Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin
A Digest of Urban Survival Resources
For Independent Minded People!
ISSN 2161-5543
In
This Issue:
1. How about a ‘country manager’ instead of a
president
2. Birthday Freebies
3. Keeping food safe during a power
outage
4. FIFO Pantry Storage
5. The continuing war on Americans by
Americans
“Men
occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and
hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” — Winston
Churchill
Use a ‘National Manager’ Instead of a President to Run the
Country?
During my lengthy hospital stay I
had the chance to discuss what is happening to our country with various medical
staff and even food service crew, the type of folks who make up the backbone of
the middle class. Nearly 100% of those
I spoke with feel our country is going downhill and both parties are
responsible. Almost everyone seemed to
feel neither party cared about America anymore.
The middle class has taken huge hits in terms of losses, lower wages, no
benefits, higher cost of living, etc.
In fact, the US has plunged in
world rankings of freest economies to number 18 (below the United Arab
Emirates, Taiwan, Qatar and others) according to the Fraser Institute’s recent
2012 Annual Report on Economic Freedom of the World. Most of us realize prosperity follows
freedom, and freedom in the US has fallen substantially since 2000.
Aside from driving out career
politicians, we began to discuss alternatives to our current system and one
woman suggested we might be better off with professional managers rather than
career politicians…a national ‘city manager’ if you will. Ask yourself how a typical city manager
concept might be adapted to our country.
Sure, as in Great Britain which maintains a Royal Family, we could
continue with a president as a figurehead.
A city manager is an official appointed
as the administrative
manager
of a city,
in a council-manager
form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes
referred to as the chief executive officer
(CEO) or chief administrative officer
(CAO) in some municipalities. However,
in a technical sense, the term "city manager," as opposed to CAO,
implies more discretion and independent authority that is set forth in a
charter or some other body of codified law, as opposed to duties being assigned
on a varying basis by a single superior such as a mayor.
Could we initiate something like this to run
our country on a professional rather than political basis? We could still have a president for symbolic
purposes but Congress would appoint-hire someone with pragmatic skills at
cleaning up the budget and economy, having the power to make strategic cuts to
excessive government laws, regulations and agencies which cost too much?
Some of the basic
roles, responsibilities, and powers of a city manager include:
- Supervision
of day-to-day operations of all city departments and staff, directly and
through department heads;
- Oversight of
all hiring, firing, disciplining and suspensions;
- Preparation,
monitoring, and execution of the city budget, which includes submitting
each year to the council a proposed budget package with options and
recommendations for its consideration and possible approval;
- Main
technical advisor to the council on overall governmental operations;
- Public
relations, such as meeting with citizens, citizen groups, businesses, and
other stakeholders (the presence of a mayor may alter this function
somewhat);
- Operating
the city with a professional understanding of how all city functions
operate together to their best effect;
- Attends all
council meetings, but does not have any voting rights
- Additional
duties that may be assigned by the council
Structural
problems in the US economy and US government budget loom in 2013 and neither
party seems willing to address the mess they’ve created. Federal finances are
on autopilot for national bankruptcy.
Could this type
of operation be successfully transplanted to running the country more
efficiently? An interesting concept…what
are your thoughts?
Protect
your privacy by switching to a ‘Dumb Phone.’
The Pew Research Center reports on the hazards of smartphone ownership…31%
have lost their phone or had it stolen and 12% say another person has accessed
the contents of their smart phone, violating their privacy and finances.
PM’s
Compendium of Useful Resources
Your birthday is the one day a year when you
can relish being treated like a king or queen. In addition to the pampering by
family and friends, your favorite restaurants and shops will lavish you with
birthday freebies that go far beyond just cake and a song.
There are literally hundreds of birthday
offers out there like free meals, no-cost activities, and retail discounts that
are all yours, just for being born.
Before spending money to treat yourself on
your birthday, check to see what’s yours for nothing. Money Talks News founder Stacy Johnson
has the rundown on all kinds of birthday freebies. Check it out:
Do
power outages have you worried about the food in your refrigerator and freezer?
Here are tips to
keep your food safe for as long as possible and to help you determine when it's
time to start throwing things out.
FIFO
Pantry Storage
Dora
Perfect for What You Want
Shelf
Reliance created and owns the patent on these shelves. They're
perfect for what you want. They're sturdy, easy to assemble, and adjustable. More at:
http://www.thesecretinformationsite.com/secrets-videos.html
It's slow progress, but a federal judge agrees with the Electronic
Frontier Foundation that federal agencies, including the FBI, are dragging
their feet on releasing documents that would reveal the extent to which private
companies will be forced to tailor their technology to make it easier for the
government to spy on the Internet. The EFF has filed filed two freedom of
information requests, in response to which they received damned little. Judge
Richard Seeborg says the feds need to go back and try again.
Get more web
privacy by using a proxy server such as Anonymizer or Proxify…look for them on
the net
The Nanny State Updates…
The percentage of police officers accused of crimes in
some police departments is higher than the percentage of people in jail from
the overall population. Since police have a huge amount of power to invade
personal privacy, this high level of criminality is disturbing. See what you
can do to protect yourself from rogue law enforcement.
