Coping: Been Nice, Santa

Why is it that I get the feeling that Santa has unloaded his best on the world well before Christmas this year?  Could it be that the last few minutes of 2009 will leave investors munching some unsavory figures on Mass Layoffs (due out this week), continued soft home sales, dropping personal incomes and so forth? Or is there a more subtle message about what’s ahead when a Car & Driver blog talks about the newest “Mercedes-based 10,000 liter Water Cannon“?

 

But who would want such an item under their tree?  I means besides Germany ordering 78…  When I see reports like this I have to pause and ask myself:  “What would Germany ever need 7 8 water cannon on the street for except….except….”  My mind seizes up and the words “Civil Disorder” come to mind. 

 

And it’s not like the mood is all season and harmonious as the ‘net is still reverberating with a report in Hand Gun Magazine that Homeland Security has inked a deal with Winchester to buy up to 200-million rounds of .40 S&W ammo finished with 135-grain hollow points.

 

You probably missed the report in the San Francisco Chronicle’s site that “S.F. cop-training tear gas sickens people, dogs” when the wind blew the wrong way.

 

Not that police don’t have to train – they do.  And it’s actually pretty cool that San Jose cops are going to be testing body cameras.  But somewhere between the ‘routine’ tear gas and camera stories on the one hand, and the 200-million rounds and new water cannon on the other, there’s what sure feels like a moving line…and it doesn’t seem to be moving in the direction of Peace on Earth – Good Will Toward Men; know what I mean?

 

That sense of foreboding is further reinforced by reading the Janet Daly column in the UK Telegraph:  “There’ll be nowhere to run from the new world government” although says the author global thinking t’ain’t necessarily going to work out as planned..

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The global alignment of national governments is set to continue full-speed ahead now that a key senator (Bill Nelson, of Nebraska) got enough payoff in terms of additional funding for his state to swing his vote into the “Yes” column when this is pushed through in the next couple of days. 

 

On the plus side of healthcare, it may extend coverage to a few more citizens – a good thing.

 

On the negative, alarmists around the net claim it sets up the groundwork for a national health computer system and I keep hearing talk in the worry-forums on the net that RFID chips, incarceration for people that don’t buy insurance, and authority for federal health officials to mandate treatment, whether it runs counter to your personal beliefs or not is part of the deal.

 

I’m not so much worried about that (although don’t get me wrong, it’s bothersome).  Instead what I keep looking at is a design pattern under which numerous moves are underway at a global level to pave the way for ‘One World Government.”  When I see another that “Gulf Arab States mover closer to single currency” the list of ‘alignment efforts’ of the PowersThatBe/Globalists comes into pretty clear focus:

• Nationalize US healthcare – give it a day or two.

• Buy more civil control tools (water cannon and ammo)

• Push a global tax system via Climate Change & carbon taxes

• Melt currencies into regional blocks

• The ‘Surveillance State” emerges not only in the US and UK as police camera salesmen hit their stride, but also in places like India where “Smart cameras all over as traffic watchdogs”

• Promote international food safety standards as a precursor to control  (Codex Alimentarius)

• Quietly honor newly issued “Super passports” (not by a issued by a country ) to international agencies like Interpol.

• Maintain a constant “State of Emergency” (the flu emergency is still in force, BTW) so that Posse Comitatus is suspended.

• And keep the best and the brightest of America’s patriotic sons and daughters out of the country  in the sand box defending the heroin production center of the world.

 

Taken as a whole body of shifting contexts, this is not meant to radicalize; only to inform that there’s a wholesale grab-and-run-with-it by a central government that seems intent on forgetting that States retain powers not specifically delegated to the federal government.  Of course, the only place such an issue would get a fair trial is in a state court and the only place that an interstate issue comes up is a federal court so due process has been handed a blindfold and cigarette from the get-go.

