Poor
Man Survival
Self Reliance tools for
independent minded people…
ISSN
2161-5543
A Digest of Urban
Survival Resources
Myths Which
Mislead Most Americans…Freedom Didn’t Fare Well in 2017
Plenty of useful informational
nuggets in this issue to finish off your year-you simply need to pay attention!
Here’s how things would look if you REALLY
lived in a free country
(Natural News) Think you live
in a free country? Think again: If you really lived in a free country, all
sorts of things around you would look much different than the way they do now.
For example, if you really lived in a
free country, you wouldn’t see people being arrested for selling fresh, whole
milk.
People also wouldn’t be arrested for
growing their own medicine in the form of cannabis.
If you really lived in a free country,
you’d be able to seek out any form of medicine you wanted, including holistic
medicine. And doctors would be free to practice holistic medicine without being
criminalized by the state.
If you lived in a free country, you
wouldn’t see people being threatened with arrest for growing food in their own
front yards!
Watch the video below to learn the
truth, Neo: You
are a slave living in a police state
Does Anyone Still Trust
Government? Ever Since Bush Passed the
un-Patriot Act & Obama Defied the Courts’ Repeated Demands to STOP Spying
on Americans…it has been full speed ahead and the Constitution be damned.
“PRISM” lets the NSA
access emails, video chats, instant messages, and other content sent via
Facebook, Google, Apple and others. “Upstream” lets the NSA worm its way into
the internet backbone—the cables and switches owned by private corporations
like AT&T that make the internet into a global network—and scan traffic for
the communications of tens of thousands of individuals labeled “targets.”
Just as the USA Patriot Act was perverted from its original intent to fight terrorism abroad and was used instead to covertly crack down on the American people (allowing government agencies to secretly track Americans’ financial activities, monitor their communications, and carry out wide-ranging surveillance on them), Section 702 has been used as an end-run around the Constitution to allow the government to collect the actual content of Americans’ emails, phone calls, text messages and other electronic communication without a warrant.
Under Section 702, the government collects and analyzes over 250 million internet communications every year. There are estimates that at least half of these contain information about U.S. residents, many of whom have done nothing wrong. This information is then shared with law enforcement and “routinely used for purposes unrelated to national security.”
Just as the USA Patriot Act was perverted from its original intent to fight terrorism abroad and was used instead to covertly crack down on the American people (allowing government agencies to secretly track Americans’ financial activities, monitor their communications, and carry out wide-ranging surveillance on them), Section 702 has been used as an end-run around the Constitution to allow the government to collect the actual content of Americans’ emails, phone calls, text messages and other electronic communication without a warrant.
Under Section 702, the government collects and analyzes over 250 million internet communications every year. There are estimates that at least half of these contain information about U.S. residents, many of whom have done nothing wrong. This information is then shared with law enforcement and “routinely used for purposes unrelated to national security.”
According to my associate John Whitehead, the need for a
citizens advocate in America is growing…
The rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and healthcare costs
skyrocketed. Despite being one of the world’s richest nations, America’s poor
grew to 41 million people living in poverty. That doesn’t include
the number of Americans struggling to pay their bills and make ends meet.
Americans currently pay $3.4 trillion a year for medical care. We spent more
than $10,000 per person on health care in 2016. Those attempting to
shop for health insurance coverage right now are understandably experiencing
sticker shock with premiums set to rise 34% in 2018. It’s estimated that
costs may rise as high as $15,000 by 2023.
We became a nation of snowflakes. We have entered a new age where there can be no freedom speech, expression or thought. We have become a nation of snowflakes, snitches and book burners: a legalistic, intolerant, elitist, squealing bystander nation eager to report fellow citizens to the police for the slightest offense. Americans allowed their fears—fear for their safety, fear of each other, fear of being labeled racist or hateful or prejudiced, etc.—to trump their freedom of speech and muzzle them far more effectively than any government edict could. Ultimately the war on free speech—and that’s exactly what it is: a war being waged by Americans against other Americans—is a war that is driven by fear. That bottled up dissent bubbled over and fomented even more hate, distrust and paranoia among portions of the populace.
We became a nation of snowflakes. We have entered a new age where there can be no freedom speech, expression or thought. We have become a nation of snowflakes, snitches and book burners: a legalistic, intolerant, elitist, squealing bystander nation eager to report fellow citizens to the police for the slightest offense. Americans allowed their fears—fear for their safety, fear of each other, fear of being labeled racist or hateful or prejudiced, etc.—to trump their freedom of speech and muzzle them far more effectively than any government edict could. Ultimately the war on free speech—and that’s exactly what it is: a war being waged by Americans against other Americans—is a war that is driven by fear. That bottled up dissent bubbled over and fomented even more hate, distrust and paranoia among portions of the populace.
