The End is Near and it will be a Scream

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

http://PoorManSurvivor.net

 

ISSN 2161-5543

Tonight’s the annual propaganda speech made by Obama AKA: The State of the Disunion.  He’ll not be able to justify his failures to accomplish anything meaningful and he’ll defend his rape of the Constitution via the NSA, the un-Patriot Act, the PRISM program, etc. while blaming every ill the nation has on the Republicans. Shifting blame is a political art form, political propaganda at its finest and the unwashed masses and gullible swallow it every time!

 

 

   Because of their contempt of its citizens, the Bill of Rights and the childlike mentality of so many US politicians, our nation is self destructing.  The Washington-Wall Street Cartel will continue to ruin every aspect of our lives while denigrating the Constitution and our Bill of Rights or as our founders said “Moral & astute men are necessary for America to survive.”

 

"The big thieves hang the little ones."
-- Czech Proverb

 

 

Have You Ever Thought To Yourself, "It's ALL Bullcrap!” Or, How Much Does it Cost to be a Slave?

 

Nickel and Dimed in America…the war on the middle class:

 

For decades, Americans have been taught to: "Be patriotic... be a good law-abiding citizen... go to college... get a good job... climb the corporate ladder... mortgage debt is 'good' debt... your credit score is very important... pay your taxes... trust authority figures..."

 

But where has playing by those "rules" gotten you? There is a war being waged on Middle Class Americans…by the Washington-Wall Street Cartel.

 

The government (and corporate America) nickel and dime us to death with hidden fees, surcharges and taxes – in fact, I can’t think of much we’re not taxed on. 

 

In Washington, in your state government and for local bureau- rats, fat-cat CEOs of Corporate America, a powerful few are always finding ways to win at your expense.  Look at all the fees (taxes) on your cell phone bill, cable bill, utility bills to see you are being financially raped.

 

 

Why Everything the Government Touches Becomes More Expensive

 

Less Government Equals More Freedom

 

   Many of you know I recently moved back to MI because of family obligations.  I’ve been forced to stay because of health and other challenges.  We keep experiencing sticker-shock  from local and state governments, meaning everything in MI costs more.

 

Michigan is surrounded by water.  It has the largest repository of fresh water on the entire planet, yet our water bill, run by the city, is now 100% more than what I pay in the desert of Arizona.  We just had an unannounced rate hike and they’re predicting another.

 

Water in our little town is delivered from Detroit, a city well known for its greed, incompetence, and crooked politicians.

 

We’ve cut our water usage to the bone here.  We have no livestock to water.  We stopped washing our car.  We’ve installed water miser taps.  We drink bottled water, but its cost continues to rise with no end in sight.

 

At our little cabin hideaway, we’re forced to pay $140 annually for trash service that we don’t use or want.  We figure someone’s brother-in-law is getting paid off for some political favors.  But then again, we’ve learned the township is run by a communist politburo which dictates everything about your property but doesn’t tell you about it until after the fact (they don’t have a website explaining their rules, we’re just supposed to know).

 

Our auto insurance is 110% more in Michigan and we only brought one vehicle with us.

 

The government here likes to ‘double-dip’ in order to extract more cash from its slaves.  Purchases of donated, used goods in MI are taxed again at thrift stores (Not so in AZ) and no matter how many times a used car is sold, it’s taxed again.  Even if you lease a vehicle (it’s not a purchase) you still pay a ‘sales’ tax.  I hear they do this in other states too.

 

These high costs represent a fraction of how the cost of living is higher here due to government greed and incompetence and a microcosm of how the little guy throughout the country is getting screwed. 

 

The Washington-Wall Street Cartel has been driving down private sector middle class jobs and benefits for more than 20 years. My studies have shown most Americans haven't had a real raise in more than 25 years while the cost of living (government figures do not reflect inflation since it fails to account for key areas such as energy, health and food costs) has risen. Government, for instance, now nickel and dimes everyone with added fees and costs yet delivers poorer service (think lack of road maintenance as an example).

 

Politicians never met a tax or surcharge they didn’t like.

 

Think back to when politicians told everyone that mandatory no-fault auto insurance would lower premiums.  Costs went up.

