Tidbits From The Web #84

~All For One~

As war on this planet spreads like disease.
Our leaders don’t care and do as they please.
Stepping on any who may stand in their way.
Then bringing us closer to our judgment day.

We’re fertilized by the lies and hypocrisy.
And nurtured by blood we spill endlessly.
Life is a gift that we’ve taken for granted.
In the beds of dead roses we all have planted.

There’s times I’m awake and start to scream.
When I realize this nightmare isn’t a dream.
As I’m witnessing demons sitting on thrones.
Carved out of pieces of humanities bones.

So sometimes there’s anger in words I write.
My knuckles are white from holding on tight.
Watching the weak and the poor start to fall.
While remembering when it was one for all.
~~James Lagoksi

NWO is right around the corner...
Can your dog do this?
Keep eating that chicken!
For the retro gamers...
Must see-through TV...
First person Mario...
This is my rifle...this is my gun...
Lady Ga-ga-G.O.A.T?
We all wish we had Spielberg money...
Vitamin K...it does a body good...
A mouse sized kangaroo with rabbit ears...
Like sands through the hourglass...so are the PCs in our lives...
What does your name equal in the Qabalah?
Will you accept the mark of the Beast?
100 greatest paintings...
Carl Sagan does Old Spice...
Inception in 60 seconds...
Human-powered ornithopter would make da Vinci proud...
We also pollute in space...
From cosmism to deism...
Food magic... 
And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire...
Ultimate cubicle prank...
Radiation projected...and again...and again...
URL Hunter...
Equinoxes explained...
The "real" axis of evil...
Speaking of evil...this guy is a toad...
Steampunk insects...
Well aren't you fucking lovely?
Now that is a bedroom!
History of science fiction...
The ring of firrrre...  (props to Kc)
Keep fucking believing in that system!



The Day After the Dollar Crashes...



Eisenhower was telling the truth...50 years in advance!

Knowledge

The Museum of Online Museums

The Museum of Online Museums MoOM states that it has 'links from our archives to online collections and exhibits covering a vast array of interests and obsessions.'  The visitor is invited to 'start with a review of classic art and architecture, and graduate to the study of mundane (and sometimes bizarre) objects elevated to art by their numbers, juxtaposition, or passion of the collector.'  Organized into three sections 'The Museum Campus contains links to brick-and-mortar museums with an interesting online presence, 'The Permanent Collection displays links to exhibits of particular interest to design and advertising' and 'Galleries, Exhibition, and Shows, an ecelctic and ever-changing list of interesting links to collections and galleries' - you're sure to find 'where the good stuff is.'  This site is an excellent portal to both famous and unknown museum and private collector sites; it demonstrates how the Internet can open museum doors to everyone!

Insight

TEAMWORK

Coming together is a beginning; staying together is progress; working together is success.

Author unknown


Nothing great is ever accomplished by one person.

Sheryl Leach















Coping: With New Vegetarians
by George Ure

This'll sound like heresy, coming from the ETex outback within walking distance of one of the states largest private cattle ranches, but a reader note raises the issue, so we need to think about it now while we have time to react:
 
"Hi George;
I have been thinking about this the last couple of days - Cliff's last report talks about food poisoning that is made more known over the this year and into next year. Specifically I was thinking that the food poisoning might be radiation poisoning with cows milk, meat and crops in CA and the midwest.
Just a thought (not nice thought - but a thought).
What do you think?"

What!!!???  Obviously, you haven't read Peoplenomics #246, June 25, 2006, under the heading "The Coming Protein Cost Explosion"  so let me to the piece fitting for you.
 
First, the start of the article: 
You may not have considered becoming a vegetarian recently, but if my reading of the tea leaves is correct, there are several scenarios under which you might find protein becoming a luxury. I'm blessed coming from a Scottish and Danish ancestry because eating lots of protein and fairly high fat diets is what we were engineered for, especially on the Danish side of the family. Healthy hearts in spite of lots of real butter, whipping cream, and heavy gravies. My father's contribution was to stay in good shape and promote steak & eggs and a cup of strong coffee as the perfect way to prepare for a big test at school. These days, it looks like that kind of lifestyle is headed for extinction as three major forces are poised to combine and dramatically increase the price of protein over the next few years: The government's move to inventory every bit of livestock in America (NAIS), the soaring cost of agricultural inputs (feed, seed, diesel, and chemicals), and the serious issue of global protein depletion accentuated recent by the discussions of Bird Flu will probably all be involved ...
From there, I went on to question whether the National Animal Identification System - NAIS - which the government was pushing a while back as "voluntary"{ but then along came controls that were anything but voluntary.
 
So let's look at this part next, which was contributed by a Peoplenomics subscriber:
"The first is the 1/4 mile wide super highway due to start construction in 2007 extending from Mexico to Canada. The second is the need to nearly abolish private property [albeit along a continuum from some to all over a period of time] to establish the human exclusionary areas for the Wildlands Project. This exclusionary area would encompass nearly 90% of the total land mass of America. Sounds ultra fantastic doesn't it?
The Wildlands project is real. It is part and parcel of the [UN's] Agenda 21 and sustainability programs of the US government. This program IS currently being carried out bit by bit right under the nose of the American people. "
Going to fast for you?
 
Let's step back and see how the PTB/PTW will use the events of Japan to further promote the grab for control of the nation's food supply (this'll work just as effectively as though there had been a domestic nuclear or biological terrorist  event...)...

