Threat Assessment- Loss Of National Sovereignty

on October 3, 2012 at 3:15 am
Posted In: Constitution, Potential Threats

Threat Assessment- Loss Of National Sovereignty

national sovereignty

 

I don’t think many of Americans spend much time thinking about National Sovereignty. This is probably the primary reason it is a threat. Even some practical preppers are a bit dismissive to the threat to national sovereignty. Many seem to regard it as a tin foil hat topic. As you might expect, we hear very little about national sovereignty in the mainstream media outlets on either side of the political fence.

Fortunately, there are a few patriots standing on the wall with their eyes wide open.  Conservative Constitutionalist Senator Rand Paul has led the charge against Hillary Clinton  who has strongly advocated the UN Arms Trade Treaty which has been reported to contain language that would interfere with or override our 2cnd Amendment. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was successful in gathering enough support against ratifying the treaty that it was not agreed upon. Senator Rand Paul has also fought against foreign aid which is used as bribe money that is usually paid out to enemy states. He may be our best hope for freedom in the 2016 Presidential election.

More recently, Fox News has reported on the UN’s aspirations of a global tax. In this article from FoxNews.com, it is reported that the UN is seeking to tax all billionaires at a rate of 1%. They are seeking to tax all currency trading in US dollars, Euros, Yen, and Pound Sterling. The UN is also seeking to tax mineral resources that are extracted more than 100 miles away from any country’s shore.

This would be a major power grab by the UN and entitle them to taxes from deep sea oil rigs. Once their foot is in the door, they will pry themselves into every area of our lives and decimate our national sovereignty. Tax revenues are often used to raise armies. Perhaps they are positioning themselves for the inevitable collapse of the US economy. With taxing authority, they could easily build a military and step into the power vacuum left by the meltdown of the US. At any rate, granting taxing authority to the UN is a step in the direction of a one world government, loss of US national sovereignty and global governance.

There is someone else who is seeking to raise taxes; Lubbock County Judge Tom Head is looking to raise extra revenue for his county. His reasons are quite different from those of the UN. This Texas Judge  is looking to train and arm his sheriffs department to stand up to UN troops in the event of an unconstitutional surrender of national sovereignty by the Executive branch.  Here is the video from the Lubbock Fox affiliate, FOX 34.

Stay awake preppers. The Bible says “The complacency of fools will destroy them” Proverbs 1:32.  Our freedom wasn’t free; we owe it to those who gave everything, to guard it with vigilance. Write your Congressman and Senators and let them know you want the UN out of America and you want America out of the UN!

Happy Prepping!

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Ron Paul Lecture

on October 1, 2012 at 4:55 am
Posted In: Constitution, Economy

Ron Paul Lecture- ” The Great Enabler: The Rise of the Federal Reserve and the Growth Of Government”

Ron Paul

 

In this lecture, Ron Paul speaks about the role of the Federal Reserve in growing the government. He explains how the Fed’s easy money policies have allowed Congress and the President to continue in their bad behavior. The money printed by the Federal Reserve helps to prop up welfare programs that create dependents rather than self sufficient citizens. The bond buying by the Federal Reserve also finances our $700 billion dollar a year military habit.

Ron Paul has been asking American to wake up for more than 30 years. He has been sounding the alarm to warn us of the lack of financial responsibility in our federal government. He speaks against bloated military budgets and the amount of money wasted on being the police of the world. He also criticizes the irrational welfare system that rewards the unproductive and punishes the productive in our society. He is retiring after this term in Congress, but his ideas will keep working.

He has urged Congress to return to our constitution on many levels. He has been especially adamant about returning to constitutional sound money. Our forefathers knew the unsustainable nature of fiat currency. They witnessed the currency crash of the Continental currency. It was nearly worthless by the end of the Revolutionary War. This is one of the reasons they wrote the coinage act of 1792. It prescribed death to anyone who debased the currency.

If you have never read The Revolution, a Manifesto by Ron Paul, I encourage you to pick up a copy today. It may challenge some ideas that you believe, but don’t know why you believe them. You may find that you have been seeing everything through a Democrat or Republican worldview. Even if you disagree with Dr. Paul on some issues, it will make you think, and that is what is important to keep our Republic.

Happy Prepping!

