http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=geography Thu, 23 May 2013 04:22:17 -0400 Liveleak http://edge.liveleak.com/80281E/u/u/ll2/logo.gif http://www.liveleak.com/browse?q=geography Fri, 17 May 2013 07:10:53 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f77_1368788441 gostrydr Tweets containing hateful words are coming in larger proportions from people living in the eastern half of the United States, according to a new map that tracked hate speech on Twitter. "How much hate people are broadcasting online is a little shocking and upsetting," said Monica Stephens, assistant professor of geography at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif. The map is based on tweets that were scanned for hate words that are homophobic, racist or demeaning to people with disabilities. "I think the words themselves are shocking when you realize how much volume there is," Stephens added. "We were dealing with over 150,000 times that these words were used in slightly under 10 months." The map uses data from the DOLLY Project at the University of Kentucky, which provides an archive of tweets that have been tagged with a location. The tweets were from June 2012 to April 2013. Stephens had the help of three geography students - Amelia Egle, a junior; Miles Ross, a senior; and Matt Eiben, a graduate student - to analyze the tweets and build the map. The students read them to determine whether they were hateful, positive or neutral. "It was hard sometimes to make that decision," Egle said. "There were definitely some racist and shocking statements that you aren't expecting at first." Growing up in California, Ross said he heard racism a lot, but mostly in closed circles. "It was surprising they would actually say these words to begin with and also have a spacial location attached to it," he said. Geotagged tweets are a small percentage of total Twitter traffic. People have to opt in to provide the geographic location from where they are tweeting. But those that are geotagged provide a good representation of what is being tweeted, Johnson said. Eiben joined the project after Egle and Ross had been working on it for several months to help out with the technical end and creating the visualization of the data. He said steps were taken to protect the privacy of people who tweeted the hateful speech. The map's result was based on how often people used Twitter in that particular location. A ratio was created by county to see what proportion of tweets were hateful, Stephens said. "People may feel their communities are misrepresented, but these are parts of the community that they may not be interacting with and may not see," she said. "We hope that this is an impetus for a conversation with members of a community about using these words and not supporting these groups." Those upset with how the maps looks can help change it by geocoding their own tweets, which would help improve the ratio of overall tweets to those with hate words in them, Stephens said. "Stop tweeting hate," Stephens said. "Start tweeting things that are more benign, that mention how much support there is and resources there are in the community for individuals. If Twitter had more of that and a little less negative sentiment, that would change it." She said she hopes the map encourages people to reach out and start conversations with their neighbors and others who are different from themselves. "We hope that people are offended by this language," Stephens said. "We hope people are shocked by it." : Interactive hate map http://users.humboldt.edu/mstephens/hate/hate_map.html# http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f77_1368788441 gostrydr The <span class="highlight">Geography</span> of Hate Racism,hate Tue, 21 May 2013 22:59:38 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7b6_1369191455 cathy winslow Getting to al-Qusayr city is not easy these days, roads have to be chosen wisely; one wrong turn, and you might end up in the wrong place; but as we approach what is now considered a vital intersection in Syria's geography and daily fighting, signs of battles that took place before becomes more and more evident. After the scenes of destruction, the sounds of fierce clashes begin and a side road has to be used to avoid the clashes. A dusty and bumpy road; but not as difficult as the clashes taking place inside the city. This is the main entrance of al-Qusayr city we are at the main square leading into al-Qusayr city we are standing here with the Syrian army as they are approaching more and more the city center The Syrian army is securing the city street by street and stationing units as they go in, but the biggest challenge is the snipers. The insurgents sharp shooters are making running and ducking an essential life skill to survive in Al-Qusair. However, the Syrian army has found more innovative ways to avoid the snipers, making ditches and covering them with whatever they could put their hands on. The clashes become more and more intense as we get closer to insurgents. Here every street you cross needs fire coverage from Syrian troops and when this fails the tanks come in. Finally we are at the schools complex, a group of adjacent school buildings that have become the new frontline in the fight over al-Qusayr. This is the schools' complex which was one of the strongest points inside al-Qusayr as the Syrian Army is advancing, it managed to seize the building and they are advancing more right now. http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/21/304655/syria-army-advances-on-qusayr-city/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7b6_1369191455 cathy winslow Syria army Continue advances in Qusayr city Syria,Qusayr,Qusair,War,Assad Thu, 16 May 2013 19:36:11 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=401_1368747063 dcmfox D Magazine on Tuesday published a shockingly not safe for work voicemail from Dallas City Council candidate Richard P. Sheridan who said that the publication had not done enough to inform voters that his opponent was gay. In the voicemail left over the weekend, Sheridan tells reporter Dan Koller that he's "extremely happy" that "Sodomite" Leland Burk lost to Jennifer Staubach Gates. "You know, you didn't post the fact, communicate to voters that he's gay, and I think I did a pretty good job of communicating to voters," Sheridan, who only received 28 votes, opines. "You, sir, are cunt, bitch, coward, Mr. Koller. Dan Koller is a cunt, bitch, coward. And I don't think you have one testicle, sir. You're a sorry-ass, you're a disgrace to our city, you're a propagandist to the Sodomites. "And when I see you, I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but minimally your eardrums will hurt, you motherfucker. Because the word fuck means abuse and if you're in the gay lifestyle, the mothers that bring their children up in the world, wanting to do good, want to live a good life, and you go with the Sodomites? You motherfucker, cunt, coward Dan Koller." Sheridan adds that Koller would "regret it" the next time he saw him, but the "fucking coward" should not to call the police because it was not intended as a threat of bodily harm. Koller responded on Tuesday with lyrics from Michael Jackson's " Bad ." "Well, Richard (or should I call you Dick? Yeah, I should), all I can say in response, Dick, is your talk is cheap; you're not a man," Koller wrote . "The word is out, you're doing wrong; gonna lock you up before too long. I'm telling you, just watch your mouth; I know your game, what you're about." "I sincerely hope that the man is never a Twitter user," D Magazine 's Jason Heid added in a follow-up piece. "I'm sure that he could single-handedly add several degrees of red to Dallas' appearance on the Geography of Hate map ." http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=401_1368747063 dcmfox Homophobic Texas Candidate Calls Reporter 'C*nt, B*tch, Coward' in Voicemail Tirade (very NSFW) Dallas, Dallas City Council, Dan Koller, Danner Koller, Jason Heid, Leland Burk, michael jackson, Richard P. Sheridan, twitter Mon, 13 May 2013 18:34:34 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a5d_1368484156 plokiju The interactive map shows where the most hateful tweets originates. The link to the map is at the bottom -ed Following the 2012 US Presidential election, we created a map of tweets that referred to President Obama using a variety of racist slurs. In the wake of that map, we received a number of criticisms - some constructive, others not - about how we were measuring what we determined to be racist sentiments. In that work, we showed that the states with the highest relative amount of racist content referencing President Obama - Mississippi and Alabama - were notable not only for being starkly anti-Obama in their voting patterns, but also for their problematic histories of racism. That is, even a fairly crude and cursory analysis can show how contemporary expressions of racism on social media can be tied to any number of contextual factors which explain their persistence. The prominence of debates around online bullying and the censorship of hate speech prompted us to examine how social media has become an important conduit for hate speech, and how particular terminology used to degrade a given minority group is expressed geographically. As we've documented in a variety of cases, the virtual spaces of social media are intensely tied to particular socio-spatial contexts in the offline world, and as this work shows, the geography of online hate speech is no different. Rather than focusing just on hate directed towards a single individual at a single point in time, we wanted to analyze a broader swath of discriminatory speech in social media, including the usage of racist, homophobic and ableist slurs. Using DOLLY to search for all geotagged tweets in North America between June 2012 and April 2013, we discovered 41,306 tweets containing the word '*****', 95,123 referenced 'homo', among other terms. In order to address one of the earlier criticisms of our map of racism directed at Obama, students at Humboldt State manually read and coded the sentiment of each tweet to determine if the given word was used in a positive, negative or neutral manner. This allowed us to avoid using any algorithmic sentiment analysis or natural language processing, as many algorithms would have simply classified a tweet as 'negative' when the word was used in a neutral or positive way. For example the phrase 'dyke', while often negative when referring to an individual person, was also used in positive ways (e.g. "dykes on bikes #SFPride"). The students were able to discern which were negative, neutral, or positive. Only those tweets used in an explicitly negative way are included in the map. All together, the students determined over 150,000 geotagged tweets with a hateful slur to be negative. Hateful tweets were aggregated to the county level and then normalized by the total number of tweets in each county. This then shows a comparison of places with disproportionately high amounts of a particular hate word relative to all tweeting activity. For example, Orange County, California has the highest absolute number of tweets mentioning many of the slurs, but because of its significant overall Twitter activity, such hateful tweets are less prominent and therefore do not appear as prominently on our map. So when viewing the map at a broad scale, it's best not to be covered with the blue smog of hate, as even the lower end of the scale includes the presence of hateful tweeting activity. Even when normalized, many of the slurs included in our analysis display little meaningful spatial distribution. For example, tweets referencing '*****' are not concentrated in any single place or region in the United States; instead, quite depressingly, there are a number of pockets of concentration that demonstrate heavy usage of the word. In addition to looking at the density of hateful words, we also examined how many unique users were tweeting these words. For example in the Quad Cities (East Iowa) 31 unique Twitter users tweeted the word "*****" in a hateful way 41 times. There are two likely reasons for higher proportion of such slurs in rural areas: demographic differences and differing social practices with regard to the use of Twitter. We will be testing the clusters of hate speech against the demographic composition of an area in a later phase of this project. Perhaps the most interesting concentration comes for references to 'wetback', a slur meant to degrade Latino immigrants to the US by tying them to 'illegal' immigration. Ultimately, this term is used most in different areas of Texas, showing the state's centrality to debates about immigration in the US. But the areas with significant concentrations aren't necessarily that close to the border, and neither do other border states who feature prominently in debates about immigration contain significant concentrations. Ultimately, some of the slurs included in our analysis might not have particularly revealing spatial distributions. But, unfortunately, they show the significant persistence of hatred in the United States and the ways that the open platforms of social media have been adopted and appropriated to allow for these ideas to be propagated. Funding for this map was provided by the University Research and Creative Activities Fellowship at HSU. Geography students Amelia Egle, Miles Ross and Matthew Eiben at Humboldt State University coded tweets and created this map. Story link: http://www.floatingsheep.org/2013/05/hatemap.html The full interactive map is available here: http://users.humboldt.edu/mstephens/hate/hate_map.html The first map shows overall racist tweets. The second map shows overall homophobic tweets. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a5d_1368484156 plokiju The <span class="highlight">Geography</span> of Hate Geography, of, Hate, tweet, racist, homophobic, interactive, map Tue, 14 May 2013 17:53:58 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8d6_1368568069 Regenbogenleiche she is looking really often to her mother but sometimes she seems to be legit and shows the location instantly. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8d6_1368568069 Regenbogenleiche Smart 2 years old girl beats you at <span class="highlight">geography</span> girl, 2, geography, smart, sweet, cute Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:44:33 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=af7_1366731510 DruiStr http://dailycurrant.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/0128-sarah-palin-political-career_full_600-257x171.jpg Sarah Palin called for the invasion of the Czech Republic today in response to the recent terrorist attacks in Boston In an interview with Fox News, the former governor of Alaska said that although federal investigators have yet to complete their work, the time for action is now. &quot;We don't know everything about these suspects yet,&quot; Palin told Fox and Friends this morning, referring to Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who allegedly carried out the Boston Marathon attacks. &quot;But we know they were Muslims from the Czech Republic. &quot;I betcha I speak for a lot of Americans when I say I want to go over there right now and start teaching those folks a lesson. And let's not stop at the Czech Republic, let's go after all Arab countries. &quot;The Arabians need to learn that they can't keep comin' over here and blowing stuff up. Let's set off a couple of nukes in Islamabad, burn down Prague, then bomb the heck out of Tehran. We need to show them that we mean business.&quot; Can't See Russia... Although hosts Steve Doocy and Gretchen Carlson applauded Palin's jingoism, they immediately attempted to rectify her multiple geographic errors. &quot;Well Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan, which isn't Arab,&quot; Carlson corrected, &quot;and Tehran is the capital of Iran, which is predominantly Persian. But I do see your point.&quot; &quot;Also Czech Republic isn't really an Arab or even Muslim country, I don't think,&quot; Doocy added, &quot;but otherwise what you're saying makes a lot of sense. I think most Americans wish Obama would step up and lead on this one.&quot; Palin, however, didn't take kindly to being corrected and defended her analysis. &quot;Steve, that's probably one of the most ignorant things I've ever heard. How is Czech Republic not a Muslim country? You saw those brothers, they were Islamic and they were Chechen!&quot; &quot;Yes there were Muslim and they were ethnic Chechens,&quot; Doocy started, &quot;but they grew up mostly in Kyrgyzstan and the United States. And more importantly, Chechens don't come from the Czech Republic, they come from Chechnya, which is part of Russia. &quot; &quot;What's the difference?&quot; Palin responded. &quot;Isn't Russia part of the Czech Republic?&quot; &quot;No, the Czech Republic is a separate country. It's part of the European Union and a strong NATO ally,&quot; Doocy noted. &quot;But heck, why not? Let's invade. What could go wrong?&quot; &quot;Yeah and while we're at it,&quot; Carlson added, &quot;let's call the Queen of England and see if the U.K. will join us.&quot; In a statement released after the interview, Palin attacked Fox News and its &quot;pro-Islamic&quot; and &quot;pro-geography&quot; bias. &quot;This is just another case of the politically correct liberal media refusing to tell the truth about radical Islam,&quot; she said. http://dailycurrant.com/2013/04/22/sarah-palin-calls-invasion-czech-republic/ She is just another example of how degenerated the brain of a single person can become, while still walking around on this earth. She is a reminder of our duty to keep such psychos out of positions of power! http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=af7_1366731510 DruiStr Sarah Palin Calls for Invasion of Czech Republic Sarah Palin, Invasion, Czech Rebulic, 'pro-geography bias', Daily Currant Sat, 11 May 2013 19:24:17 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=49b_1368314607 Salamander "Geography of Hate - Geotagged Hateful Tweets in the United States" According to Dr. Monica Stephens of Humboldt University: http://users.humboldt.edu/mstephens/hate/hate_map.html# http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=49b_1368314607 Salamander Map of LiveLeak commentators? ;) racism, hate, twitter Sat, 04 May 2013 18:25:00 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=de6_1367705917 Candlelicht In the eyes of Nataliya Kurotshkina, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was not a likely candidate to carry out attacks using explosives. "The boy winced at even a small firecracker," recounts the 49-year-old, who was Tamerlan's first-grade teacher in School No. 2 in Tokmok, a typical Soviet-era city in northern Kyrgyzstan near the border with Kazakhstan. The teacher with dyed-blond hair runs past a portrait of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin on the second floor of the school. She produces a class picture from May 1995 showing Tamerlan, then a 9-year-old second grader, standing in the back row. He is wearing a blue suit and a white shirt while he gazes at the camera with curious eyes. A class register listing the grades of all the students indicates that Tamerlan was ambitious and smart. He had top grades in almost all subjects, and was second-best only in math, geography and English. Kurotshkina describes her former student as "extraordinarily polite and well-raised." However, even then there was another parallel world in which Tamerlan had been forced to grow up. In this world, violence was part of everyday life. "Tamerlan was a refugee child from Chechnya ," the teacher recounts. "That's probably also why he was very withdrawn at first." Driven Back and Forth by War US investigators have identified Tamerlan and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, as the presumed perpetrators of the double bombing attack during the Boston Marathon on April 15. The homemade pressure cooker bombs they allegedly built killed three and injured more than 260, and they are also accused of subsequently killing a campus police officer. The brothers had lived in the United States for years. