysellingcoach.com/f/90_Day_Amazon_3.pdf
Moms can make a connection. I’ve always heard that holidays are the loneliest time for many and suicide rates often spike as a result. If you know of someone who is lonely, perhaps just lost a loved one, share some time with them and direct them to this site where they can join an online community.
http://www.MomsLikeMe.com
Michelle Madhok founded a couple of sites for busy moms to make life a bit more fun
www.SheFinds.com and www.MomFinds.com
Our government steals, excuse me, seizes a lot of goods from citizens. They do auction quite a bit of it off (the Poor Man used to auction the City of Phx surplus & seized goods) and you can save some cash. Try this site:
www.USA.gov/shopping/shopping.shtml
Donate your left over holiday greeting cards this year to St. Jude’s Hospital. They’ll turn them into new cards & resell them for their Ranch for Children. Send to:
Recycled Card Program
100 St. Jude’s St.
Boulder City, NV 89005
If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you,
it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun."
-- Dalai Lama
[Tenzin Gyatso] (1935-) 14th Dalai Lama of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism
How Bankers Spy on You…
Big Banker is watching you—more closely than ever.
With lenders still skittish about making new loans, credit bureaus and others are hawking services that help banks probe deeply into your financial closet. The new offerings include ways to look at your rent and utility payments, figure out your income, gauge your home's value and even rate your banking habits based on details like whether your direct deposits have stopped. More at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704865104575588803958385376.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_personalfinance
Electronic Pick pocketing-thanks to that other Big Brother crap-RFID
New technology our gov’t uses to spy on you, is now used by crooks!
http://www.wreg.com/videobeta/?watchId=8ba6f8fc-90a2-4711-90ea-1884ec348310
Several services and commodities will rise in price in 2011
-Postal Rates
-Gold (most likely silver too)
-Ammunition
-College tuition
-Coffee
-auto insurance, health insurance
-new car prices
-Water rates-if you are serviced by a government, your rates will increase
-Fast food - Mickey Dee’s has little choice as the price of wheat rises, most everything else will too. The Poor Man predicted this 4 or 5 issues ago and prices went up the next day!
"One of the greatest problems that we as a free people face today is that for the past 100 years trial judges in the U.S. have routinely misinformed jurors that they were bound to accept the judge's opinion of what the law is; which law to apply; and whether or not they had to find a defendant guilty. In so doing these judges have welded shut this all important safety valve, which our Founders so wisely provided our society -- and the result has been an explosive one."
-- Mike Robbins
Source: Fully Informed Jury Association Activist
FREE-online marketing guidebook
http://cdn1.infusionsoft.com/site/infusionsoft.com/media/pdf/nd/Internet-Marketing-Guidebook.pdf
>>><<< Here’s a wonderful example from FL of how government bypasses the Constitution
SWAT teams invade black-owned barber shops
http://reason.com/archives/2010/12/13/the-swat-team-would-like-to-se
"This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty. ... The right of self defence is the first law of nature:
-- St. George Tucker
(1752-1827) American lawyer and professor of law at the College of William and Mary
Gold is being pushed by fear and a bad economy, inflation and TV marketing. Ten years ago the ratio between silver, gold and platinum was 17 oz. of silver to 1 oz. of gold and 3oz. of gold to 1 oz. of platinum. That ratio had stayed pretty static for over 50 years. Today, the ratio is 59 oz. of silver to 1 oz. of gold and 1.2 oz. of gold to 1 oz. of platinum. Fear, government spending and heavy marketing by TV gold resellers has pushed the perceived value of gold very high compared to silver or platinum. The rule is to buy low and sell high…but even silver prices have headed north.
Gold is at an all-time high. Will it go higher? Probably, but at some point it will turn and when it does, its value will likely drop very fast. If you have gold or you are thinking of buying gold, you need to follow the economy very closely. Watch for a noticeable improvement in the business sector GDP, new jobs, end of government bailouts and end of spending…it could happen or at least the perception. This is when gold may start dropping. Gold has served in this role for thousands of years, but laws created by governments that have grown too big to put this role in doubt today. Gold Confiscation is still on the books. My personal thought is to always take personal possession of your gold and silver.
* November's Producer Price Index (PPI) for finished goods surged 0.8%, almost double most economists' estimates. On an annualized basis, that's equivalent to nearly 10% inflation!
Moreover, the inflation is not stemming just from rising energy prices. Overall, the cost of food rose 1 full percentage point in November, equivalent to 12% annual inflation.
The dollar may drop 11 percent versus the euro next year as investors shun U.S. assets and drive bonds lower, according to Citigroup Inc. Happy New Year!
Parting Shots
Is it just me or has anyone else noticed the more socialist our government becomes the more corrupt the system/politicians becomes? We seemed to have developed a culture of fraud in this country. There doesn’t seem to be a week that goes by where there isn’t a news report about a politician who lies about an affair, their military record, political favors and financial payoffs, etc?
Data brokers have long been used by our government (especially the IRS) to track Americans. Back in 1996 when I wrote a lengthy how-to manual on protecting your assets, privacy and identity from government pirates, greedy lawyers, ex-spouses, etc…one of the things we predicted was the move toward outlawing cash while promoting use of easily monitored credit and debit cards…in 2018 the UK will outlaw the use of paper checks!
Since your cash probably won’t be worth much in the near future, perhaps you will no longer care that our government monitors your spending habits.
When will the economy collapse?
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/when-will-america-collapse.html
With that in mind, I urge you to pick up your copy of Terrorizing Ourselves: Why U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Is Failing and How to Fix It by clicking here.