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Sunday Prepper Bible Study- Prepping in The Bible

on September 30, 2012 at 5:09 am
Posted In: Bible, Prepping

Sunday Prepper Bible Study

Today is the first post of a new series where we will be gleaning  some wisdom from The Bible, the best selling book of all times. The Bible is filled with practical wisdom and great examples of preparedness. It is full of real adventures where God has guided His followers to prepare for disasters and examples of His grace miraculously providing for them in tough situations. As much as God gives me the inspiration, I will try to post a study every Sunday.

The book of Proverbs has lots of great advice on prepping. Proverbs was written by King Solomon who is said to have been the wisest man who ever lived. When asked by God what he desired most, rather than riches or a long life, Solomon asked for wisdom to be a good leader over the nation of Israel. God was so impressed with Solomon’s request, He granted him the wisdom he had asked for and also fame and fortune. What a blessing it would be for our country to have a leader like King Solomon who would seek wisdom from God to lead us. You can read the account of Solomon’s request in The Bible, in I Kings 3.

Proverbs 21:20 says: ” In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil; but the foolish man devours all he has”.  this verse is deep. It speaks to the overall wisdom of prepping. The idea of having something more in your pantry than what you need for the next two days is very clear. Solomon recommends having “stores” of food. That is plural. There is no specific number of months worth of food mentioned , but I would say, do what you can. One month is wiser than one week. Two months is wiser than one. If you have the space, a years worth of food storage that won’t go bad is better than 6 months.

Bible

The Bible contrasts this wisdom with the foolishness of those who consume everything they get their hands on. Our easy credit society has seen the consequences of this mentality as many people borrowed what they could never repay. This borrowing created the housing collapse which was the first domino of the crisis we are still experiencing. Not only do we consume all we have, we have went beyond that and, through credit, consume our resources for tomorrow.

The easy lesson from The Bible in this verse from Proverbs is to live below your means. Reduce your level of consumption so you will have something for a rainy day. Many say The Bible is an antiquated book that has no relevance to our present times. Never has this principle been more applicable than for today. The storm clouds are still brewing and the future will not be kind to the unprepared.

If you are new to prepping or would like to learn more about how to save for tomorrow, please read our 7 Step Preparedness Plan.

Happy Prepping!

 

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Peak Oil- Threat Assessment

on September 28, 2012 at 3:17 am
Posted In: Potential Threats

Peak Oil- Threat Assessment

Peak Oil is a concept that has been around for some time. The idea is that all of the oil in the world was created over vast amounts of time and is being consumed very quickly. There are varying degrees of belief in this threat.  Like climate change, most people subscribe to one extreme or the other. You will hear people tell you that the end is near and others that tell you there is no problem at all. As with many things, the truth probably lies at some point in between the two extreme stances. Unfortunately, there is very little you can learn from the far right that are in complete denial about peak oil. That leaves us with mostly propaganda from the far left environmentalist to try to glean some truth from.

This video will give you a good understanding of the perceived threat of peak oil. It has a very leftist slant, but the only thing we can get from the  right is total denial of the issue. Sometimes you have to eat the grapes and spit out the seeds.

Regardless of which side of the peak oil fence you are on, we can see that gas prices are rising. These price increases are much more that just the geopolitical landscape or inflation. Both of those factors greatly affect the price of gas, but production costs have gone up astronomically.  We are having to drill for oil in deeper and deeper waters. We are having to resort to fracking and other more expensive extraction methods. Most of these technologies have production costs of $80 a barrel or more. At prices below that, production ceases.  At $150 a barrel, there is quite a bit of oil. Higher oil prices allow companies to spend more to extract oil.

Peak Oil is less about running out of oil and more about running out of cheap oil. This is not as dramatic as waking up tomorrow and there is no more gas. The negative effects come from increasing energy prices that take more and more from family budgets. As more is spent on essentials, less is left for saving, investments and discretionary spending. The real threat of peak oil is economic. On of the catalyst for the 2008 market crash was $150 oil. All of the other factors were already there prior to 2008.  Americans were spending 103% of their income, subprime loans were defaulting, credit was drying up and home prices had been falling for over a year. The price shock from skyrocketing oil initiated the confidence crisis. The crash still would have come, but it was intensified by the oil price shock.

Rising oil prices affect every part of our lives. Unless you are 100% self sufficient, whatever you buy at the store got there on a truck that uses oil. Higher transportation costs drive up the costs of everything. Most products we buy are wrapped in plastic or made of plastic, an oil derivative. Tires, roads and fertilizers all use oil as a major component in there manufacturing.