The plight of the nation’s homeless worsened. In communities across
the country, legislators adopted a variety of methods (parking meters, zoning regulations, tickets, and even robots) to discourage the homeless from squatting, loitering and
panhandling. One of the most common—and least discussed—practices: homeless relocation programs that bus the homeless
outside city limits.
The Surveillance State rendered Americans vulnerable to threats from
government spies, police, hackers and power failures. The Department of
Homeland, which has been leading the charge to create a Surveillance State,
began deploying mandatory facial recognition scans at airports and
improperly gathering biometric data on American travelers. Police were
gifted with new surveillance gadgets that allows them to scan vehicles for valuable goods and contraband. Even
churches got in on the game, installing “crime cameras” to monitor church property and churchgoers. The
Corporate State tapped into our computer keyboards, cameras, cell phones and smart devices in
order to better target us for advertising. Social media giants
such as Facebook granted secret requests by the government and its agents for
access to users’ accounts. Triggered by background noise, Google Assistant has
been actively recording phone users’ conversations. And our private
data—methodically collected and stored with or without our say-so—was repeatedly compromised and breached.
Here’s John Rutherford
to explain why Congress should let Section 702 expire -- and why government
spying will be a permanent fixture if it doesn’t.
Surveillance That Never
Ends
[It should
be noted the Poor Man is a long time financial contributor to Rutherford’s
non-profit group]
Just
in time for Christmas, the Deep State wants to give America the gift that keeps
on giving: never-ending mass surveillance.
I’m
not referring to the kind of surveillance carried out by that all-knowing and
all-seeing Jolly Old St. Nick and his informant the Elf on the Shelf (although,
to be fair, they have helped to acclimate us to a world in which we’re always being
watched and judged by higher authorities).
No,
this particular bit of Yuletide gift-giving comes courtesy of the Deep State
(a.k.a. the Surveillance State, Police State, Shadow Government and black-ops spy agencies).
If
this power-hungry cabal gets its way, the government’s power to spy on its
citizens will soon be all-encompassing and permanent.
As
it now stands, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act—the legal
basis for two of the National Security Agency’s largest mass surveillance
programs, “PRISM” and “Upstream”—is set to expire at the end of 2017.
“PRISM”
lets the NSA access emails, video chats, instant messages, and other content
sent via Facebook, Google, Apple and others. “Upstream” lets the NSA worm its
way into the internet backbone—the cables and switches owned by private
corporations like AT&T that make the internet into a global network—and
scan traffic for the communications of tens of thousands of individuals labeled
“targets.”
Section 702 has been used as an end-run around the
Constitution to allow the government to collect the actual content of Americans’
emails, phone calls, text messages and other electronic communication without a
warrant.
Under
Section 702, the government collects and analyzes over 250 million internet
communications every year. There are estimates that at least half of these
contain information about U.S. residents, many of whom have done nothing wrong.
This information is then shared with law enforcement and “routinely used for purposes unrelated to national security.”
Mind
you, Section 702 gives the government access to the very content of your
conversations (phone calls, text messages, video chats), your
photographs, your emails.
So
beware of what you say, what you read, what you write, where you go, and with
whom you communicate, because it will all be recorded, stored and used against
you eventually, at a time and place of the government’s choosing. Privacy, as
we have known it, is dead.
For
all intents and purposes, we now have a fourth branch of government.
This
fourth branch came into being without any electoral mandate or constitutional
referendum, and yet it possesses superpowers, above and beyond those of any
other government agency save the military. It is all-knowing, all-seeing and
all-powerful. It operates beyond the reach of the president, Congress and the
courts, and it marches in lockstep with the corporate elite who really call the
shots in Washington, DC.
The
government’s “technotyranny”
surveillance apparatus has become so entrenched and entangled with its police
state apparatus that it’s hard to know anymore where law enforcement ends and
surveillance begins.
The
short answer: they have become one and the same entity.
The
police state has passed the baton to the surveillance state.
This
hasn’t fazed President Trump who, much like his predecessors, has thus far
marched in lockstep with the dictates of the police state.
For
months, the Trump Administration has been actively lobbying Congress to
reauthorize Section 702 in its entirety. Now, according to The
Intercept, Trump is actively considering a proposal to establish his own global, private spy network
that would circumvent official U.S. intelligence agencies and answer directly
to the White House.
If
approved, this would be yet another secret government agency carrying out secret
surveillance and counterintelligence, funded by a secret black ops budget that by its
very nature does away with transparency, bypasses accountability and completely
eludes any form of constitutionality.
As if we
weren’t being spied on enough already.
On
any given day, the average American is now monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20
different ways by both government and corporate eyes and ears.