• Like 9/11 the Japanese quake & nukes will be a huge "shock and awe" deal.  If you can step back for just a moment, you can likely see this even in your own family.
• Next should come the "discovery" as our Aggieland contributed noted above) about potential for meat animals to suck up radiation and that we'll be told will somehow get into the foodchain.
• The SOLUTION, naturlich (German spelling, lol) will be to demand all animals destined for human markets to be what?  INSPECTED! 
• Thus, the NAIS program will get funding/legs under it...
• And the PTB will do their damn level best to convert a bunch of high protein consuming)  omnivores into vegetarians.
• And then what?  As the demand for ag land to raise meat animals falls (veggies are far more efficient carby sources, anyway) the once ag lands will be seized/rolled up into more wetlands and wild spaces which will be banked in Parks and Reserves.

Ah...but parked for whom and reserved for whom?  I'm sure if you've been following the outdoorsy/spelunking groups you've maybe heard that the federal government has become seriously pissy of late about people venturing onto public lands without reasons/permissions.  Why?  Well, to keep people out of looking for caves, for one thing, since a lot of prepper types are thinking in those terms should we see a pick up in radiation from either space or the Sun around 2012.
 
So, when someone, like the reader this morning asks "What do you think?"  I expect - like a Son of 9/11 event - the PTB will likely use this as a means of extending their levels of control and it wouldn't surprise me to see maybe even a bio-vector disease intro'ed about the same time, since while millions could die from radiation worldwide (depending on how bad things get) it could still be seen as a "clocking event" for a re-introduction of - wait, didn't someone mention this already today? - bird flu and claim it isn't flu - just that terrible radiation stuff.
---
Oh shit note:  This article just popped this morning.  There, bird flu just clicked a tumbler in the lock...
---
Funny how it could be spun if there really is an incredibly egotistical, anti-human group at the top of the world's socioeconomic pyramid.
 
Oh, wait!  There is.  If you don't realize that, then you probably haven't watched "The One Percent" a 2006 documentary about the ruling powers of the world in general, USApop in particular: It's good... "It was created by Jamie Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, and produced by Jamie Johnson and Nick Kurzon. The film's title refers to the top one percent of Americans in terms of wealth, who controlled 38% of the nation's wealth in 2001.[1] 
 
The film premiered on April 29, 2006, at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was reported to have been purchased by HBO and a revised version of the film, substantially re-edited and incorporating footage shot since the 2006 festival screening, premiered on Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 6:30pm ET/PT on HBO's Cinemax. 
 
It was stated in the Page Six column of the New York Post that Warren Buffett had written a letter to Nicole Buffett, daughter of his son Peter's ex-wife from another marriage. In response to her participation in the film, distancing himself from her, he wrote "I have not emotionally or legally adopted you as a grandchild, nor have the rest of my family adopted you as a niece or a cousin."
 
Oh, and if you have time to watch the documentary, and wish to go further in your researches, please visit his website and pass along our regards to Prof. G. William Domhoff at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who updated his studies of the concentration of wealth in America this year.
 
Sadly, to borrow a single data table from his "Wealth, Income, and Power" page here, the numbers keep concentrating more and more money/control in the hands of people  - many of whom have not better credentials than being born right:
 



 
Let me put on my "good journalist hat" here and let me see if I can sum it up for you:
One camp will claim that capitalism if a miracle system which is adaptive to all kinds of exogenous shocks and that they alone are fit to rule over such a system and should therefore continue to exist in power because (they claim) it will benefit more people..
 
The other camp looks at the track record, non-movement in quality of life in linear proportion to effort and says something like "mo'fo'ing pricks are gonna find a way to bend us over again, aren't they?
Not sure which camp you're in, but let's go have a steak sandwich while we can and talk about it 'cuz the answer to which worldview represents, oh, 99% of regular humans(?) isn't really hard to figure out, is it?
---
By the way, Bill Gate's dad got high marks from us as we watched The One Percent (on Netflix) since he offered the reasonable view that estate taxes shouldn't be removed.  Bill Gate's Sr. wrote Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes which he coauthored with Chuck Collins, who I interviewed numerous times in my news-chasing days - very smart guy (although he'd remember me by my radio alias George Garrett, if at all...)
---
Which gets me to this:  If I could leave more than 38¢ to each of my heirs, a steep estate tax of, oh, say 99% on any amount over $3-million per heir (exemption for genuine medical care cases with third party doc reviews)  might actually move toward busting up the phat-cat club at the top.  Zero tax below that, 99% tax above.
 
So look for events go:  Radiation > government monitoring > health risk discovery > reform of food sources > some die-off > continued accretion of wealth by the aristocracy.
 
The arrogance, conceit, inhumanity, and raw power of the top 1% ought to be evident in their "plumage" soon enough. 
 
Still got steak sauce on the shopping list?