Ten years ago, gas prices were right around $1.50 a gallon.  We are just under $4.00 where I live at the time of this writing. That is an 166% increase  in ten years. If prices continue to increase at there present rate, the price would be $10.67 in 2022 and $28.44 a gallon in 2032, just 20 years from now. This puts a pretty serious damper on the possibility of growth in our economy. Those  prices are assuming the best. They assume there is no major conflicts in the middle east, there is no hyperinflationary economic environment, and the 2 billion Chinese and Indians are content to keep riding bicycles rather than wanting cars.

The challenge of peak oil alone is life changing for America. If we had no $16 trillion dollar debt, Obama Care, or empire creep to pay for, we would have about all we could handle. If you haven’t read our 7 Step Preparedness Plan, please read it. The sooner you start to prepare, the better equipped you will be to handle the changes that are coming our way.

Happy Prepping!

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Obama’s America 2016- Full Movie

on September 25, 2012 at 7:31 pm
Posted In: Potential Threats

Obama’s America 2016

We have taken down the movie as we learned it may have been uploaded without permission. We are sorry for any inconvenience. We do have a new movie available called Crude Awakening that deals with the threat of increasing energy prices. You can view it by clicking to our new post “Peak Oil- Threat Assessment”.

 

I hear a lot from fellow Ron Paul supporters on prepper and survivalist forums who think there is no difference between Romney and Obama. I hope this film can open their eyes. Romney may have many flaws. I am certainly no fan, but I think you will agree that Obama for four more years will be much more detrimental. Here is the full movie.

obama

The Movie covers much of Barack Hussein Obama’s life including his childhood and the influence or lack thereof  from his father. It speaks about how Barack Obama has been an ill fit into American history.

The movie draws attention to the fact that The President has turned his back on Israel and Britain, two of our closest allies.  He has blocked the Keystone pipeline that would have brought jobs and greater energy independence from the middle east.

He has slashed America’s nuclear arsenal while ignoring Iran’s build up. We speak a lot on Prepper Recon.com about non-intervention in foreign entanglements, but Iran is a terrorist state. To allow them to have nuclear capabilities is to allow terrorists to have them as well.  This falls under our government’s constitutional duty to defend our borders.

The movie tells us about Frank Marshal Davis who was a mentor to Obama. Davis wrote for a communist publication called the Chicago Star. He later spewed anti-American sentiment in the Honolulu Record. Davis was considered a communist threat and was placed on a watch list by the FBI. The movie lists Obama’s other associates like Weather Underground terrorist, Bill Ayers who was responsible for bombs in the Pentagon, US Capital, and a New York Police Department. Other associates include Edward Said, a radical socialist professor at Columbia University. We also can’t forget about the radical Reverend Jeremiah Wright who married Barack and Michelle Obama.

The film also reminds us of the economic time bomb of Obama Care. This law will destroy small businesses all over America. In 2014, the requirement goes into effect for businesses of 50 or more employees to provide healthcare.

Grab some popcorn or a barf bag and enjoy the show.

Happy Prepping!

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X Events – Book Review

on September 24, 2012 at 4:01 am
Posted In: Economy, Potential Threats

X Events

 

X Events, the Collapse of Everything is the new book by John Casti. It makes for some great bed time reading to give you that warm fuzzy feeling inside. I am sure you could guess that from the title! The author looks at several possibilities that could bring on different levels of collapse. The theme that runs throughout the book is the problem of complexity. He points out that as systems become more and more complex, they require more complex means of managing those systems. As the systems grow, be they financial systems, supply systems or information systems, they become complex beyond anyone’s ability to fully understand them. When this happens, collapse is inevitable.

A great example of this was the 2008 Mortgage Backed Securities debacle. Mortgages were bundled up into packages, then the packages were split up into Collateralized  Debt Obligations or CDO’s. These CDO’s were sold in tranches of  risk levels that payed different interest rates. As complex as it is, you may be thinking “someone came up with the idea, so they must have understood it”. They did understand it. The problem begins with the ability for the regulators to understand it. The problem extends to the buyers of the CDO’s and the record keeping as it failed to keep up with who actually owned what mortgage. When the subprime mortgages finally defaulted, no one knew who owned the property as the mortgage had been diced up, sold, repackaged and resold so many times.

