PM's Self Reliance Tools: September 2012

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Who Will Save America? Debt-Free Tips, SpareOne Cell Phone

Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

http://www.PoorManSurvival.com

For Independent Minded People!

ISSN 2161-5543

In This Issue:

1. Becoming debt-free

2. SpareOne cell phone uses a single AA battery

3. Disable Facebook’s facial recognition software

4. Best holiday layaway plans for 2012

5. Traitors Among Us-Special Report

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of. — Confucius

Becoming Debt-Free is not Impossible…

Here’s the cold, hard truth about debt: If you have it, then someone else owns your life.

You aren't a "homeowner" … you aren't a "car owner" … you don't "own" the clothes you're wearing or the things that fill your home. Not if you are still in the process of paying back money you borrowed from a creditor in order to get those things in the first place. Your creditors own those things. You're just renting them. And that leaves you extremely vulnerable, financially and otherwise.

The great news is, debt is NOT a life sentence

Debt can spell trouble for many people and often leads to severe depression. Ignoring debt can exact a tremendous toll psychologically as well as to your credit history. You could easily lose your assets and property. A bad credit rating also means higher borrowing costs, not being able to qualify for a mortgage, and in some cases, it could cost you a job as many employers review credit reports for jobs which pay $50,000 or more.

Finding financial freedom is not something that will comes easily to most. Most of us grew up with a consumer mentality, getting a fix from the purchase of our next toy. The get it now, pay later syndrome is something which ‘built’ our economy. We’re a consumer culture with 70% of the economy dependent on consumer buying (Wall Street won’t hire you at a decent wage, but they still expect you to buy, even if it means going into debt). Although little reported in the news, suicides as a result of foreclosures and other financial havoc in a down economy have been escalating.

It’s been said most Americans are one paycheck away from bankruptcy and most of us have become dependent on a two-income earner scenario to stay afloat. In Michigan, where I now live, it’s always been an unspoken joke that factory workers would go deeply into payment plan debt when overtime was going full steam so they can could buy that extra boat, motorcycle, jet ski, etc. When times got tough, as they always did, “For Sale” signs popped like weeds along every neighborhood.

Once you’re deeply in debt, it can be virtually impossible to escape the bondage of high interest credit cards, upside down mortgages, one or more car payments – especially if one or more of your income streams stops.

Debt and your inability to keep your head above water can literally make you sick. Stress related health problems have seen a significant boost in the number of depression-related prescriptions being written…indeed, American take more prescription drugs than anyone else in the world.

The first step in any debt reduction plan is to get a solid grasp of what your monthly expenses by keeping a diary. Everyone in your family should keep one for 30 days, recording expenditures, even small ones such as a newspaper, cup of coffee and the like. Next compare this to your take home pay to find out how much in the hole you are each month.

Second, go on a spending reduction diet. Eliminate expenses wherever possible…that means second or third cell phones, cable TV, eliminating insurance payments on recreational vehicles you’re not using, taking a lunch vs. buying one each day. Learn to buy second hand and to create at-home entertainment projects.

Third, renegotiate credit card interest payments with the card issuer and put that card into a lock box and gear up to paying off each credit card.

Fourth, sell of those extra toys you don’t really need and use those funds to pay down the debt more quickly.

Fifth, everyone in the family should develop a sideline income with a goal of generating at least $200 a month. Your children should pitch in too by cutting lawns, babysitting, selling off their designer clothing, etc. This is a group effort and progress needs to be checked every 30 days.

Find tools for lowering property taxes, debt negotiation methods and at the Poor Man’s Financial Freedom-Self Sufficiency course at:

http://www.poormansurvival.com/Pages/selfsufficiencyprogram.aspx

Use baking soda and a stiff brush to clean battery terminals then apply a coat of petroleum jelly to the posts to keep them clean for the winter.