Another parting bit of humor & insights on free speech, or the lack of it with my favorite TV consumer guy, John Stossel.
http://peterschiffchannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/john-stossel-free-speech-expelled.html
I always like to leave you with a bit of humor…
You Gotta Quit Kickin my Dog Around - 1926 cartoon from Disney w/ musical accompaniment from the Skillet Lickers…nice satire on how a few of us escape government crap…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ3rXbFn8qE&feature=related
That’s it for this week from the Poor Man - Clinically proven to eliminate government terror rats on contact.
Your purchases & suggestions are always appreciated. We’ve recently added a new affiliate program to our site - Solarrific.com (our ID=259) which offers a variety of solar products including rechargeable battery charger, light sticks and other goodies - they do not sell to the public per se which is why you need to use our ID.
We’re also in the process of setting up as a reseller of Paladin Press books & DVDs…more on that in the next issue…busy, busy, busy!
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
http://www.OldBookNook.com
http://www.GreenIrene.com/Poorman
http://market.solarrific.com/?Click=259
Don't Get Caught With Your Pantry Down-New 11th Ed.
http://tinyurl.com/PMBasics
A Shallow Planet Production
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Last Minute Gift Ideas, More TSA Follies
Bruce’s Poor Man Recession Bulletin
Your choice for urban survival resources
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
In This Issue:
What I gained When I lost Everything
America now has the worst income disparity in the world
Big Brother on Steroids-Walmart TV-Spy on Fellow Americans
American stupidity-why the sheep are so easily led
Online holiday freebies, Free PDF of Economics in One Lesson, More
Last minute gifts you can print online
The Biggest Bank Robbery
"For everybody has a natural right to defend his own person and property against aggressors, but also to go to the assistance and defense of everybody else, whose person or property is invaded. The natural right of each individual to defend his own person and property against an aggressor, and to go to the assistance and defense of every one else whose person or property is invaded, is a right without which men could not exist on earth."
-- Lysander Spooner
(1808-1887) Political theorist, activist, abolitionist
A blend of the ACLU & Nader’s Raiders-Are we just road kill?
Our country has entirely too much duplication of government agencies
One of the reasons we created the Citizen’s Guide to Screwing Bureaucrats is because many are tired of their ruthless, costly antics but most of us lack either the desire or means of challenging these flatworms in a legal fashion.
It is simply not government creeps that screw things up, it is often corporate jerks too and the most famous for screwing its customers is feebay. There are loads of blogs and sites devoted to exposing at their insidious practices. EBay’s ad network owes me $26.50 and they don’t want to give it back - they even admit they owe it! I will probably wind up filing a complaint with the CA Attorney General’s office (find a link to all 50 states on our Poor Man site).
A former employer of the Poor Man’s wife owes us a few thousand and is dragging his heals and openly shows his disrespect. We’ll file a complaint with the Department of Labor against him. An example from our book on how to use a bigger fish to go after a smaller fish at no out of pocket expenses.
My sister always said I should have been a lawyer and both of us passed the LSAT’s while in high school but never went to law school. However, the Poor Man sits on the board and acts as volunteer executive director of a not-for-profit group which has been essentially sitting idle for the past year. We used to make grants of cash and gifts to other non-profit groups, but that fund is empty.
We grew up in an era when Ralph Nader and his Nader’s Raiders were popular and it is time to revive an organization devoted to citizens rights since most often, the government either falls down on the job or is the problem. Nader went after consumer products, such as GM and their auto, the Corvair along with governmental organizations such as the FTC. There is no doubt we have too many government agencies. Can anyone tell me why the Department of Education needs to be duplicated 51 times? Let each state handle their own educational needs and save the taxpayers some cash!
Over the years, some have accused me of being un-American. Quite the opposite, I love this country but I’ve grown increasingly disgusted at how governments at all levels have trampled the rights of hard working Americans and have squandered our public treasury placing our children into hock for generations to come. Just because a child is sick doesn’t mean you toss it out the window, you try to cure it.
Most folks are too intimidated, too broke or don’t have the time or inclination to battle government agencies. That’s what they count on!
In the eyes of our Washington-Wall Street Cartel, many citizens have become serfs, serving the feudal master and if we no longer serve their purpose - we’re road kill.
My thinking is our activist group would target government agencies primarily as they seem to do the most harm and cost the public the most money - needlessly. If you have any interest in getting involved, drop me a line. Defending our rights under Natural Law is in the interest of every American. I will be seeking paralegals, researchers and lawyers to assist on a pro bono basis.
I’m meeting with the MI branch of the ACLU to get some pointers on approaching law schools to gather volunteers. We’re contemplating as our first case, to go after MI law preventing people from defending themselves using non-lethal tools such as mace and stun guns, something currently against the law.
To learn more about Nader’s Raiders, go here:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/unreasonableman/beyondraiders.html
Here’s our Christmas Card to all of you…feel free to share it with your friends!