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout while trying to flee police, while Dzhokhar was cornered and captured on April 19 after being severely wounded. In 1944, the brothers' grandfather was one of some 90,000 Chechens who Stalin had deported to Kyrgyzstan, then part of the Soviet Union. After the collapse of the Soviet empire, the Tsarnaevs sold their small house in Tokmok before returning to Chechnya. Once they arrived, the Tsarnaev family reportedly owned some land in the early 1990s in the village of Chiri-Yurt, which lies about 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of the capital, Grozny. By all indications, the family was hoping to build a new life in Chechnya. Instead, they entered a region that was sliding into a war between Russian soldiers and independence fighters. "Tamerlan's father told me that he had no desire to fight and die in Chechnya," says Abil Seimkasiyev, Tamerlan's former boxing instructor. The war fought between Russia and Chechnya between 1994 and 1996 was particularly savage, with kidnappings, bombings and decapitations. The family fled and returned to Tokmok. Anzor Tsarnaev, Tamerlan's father, then owned a red Skoda that he would drive around the area. By all accounts, he made a living there as an auto mechanic. Reports from a number of international media sources, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, have frequently indicated that Anzor was a lawyer. But, in reality, he only had an identification card listing him as a "aide to the prosecutor's office," a document that was easily purchased on the black market in the 1990s. In any case, the father of the two suspected terrorists never studied law, says the Kyrgyz National University, which was the only institution training lawyers in the country at the time. There is also nothing to be found about Anzor Tsarnaev in the Central Asian country's archives, leading one senior official in the Interior Ministry to posit that the archives must have been "sanitized." The Al Capone of Kyrgyzstan These and other clues have given rise to a number of conspiracy theories in Kyrgyzstan. They revolve around the friendship that Tamerlan's father had with Aziz Batukayev, a crime boss known as the "Al Capone of Kyrgyzstan" who has been accused of being behind murders, gang wars, drug trafficking and prostitution. He also numbers among the main figures in criminal organizations operating in an area of the former Soviet Union that stretches across several borders. Batukayev and Anzor Tsarnaev were close childhood friends. Both ethnic Chechens, they were born in the same year, attended the same school (No. 8), shared a boxing coach and often played soccer together on dusty streets. They also grew up in the same neighbourhood, with less than 200 meters (650 feet) separating their parents' homes. "They herded goats and cows together," says the brother of the mafia kingpin. "But Batukayev already looked lost on any day that he didn't get in a fight, while Anzor Tsarnaev also liked to read books a lot." On April 9, six days before the attacks in Boston, Batukayev was surprisingly released from prison after serving several years because he was supposedly terminally ill with leukaemia. He then disappeared into Chechnya in a rented SUV. The blood sample used to prove Batukayev's illness reportedly came from another patient. Indeed, many in Kyrgyzstan believe that the short period of time between the release of the mafia boss and the Boston attacks are more than coincidental, though there is no concrete evidence to back these assertions. Last week, individuals claiming to work for American law-enforcement agencies were trying to gather details about the Tsarnaev family's earlier life. They knocked on the doors of former neighbors, asked questions and gave candy to children. "But a lot of the kids don't try them because they might be poisoned," says the sister-in-law of the mafia boss. Here, just as everywhere in the countries once belonging to the Soviet Union, residents are deeply ambivalent about the United States , which is simultaneously an object of hate and a land of promise. The Tsarnaevs came to the US in 2002. In the wake of the terror attacks in Boston, many of their former neighbors in Tokmok don't want to be associated with them anymore. "After the family returned from Chechnya, I only ran into Tamerlan's father a few times in the city," Batukayev's brother guardedly says. But another neighbor says that Tamerlan's father had tea with the Batukayevs during his last visit to the city in the summer of 2012. As law-enforcement officials search for clues about the early life of the Boston Marathon bombers, a number of conspiracy theories are coming to light. Many are based on alleged ties between the men's father and a local mafia boss in Kyrgyzstan. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=de6_1367705917 Candlelicht Conspiracy Theories in Kyrgyzstan: Accounts Tie Boston Bombers' Family to Mafia Boston, Marathon, Bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev Fri, 03 May 2013 06:30:47 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=878_1367576805 LostRothschild March 2013 survey of police officers covered proposed legislation and attitudes about arming citizens SAN FRANCISCO - PoliceOne.com, the leading online resource for law enforcement, today released findings from a national survey of police professionals that provide insight into the opinions of American law enforcement regarding gun control policies and the root causes of and potential solutions to gun crime in the United States. The survey, which was conducted in early March 2013, received 15,000 responses from law enforcement professionals. It found that the overall attitude of law enforcement is strongly anti-gun legislation and pro-gun rights, with the belief that an armed citizenry is effective in stopping crime. Response percentages varied only slightly when analyzed by rank and department size. Among the results: 86 percent feel the currently proposed legislation would have no effect or a negative effect on improving officer safety Similarly, 92 percent feel that banning semi-automatic firearms, or "assault weapons," would have no effect or a negative effect on reducing violent crime Demonstrating the opinion that the best way to combat gun crime is through harsher punishment, 91 percent said the use of a firearm while perpetrating a crime should lead to a stiff, mandatory sentence with no plea bargains. Likewise, 59 percent believe increasing punishment severity for unlicensed dealers would reduce crime Respondents were more split on background checks, with 31 percent agreeing that mental health background checks in all gun sales would help reduce mass shootings, while 45 percent disagreed 71 percent support law enforcement leaders who have publicly refused to enforce more restrictive gun laws within their jurisdictions 82 percent believe gun buyback or turn-in programs are ineffective in reducing the level of gun violence 91 percent support the concealed carry of firearms by civilians who have not been convicted of a felony and/or have not been deemed psychologically incapable Likewise, 80 percent feel that legally-armed citizens would likely have reduced the number of casualties in recent mass shooting incidents 38 percent believe the biggest cause of gun violence in the United States is the "decline in parenting and family values". This was trailed by "overly lax parole and short sentencing standards" at 15 percent and "pop culture influence" (eg. violent movies and video games) at 14 percent The survey was promoted by PoliceOne exclusively to its 400,000 registered members, comprised of individually-verified law enforcement professionals. Only current, former or retired law enforcement personnel were eligible to participate in the survey. Respondents comprised a variety of ranks from departments of all sizes, with more than 28% representing departments of greater than 500 officers. Of those who took the survey, 80 percent were current law enforcement officers and 20 percent were former/retired law enforcement. "This survey captures the perspective of an audience that has an intimate professional connection to gun policies in our country, yet is rarely heard from as a group in discussions on the issue," said Alex Ford, CEO of the Praetorian Group, PoliceOne's parent company. "Our standing as the leading online community in the law enforcement market enabled us to gather what we feel is the most meaningful sampling of police attitudes about gun control ever compiled. There is clearly a wide range of opinions regarding this issue nationwide and we believe it's important for our audience's voice to be heard." The full survey results can be viewed at http://www.policeone.com/police-gun-survey. About the Survey PoliceOne's Gun Policy &amp; Law Enforcement survey was conducted online on PoliceOne.com between March 4 and March 13, 2013. The survey was composed and compiled by PoliceOne staff along with staff from the Praetorian Group, PoliceOne's parent company. It received more than 15,000 responses from adults who reside in the U.S. and who are either current or former/retired Law Enforcement, as verified by a qualifying question at the beginning of the survey. The survey sample size was broadly distributed by geography and rank in proportion to the U.S. law enforcement community at large. Additionally, survey promotion was limited to PoliceOne's audience of verified law enforcement professionals, and conducted via exposure both on PoliceOne.com as well as through email newsletters and a full-membership email promotion. A longer description of the survey methodology can be found at http://www.policeone.com/police-gun-survey-methodology. http://www.policeone.com/corporate-profile/press-releases/6188461-PoliceOne-com-Releases-Survey-of-15-000-Law-Enforcement-Professionals-about-U-S-Gun-Control-Policies/ http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=878_1367576805 LostRothschild PoliceOne.com Releases Survey of 15,000 Law Enforcement Professionals about U.S. Gun 2, 2nd, second, amendment, gun, firearm, rights, constitution, tyranny, freedom Thu, 02 May 2013 19:23:23 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=de5_1367536881 SAPD_HRT When most citizens think of police officers, they think of the beat cop, and indeed, the police patrol function continues to be the backbone of community law enforcement. This seemingly simple police activity is really composed of a variety of complex daily decisions and activities which include the discretionary use of authority and prevention of criminal activity by an assertive police presence. It also involves maintaining good relations with citizens in the community, because, like it or not, cops may at times have to depend on those citizens to help them do their jobs effectively. Examples include obtaining useful information in trying to solve a crime, or helping to maintain order and calm neighbors' anger to forestall a potential civil disturbance. If nothing else, officers know they will encounter the same people - "repeat customers" - on a regular basis, and so maintaining good relations works in everybody's favor. While the actual effect of foot patrol officers on crime statistics is still being debated, surveys clearly show that citizens feel safer and more confident in their local police department when the officers are a living, breathing presence in their daily lives. Ironically, however, it is the foot patrols that are often the first to undergo budget cuts in favor of more flashy special tactics and investigative units. For patrol cops to do their jobs effectively, they must adopt a constructive territoriality about their patrol areas, sometimes known as owning the beat. By becoming increasingly familiar with the geography, economy, personality, and sociology of their beats, patrol cops come to know intuitively what's normal or what's out of place for their respective neighborhoods. Additionally, by adopting the optimal blend of professional detachment and emotional involvement in their neighborhoods, patrol officers develop what the business world calls buy-in, a personal stake in the welfare of their patrol community, a situation in which it is important to them to keep the peace and provide the highest quality of service: "This is my territory, and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that it stays safe." Additionally, officers who feel they are an integral part of their communities are less likely to resort to physical force to resolve crisis situations that could be verbally effused and de-escalated. In return, citizens come to trust and respect those officers they perceive as consistently trying to keep order without excessive harshness, and who truly try to understand the community's concerns. Elements of Effective Patrol Policing Although TV cop shows often portray police work as nonstop action, in real life the patrol officer's job is more like that of a firefighter, paramedic, or air traffic controller: long periods of monotony punctuated by brief episodes of intense, life-and-death activity. Officers have to be able to react quickly and go from "0 to 60" at a moment's notice. They have to be able to respond courageously and aggressively in critical situations, yet possess sufficient presence of mind not to overreact and risk inflaming the situation further. In between, they must deal with various and sundry crises, ranging from citizen disputes to traffic violations. As noted above, to be effective, officers have to gain intimate knowledge of their patrol areas: the geography, economy, demographics, crime statistics, local culture and quirky characters of their beats. Only in this way will they hone their instincts as to what's normal and what's suspicious in their patrol areas. This practical expertise further enables officers to quickly size up situations and make prompt, effective decisions with regard to what specific actions to take, such as a crime in progress, family crisis, or citizen dispute. While not all officers can be Olympic athletes, they are expected to maintain some basic standards of physical conditioning and psychomotor skill with respect to strength and endurance, manual dexterity, facility with firearms and equipment, driving skill, and so on. In the same way, while not all officers can be paragons of psychological health and virtue, all cops are expected to have the basic mental skills of mature judgment, problem-solving, and independent thinking. Even more so than other emergency responders, police officers are given wide latitude in how to handle many types of routine and complex policing situations, ranging from the decision to write a traffic ticket, to whether to use their baton, pepper spray, taser, or firearm in a dangerous criminal confrontation. In this regard, police officers need to be able to work under varying levels of supervision; from tight micromanagement of their every move to almost no supervision at all, leaving important decisions to the officer's discretion. Important psychological skills extend to the interpersonal domain as well. Patrol officers, especially in larger metropolitan areas, will have to deal with a wide range of citizen ages, ethnicities, cultures, economic levels, and personalities. Officers must sometimes endure impolite or verbally abusive behavior, while maintaining a professional presence at all times and carefully treading the line between authoritative (think Sheriff Andy Taylor) and authoritarian (think Deputy Barney Fife) police presence. Effective officers must be able to utilize appropriate conflict-resolution skills to prevent situations from escalating, while maintaining objectivity, balance, and the perception of fairness. They must be able to cope with different kinds and varying levels of stress, and yet at all times maintain a high level of personal integrity and ethical conduct. This is not just a nice, politically correct idea; it is essential to maintaining authority and credibility on patrol. Responses of Disrespected Citizens As noted above, one of the practical benefits of a friendly, or at least nonadversarial, relationship between police and citizenry is the ability to solicit their cooperation when necessary. Overall, congenial relations between police and the public make the officer's job easier and help citizens feel safer. Conversely, there are a number of different reactions that citizens typically show in response to their perception of being ignored, abused, or disrespected by the police: Apathy-antagonism: "Why should I report crimes to the police? They don't care." This reflects citizen dissatisfaction with police response to their concerns. If citizens feel that their good-faith efforts in being the eyes and ears of law enforcement are rewarded by halfhearted or neglectful follow-up, they will naturally be reluctant to report such activity in the future. If they feel really ignored or abused, this may manifest itself as purposeful noncooperation: "Get your own information - I'm not telling you anything." A vicious cycle may then develop where police take this as a sign of deliberate community apathy or scorn - or even collusion with criminals - and therefore restrict their patrolling activities still further, or become even more impatient and irritable with citizens. Formal complaints: "That's it, I'm filing a complaint." Disrespected citizens may channel their frustrations into written complaints against officers. As in any relationship, unwelcome or mildly irksome behavior may be tolerated if it occurs in the context of basic trust and common purpose. But