 

Think about when mandatory seat-belt use became law.  Politicians told us it was for our own good, think of the children.  We had no choice in the matter and fines quickly jumped from an average of $25 to $65.  In reality, it was just another way for politicians to extract money from citizens.

 

Scroll to the bottom of this article to get a small sampling of all the taxes extracted from citizens:

 

Hell, look at what we pay in fuel taxes per gallon, around 42 cents a gallon is the average…more than a gallon of gas cost when I was in college and they still can’t maintain the roads.

 

Not long ago, we dumped all of our land lines and contract cell phones in favor of pre-paid cell phones.  That saved us about $400 annually in ‘government fees and taxes.’

 

Americans are nickel and dimed by their government on almost everything.  The worst examples include so-called ‘sin-taxes.’  Nearly 40% of the cost of a bottle of liquor goes to feed the tax man (we nearly had another Revolution over alcohol taxes during the Whiskey Rebellion).

 

Meanwhile, Americans shell out money for hidden taxes every year…airport ticket taxes, hotel and car rental fees, animal license fees, bike taxes, sales taxes, entertainment/event and ticket fees, and the list continues on, and on, and on.

 

(Some states manage to get along without an income tax – Delaware and a few other states have no sales tax either:  http://finance.yahoo.com/news/states-with-no-income-tax-181920465.html)

 

  Not many years ago all the states got together with a group of legal eagles to sue Big Tobacco.  The public was promised the proceeds would benefit children’s education.  After all the greed and finger-pointing was finished, most of the lawyers became millionaires and retired. 

 

Only one state lived up to its promise of helping the children.  All 49 of the other states took the legal ransom cash and put it in the general fund or other pet project and all the millions were gone in a heartbeat proving once again that old adage of White Man Speaks with Forked Tongue.

 

Even though this writer and many others had forewarned the public, we’re all getting hit with another government mandated bill that is already costing everyone more money than promised – Obamacare!

 

In the last decade we’ve lost about 10% of our middle class thanks to policies and tax schemes created by the Washington-Wall Street Cartel.  By the mid-1980s, General Electric led the way in the practice of off-shoring US jobs while nearly all of corporate American began cutting wages, benefits, pensions AND corporations pay less taxes than in the 50s and 60s, leaving it up to the Middle Class to shoulder a larger portion of federal revenues.

 

I warned America back then in my syndicated business column that Burger flippers can’t afford $40K cars.  When the Wall Street Journal printed that piece, I got letters telling me I was nuts, it was good for America!

 

The one area of employment that continued to pay better than average wages and benefits were government and/or related jobs (teachers, firemen, police, municipal workers) but now there are fewer private sector jobs left to pay the taxes which supports these occupations.

(Why do you think politicians continue running so often for any political office that is open – the benefits and perks are simply astounding compared to the private sector).

 

Government is a mirror of consumer products today…get less, pay more.  Your dollar is worth less due to another form of government theft – inflation. 

 

So in the final analysis, it’s become a vicious cycle.  As fewer US jobs support government workers, governments find new ways to gouge the public and as the rest of us have learned, government is a racket and the ‘G’ in government stands for that:  Gouge the Public!

 

 

Wall Street adviser: Actual unemployment is 37.2%, 'misery index' worst in 40 years

Don't believe the happy talk coming out of the White House, Federal Reserve and Treasury Department when it comes to the real unemployment rate and the true “Misery Index.” Because, according to an influential Wall Street advisor, the figures are a fraud.

In a memo to clients provided to Secrets, David John Marotta calculates the actual unemployment rate of those not working at a sky-high 37.2 percent, not the 6.7 percent advertised by the Fed, and the Misery Index at over 14, not the 8 claimed by the government.

Marotta, who recently advised those worried about an imploding economy to get a gun, said that the government isn't being honest in how it calculates those out of the workforce or inflation, the two numbers used to get the Misery Index figure.

Look at some of the facts and figures:

• In 2001, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States accounted for 31.8% of all global economic activity. Today, it's only 22%.

• In 1988, the Economist determined the United States was the No. 1 place to be born. Today, the U.S. is tied for 16th!

• The U.S. government borrows more than half of every dollar it spends.

• Over 46 million Americans are on food stamps — and one out of four are children.

• Nearly HALF of all Americans live in a home that receives direct benefits from the federal government.

