11 Predictions for '11

Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
Your choice for urban survival resources
http://www.PoorManSurvival.com


In This Issue:

1. Interview with Elizabeth Warren
2. Why has the war on terror become a war on our freedom?
3. Remember when using Time Warp
4. What new tax laws mean to online sellers
5. New-free reports now available/Happy New Year!
6. Austerity cuts in Europe-a harbinger of things to come here?
7. 11 Predictions for the coming year-Gas Prices to Rise is #12




"When you have made evil the means of survival, do not expect men to remain good. Do not expect them to stay moral and lose their lives for the purpose of becoming the fodder of the immoral. Do not expect them to produce, when production is punished and looting rewarded. Do not ask, 'Who is destroying the world?' You are."
-- Ayn Rand
(1905-1982) Author
Source: Atlas Shrugged.

Americans of our Revolutionary War Period were better educated than most college grads of today

Nearly a half million copies of Thomas Paine's Common Sense pamphlet were sold in the years leading up to our American Revolution. Although most folks were self-educated or home schooled in those years, most were better read than today's college graduate. Natural Law and human rights had a very real value and respect then, lawyers were actually respected and common law was considered to be a science.
Most of our common laws were derived over the centuries and judges found their roots in the clergy. In its early years common law was a private legal system, independent of government. Because law had no connection with government, judges would instruct offenders to make restitution to the victim (unlike today where fines are paid to the government instead of the victim).

If the offender refused, the judge used a procedure called outlawry, meaning if the criminal chose not to obey or to act outside the law, their legal status was reduced to that of a wild animal and this fact was publicized so that anyone could hunt that person down (the origin of bounty hunting) and kill him or enslave him.

Under Clovis, founder of the Frankish kingdom, a book of laws were compiled called Lex Salica, with its main premise is the criminal's first liability was to the victim, not the state. A range of offenses and fines were listed in this book and restitutions were split 50-50 between the victim and the state.

Common Law became so logical and sensible, that most colonists studied and understood it. In fact, the British stateman, Edmund Burke observed “In no country in the world, is law so general a study.”

Essentially, there are two laws. They are universally understood in ALL religions and little argued (though sadly ignored today by the US legal/political system which has become one and the same). They are:
>> Do all that you have agreed to do
>>Do not encroach on other persons or their property
The basic precepts of common law are no longer understood by our citizens or practiced in our legal system. Essentially we are left we political law which is constantly subject to change, challenge and twisting by politicians and bureaucrats who ignore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Learn more at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law
NOTE: Our newest free report, How the Washington-Wall Street Cartel is Robbing America contains new & pieces previously published. Additional new how-to reports are included in this file for downloading and represents our ongoing effort at providing our readers useable information. Feel free to share these files -- my way of saying Happy New Year!
Be sure to see the 11 trends forecast from our friend Gerald Celente at the bottom of this week’s edition. Normally, I provide such predictions, but Gerald hit pretty much all that I had come up with on the head…not a pretty site.
As governments become corrupt, they have need of more laws to dominate its citizens.

The Weekly Round up


Make your shower self cleaning with daily use of this MIY cleaner. Combine 1/3 cup rubbing alcohol and 1 cup water into a spray bottle. Spray walls and tub after each shower…the alcohol will dissolve shower grime & evaporates quickly!

Profile-Interview with Ms. Warren-New Consumer Chief
If Elizabeth Warren offers you a cup of tea, don’t accept. I’ve been known to pinch a penny myself, but when President Obama’s choice to run the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau pulls a rumpled gray object with a tail out of her desk drawer, even I blanch. It looks more like a dead mouse than a used tea bag.
“I know,” she says, laughing, when I express surprise. “But I just can’t stand the waste of throwing out a tea bag after one use. It’s like a knife in the gut for me.”http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/elizabeth-warren-held-to-account/

Minimum Wage rises for some in 2011-PM maintains that by not taxing the first $25K of income would give everyone a much needed boost!
The , a New York-based advocate for workers, estimates that about 647,000 people will see their paychecks go up in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington
Retail clerk Kimberly Bobian of Denver agreed. Bobian stopped by a corner grocery to pick up a can of tomato sauce and said it's hard to keep her pantry stocked on the .
"It's going up 11 cents? That's a big deal, definitely," she said. "Food prices are going up, everything goes up, so any little bit helps
State-by-state minimum wage laws: http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm


What the New Tax Law Means to Online Sellers
Just before the Congress adjourned, the Tax Relief, Unemployment
Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 was signed into
law. Barbara Weltman explains what it means to self-employed and
small businesses, including online sellers.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y10/m12/i27/s01

Upcoming UPS and USPS rate changes -- review your shipping costs-PM tried getting the new rates but they weren’t yet available so check them.
Carrier rates are changing, effective January 3 for UPS and January 2 for USPS (check USPS.com in January for rates).


eBay's top-selling items in 2010 include iPhones, Barbie dolls
and military jackets, according to its just-released ''Top Shopped'' report.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y10/m12/i29/s02


How the Washington-Wall Street Cartel is
Selling your children into slavery, mortgaging & destroying
Your future…and what you can do to
Restore your freedom.

If you’re happy with TSA pat downs, no knock warrants in the middle of the night, diminishing property rights, no middle class jobs, over-paid government bureaucrats, unfair tax laws, a once prosperous country now bankrupt, a Congress bought and paid for, government spying on your email, finances & more…then read no further.

This ‘serious-as-a-heart attack,’ jaw clenching report will reveal how Americans are being financially raped and terrorized by a government which is supposed to protect us…mostly in the name of ‘keeping us free’ from terrorism.

You’ll also find some other reports here including how to Do Your Own Pig Roast, Basics of Plumbing, Coping w/ Farm Emergencies, 3-Day Emergency Food Supply & more.
http://tinyurl.com/GovCartel or go to www.PoorManSurvival.com and click on the Citizen Preparedness tab.

45 Tons of CDs & DVDs wind up in landfills each month. AbundaTrade.com refurbishes & re-circulates used discs. Enter the UPC code for a price quote, then swap them for cash or gift cards, ipods, etc.-or donate them to DiscsforDogs.org-benefits SPCA!

To save money when dining out, book a reservation in advance online through DinnerBroker.com or OpenTable.com. You will get discounts and points that can be turned in for cash -- exact amounts depend on the restaurant and time of reservation. Also, clip coupons from Sunday newspapers, mailbox coupon packs and free penny-saving publications. Restaurants often offer discounts this way. The Entertainment Book (about $30*) offers a wide variety of restaurant discounts -- using just two or three discounts pays for the book (888-231-7283, www.entertainment.com). If you like a specific restaurant, sign up for its reward program -- you will get special deals by E-mail. Watch for promotions, such as Kids Eat Free or Early-Bird Specials.

Government mandated costs have all gone up (our state has among the highest in the US). We got our property taxes, water bill and auto insurance all in December…put a real strain on our holiday finances. It also virtually eliminated our charitable donations this year as we had to feed the government instead! --Margaret

Nonprofits getting first shot at bank foreclosures
Rebuilding Together obtained the home for free from ., the bank that foreclosed on its previous owner. Honeywell International Inc. provided the labor to renovate it and $25,000 cash for the materials.
In a market hot with speculators snapping up cheap foreclosures, Rebuilding Together's program is one of many that give a leg up to nonprofits and redevelopment agencies trying to stabilize neighborhoods dotted with vacant houses.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_foreclosures_families_first
http://www.rebuildingtogether.org/section/about/


It's not who wins or loses, but who gets to control the wreckage

The $20K Pet-High Vet Bill Under Scrutiny
Vet bills are increasing and many Americans can no longer afford treatment for fido – Read more at: http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/health-care/the-20000-pet-1292884111206/
People have more to fear from governments than from terrorists. Terrorists come and go but power-hungry politicians will always be with us. We must ensure that each new debacle caused by government incompetence is not converted into another coffin nail for individual freedom as has happened in the United States.

