REMEMBER, YOUR FINANCIAL FUTURE IS IN HIS HANDS

GOULD, ARKANSAS BANS FREE SPEECH, POLITICAL DISSENT

Small Arkansas Town Wants To Ban Free Speech And Freedom Of Assembly, No “Group” Will Be Able To Meet Without Cities Permission

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The Intel Hub
By Alex Thomas
July 18, 2011
A small Arkansas town of 850 is attempting to ban groups from meeting to talk about the city without first getting permission from the city itself.
In a move reminiscent of Nazi Germany, the Gould, Arkansas City Council has moved to ban all groups from discussing the city, even in their own home!
Mayor Earnest Nas, in strong statements supporting the peoples constitutional rights, said he is willing to go to court to stop this plan.
“This is America and even though this is Gould, Arkansas, this is still part of America. And in America, you can’t just vote and violate peoples constitutional rights,” said Nash.
This ordinance would effectively ban citizens from talking about the city at the dinner table, boy scout meetings, and book clubs. In fact, the ordinance is so Orwellian that the interview that the local Fox affiliate did with the mayor would actually be considered illegal under the proposed city ordinance.
A prominent lawyer looked over the ordinance and immediately deemed it unconstitutional.

Spokane Conservative Examiner
John DiPippa, Dean of the Law School at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, expressed disbelief when he first read the proposed law.
“The truth is the city of Gould doesn’t have the authority to tell anyone that they have no right to petition them, no right to speak and no right to exist in their city,” DiPippa told Fox16.

If the precedent is set in Gould, Arkansas it is only a matter of time before it is proposed in a town near you.
If the city council of this town actually believes that they can legally stop citizens from talking about city issues in the privacy of their own home they have another thing coming. This is America not Nazi Germany.

REST HERE http://theintelhub.com/2011/07/18/small-arkansas-town-wants-to-ban-free-speech-no-group-will-be-able-to-meet-without-cities-permission/