The Giant American Banking Deception
Published on 03-13-2011
Source: My Budget 360 The American banking industry is trying to convince the public that simply by hiding bad debts in the deep levels of corporate balance sheets that taking on leveraged risk is somehow safe.  FDIC insured banks currently have $7.4 trillion in actual deposits, much of it covered by the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF). Most Americans think that there is a “fund” similar to the“Social Security Trust Fund” to protect their hard earned savings but in reality the DIF is empty. The DIF is running on fumes and inspiration. Banks are trying to fool the public that somehow the Fed  and FDIC backed institutions largely of the too big to fail variety, can simply print or hope money into existence like wishing mules would turn into magical unicorns.  Most understand even at an instinctual level that something is wrong here.  Even the king of the Ponzi scheme Bernard Madoff called the current structure the biggest of Ponzi schemes. He should know. Too big to fail get bigger Source:  Individual 10-Ks In September of 2008 when the financial sector was melting down like cheese on a microwavable quesadilla, the banking sector asked for $700billion because many banks grew “too big to fail” and would cause systemic risk.  In other words the financial system was screwed. There was no doubt that the reason for the Great Recession was too big to fail.  So you would logically conclude that the solution would be to wind down these mega institutions so we wouldn’t have this problem down theroad.  Instead as the above chart demonstrates, the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve, largely staffed with former Wall Street bankers created even bigger firms. Too big to fail became too damn big to fail. The growth of mega banks has been going on for three decades: Mega banks peaked in 2005 but what the chart doesn’t show is that now we have fewer banks with more assets.  These banks which hold many of your checking accounts, mortgages, savings accounts, and credit cards are largely leveraging the hard earned money of average Americans and speculating in global stock markets.  Since Glass-Steagall was repealed in the late 1990s commercial and investment banking have been operating under one roof.  This sinister wedding has allowed banks to use once boring and mundane investments (i.e., mortgages) and has allowed them to turn them into casino like instruments (i.e., mortgage backed securities).  You can bet on mortgages just like you can bet on the next Manny Pacquio fight. Banks overstating assets Source:  FDIC U.S. banks have over $13.3 trillion in assets.  This might sound impressivebut just think of how many junk loans brought on by the housing crisis arestill sitting on bank balance sheet as assets at over inflated levels.  Banks still claim over $3 trillion in commercial real estate loans at incredibly inflated levels including empty dusty shopping centers, hotels with no customers, and parking lots that serve only one customer of the tumbleweed variety.  This is what a bank can claim as an asset. Remember, bank deposits in cold hard cash are actual liabilities.  They have to pay this back obviously.  Yet the $7.4 trillion in actual deposits allows banks to leverage this money because of fractional reserve requirements and speculate in global stock markets like hitting the roulette wheel.  That is why investment banks like Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers even with no customer deposits were able to leverage their institutions 30-to-1. A small 3 to 5 percent decline was enough to collapse both institutions and it did. Most of the assets concentrated in a few hands Even though there are over 7,500 banks backed by the FDIC thelarge concentration of the $13 trillion in assets is centered with the top 10 banks.  Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase alone each hold more than $2 trillion in assets each.  Bank of America just announced it would be splitting $1 trillion in “legacy loans” into a bad bank model.  This is like you splitting your household in two and putting all the bad loans you have into a bad bank and simply ignoring it when it comes to figuring out your net worth.  The too big to fail banks still dominate the market.  Keep in mind that all the deposits at these banks are backed by the FDIC DIF that is completely insolvent.  No money is there.  The system is being held up purely on faith and the Fed is trying to digitally print money to devalue the U.S. dollar so our debts can become cheaper.  Of course most Americans don’t have the debt that many of these financial institutions have.  In many cases if you can’t pay your debts you lose your home through foreclosure or have to file for bankruptcy.  Banks can reach into the taxpayer wallet and take money while pushing the cost to later generations.  This is how the current system is structured. Take money now to pay out current debts (i.e., a Ponzi scheme). In the meantime the average income of individual Americans is lower than you think:   Source:  Social Security 72,000,000+ Americans (over half) earn $25,000 or less a year. Another 34,000,000+ earn between $25,000 and $45,000.  The notion that everyone is feeling the pain of this recession equally is completely deceptive.  Working and middle class Americans are feeling the brunt of this recession.  You would think that after the worst crisis since the Great Depression things would be different today in Q1 of 2011.  Yet nothing has changed and in fact, we have invigorated the too big to fail with our current government policies. This is a government built by Wall Street banks and for Wall Street banks.  Don’t be surprised when the next crisis hits because nothing has changed.

Today's Quotes
 

PREPARATION

"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes." -- Benjamin Disraeli

"The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight." -- Arthur Ashe

"You cannot speak that which you do not know. You cannot share that which you do not feel. You cannot translate that which you do not have. And you cannot give that which you do not possess. To give it and to share it, and for it to be effective, you first need to have it. Good communication starts with good preparation." -- Jim Rohn

"Practice is the price of mastery. Whatever you practice over and over again becomes a new habit of thought and performance." -- Brian Tracy




Peace, love, and happiness...until  next time...
 

Tidbits From The Web #83

Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves. —Winston Churchill, WWII

A day made of glass...
Some dogs have the life part I...
Shall we play a game?
Tick Tick Tick Tick...    (props to Da)
When it comes to relationships...behavior matters...
Balance an egg...
Prepare the aliens are coming!
Why did they retire these Disney rides?!?!
American Apocalypse!
Clothes say a lot about a man...
Where's Ernie Anastos when you need him?
666 is everywhere part I...
Phytonutrients you should know about...
World's ugliest hotels...
Bill Gates + US govt + Monsanto = not good for anybody...
Speaking of which...this can't be good either...
Real time Google mashups...
Space the final frontier...
Where's Jackass when you need him?
NWO just got one step closer...
Geminoid...coming soon to a college near you...
Our government is full of nin-cow-poops...
Some dogs have the life part II...
2012...doom ain't what it used to be part I...
An ill wind is blowing...
Where's Noah when you need him?
Some dogs have the life part III...
2012...doom ain't what it used to be part II...
666 is everywhere part II...


Lamp In The Dark: Untold History of the Bible




Living real simply...




Consciousness and the Superstring Unified Field Theory...





G n R and the Illuminati...