By
2014, the US Department of Homeland Security will be able to scan
you at the molecular level from 164 feet, and you won't even know it. Starting 2013, the US
Department of the Treasury will be able to scan every bank and brokerage
account you have in the world.
US Small business surrender
their 1st Amendment Rights – Justice Department Memo Eric Holder's Department of Justice responded
to a lawsuit filed by the owners of Hobby Lobby. The lawsuit is over the health
care mandate.
The owners of Hobby Lobby say that being forced to provide services that are abortion related are against their religion and violate their First Amendment.
The Department of Justice's response was stunning. They claim when an American starts a business, they essentially surrender their First Amendment rights.
Read it for yourself.
The owners of Hobby Lobby say that being forced to provide services that are abortion related are against their religion and violate their First Amendment.
The Department of Justice's response was stunning. They claim when an American starts a business, they essentially surrender their First Amendment rights.
Read it for yourself.
If analysts are
correct-soon it will be farmers driving Maserati’s, not stockbrokers –Food prices
will continue to rise worldwide.
|
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The Parting Thought-The Magnitude of the Mess We’re In
The
War on Americans by its own government…
These days, even using your cell phone on a
city sidewalk can cost you. Police in one New Jersey town now issue $85 tickets
to anybody caught "texting" while walking.
According to Forbes, the local government fined a
high school $15,000 for running a soda machine in their lunchroom.
Meanwhile,
a North Carolina government inspector recently confiscated a preschooler's
lunch — a turkey and cheese sandwich, fruit, chips and juice — because it
wasn't "healthy."
Guess
what they made her eat instead... chicken nuggets from the cafeteria.
In
New Jersey, there's a town that will fine you $85 for "texting while
walking..."
In
California, there are towns where you could get fined for smoking in your own
backyard...
And
in New Orleans, police will stop you from giving a glass of water to
parade-goers...
You cannot live well without
learning for yourself how to embrace the idea of risk.
Unfortunately,
thanks to Big Government, millions of Americans are forgetting how to do just
that. They're letting bureaucrats "Bubble Wrap" their lives instead,
with precisely the outcome you'd expect.
For
instance, take the "do-gooder" park ranger in California who Tasered
a man for walking his dogs through a public park without a leash...
Or
how about the Virginia cop who shot and killed a 54-year-old teacher
during a traffic stop. Why? Because the
frightened teacher rolled up her window and tried to drive away.
And then there's the case of the two Girl Scouts who were
recently banned from selling cookies from a stand on their front lawn. Again,
why? Because they didn't have a "commercial license."
This is just
government run amok — and it just gets worse from here.
For example, remember garage sales? These days, there's a
law against that too. If you don't get a city permit first, says The Wall
Street Journal, cops will roll up and shut you down.
How about confusing local recycling rules? In San
Francisco, if you don't get it right, you pay. The fine for putting newspapers
in the wrong bin runs as high as $500.
Driving a muddy truck? Whoops, here come the regulators
again. If you drive through Minnetonka, Minn., without hitting a carwash first,
you could pay up to $2,000 in fines.
Ask yourself how many more aspects of life should we let
Big Government control?
The point here is that government was never meant to be
your "mom."
Yet according to a report on MSNBC, some 40,000 new laws
will go on the books just this year.
There are laws against buying a drink for your
waitress... against skipping rocks on a public pond... or holding a private
bingo game.
These days, you can't even run a lemonade stand with
getting hit without a $500 fine. Says Forbes, if you don't have a
"peddler’s permit," the cops will shut you down.
Meanwhile in Minnesota, you can't sell a pumpkin on
Halloween without a license. If you've got a cow, you can't sell the milk to
neighbors, either.
In Massachusetts, the state hit a fisherman with a $500
fine for untangling a whale from his fishing net... because they wanted to do
it for him.
And in Philadelphia, you'd better not try to make money
off your blog... because first you're supposed to buy a "blogger's
license" for $300.
We're destroying the spirit of enterprise.
Even the government's own Small Business Administration
says that regulations alone will cost the average entrepreneur about $10,585
per employee.
According to Henry Silvergate, a civil liberties lawyer,
there are so many new laws it's likely that you break at least two or
three laws per day without realizing it's happening.
Remember how government spending was supposed to save
jobs and give retirees a safety net? Instead, we got the unstoppable debt and
pandemic dependency on Medicaid and Social Security.
Our terror wars... our gigantic prison population... our
exploding political divide... they're all a direct result of stupid government
planning that took a wrong turn.
Guess what happens
when you roll over and accept what bureaucrats do?
I'll give you a hint — it creates the ultimate form of
job security.
Not for us, obviously... but for the bureaucrats.
The more decisions we cede to the authorities, the less
we're able to make decisions for ourselves. They know that, and they want it
that way.
Because it creates dependency.
The servant has become our master... and we pay them to
keep us in line.
How did we let
it get this far?
The answer is a little-known psychological phenomenon
called "incremental degradation."
Learn more about how you can stop government
madness by getting our series on Taking Back our Country from dysfunctional
Politicians & Bureaucrats at our main page: PoorManSurvival.com
“Until the next revolution”, the Poor Man
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1 comment:
Interesting concept about needing a president. After all, Wall Street has already purchased Congress so why do they need a president too?
Regardless of who wins, the American people will lose as nothing good will come from another election...we're already bankrupt and over regulated and spied on.
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