GEAB SUMMER 2011: LAST WARNING BEFORE AUTUMN CRASH

GEAB N°56-Special Summer 2011 is available! Global systemic crisis – Last warning before the Autumn 2011 shock, when $15 trillion of financial assets go up in smoke - Public announcement GEAB N°56-Special Summer 2011 (June 16, 2011) - On December 15, 2010, in the GEAB N°50, LEAP/E2020 anticipated the explosion of Western government debt (1) in the second half of 2011. We were then describing a process that would start with the European government debt crisis and then set fire to the heart of the global financial system, namely US federal debt (2). And here we are with this issue at the start of the second half of 2011, with a global economy in complete disarray (3), an increasingly unstable global monetary system (4) and financial centres in desperate straits (5), all this despite the thousands of billions of public money invested to avoid precisely this type of situation. The insolvency of the global financial system, and of the Western financial system in the first place, returns again to the front of the stage after just over a year of political cosmetics aimed at burying this fundamental problem under truckloads of cash. We estimated in 2009 that the world had about 30 trillion USD in ghost assets. Almost half went up in smoke in the six months between September 2008 and March 2009. For our team, it's now the other half’s turn, the 15 trillion USD of ghost assets remaining, purely and simply vanishing between July 2011 and January 2012. And this time, it will also involve government debt, unlike 2008/2009 where it was mostly private players who were affected. To gauge the extent of the coming shock, it is worth knowing that even US banks are starting to reduce their use of US Treasury Bonds to guarantee their transactions for fear of the increasing risks weighing on US government debt (6). For the financial world’s players, the Autumn 2011 shock will literally be the ground giving way beneath their feet, since it’s really the foundation of the global financial system, the US Treasury Bond, which will plunge sharply (7). US Federal debt and forecasts (2000-2016) (in billions USD) - Sources: US Treasury/ Berruyer / GEAB, 06/2011 In this issue, we discuss the two most dangerous aspects of the Autumn 2011 shock, namely: . the detonating mechanism of European government debt . the explosion process of the US bomb in terms of government debts At the same time, in the context of the acceleration of the rebalancing of global power relationships, we introduce the anticipation of a fundamental geopolitical process for the holding of a Euro-BRICS summit by 2014. Finally, we focus our recommendations on the means of avoiding being part of the 15 trillion USD in ghost assets that will go up in smoke in the coming months, with a special mention for developments in real estate in Europe whose collapse we used to anticipate for 2015 will start in fact as early as 2012. In the public announcement of this GEAB issue, we introduce a portion of the anticipation on the detonating mechanism of European government debt. European Central Bank balance sheet holdings (red: asset backed securities / light blue: public sector bonds / green: bank bonds / dark blue: other corporate bonds / beige: other securities) - Sources: Spiegel / BCE, 05/2011 The detonating mechanism of European government debt The Anglo-Saxon financial operators have played sorcerer's apprentice for the last year and a half and the first headlines in the Financial Times in December 2009 on the Greek crisis quickly became a so-called "Euro crisis". We will not dwell on the vicissitudes of this enormous chicanery with a news item (8) orchestrated from the City of London and Wall Street, as we have already devoted many pages to it in a number of GEAB issues throughout this period. Suffice it to say that eighteen months later the Euro is doing well while the dollar continues its downward spiral against major world currencies; and that all those who bet on the collapse of the Eurozone have lost a lot of money. As we anticipated the crisis favors the emergence of a new sovereign, Euroland, which now allows the Eurozone to be much better prepared than Japan, the United States or the United Kingdom (9) for the Autumn 2011 shock ... even if it ends up, quite reluctantly, playing the role of detonator. The "bombardment" (since we must call things by their proper name) (10), interspersed with breaks of several weeks (11), to which Euroland has been subjected during all this time, in fact had three consecutive major effects, two of them far from the results expected by Wall Street and the City: 1. at first (December 2009 - May 2010), it removed the European currency’s sense of invulnerability formed in 2007/2008, introducing doubts about its durability and more precisely putting the idea that the Euro was the natural alternative to the US dollar (or even its successor) into perspective 2. then (June 2010 - March 2011), it conducted Euroland leaders to start work at "top speed" on all measures to safeguard, protect and strengthen the single currency (measures which should have been taken many years ago). In so doing it has revitalized European integration and reinstated the founding core at the head of the European project, thus marginalizing the United Kingdom in particular (12). At the same time it has boosted increasing support for the European currency from the BRICS, headed by China, which after a moment of hesitation became aware of two fundamental points: first Europeans were acting seriously to face up to the problem and secondly, given the Anglo-Saxon determination, the Euro was obviously an essential tool for any attempt to exit the "dollar world" (13). 3. Finally, (April 2011 - September 2011), it is currently compelling the Eurozone to start reaching for the sacrosanct private investors to make them contribute to solving the Greek problem especially via “voluntary” repayment rescheduling (or any other form of cuts in expected profits) (14). As one can imagine, if the first blow really was one of the objectives pursued by Wall Street and the City (besides the fact of turning attention away from the United Kingdom and United States’ massive problems), on the other hand the other two had effects totally opposite to the desired outcome: to weaken the Euro and reduce its attractiveness worldwide. Especially since a fourth series is gearing itself up which will see, by early 2012 (15), the launch of a Eurobond mechanism, enabling the sharing of a part of Euroland countries’ debt issuance (16), and the inevitable growing political pressure (17) to increase the share of the private contribution in this broad process of restructuring (18) the debt of the Eurozone’s peripheral countries (19). Progression of Greek debt and its structure (in € Billions (red : expiring debt ; green : budget deficit ; violet : EU loans ; brown : IMF loans ; blue : other - Sources : Le Figaro / SG CIB, 05/2011 And with this fourth series one enters the heart of the contagion process that will trigger the US federal debt bomb. Because, first, in creating a global media and financial environment ultra-sensitive to the issues of government indebtedness, Wall Street and the City have revealed the unsustainable size of US, British and Japanese government deficits (20). This has even forced the rating agencies, faithful watchdogs of the two financial centres, to engage in a mad race to downgrade countries’ ratings. It is for this reason that the United States now finds itself under the threat of a downgrade, as we had anticipated, even though it seemed unthinkable to most experts only a few months ago. At the same time, the United Kingdom, France, Japan... also find themselves in the rating agencies’ crosshairs (21). Remember that these agencies have never forecast anything of importance (neither subprime, nor the global crisis, nor the Greek crisis, nor the Arab Spring, ...). If they downgrade willy nilly today it’s because they have been caught at their own game (22). It’s no longer possible to downgrade A without affecting B’s rating if B is no better off. The "assumptions" on the fact that it’s impossible for any particular state to default on its debt have not withstood three years of crisis: this is where Wall Street and the City have fallen into the trap which threatens all aspiring sorcerers’ apprentices. They have not seen it would be impossible for them to control the hysteria kept up over Greek debt. So today it’s the US Congress, with the bitter debate on the debt ceiling and massive budget cuts, that the consequences of the misleading articles in recent months about Greece and the Eurozone enlarge. Once again, our team can only stress that if history has any sense, it’s certainly a sense of irony. Industrial production in China (red) and India (green) (2006-2011) - Source: Marketwatch / Factset China / India Stats, 06/2011 ---------- Notes: (1) Including the fact that private investors (especially banks) would be required to contribute to resolve the Greek debt problem. (2) Without forgetting, of course, US local “muni” debts. (3) The United States is falling back into recession. Europe is slowing as is China and India. The illusion of a global recovery is now truly over. It is precisely this very disturbing situation which explains why large companies hoard their cash: they don’t want to find themselves, like 2008/2009, dependent on banks which are short of liquidity themselves. According to LEAP/E2020, it’s worthwhile SMEs and individuals giving careful thought to this situation. Source: CNBC, 06/06/2011 (4) James Saft renowned columnist for Reuters and The New York Times, is even on the point of wishing "good luck to dollar hegemony". Source: Reuters, 05/19/2011 (5) The stock exchanges know that the "party" is over with the end of Quantitative Easing in the US and the return of the recession. And financial operators no longer know how to find profitable and not too risky investments. (6) Source: CNBC/FT, 06/12/2011 (7) Even Saudi Arabia is now publicly concerned, with Prince AlWaleed referring to the "US debt bomb". Source: CNBC, 05/20/2011 (8) The latest example: the June 4th anti-austerity protest in Athens who had painstakingly assembled less than 1,000 protesters, while the Anglo-Saxon media again made headlines of this proof of rejection by the Greek population ... conjuring up thousands of demonstrators. Sources: Figaro, 06/05/2011; Financial Times, 06/05/2011; Washington Post, 06/06/2011 (9) The Telegraph of 06/07/2011 writes, for example, that since 1980 the UK spent £700 billion more than it earned. Much of that sum accounts for the 15 trillion USD in ghost assets which will disappear soon. (10) We can see the exhaustion of the "end of the Euro" dialogue by the fact that Wall Street is now reduced to get Nouriel Roubini to intervene regularly to attempt to try to give credibility to this fairy story. Poor Roubini, whose forecasting work neither foresaw the global crisis, nor ever exceeded six months, finds himself reduced to having to foresee the "end of the Euro" in the next five years, or at least a fundamental reform of the Eurozone… potentially leading to increased European integration. We quote the author from his recent speech at a Singapore conference repeated in the Figaro of 06/14/2011. So if we summarize Nouriel Roubini’s prediction there would be an end to the Euro in 5 years, unless in fact the Euro is strengthened through the permanent establishment of a "new sovereign", Euroland. What forecasting! Beyond the effect of an eye-catching announcement, which consists of saying that within five years (an infinitely long time in a time of crisis, and Roubini spoke of much shorter maturity dates only a few months ago), one thing or the other can happen. Thank you Dr. Roubini! It's hard to try to forecast and to work for Wall Street at the same time. But indeed, you must take your part in the general (vain) attempt to convince Asians not sell dollar-denominated assets in favor of those in Euros. (11) When the Anglo-Saxon experts and media really can’t invent anything more to justify keeping « the Euro crisis » as a headline. (12) But also Sweden whose elite continue to live in the world after 1945, that in which they have been able to enrich themselves by taking advantage of the problems of the rest of the continent. As regards the United Kingdom, the City continues to try in vain to avoid going under the control of the European authorities as we see from this Telegraph article of 05/30/2011. The funniest in this article is the image chosen by the newspaper: a European flag in tatters. Yet it’s really the City which is losing its historic independence in favor of the EU and not the opposite. It is a glaring illustration of the inability to understand the events unfolding in Europe through the British media, even when it’s the Telegraph, otherwise excellent in terms of its coverage of the crisis. (13) Hence their motivation to buy Euroland debt. Source: Reuters, 05/26/2011 (14) Sources: YahooActu, 06/13/2011; Deutsche Welle, 06/10/2011; Spiegel, 06/10/2011 (15) The crisis will not allow Euroland to wait for 2013, the projected date for revising the system adopted in May 2010, to resolve this discussion. (16) Various options are being studied but most likely all organized around a system of dual tier government debt issuance: an issue carrying Euroland’s common signature (and, therefore, a very low interest rate) in respect of an amount up to a maximum percentage of each state’s GDP (40%, 50%, 60% ... it’s for Euroland leaders to choose); beyond this threshold, the issue is only guaranteed by the single signature of the State concerned, rapidly involving very high rates for the less serious students in the class. (17) In this regard, it is regrettable that the international media are more interested in a few thousand Greek demonstrators (see further in this issue for a glaring example of the huge difference between the true numbers and those of the Anglo-Saxon media) supposed to embody the refusal of European austerity and Eurozone weakness rather than the Greeks’ actual expectations through this Greek intellectuals’ open letter which accuses not Euroland, but their own political and financial elite of being unable to respect their commitments and calling for the upgrading of the Greek politico-social system with that of the rest of Euroland. Source: L'Express, 06/09/2011 (18) As regards the word "restructuring", over which the articles or broadcasts of economists and financiers of all kinds rave at length, our team wishes to bring a clear and simple accuracy to it: it is obvious that part of the Greek debt belongs these 15 trillion USD ghost assets that will evaporate in the months to come. No matter the word used, "restructuring", "default"..., as we indicated in previous GEABs, Euroland will organize a process that will cause the least powerful or most exposed creditors to lose significantly on their Greek exposure. This is called a crisis, and it’s exactly what we are going through. And the "national interest" always works in the same way. But anyway, at this point, the problem will be moved to the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom and nobody will pay attention to the Greek case where the amounts are ridiculous in comparison: Greece, €300 billion; USA, 15 trillion dollars. (19) And the upcoming review by the Karlsruhe Constitutional Court of Appeal against the European Stabilization Fund if it doesn’t call into question judgments already given, will increase the pressure in Germany that the private sector should have a stake in the solutions, that’s to say losses. Source: Spiegel, 06/13/2011 (20) A simple calculation allows us to measure the difference between the current Greek problem and the US crisis in the background: banks in particular will be forced to take a charge of between 10% and 20% of the cost of the Greek debt bailout, being between 30 and 60 billion €. That's what "excites" the rating agencies about European banks these days. The explosion of the US federal debt bomb will at least impose a cost of similar proportions on the banks and other institutional holders of this debt. Therefore, in this case we are talking about (which is a conservative estimate because the very nature of US Treasury Bonds use involves a larger private contribution) amounts between 1,5 and 3 trillion USD. This is consistent with our estimate of 15 trillion in ghost assets which will disappear in the coming quarters. (21) Sources: Reuters, 06/08/2011; Le Monde, 06/11/2011; FoxNews, 05/30/2011 (22) And one of the consequences of this game is that the Europeans are preparing not only to severely regulate the rating agencies’ methods, but they will quite simply create competitors to Anglo-Saxon agencies, as the Chinese have already done whose Dagong agency believes that the United States has entered a process of defaulting on its debt. By losing the monopoly on measuring risk, Wall Street and the City will thus lose their ability to make or lose fortunes. Sources: CNBC, 06/02/2011; YahooNews, 06/10/2011 Jeudi 16 Juin 2011 http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-56-Special-Summer-2011-is-available-Global-systemic-crisis-Last-warning-before-the-Autumn-2011-shock-when-15_a6679.html