Today's Message

Finding Motivation: What to Do When You Don't Feel Like Doing Anything
by Chris Widener


"The measure of your success usually comes down to who wins the battle that rages between the two of you.  The 'you' who wants to stop, give up, or take it easy and the 'you' who chooses to beat back that which would stand in the way of your success—complacency."  Chris Widener

In all of my interactions with people, I've never found anyone, regardless of their level of success, who doesn't sometimes find themselves simply not wanting to do the things that they need and want to do. It is a part of human nature that there will be times that, in spite of all that we need to do, and even desire to, we will find ourselves not wanting to do anything. And what separates those who will become successful from those who will maintain the status-quo is the ability at those very crucial moments of time when we are making decisions about what we will do to choose to find the inner motivation that will enable us to conquer our complacency and move on in action.

I find that I confront this issue in my life on a regular basis, so the following success strategies are not merely “pie in the sky techniques,” but proven ways to get yourself to go, even when you don't feel like doing anything. 

Honestly evaluate whether or not you need a break. This is the first thing that I usually do when I find that I don't want to get to a specific action. The fact is that oftentimes we will have been working very hard and the lethargy we are feeling is really our body and emotions telling us that we simply need a break. And this is where it takes real intellectual honesty because when we don't need a break our mind is still telling us we need a break! But sometimes we do need a break. I'll give you a good example. I don't particularly like to exercise, but I do almost every day. Sometimes, I find myself before going to the club thinking about how I just didn't feel like going. Most of the time I am just being lazy. However, sometimes I realize that my body needs a break. So from time to time I will take a one- or two-day break from working out. The benefits of this are two-fold: One, my body gets a break to regenerate itself. Two, after a day or two, I begin to miss my workout, and eagerly anticipate returning to the gym.

Other examples: Perhaps you are a salesman who has been phoning clients for a week straight, day and night. You wake up one morning and just don't feel like doing it any more. Well, take a break for the morning. Go to a coffee shop and read the paper. Go to the driving range and hit some golf balls. Take a break and then get back to it!

Start Small.
I'm at a point in my workout schedule now where a typical workout day for me consists of 30 to 45 minutes of aerobic exercise, and about 30 minutes of weight lifting. So when I find myself not wanting to get up and go to the gym, I will sometimes make a commitment to go and just do a smaller workout. Instead of deciding not to go, I'll commit to doing 15 to 20 minutes of aerobic exercise and 15 to 30 minutes of weight lifting. This is also good for two reasons. One, I actually get some exercise that day. And two, it keeps me from getting into a cycle of giving up when I don't feel like moving toward action.

Other examples: Maybe you are a writer who simply doesn't want to write today. Instead of the long day writing you had planned, decide that you will at least outline a couple of new articles. You will at least get these done, and you may have found that you put yourself into the writing mood after all.

Change Your Routine.
I have found that what keeps me in the best shape and burns the most calories for me is to do 30 to 45 minutes on the treadmill every day. Now let me be very blunt. I find running on the treadmill to be extremely boring. Usually I can get myself to do it, but sometimes I need to vary my routine. So instead of 30 to 45 minutes on a treadmill, I will break down my aerobic exercise routine into a number of different areas. I will do 10 to 15 minutes on treadmills, 10 to 15 minutes on the reclining cycle, 5 to 10 minutes on the rowing machine, 5 to 10 minutes on the stair stepper, and then back to the treadmill for 5 to 10 minutes. I still get my exercise, but I'm a lot less bored.

Other examples: Maybe you are in construction and you have been working on the plumbing for a week, and it is getting monotonous. Don't do the plumbing today! Go frame-in the office.

Reward Yourself.
One way that I motivate myself to do something when I don't feel like doing it is to tell myself that if I get through the work that I need to, I will give myself a little reward. For instance, I may tell myself if I get up and go to the club I can take 5 to 10 minutes off my treadmill exercise, which will shorten my workout routine, and I'll allow myself to sit in the hot tub for a few extra minutes. Hey, it works!

Other examples: Maybe you are a mortgage broker who feels like sleeping in. Tell yourself that after the next three mortgages you close you will take your kids to the fair, or your spouse to the movies. Maybe you'll give yourself a night on the town with old friends.

Reconnect the Action with Pleasure Rather than Pain.
Psychologists have long told us that we humans tend to connect every action with either pleasure or pain. Tony Robbins has popularized this even further in the last few years with something he calls Neural Associations. That is, we connect every action with either a pleasure, or pain. When we are finding ourselves lacking motivation, what we are probably finding about ourselves is that we are associating the action that we are thinking about with pain, rather than pleasure. For instance, when I'm considering not going to the health club on any given day, I am usually associating going and working out with having no time, the pain of exercising and weight lifting, or the boringness of running on a treadmill for an extended period of time. What I can do to re-associate is to remind myself that by going in and doing my exercise I will feel better about myself, I will lose weight, and I will live longer. This brings me pleasure. When we begin to run those kinds of tapes through our minds, we find our internal motivating force unleashed and changing our attitude about the action that we are considering.

Other examples: Maybe you are a counselor who really doesn't want to spend the day listening to people. Your association may be that it will be boring, or that you will be inside while it is sunny outside. Instead, re-associate yourself to the truth of the matter: Someone will be better off because of your care and concern. Think of your clients and the progression they have been making recently and how you have been a part of that.