PM’s Compendium of Useful Resources

5 Tips on Handling the New Job Economy
Middle class jobs are being replaced by low-income opportunities, like jobs in food preparation, retail sales, and office clerks. If you want to survive this shift away from middle-income jobs, here are a few approaches or strategies to consider. The goal is to move towards financial independence in a world where there is a wider gap between the rich and the poor. Read more.

Disaster Preparedness: Training
A last step to having a disaster-prepared infrastructure is training all staff and sticking to regularly scheduled drills. While this may sound like a very simple step, planning training and drills is tougher to execute than you might think. There's no need to appear as an alarmist to your staff, but it is important to convey the importance of being trained on proper emergency procedures. Here are some suggestions.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2409851,00.asp

SpareOne is the only cell phone in the world powered by a standard AA battery. This is a technological breakthrough! Smart patented power engineering allows users to take advantage of this widely available an inexpensive battery – A regular AA ! SpareOne won’t make you depend on an AC outlet.

A Battery Shelf life of 15 Years*. Talk Time for up to 10 Hours*.

We broke all records! The SpareOne can hold its charge, if stored unused, for up to 15 years or for the shelf life of the battery inserted. And when in use, SpareOne has a talk time of 10 hrs. This is all made possible by a single AA battery.

http://spareone.com/spareone/

How to Disable Facebook's Facial Recognition Feature

The current purpose of Facebook's facial recognition technology is to assist users with tagging their friends in photos. Unfortunately, testing done by some reviewers has found the technology to be less than accurate... Read more

How To Create An Anonymous Website
Political activists need to be able to speak freely to challenge the ruling political party and dissent, without intimidation, imprisonment, or worse. There is a way to create an entire website while still remaining completely anonymous. Check out the article for more on how.

In recent years, the recession has influenced holiday layaway programs: After having discontinued layaway, Sears brought it back in 2008 and Walmart in 2011.

This year, the still-struggling economy continues to impact holiday shopping. While competitors JCPenney and Target still don’t offer a layaway program, some stores that do have slashed fees, making layaway free – assuming you pay on time and don’t cancel your plan.

http://www.moneytalksnews.com/2012/09/25/52468/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=email-2012-09-25&utm_medium=email

Under Obama Care you’re supposedly covered for pre-existing conditions. If you have such a condition and have been without insurance for at least six months, don’t wait until 2014 to shop for coverage. Visit the government’s high risk pool now to find out if you’ll qualify for appealing rates now.

www.pcip.gov

Homemade scouring powder for use inside and outside your home…mix 1 cup baking soda, 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of borax into a container you can close (like an old coffee can) and use.

The Nanny State Updates…

Why are governments so stupid?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bP3Sfnp_ehw#!

You know you live in a Country run by idiots if....
An 80 year old woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a Muslim woman in a burka is only subject to having her neck and head searched.

ATF to accept public comments prior to outlawing shotguns

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is taking a rare step of allowing public comments prior to issuing a decision on a study that could result in outlawing certain types of shotguns currently available to citizens.

The ATF completed a study regarding the importability of certain shotguns. The basis for a possible ban is based on a loosely defined “Sporting Purpose” test. Using the vague definition almost all pump-action and semi-automatic shotguns could be banned as they are all capable of accepting a magazine, box or tube capable of holding more than 5 rounds.

http://www.greeleygazette.com/press/?p=9223

Lost? According to the Magazine "Mother Jones," the U.S. government has lost at least ten nuclear bombs. Whether they are really gone or just misplaced in some government facility is anyone's guess.

State lottery programs have worse odds than most casinos – discover the odds for all games, as well as how many prizes are left for each one by going to your state lottery site or: LotteryCrawler.com

The Parting Thought-Traitors Destroying our Country

The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost invariably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And if he is not romantic personally, he is apt to spread discontent among those who are."
-- H. L. Mencken

Traitors Among Us: Who Will Save America?

How traitors in Congress are destroying our freedom, bankrupting the country & a few tools we can use to fight back.