GEAB N°56-Special Summer 2011 - Contents - Published on June 16, 2011 - Global systemic crisis – Last warning before the Autumn 2011 shock, when $15 trillion of financial assets go up in smoke We estimated in 2009 that the world had about 30 trillion USD in ghost assets. Almost half went up in smoke in the six months between September 2008 and March 2009. For our team, it's now the other half’s turn, the 15 trillion USD of ghost assets remaining, purely and simply vanishing between July 2011 and January 2012… (page 2) . The detonating mechanism of European government debt (page 4) . The process of the US debt « bomb » explosion (page 8) Read public announcement In search of a new post-crisis global balance - EURO-BRICS Summit in 2014 or 2015: The agenda takes shape Today, on the eve of the second half of 2011, which will be the stage for the global systemic crisis’ second major shock, combining an economic, financial and monetary crisis and global geopolitical dislocation , LEAP/E2020 had the opportunity to directly address the central issue on the likely agenda of such a Euro-BRICS summit thanks to the first seminar on this topic which brought Europeans, Brazilians, Russians, Indians, Chinese and South Africans together… (page 12) Subscribe Strategic and operational recommendations . Ghost assets: How to avoid your assets being part of the 15 Trillion USD which goes up in smoke in the next few months (page 19) . Gold and precious metals: More than ever, it’s the physical that counts! (page 19) . Financial markets: Confirmation of the red alert (page 19) . Western housing markets: The 2015 big collapse… begins from 2012 (page 20) Subscribe The GlobalEurometre - Results & Analyses Generally, on the eve of the second half of 2011, we note a widespread rise in pessimism amongst Europeans as regards the economic and financial environment… (page 24) Subscribe Special subscribers’ announcements Transatlantic conference, Houston (Texas, USA), 3-4 October 2011 Reserved for North American and European subscribers (page 26) Subscribe