• The value of the U.S. dollar has declined 96% since the Federal Reserve was created.

• One in four U.S. workers makes less than $10.00 per hour.

• The suicide rate in the U.S. has more than doubled since 2000 — and there are twice as many suicides as homicides.

• More than 33% of Americans are obese.

• The use of antidepressants has increased 400% in the last two decades alone!

You don't need a degree from Harvard or Yale to know what this Fourth Turning feels like.

It doesn't matter if you're in the boardroom... the workroom... or the bathroom... you can easily feel what this crisis has done.

 

And you know America is in trouble — at least for the time being.

Even if you couldn't put your finger on what's wrong, you know this crisis is bigger than an ailing economy.

 

It's bigger than Washington's out-of-control spending and the Federal Reserve's insistence on printing new money to cover up the debt addiction.

 

It's bigger than fat cat Fortune 500 executives and their bailout buddies in Congress.

And it's even bigger than greedy Wall Street bankers that nearly burned our financial system to the ground.

 

The Working Poor

U.S. personal wealth is at a record high. But so is the number of those with jobs that still struggle to make ends meet.

 

We've already seen mass protests by fast food workers. And we've seen the beginnings of a populist response to raise the minimum wage. This will all continue.

 

And it's not just unskilled workers who are at risk.

 

With companies increasingly using contract work to avoid providing retirement, health, and other benefits... increasing costs and debt making it virtually impossible to save... and recent college graduates unable to find the work they studied for...

 

Millions of people are increasingly moving to the “underemployed” category.

Indeed, nearly half the requests for emergency assistance to stave off hunger and homelessness come from people with full-time jobs.

 

Despite high unemployment rates, 141 million Americans shopped on Black Friday – nearly half of our population!  The average amount spent was $407, putting each of them $4,878 in deeper credit card debt.  Our nation’s out-of-control spending will shackle our children with debt and adults don’t seem to know better or do not care.  We seem to be stupid and blind to the fact that we are turning ourselves into future debt slaves.

Funny Money.  We now finance much of our own debt.  We (or I should say the non-government group called the Fed, made up of bankers holding America hostage) print trillions of dollars to finance our addiction to spending which is why inflation will get even worse and our dollar will become worthless!



How much longer will we be able to keep our nation on life support?

Middle Class Still Being Squeezed

This has been the mainstay of reporting by the Poor Man Survivor since 1999…

Despite Obama's focus on the middle class, the improvement so far has largely benefited corporations and the ultra-rich.

Whether you blame Obama or a dysfunctional Congress, either way the recovery is hardly a middle-class success story.

1. Workers are taking home their smallest slice of U.S. income on record: At around $15.8 trillion a year, the United States produces more in annual economic output than ever before, but it's not the worker that's benefiting. Instead, corporate profits now account for their largest slice of that pie on record, whereas the slice for workers has been steadily declining.

2. Inequality has widened: The recovery has been good to families earning more than $394,000 a year, but the other 99% of Americans have barely felt it. The richest 1% of American families have captured 95% of the income gains in the recovery period spanning 2009 to 2012, according to economists at the forefront of income inequality research, Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.

Meanwhile, income for the median American family has barely budged in recent years.

3. The job market still faces a gaping hole: From the job market's peak in early 2008 to its bottom in 2010, the U.S. economy lost 8.7 million jobs – More at:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-setbacks-middle-class-121400614.html

 

Find a state which has no income tax…

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/states-with-no-income-tax-181920465.html

 

 

The End is Near and It’s Going to be a Scream!

America going broke and defaulting may be the best thing that has ever happened.

 

Armchair Preppers and others may actually wake up and realize all of the problems that our corrupt Washington-Wall Street Cartel have caused and may do something about it.

 

We don’t need another election, We need another revolution!

SIDEBAR:

Contempt Of Cop - The New American Revolution - Videos (video)

 Increasingly, and openly, ordinary Americans are committing a legal act that some police nonetheless regard as among the most heinous of all offences: it's called contempt of cop. It's otherwise known as asserting your constitutional rights. Citizens, feeling empowered, are pointing smartphones, rather than just an accusing finger, at abusive...

 

Click here to read, "Contempt Of Cop - The New American Revolution - Videos"...