Click here for your card. (if this link doesn’t work, use the one below)
http://ak.imgag.com/imgag/product/preview/flash/bws8Shell_fps24.swf?ihost=http://ak.imgag.com/imgag&brandldrPath=/product/full/el/&cardNum=/product/full/ap/3166187/graphic1
Learn to make your eBay listings stand out-Free guide
http://pagemage.com/docs/eBay_Stand_Out_Guide.pdf
How to profit on eBay-even if you don’t have a product. (Part of a free online course you can sign up for when you visit this site)
http://www.hotitemfinder.com/hotprofits/lesson14_a4fq.php
UPS Adds Photo ID Requirement for Retail Shipping
UPS is expanding its policy to require customers who ship
packages from retail shipping locations to present a
government-issued photo ID for verification of identification.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y10/m12/i10/s04
It [the State] has taken on a vast mass of new duties and responsibilities; it has spread out its
powers until they penetrate to every act of the citizen, however secret; it has begun to throw
around its operations the high dignity and impeccability of a State religion; its agents become a
separate and superior caste, with authority to bind and loose, and their thumbs in every pot. But it
still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and
decent men.
Henry L. Mencken, 1926.
Read-Our Enemy, the State-free PDF you might wish to share or watch the video. One of the absolute best treatise on state power grabs and control
http://mises.org/etexts/ourenemy.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL4vOjDWXNs
Homestead series on how to grow garlic. They also offer free how to’s on building a greenhouse and more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vExj4UCmFNA&feature=related
A variety of Christmas-Holiday FREEBIES
Cards, music, catalogs and more…
http://thefreesite.com/Seasonal_Freebies/Christmas/
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/gifts/tp/Free_Christmas_Gifts.htm
Last Minute gifts you can print at home…
Amazon.com - simply click the ‘gift cards’ menu tab and select Print a Gift Card
Restaurant.com - good at more than 15,000 eateries & you pay only 40-60% of the actual value!
Netflix.com - go to their site & click on gift Purchase & choose how many months you’ll give.
!Tunes! - use gift cards to download songs & albums to suit nearly any taste (I like 80s music)
Here’s another idea…several years ago we made up custom gift baskets as presents to family members. Knowing each person allowed us to include their favorite chocolates and I baked up batches of cookies and mini-loaves of blueberry, pumpkin and banana breads. To this we included a 60-page cookbook I had written of unique country recipes…the baskets & cookbook proved a big hit and for several years we got requests for additional copies of our Secrets & Shortcuts of a Country Inn Chef!
<<<>>>
What I Gained When I Lost Everything...
Michael Gates Gill - thanks to Bottom Line for allowing this to be shared! The Poor Man went through a similar experience but he’s not old enough to get medicare and he never worked at Starbucks…but he did rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in uninsured medical bills and bounced back. You can too is the moral of this story.
Fourteen years ago, at age 53, Michael Gates Gill was at the top of his game -- he had a lovely wife, an expensive home and a $160,000-a-year job in advertising. By age 63, he was divorced, unemployed and nearly broke -- then his doctor informed him that he had a slow-growing brain tumor.
In desperate need of health insurance and a regular paycheck, Gill took an entry-level job serving coffee at Starbucks for $10.50 an hour. To his amazement, he loved the work.
Four years later, Gill no longer needs the health insurance -- he now is old enough to qualify for Medicare. He also has sold his life story to Hollywood (Tom Hanks is expected to portray Gill in the film), but he plans to remain at Starbucks -- he enjoys the job. He has chosen “watchful waiting” as the treatment option for his brain tumor.
Bottom Line/Personal asked Gill to share what recent years have taught him about life...
Your own expectations can constrain you. In my earlier life, I defined myself by my career and social status -- I was an affluent, Yale-educated ad executive. When I lost my job in advertising, I was certain that the solution to my problems lay in landing a new job in advertising or, if not that, a new client to get my own advertising consulting business on its feet.
My mental image of myself prevented me from considering opportunities that did not fit that picture. I could not see myself in a service-sector job wearing an apron and a baseball cap -- even though Starbucks’ generous health insurance plan offered a solution to my most immediate problem.
It took an outside force to break me out of this box. I was in my local Starbucks when, out of the blue, a manager asked me if I needed a job -- it turns out that the Starbucks I had entered was having a “Hiring Open House.”
You may not know your true priorities. I spent most of my adult life chasing bigger paychecks, loftier job titles and flashier possessions. These were my goals not because I chose them, but because I never considered that any other goals existed. My friends and family seemed to want these things, and I assumed that I wanted them, too.
When I accepted the job at Starbucks, it struck me that I probably would never again have money, titles or expensive possessions -- yet one evening at Starbucks, I realized that I was as happy as I had ever been in my life. This “low-level” job gave me supportive bosses and coworkers, lots of human interaction and enough money to live a simple life. These were my real priorities, and I had never even known it. Instead, I had wasted most of my life pursuing other people’s goals. Perhaps I could have discovered my true priorities long ago if I had listened to my heart, rather than allowing myself to get swept along in what those around me were doing.
Trust the universe. I thought of myself as a master of the universe when I was young and successful. Only later did I discover that no person is a master of the universe, and it is foolish even to aspire to be one. Trying to master the universe means struggling against the tide of events, which rarely works. When the universe pushed me out of the executive suite, I tried to take charge and reclaim the life I had had previously. I did not find happiness again until I stopped fighting the tide and started swimming with it to see where it led.
Any task can be worthwhile if it involves serving others. I had considered serving coffee an unimportant job -- until I figured out that my job was not really serving coffee at all. It was serving my customers and my coworkers. I might not be curing cancer, but I am doing my best to make life a little better for anyone who steps through the Starbucks’ door. There are few feelings as wonderful as the feeling you get when you help someone feel better.
Having money only creates a desire for more money. I earned a lot in my previous career, yet I was always in debt and worried about finances. Today I no longer have a car, a big house, stylish furniture or $2,000 suits... and I do not miss my former possessions in the least. I can’t even remember why I thought they were important. Living without luxuries doesn’t feel like a sacrifice. I love my cozy apartment. I love that I can go for a walk or sit at home reading a book and not feel that I should be out at a business event or an expensive restaurant.