As X Events points out, this level of complexity runs throughout our society. The inability to understand it by those tasked with monitoring the systems creates instability. Complexity of this magnitude exists in information systems such as the internet and is beginning to show up in our food supply lines.

X Events  also points out the fact that while any given catastrophic event may have a very low probability of occurring, the aggregate probability of one event happening is much higher. Perhaps an EMP attack has a low probability of occurring, as would a global pandemic, or worldwide famine. However the probability of one of those events occurring is much higher. In actuality, Black Swan events (rare events) in aggregate actually become White Swan events (very common events).

X Events explores in detail what could cause and how we might react to, the failure of the internet, the breakdown of the food supply system, an EMP attack or solar EMP, global pandemic, drying up of oil supplies, collapse of financial markets, and several other  X events.

The book is available on Amazon.com  and can be ordered directly by clicking the link on the top right column of this page. It is a great read.

Happy Prepping!

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Financial Collapse – Threat Assessment Part 2: Global Banking System Meltdown

on September 22, 2012 at 4:09 am
Posted In: Economy, Potential Threats

Financial Collapse – Threat Assessment Part 2: Global Banking System Meltdown

In Financial Collapse Part 1, we wrote about the possibilities of a financial collapse initiated by the consequences of our $16 trillion national debt. As if it were not enough, it is not the only threat facing us with the possibility of triggering a financial collapse.

In my opinion, the problem lies at the very heart of the structure of our modern banking system. When I first took Macroeconomics several years ago, I felt a sudden sense of panic as I learned about the fractional reserve banking system. Had the information not come from a college textbook, I would have likely dismissed the entire reading as conspiracy theory. Until that point in time, I never gave it much thought, I assumed any given dollar could only occupy one space at a given time. That is not exactly the case. Under the fractional reserve system, a bank needs only to retain a percentage of the deposits it takes in.

For an example, let’s say the reserve requirement is 10%. Now let’s say you take $100 and deposit it in the bank. They keep $10 or %10 on deposit and lend out $90 to Bill. Bill buys a new bike from Tom who deposits this same $90 in the same bank. They now keep 10% which is $9 and lends out $81 to Steve who buys an apple cart from Sue. Sue deposits the money into the same bank who again keeps 10% in reserve, $8.10 and lends out $72.90. This goes on and on until the initial $100 has created nearly $900. With the $100 that still belongs to you in your account, that’s $1,000 from $100. But wait that’s not all folks. Do you think Bill and Steve borrowed that money interest free? Not on your life. If those loans were via credit cards,  Bill, Steve and the other borrowers are paying around 20% interest. 20% of $900 is $180 in addition to the $1,000. Now we have $1,180 from our original $100.

The alchemist of the 17th century had it all wrong trying to make gold out of lead. They should have been using paper. Not only do we create great amounts of wealth through this process, we also create increasing amounts of debt as interest is added to the principle of each additional loan. The problem is that there is more debt than there are dollars created to repay the debt. In our original example, after all the principle is repaid, and you have withdrawn your $100 dollars, there is still the issue of the $180 in interest outstanding. In a simplified economy where the only money that exists is the $100 and the subsequent wealth created by the fractional reserve banking system, the $180 ends up as a deficit that can not be repaid as there is no money in existence to repay it. Well,  you may say, we live in a much more complex economy, we will get the $180 in interest due from another source. Regardless of the complexity , which is part of the problem, not a solution, there is still more debt than dollars to repay.

We have been getting away with this for centuries. It is a fundamentally flawed system that is reliant on ever increasing amounts of debt to sustain itself. Presently, the total global base money supply, also known as M-O is around $8.5 trillion dollars. M-O or base money is all of the money in circulation and all the money on  deposits at banks. Total global bank assets, also known as loans are near $100 trillion. This $100 trillion is wealth magically created from the $8.5 trillion. It is also earning interest and by nature, creating more debt every day. To create $100 trillion from $8.5 trillion means the banking system is leveraged 12 to 1. This is highly leveraged and increasing overall volatility by the minute. What we have developed is an amazingly tall house of cards. The wealth created is not real.

What could possibly  go wrong with this system? We already have that answer. We got it here in America in 1929. In a fractional reserve banking system, credit expansion is always followed by credit contraction. We know how bad it was in the great depression, what we don’t know is how bad it will be with a $91.5 trillion ($100 tr – $8.5 tr) credit contraction.