Knowledge

The Curious Dreamer

Are you ever startled awake with the remnants of a dream in your mind but are not sure what is the meaning of this dream?  Wonder no more!  As the person submitting the site explains, The CuriousDreamer.com is a practical dream analysis site enabling dreamers to take dream interpretation into their own hands with step-by-step dream procedures, a dream analyzer, searchable dream dictionary, glossary, tips, and articles.  Youll have access to a dream dictionary of over 15,000 symbols, the definitions often containing more than one meaning, as "food for thought."  Heres your resource for do-it-yourself dream analysts.  As the developers state, We intend to help you, the dreamer, wander through the wonderland of your own dreams and tap your inner sources of wisdom and self-knowledge.  And may you always have Sweet Dreams!

EightBit.Me Living life through a tiny little you The line between computer games and real life continues to blur, or, in the case of South Korea, crystallize in a terrifying way that leaves you nostalgic for blurriness. Moving the West further down the digitized path, EightBit.me, just launched.Out of the American city both most and least attached to reality (San Francisco), 8-Bit harnesses the combined powers of foursquare and Twitter to create a system where engaging in real activities rewards not you (with mayor status, etc.), but your online avatar, who, merely by cruising around town popping into places, will craft a more compelling plot than James Cameron. The first step's to build a blocky, NES-type alter-you via a surprisingly fast 10-step process (hair, clothes, skin colour, etc.), who'll inhabit a virtual world populated by similarly pixelated representations of foursquare-repped local spots you know and love, as well as others' avatars, which you can see upon checking into the same establishments, creating a hilarious scene where a bunch of people stare at each other and avoid each others' gazes at the same time. Check-ins and subsequent "Shouts" (tweetable micro-messages) earn you Mario-esque gold coins spendable on playing TBC mini- games againstothers, or on enhancing your avatar with awesome clothing, etc.; specialized prizesare accrued though multiple visitations -- hit the same bar often for a pair of beer goggles, or the same tea-house for a "Madhatter Hat", something the real you would only wear after a very long time at that bar. The team plans to continually update with mini-games, as well as add new fun such as betting virtual currency on local sports fixtures -- though with the added excitement of fake-money on the line, that Starcraft match between the Terrans and the Zerg will become even more of a blur. Realize you childhood fantasy of becoming a videogame character at EightBit.Me The Daily Reckoning Presents Patriotic Expatriates by Doug Casey      I've written many times about the importance of internationalizing your assets, your mode of living, and your way of thinking. I suspect most readers have treated those articles as they might a travelogue to some distant and exotic land: interesting fodder for cocktail party chatter, but basically academic and of little immediate personal relevance. All very well, you may say. But there are practical issues, you also say. A person can't just pick up and leave and go where he wants and do what he wants ...can he? Get real, Casey. There are reasons a person has to stay where he is, aren't there? Let's look at some of those reasons. "America is the best country in the world. I'd be a fool to leave." That was absolutely true, not so very long ago. America certainly was the best - and it was unique. But it no longer exists, except as an ideal. The geography it occupied has been co-opted by the United States, which today is just another nation-state. And, most unfortunately,one that's become especially predatory toward its citizens. "My parents and grandparents were born here; I have roots in this country." An understandable emotion; everyone has an atavistic affinity for his place of birth, including your most distantrelatives born long, long ago, and far, far away. I suppose if Lucy, apparently the first more-or-less human we know of, had been able to speak, she might have pled roots if you'd asked her to leave her valley in East Africa. If you buy this argument, then it's clear your forefathers, who came from Europe, Asia, or Africa, were made of sterner stuff than you are. "I'm not going to be unpatriotic." Patriotism is one of those things very few even question and even fewer examine closely. I'm a patriot, you're a nationalist, he's a jingoist. But let's put such a tendentious and emotion- laden subject aside. Today a true patriot - an effective patriot - would be accumulating capital elsewhere, to have assets he can repatriate and use for rebuilding when the time is right. And a real patriot understands that America is not a place; it's an idea. It deserves to be spread. "I can't leave my aging mother behind." Not to sound callous, but your aging parent will soon leave you behind. Why not offer her the chance to come along, though? She might enjoy a good live-in maid in your own house (which I challenge you to get in the US) more than a sterile, dismal and overpriced old people's home, where she's likely to wind up. "I might not be able to earn a living." Spoken like a person with little imagination and even less self- confidence. And likely little experience or knowledge of economics. Everyone everywhere, has to produce at least as much as he consumes - that won't change whether you stay in your living room or go to Timbuktu. In point of fact, though, it tends to be easier to earn big money in a foreign country, because you will have knowledge, experience, skills, and connections the locals don't. "I don't have enough capital to make a move." Well, that was one thing that kept serfs down on the farm. Capital gives you freedom. On the other hand, a certain amount of poverty can underwrite your freedom, since possessions act as chains for many. "I'm afraid I won't fit in." As I explained a little earlier, the real danger that's headed your way is not fitting in at home. This objection is often proffered by people who've never traveled abroad. Here's a suggestion. If you don't have a valid passport, apply for one tomorrow morning. Then, at the next opportunity, book a trip to somewhere that seems interesting. Make an effort to meet people. Find out if you're really as abject a wallflower as you fear. "I don't speak the language." It's said that Sir Richard Burton, the 19th-century explorer, spoke 10 languages fluently and 15 more "reasonably well." I've always liked that distinction although, personally, I'm not a good linguist. And it gets harder to learn a language as you get older - although it's also true that learning a new language actually keeps your brain limber. In point of fact, though, English is the world's language. Almost anyone who is anyone, and the typical school kid, has some grasp of it. "I'm too old to make such a big change." Yes, I guess it makes more sense to just take a seat and await the arrival of the Grim Reaper. Or, perhaps, is your life already so exciting and wonderful that you can't handle a little change? Better, I