The best jobs are those that keep you in the moment. Much of my 26 years in advertising was wasted in meetings. Many times we had meetings to prepare for other meetings. We were living not for the moment but always in the future.
Only when I started working behind a counter did I discover the joy of work that keeps you in the here and now. There are no long-term projects in my new career. When I prepare a cup of coffee, I don’t worry about past mistakes or future challenges. I just do what I am doing right now to the best of my abilities, and I immediately see the results of what I have done. That is a wonderfully gratifying way to live.
Most people work long hours and think about their jobs even when they are home. When I worked in advertising, a boss once ordered me to fly to Detroit on Christmas while my young children were still opening their presents. I went.
I love the fact that now when I leave work for the day, I do not think about my job again until my next shift. That is what a job should be -- a relatively small part of life.
True, jobs that offer lots of free time are unlikely to be very lucrative -- but the free time they provide can lead to even greater financial success. I used some of my free time to write a book that will soon become a movie. If I were still a “successful” executive, I never could have found the time to write.
The only job that’s beneath you is one that you do not give your full effort to. I no longer consider it degrading to clean the toilets in a coffee shop bathroom. What would be degrading would be cleaning them poorly. Doing a task well -- any task -- is a source of self-respect.
It is natural to fear change, but things are rarely as bad as we fear. When we’re faced with change, we worry that we will not be able to adapt or that we will not enjoy our new situation. I was scared of taking a job at Starbucks... scared that I wouldn’t get along with coworkers half my age... scared when I was put in charge of a cash register, because I have never been very good with money.
Each time, I was scared before the change occurred -- yet once it did, it was never as bad as I had feared. Sometimes we just have to take that leap into a completely unfamiliar situation and expect that we will rise to the challenge.
Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Michael Gates Gill, former creative director at J. Walter Thompson Advertising and currently an employee at a Starbucks in Bronxville, New York. He is author of How Starbucks Saved My Life (Gotham)
Useful Resources…
Do you have multiple social networks that you try to keep updated? Wouldn't it be nice to able to update them all at once? Well now you can with Ping.
You'll have to register to be able to use it, but it's free! So just fill out the registration form with an e-mail address and password and then click the Sign Up button. Then you're whisked off to a list of social network sites. To connect them to your Ping account, all you have to do is click Add Network, and then follow the directions for that social networking site. http://ping.fm/
Consumers Follow Brands on Social Media for Coupons
Forty percent of consumers say they are most likely to search for
coupons or promotions when interacting with a brand via social
media, according to an Empathica survey.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y10/m12/i08/s04
Appeal Your Property Tax Assessment Workshops
Free assistance for homeowners
Learn how to appeal your property tax assessments by attending a free, two-hour workshop offered by the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance and the Wayne County Taxpayers Association. Currently scheduled are five Workshops for Detroit-area residents. West Michigan and out-state Workshops are being planned.
“Too many struggling homeowners may end up paying too much in property taxes if they don’t appeal their assessments. These workshops will provide valuable, expert and free information to homeowners.”
“Appealing your property tax assessment can be a bit tricky,” stated Leon Drolet, Chair of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance. “Learn the law and the appeals process and you increase your odds of paying no more than what you legally owe in property taxes.”
http://www.mitaxpayers.org/propertytax.html
Perpetual Wars, Endless Enemies-our government is the biggest arms dealer and dealer in death than any other country and it routinely trumps the Constitution.
As the Poor Man has stated…it’s about control & the corporations making money from the technology they sell to Uncle Scam. Our government has in reality, declared war on its own citizens-Straight out of 1984 the movie AND it’s disgusting! Government extremists are everywhere.
Janet’s Homeland Security TV at WalMart - 1984 Style Tyranny
http://alex-jones-infowars.blogspot.com/2010/12/wal-mart-invasion-part-of-larger-dhs.html
Marsha J. Evans, President and CEO of the American Red Cross...
Salary for year ending 06/30/09 was $651,957 plus expenses…while
Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of
only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 billion
dollar organization.
What is your plan B?
THE PERFECT STORM
The financial problems we all face are now bigger than the government alone can handle. These problems are now becoming global problems:
1. Value of the dollar falling
2. National debt increasing
3. Baby boomers starting to retire
4. Oil prices rising
5. Gap increasing between the rich and everyone else
6. Wages decreasing
7. Jobs being exported
8. Social Security and Medicare going bankrupt
9. Savings being wiped out
10. Lack of financial education being taught
http://kiyosaki-blog.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-is-your-plan-b.html
Congress"borrowed" nearly 43% of the money you paid into Social Security last year.
American Stupidity with Bill Maher…let this perk up your day!
It’s little wonder this country is in trouble & why the sheep are so easily led.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0LZcN4Qf3Y&feature=related
The average person will spend a buck on a lottery ticket or cup of coffee,
But they won’t drop a dime on something which will improve their brain
Or earning power…many no longer read anything.
Lawyer: U.S. to Indict Assange
Get ready for hacker mayhem. Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange say he'll soon be indicted by the United States for spying. "Our position of course is that we don't believe it applies to Mr. Assange and that in any event he's entitled to First Amendment protection as publisher of WikiLeaks and any prosecution under the Espionage Act would in my view be unconstitutional and puts at risk all media organizations in the U.S.," said his lawyer. He's currently being held in solitary confinement in Britain on sexual-assault charges from Sweden.