Remember when:

When it was assumed the next generation would have it better than their parents
When most high school kids could read and knew American history
When poverty was declining
When home ownership was a viable step up
When a middle class family could exist on one paycheck
When income taxes were almost an afterthought & didn’t require CPAs
When good jobs were commonplace

Speaking of ‘Remember When’ here’s a free site that will whisk you back as far as 1900 and it let’s you peek at what life was like during each decade, even what kind of toys kids played with. For a good description of what all you might find on this site you may want to check out the Time-Warp Project button at the top of the page. The Research button yields some great information too. Just scroll down and check out the timeline.
http://www.time-warp.org/

How it works in the US workplace...no health insurance, no first aid kit – it's cheaper to simply replace the worker!

Parting thoughts...

Why has the war on terror become a war on freedom?
How many people is a government allowed to kill accidentally?

A number of years ago when I owned a chain of newspapers, we tried to find out how many people were killed accidentally by police. No one would provide us with that information. No knock 'shock and awe’ style SWAT break ins to the wrong home have killed countless people such a retired minister in Philadelphia who was reading his Bible when police broke down his door screaming at him to get on the ground. He died of a heart attack. Oh, an informant had given them the wrong address.

Last year in Detroit, police SWAT killed a young child when they entered the wrong home and a police firearm went off. Indeed, statistics show more Americans are killed accidentally by police than terrorists.

In most years since the 1990s, Americans were at far greater risk of being gunned down by local, state, and federal law enforcement agents than from international terrorists. In 2001, the Washington Post reported, for example, that Prince George police (MD) shot 122 persons, killing 47 – half of those citizens were unarmed.

A Human Rights Watch report observed “police officers engage in unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and unnecessary roughness in cities all across America, while their superiors fail to act or even to record the problems.”

The FBI killed 80 men, women and children in Waco after dousing the buildings for six hours with flammable gas and prevented fire trucks from approaching the inferno. If this had been carried out my Muslim fanatics, it would be classified as one of the worst terrorist acts in history...instead, Attorney General Janet Reno was treated like a hero!

Between 1980 and 2000 governments around the world killed more than 10 million people. In the 20th century, governments were responsible for killing more than 120 million people, while wars only accounted for 35 million deaths. Year in and year out, governments kill 100 times more people than terrorists.

In Serbia US & allied war planes killed between 500 and 2000 civilians and even more in Afghanistan...but when government kills it doesn't count and it usually gets white washed as the government investigates its own incidents. Many would agree that any action done by a private citizen that would be considered terrorism should also be considered terrorism if done by government agents.

The notion put forth by our “Department of Justice” that governments cannot be terrorists (unless of course, our government says another government is a terrorist) doesn't hold a lot of water by those on the receiving end. US sponsored torture, using other countries at our behest, makes us hypocritical in the eyes of the world.

One of the reasons why our government is so often despised in other countries is due to our need to not only control US citizens, but to also stick our nose into the business of foreign citizens acting as the policeman to the world. We just can't seem to get enough of our addiction to control or to act as big brother to the world. Noted in this recent story...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Drug Enforcement Administration has grown into a global intelligence organization whose reach extends far beyond international drug trafficking, The New York Times reported.
Citing documents from the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, the newspaper said the DEA's operations had become so expansive the agency has had to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies.
One August 2009 cable reported Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli as having sent an urgent BlackBerry message to the US ambassador asking the DEA go after his political enemies. Speaking of Panama, I always found it odd that our country could ethically invade (we called it extradition) another country simply to nab someone (Pres. Noriega) it no longer liked and the rest of the world said nothing.
Too bad our politicians didn’t lean more toward the advice George Washington gave us in his farewell speech about avoiding entangling alliances and foreign intrigues…guess we can learn from history.
Finally, are the austerity cuts & protests witnessed across Europe a harbinger of things to come in the USA? Remember, it doesn’t take much to get a populace angry and many Americans are becoming fed up with the direction this country is headed toward as well.
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/revolt-2011-coming-dark-ages-2010.html
Also, check out Gerald’s 11 predictions for the coming year…not pretty & don’t forget as the Poor Man has been saying, oil will rise, meaning gasoline will rise, meaning in turn, food prices will rise. Costs will be passed onto consumers for a variety of items in addition to food.
http://geraldcelentechannel.blogspot.com/2010/12/gerald-celente-top-predictions-for-2011.html

Yours for better living in ‘11--the Poor Man,

"Congressman is the trivialist distinction for a full grown man."
-- Mark Twain


http://www.PoorManSurvival.com

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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


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