think, that you might adopt the attitude of the 85-year-old woman who has just transplanted herself to Argentina from the frozen north. Even after many years of adventure, she simply feels ready for a change and was getting tired of the same old people with the same old stories and habits. "I've got to wait until the kids are out of school. It would disrupt their lives." This is actually one of the lamest excuses in the book. I'm sympathetic to the view that kids ought to live with wolves for a couple of years to get a proper grounding in life - although I'm not advocating anything that radical. It's one of the greatest gifts you can give your kids: to live in another culture, learn a new language, and associate with a better class of people (as an expat, you'll almost automatically move to the upper rungs - arguably a big plus). After a little whining, the kids will love it. When they're grown, if they discover you passed up the opportunity, they won't forgive you. "I don't want to give up my US citizenship." There's no need to. Anyway, if you have a lot of deferred income and untaxed gains, it can be punitive to do so; the US government wants to keep you as a milk cow. But then, you may cotton to the idea of living free of any taxing government, while having the travel documents offered by several. And you may want to save your children from becoming cannon fodder or indentured servants, should the US reinstitute the draft or start a program of "national service" - which is not unlikely. But these arguments are unimportant. The real problem is one of psychology. In that regard, I like to point to my old friend Paul Terhorst, who 30 years ago was the youngest partner at a national accounting firm. He and his wife, Vicki, decided that "keeping up with the Joneses" for the rest of their lives just wasn't for them. They sold everything - cars, house, clothes, artwork, the works and decided to live around the world. Paul then had the time to read books, play chess, and generally enjoy himself. He wrote about it in Cashing In on the American Dream: How to Retire at 35. As a bonus, the advantages of not being a tax resident anywhere and having time to scope out proper investments has put Paul way ahead in the money game. He typically spends about half his year in Argentina; we usually have lunch every week when in residence. I could go on. But perhaps it's pointless to offer rational counters to irrational fears and preconceptions. As Gibbon noted with his signature brand of irony, "The power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous." Let me say again, time is getting short. And the reasons for looking abroad are changing. In the past, the best argument for expatriation was an automatic increase in one's standard of living. In the '50s and '60s, a book called Europe on $5 a Day accurately reflected all-in costs for a tourist. In those days a middle-class American could live like a king in Europe; but those days are long gone. Now it's the rare American who can afford to visit Europe except on a cheesy package tour. That situation may actually improve soon, if only because the standard of living in Europe is likely to fall even faster than in the US. But the improvement will be temporary. One thing you can plan your life around is that, for the average American, foreign travel is going to become much more expensive in the next few years as the dollar loses value at an accelerating rate. Affordability is going to be a real problem for Americans, who've long been used to being the world's "rich guys." But an even bigger problem will be presented by foreign exchange controls of some nature, which the government will impose in its efforts to "do something." FX controls - perhaps in the form of taxes on money that goes abroad, perhaps restrictions on amounts and reasons, perhaps the requirement of official approval, perhaps all of these things - are a natural progression during the next stage of the crisis. After all, only rich people can afford to send money abroad, and only the unpatriotic would think of doing so. I would like to reemphasize that it's pure foolishness to have your loyalties dictated by the lines on a map or the dictates of some ruler. The nation-state itself is on its way out. The world will increasingly be aligned with what we call phyles, groups of people who consider themselves countrymen based on their interests and values, not on which government's ID they share. I believe the sooner you start thinking that way, the freer, the richer, and the more secure you will become. The most important first step is to get out of the danger zone. Let's list the steps, in order of importance.     * Establish a financial account in a second country and transfer assets to it, immediately.     * Purchase a crib in a suitable third country, somewhere you might enjoy whether in good times or bad.     * Get moving toward an alternative citizenship in a fourth country; you don't want to be stuck geographically, and you don't want to live like a refugee.     * Keep your eyes open for business and investment opportunities in those four countries, plus the other 225; you'll greatly increase your perspective and your chances of success. Where to go? The personal conclusion I came to was Argentina (followed by Uruguay), where I spend a good part of my year, and even more when my house at La Estancia de Cafayate is completed. In general, I would suggest you look most seriously at countries whose governments aren't overly cozy with the US and whose people maintain an inbred suspicion of the police, the military, and the fiscal authorities. These criteria tilt the scales against past favorites like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the UK. And one more piece of sage advice: stop thinking like your neighbors, which is to say stop thinking and acting like a serf. Most people - although they can be perfectly affable and even seem sensible - have the attitudes of medieval peasants that objected to going further than a day's round-trip from their hut, for fear the stories of dragons that live over the hill might be true. We covered the modern versions of that objection a bit earlier. I'm not saying that you'll make your fortune and find happiness by venturing out. But you'll greatly increase your odds of doing so, greatly increase your security, and, I suspect, have a much more interesting time. Let me end by reminding you what Rick Blaine, Bogart's character in Casablanca, had to say in only a slightly different context. Appropriately, Rick was an early but also an archetypical international man. Let's just imagine he's talking about what will happen if you don't effectively internationalize yourself, now. He said: "You may not regret it now, but you'll regret it soon. And for the rest of your life." Whiskey and Gunpowder By Gary North March 9, 2011 Washington, D.C., U.S.A. How to End the Fed Things are not always as complicated as they seem. With respect to the Federal Reserve System, it is a deliberate mystery. It was deliberately designed in 1910 to deceive  the public, who were opposed the idea of a central bank. The conspirators who met on Jekyll Island in November  1910 knew this. They did good work from their point of view. They concealed the beast. The general public today knows little about the FED.  