Parting shots…
Freedom of speech...especially when its inconvenient
It's probably safe to assume that Australian Internet activist Julian Assange wasn't thinking specifically about Iran when his brainchild, the information clearinghouse WikiLeaks, released its latest round of classified U.S. government cables. Still, the data dump, encompassing more than a quarter-million internal memos issued by the State Department and U.S. embassies overseas, successfully demolishes a number of sacred cows relating to American policy toward the Islamic republic and its burgeoning nuclear effort. What truly amazes me however, the first rule one learns in the spy game is to never keep written records of damaging information! So what happened?
Part of me wants to cheer the guy on. He’s taken on the behemoth US government and appears to me sort of like David & Goliath…then again, it is our country?! I must remind myself how the Washington-Wall Street Cartel decimated our middle class and perhaps…
…when the workers decide they are tired of being exploited, and if anyone else wants their job they’re welcome to it. We will see worker slowdowns similar to those popular in Europe. Suddenly, corporate profits will be jeopardized.
And as I began writing in the mid 1980s, what will happen when corporations no longer have anyone left to sell to. In other words, if the number of unemployed keeps rising, at some point there will no longer be anyone left to buy things until they get employed again. At this point corporate survival will dictate the need to hire people if only to continue selling their products.
And as most of us already knew…despite the changes in ‘leadership’ of the past election, Congress will do little to change their spending habits. Oh yeah, there will be a lot of lip service to reining in the budget, but don’t count on it.
Closing thought on the economy…
In conversations with associates whose business it is to know (industrial, business & real estate forecasting), this will be the slowest recovering recession ever…2014 at the earliest in terms of jobs. Personally, I’m not as certain. I realize those calculations are based on current trends and stats but as I’ve warned readers before…it wouldn’t take much to upset the apple cart!
The fed says no inflation…but most of us know we’re being lied to again with manipulated statistics. The price of fuel and therefore, grains, has soared recently…expect the US to continue to under report inflation even as the average American continues to be pinched.
{I know economics bores most folks, but it is your pocket that is being picked. I suggest reading -FREE- the 1946 book Economics in One Lesson. Get it here}:
http://www.fee.org/pdf/books/Economics_in_one_lesson.pdf
Another war with (take your pick)…more crushing government rules, regulation or the production of even more fiat money, more taxes at any level, no pick up in hiring, etc.- even so, Wall Street - see below.
America worst income disparity in world
Top Wall Street firms will once again break their own salary record this year and as the gap between the haves and have-nots worsens, could it get worse? Most of the government benefits have gone to help Wall Street get on its feet while others suffer. Mike Norman says what is happening to the United States is very disturbing and the US now ranks the lowest in income disparity in the world.
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/america-worst-income-disparity-in-world.html
Suggested reading from Laissez faire books…(a company I once tried to buy).
Tax Revolt: The Rebellion Against an Overbearing, Bloated, Arrogant, and Abusive Government
One more you might enjoy about ‘The Biggest Bank Robbery yet
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/gerald-celente-biggest-bank-robbery-non.html
That’s it for this week from the Poor Man, curator of the Museum of Lost Civil Rights and all around bon vivant.
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
http://www.OldBooknook.com
http://www.GreenIrene.com/Poorman
Don't Get Caught With Your Pantry Down-New 11th Ed.
http://tinyurl.com/PMBasics
A Shallow Planet Production
Your choice for urban survival resources
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
In This Issue:
What I gained When I lost Everything
America now has the worst income disparity in the world
Big Brother on Steroids-Walmart TV-Spy on Fellow Americans
American stupidity-why the sheep are so easily led
Online holiday freebies, Free PDF of Economics in One Lesson, More
Last minute gifts you can print online
The Biggest Bank Robbery
"For everybody has a natural right to defend his own person and property against aggressors, but also to go to the assistance and defense of everybody else, whose person or property is invaded. The natural right of each individual to defend his own person and property against an aggressor, and to go to the assistance and defense of every one else whose person or property is invaded, is a right without which men could not exist on earth."
-- Lysander Spooner
(1808-1887) Political theorist, activist, abolitionist
A blend of the ACLU & Nader’s Raiders-Are we just road kill?
Our country has entirely too much duplication of government agencies
One of the reasons we created the Citizen’s Guide to Screwing Bureaucrats is because many are tired of their ruthless, costly antics but most of us lack either the desire or means of challenging these flatworms in a legal fashion.
It is simply not government creeps that screw things up, it is often corporate jerks too and the most famous for screwing its customers is feebay. There are loads of blogs and sites devoted to exposing at their insidious practices. EBay’s ad network owes me $26.50 and they don’t want to give it back - they even admit they owe it! I will probably wind up filing a complaint with the CA Attorney General’s office (find a link to all 50 states on our Poor Man site).
A former employer of the Poor Man’s wife owes us a few thousand and is dragging his heals and openly shows his disrespect. We’ll file a complaint with the Department of Labor against him. An example from our book on how to use a bigger fish to go after a smaller fish at no out of pocket expenses.
My sister always said I should have been a lawyer and both of us passed the LSAT’s while in high school but never went to law school. However, the Poor Man sits on the board and acts as volunteer executive director of a not-for-profit group which has been essentially sitting idle for the past year. We used to make grants of cash and gifts to other non-profit groups, but that fund is empty.