 

COMMENT: Most taxes we pay today did not exist 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.  What the hell happened?

Not one of the Wall Street pirates who crashed the economy in 2008 has gone to jail…yet, our system throws little guys in prison all the time for petty ‘crimes.’

Everyone should watch the old 1976 TV movie Network or V for Vendetta because we’re ALL Mad as Hell and We Shouldn’t Take it Anymore!

 

The Poor Man has been educating Americans about the systematic plundering of their resources and way of life and what they can do about it since 1999.               

Encourage your fellow Americans to wake up and smell the country. Share our resources!

www.PoorManSurvival.com

 

DON’T THINK, DON’T QUESTION, JUST OBEY

…from our series:

America’s War on the Little Guy

 

 

 

 

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Bruce’s Poor Man Survival Bulletin

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

http://www.PoorManSurvival.com

For Independent Minded People!

ISSN 2161-5543

 

“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naïve and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.” – H. L. Mencken

 

From The Smiling Dog Saloon Files

 

In This Issue:

1.        Where the Middle Class & the Poor Meet-Running in Place

2.       Homeowners Guide to Saving Money-DIY Home Maintenance

3.       Free Online Mini-Gunsmithing Lessons, Prepping Chickens for Winter

4.       Make Your Own Soap, Insulate Your Attic, Save Money Buying Beef

5.       The TSA says 75% of you are a risk

 

 

Running in Place: Where The Middle Class and The Poor Meet

 

Public opinion about the causes and consequences of poverty has historically communicated negative stereotypes of the poor and a distrust of government welfare programs. But as persistent financial insecurity has spread more widely across the income spectrum, these attitudes are starting to shift. In 2008 Gallup found that 69 percent of Americans were dissatisfied with the nation’s efforts to deal with poverty. In June 2013 that percentage rose to 80 percent.

At first read this might suggest a growing frustration with governmental antipoverty programs as inefficient and with the poor as too reliant on entitlements. But other data suggests an acknowledgment of the hard work and obstacles faced by those living in poverty. In 1994 less than half (49 percent) of Americans believed that most of the poor worked, as opposed to relying on government handouts. Well prior to the current recession that figure had grown to 60 percent.

The majority of Americans now believe that the middle class has less opportunity to get ahead than in previous decades (52 percent), less job and financial security (65 percent), and less expendable income after covering basic expenses (60 percent).

The majority (54 percent) also now name financial insecurity as the top concern of the middle class. As the majority of Americans experience these concerns it has become easier for a larger group to identify and empathize with the ongoing financial instability that is a daily fact of life for those in poverty.

Education is a strong case in point. As discussed in a new Demos report called Running in Place: Where the Poor and the Middle Class Meet,  today both low- and middle-income families face economic hardship in providing their children with quality childcare and a solid educational foundation from preschool through college. The consequences of this are apparent in that the children of the rich are now pulling away from the children of the middle class in educational achievement and access.

This is not news, unfortunately. Stanford professor Sean Reardon has written passionately and convincingly about this, making the point that a gap between rich and middle class students exists in pretty much every educational indicator that matters: grades, standardized test scores, high school and college graduation rates, and even in participation in extracurricular activities.

Reardon suggests that rising income inequality explains only half of the growing gap.

http://www.demos.org/blog/10/23/13/running-place-where-middle-class-and-poor-meet

 

America's Low-Skill Workforce The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently released their Skill Outlook for 2013, which measures the literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills in 24 technologically-advanced countries around the world. The results do not bode well for the United States. Click here to read the rest of the article.

 

 

 

PM’s Roundup of Useful Resources…

How To Prepare Your Chickens For Winter

With a few easy steps, keeping your chickens healthy during the winter can be accomplished and may even reward you with egg-production year-round. When preparing your chickens for cold weather, some areas to consider include lighting, heating, proper air flow in their coop, water and feedings.

Obviously, the best time to prepare for winter is during the late summer or fall, as winter can be a very miserable time for your birds. Of course, some breeds are hardier than others, but, typically, all birds will need some extra protection as those chilly months draw in. More at:

http://www.tractorsupply.com/know-how_Chicken-Care_how-to-prepare-your-chickens-for-winter

 

The Homeowner’s Guide to Money-Saving DIY Home Maintenance:  This is the most comprehensive article in DIY home maintenance I've seen anywhere.  Abby Hayes packed the article with dozens of YouTube videos that walk you through everything from installing a programmable thermostat to conducting a home energy audit.