MORE VIDEOS OF OUR HEROS IN ACTION-PROTECTING 'MURIKA FROM CRACKA AL QAEDA

HERO COPS STRIP SCUMBAG BUCK NAKED AND THROW HIM IN CELL FOR THE TEMERITY TO TREAT HIS GODS AS SO-CALLED EQUALS... WISHING THEM GOOD LUCK AT THE G-7 SUMMIT, WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?! CANUCK BROTHERS GET DOWN WITH A BLACK CHICK WITH A 'TUDE BROTHER OFFICERS ACROSS THE POND SHOW SOME DIRTBAG WHOSE BOSS SOME MASS SHEEPDOGS SHOW HOW IT'S DONE SAN FRAN 5-0 MAKE A BLACK GO SPLAT-NEXT TIME HE'LL PAY HIS BUS FARE... OH, HE DIED? OH WELL MORE ON THAT SHOOTING-SCUMBAG CIVVIES TRY TO COVER FOR THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUS STREET COPS BUST PERPS IN TRAINING SELLING LEMONADE WITHOUT PAYING THEIR TAXES SOME GOOD OL' BOYS GET SOME ON SOME UPPITY HICKBILLY

REMEMBER JULY4PATRIOT-HIS RETRIAL ON THE BOGUS CHARGES BEGINS IN TWO WEEKS

The state's case is a tissue of lies fueled by a desire for vengeance, because a pack of scumbag oath traitors cannot stand a vocal, articulate patriot.

I know that it costs more than 1400 bucks to make a defense in the enemy's 3 ring legal circus they call courts.  Give an American a fighting chance and donate!

UPDATE!

GLOBAL GUERILLAS LINKS

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/
When it rains at Global Guerillas it POURS!

SOLUTIONS:

LINKS: July 18, 2011

Some random items of interest:

• Biomeiler.  A biomass system for methane and hot water production that also produces high quality compost.  Not much info on it.  Would like to hear from someone that has used it or seen it first hand.
• New report on Al Qaeda in Iraq by some RAND analysts.  For example, my team was able to learn that Al Qaeda was forcing local affiliates (or at least its Iraqi one) to sustain themselves financially. If local groups must make their own money, governments and counterterror operatives can use Al Qaeda’s need to raise money - often using illicit means and pressure against local citizens - against the organization. That kind of counterterrorism would look less like war, and more like careful police work against what amounts to a criminal syndicate or mafia.  Two points emerged most importantly from our research on Al Qaeda in Iraq. First, there was no team of international ghost donors padding the group’s coffers. And second, Al Qaeda in Iraq had no strong ties to Al Qaeda central. While there may have been communication that was very well hidden - the eventual declassification of the Osama bin Laden documents may reveal more answers - it was noteworthy that there was virtually no communication to Al Qaeda central in any of the now declassified documents that we saw. Nor have there been any other substantive reports, save the occasional letter, of much communication between the groups, and certainly there seems to be no money flowing one way or the other.   Note:  this is more evidence that open source warfare, as detailed on this blog in 2004-2008 and Brave New War, was spot on.  
• Bryn Athyn, PA.  Here's what looks like a winning approach to documenting a resilient community.  Really love it.  Landon's still got some work to do, but he's well on the way to detailing the physical resources of his community.  Give him a +1 if you are on Google to motivate him to do more.
• Mexican drug gangs "recruiting" hackers?  It's easier to buy the talent on the market.  
• Been a bit slow today (coming down with the flu).  Will power through it and zoom some good posts tomorrow.