We grew up in an era when Ralph Nader and his Nader’s Raiders were popular and it is time to revive an organization devoted to citizens rights since most often, the government either falls down on the job or is the problem. Nader went after consumer products, such as GM and their auto, the Corvair along with governmental organizations such as the FTC. There is no doubt we have too many government agencies. Can anyone tell me why the Department of Education needs to be duplicated 51 times? Let each state handle their own educational needs and save the taxpayers some cash!
Over the years, some have accused me of being un-American. Quite the opposite, I love this country but I’ve grown increasingly disgusted at how governments at all levels have trampled the rights of hard working Americans and have squandered our public treasury placing our children into hock for generations to come. Just because a child is sick doesn’t mean you toss it out the window, you try to cure it.
Most folks are too intimidated, too broke or don’t have the time or inclination to battle government agencies. That’s what they count on!
In the eyes of our Washington-Wall Street Cartel, many citizens have become serfs, serving the feudal master and if we no longer serve their purpose - we’re road kill.
My thinking is our activist group would target government agencies primarily as they seem to do the most harm and cost the public the most money - needlessly. If you have any interest in getting involved, drop me a line. Defending our rights under Natural Law is in the interest of every American. I will be seeking paralegals, researchers and lawyers to assist on a pro bono basis.
I’m meeting with the MI branch of the ACLU to get some pointers on approaching law schools to gather volunteers. We’re contemplating as our first case, to go after MI law preventing people from defending themselves using non-lethal tools such as mace and stun guns, something currently against the law.
To learn more about Nader’s Raiders, go here:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/unreasonableman/beyondraiders.html
Here’s our Christmas Card to all of you…feel free to share it with your friends!
Click here for your card. (if this link doesn’t work, use the one below)
http://ak.imgag.com/imgag/product/preview/flash/bws8Shell_fps24.swf?ihost=http://ak.imgag.com/imgag&brandldrPath=/product/full/el/&cardNum=/product/full/ap/3166187/graphic1
Learn to make your eBay listings stand out-Free guide
http://pagemage.com/docs/eBay_Stand_Out_Guide.pdf
How to profit on eBay-even if you don’t have a product. (Part of a free online course you can sign up for when you visit this site)
http://www.hotitemfinder.com/hotprofits/lesson14_a4fq.php
UPS Adds Photo ID Requirement for Retail Shipping
UPS is expanding its policy to require customers who ship
packages from retail shipping locations to present a
government-issued photo ID for verification of identification.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y10/m12/i10/s04
It [the State] has taken on a vast mass of new duties and responsibilities; it has spread out its
powers until they penetrate to every act of the citizen, however secret; it has begun to throw
around its operations the high dignity and impeccability of a State religion; its agents become a
separate and superior caste, with authority to bind and loose, and their thumbs in every pot. But it
still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and
decent men.
Henry L. Mencken, 1926.
Read-Our Enemy, the State-free PDF you might wish to share or watch the video. One of the absolute best treatise on state power grabs and control
http://mises.org/etexts/ourenemy.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL4vOjDWXNs
Homestead series on how to grow garlic. They also offer free how to’s on building a greenhouse and more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vExj4UCmFNA&feature=related
A variety of Christmas-Holiday FREEBIES
Cards, music, catalogs and more…
http://thefreesite.com/Seasonal_Freebies/Christmas/
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/gifts/tp/Free_Christmas_Gifts.htm
Last Minute gifts you can print at home…
Amazon.com - simply click the ‘gift cards’ menu tab and select Print a Gift Card
Restaurant.com - good at more than 15,000 eateries & you pay only 40-60% of the actual value!
Netflix.com - go to their site & click on gift Purchase & choose how many months you’ll give.
!Tunes! - use gift cards to download songs & albums to suit nearly any taste (I like 80s music)
Here’s another idea…several years ago we made up custom gift baskets as presents to family members. Knowing each person allowed us to include their favorite chocolates and I baked up batches of cookies and mini-loaves of blueberry, pumpkin and banana breads. To this we included a 60-page cookbook I had written of unique country recipes…the baskets & cookbook proved a big hit and for several years we got requests for additional copies of our Secrets & Shortcuts of a Country Inn Chef!
<<<>>>
What I Gained When I Lost Everything...
Michael Gates Gill - thanks to Bottom Line for allowing this to be shared! The Poor Man went through a similar experience but he’s not old enough to get medicare and he never worked at Starbucks…but he did rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in uninsured medical bills and bounced back. You can too is the moral of this story.
Fourteen years ago, at age 53, Michael Gates Gill was at the top of his game -- he had a lovely wife, an expensive home and a $160,000-a-year job in advertising. By age 63, he was divorced, unemployed and nearly broke -- then his doctor informed him that he had a slow-growing brain tumor.
In desperate need of health insurance and a regular paycheck, Gill took an entry-level job serving coffee at Starbucks for $10.50 an hour. To his amazement, he loved the work.
Four years later, Gill no longer needs the health insurance -- he now is old enough to qualify for Medicare. He also has sold his life story to Hollywood (Tom Hanks is expected to portray Gill in the film), but he plans to remain at Starbucks -- he enjoys the job. He has chosen “watchful waiting” as the treatment option for his brain tumor.
Bottom Line/Personal asked Gill to share what recent years have taught him about life...
Your own expectations can constrain you. In my earlier life, I defined myself by my career and social status -- I was an affluent, Yale-educated ad executive. When I lost my job in advertising, I was certain that the solution to my problems lay in landing a new job in advertising or, if not that, a new client to get my own advertising consulting business on its feet.