Are you sick of watching politicians ruin this once-great country? Are you convinced that there is more going on in America than a war on terror?

HERE is the Oath of Office sworn by ALL CongressCritters…

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

Thomas Roberts of CNBC recently wondered if Congressional inaction around the economy (Congress hasn’t had a budget in three years) should be considered "an act of treason."

Speaking to Washington Post writer Ezra Klein on Tuesday, Roberts referred to a blog post one of Klein's colleagues had written, saying that Congress was doing nothing to stop the "bleeding" in the economy.

"Why don't people look at that as an act of treason?" he asked.

Our legislative process has been turned into a sloppy version of a WWF wrestling drama with the winners, losers and storyline pre-written in an effort to distract the sheeple with the illusion of choice, debate and discourse. I’m so sick of hearing the term, “Compromise.” There is no such thing when it comes to the US Constitution. There is no room for it, it was never intended and it should be a non-issue. The job of the President, Congress and the People were clearly spelled out in black and white.

The government was to be the employee or the servant of the people. The people were to be the employer or master over the government that was proposed by the delegates.

The authority granted to government, are privileges that the people could revoke at anytime. The founders knew that if the government was unrestrained, abuse of power was inevitable. They understood that in order to secure our rights, it would be our responsibility to hold our government officials accountable. They knew that having a well informed and vigilant electorate was essential; ignorance and apathy would lead to the destruction of our Constitutional Republic.

With freedom comes responsibility and Thomas Jefferson once said "That a man that expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, expects what never was and never will be."

Sheriffs, the Supreme Court long ago established that you are the supreme law enforcement Officers in your respective states and no Federal official or law enforcement officer has a greater power. Do your duties and do not let the Federal law enforcement types dictate to you. Arrest them if they interfere with your doing your duties.

Treason is defined as acting against the best interests of your own country. Hanging was the usual method for dealing with traitors in the not so distant past.

Go to our main page, scroll down a bit and click on the folders to get our hard hitting, actionable report about the Traitors Among Us…

www.PoorManSurvival.com

“Until the next revolution”, the Poor Man

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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Worm Composting, Shotgun Survival, 77 Items to Stock Up

Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

http://www.PoorManSurvival.com

For Independent Minded People!

ISSN 2161-5543

In This Issue:

1. New, Free Downloads: 77 Items to Stock up on+Shotgun Survival

2. Pros of Worm Composting

3. 7 For Real At-Home Job Resources

4. Saving on Pet Food

5. Is it more than just a recession?

Bill Moyers has said, "Our media and political system has turned into a mutual protection racket."

The Pros of Worm Composting

The old "Eeeeeeew!" may well become one of the solutions to environmental problems and lack of nutrition in the soil. Scientists have tested this in the laboratory and have now approved of this new technique to composting: worm composting. Particularly, the red worm variety are the ones capable of doing this new feat.

Finally, they found a new way to make use of worms aside from being the main dish in Fear Factor. Some of us may have goosebumps with the sight of creepy crawlies—it’s often more than enough to give any average person the heebie jeebies. But on the up side, they have been known to help cultivate the environment for a long time. It is really no surprise to find that they play a vital role in the whole composting process.

Some of you might think that worm composting is not really such as good idea. But before you banish the idea of those red crawlies helping save the environment, take a break, open your mind and hear out some of the advantages of the now-becoming-popular worm composting technique.

Advantage Number 1: Flexible: Indoors or Outdoors, Take Your Pick

Whether you want to have your worm compost indoors or outdoors, it does not really matter. You can have them on either or on both areas. The good thing is that you won't even have to sweat around too much with your worm compost. They are relatively easy to transport and are non-complaining workers that will till your compost day in and day out, for relatively no charge. You only have to feed them to keep them in top condition.

Advantage Number 2: All it needs is moist bedding

Worms like moisture, and having moisture is one of the easiest components of composting. If you are able to provide the moisture, you only have to wait and see until the worms do their wonders in helping you have more fertilized soil.