Posted by John Robb on Monday, 18 July 2011 at 09:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

Friday, 15 July 2011

LINKS: July 15 2011

Some random items of interest:

• 3D printing "industry" grew 24% last year. Wohlers Associates conservatively forecasts industry-wide growth to be $3.1 billion by 2016 and $5.2 billion by 2020.  Breaking out of the hobbyist market.
• Inflatable, portable, satellite dish.  For the caddy of bug out bags.  A tweet from the trenches:  we tested that system and found it unfit for field use.  Not durable enough.
• Scavenging Ambient Energy Researchers have discovered a way to capture and harness energy transmitted by such sources as radio and television transmitters, cell phone networks and satellite communications systems. A new way to think about living "off" the grid.
• Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System  The paper by "Satoshi Nakamoto" that launched the effort.  A micro-manifesto that details a tangible tool, a method to enable the equivalent of cash online, rather than another useless ideology.  Sign of the times.
• Bitcoin mining:  Power cost comparison across the US.  Idaho and North Dakota lead the pack.
• Earthships.  Homes built to live off of the grid.  If this is a topic you are interested in.  Please flesh this page out.  Feel free to create more pages on specific architectural elements of the earthship and/or specific examples.
• Coinflation.  Calculates the precious metal value of old US coins.

Posted by John Robb on Friday, 15 July 2011 at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

Thursday, 14 July 2011

LINKS: July 14 2011

Some random items of interest:

• An interesting start for a series of pages on Resilient Wealth by Ax.  Would like to break this down into several different approachs and a set of pages (specific types of things + pictures that depict items that are valuable across a variety of different scenarios).  
• The Disappeared.  100 items that will disappear from the store shelves (either through hoarding or theft) during an extended emergency or disaster.
• Urban Farming guys.  Inner city experiment.  Uses high/low tech and lots of smarts to build a new economy/social environment.  Apparently, its been effective in reducing crime.

• Tracking Energy Attacks site.  This is a great early site put up by my friend, the excellent analyst Jennifer Giroux.  If the oil companies and defense/intel world isn't fully funding her work analyzing attacks on energy infrastructrue, they are making a BIG mistake.
• I've had the taste of a teargassing before and it's not a pleasant experience.  I've also had the
   displeasure of using military NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) equipment.  It was uniformly  old/bulky/stuffy/hot, particularly the masks.  Because it was hard to breath and very difficult to see out of (due to fogging), it made doing anything let alone flying, very tough to do.  That's why this new NATO joint services mask looks so cool.  Soft rubber.  Better vision. Reduced resistance to breathing.  Kind of expensive, but...
• Agrilab.  Very interesting heating system that uses compost as a heat source.  If you've ever worked on a farm, like I have, you know the basic concept is valid.  Would like to see one of these systems in action.

Posted by John Robb on Thursday, 14 July 2011 at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

Wednesday, 13 July 2011

JOURNAL: CNC Pickup (Fabwagon)

Here's a cool project that from Bobby Meyer.  He's currently working on converting a standard pickup into a mobile CNC platform.  A mobile platform able to provide rapid onsite fabrication services.  It's the constructive antidote to the Toyota Hilux battlwagons that dot the landscape of North Africa.
He's currently working on specing the design for it.  Any feedback you could provide him would be appreciated.  

Posted by John Robb on Wednesday, 13 July 2011 at 02:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBack (0)

LINKS: July 13, 2011

Some random items of interest:

• ShutodwnRiseUp.  An organizing site for the Minnesota shutdown.
• Trying to figure out how to allocate my time today.  If you have a Google account, +1 this page if you want me to keep working on it.
• AxMan's $30 Bug Out Bag  How to build an emergency kit with stuff laying around the house.
• Jeff Rubin:  high oil prices were the driver of the last financial slowdown (which kicked off the financial panic that exacerbated it, not the other way around).  It's about to hit us again (particularly if MEND or some other GG group hits some pipelines again and drives the price up to $150 a barrel oil)  Toss in some terrible financials (extreme deficits, huge debt, cascading defaults, sovereign defaults, extreme leverage, high unemployment, TBTF, etc.) and another financial crisis isn't out of the question.  The problem is that if it occurs again, we don't have any real means to fight it (extreme deficit spending, low rates, etc.).
• The Urban Farmers Box.  A closed loop aquaponics system by a swiss company for use in tight spaces.  Fish/Veggies.  More.
• Governance systems in the Massively Multiplayer Game, Eve Online.  Interview with a pretensious online dictator:   Autocracy is the most effective form of government in null sec [the enormous sections of space within Eve Online with no AI police, where players rule themselves]. Council systems don’t work very well. Goonswarm is very lucky in that we have one large corporation, Goonwaffe, which used to be Goonfleet, which is mostly Something Awful members and has over 2,000 people. Since I’m the CEO of that corporation all the other ancillary corporations in the alliance are relatively powerless, and that works towards an autocracy. Council-based alliances typically have corporations of roughly the same size.  ME:  Sounds like bad game design.
• Radioactive meat in Japan.  Cessium for the masses.  A good example of why global sourcing of food/services = no control.
• More later.