My mental image of myself prevented me from considering opportunities that did not fit that picture. I could not see myself in a service-sector job wearing an apron and a baseball cap -- even though Starbucks’ generous health insurance plan offered a solution to my most immediate problem.
It took an outside force to break me out of this box. I was in my local Starbucks when, out of the blue, a manager asked me if I needed a job -- it turns out that the Starbucks I had entered was having a “Hiring Open House.”
You may not know your true priorities. I spent most of my adult life chasing bigger paychecks, loftier job titles and flashier possessions. These were my goals not because I chose them, but because I never considered that any other goals existed. My friends and family seemed to want these things, and I assumed that I wanted them, too.
When I accepted the job at Starbucks, it struck me that I probably would never again have money, titles or expensive possessions -- yet one evening at Starbucks, I realized that I was as happy as I had ever been in my life. This “low-level” job gave me supportive bosses and coworkers, lots of human interaction and enough money to live a simple life. These were my real priorities, and I had never even known it. Instead, I had wasted most of my life pursuing other people’s goals. Perhaps I could have discovered my true priorities long ago if I had listened to my heart, rather than allowing myself to get swept along in what those around me were doing.
Trust the universe. I thought of myself as a master of the universe when I was young and successful. Only later did I discover that no person is a master of the universe, and it is foolish even to aspire to be one. Trying to master the universe means struggling against the tide of events, which rarely works. When the universe pushed me out of the executive suite, I tried to take charge and reclaim the life I had had previously. I did not find happiness again until I stopped fighting the tide and started swimming with it to see where it led.
Any task can be worthwhile if it involves serving others. I had considered serving coffee an unimportant job -- until I figured out that my job was not really serving coffee at all. It was serving my customers and my coworkers. I might not be curing cancer, but I am doing my best to make life a little better for anyone who steps through the Starbucks’ door. There are few feelings as wonderful as the feeling you get when you help someone feel better.
Having money only creates a desire for more money. I earned a lot in my previous career, yet I was always in debt and worried about finances. Today I no longer have a car, a big house, stylish furniture or $2,000 suits... and I do not miss my former possessions in the least. I can’t even remember why I thought they were important. Living without luxuries doesn’t feel like a sacrifice. I love my cozy apartment. I love that I can go for a walk or sit at home reading a book and not feel that I should be out at a business event or an expensive restaurant.
The best jobs are those that keep you in the moment. Much of my 26 years in advertising was wasted in meetings. Many times we had meetings to prepare for other meetings. We were living not for the moment but always in the future.
Only when I started working behind a counter did I discover the joy of work that keeps you in the here and now. There are no long-term projects in my new career. When I prepare a cup of coffee, I don’t worry about past mistakes or future challenges. I just do what I am doing right now to the best of my abilities, and I immediately see the results of what I have done. That is a wonderfully gratifying way to live.
Most people work long hours and think about their jobs even when they are home. When I worked in advertising, a boss once ordered me to fly to Detroit on Christmas while my young children were still opening their presents. I went.
I love the fact that now when I leave work for the day, I do not think about my job again until my next shift. That is what a job should be -- a relatively small part of life.
True, jobs that offer lots of free time are unlikely to be very lucrative -- but the free time they provide can lead to even greater financial success. I used some of my free time to write a book that will soon become a movie. If I were still a “successful” executive, I never could have found the time to write.
The only job that’s beneath you is one that you do not give your full effort to. I no longer consider it degrading to clean the toilets in a coffee shop bathroom. What would be degrading would be cleaning them poorly. Doing a task well -- any task -- is a source of self-respect.
It is natural to fear change, but things are rarely as bad as we fear. When we’re faced with change, we worry that we will not be able to adapt or that we will not enjoy our new situation. I was scared of taking a job at Starbucks... scared that I wouldn’t get along with coworkers half my age... scared when I was put in charge of a cash register, because I have never been very good with money.
Each time, I was scared before the change occurred -- yet once it did, it was never as bad as I had feared. Sometimes we just have to take that leap into a completely unfamiliar situation and expect that we will rise to the challenge.
Bottom Line/Personal interviewed Michael Gates Gill, former creative director at J. Walter Thompson Advertising and currently an employee at a Starbucks in Bronxville, New York. He is author of How Starbucks Saved My Life (Gotham)
Useful Resources…
Do you have multiple social networks that you try to keep updated? Wouldn't it be nice to able to update them all at once? Well now you can with Ping.
You'll have to register to be able to use it, but it's free! So just fill out the registration form with an e-mail address and password and then click the Sign Up button. Then you're whisked off to a list of social network sites. To connect them to your Ping account, all you have to do is click Add Network, and then follow the directions for that social networking site. http://ping.fm/
Consumers Follow Brands on Social Media for Coupons
Forty percent of consumers say they are most likely to search for
coupons or promotions when interacting with a brand via social
media, according to an Empathica survey.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y10/m12/i08/s04
Appeal Your Property Tax Assessment Workshops
Free assistance for homeowners
Learn how to appeal your property tax assessments by attending a free, two-hour workshop offered by the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance and the Wayne County Taxpayers Association. Currently scheduled are five Workshops for Detroit-area residents. West Michigan and out-state Workshops are being planned.
“Too many struggling homeowners may end up paying too much in property taxes if they don’t appeal their assessments. These workshops will provide valuable, expert and free information to homeowners.”
“Appealing your property tax assessment can be a bit tricky,” stated Leon Drolet, Chair of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance. “Learn the law and the appeals process and you increase your odds of paying no more than what you legally owe in property taxes.”
http://www.mitaxpayers.org/propertytax.html
Perpetual Wars, Endless Enemies-our government is the biggest arms dealer and dealer in death than any other country and it routinely trumps the Constitution.