Advantage Number 3: Worms are readily available and are not that hard to cultivate.

In some areas, you need not look for worms. You only have to get a jar and focus your eyes while walking in the garden. Sometimes, you need not go out of the house and you can find them sauntering in your bathroom (rich in moisture, remember?). So the good thing is that they will not really resist you if you put them in a cage rich with food.

Advantage Number 4: Aside from the yuck factor, the worms will happily do the work; you only have to regulate them.

You will act more as a worm manager than a laborer, really. After you put on the heap and the worms together, you will do very minimal work for so much positive results. You can also get a lot of support from governments and people worldwide regarding this aspect. In fact, in some American communities, it is already being implemented and widely promoted to have worm composting in the home.

Advantage Number 5: Mobile bins will not affect the worms' performance.

Another thing with the worm composting that other composting techniques don't have is the mobility. You can take it with you anywhere, assuming that you have small scale composting on your sleeve (industrial size worm composting isn't really a lovely idea, anyway).

Quick Tips:

· Do not add meat or oily food scraps – vegetable and plant material only

· The more frequently you turn your compost pile, the quicker turnaround time

· Keep piles moist but not soggy

· Add a few shovels of dirt to the pile from time to time

Dust your knickknacks by spraying a little furniture polish on a soft paintbrush & lightly dust the items!

PM’s Compendium of Useful Resources

New Downloads Added

Go to our Hunting tab to download Survival Shotgunning report.

Go to our Citizen Preparedness tab to get 77 Items Items That Will Instantly Vanish from Store Shelves in a Panic

www.PoorManSurvival.com

Revolutionary Fish Hatchery Reduces Toxins

•Ontario man pioneers new way of raising healthier fish while conserving water, lessening pollution in waterways

By Mark Anderson

An Ontario resident has created a revolutionary fish hatchery technology that can, among other things, produce healthy fish for people to eat while conserving water and reducing pollution that is typically dumped into waterways in more traditional methods. Despite using one-tenth of the groundwater as is used by government hatcheries, John Devine’s system has long been ignored and suppressed by those in big corporate media and government, much to the detriment of human health, the food supply and the economy.

At a time when droughts have been particularly severe, typical “open” (water in, water out), traditional fish hatcheries extract a whopping 2K gallons of water per minute from aquifers.

“Hatcheries need clean water; you cannot use surface water,” said Devine. This is largely due to the fact that surface water is contaminated with man-made or naturally occurring pollutants.

But the closed-loop system used by Devine, along with his son, Mark, draws water from the aquifer at a much slower rate, since 90% of what is taken in is carefully cleaned and recycled back to the fish, so they can continue to thrive.

Finding a Work-at-Home Job

Most Are Scams, But These 7 Are For Real

A growing number of employers are willing to use home-based employees, assuming those employees have access to a phone, computer and high-speed Internet connection. That's good news for people with disabilities or who are caring for children or an elderly relative or who live in an area where jobs are scarce. It's also good news for people who could find work outside the home but prefer to spend more time with their families and less time sitting in traffic.

http://www.bottomlinepublications.com/content/article/business/finding-a-work-at-home-jobmost-are-scams-but-these-7-are-for-real?utm_campaign=_BQXDq2B8uDyS9w

Fraud: Why the Great Recession

Mostly English, some Spanish w/ subtitles…well done look at the crash from various foreign and US perspectives.

http://www.fraudedocumental.com/#!__english/cinema

Saving on Pet Food

Join Rewards Programs to save cash on pet foods. Here a couple to try:

Nutro.com/coupons-rewards/my-nutro-rewards-program.aspx

PurinaMills.com/rewards/register/default.aspx

The Nanny State Updates…

LAPD wants to know why you are taking these photos

If you live in Los Angeles and decide to take some pictures of a few monuments or public places to send to friends and family or for your own private collection, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) may see you as a potential threat to public safety

Big Brother Goes to School; Wants All Students ‘Chipped’

Just outside of San Antonio, Texas, an honor student has stepped out of formation to protest the “Student Locator Project” just launched by the huge Northside Independent School District (NISD). The program would compel 4,200 pupils in John Jay High School and Anson Jones Middle School to wear radio frequency identification (RFID) microchips embedded in the student IDs worn around their necks.