Posted by John Robb on Wednesday, 13 July 2011 at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack (0)

Tuesday, 12 July 2011

DINOSAUR 101: Make Resilience a Crime

If you want to kill off your community, a surefire way to do it is to make resilience a crime.  That's exactly what the small town of Oak Park, MI did. Despite high unemployment and economic difficulty, they are in the process of prosecuting homeowner Julie Bass for planting five raised gardens in her front yard.  If convicted, she can face 93 days in jail for her crime (of not using appropriate plants in the front yard).
What did Julie do?
Obviously, there is a mismatch of thinking going on here.  The town and her neighbors obviously think that the value of a home is based on location and landscaping.  Any deviation from that model decreases the value of the home and the homes around it.
In contrast, Julie recognized that the value of a home isn't merely based on its location/lanscaping.  It's changing.  The value of a home is increasingly tied to it's efficiency and productive value.
Who's right?  Julie is, of course.  With middle class income in deep decline and global system failures/disruptions mounting, the tide is shifting.  Homes that don't produce food, energy, water, etc. will be the homes that will see a decline in value.   As things stand today, it won't be long before the value of a home is based PRIMARILY on its productive value.

Posted by John Robb on Tuesday, 12 July 2011 at 01:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (26) | TrackBack (0)

LINKS: July 12, 2011

Some random items of interest:

• Hacking disruption.  Anonymous hacks Booz Allen and posts the usernames/passwords of 90,000 military and intelligence personnel.   Claims there wasn't any security on the server they stole it from. Wow.  Want to send a message to the contractor community about security?  Suspend all security clearances Booz and its affiliated personnel currently have.
• Lifesaver Bottle.  I met a guy that lived/worked in the Cairo slums for 6 years (setting up gobar gas/biogas systems).  He swore by this device.  He even claimed he could drink sewage water with it (and it tasted fine).
• A light bug out bag designed by Marcus Wynne.  If you have a recipe for one.  Post it.
• Terrorist learning curves vs. gov't learning curves.  Neil Johnson and his team at the University Miami have a new paper in the journal Science that mathematically explores terrorist learning curves.  In short, they get better faster than counter-insurgency forces.  Well done.   NOTE: I was an early reviewer of the paper for Science and I heartily recommended that they publish it.  Glad they did and congrats to Neil and his team!  NOTE2: Another good paper would be to find ways to measure how sharing of that learning with other terrorist groups via news reports and online media improves overall frequency/lethality/effectiveness.  
• Systems disruption in Egypt.  Fourth attack by unnammed group on Sinai natural gas pipeline that feeds Israel/Jordan.  Nobody was killed since the pipeline guards were asked to leave by gunmen, prior to the detonation.  Further, the attack occured just as repairs to the last attack were completed.  Classic.
• More later.

COLLEGE ROOMMATE OF OBAMA: HE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT HE'S DOING

Wayne Allyn Root

Obama's agenda: Overwhelm the system

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Posted: Jun. 6, 2010 | 12:00 a.m.

Rahm Emanuel cynically said, "You never want a crisis to go to waste." It is now becoming clear that the crisis he was referring to is Barack Obama's presidency.
Obama is no fool. He is not incompetent. To the contrary, he is brilliant. He knows exactly what he's doing. He is purposely overwhelming the U.S. economy to create systemic failure, economic crisis and social chaos -- thereby destroying capitalism and our country from within.Â
Barack Obama is my college classmate (Columbia University, class of '83). As Glenn Beck correctly predicted from day one, Obama is following the plan of Cloward & Piven, two professors at Columbia University. They outlined a plan to socialize America by overwhelming the system with government spending and entitlement demands. Add up the clues below. Taken individually they're alarming. Taken as a whole, it is a brilliant, Machiavellian game plan to turn the United States into a socialist/Marxist state with a permanent majority that desperately needs government for survival ... and can be counted on to always vote for bigger government. Why not? They have no responsibility to pay for it.
-- Universal health care. The health care bill had very little to do with health care. It had everything to do with unionizing millions of hospital and health care workers, as well as adding 15,000 to 20,000 new IRS agents (who will join government employee unions). Obama doesn't care that giving free health care to 30 million Americans will add trillions to the national debt. What he does care about is that it cements the dependence of those 30 million voters to Democrats and big government. Who but a socialist revolutionary would pass this reckless spending bill in the middle of a depression?
-- Cap and trade. Like health care legislation having nothing to do with health care, cap and trade has nothing to do with global warming. It has everything to do with redistribution of income, government control of the economy and a criminal payoff to Obama's biggest contributors. Those powerful and wealthy unions and contributors (like GE, which owns NBC, MSNBC and CNBC) can then be counted on to support everything Obama wants. They will kick-back hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to Obama and the Democratic Party to keep them in power. The bonus is that all the new taxes on Americans with bigger cars, bigger homes and businesses helps Obama "spread the wealth around."
-- Make Puerto Rico a state. Why? Who's asking for a 51st state? Who's asking for millions of new welfare recipients and government entitlement addicts in the middle of a depression? Certainly not American taxpayers. But this has been Obama's plan all along. His goal is to add two new Democrat senators, five Democrat congressman and a million loyal Democratic voters who are dependent on big government.
-- Legalize 12 million illegal immigrants. Just giving these 12 million potential new citizens free health care alone could overwhelm the system and bankrupt America. But it adds 12 million reliable new Democrat voters who can be counted on to support big government. Add another few trillion dollars in welfare, aid to dependent children, food stamps, free medical, education, tax credits for the poor, and eventually Social Security.
-- Stimulus and bailouts. Where did all that money go? It went to Democrat contributors, organizations (ACORN), and unions -- including billions of dollars to save or create jobs of government employees across the country. It went to save GM and Chrysler so that their employees could keep paying union dues. It went to AIG so that Goldman Sachs could be bailed out (after giving Obama almost $1 million in contributions). A staggering $125 billion went to teachers (thereby protecting their union dues). All those public employees will vote loyally Democrat to protect their bloated salaries and pensions that are bankrupting America. The country goes broke, future generations face a bleak future, but Obama, the Democrat Party, government, and the unions grow more powerful. The ends justify the means.
-- Raise taxes on small business owners, high-income earners, and job creators. Put the entire burden on only the top 20 percent of taxpayers, redistribute the income, punish success, and reward those who did nothing to deserve it (except vote for Obama). Reagan wanted to dramatically cut taxes in order to starve the government. Obama wants to dramatically raise taxes to starve his political opposition.
With the acts outlined above, Obama and his regime have created a vast and rapidly expanding constituency of voters dependent on big government; a vast privileged class of public employees who work for big government; and a government dedicated to destroying capitalism and installing themselves as socialist rulers by overwhelming the system.
Add it up and you've got the perfect Marxist scheme -- all devised by my Columbia University college classmate Barack Obama.
Â
Wayne Allyn Root was the 2008 Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee and serves on the Libertarian National Committee.