in the presence of an already existing tense and adversarial relationship, even seemingly inconsequential annoyances may be interpreted as signs of deliberate abuse, and some departments may be flooded with verbal and written complaints, often against the same officer. On the one hand, this uses up personnel resources that might be productively allocated elsewhere. On the other hand, a complaint that is registered is at least one that can be addressed. The numerous unrecorded slights and hostilities are far more ominous because they are left to fester within a community. Verbal confrontation: "Get out of my face - you can't talk to me that way." Discourteous officer conduct may lead to verbal confrontations between officers and citizens. Often, this represents the outburst of a cumulative build-up of frustration from past unpleasant interactions on the part of both officer and citizen. At the very least, repeated hostile interactions are grating to the morale of officers and citizens alike. At worst, they lead to physical confrontations necessitating frequent arrests that further inflame community hostility. Physical confrontation If matters have escalated to this point, verbal conflict-resolution strategies can be assumed to have failed - that is, if they've been tried at all. Even more so than with verbal confrontation, repeated citizen experiences of being roughed up by the police - even if the arrest started with an assault on the officer by the angry citizen - are corrosive to the morale of patrolling officers and only highlights to citizens the image of the police force as a hostile army of occupation. Importance of Communication Skills in Patrol Policing At the beginning of every one of my law enforcement crisis intervention classes, there's always at least one cop who tells me, "My job is to catch criminals; I'm not paid to talk." But verbal communications skills are crucial for success in virtually every aspect of patrol policing efforts. Unless an officer intends to either ignore or arrest every citizen he or she comes in contact with on the street, communication skills are vital for both solving mundane problems and defusing potentially explosive crises. First, the majority of patrol time is spent in routine citizen contact that does not involve serious criminal law enforcement action. Traffic stops, accident investigations, mediating neighbor beefs, calming angry or intoxicated citizens, and handling merchant complaints all require good verbal skills to deal with the situation without allowing it to escalate. Second, successfully resolving a minor crisis, such as a family dispute or neighbor quarrel, might eliminate the need for later call-backs to the same scene for a major crisis, such as domestic battery or destruction of property. It thus makes an officer's job easier. Third, those crisis situations that begin as hot calls can be more effectively de-escalated by officers who possess good verbal skills, potentially eliminating the need for physical force, restraint, and arrest. Again, less risk of injury to officer or citizen and less paperwork. Basic Communication Skills for Police Officers Any cop who thinks talking to citizens diminishes his or her tough-guy persona should consider that many of the important communication skills patrol officers can use to defuse tension and increase cooperation in the face of everyday crises are adapted from those used by trained hostage negotiators whom nobody would regard as a bunch of wusses. So practicing these skills on daily patrol will enhance your application of them to a wide range of crisis situations. Basic street-level communications skills include a variety of approaches. To begin with, angry citizens may just want to vent. To a certain extent, allow this venting to occur, as long as it does not escalate to rageful spewing or cross over into physical violence. Venting uses up adrenalin and sometimes allows the venter to gain some insight into his own thoughts and feelings. Listen patiently at first, without trying to dissuade or argue. Show interest in what the person is saying through eye contact and attentive body posture. Even if a disturbed or intoxicated citizen is acting crazy or goofy, avoid patronizing him. If your partner is present, avoid the temptation to give each other snickering glances, which is a sure sign of disrespect to a citizen who thinks what he's saying is important. If the subject curses or insults you, try to respond calmly without being baited into retaliating with anger or sarcasm. Of course, if a subject threatens or attacks you, and this is an arrestable offense, do your job. But remember that many situations are far from clear-cut and that officers have great discretion in how they choose to respond to a wide range of obnoxious citizen behaviors. Certain tactics are useful for calming angry citizens and reducing the potential for violence. Start with your voice. For some officers, voice control is a natural talent, but for most, this skill can be trained and improved with daily practice. Learn to respond calmly to insults and challenges, without resorting to sarcasm or harshness of tone. If you feel yourself getting agitated, make a conscious effort to modulate the pace of your speech and tone of your voice. Modulating your breathing helps keep your voice cadence under control. As part of your self-training, practice different speech styles: sympathetic, commanding, reassuring, businesslike, logical, and so on. The goal is not to act like a trained parrot, but rather to become familiar and comfortable with different communication styles in order to increase your repertoire of flexible skills in handling interpersonal encounters. This gives officers tremendous power to handle virtually any kind of crisis. Sometimes, just changing the subject to a more neutral topic can ratchet the tension level down a few notches. In general, be careful not to abruptly shift to a whole new subject, which may be interpreted as rude or manipulative by the citizen. Rather, try to segue into a topic that is related to the one now under discussion, but is less emotionally charged. For example: Citizen: I know she took those garden tools from my shed, because I could hear my dogs barking in the yard, and the next thing I saw was her going into her house. Officer: What kind of dogs do you have? C: Two rotweilers. What the hell difference does it make what kind of dogs they are? O: I mean, do you find that dogs are a good way of knowing who's coming and going on your property? C: Yeah, they scared off some robbers a few months ago. Nobody wants to mess with rotweilers. O: So somebody would have to be pretty crazy to steal something from your yard if they knew you had these dogs there. C: I guess so. Perhaps more subtle, but equally potent, are a range of nonverbal behaviors that powerfully influence human interaction. Depending on the nature of the interaction, officers may want to manipulate their own authority image. For example, when interviewing suspects, unruly citizens, or general "hard cases," projecting a firm position, adopting a commanding stance, decreasing personal space, moving slowly and confidently, and making steady but not challenging eye contact all serve to increase the controlled intimidation factor that may mollify otherwise overly attitudinal or uncooperative subjects. Again, the goal is to project authoritativeness , not authoritarianism . Conversely, some meeker, law-abiding citizens may be so intimidated by the police presence that they are almost paralyzed with fear and are unable to get their story out. In such cases, it is better to stand back a few paces, relax your stance or even sit down, focus some attention on note-taking and other non-eye contact activity, and speak in a reassuring tone of voice. Remember, the goal of almost any citizen interview is to increase the flow of communication and gain cooperation. Note-taking, by the way, serves another important function when trying to maximize information-flow from citizens. Seeing an officer write down what the citizen says gives that citizen the impression that his or her input is important, which may mean a great deal to citizens who are accustomed to having their comments shrugged off by seemingly uncaring officers. But be careful about using this device with overly paranoid citizens who may be suspicious that you're "making a record" of what they're saying. Finally, it may be necessary to physically separate two sparring citizens to keep a verbal fight from escalating to blows, which would necessitate an arrest. Interpersonal Communication Processes The majority of police-citizen contacts occur face-to-face, either one-on-one or in small groups. Accordingly, certain types of interpersonal communication processes are applicable to daily police work on the street. As noted above, a good deal of this communication occurs nonverbally. Paralanguage If language refers to the verbal content of our speech, then paralanguage is the message we send by our tone of voice, pitch, inflection, and phrasing. Neuropsychologists refer to this as the prosodic features of spoken language, which is mediated by the brain's right hemisphere, as opposed to the vocabulary and grammar of language, which is a left-hemisphere function. Everybody knows that the same literal sentence, e.g. "I'm feeling just fine," can be expressed and interpreted as a statement or a question, as serious or sarcastic, by the style of vocal inflection used. Other paralinguistic features that may be useful include pauses, stutters, lowering or raising of voice pitch or volume, interjected phrases ("uh," "y'know"), and so on. Active listening denotes putting conscious effort into a dialogue, which is different from casual conversation. Giving a citizen your full attention and focus, and indicating your involvement and concern for what he or she is telling you will almost always serve to increase communication, trust, and cooperation. This can be vitally important in resolving acute crises such as suicide and hostage incidents. Kinesics describes nonverbal, body-language aspects of communication, such as facial expression, gestures, posture, and other physical movements that transmit messages that either reinforce or contradict the spoken message. This aspect of communication is of interest to law enforcement investigators and poker players alike. In fact, paralanguage and kinesics are included in training in interview and interrogation strategies, but are also useful to enhance communication for everyday citizen encounters on patrol. Proxemics Yet another dimension of communication is proxemics, the science of personal and social space. In many street interactions, officers intuitively judge the comfort level of their own and the citizen's personal space and adjust their stance accordingly, so as to tread a happy medium between standing too distant, which may signal unconcern and disrespect, versus being too "in your face," which is typically taken as confrontational or aggressive. Proxemics can further be differentiated into several categories: Intimate space extends from actual physical contact outward, from about 6 to 18 inches. This is usually the province into which we comfortably allow friends or close associates. Personal space continues out from 18 inches to about 4 feet. This is the comfort zone of most business and personal acquaintances. Social space extends the perimeter to about 4 to 12 feet. This is about the range that most strangers feel comfortable interacting within, and which will contain most nonconfrontational police encounters on patrol. If officers find themselves moving closer during an encounter, it usually signals some trouble on the psychological radar. Public space includes everything at 12 feet and beyond. Of course, in crowded urban areas, it is not uncommon to see individuals physically jammed together, yet maintaining psychological distance by focusing on their own activities - just think of a crowded bus, subway, elevator, or supermarket checkout line. As with all of these skills, patrol officers who adeptly manipulate interpersonal space will experience the greatest success in dealing with citizens on their beats. Many officers do this instinctively, but it is a skill that can be learned and refined with practice. Potentially Violent Citizens As noted earlier, preventing a violent episode from occurring forestalls the need for forceful arrest and minimizes the safety risk for the citizen, the officer, and bystanders. The following intervention techniques apply to any subject whose behavior appears at risk of escalating to violence. Causes of citizen-officer violence. Every officer has his or her own theory as to what causes a citizen-officer encounter to turn violent, but there have been only a few systematic studies of these factors to date. To summarize, there appear to be two major kinds of circumstance in which officers are assaulted. The first involves the citizen's perception of the initial verbal encounter as unnecessarily demeaning, as when the officer: o Uses derogatory or disrespectful language or tone of voice: "He talked to me like I was a dog." o Is physically intimidating: "He just got right up in my face." o Does not want to consider the citizen's side of the story: "He didn't ask me anything, he just assumed I did something wrong." o Prematurely orders or physically moves the citizen around: "He could've just asked me to step to the curb, he didn't have to shout at me and push me." o Humiliates the citizen in public: "If he wanted to search me, why couldn't he do it up on my porch instead of out on the sidewalk for all my neighbors to watch?" The second situation in which officers are assaulted involves a compatriot of the citizen jumping in to "help" his friend in what he perceives to be unjust manhandling by the police officer. Although there will always be a small cadre of violence-prone citizens who react with hair-trigger aggression to even the most minimal provocation, clearly, a large number of violent episodes between police officers and citizens could be averted by the use of verbal de-escalation techniques, applied in the context of basic courtesy and good common sense. Handling a Potentially Violent Episode Unless there is an emergency, approach the subject slowly and cautiously. Try to size up the situation and analyze the scene as you get closer. Begin the encounter with tact, patience, and respect, but don't "play games" with a clearly defiant subject if he clearly has no intention of cooperating. Allow a few minutes for the subject to calm down. If the subject vents, listen to both the content and emotional tone of what's being said. Remember, nonviolent verbal venting uses up energy and adrenalin and also establishes a rudimentary form of communicative bond. But also remember that venting should not escalate to uncontrolled ranting, because the latter can inflame the subject's own emotional agitation and lead to physical violence. Often, it's a judgment call. Keep your tone and demeanor professional - don't take the bait with personal insults hurled at you, but calmly deflect these and return to the matter of calming down. You don't have to be a robocop; you can show a little human emotion and personality, and even a little humor, but be careful about overusing jokes, because disturbed subjects tend to be very literal and concrete, and your well-intended kidding around to lighten the moment might be interpreted as mocking the citizen. Again, use your perception and judgment of the situation to guide your behavior. Avoid making any threats that you aren't prepared to back up. Use force as a last resort, but if it comes to that, use it swiftly, decisively, and as noninjuriously as possible. But first, always try to leave the subject a face-saving way out of his predicament: this will make his voluntary cooperation more likely. Also, remember about the earlier point about repeat customers: the next time you encounter this individual or his family and friends, do you want the first thing they recall about you to be how you shamed and humiliated the citizen last time you and he danced? Some officers advocate applying a version of the old standby "Mutt &amp; Jeff" interrogation room technique to the setting of the street interview. In this scenario, there are two officers, one who acts as the angry, hot-headed Officer Mutt, ready to bust the subject at a moment's notice, while the other plays the calm, cool and collected good-guy Officer Jeff who really wants to keep Mutt off the subject's back, if only the subject would cooperate. The problem is that, in such situations, it is all too easy for Mutt to take things too far, triggering a violent response in the subject. Again, use your training, judgment, and common sense. Conclusion: Smarter is Safer Like any skill in police work, dealing assertively and nonviolently with citizens on patrol takes training and practice. Officers who are able to use these skills productively typically find that their respect in the community goes up. The citizens understand that the officer will not shrink from using force if he has to, but all things being equal, he or she prefers to work things out nonaggressively and fairly. This then puts the ball in the citizen's court: "You make me take you down, I take you down, and you're gone. But first I'd like to assume we all have brains here, and see if we can settle this like adults. Your call." As an added benefit, the more adept officers are at using verbal de-escalation techniques and conflict resolution skills, the fewer citizen complaints of excessive force or other uncivil behavior will plague the department. Officers who are "good talkers" tend to pride themselves in their ability to handle virtually any kind of situation without putting themselves or others in physical danger. They feel more confident, not less, than the officer whose automatic response to every confrontation is to reach for the handcuffs, pepper spray, taser, or baton. Law enforcement agencies that are serious about community policing should make communication skills training a standard part of their academy and continuing education curricula. http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=de5_1367536881 SAPD_HRT Patrol psychology 101: Communication and conflict resolution Police, Psychology, Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:02:28 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a86_1367183277 aydeo Book asks whether 'Palestinian suicide bomber killing Israeli teenagers is act of terrorism or wartime retaliation against Israeli gov't policies'- Parents of high school students in Tennessee called for the removal of a textbook claiming a paragraph in the book promotes anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attitudes, and voices support for Palestinian terrorism. In "The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography," author James Rubenstein posits the following hypothetical question: "If a Palestinian suicide bomber kills several dozen Israeli teenagers in a Jerusalem restaurant, is that an act of terrorism or wartime retaliation against Israeli government policies and army actions?" The passage reportedly incurred the wrath of Williamson County parents, who regarded it inappropriate and potentially incendiary, Fox News reported on Saturday. However, the text's author contacted the network to say that his question was taken out of context, as the paragraph from which the quote was taken elaborates on Israeli and Palestinian viewpoints on the conflict. Rubenstein added that his goal was to help the reader understand the motives behind terror attacks rather than justify them. "For example, we want to know why the Tsarnaev brothers bombed the Boston Marathon. Understanding why they did it doesn't mean we are justifying what they did. It's the same thing with other world conflicts and terrorist acts," he wrote in the email to Fox. Tennessee educational officials were tentative regarding a possible move to ban Rubinstein's Human Geography reader. Superintendent of Williamson County Schools told Fox "I think it's a slippery slope to go down if we start banning books because people take opposing views." The official added there is a formal procedure in place whereby parents can ask for a review of any school books they find inappropriate. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4373389,00.html Photos: Suicide attacks and real teen victims in Israel, The controversial textbook (Last photo) http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=a86_1367183277 aydeo Tennessee: School parents blast textbook that 'supports terrorism' Tennessee,School parents,Textbook,Palestinian suicide attacks Wed, 24 Apr 2013 20:32:45 -0400 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=02e_1366849905 True Prophet Civil War in America Within 90 Days - Get Ready! Tuesday, April 2, 2013 6:28 % of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents. (Before It's News) I never like to predict dates, but this one is obvious. And if I am wrong, it won't be by much, maybe a few weeks. It's not because I have insider information, it's because of the way things are unfolding. When you put them all together, the result can only be a full blown bloody revolution of the people against a tyrannical government. America has always been the "land of the free and the home of the brave". The American spirit built this land and all Americans take great pride in their heritage and their accomplishments. And rightfully so. But things have changed. Really changed, and not for the better. Since 2008 when we had the financial meltdown, Americans have been faithful and patient, waiting for the government to make things good again. But instead of them doing that, they have instead made things worse. Unemployment is high, gas is high, wages are low, the debt is high, sentiment is low, the future looks bleak, but Washington is living high on the hog. Wall Street and Washington are not suffering, but the rest of the people are. Corruption is out in the open, new laws and executive orders are a weekly event, all of which take away more liberties and freedoms from the people. Governments don't serve the people anymore, they only serve the banksters and big business. How much longer will the people put up with this? When a society reaches this point, only one of two things can happen. Either the government changes it's policies and begins to work for the good of the people again, or the people revolt. In this case, the chances of the government backing down is almost impossible because they are controlled by the elite. And the elite have their agenda laid out. So that leaves only one option; revolution. But will it be a peaceful demonstration demanding change, or will it be violent. The peaceful process is usually tried first because no one wants a war. And if that doesn't work, then each man has to fight for his rights. But I believe we will skip the peaceful process this time and here's why. Most Americans know that their system is totally corrupt. Wall Street, Washington, the FBI, the CIA, DHS, and the Supreme Court just to mention a few are all puppets of the shadow government. What chance does an American stand to fight a peaceful war against tyranny with such odds against them? It's not even worth trying, the corruption is so widespread. Look at what happened to Joe Arpaio. His Cold Case Posse has proven that Obama's birth certificate is a fraud. But now he is not able to get any government department or official to take it to the next step. They shut him down. So what chance do you think you have? This is what the American people are up against and they know it. So all that is left is a violent revolution in the name of Liberty, Freedom, and to Defend the Constitution. I don't believe the American people will start the war. The war will be started by one of these three events. A financial event, a gun event, or a false flag event. One of these will be the last straw. The whole world is in financial crisis. America is deeply in debt. The stock market and the bond markets are overbought and ready for a major correction. The derivatives market is very fragile and could crack at any time. The banking crisis starting in Cyprus could spread to Europe and America very quickly. The US dollar is quickly losing it's reserve currency status. No matter where you look in the financial sector there are major problems just waiting to happen. Any one of these could set off a chain reaction which would escalate into war. If it is a gun event then I think a revolution will break out immediately. The American people realize that if they give up their guns they will become the elite's slaves. They will not do that. If they refuse to comply, the government will send out their goons to try to seize the guns. This will produce pockets of resistance which could easily escalate into a full blown revolution. The last possibility would be a false flag event which the government would create in order to bring in martial law. This is the most likely of all events because it would fit their timeline and they could manifest it whenever the time is right. It could be any type of event as long as it produces the desired results. And it would give them the most options and again make it look like they are just trying to help keep law and order. And it would give them justification to impose martial law. Why do I say 3 months? Because DHS is moving their armoured vehicles around the country. The plastic "fema coffins" are being transported to various camps. They are getting their personnell organized. But the main reason is because the elite want to get on with their agenda before too many people wake up. They have many things on the back burner right now. They have to deal with Syria. They need to have their war with Iran. They have to deal with North Korea. The Middle East is a mess. They need to get the home front under control and martial law in place so that they don't have to bother Congress for permission anymore, they can just do it. Once the home front is secured, they can devalue the dollar, fight all their wars, crash the economy, it's all within reach, and it's all for "the good of the nation". Because of the nearness of these events, it is most important to get ready for what is coming. Hunker down with food and water and whatever other supplies you will need. Put your affairs in order. Prepare for the worse and hope for the best. And above all....make peace with God. Jesus said "Unless a man is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven". Before you go into battle.....get born again. To find out how go to http://www.ItsHisStory.com. It's a very brave thing to fight for one's country and for freedom, and against tyranny, but one has to also consider that there will be casualties. If you're born again and happen to be one of those casualties, you will be rewarded with a home in heaven and all that you have fought for will be worth it. Wouldn't it be absolutely awful to fight so hard for freedom and then to spend eternity with the devil and the tyrants and the elite? That would be totally counter-productive wouldn't it? Get on a winning team first, then go fight for what is right. God Bless You and God Bless America! http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/04/civil-war-in-america-within-90-days-get-ready-2610162.html Homeland Security Insider Warns Orchestrated Collapse of U.S. dollar 'has begun' Wednesday, April 3, 2013 10:28 % of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents. (Before It's News) Homeland Security insider warns orchestrated collapse of U.S. dollar 'has begun' Tuesday, April 02, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer (NaturalNews) The countdown clock is ticking as the insanely evil cabal known as the "global elite" prepares its final moves for a complete world takeover. As relayed by Canada Free Press (CFP), an insider at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is America's very own reanimation of the Nazi SS, recently delivered an ominous warning that America's days are numbered, and that Americans basically need to ready themselves for the worst, which is yet to come. Not only is a complete collapse of the U.S. dollar on the very near horizon, according to the unnamed source, but a single, uniform currency system is already in the works to take its place. All that needs to happen now is for the final hammer to drop, so to speak, an event to truly shake the people and wake them out of their drunken, entertainment-imbibed stupors. But when this finally happens, it will already be too late for anyone to actually do anything about it. "The first shots in a global economic takeover were fired in Cyprus," explains Doug Hagmann from CFP about the situation as it is currently playing out. "It is a plan for a one world Communist economy where the 'middle class' will be wiped out through a series of events that will have the same ultimate effect as we are seeing in present day Cyprus." And just what, exactly, happened in Cyprus? The mainstream media claims it was a simple emergency "tax deal," a "levy" designed to pull the country out of crisis. But in reality, the people of Cyprus, and those with money in Cyprus banks, were literally robbed of untold billions of dollars by the central bankers, who overnight imposed an unannounced freeze on a large portion of depositors' money. According to more recent reports, up to 40 percent of depositors' cash could be apprehended as part of the deal. Federal Reserve recently stole more than 25 percent of Americans' savings and investments with 'quantitative easing' scam But what is happening in Cyprus is also happening in the U.S. Very few Americans, it turns out, are aware of the fact that the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing scheme, which intentionally injects more paper money into the general money supply, causes inflation. And inflation leads to devaluation of money, which in essence is just another form of stealing from the people to bail out the central bankers. Though these cash injections might lead to immediate economic jump starts, they never last, and the long-term consequence of their repeated use is hyperinflation and destruction of the currency. And the unfortunate truth of the matter is that all levels of government have been infiltrated with globalists serving the interests of the central bankers at the expense of the people. "The plan for a global currency or a one world economic order is a matter that transcends political parties," writes Hagmann. "Those who continue to argue in the Republican-Democrat meme are doing nothing more than providing entertainment to distract people from the real issue, that of the global elite versus the rest of us." "The top of the pyramid in this Ponzi scheme is filled with members of both U.S. political parties who are systematically pillaging us and our future generations into financial debt, bondage and slavery. It is a plan that has been in the works for centuries. The problem, however, is that we have been conditioned not to think that big. Yet, the lie is that big." Sources for this article include: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/53842 http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/53832 Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/039744_US_dollar_collapse_Federal_Reserve.html#ixzz2PQ5MSLYK &lt;!-- --&gt;&lt;!-- --&gt; Articles Related to This Article: o Financial alert: Germany's Constitutional Court decision either means a rapid Eurozone financial collapse, or inevitable hyperinflation o 14 signs that the collapse of our modern world has already begun o Burning down the house - the coming global financial firestorm o Should you leave the USA before the collapse? Words of wisdom from someone who tried o Breakthrough honeybee drugs to treat Colony Collapse Disorder (satire) o Just launched: Surthrival Series features Daniel Vitalis, Health Ranger teaching lifesaving principles of urban preparedness Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/039744_US_dollar_collapse_Federal_Reserve.html#ixzz2PQ5ah34W NESARA- Restore America - Galactic News 2013-04-03 10:21:21 Source: http://nesaranews.blogspot.com/2013/04/homeland-security-insider-warns.html http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/04/homeland-security-insider-warns-orchestrated-collapse-of-u-s-dollar-has-begun-2611254.html The Greatest Story Ever Told About The Greatest Man That Ever Lived Get on a Winning Team - Here's God's Free Gift To You! At Christmas time, when the presents are under the tree, there is a gift there with your name on it waiting to be opened. It was bought for you by someone who loves you. But, even though it has your name on it, it is not yours until you receive it and open it. In the same way there is another FREE GIFT with your name on it waiting to be opened. This FREE GIFT is the gift of salvation which Jesus Christ bought for you becaues He loves you. He paid for your sins by dying in your place because he knew that you couldn't pay for them. Now he offers you this FREE GIFT so you could spend eternity in heaven with Him. To receive your FREE GIFT, thank Jesus for dying in your place and ask him to forgive your sins and to be your Lord and Savior. Then you can open your FREE GIFT and here's what you will find inside. 1. Every sin you ever committed will be totally forgiven. 2. Jesus will prepare a place in heaven for you so that when you die you will go to heaven to be with him forever. 3. He will be your best friend, someone you can talk to about anything. And he will always help you and watch over you. Jesus wants you to have this FREE GIFT! Jesus wants to be your best friend! Do you want to be his? If you do, then take a minute to tell him so right now. Jesus said " I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6) When I first read this many years ago, I thought that either Jesus was who he said he was, the Son of God, or else he was the biggest liar that ever lived because who else would say something like that. Jesus said that there is only one way to get to God, and that is through him. There are teachings that say that there are many ways to get to God. Jesus said that is not true, there is only one way and He is the only way. The reason for this is because he is the only one that died for our sins. No one else did. And for us to spend eternity with God, our sins have to be forgiven. Hebrews 9:22 tells us that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness". Jesus was the only one that fulfilled that requirement. We deserved death, but because God loves us so much, he gave his Son who was the perfect sinless sacrifice to die for our sins so that we could be re-connected to Him. Jesus said " I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. You should not be surprised at my saying You must be Born Again" (John 3:3 &amp; 7) What this means is that you were already born once by entering physical life. You now need to be born spiritually. This goes way back to Adam and Eve. God placed them in a beautiful garden called the Garden of Eden. He said that they could eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would surely die. They disobeyed God and ate from it. That is when they died spiritually. Ever since then man has been dead spiritually, not having a relationship with God. Now Jesus made a way for us to be Born Again and to be re-connected to God. Jesus said "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) God made us a promise. If we accept his Son Jesus as our Saviour, he will give us eternal life with him in Heaven. That's a pretty good deal, who doesn't want to go to Heaven. All we have to do is believe in Jesus. God must sure love us alot if he went to that extent just to make a way for us to be re-connected to him. The word believe means to acknowledge, to trust in, and to rely upon in the original Greek. And that is what God wants us to do. Acknowledge that Jesus was the Son of God that died for our sins. Trust in him. And once you see what an awesome friend he is, to rely on him for everything. We can't lose. And God always keeps his promises. So if we do our part, we can be sure that God will do his part. I pray that you would chose to accept Jesus as your Saviour. It's easy to do, just tell him Thank You for dying for your sins and ask him to come into your life and be your Lord and Saviour. Just find a quiet place and pour out your heart to him. He is a great listener and will be more than happy to be your friend forever. You will find that he is the best friend you will ever have. If you don't want Jesus as your friend right now, that's okay. He will still love you and watch over you. And he will wait for you. When you are ready, he will welcome you with open arms any time you want him as your friend. All you have to do is ask whenever you are ready because he will never impose himself on you or ask you to do something you don't want to do....it's always your choice. He has already chosen you, now he wants you to choose him. He would love to have you spend eternity with Him in Heaven, but that is your choice, not his. I pray that you would choose to do so, even right now. Not only to make sure you go to Heaven, but also to have the best friend you could ever have until then. There is more information on different topics of the Bible on this website, just click on the link below. When you do ask Jesus to be your Saviour, talk to him every day, find a good Church to go to, and start reading your Bible to find out more about Jesus. It will Change Your Life like it changed mine and so many many other people's lives as well. God Bless You! John Stewart http://itshisstory.com/ Is t he Bible the Absolute True Word of God? Who Is God Anyway? Who Is Jesus ? Who is the Holy Spirit and What Does He Do? Are There