 

 

Yes, you can make your own soap! It's easy!
read more here

 

Free Online Mini-Gunsmithing Lessons

https://p2.americangunsmithinginstitute.net/?ad=CTD13e

 

 

How to insulate your attic for winter
read more here

 

 How to save money buying beef
read more here

 

 

The Nanny State- Your Weekly Dose of Government Misinformation

You Might Live in a
“No-Constitution Zone”
Where Your Rights Have Been Suspended!

Chances are, you never saw this on your local news.

If you live anywhere in the U.S., including Alaska or Hawaii and live 100 miles from the border be it the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes, Canada, or Mexico … Homeland Security says you are currently in a “Constitution Free Zone.” Your 4th Amendment rights in particular may no longer be active according to them.

Since 2008, the ACLU has been digging into this matter trying to find out more through the Freedom of Information Act. So far, various law enforcement agencies, politicians, and Federal agencies are keeping this on the down low.

CISPA attack on Internet freedom of speech is back with a vengeance
(NaturalNews) It is an ominous threat to civil liberties that has already been shot down twice. But this time, the so-called Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, could become law if the American people fail to stop it. Mother Jones...

 

 

The Parting Thought – Nothing to worry in the land of the free!

 

You, like me, are probably sick of “government creep” into every area of your life.

It’s this intrusion that strips you of your privacy, over-taxes you, hinders your investment returns, threatens your healthcare, and reduces your quality of life.

The Transportation Security Agency believes that 75% of Americans are suspect. One indicator  you are a "risk" while flying - Owning a passport.

Even for domestic flights, they scan government and private databases including car registration and employment information.

The TSA explained the new procedures in documents it had to release to comply with government regulations about the collection and use of individuals' data.

Of the program, bureaucratese-laden documents aside, the unwashed public has yet to be told.

Nobody can be certain exactly what, and how much, information the agency relies upon to assess the general public. It has a stifling amount of data at its fingertips: tax identification numbers, past travel itineraries, property records, physical characteristics, law enforcement, intelligence information and even credit scores

What's considered a red flag by the TSA? According to the un-named agent:

"Anyone who has never traveled outside the United States would not have a passport number on file and would therefore not be subject to the rules that the agency uses to determine risk."

The documents released by the TSA, however, admitted the agency was pre-screening all passengers in some fashion.

Aside from having a passport, the agency looks into things like an individual's travel itinerary, length of stay abroad and type of travel document, like a passport or visa. The TSA also requires airlines to hand over a traveler's passport number, even on domestic flights.

The TSA knows which passengers belong to frequent-flier miles, as well as past travel reservations, a type of record known as 'passenger name records.'

The new, enhanced screening procedures parallel the TSA's introduction of PreCheck, which, as it turns out, was more a distraction from the true TSA procedures than what it was stated to be: a convenience for travelers.

The TSA has harped on its goal of giving 25% of all passengers lighter screening by the end of 2014, meaning 75% of passengers are considered, at least, "low-risk" travelers

RELATED NOTE:  Another Government Test Pilot Program Underway

 

Open Source Indicators (OSI). It's a program under IARPA or the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. They're kind of like the NSA's research and development department -- building better ways to spy on their fellow man.

 

The OSI program uses tweets, traffic cams, Wikipedia edits, Web queries, oil prices and daily stock market activity and other real-time data to predict big shifts in society like political unrest, economic meltdown, disease and much more. For example, cites The Wall Street Journal, OSI might look at satellite images of hospital parking lots. If there are more cars parked than usual… they might take it as an early warning of an outbreak. Because that's the only plausible explanation in such a situation.

 

The program also predicted last year's outbreak of hantavirus in Argentina and Brazilian riots that happened last month. To comfort the folks at home… the Journal reports that the program is tracking only groups, and not individuals. Where have we heard that before?

Meanwhile, Naren Ramakrishnan, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech, admits that his research team is trying to protect individual privacy but that "somebody could potentially use this information in ways that are not intended."

 

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