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/obama-s-agenda--overwhelm-the-system-95716764.html

VIA SIPSEY STREET: A CARTOON WITH TOO MUCH TRUTH

http://sipseystreetirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/07/when-cartoons-contain-too-much-truth-to.html

DNA PROOF SGT. DYER IS INNOCENT!

Via awrm.org:  http://www.awrm.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=47;t=000035;p=1#000013

Texas Resistance

Senior Member

Member # 1582                 posted 07-13-2011 09:41 PM                                

________________________________________

You can only see the video and the scans of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation's DNA tests on Sgt. Charles Dyer on face book if you belong to face book.

If you download the scans here http://img228.imageshack.us/i/jp41.jpg http://img69.imageshack.us/i/jp42.jpg%20http://img199.imageshack.us/i/jp43.jpghttp://img84.imageshack.us/i/jp44.jpg%20http://img121.imageshack.us/i/jp55p.jpgof the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation's DNA tests on Sgt. Charles Dyer and look at them on a large computer monitor with high resolution and enlarge them they are legible but just barely. After you click the link and you are looking at it in the Firefox browser to download it right click the image and choose "save image as" There should be some better scans posted by tomorrow.

Here http://youtu.be/5E3Lc2rjkG4 is the same video "Chalrles Dyer BULLET PROOF EVIDENCE from DNA Lab results" on YouTube. It was made by a very brave and patriotic lady I know in the Texas Militia. In the video she explains the results of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation's DNA tests on Sgt. Charles Dyer. It proves him innocent. The only DNA evidence that was found was epithelial (skin) cells that all people shed all the time. It looks like the prosecutor hoped that there were all dumb hillbillys on the jury who would not know what epithelial cells are and tried to deceive everyone.

Sgt. Dyer has been ordered by the court not to make any more videos about the false charges against him or they will revoke his bail and put him in jail until his retrial but they can't control over the rest of us.

They are persecuting Sgt. Charles Dyer just because he is an outspoken militiaman. They hate his very motivational patriotic videos. We need to show support for July 4 Patriot and let Oklahoma know that millions of us are watching to be sure he gets a fair trail.

When you call, write, or fax do not identify yourself as militia so they can't take it as threat, be polite, and use no profanity.

You can donate to Sgt. Charles Dyer's defense fund here http://sergeantdyer.spruz.com

He goes back on trial in August.

More on DNA falsification and general government criminality at the link

VIA SIPSEYSTREET, GUNWALKER GROWS MORE INSIDIOUS-SO GUN CONTROL IS PROPOSED!

Gunwalker is an ongoing plot to false flag American gun owners for the ATF stealing guns from Americans, then smuggling them to lower rung drug cartels and gangs that don't have the connections to get full-automatic assault rifles, machine guns and RPG's from China-for cheaper.

Now the extent of the conspiracy is revealed; about the entire executive branch is involved in one way or another.  That's why we'll see a new push for gun control.

Surprise them and yourself: resist.

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/obfuscation-dems-push-gun-control-to-hide-gunwalker-scandal/

Obfuscation: Dems Push Gun Control To Hide ‘Gunwalker’ Scandal

They choose a pivotal moment in the Gunwalker investigation to announce a gun-control bill.

July 16, 2011 - 12:00 am - by Bob Owens

A handful of Democratic lawmakers in Congress and a fish cop held a press conference Friday to announce a new gun control proposal, the “Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act.” The proposed law has no chance of passing, and seems orchestrated as a Democratic response meant to draw attention away from the still-developing “Gunwalker” scandal:

U.S. Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) will join other members and a leading law enforcement organization for an event Friday, July 15th, 11:00 a.m. at the House Triangle to introduce the “Stop Gun Trafficking and Strengthen Law Enforcement Act,” which establishes a dedicated firearms trafficking statute to empower law enforcement to keep high-powered firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals, including Mexican drug cartels.

