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Monday, October 15, 2018

A Nation at Risk, Security Enhanced Cell Phones, Don't Trust Alexa, More


Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…


ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

 


A Nation at Risk

With the recent plunge in the S&P 500 of over 5%, has the long-anticipated (and long-overdue) market correction finally begun?

According to the Sacramento Bee, 9 million elderly Americans across the country “can’t afford to eat”, and in one of their recent articles they featured the plight of 71-year-old Floridian Janet Burke…

Burke is one of the nearly 9 million elderly people at risk of hunger in the United States. In Florida, with the highest percentage of people 60 and older, more than 750,000 elderly need food assistance, according to experts.

The problems confronting the elderly have become one of the hot topics for candidates this election year. Candidates in South Florida have pointed to the needs of the elderly as one of the key concerns voiced by voters.

More than 100 million Americans receive assistance from the government each month, but many citizens do not believe in receiving any help and so they just quietly suffer as they search for a way to make things better.

You’ve seen my writings regarding how government at all levels nickel and dime citizens with continual inflation, non-stop increases in the costs they force upon us [fuel taxes, postage hikes, insurance & auto registration increases, property tax hikes, water bill increases, etc.]… no break [in most states] is given to families or seniors.  

Most Americans seem to want corrupt politicians in Washington, a Federal Reserve System that is bankrupting future generations, an exploding national debt, a deeply oppressive system of taxation and a bloated national government that is becoming more monstrous with each passing day.

In this day and age, “liberty” and “freedom” are seen as antiquated concepts that are standing in the way of “progress”, and more government always seems to be the “solution” that is proposed whenever any crisis arises.

The world economy is at risk of another financial meltdown, following the failure of governments and regulators to push through all the reforms needed to protect the system from reckless behaviour, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

With global debt levels well above those at the time of the last crash in 2008, the risk remains that unregulated parts of the financial system could trigger a global panic, the Washington-based lender of last resort said.

And the IMF report also seemed to indicate that global central banks were responsible for the situation in which we now find ourselves.

In the report, an “extended period of ultralow interest rates” was blamed for “the build-up of financial vulnerabilities”

The IMF Global Financial Stability report read: “The extended period of ultralow interest rates in advanced economies has contributed to the build-up of financial vulnerabilities.

The large accumulation of public debt and the erosion of fiscal buffers in many economies following the crisis point to the urgency of rebuilding those defences to prepare for the next downturn.”

It got so bad in 2008 that even high level bank CEOs were taking cash out of ATMs because they simply didn’t know if their own banks would be open in the morning.
 
 
 

NOTE:  Security Enchanced Cell Phones:

   As I’ve written, police can now scan your phone [textalyzing] once you’ve been pulled over.  How to safeguard your data:  One of the most secure mobile phones you can buy ‘off-the-shelf’ is the Blackphone 2.  It was developed by Silent Circle, a firm developed by pioneer Phil Zimmerman and runs on software called PrivatOS and is billed as “NSA Proof.”

Another privacy-enhanced phone is the BlackBerry PRIV which features:

·         Data & messaging encryption

·         DTEK monitoring of apps alerting you to privacy risks

·         Password Keeper & Picture Password

·         Protection from malware & hacking

 

 

Additional News Items

·         Alexa, Should We Trust You? (Hell No!) We’re all falling for Alexa, unless we’re falling for Google Assistant, or Siri, or some other genie in a smart speaker. When I say “smart,” I mean the speakers possess artificial intelligence, can conduct basic conversations, and are hooked up to the internet, which allows them to look stuff up and do things for you. And when I say “all,” I know some readers will think, Speak for yourself! Friends my age—we’re the last of the Baby Boomers—tell me they have no desire to talk to a computer or have a computer talk to them. Cynics of every age suspect their virtual assistants of eavesdropping, and not without reason.

 


Paul is a vocal libertarian known for an ardent grassroots fan base that propelled him to multiple presidential runs, as well as his grim warnings about the economy. Yet he has been warning investors for years that an epic drop of 50 percent or more will eventually hit the stock market. He predicted the February correction, but not in size and scope.


After a surprising slump in the use of revolving, i.e. credit card, debt when in the months of June and July US consumers "charged" only $639 million during the peak summer months, moments ago, the Fed reported that in August, consumer credit posted a significant rebound, rising by $20 billion, above the $15.0 billion expected, and bringing the total to a $3.94 trillion, a 6.2% annualized increase from a year ago, and a new all time high, largely on the back of a newfound love with credit cards.


“Most data breaches involve financial information, but your Facebook account can be misused in a number of ways that are harmful,” says Justin Brookman, the director of consumer privacy and technology policy for Consumers Union, the advocacy division of Consumer Reports. “Accessing your private communications and posts by itself is pretty invasive, but that information could also be used to crack account security questions or to scam you and your friends.”


This is not to say that we do or do not agree with how Freedom House determines the level of freedom, because taxation (government theft and the most obvious violation of basic human civil rights) rates were obviously not a factor in their rankings. Nor were the number of government services the public is forced to fund at gunpoint whether they use them or not taken into account. It appears they judge only on a few very social layers. But read the reports and see for yourself.

 

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Yours for smarter living,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

 

Additional FREE Resources

 
Your Free Middle Class Survival Kit

SAVE & MAKE Money

Researched by our editors and include 100s of tips, tricks and insider methods of saving money, earning extra money [many from the comfort of your home], the best places to live,  How to find little-known freebies, discounts and other benefits-over 2,000 programs!


 

or…


 

Other notes of interest…

 

Living Frugally In Suburbia
You live differently than your neighbors.

 

14 Frugal Food-Rescuing Tips from Grandma
These depression-era frugal tips still work today!

 

8 Simple Ways to Put More Money in Your Pocket
Have more money without working harder!

 

Knowing When and How to Stockpile Groceries
Stocking up could save your grocery budget!

 

Emergency Preparedness on a Budget 
Affordable ways to prepare for an emergency.

 

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A Smoking Frog Feature, Shallow Planet Production

 

2 comments:

Larry said...

Always an interesting read!

Sam said...

Ron Paul warns that when the “everything bubble” finally bursts “America will experience an economic crisis much greater than the 2008 meltdown or the Great Depression”…
The Fed will be unsuccessful in keeping the everything bubble from exploding. When the bubble bursts, America will experience an economic crisis much greater than the 2008 meltdown or the Great Depression.