Really Angels ? Who is Satan and What Did He Do? What is Heaven Like? What is Hell Like? What is Sin and What Isn't? What Does it Mean to Repent ? What Does it Mean to be Born Again ? Do I Need to be Baptis ed? Is There Also a Holy Spirit Baptism ? How and When Should We Pray ? What is Faith ? What is The Greatest Commandment ? What Does the Bible Say About Money ? Is it Necessary to Go To Church ? What Does God Think of Us ? What is the Difference Between The Law and The New Covenant ? Is My Name in the Book of Life ? Quick Study Helps Which You Can Use to Pray, Meditate, or Proclaim Out Loud Abortion - Psalm 127:3 Psalm 139:13-16 Alcohol - Romans 13:13-14 Ephesians 5:18 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 1 John 1:8-9 Anger - Ephesians 4:26-27 &amp; 31-32 James 1:19-20 Galatians 5:22-23 Adultery - Hebrews 13:4 Proverbs 2:16-19 John 8:3-11 Anxiety - Philippians 4:6 1 Peter 5:7 Matthew 11:28-30 Backsliding - John 6:37 Hebrews 7:24-25 1 John 1:9 Luke 15:17-24 Bitterness - James 3:14-16 Ephesians 4:31-32 Matthew 6:14-15 Romans 12:14-21 Confusion - Jeremiah 10:23 James 1:5 John 8:12 John 14:26 Child Abuse - Psalm 127:3 Ephesians 6:4 2 Corinthians 5:10 Disappointment - Romans 8:28 Proverbs 14:12 Isaiah 55:8-9 Depression - Matthew 11:28-30 Romans 8:28 &amp; 37 Philippians 4:13 2 Timothy 1:7 Divorce - Malachi 2:16 Matthew 19:3-9 1 Corinthians 7:10-15 Drugs - Romans 12:1 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 1 John 3:8 Despair - James 1:12 2 Thesolonians 3:3 Psalm 46:1 Envy - Psalm 37:1-2 Proverbs 23:17 Galatians 5:26 Faith - Romans 10:17 Matthew 17:20 Romans 5:1 Hebrews Chapter 11 Fear - Psalm 27:1 Isaiah 41:10 Hebrews 13:6 1 John 4:15-18 Failure - 1 Corinthians 15:58 Hebrews 10:35-36 Romans 14:4 Forgiveness - Psalm 103:10-12 Isaiah 43:25 Matthew 6:14-15 1 John 1:9 Fasting - Matthew 9:14-15 Matthew 6:16-18 Finances - Matthew 6:19-21 Matthew 6:33 Malachi 3:8-10 Philippians 4:18-19 Guidance - Proverbs 14:12 Jeremiah 10:23 Proverbs 3:5-6 Matthew 6:33 Guilt - 1 John 1:9 Matthew 6:14-15 Ephesians 2:4-7 Gossip - Leviticus 19:16 Luke 3:14 James 4:11-12 Greed - Colossians 3:5 Ephesians 5:3-5 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Healing - Isaiah 53-4-5 Mark 11:24 1 John 5:14-15 James 5:14-16 Jeremiah 30:17 Homosexuality - Leviticus 20:13 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Romans 6:11-13 Humble - Isaiah 66:2 1 Peter 5:5 Matthew 23:11-12 Hatred - Leviticus 19:17 1 John 2:9 and 4:20 Hope - Hebrews 11:1 Romans 8:24-25 1 John 3:2-3 Jealousy - 1 Corinthians 3:3 Galatians 5:19-21 Romans 13:13-14 Judging - Matthew 7:1-2 Luke 6:41-42 Romans 14:4 Lust - Romans 12:1 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 Romans 8:12-13 Colossians 3:1-10 Loneliness - Hebrews 13:5 John 6:37 John 14:15-18 John 14:23 Obeying - James 1:22 John 14:23-24 Luke 6:46-49 Occult - Deuteronomy 18:10-11 Galatians 5:19-21 Revelations 21:8 Patience - 2 Peter 3:9 1 Thessalonians 5:14 Psalm 37:7 Revelation 3:10 Pride - James 4:6 Proverbs 16:5 Proverbs 27:1-2 Pray - Luke 18:1-8 1 Peter 3:12 Mark 11:24 Persecution - 2 Timothy 3:12 James 1:2-4 John 15:20 Matthew 5:10-12 Rejection - Jeremiah 33:3 James 4:8-10 Psalm 100:5 John 6:37 Suffering - 2 Timothy 3:12 Romans 8:18 1 Peter 5:10 Suicide - John 10:10 Ephesians 2:10 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Revelation 3:20 Selfishness - 1 Corinthians 10:24 2 Corinthians 9:6 Galatians 6:7-10 Sexual Sins - Ephesians 5:3 Galatians 5:19-21 1 Corinthians 6:12-20 Smoking - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Romans 12:1 2 Peter 2:19 Romans 6:12 Submission - Luke 22:25-26 Galatians 5:13 1 Timothy 2:5 1 Peter 5:1-4 Salvation - John 6:38-40 1 Timothy 2:4 2 Peter 3:9 Temptation - Genesis 4:6-7 James 1:13-15 1 Corinthians 10:13 Unpardonable Sin - 1 John 1:9 1 Timothy 1:12-13 Matthew 12:31-33 Weakness - Hebrews 4:15-16 Romans 8:26-27 2 Corinthians 12:9 Worry - Matthew 6:25-34 http://itshisstory.com/studies.html Our current financial situation was not bred out of incompetence, but by design DHS Insider update: It has begun - Doug Hagmann ( Bio and Archives ) Tuesday, March 19, 2013 (20) Comments Print friendly Subscribe Email Us Much like my high-level source within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security outlined in a series of interviews beginning last year, the orchestrated collapse of the U.S. dollar and the entire world's economic system has begun. The first shots in a global economic take-over were fired in Cyprus as my esteemed colleague and founding editor of Canada Free Press, Judi McLeod laid out in frank detail in her column yesterday and her follow up today . Please read it and heed her advice, or suffer the consequences of your own normalcy bias that such an event will not happen in the United States, Canada, or from wherever you might be reading this. It will, and the plan appears to be on schedule for a shot across the bow later this spring here in the West, with a more aggressive take-over starting sometime this fall, according to my source. The Plan To those needing a quick refresher, the plan is quite simple and can be summarized by the Clinton-era quip attributed to political strategist James Carville, "the economy, stupid" and the June 9, 2010 statement by former Obama czar Van Jones, Socialist extraordinaire, "top down, bottom up, inside out." It is a plan for a one world Communist economy where the "middle class" will be wiped out through a series of events that will have the same ultimate effect as we are seeing in present day Cyprus. Doug Hagmann's Insider series DHS Insider: Obama's cyber warriors &amp; preparing for collapse The latest from "DHS Insider" Benghazi explained: Interview with an "Intelligence Insider" (Part III) Benghazi: Behind the scenes (Part II) Benghazi explained: Interview with an "Intelligence Insider" Based on the events in Cyprus, it should be quite clear to even the most vocal critic of the legitimacy of the information provided to me by my source within the DHS as published on this web site is no longer at issue. The U.S. dollar, the backbone of world currencies and the proverbial firewall preventing the erosion of our national sovereignty, is the ultimate target of a takedown by the global banking interests controlled by a handful of banks and families of the "royal elite." The plan for a global currency or a one world economic order is a matter that transcends political parties. Those who continue to argue in the Republican-Democrat meme are doing nothing more than providing entertainment to distract people from the real issue, that of the global elite versus the rest of us. The top of the pyramid in this Ponzi scheme is filled with members of both U.S. political parties who are systematically pillaging us and our future generations into financial debt, bondage and slavery. It is a plan that has been in the works for centuries. The problem, however, is that we have been conditioned not to think that big. Yet, the lie is that big. The parties Our current financial situation was not bred out of incompetence, but by design. The occupancy of Barack Hussein Obama as the putative President of the United States was a plan in the making long ago, to usher in this oppressive system where we will be left at the mercy of the global ruling class. It is not by accident that we have been prevented from knowing exactly who this man is, from the controversy of his birth records to his college transcripts and even his social security number. Contrary to what the state-controlled media wants you to believe, these questions have never been answered with any measure of authenticity. For example, does anyone honestly believe that it is merely a coincidence that Obama's alleged mother, Stanley Ann Dunham-Soetoro, just happened to work with Timothy Geithner's father, Peter Geithner, at the Ford Foundation in Indonesia? Is it reasonable to believe that the Republican party had no knowledge of the background of Barack Hussein Obama? Yet not one word from the Republican establishment as they not only watched, but facilitated the takeover of the United States from within. As I've written before, our nation is a captured operation. The plan was set into motion long ago, stemming back to the founding of the United States and the temporary resistance to the central banking system. In 1913, the creation of the Federal Reserve set the countdown clock in motion for the complete subjugation of the United States to the interests of the global bankers and the global elite. The secret supra-governmental cabals such as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission worked behind the scenes, under the cover provided by the complicit media, to bring us to this point in history. Perpetual wars were induced to occupy the masses while the chess pieces were placed into their current positions. We are now about to pay the price for our inability or unwillingness to confront the establishment and incremental advancements leading to our own demise. DHS source: Everything is not "coming up roses" According to the most recent information provided to me from my source within the Department of Homeland Security known as "Rosebud," the final preparations are being made to deploy heavily armed federalized forces onto the streets of America. They will be deployed under the pretext of "restoring and maintaining order from the chaos brought about by the economic collapse," adding that "many will demand and embrace their deployment on the streets of America. They will get what they ask for, and more. " Much like the security theater we have seen following the attacks of 9/11, we will be subjected to the jack-booted control of a federal army whose allegiance is not to the American people, but to the very architects of the chaos. "This is the reason that drones are flying over U.S. cities and farmland, and gun control legislation is on the fast track for complete implementation," stated this source. "How can people look at the situation in Cyprus and not think it won't happen here? It will, and the blowback will be unlike this country has ever seen. Surveillance, disarming the public, and conditioning the people to believe it's for their own safety is and has been part of the plan all along. Anyone owing a gun will be demonized and described as contributing to the problem." "What happens when the middle class loses much of their wealth, or it is confiscated, by the stroke of a pen or a keyboard? What will the stores look like when people, unprepared due to the damn lies of the corporate media and the shills for the ruling elite, run to empty out everything they can get their hands on as the world, as they know it, collapses around them?" It was during my most recent contact with my source yesterday that he admitted that the situation will be blamed not on the bankers and the elected leaders who are raping us of our wealth and buying power, but on "right-wing, gun-toting Conservative 'militia' groups who believe that the situation is orchestrated." And, of course, it is orchestrated . "There is no Republican-Democrat argument to be made anymore. It's all political theater to keep the majority of the masses occupied while the true enemy has already captured both parties," he added. "They are all in on it, either knowingly or unwittingly, the takeover, that is. And it's getting harder to believe that there are any who are unwitting accomplices at this point." "When the curtain is pulled back to reveal the true agenda of a single digital world currency, the people who have been yelling the loudest about such 'conspiracy theories' will be specifically singled out and demonized. They will be blamed for causing the panic we will see, and of course, dealt with by the army we asked for, accepted and even tolerated." Anyone who still believes that the information provided by this insider is "doom porn" or some self-created fantasy need to look at the events taking place in Cyprus. It's coming to America. It has already begun. (20) Comments Copyright (c) Douglas Hagmann Douglas J. Hagmann and his son, Joe Hagmann host The Hagmann &amp; Hagmann Report , a live Internet radio program broadcast each weeknight from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET. Douglas Hagmann, founder &amp; director of the Northeast Intelligence Network , and a multi-state licensed private investigative agency. Doug began using his investigative skills and training to fight terrorism and increase public awareness through his website. Doug can be reached at: director@homelandsecurityus.com Older articles by Doug Hagmann http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/53842 Meanwhile, pray that what is happening in Cyprus this weekend is not precedent setting for other nations EU theft of private bank accounts a "sacrifice" to mainstream media - Judi McLeod ( Bio and Archives ) Tuesday, March 19, 2013 (15) Comments Print friendly Subscribe Email Us The mainstream media downplaying of what is happening in the Mediterranean Island of Cyprus this weekend is already muddying the water. Tens of thousands of unwitting little people have had their bank accounts ripped off over the long weekend by their own government, in a fashion where their ripped off funds were already a fait accompli before word began to leak out over social media. Media downplaying notwithstanding, the unvarnished truth about what is happening in Cyprus is both precedent setting and staggering in dimension. Yet mainstream media reports are already describing the robbery of ordinary depositor's money as a "one-off levy", and writing "the first time a deal has called for savers to sacrifice some of their cash holdings". As the Brits, who have already come to the rescue of their military personnel and ex-patriots would say: "Bollocks!" The European Union is run by mainly socialist politicians whose agenda is based on the redistribution of assets and goods. America, on which so many other countries in the world are dependent, is now under the clutches of a Marxist president following the same playbook. Outgoing President Demetris Christofias of Cyprus is a Communist. They say Christofias was the "only" Communist in the EU, but how far away from Communism is Socialism? An indication about how the EU socialists feel about communists? Under the EU's rotating chairmanship, Christofias, the communist, chaired EU meetings from July 1st until the end of 2012. Describing the 9.9% levy on savings over C100,000 and a 6.75% levy on savings below C100,000 as a "one-off levy" would be akin to a caught-in-the-act bank robber saying he was only planning to rob the bank once. Stealing money from savers then describing it as sacrificing some of their cash holdings, is an outrage. The governments of our day never sacrifice, many getting rich while serving public office. The story of the Cyprus levy on savings is further clouded by media chatter about the Russian banks' cross-board loans to Cypriot-based Russian companies which totaled $30-40 bn at the end of 2012, or equal to 15-20 per cent of Russian banks' capital base in Russia, and 5-6 per cent of their gross corporate loans. Ordinary bank depositors should not lose out no matter how many cross-board loans to Cypriot-based Russian companies exist. Nor are big banks in bed with big government politicians an anomaly peculiar to the beleaguered Island of Cyprus. The hypocrisy of socialists in bed with big banks is jaw-dropping. Two days before Cyprus depositors were relieved of their cash, the Deutsche Bank's global head of FX strategy, Bilaf Hafeez gave a speech indicating the euro area needs a role model that people across Europe can respect. "I can only think of one figure that is respected by most Europeans and has never sinned, Jesus!" Hafeez said. (Business Insider, March 14, 2013) Incredible to note that the Deutsche Bank's research department transcribed Hafeez's speech and sent it out to clients in a note. The EU threw the image of the Savior over at their formation 14 years ago, replacing His image with that of Europa, Woman on a Bull, whose image is permanently parked in front of the EU Parliamentary Building in Strasbourg with a corresponding statue in front of the EU Commission Building in Brussels. Meanwhile, pray that what is happening in Cyprus this weekend is not precedent setting for other nations. If this blatant EU rip-off of its own people is allowed to stand, unscrupulous socialist politicians in office will set policy that forces their populations to sacrifice some of their cash holdings to greedy governments the world over. (15) Comments Copyright (c) Canada Free Press RSS Feed for Judi McLeod Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years' experience in the print media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared on Rush Limbaugh, Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, and Glenn Beck. Judi can be emailed at: judi@canadafreepress.com Older articles by Judi McLeod http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/53832 Should you leave the USA before the collapse? Words of wisdom from someone who tried Wednesday, December 14, 2011 by Mike Adams , the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) (NaturalNews) One of the most common questions I'm asked today from people who are aware of what's really going on is, "Should I leave the USA to get away from the coming police state?" Three years ago, I would have said YES, but today, after having experienced such an effort myself and now having a clear understanding of the ramifications of such an effort, I must urge people to reconsider. As you'll read here, you may ultimately be far safer and more successful living right where you are, in your "home country," even if that home country becomes a police state. I've lived in many countries, by the way: Taiwan, Australia and Ecuador. I've traveled extensively throughout Asia, giving seminars in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. I've traveled across England, France, Spain and even Portugal. Spent quite a bit of time in Central America and South America. I speak decent Spanish and decent Chinese, so there's almost nowhere I go in the world that I can't speak to the local people in either English, Spanish or Mandarin Chinese. I've seen extreme wealth, extreme poverty and extreme corruption in all its world flavors, and I've seen what corruption does to nations and its populations, first hand . I don't claim to be a prophet of any kind, but today I'm a bit wiser, a bit more experienced and a bit less foolish than I was a few years ago, and I'd like to pass on whatever nuggets of wisdom might help you and your family prepare for the powerful global changes which have already begun to unfold. Here, I share with you five powerful realizations you need to keep in mind when considering where to locate (or relocate) before the collapse becomes a reality. (Time is growing short, so read up...) For starters, there is a universal truth you must accept