As the Poor Man has stated…it’s about control & the corporations making money from the technology they sell to Uncle Scam. Our government has in reality, declared war on its own citizens-Straight out of 1984 the movie AND it’s disgusting! Government extremists are everywhere.
Janet’s Homeland Security TV at WalMart - 1984 Style Tyranny
http://alex-jones-infowars.blogspot.com/2010/12/wal-mart-invasion-part-of-larger-dhs.html
Marsha J. Evans, President and CEO of the American Red Cross...
Salary for year ending 06/30/09 was $651,957 plus expenses…while
Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of
only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 billion
dollar organization.
What is your plan B?
THE PERFECT STORM
The financial problems we all face are now bigger than the government alone can handle. These problems are now becoming global problems:
1. Value of the dollar falling
2. National debt increasing
3. Baby boomers starting to retire
4. Oil prices rising
5. Gap increasing between the rich and everyone else
6. Wages decreasing
7. Jobs being exported
8. Social Security and Medicare going bankrupt
9. Savings being wiped out
10. Lack of financial education being taught
http://kiyosaki-blog.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-is-your-plan-b.html
Congress"borrowed" nearly 43% of the money you paid into Social Security last year.
American Stupidity with Bill Maher…let this perk up your day!
It’s little wonder this country is in trouble & why the sheep are so easily led.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0LZcN4Qf3Y&feature=related
The average person will spend a buck on a lottery ticket or cup of coffee,
But they won’t drop a dime on something which will improve their brain
Or earning power…many no longer read anything.
Lawyer: U.S. to Indict Assange
Get ready for hacker mayhem. Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange say he'll soon be indicted by the United States for spying. "Our position of course is that we don't believe it applies to Mr. Assange and that in any event he's entitled to First Amendment protection as publisher of WikiLeaks and any prosecution under the Espionage Act would in my view be unconstitutional and puts at risk all media organizations in the U.S.," said his lawyer. He's currently being held in solitary confinement in Britain on sexual-assault charges from Sweden.
Parting shots…
Freedom of speech...especially when its inconvenient
It's probably safe to assume that Australian Internet activist Julian Assange wasn't thinking specifically about Iran when his brainchild, the information clearinghouse WikiLeaks, released its latest round of classified U.S. government cables. Still, the data dump, encompassing more than a quarter-million internal memos issued by the State Department and U.S. embassies overseas, successfully demolishes a number of sacred cows relating to American policy toward the Islamic republic and its burgeoning nuclear effort. What truly amazes me however, the first rule one learns in the spy game is to never keep written records of damaging information! So what happened?
Part of me wants to cheer the guy on. He’s taken on the behemoth US government and appears to me sort of like David & Goliath…then again, it is our country?! I must remind myself how the Washington-Wall Street Cartel decimated our middle class and perhaps…
…when the workers decide they are tired of being exploited, and if anyone else wants their job they’re welcome to it. We will see worker slowdowns similar to those popular in Europe. Suddenly, corporate profits will be jeopardized.
And as I began writing in the mid 1980s, what will happen when corporations no longer have anyone left to sell to. In other words, if the number of unemployed keeps rising, at some point there will no longer be anyone left to buy things until they get employed again. At this point corporate survival will dictate the need to hire people if only to continue selling their products.
And as most of us already knew…despite the changes in ‘leadership’ of the past election, Congress will do little to change their spending habits. Oh yeah, there will be a lot of lip service to reining in the budget, but don’t count on it.
Closing thought on the economy…
In conversations with associates whose business it is to know (industrial, business & real estate forecasting), this will be the slowest recovering recession ever…2014 at the earliest in terms of jobs. Personally, I’m not as certain. I realize those calculations are based on current trends and stats but as I’ve warned readers before…it wouldn’t take much to upset the apple cart!
The fed says no inflation…but most of us know we’re being lied to again with manipulated statistics. The price of fuel and therefore, grains, has soared recently…expect the US to continue to under report inflation even as the average American continues to be pinched.
{I know economics bores most folks, but it is your pocket that is being picked. I suggest reading -FREE- the 1946 book Economics in One Lesson. Get it here}:
http://www.fee.org/pdf/books/Economics_in_one_lesson.pdf
Another war with (take your pick)…more crushing government rules, regulation or the production of even more fiat money, more taxes at any level, no pick up in hiring, etc.- even so, Wall Street - see below.
America worst income disparity in world
Top Wall Street firms will once again break their own salary record this year and as the gap between the haves and have-nots worsens, could it get worse? Most of the government benefits have gone to help Wall Street get on its feet while others suffer. Mike Norman says what is happening to the United States is very disturbing and the US now ranks the lowest in income disparity in the world.
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/america-worst-income-disparity-in-world.html
Suggested reading from Laissez faire books…(a company I once tried to buy).
Tax Revolt: The Rebellion Against an Overbearing, Bloated, Arrogant, and Abusive Government
One more you might enjoy about ‘The Biggest Bank Robbery yet
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/gerald-celente-biggest-bank-robbery-non.html
That’s it for this week from the Poor Man, curator of the Museum of Lost Civil Rights and all around bon vivant.
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com
http://www.OldBooknook.com
http://www.GreenIrene.com/Poorman
Don't Get Caught With Your Pantry Down-New 11th Ed.
http://tinyurl.com/PMBasics
A Shallow Planet Production
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)