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I’m a huge believer in exponential growth rates and I find ‘exponent-seeking’ a dandy way to look at life.  As I told Peoplenomics subscribers this weekend almost no one will stand up and tell you straight out that the average inflation in America since the founding of the federal reserve system has been a shade over 3.2 percent – and that includes periods when deflation was occurring.  So if you’re not making at least 3.2% on your money, you’re not even keeping up with inflation.

 

Which gets us to the core problem:  The world is super-saturated with consumer goods, yet the only way to maintain “growth” is to sell more stuff.  And how are we going to do that?  At some point the world needs some really serious production destruction from which to rebuild, or a new kind of socioeconomic system that can handle zero-growth (or even negative growth) without falling apart. 

 

Can global socialism do that?  I wouldn’t bet on it…that that seems to be the path we’re now on, like it or not.

 

A few moments of appreciating freedom and personal industry, the results of a year’s hard work and plans to work harder in the future and climb the materialist rungs of society used to be the model.  But that’s all going bye-bye. 

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When my EMT son comes down to the ranch this week for Christmas we’ll be picking up a conversation started last week.  “Dad…I’m really becoming a real minimalist…”  What I’m not clear on is how he’ll answer the question “From where comes the motivation to progress if you’re a minimalist…in other words, where’s the quid pro quo, the bigger rewards for bigger effort?”  I’m fuzzy on how that works.

 

Since I’m not into clubs, trance & hip-hop music, dating drop-dead gorgeous women, and doing long-distance bike rides anymore, it should be an interesting answer, but what I suspect is going on is that he (and younger generations than boomers like me) have been ‘reframed’ to think of the world as running out of everything so minimalism takes root.  I just can’t figure where’s the motivation in that kind of world….besides personal excellence, but again, from whence cometh it?

 

I’ll let you know how it comes out…but it might be a very, very long discussion.

 

Speaking of Stocking Stuffers

My son sent down one of the gifts on Saturday:  Don’t know if you have seen the new “Paracord Survival Bracelets” on eBay but they range from about $6-12 – depending on if you want to hang around for an auction end, or just click ‘Buy It Now” and be done with it.  They’re bracelets that are made up of anywhere from 18-30 feet of cord, depending on your wrist size.

 

Also of note: a place where you can get a rifle sling made out of braided cord – just the thing for Mssrs. AK and Mossberg.

 

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Send your comments to george@ure.net

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The UrbanSurvival Mall:

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“Live on $10,000″ A Year

With another round of layoffs due to start later this month…a round which will start to axe many of the middle managers who have managed to avoid the HR grenades…might I suggest a preemptive tactical move?  Voluntarily dropping your lifestyle back a bit, since we’re all being marched down that road by either circumstances or some out-of-control-PTB types who write checks to Washington lobby and to anti-reformers in California!  A good starting point, at least if you’ve still got $10-bucks is my e-book “How to Live on #10,000 a Year…or less!”

 

 

 

It’s an automatic download.  It’s written in an information dense style: The whole thing runs about 65 pages, but it gives you a vision of how to not only live on the cheap, but also how to migrate up the economic foodchain if you have a little hustle left…  Click here for the index and details.

 

MyGroPonics

My commodity broker JB Slear and I have written a simple book to get you started on high density hydroponics.  It’s an example of how someone with a little creativity, access to a few ‘dollar stores’ and willing to try out some new farming techniques can grow an amazing amount of produce sin a very small space – like even an apartment balcony (if it gets some sunlight).  Sound interesting?  It’s just $10 bucks here…

 

       

 

Pass It On

The business model of this website is base Simply click here and send a link to this site to everyone on your distro list…Nothing more dangerous than sharp, clear-thinking upstarts who ask a lot of questions, eh?  Unless you believe WTC-7 fell over on its own, of course….

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 Last week’s report is here.    For back issues of this site, click here.  (Goes back to 1997!)

“If you ain’t paranoid, you ain’t payin’ attention!”