if you hope to make a truly wise decision about where to locate: Corruption is everywhere. Realization #1 - Corruption is far worse outside the USA If you think the USA is corrupt, you should try living in Peru, or Bolivia, or Panama. And if you think that's corrupt, head over to Haiti for a double heaping serving of corruption. Yes, we may all legitimately complain about the USA, but from what I've seen everywhere around the world, the United States is still less corrupt than most places in the world . Yes, there are bad apples everywhere throughout local police, federal FBI agents and even the court system, but for every bad apple there are probably three times as many honorable people who are truly just trying to do their jobs. In years past, I served in a non-profit support role, the local police in Tucson, Arizona, and I came to know them as some of the most upstanding, honorable peace officers I've ever met. Yes, they had a history of outrageous corruption (which you'll find in every police force from time to time), but they rooted out that corruption and restored integrity to their operation. You'll find the same dedication to honest public service all across the nation, even if there is a little corruption that normally goes along with it. So don't make the mistake of thinking you can escape corruption by leaving the USA . You are actually likely to discover MORE corruption elsewhere. For example, in Ecuador, where I lived for two years and held a local driver's license, it wasn't unusual for me to be stopped at an armed military roadblock and asked questions. These were staffed with soldiers carrying what appeared to be variants of the standard U.S. issue M4 rifles (AR-15 in the civilian editions). They never gave me any trouble, it turns out. They asked a couple of questions and looked at my documentation, then waved me through. In fact, I had many friends in law enforcement in Ecuador, and I spoke with them regularly. Sure, they were a little corrupt, but not in an over-the-top criminal way like we see with the FBI in the United States actually masterminding terrorist plots and then magically "discovering" those plots just in time to halt them ( http://www.naturalnews.com/034325_FBI_entrapment_terror_plots.html ). Costa Rica has been described as a "police state" by numerous people who have visited or even lived there. Yes, the country if a beautiful paradise in terms of climate, and it is perhaps the most socially advanced nation in Central and South America, but like all such nations, it has a socialist police state mentality. South Americans love socialism , it turns out. And this has everything to do with preparedness... Realization #2 - Many cultures do not practice long-term preparedness thinking In observing all this first hand, I've come to the conclusion that the embracing of socialism throughout South America is the result of cultural short-term thinking . For example, throughout South America, people often buy prescription medicines one pill at a time. They buy a bag of twenty screws from the hardware store, then return to the store after they run out to buy another twenty. This is often infuriating to the "gringos" who are trying to build a house, for example, because they operate with the idea that you should just buy 5,000 screws all at once and have plenty to get the job done. I can assure you from first-hand experience that such a concept is completely alien to a great many South Americans (most notably in rural areas). I make no judgments about this, by the way. There are pros and cons on both sides of this equation. But in my experience living in Ecuador, finding people engaged in preparedness planning was virtually impossible unless they were of European descent. For example, rural Ecuadorians often buy a small baggy of spices in a quantity for cooking one meal . And in doing this kind of thing, they nickel-and-dime themselves into actually losing money because they don't take advantage of the purchasing efficiencies realized through long-term planning. The idea, for example, of buying large quantities of facial tissue at a Costco or Sam's Club is completely foreign to most South American cultures (more so in rural areas than urban). Even if they might save 40% from buying in bulk, their cultural tendency is to buy one tissue box at a time, paying a much higher overall price over time. This concept is also reinforced by the very heavy reliance on state-run lotteries throughout South America. In any nation, high participation in lotteries is a powerful demonstration that a culture lacks the cognitive coherence necessary for intelligent financial planning. You see this heavily reflected throughout Peru and Brazil, by the way. You'll even find this in many poorer areas of rural USA where the lack of mathematics education (and, perhaps, an irrational belief in luck) motivates many people to hand over their money to the state. That's why the mathematically inclined call the lottery "a tax on people who can't do math." There is, of course, an interesting up-side to short-term thinking, because the very same phenomenon might also be called "living in the moment." Some in the new age movement call it "the power of NOW." South Americans know all about the power of NOW, as you'll clearly see on a Sunday morning when driving your car down the road, weaving around drunken citizens sleeping in the ditches, sometimes still clutching an empty bottle of sugar cane alcohol. The night before, they all lived in "the now," you see, and they weren't necessarily thinking about the hangover implications that would inevitably arrive the next morning. You see, to actually get anything done in society, you have to live at least a little bit in the future. On the food production front, by the way, it is extremely difficult to buy a John Deere tractor in many Central and South American nations. Much of the food production there is still done by hand (not as much in Brazil, of course, where agricultural mechanization is in full swing...). In Texas, by comparison, John Deere tractors are available everywhere. More importantly, there are lots of people who know how to fix 'em. Given that a tractor is one of the most fundamental work multipliers in agriculture , if you hope to survive the coming collapse, you need a reliable tractor on your land in a community that's familiar with tractors, and you need a few hundred gallons of stored diesel fuel to power it through the disruptions. It's no exaggeration to say that one gallon of diesel fuel can replace the labor of twelve men working twelve hours . It's a powerful force multiplier if you own the right hardware. If you get a tractor, by the way, avoid all those more recent John Deere tractors which are fifty percent electronics and plastic. Buy the old ones, made out of iron and grit, because they're the only ones that will still operate after an electromagnetic pulse attack, in case you were wondering. Climate reveals a lot about the planning tendencies of any culture Getting back to the preparedness mentality of different cultures, climate shapes cultural tendencies, too. The climate in Central and South America is so much more amenable to easy food production (except at very high altitudes) that there really isn't a cultural impulse to engage in behaviors such as "storing food to survive the winter." With food literally falling off the trees year-round in places like Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil, generations after generations of people there have settled into a rhythm of day-to-day living with relatively little planning. The very best preparedness planners, not surprisingly, are people whose ancestors survived harsh climates and brutal winters. A lack of planning in South American culture is also evident in the surprising lack of family planning you'll find there, where it's not unusual to find women with four, six or even ten children, none of which seems to own a decent pair of shoes. It makes you seriously wonder about the "thinking ahead" portions of the brain and why they have not been activated in some people. There is a part of the brain -- the future planning part -- that can imagine a particular future emerging as a result of today's actions and then use that imagined future to reshape today's actions in order to improve the future (which eventually becomes the NOW, of course, as you've no doubt noticed). People who are cognitively skilled at this process are, by definition, good planners. They tend to have better outcomes in life. Those who are poor at this skill, for whatever reason, tend to have poorer outcomes in life. Women's rights advocacy groups correctly point out that a lack of family planning among women usually stems from a cultural devaluing of the female, which then leads to a chronic lack of women's education, subsequently correlated to startlingly high birth rates. The best way to reduce birth rates in developing nations, it turns out, is to either build more schools or just go the Bill Gates route and vaccinate everyone into a state of total infertility. (If you're an evil globalist, it's so much easier to just inject women than educate them...) Why does all this matter? I've learned over the last few years that the best place to be in a collapse scenario is living around a bunch of other people who are also prepared because they are long-term thinkers and planners. You might want to live in a Mormon community, in other words, as they are typically the best prepared. You might also find some preparedness communities in places like Ecuador, Uruguay, Panama or Costa Rica where there exists a critical mass of preparedness-minded people who tip the scales in your favor. So that's definitely a solid option for those who are still intent on leaving the USA or Canada and looking for preparedness options elsewhere. I do know first-hand that there are some very viable ex-pat communities in both Panama and Costa Rica where a critical mass of aware citizens already exists. Lots of libertarians down there... but watch out for "retirement communities" in these countries, which are populated by people who have no interest in actively surviving anything because they figure they're close to dying anyway. You do NOT want to live around a whole city of people who culturally and habitually lean toward short-term thinking rather than long-term planning. A city full of starving children with mothers living in total poverty who can barely afford their next meal is not a good backdrop against which you want to build a survival retreat, especially if you're living out in the country by yourself. Read books by Jared Diamond ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond ) if you really want to understand the long-term implications of geography and climate on the development of human culture. You will come to understand that in cultures where food comes too easily, over time there comes to exist a systemic lack of long-term planning in the minds of the citizens. This is a red flag for anyone seeking a preparedness destination. Realization #3 - Don't be the foreigner Another important point to remember in all this is that if you're, let's say, a white person living in a white town in America, you blend in . You can walk around anonymously -- at the grocery store, the shopping mall, the gas station, whatever. But the minute you move to some country town in South America (or Thailand, or whatever), then you suddenly stick out like a sore thumb. In other words, if you're a 6' 1" white guy walking around a town of 5' 8" brown-skinned people, do ya think anyone will notice? You bet they will, and when they see a 6' 1" white guy walking around, what they really see is a walking ATM . You're a symbol of wealth, and the poorer the country you go to, the more wealth disparity you'll find, of course. And what you need to understand is that wealth disparity breeds contempt . So while you're driving around in a brand-new Toyota 4x4 (which I never did, by the way), the locals are looking at you and thinking to themselves that they could never afford that vehicle in their LIFETIME. Why does this matter? From a practical perspective, it means that in a social breakdown scenario, these people have an instant idea of where the goods are. Who has the money? The white people! Who has the nicest houses, cars and electronics? The white people! (Or "the foreigner," even if you're not white.) What I learned from this is that I'd rather be an "average" white guy living in an average neighborhood, driving an average car than sticking out like some sort of person who appears to be relatively well off. That's why today I still live in a modular trailer unit in Austin, I still drive a Toyota pickup truck, I dress like a rancher in blue jeans and flannel shirt, and nobody gives it a second thought when I'm out in public. I blend in , and that's far wiser than sticking out. Some people want to look rich and popular, so they wear a lot of bling, and they drive a high-end car they can't afford, and they live in a house they can't pay off, and they try to fool everybody into thinking they're rich and powerful. I'd rather fool people into thinking I'm NOT powerful. Because underneath all that, I actually am quite capable of defending myself, or taking decisive action, or just quietly removing myself from the situation if required. God help the mugger who tries to mug me on the street someday, because I don't dial 911. Then again, I don't walk around looking wealthy enough to mug in the first place. In fact, half the time when I walk into a hardware store in Austin to buy some equipment, I still have dirt and grime on my face from working on the farm that morning, and I've got mud on my jeans and grease on my shirt from greasing the hydraulics of the tractor loader bucket. The point is, if you try to stand out in a time of crisis, you're an idiot . Blending in is so much wiser, I've learned. And I learned some of this the hard way, being an idiot myself in years past. So the bottom line on this point is simple: Live where you fit in . If you speak with a Cajun accent, live around Cajuns. If you're black, don't be the one black guy in a white neighborhood (nor do you want to be the one white guy in a black neighborhood). It's not racial segregation I'm advocating, by the way, it's simply a preparedness attitude of blending in so you don't attract unwarranted attention to yourself and your daily activities. If you can find a mixed-race neighborhood , then you can usually blend in no matter what your physical appearance. Don't draw attention to yourself You're going to have far better success at preparedness, survival and even home defense if you can engage in preparedness activities without drawing attention to yourself . So if you're out at the local Wal-Mart, let's say, buying up a case of rubbing alcohol to add to your first aid kit, you don't want to leave any kind of strong impression a cashier there who, for example, might later tell some FBI agent, "Oh yeah, there was this 6' 2" guy with red hair and an old-style Western mustache, and he bought up a cart full of shotgun ammo, rubbing alcohol and bandages. I thought that was kinda weird..." So another tip in all this is that if you're buying first aid supplies, or stored food, or anything you need to stay prepared, buy things in small quantities , and better yet use the self checkout lanes at local retailers, so you're not even interacting with a cashier at all. And don't be a moron and buy too many items of anything at once. It's far better to make multiple trips (to different stores, preferably), buying up smaller quantities of things and then combining them at home. And what kind of things should you have? Well, if you want the full details, get my Be Prepared, Not Scared course that I recorded with Robert Scott Bell, as we go over the entire preparedness list covering food, first aid, emergency communications, lighting, safety and much more: Food Security: http://premium.naturalnews.tv/Be_Prepared_Food_Security.htm Economic Security: http://premium.naturalnews.tv/Be_Prepared_Not_Scared_Financial_Prepar... I've also created what I believe to be a very powerful audio recording called "Five Mental Strategies for Surviving Anytime, Anywhere" which is included as a free bonus to our "Surthrival" course recorded with Daniel Vitalis. Read about it here: http://www.naturalnews.com/033985_Surthrival_course.html ...or download the full course at: http://premium.naturalnews.tv/Surthrival_Vitalis_Adams__NN.htm Realization #4 - You cannot escape the global police state I learned this with the help of Alex Jones of InfoWars.com. I was talking to him in the studio one day, during a commercial break, and he was asking me about Ecuador. Then he said something profound: "You can't escape the police state, you know. It's global." And he's right. Think about the controllers and how they operate: It's the global banksters , the global pharmaceutical giants, Monsanto, Coca-Cola, Exxon and all the other evil corporations that infect our world with disease and suffering. These corporations run the global governments, and if you don't believe me, just ask John Perkins, the former "Economic Hit Man." Listen to my interview with Perkins here: http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=83B1AF93091799E7CEB88C5C459A530B You will be astounded by what you'll learn there, probably. But the upshot of it is that tyranny is a global phenomenon , and you cannot escape it by simply crossing some national boundary. The simple truth is that our entire world is under assault by criminals right now, and those criminals are deeply embedded in the financial system of Goldman Sachs crooks and Federal Reserve elitists. They are dominating economies across Europe, North America, Asia and even Central and South America. They are planning an economic implosion so they can steal the world's wealth. All assets backed by paper may become worthless in 2012 in the years soon thereafter. This is all by design, and it's global. With economic implosion comes social unrest, and with social unrest comes martial law. So you can expect martial law to be declared in many nations around the world, and in my experience, if you're living under martial law, it's preferable to blend in so that you don't attract unnecessary attention to your own activities. (And by this, I don't mean anything unlawful or subversive. I just mean fundamental commonsense things like buying extra food and supplies, for example, to defend your family and your local community. And have yourself a reliable mechanical lead-slinger as well.) Realization #5 - You are far safer to hunker down than try to go mobile A lot of people talk about having a backup retreat somewhere that they will "drive to" or "fly to" when the collapse strikes. In my view, this is foolish. Highways will become kill zones targeted by marauders, and using vehicles on roads will only get you either robbed or dead (or maybe both). To a gang of armed looters who forgot to plan ahead before the collapse, there's no more juicy target than an RV loaded down with stored food, ammo and gold, and if you're stupid enough to drive one of those as you're trying to get to your destination, you'd better have your own cavalry along for the ride, or you probably won't get very far. Anyone who has studied military tactics, gang mentality or historical accounts of what happens when governments fall knows that roads are to be avoided at all costs . The only safe way to go from point A to point B is to hump it on foot, cross-country style, and even then you'd better only walk at night or you risk being shot by someone defending their own land. Once you start actually thinking about all this, it doesn't take long to realize that the far safer strategy is to live in your castle starting right now. Stay put, stock up, and find a way to defend it. Want a great book on how to accomplish that? Buy and read "Holding Your Ground: Preparing for Defense if it All Falls Apart" ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615497551 ) It's written by "Joe Nobody," which itself is a lesson in laying low. This book isn't about turning your house into a concrete bunker armed to the teeth, because that's just an invitation to be hammered by an armed gang of looters. Rather, it's just as much about using cosmetic deception to fool would-be marauders into thinking your place has already been hit, for example, and is therefore worthless. This informative book is really an example "The Art of War-" style thinking for defending your home and your family, using very clever techniques that go far beyond "shooting back." Don't expect the book to be well edited, by the way. A lot of the best survival and prepper books have lousy editing because they're written by people who are experts in practical skills but relatively inexperienced writers. But who cares? I'm not looking for Shakespeare here. I'm looking for tactics that really work, and this book delivers. (Wish I could find who really wrote this because I'd like to interview them here on NaturalNews...) Getting back to the point at hand, even with a vehicle you can't possibly carry everything you need to stay safe and prepared, and on top of that gasoline supplies may be impossible to find for a while, so the very best place to hunker down is the place where you live. That's where you can store your food, emergency first aid supplies, communications equipment (wind-up emergency radios, for example), defensive items such as defensive items, solar battery chargers, cooking gear, instructional books, garden seeds and whatever else you might need to survive an economic collapse. That's why I've decided to ride out the collapse in Austin, Texas , by the way. Well, not exactly in the inner city itself, but near enough to the city to be considered an Austinite. Why Texas? It's not perfect, but it's well-armed Why Austin? Because Texas has its own power grid unlike the rest of the nation. Texas can grow its own food. Texas is the energy capital of the nation and can produce natural gas, diesel, oil and even jet fuel. Texas has masses of armed patriots who own more guns than they do pairs of shoes, and that makes Texas practically impenetrable to any invading force. For example, suppose North Korea launches an ICBM into the high atmosphere over North America and unleashes an EMP weapon that destroys nearly all electronics ( http://www.naturalnews.com/034344_EMP_weapons_electronics_modern_civi... ) This could theoretically be followed by a naval invasion of forces from Red China and North Korea, both of which suffer from too many young males that can hardly be fed and might as well be thrown at some enemy nation as cannon fodder. These forces would plow right through Southern California, with all its anti-gun laws and totally unprepared populations. Oregon would fare a lot better, thanks to the country folks who know how to live off the land, and although Seattle would be quickly overrun by enemy forces, the eastern (country) parts of Washington state would put up a fierce resistance. And any enemy forces foolish enough to try to make it into Idaho would, of course, be viciously intercepted by highly capable resistance forces that would snipe, explode and shred the enemy's supply lines, halting any advance no matter how strongly intentioned. (You do not want to mess with American rebels and patriots in Idaho, for the record.) If some enemy force was foolish enough to try to enter Texas, they would be obliterated by a mass of Texas farmers, ranchers, National Guardsmen, law enforcement officers and ex-military men who are all locked and loaded to the hilt. That's where I feel safest , in the midst of the best-armed and most well-skilled riflemen in the country, most of which are upstanding, community-minded citizens who defend life and liberty. Texas is a fortress of determined men and women who will not, under any circumstances, willfully surrender their freedoms or their Bill of Rights. Interestingly, Austin is also a progressive town with lots of raw foods, vegans, yoga studios and amazing artists. It's a progressive, almost liberal town, surrounded by conservative country folks who ultimately serve as a safety buffer that protects the city of Austin itself. When SHTF time comes, you can bet all the unarmed Austin residents will be begging the rural cowboys to protect them from looters and armed gangs. That's why people who don't own guns dial 911 -- because they want men who DO own guns to arrive as quickly as possible and solve their problem. Are your current skills based in reality? Or fiction... As you consider where to go in a time of crisis, think about where you are right now. Is your local community able to defend itself? Do you live among people who know how to repair cars, weld equipment, repair a rifle, clean fresh fish, grow vegetables, raise chickens and chop firewood? If not, you might want to think about relocating to a place where you live among some more capable people rather than the city-minded people who -- let's face it -- live in an artificial reality that's extremely fragile and won't last but a few days in a true collapse scenario. If your top skills today are things like: texting while driving, finding the best sales at Macy's, and beating the level 12 boss on your Xbox video game, then you're not likely to survive very long in a real crisis. Xbox skills, it turns out, do not translate into the real world. All those people who are currently experts at artificial skills need to think long and hard about picking up a few reality skills that might help them in the real world. You don't know jack, Jack! Above all, as much as you think you know about preparedness, survival and the like, you probably don't know jack. And that goes for myself, too, even as I study this subject and work to learn as much as I possibly can in the short time remaining. Do you know how to suture an open wound? I have literally spent an afternoon reading a suture book and practicing stitches on chicken meat bought from the grocery store. Seems silly, right? Who spends their Saturday suturing a chunk of chicken? Then again, if you're cut and bleeding more than a little, I'm the guy who knows how to apply a tourniquet in 60 seconds, sanitize the wound and sew it up. It will be ugly as all hell, as I'm no cosmetic surgeon, but as long as you didn't sever some major artery, you'll probably live. I've also been known to pack open wounds with freshly-cut aloe vera gel. I just stuff it right into the wound then use a skin stapler to staple the surface shut. Never had an infection problem , as aloe vera gel is a powerful antibacterial substance that also pulls the wound shut as it dries. It's crude, free and highly effective. Just the kind of country remedy I like to have handy in a time of crisis. That's why I always grow aloe vera everywhere I go. Get some skillz, Jack! These days, my goal in preparedness is to know as many useful skills as possible , which is why I study emergency first aid and other practical skills. In a crisis, I can prep emergency food for an entire community, sanitize water for a small group, perform basic emergency medical procedures on the wounded or even be part of a rifle fire team that defends a church, for example, against a band of armed looters. I'm not the best at any one of those things, but I'm useful in them all. I know how to grow medicine, grow food and (somewhat) handle farm animals. I know how to clean a rifle, repair a torn belt on a broken piece of farm equipment, operate a John Deere tractor, start a fire without matches, and stitch back together a torn piece of canvas or clothing. I still don't know how to field dress a wild pig or deer, but I figure I can always barter with someone who does, as I've got a complement of other useful skills that they probably don't possess. (I'm not into hunting or skinning anything. Can't stand to shoot live animals. That's just not my thing, y'know?) Most of all, I'm determined to survive , and I'm determined to help as many of my fellow human beings survive with me, to the best of my ability and resources. And that's ultimately what's going to get me through the coming collapse, so help me God. Wherever you go, assess the basics The other day I was thinking about Jim Rogers, the wealthy investor who lives in Singapore and often appears on alternative news shows like RT America or InfoWars. As much as I totally agree with Jim's advice on learning Chinese (which is one reason why I speak a fair amount of Mandarin myself), if you know anything about Singapore, you also know it is perhaps the last place in the world you want to live in a collapse scenario. Singapore is a concrete jungle with virtually no usable space for growing food in proportion to its population. Even worse, Singapore has virtually no water supply and must import a huge portion of its water from Malaysia, a nation with which Singapore has dicey relations. The food for Singapore must all be imported from surrounding nations (such as Malaysia), and Singapore's claim to fame -- a financial hub of Asia -- is in many ways based on the very false derivatives and fragile debt instruments that are on the verge of total collapse in the years ahead. If Asia suffers much in the way of economic collapse, Singapore may become a desperate place. Certainly, a resourceful guy like Jim Rogers can probably weather the storm and still come out on top (he's got assets in multiple currencies, in many financial institutions around the world), but for your average run-of-the-mill citizens, Singapore could become a very dangerous place to try to survive. When people look at relocating for preparedness reasons, they often overlook the basics such as water resources . That's why I recommend people buy the book "Strategic Relocation -- North American Guide to Safe Places, 3rd Edition" ( http://www.amazon.com/Strategic-Relocation--North-American-Guide-Plac... ) by Joel Skousen. I've been a fan of Skousen for over a decade, and this book will walk you through the key decision-making process of finding a place that can keep you and your family alive. That place is NOT New York City, nor Los Angeles, obviously. Those are places to go if you want to DIE in a collapse. But there are many places across North America that are quite suitable for creating your preparedness retreat as a primary residence. Many of these places even have internet bandwidth available, so you can potentially earn a living on the 'net while you prepare your location. If you read the book, you'll discover that Austin has its own pitfalls, including being relatively close to both nuclear power facilities and the border with Mexico. Both of those are legitimate concerns, of course, and there's no perfect spot that has everything you want. You have to find the best combination of factors that matter to you, then do the best you can with the time, skills and resources available to you. Timing: Are you prepared yet? If you're not already well along with your own preparedness plans, you run the risk of missing this train entirely. 2012 is nearly upon us , and while I don't believe all the Mayan calendar nonsense being rumored around the internet, I certainly see a financial collapse headed our way in 2012 or very soon thereafter. It takes 2-3 years to really get squared away with your retreat if you consider the process of making good quality soil for gardening, planting some fruit trees, squaring away your irrigation system, getting some backyard chickens and so on. You can't just "buy a place" and move in and suddenly expect to be fully covered. Building a retreat requires experience that only time will deliver -- experience dealing with weather, garden pests, wild predators, knowing the lay of the land and so on. Just squaring away your own home water supply can be a daunting task if you don't know where to begin, and even getting a well drilled can be a six-month process in terms of acquiring permits and waiting on drilling companies (which are often backlogged). Time is running short. If you're not already in the process of storing the supplies you need -- and learning the skills that go with them -- you're late. Get on top of this NOW. And don't worry if you're not in the "perfect" geographic location or the perfect house or whatever. Work with what you have . A family with skills and just a few basic supplies is far better off than a wealthy family with a house full of gear they don't know how to use. I can't even tell you how many people out there just buy stuff, toss it on a shelf and never learn how to use it. That's about as silly as owning a guitar and thinking you're suddenly a "musician" because you have the gear. Whatever you buy to be prepared, practice with it and practice with your entire family. Even if you don't own firearms (or don't want to), a family of four armed with a few cans of heavy duty pepper spray can make a small group of attackers think twice. Plan ahead for what's coming, and you won't be left behind. Stay informed! FREE subscription to the Health Ranger's email newsletter http://www.naturalnews.com/034404_preppers_collapse_bugging_out.html Burning down the house - the coming global financial firestorm Tuesday, December 13, 2011 by: Mark Sircus., AC, OMD (NaturalNews) This week a fire might start that will burn the western financial system down to the ground. Important people like George Soros warned, "The current global financial system is in a self-reinforcing process of disintegration, the developed world is falling into deflationary debt trap." I have been holding back this essay for months. It is not a good sign that I am finally bringing myself to publish it. I have tired of being a prophet of doom so have been waiting for the drums of doom, which are now sounding loudly. I hope this essay will help people understand what we are about to suffer through. Mr. George Soros himself warned, "The current global financial system is in a self-reinforcing process of disintegration, the developed world is falling into deflationary debt trap." Peter Schiff president of Euro Pacific Capital, identified the state of the Union saying, "Our government doesn't have enough spare cash to bail out a lemonade stand. Our standard of living must decline to reflect years of reckless consumption and the disintegration of our industrial base. Only by swallowing this tough medicine now will our sick economy ever recover." The Economist writes 'Unless Germany and the ECB act quickly, the single currency's collapse is looming '. "Mrs. Merkel is possibly underestimating the speed and ferocity at which a market panic could crush her ambitious integration plans. We also agree that there are a number of potential events that could become the triggers for such a panic. There is considerable risk that in the case of the failure of a big bank, a wave of cascading cross-defaults could engulf the system." Britain's Foreign Office is advising its overseas embassies to draw up plans to help expats should the collapse of the Euro turn explosive. Almost incredibly, a senior minister has revealed that Britain is now planning on the basis that a euro collapse is matter of time . British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible . Hardly a week goes by, without a major summit between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, trying to devise another clever scheme to save the Euro. Yet after 1-? years of trying to contain the wildfire, - the Euro-zone's debt crisis is more dangerous than ever . &gt;Gary Dorsch "The raging European monetary collapse will ripple through America's banking system, completing the 2008 meltdown that never ended because Wall Street fought all reforms. But now, a bigger meltdown as history repeats a dangerous cycle like the 1929 Crash and Great Depression. History will also deal a fatal blow to Wall Street. Martin Weiss adds a key warning: No bank bailouts. America's banking system is bankrupt, structurally and morally.Washington is broken. And thanks to the Occupiers Revolution the masses will never accept new bank bailouts. Never. They'll toss politicians and overthrow government first. No new bailouts will be the stake in the heart of Wall Street , ending the 'greed is good' power of America's 'bloodsucking vampire squid,' handing the Occupiers new political power in Washington." - Market Watch . - Greece will default very soon. - The contagion of fear will spread. - European mega banks will collapse. - EU governments suffer new credit rating downgrades. - Spain and Italy are &gt;next to face defaults on their massive debts. - Global debt markets will suffer a critical meltdown. - The vicious cycle -- sovereign defaults, bank failures, global depression -- will continue. We have been living through an agonizingly slow death of the system for years, so at this point, or a point very soon, the entire system will go down and go down fast like a house does when on fire. Since 2008 all the financial remedies have only made the wood dryer so when things start to burn, when bond holders lose their shirts, when banks go down, when governments default, the fire will burn hotter. Accountants know that there is only so far you can stretch, leverage and borrow before the bomb bay doors to bankruptcy open and the system falls to its doom. Hope has lost its battle against simple arithmetic and it is frightening to look at the harpoon targeting all of our lives. What we are faced with depends on the mathematics of balance sheets that are tilting far over into insolvency. Authorities around the globe will certainly do all they can to keep things stable, but in the end it is inevitable that the house of cards is going to come crashing down. "The current system will not so much collapse as evaporate," writes Trace Mayer, J.D., who is predicting what is called a Kondratieff Winter , which is the correction of a