Prior to Ron Paul’s Presidential run in 2007-8, far fewer people understood it. I have been asked: “How could we get rid of the Federal Reserve? What will replace it?” The answer: either the  free market or Congress. People who think of themselves as free market people  often are not. The tax-funded public schools and the  state-regulated and accredited university faculties have taught that the modern system of intrusive civil  government is necessary for an orderly society. People  cannot imagine a market-based society. There is an old saying, “You can’t beat something with nothing.” But the free market social order is not nothing. It is expanding around the world, which is why the world is getting richer. At the Federal level, a free market social order in  banking existed prior to 1914. That was back when the dollar was worth over 20 times what it is worth today.  (On this point, see the inflation calculator of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.) We can go back to that system. We will go back to it. The question is: When? The other question is: At what price? Ending the Fed By Law Ron Paul could introduce a bill to end the Federal Reserve System. He could call it: “The Monetary Liberty Act.” It  would get known as the “End the Fed Act.” Here is what the text might say: The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 is hereby repealed. So  are all subsequent acts based on the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. All authority of the Federal Reserve System to act in the name of the United States government is hereby revoked. The assets of the Board of Governors of the Federal  Reserve System, which are already the property of the United States Government, are hereby transferred to the Department of the Treasury. This includes all of the  assets listed on the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve System. The twelve (12) privately owned Federal Reserve Banks will return all assets held in trust for the United States government within thirty (30) calendar days of the  signing of this bill into law. The gold reserves of the United States government that are held in storage by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will be transferred to the Government’s depository at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, within one calendar year after  this bill becomes law. The Government Accountability  Office will conduct an inventory of the gold held in  storage by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York before and after this transfer. The Board of Governors will vacate the premises of the Federal Reserve building within thirty (30) calendar days of the signing of this bill into law. Any pension fund assets of the employees of the various Federal Reserve Banks will remain under the control of  those banks. All pension obligations under the authority  of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System are hereby transferred to the Department of the  Treasury, to be administered under the retirement  program of the Department of the Treasury. This is simple. The Board of Governors of the Federal  Reserve System is a government agency. Its authority  would be transferred to the U.S. Treasury. The dozen Federal Reserve Banks are privately owned.  All authority of these 12 banks that derives from their  connection to the Board of Governors will cease. If they can make a profit, fine. If not, equally fine. The free  market will determine which will survive and which will not. Is this radical? Not at all. There are two historical  precedents: the refusal of Congress to renew the charter of the Bank of the United States in 1811, and the refusal of Congress to renew the charter of the Second Bank of  the United States in 1836. Both of them went bust. The standard response is that there must be  independence between the Federal Reserve System and the U.S. government. Let us apply this to other agencies:     * The Department of Defense     * The Department of the Treasury     * The Department of State     * The Department of Education I could go on, one by one, to list all of the thousands of  agencies that are funded by Federal taxes and which  operate by means of the authority of the U.S.  government. Only one government agency is defended by publicists, both on and off the payroll of the Federal Reserve System, as deserving to be independent of the government that has transferred authority to it: the  Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The phrase, “the independence of the Federal Reserve System,” is a code phrase for “the independence of the four largest U.S. banks from the threat of losses.” A  growing number of voters has figured this out since the fall of 2008. This is why the Federal Reserve System is  facing public criticism for the first time since 1914. This criticism will grow. All of this may seem Utopian. Ron Paul could not get Congress to audit the FED, which by law possesses this authority. The Congress has been in the hip pocket of  the FED for almost a century. The Congress lets the FED run the nation’s economy. But as criticism spreads, there will be more voters who figure out what the FED is and has always been: a  government-created cartel of the banks. It operates for the benefit of the largest banks. Will Ron Paul get such a law passed by Congress and  signed into law? No. Does this mean that the FED is  forever untouchable? No. We need the following:    1. A wave of price inflation caused by the FED    2. A subsequent recession caused by the FED    3. A depression caused by the FED    4. A wave of outage in response to the FED    5. An endless series of criticisms of the FED This will result, ultimately, in the abolition of the FED. Whatever replaces it will decide the economic fate of  Americans: Congress (hyperinflation) or the free  market (economic stability). But could the free market replace the FED without a catastrophe following? Yes. We are already seeing this in another sector of the economy. “You’ve Got Almost No Mail!” From the days of America’s most famous postmaster,  Benjamin Franklin, two decades before the American  Revolution, residents of North America have thought  that the country could not do without a government- funded postal system. In the past 15 years, this faith has quietly died. The United States Postal Service now delivers mostly subsidized opportunity mail. (I hate the work “junk mail,” for I built my business on opportunity mail. But I have not used it for 15 years.) With email,  UPS, FedEx, and text messaging, the first class letter is an anachronism. Historians will not be able to trace much after 1998 based on copies of letters. With no fanfare, the postal system has become optional. The public does not go to the local Post Office often. If it were not for Netflix, a lot of people would not check  their mailboxes daily. All of this has happened without any new legislation. The once unbreakable monopoly of the Post Office is a rusted- out shell, staffed by union-protected workers who  probably know their jobs are peripheral. Its volume  declined by over 12% in 2010. This is expected to  continue. That would cut volume by 50% by 2017. About 40,000 employees