The exact same agencies that would be charged with enforcing the proposal are currently under investigation — and may eventually face felony charges — because they broke existing laws and participated in widespread gun trafficking. To borrow from a reader, the federal government is using federal agencies to break federal laws so that same federal government can impose more federal laws on the people that did not break the law.
It is Orwellian in its absurdity, and yet entirely real.
For those of you arriving to the story late, the scandal of Gunwalker began when ATF whistleblowers testified about a multi-agency federal program in Arizona called “Operation Fast and Furious.” The program was carried out by a multi-agency task force involving elements of the Department of Justice; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Drug Enforcement Agency; and the Internal Revenue Service. It would also have likely required the involvement of the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security.
As executed, the plot allowed straw purchasers to buy thousands of firearms and deliver them to Mexican drug cartels, presumably so that the ATF could learn who the primary gun smugglers were inside the cartels in order to shut them down. It was recently revealed, however, that at least some of the men the ATF were seeking may have been paid informants for the FBI and DEA.
Within the past week, evidence has emerged suggesting that the plot was not confined to Arizona. Similar programs existed in at least three other regions, including an operation that may have been called “Castaway” that shipped roughly 1,000 firearms to the violent gang MS-13 in Honduras from a multi-agency operation based in Tampa.
These politicians — who seem immune to either common sense or irony — can perhaps be convinced to re-title this legislation the Eddie Espinoza Act of 2011, in honor of the Democratic mayor of Columbus, NM, who was recently convicted of trafficking guns to Mexican drug cartels. Espinoza may face up to 65 years in prison — up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the smuggling counts and up to five years for the conspiracy charge as well as each of the false statement charges — for committing many of the same criminal acts (on a much smaller scale) as those carried out by the federal government that prosecuted his case.
Representatives Maloney, Cummings, and Carolyn McCarthy seem to be far less interested in holding those responsible for Gunwalker to account than they are in persecuting gun owners and hobbling the investigations into the scandal being played out in the House and Senate.
We saw this disreputable behavior from Cummings when he held a minority forum several weeks ago that was focused on blame-shifting instead of accountability, and in the 26-page political report that minimized the magnitude of the crimes perpetrated under the guise of law enforcement while building the case for gun control.
Anti-gun Democrats are pushing laws that would only affect the law-abiding, while attempting to direct attention away from what appears to be a widespread criminal conspiracy by executive branch agencies to arm narco-terrorists and then use the violence caused by those weapons to influence U.S. gun laws.
Americans don’t need more gun laws.
What me need are federal law enforcement agencies, legislators, and elected and appointed officials that aren’t willing to “break a few eggs” — or a few hundred lives — in order to take part in an illegal and murderous conspiracy.

More ‘Gunwalker’ Emails Suggest Gun-Control Conspiracy

Plus: Congressional investigators ask Eric Holder if there is any other evidence that Gunwalker was an anti-gun PR stunt.

July 15, 2011 - 8:46 am - by Bob Owens

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A Washington Times editorial notes that Operation Fast and Furious was “too fast, too furious,” as the gunrunning scandal continues to widen.
It was bad enough that more than a half-dozen director-level law enforcement officials and an unknown number of supervisors and managers acquiesced to a plot that armed cartels with more than 2,000 weapons in ATF’s Phoenix Field Operations area. But saying that a combination of groupthink, stupidity, and institutional inertia is to blame for this fiasco is giving dozens of federal law enforcement officers across multiple agencies the benefit of the doubt that they are merely criminally incompetent.
The increasingly more plausible motivation: political appointees of the current administration concocted a scheme to destabilize a friendly government to restore the flagging anti-gun movement.
That scenario would have seemed paranoid just weeks ago, but new evidence appearing almost daily indicates that the “Fast and Furious” scandal based in Arizona may be just one part of a much wider campaign by multiple government agencies acting well beyond the law.
Recent developments indicate that in addition to Fast and Furious in Arizona, another  gunrunning operation was headquartered in ATF’s Tampa Field Operations area. It allowed roughly 1,000 firearms to be smuggled to the ultra-violent MS-13 gang in Honduras.
Evidence also suggests that similar multi-agency programs exist in both the Houston and Dallas Field Operations areas covering all of Texas and Oklahoma.
Taken together, this suggests that we are not dealing with an isolated incident, but an ambitious and insidious attempt by the highest levels of a rogue government to reshape our world by any means necessary.
Katie Pavlich broke the story yesterday of a ”smoking gun” email between ATF officials: Mark R Chait, assistant director for field operations with the ATF, copied ATF deputy assistant director for field operations on an email to William Newell, the special agent in charge (SAC) of the Phoenix Field Division:

Bill – Can you see if these guns were all purchased from the same FfL and at one time. We are looking at anecdotal cases to support a letter on long gun multiple sales.

Chait was asking Newell to use tracing data to support an initiative supported by the administration to require the reporting of multiple rifle sales.
If that sounds familiar, it should; this week, President Obama pushed an executive order — an end-run around Congress – stating the feds will now require the reporting of multiple rifle sales within a five-day period. That the office of the presidency lacks the constitutional authority to enact such a rule seems irrelevant to this administration, which is certain to see this edict challenged in court if the ATF attempts to enforce it.
Even more damning: the existence of more emails that confirm these same ATF officials and others were colluding to use the Operation “Fast and Furious” guns that they helped smuggle into Mexico as a pretext for the new reporting regulation.

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