Every
second of every day, the American people are being spied on by the U.S.
government’s vast network of digital Peeping Toms, electronic eavesdroppers and
robotic snoops.
Talk
about a system rife for abuse.
Ask
the government why it’s carrying out this warrantless surveillance on American
citizens, and you’ll get the same Orwellian answer the government has been
trotting out since 9/11 to justify its assaults on our civil liberties: to keep
America safe.
Yet
warrantless mass surveillance by the government and its corporate cohorts
hasn’t made America any safer. And it certainly isn’t helping to preserve our
freedoms. Frankly, America will never be safe as long as the U.S. government is
allowed to shred the Constitution.
Now
the government wants us to believe that we have nothing to fear from its mass
spying program because they’re only looking to get the “bad” guys who are
overseas.
Don’t
believe it.
Warrantless
mass surveillance of American citizens is wrong, un-American, and
unconstitutional.
As
I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, whenever the
rights of the American people are pitted against the interests of the
military/corporate/security complex, “we the people” lose. Unless Congress
develops a conscience—or suddenly remembers that they owe their allegiance to
the citizenry and not the corporate state—we’re about to lose big.
Mark
my words: if Congress votes to make the NSA’s vast spying powers permanent, it
will be yet another brick in the wall imprisoning us within an electronic
concentration camp from which there is no escape.
Notes of Interest…
As detailed below, Uncle
Sam's borrowing requirements are likely to hit $1.25 trillion or more than 6%
of GDP in FY 2019 owing to the fact that the tax bill is so heavily
front-loaded and the GOP's wild spending spree for defense, disasters and much
else.
Needless to say, this
impending bond market collision has not fazed the dip-buyers in the slightest.
Financial markets are in the blow-off stage of the third great central bank
bubble of the present era and are therefore entirely in the grip of momentum
chasing robo-machines and day traders. The latter are processing price action
alone----to the complete exclusion of a swelling tide of facts and threats
which sharply contradict the bullish mania of the moment.
As a percentage of
operating revenues, Chicago (Ba1 negative) remained at the top with unfunded
pension liabilities at 703%, followed by Dallas (A1 stable) at 609%, and
Houston (Aa3 stable) at 606%. All exhibit very high leverage from debt,
unfunded pensions and retiree healthcare in fiscal 2016. Both Dallas and
Houston recently passed significant benefit changes that will impact future
pension liability measurements.
Moody's says in fiscal 2017 ANPLs will spike an additional 33% for most local governments due to lagged recognition of weak investment returns in the prior year.
Moody's says in fiscal 2017 ANPLs will spike an additional 33% for most local governments due to lagged recognition of weak investment returns in the prior year.
U.S. lawmakers are redistributing income from the poor to the
rich, according to massive new study (Adam)
The 2018 World
Inequality Report, written by a team of leading international economists
including Thomas Piketty of “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” fame, finds
that the rise of income inequality in the United States is “largely due to
massive educational inequalities, combined with a tax system that grew less
progressive despite a surge in top labor compensation since the 1980s, and in
top capital incomes in the 2000s.”
What about you? Got anything interesting
to share?
Bruce, the Poor Man, free thinker, social critic
& cynic
A Final Note…
BONUS
MATERIALS
600 Free University Courses
Some 200 universities just launched 600 online courses free.
Here is the full list by subject
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Additional
Resources
4 Ways to Cash a Check without a Bank Account
No bank account? No problem. You can still cash that check.
No bank account? No problem. You can still cash that check.
How
to Waste Sudden Wealth
Don't let 'found' money slip through your fingers.
Don't let 'found' money slip through your fingers.
Be
Radical, Get Rich
Want to know how to get rich? Stop being average!
Want to know how to get rich? Stop being average!
Blemished Banking History? Try Second-Chance Checking Account
Don't let past mistakes prevent you from opening a checking account.
Don't let past mistakes prevent you from opening a checking account.
How to Survive the War on the Middle Class
14 of the best reports I’ve assembled on protecting your
freedom-Download link.
Support
our efforts by shopping my storefront…
You Have a 16-Cylinder Brain-Learn How to Use it &
Re-Awaken the Genius Inside You!
I know everyone is short on time in this hectic world so I’ve kept this
PDF short and to the point with links to expert how-to articles and guides
including:
·
How to Increase Your Intelligence
·
6 Step Brain Exercise Steve Jobs Used to
Boost Creativity
·
6 Simple Habits to Boost Your Intelligence
·
The Best Vitamins to Increase Brain
Function
·
How a Harvard Brain Specialist Keeps Her
Brain Healthy
·
A Review of the Top 10 Brain [Limitless]
Pills
·
How to Protect Your Cognitive Function
Here's to a Better New Year...May Each of You Prosper!
A Smoking Frog Feature, Shallow Planet Production