were fired in 2010. Saturday delivery will be dropped soon. There is another rate hike  scheduled. Yet the outfit will lose $10 billion this year. All this has happened without any enabling legislation. It has happened quietly. Market competition has reduced  the USPS to an anachronism. It is a leftover shell of a  bygone era. In an essay about his youth, sociologist Robert Nisbet  remarked that in the year he was born, 1913, the only contact that most Americans had with the Federal  government was the Post Office. Later that year, the  Federal Reserve Act was passed in a late session, just  before Christmas break. Also in that year, the income  tax came into effect. The expansion of the Federal  government has been relentless ever since. Nevertheless, the Post Office is slowly dying. No one  planned this. The free market has replaced it, despite its official monopoly. This offers hope. It means that free market solutions  can come into existence before a government entity is shut down by law. The Post Office officially is a  monopoly, yet its monopoly status has been eroded over the last four decades. It has been almost entirely  replaced over the last two decades. I think of a TV commercial that did not directly attack  the Post Office. It was targeted at UPS. But UPS  responded much faster than the Post Office could. While critics of the postal monopoly had for decades tried to get Congress to revoke the Post Office’s monopoly, all attempts failed. They were associated with the fringe.  Yet, year by year, the Post Office fell behind. It is  irrelevant in American life today. This was not planned by any political group. It was the result of new technologies. People made decisions, day by day, to bypass the Post Office. An End Run Around the Fed I do not expect Congress to revoke the Federal Reserve  Act of 1913 in this decade. The powers that be who run this country do so by means of the Federal Reserve  System more than by any other semi-private institution. It is at the center of control, because the monetary  system is at the center of the economy. But the central bank faces a problem. To maintain the boom, the FED must inflate. To cease inflating would  allow the credit bubble to implode on a scale far more devastating than what happened in 2008. The FED has placed us all on the back of the tiger. Yet if it does not reverse its policy, it must produce  hyperinflation at some point. That will destroy the FED’s ability to guide the economy. Hyperinflation will lead to alternative currencies. Digital technology is now  international. If buying and selling digital U.S. dollars is  no longer profitable, because long-term contracts are not possible under hyperinflation, then the citizens of the  United States will do what citizens of Zimbabwe did.  They will use other currencies. If the FED produces a Third World economy through  hyperinflation, then people will do what Third World  citizens do: find reliable currencies elsewhere. This can be done on-line nearly for free. The Internet has  reduced the transaction costs of using rival currencies. The FED economists know this. They know that  transaction costs for using other currencies are low. If  the FED’s policies undermine long-term contracts, the  citizens are not helpless. They can switch. It will not take legislation to end the FED. All it will take  is the FED. If the FED continues to inflate, it will destroy its base: the monetary system based on the FED. But if it ceases to inflate, by ceasing to buy Treasury debt, it will  create Great Depression 2. QE2 Bernanke can get away with QE2 today only because  commercial banks are not lending. If they start lending, M1 will rise, the M1 money multiplier will rise, and price  inflation will return. He has bought time with QE2, but he has not bought a  way out of the credit bubble that Greenspan created and he created. He can play hide and go seek with Ron Paul, refusing to  show up at the hearings of the Monetary Policy  Subcommittee. Congress cooperates. But he cannot play hide and go seek with the business cycle. Greenspan did, but he got out in 2006. He passed on the Old Maid to  Bernanke. The Federal Reserve System bases its power on its ability to control the monetary base. It swapped T-bills for toxic assets to save the big banks, but to replenish its supply  of swappable liquid assets, it has to inflate, as it is now doing. QE2 is replenishing the supply of Treasury debt to swap with large banks. The FED did not bail out any small banks in 2008. It never has. Its unofficial mandate is to bail out the largest  commercial banks. This it has done. I think Bernanke sees another banking crisis coming. This is why he has pushed QE2. Only Hoenig has voted against  it. Bernanke has his way with the other members of the  Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market  Committee. He has not said why this massive increase in the monetary base is mandatory for the economy. To  talk about this would create doubts. He does not want to rock the boat. So, he gets away with another $600 billion in monetary base creation. This is working for now. But the results are unavoidable: either price inflation or continued high unemployment  and stagnation, because commercial banks thwart the  stimulation. He is on the tiger’s back. So are we. Conclusion The Post Office looked unbeatable for over 250 years.  Technology has made it peripheral. The same will happen to the Federal Reserve System. It looks unbeatable. But  the Internet can beat it. There are ways out of the  FED’s trap. A lot of people will pay a heavy price for Bernanke’s  policies. That will be the price of persuading those  people with the bulk of their assets in digital dollars to sell those assets and replace them with other digits. This is why I do not think the FED will resort to  hyperinflation. The economists know that the FED’s victims can escape. The FED will risk mass inflation, but at some point it must say: “We will buy no more  Treasury debt.” That will be the moment of truth. That  will be the day it climbs off the back of the tiger. So will we all. I believe that America is at a turning point, I read that  400 wealthy people control more money than 150 million Americans, this is a serious situation to be in, and cannot continue without the middle class taking some kind of  stand (Riots, Protests, Uprisings). The World needs to  wake up to the fact that so many elitists wealthy  individuals are corrupting society, ordinary working people are suffering at the hands of these so called  leaders, who quite frankly have no fucking clue what they are doing. It amazes me that human beings such as  Ghadafi, Mubarek, Ben Ali and the Saudi Royal family had an opportunity to make life for their citizens good, with  all the wealth from oil over the years, but squandered it  on themselves. Citizens in the USA are beginning to  realize that what they once had has been squandered by the corrupt Banks, Fed, Insurance companies,  Corporations et al. It time for all everyone to take a  stand and demand change for the good of all. Quote of the Day Though no one can go back and make a brand new start,anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. - Carl Bard Peace, love and happiness...until next time...