Operation Stellar Wind Domestic Spy Program…Traitors in Action Alert!

NSAs Utah Data Center’s purpose:

Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.”

William Binney is among a group of N.S.A. whistle-blowers, including Thomas A. Drake, who have each risked everything — their freedom, livelihoods and personal relationships — to warn Americans about the dangers of N.S.A. domestic spying; A top-secret program he says is broadly collecting Americans' personal data. Read more about N.S.A. domestic spying:

Traitors in Action-the NSA could care less about violating the rights of American Citizens as you’ll see in these two documentaries…your tax dollars at work violating the Bill of Rights while bankrupting the nation.

http://youtu.be/ss_9HaWxvdk

http://youtu.be/OemwW60VxDY

For a fuller description of the new technologies the government is using against its citizens, go here:

http://www.poormansurvival.com/Pages/articlesii.aspx

The more coffee you drink, the longer you’ll live according to the New England Journal of Medicine…lowers rates of heart disease, stroke and diabetes!

The Parting Thought-

Are you sick of watching politicians ruin this once-great country? Are you convinced that there is more going on in America than just another “recession?”

Statists relish 'crises' because they can be used to force more controls into our lives."
-- William P. Hoar

Can We Protect the Country from Politicians?

Today, the federal government has acquired an all but unquestioned dominance over virtually every area of American life. It acts without constitutional limits and increasingly regulates our most basic activities, from how much water is in our toilets to what kind of light bulbs we can buy.

Decades worth of bad decisions by members of all three branches of government have brought our country to the brink of disaster.

So while we face many challenges, the most difficult task ahead—and the most important—is to restore constitutional limits on government

According to the Fund for Peace’s and Foreign Policy magazine’s 2012 Failed States Index, not even the United States is safe from collapse. This is a truism for anybody who understands just what an overstretched military, politicized monetary policy and societal moral and ethical decay means for a nation.

During the Clinton administration, scholars in major journals such as Foreign Affairs noted that in much of the world, the US is considered the leading failed state and the greatest terrorist threat to man. But the US citizenry would never believe this, considering the Fourth Branch of the Government – the media - does not report on international opinion in its entertainment news.

Although the attention is on the fiscal deficit in the mainstream, what is sometimes termed the “democratic deficit” is as good an indicator of the peril of a nation as any: the overwhelming gap between public policy and public opinion. And this is a conservative view. Much of the population knows that the government is not on their side, though most are merely too comfortable and scared to do anything about it. And who can blame them? Their very freedom and survival could depend on NOT making too much of a fuss about their ‘own’ government.

The US is starting to endure its own fair share of misery. Since 2008, a bankrupt and rogue world financial system has hijacked the state instruments and forced the population and future generations to subsidize their own enslavement (via inflation and debt). The public number is about $16 trillion, but the worldwide derivatives market exceeds $1.2 quadrillion, dwarfing the planet’s GDP. The bailout culture in the US and the west implies that the worldwide taxpayer, with the US taxpayer at the forefront if history is any gauge, is expected to back additional bailouts to corrupt bankers and governments. The same pillaging has happened to Europe as the traditional “core” of civilization – US, UK, and Europe – join each other to impoverish their citizens.

According Alan Krueger, the chairman of Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, "the shift in income inequality over the last three decades is the equivalent of moving $1.1 trillion of income from the 99% to the top 1% every single year."

According to the Economic Policy Institute, "CEO pay at American firms has risen 725%, more than 127 times faster than worker pay over the same time period."

As Congress bankrupts the nation and violates civil rights, we should start thinking about charges of treason. (More on this to come in our ongoing series).