That can’t happen again. We have the FDIC. That’s right, they have safely managed to sock away $13.6 billion. US base money is approximately $1.7 trillion and total US bank assets (loans ) are around $20 trillion. So, if there is a bank run, they have the first .068% of it totally covered. I know I’ll sleep better tonight. Thanks FDIC! It is like trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun.

The $13.6 billion in the FDIC insurance fund is just there to make you feel safer. It is sort of like a 6 year old who feels quite well defended against any would be intruder as long as he has his trusty Red Rider BB gun. If there ever is an intruder, his confidence will fail rather quickly. In the same way, someday a market crisis will invade our happy illusion and confidence in the FDIC will fail. We will experience bank runs like we have seen recently in Spain and Greece. We will see lines at the banks around the block like we saw in the depression. The FDIC will have no choice but to declare a bank holiday, which has nothing to do with eggnog or turkey dinners.

If we experience this type of banking collapse, the only money you will have access to will be what you had before the bank holiday. Most likely, credit cards will not be accepted during this time.  We recommend keeping a minimum of one month total expenses in cash in a secure location in your home. You can read our detailed 7 Step Preparedness Plan to better prepare yourself for the coming storm. To learn more about fractional reserve banking and our debt based monetary system, watch Money as Debt.

Happy Prepping!

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NDAA Battle Suffers Severe Blow.

on September 20, 2012 at 3:28 am
Posted In: Constitution

NDAA Battle Suffers Severe Blow.

NDAA

NDAA or The National Defense Authorization Act is presented to congress every year to approve budgets and general business. The NDAA for fiscal year 2012 was enacted last December 31. This particular year’s NDAA contained a provision for the indefinite detention of any one suspected of terrorism. That  provision of the NDAA  was halted by a  federal judge through an injunction last May. Federal Judge Katherine Forrest made the injunction permanent last week. The injunction against that portion of the law was appealed by the Department of Justice. On Monday September 17th, 2012, Judge Raymond Lohier of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted an emergency stay on the injunction. As it now stands, the government has in its power to detain anyone they deem to be “associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners”.

Here is a brief excerpt from the law:

SEC. 1021. AFFIRMATION OF AUTHORITY OF THE ARMED FORCES OF
THE UNITED STATES TO DETAIN COVERED PERSONS
PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY
FORCE.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Congress affirms that the authority of the
President to use all necessary and appropriate force pursuant to
the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40;
50 U.S.C. 1541 note) includes the authority for the Armed Forces
of the United States to detain covered persons (as defined in subsection
(b)) pending disposition under the law of war.
(b) COVERED PERSONS.—A covered person under this section
is any person as follows:
(1) A person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided
the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001,
or harbored those responsible for those attacks.
(2) A person who was a part of or substantially supported
al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged
in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners,
including any person who has committed a belligerent act or
has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy
forces.
The entire NDAA law can be viewed here and you can read Subtitle D, Section 1021 by scrolling to page 265.

 

That is just fine and dandy as long as we are talking about the Taliban and al-Qaeda. I am sure we all would like our government to have the tools it needs to keep us safe. The problem arises in making compromises to the constitution. The 4th amendment protects us from unwarranted search and seizure. We cannot be harassed or imprisoned  without probable cause. Another problem arises when the administration that presently holds power disagrees with your particular views. We all remember the president’s statement about his opposition who “cling to their guns and religion”. The freedom of religion is our first right in the bill of rights and the right to bear arms is the second. These two foundational rights are regarded as being faults by our current leader.

I have a vivid recollection of the DHS report from 2009 that labeled those concerned about US national sovereignty, abortion, and the second amendment as being domestic terrorist threats. It is this type of rhetoric that causes me to be concerned when I read the third from the last line in the except that vaguely states “including any person who has committed a belligerent act“. We must be very careful about extending ever increasing power to a government that views those who would agree with the Constitution as “threats”.

While all the major media outlets have been prudent to cover which members of Britain’s royal family were missing which articles of clothing over the few weeks, nothing has been said about such an important topic. CNN nor FOX have said anything about the FY 2012 NDAA. I can’t speak  for MSNBC as it is a brand of political propaganda that I cannot stomach in any amount.

Here is my final point. This law passed through a Democratic President, Democrat controlled Senate and a Republican controlled House. If you are concerned about it, you need to write some e-mails. Here are the list of contacts for the US Senate and the US House of Representatives.

Happy Prepping!

 

 

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