credit expansion. Like a black hole, the entire world of money and commerce gets sucked into it as money runs out at an increasing rate for more and more people, towns, cities, counties, states, businesses and countries. The world financial system is a total fraud. It is one gargantuan Ponzi scheme, no better than the one Bernie Madoff used to swindle his friends and neighbors, and thousands of times worse if you add up the total number of victims it has ripped off over countless generations. Paul Hellyer Mayer's chart below speaks volumes about what's going to evaporate. It will be like an attic full of squirrels running from one end of the attic to another. There is a point when a stampede occurs and in a credit collapse everyone runs at once into gold and silver and away from paper full of fancy ink and images. Right now though the squirrels are running to buy up paper instead, American paper and its worthless values are going up, meaning many other currencies are going down hard. Just as an individual can go bankrupt no matter how rich she starts out, a financial system can collapse under the pressure of greed, politics, and profits no matter how well regulated it seems to be. Ken Rogoff &amp; Carmen Reinhart Eight Centuries of Financial Folly "Much as I'd like to see the end of the extend-and-pretend game, I'm pretty convinced that it's the only thing left standing between the world as we knew it and the demise of the financial and political system that went along with it," writes the Automatic Earth . For the few who have used these past few years of borrowed time to prepare for a general depression and financial collapse one can only be thankful for the extra time, but it looks like time is just about up. I have written a lot about the nature of our deteriorating reality and have been watching circumstances develop for decades. It's a deplorable and absolutely unprecedented situation that has gotten steadily worse because " the world is controlled by a bunch of genocidal maniacs hell bent on extending the system for one more day ," writes Tyler Durden . The reality of the situation is this: there are no magic monetary tools that can fix the global monetary crises hidden in the basement of the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, or any of the others. The fiat moneyinstruments themselves -- dollars, euros, yen, etc. -- are the problem. Daily Bell Durden says, "The entire European insolvent periphery is now merely squeezing as much money out of the core as they can before everything falls apart ." September might very well be the month of doom for the European Union, or at least the beginning of a precipitous fall. Unless aliens land with trillions lining their pockets it looks like we are headed for another massive credit crunch. "It's not really the end of the world , but to read some of the analysis and data over the past week, it's hard not to wonder if it's not the beginning of the endgame at the very least," wrote conservative John Mauldin a few weeks ago. David Icke is at his best in this video. His lecture on the engineering of economic collapses by those who think they are better than everyone else is riveting. We are beyond the point where playing the blame game counts for anything though but Karl Denninger tells us to "Make sure you thank Con gress and our wonderful 'President,' all of whom are far more interested in making sure that the banksters simply rob you blind than anything else when it comes to the economy. In fact, by their actions it's clear that's all they care about," he writes. " Mankind is reeling under a whopping $158 trillion debt pile that, according to analysts and economists, might get out of hand if not dealt with carefully. Gulf News takes a look at how this massive debt pile was created and how the world can get out of this mess. Every human being on earth currently carries a debt burden of nearly $22,733 on average, if the latest reports are to be believed. Every child is sharing the same debt burden at birth, as debt growth rates beat the global population growth rate," writes Saifur Rahman for the Gulfnews If someone can't pay his debts, you don't help him by giving him a larger loan. The problem of over-indebtedness is tearing the world's economy apart. We're on the cusp of a global recession that will turn into a full blown depression or collapse because the first world will hit a brick wall in terms of ability to pay up on its debts. Louis James asked Doug Casey about the coming crash, about leaving "the eye of the storm and backing into the raging winds of financial, political, and social turmoil -- What if you're wrong?" Doug responded, "I honestly hope I am, because if I'm right, the global economic devastation is going to have a very real and significant death toll . The price in human suffering these fools in government are setting us up for is truly monstrous. As a human being, of course I'd rather see good times," but he and many others are no longer dreaming of fairytale endings. The speed of the disintegration said everything. It took less than 48 hours for London to descend from self-styled capital of the world into a circuit of burning dystopian hells. Gautam Malkani In Kondratieff Winters, or what are otherwise known as great depressions, millions starve . In our next Kondratieff Winter it will probably be hundreds of millions if not a billion or two who will starve because we are simultaneously being taken down by Mother Nature who is devastating agriculture around the globe with floods, drought, fire, cold and heat, and now even radiation exposure will cast a dark shadow on the agriculture sector. The gigantic rotting corpses of governments around the world are contracting, stumbling into walls of debt that they simply cannot get around. Our present way of organizing societies, economies and government is now visibly falling apart. Calls for economic "austerity" -- reduced government deficits -- are the early warning signs of hard economic contraction -- the early signs of the Kondratieff Winter that is now starting. Dangerous Times As the crisis mood congeals, people will come to the jarring realization that they have grown helplessly dependent on a teetering edifice of anonymous transactions and paper guarantees. The Fourth Turning - 1997 "Buy a weapon to prepare for what may be the most devastating economic downturn our nation has ever faced. As one trained in economics, I never thought I'd write those words. However, I'll repeat them. Buy a gun. The coming storm will not only impose financial hardships for those unprepared, but also entail a physical threat to you, your family and your property. The threat will come from inside the halls of government with the constant attack on savings and investments through inflation, monetary gimmickry and, eventually, the destruction of our currency. The world around us is deteriorating every day: socially and economically. It's not limited to London," writes Joseph McBrennan, editor of the Taipan Publishing Group . Silver Shield has written an essay Five Reasons American Riots Will Be the Worst in the World , that is just over the top, but in it he says some very serious things to his fellow Americans. "When the dollar collapses, all American illusions will collapse with it. Deep denial will turn into deep anger. The Baby Boomer generation's obsessive pursuit for material possessions was matched by their embrace of debt. The American riots will be the worst the world has seen because of the amount of arrogance, denial, narcissism, drugs and violence in our society. Video: Max Keiser: WW3 is on as Wall St. banks plunder economy I believe the pent-up pressures will explode and what will happen in the course of a few days or weeks will take our collective breath away. So it's a good idea to start now with some deep-breathing exercises to give some extra emotional strength to get ready for the event. It is that close. I think most of us sense it by now -- the approaching danger. The Burning Platform writes, "As I observe the zombie like reactions of Americans to our catastrophic economic highway to collapse, the continued plundering and pillaging of the national treasury by criminal Wall Street bankers, non-enforcement of existing laws against those who committed the largest crime in history, and reaction to young people across the country getting beaten, bludgeoned, shot with tear gas and pepper sprayed by police, I can't help but wonder whether there is anyone home. Why are most Americans so passively accepting of these calamitous conditions? How did we become so comfortably numb? I've concluded Americans have chosen willful ignorance over thoughtful critical thinking due to their own intellectual laziness and overpowering mind manipulation by the elite through their propaganda emitting media machines. Some people are awaking from their trance, but the vast majority is still slumbering or fuming at erroneous perpetrators." For all the references, sources and more articles, please visit Dr. Mark Sircus blog . About the author: About the author: Mark A. Sircus, Ac., OMD, is director of the International Medical Veritas Association (IMVA) http://www.imva.info/. Dr. Sircus was trained in acupuncture and oriental medicine at the Institute of Traditional Medicine in Sante Fe, N.M., and at the School of Traditional Medicine of New England in Boston. He served at the Central Public Hospital of Pochutla in Mexico, and was awarded the title of doctor of oriental medicine for his work. He was one of the first nationally certified acupuncturists in the United States. Dr. Sircus's IMVA is dedicated to unifying the various disciplines in medicine with the goal of creating a new dawn in healthcare. He is particularly concerned about the effect vaccinations have on vulnerable infants and is identifying the common thread of many toxic agents that are dramatically threatening present and future generations of children. His book, The Terror of Pediatric Medicine, is a free e-book offered on his web site. Humane Pediatrics will be an e-book available early in 2011 and then quickly as possible put into print. Dr. Sircus is a most prolific and courageous writer and one can read through hundreds of pages on his various web sites. He has recently released a number of e-books including Winning the War Against Cancer, Survival Medicine for the 21st Century, Sodium Bicarbonate, Rich Man's Poor Man's Cancer Treatment, New Paradigms in Diabetic Care and Bringing Back the Universal Medicine: IODINE. Dr. Sircus is a pioneer in the area of natural detoxification and chelation of toxic chemicals and heavy metals. He is also a champion of the medicinal value of minerals and seawater. Transdermal Magnesium Therapy, his first published work, offers a stunning breakthrough in medicine, an entirely new way to supplement magnesium that naturally increases DHEA levels, brings cellular magnesium levels up quickly, relieves pain, brings down blood pressure and pushes cell physiology in a positive direction. Magnesium chloride delivered transdermally brings a quick release from a broad range of conditions. His second edition of Transdermal Magnesium Therapy will be out shortly. In addition he writes critically about the political and financial crises occurring around us. International Medical Veritas Association: http://www.imva.info/ http://publications.imva.info/ http://www.naturalnews.com/034388_financial_system_collapse_debt.html 14 signs that the collapse of our modern world has already begun Monday, May 02, 2011 by Mike Adams , the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) (NaturalNews) A lot of people believe the world as we know it is going to end on December 23, 2012. Nonsense, I say. The far more honest answer is that the end of the world as we know it has already begun . And it doesn't mean the end of the world; it means the closing of one era and the birth of a new one. It is a transition between the ages. This particular transition, however, promises to be the most tumultuous and costly transition humankind has ever seen. But don't wait around for December 2012 to look for the signs. Here are 14 signs that the world as we know it is unraveling right now. We are living through the end of one era and the birth of a new one . In the future, they'll look back and call this all one moment in history, but when you're living through it, it seems to move forward at almost a snail's pace. But make no mistake: We are living through the opening chapters of the end of the world as we know it, and on the other side of all this will emerge a new world that's very different from the one we know today. #1 - Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis - At first it seemed like a fluke; but now it's a pattern. The weather is becoming increasingly extreme. Over 120 tornadoes recently struck the U.S. Midwest. Texas is on fire and suffering through an extreme drought. And where there aren't fires and droughts, there are floods. This is only the beginning... watch for more freak weather over the next 18 months. #2 - The silence of the bees - Colony Collapse Disorder continues to accelerate across North America. We already know it's being caused in part by chemical pesticides (and possibly worsened by GMOs), but the chemical industry is engaged in a full-on cover-up to deny this truth while the pollinators of our world suffer a devastating population collapse. ( http://www.naturalnews.com/028218_pesticides_honeybees.html ) #3 - The failure of nuclear science - The Fukushima catastrophe proves one thing: Scientists are dangerously arrogant in their planning of large-scale projects, and they fail to account for the awesome power of Mother Nature. Nuclear science promised us clean, green energy -- but now it has delivered a silent, invisible poison that's infecting our planet. #4 - The vicious pursuit of Wikileaks - In an age of such rampant deceit, there is no room for the truth. So those who tell the truth (Wikileaks) are viciously pursued as if they were criminals. #5 - The rise of the medical police state - The armed SWAT raids on Maryanne Godboldo in Detroit are only the beginning ( http://www.naturalnews.com/032091_Maryanne_Godboldo_gun_rights.html ). The truth is that the medical system uses guns to force its vaccines and chemotherapy onto children and teens across America. The medical system has become so utterly useless, corrupt and dangerous that it must actually invoke guns in peoples' faces just to "convince" people to take its medicine. This is a gunpoint-enforced medical monopoly that exists as a threat to our health and our freedoms. #6 - The increasing frequency of food shortages and crop failures - Notice the spike in food prices? That's just the beginning: Food prices will continue to skyrocket in the years ahead due to extreme weather, the loss of pollinators and the global contamination of crops by GMOs. Real food is becoming increasingly scarce in our world. You might want to think about starting a home garden... #7 - The runaway destruction of the world by energy companies - The radioactive fallout from Fukushima isn't the only way in which energy companies are destroying our world: Don't forget about the Deepwater Horizon and the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico -- a spill that isn't over, by the way. They're still spraying Corexit in the Gulf one year later! #8 - The continued GMO contamination of our planet - This may be the worst chapter in the coming collapse : The widespread genetic pollution of our planet through GMOs. This is a crime against nature and against humanity. It is a "gene spill" that may never be contained as it spreads its deadly DNA across the world's food crops, leading to crop failures and starvation ( http://www.naturalnews.com/032167_gene_spill_GMOs.html ). The use of GMOs is the closest thing to "Satanic" that you'll find in modern agriculture. The agenda behind this is pure evil. #9 - The tyranny and criminal crackdowns targeting real food (raw milk) - When you can't even sell honest farm food to your neighbors without being targeted and arrested by the cops, something is terribly wrong with the world. But this is happening today, all across America. Now the feds are even targeting the Amish! ( http://www.naturalnews.com/029322_raw_milk_Amish.html ) #10 - The escalation of the counterfeiting of the money supply - In a failed economic system approaching collapse, the moronic leaders can only think of "solutions" that actually accelerate their own downfall. The runaway counterfeiting of money by the Federal Reserve (with its "quantitative easing" and other counterfeit methods) is a classic sign that the end of our current system is fast approaching. The economic insanities are obvious to anyone who can still do math. #11 - The plummeting intelligence of the masses - One of the most disturbing signs that we're already in the collapse is the great dumbing-down of the masses. The drooling, CNN-watching television zombies who dominate our landscape offer absolutely nothing of value to the world. They are the "mindless consumers" who get vaccinated, watch television and eat processed, pasteurized junk food. They're on psychiatric meds and believe everything the government tells them. Most of these people, of course, won't make it through the collapse. #12 - The complete and utter fabrication of the mainstream news - Much of the mainstream news is now utterly and completely fabricated these days: The reporting on Obama's long-form birth certificate; the news about the war in Libya; the coverage of the economy and the U.S. debt... it's all so utterly false and unbelievable that an intelligent person watching the news can't help but explode with laughter. It is a sign of this collapse that the information sources relied upon by the masses are unable to report the truth anymore and must resort to weaving politically expedient fictions on everything from health care and medicine to the fate of the U.S. dollar itself. #13 - The ongoing pharmaceutical pollution of our world - Beyond the GMO contamination and the radiation contamination of our world, we are also experiencing the mass pharmaceutical contamination of our planet. It's not just the pharma factories that dump their products into the rivers ( http://www.naturalnews.com/025415_water_Big_Pharma_chemicals.html ); it's also the fact that well over half the population is now taking drugs almost daily, and those drugs pass right through their bodies and end up in the water supply where they contaminate the fish ( http://www.naturalnews.com/025933.html ). Even beyond that, the drugs end up in the human sewage sludge that's packaged and sold as "organic soil!" ( http://www.naturalnews.com/029504_organic_biosolids_toxic.html ) #14 - The radioactive contamination of the global food supply - Here's one that's really insidious: The global food supply is now contaminated with the radioactive fallout from Fukushima. We're told the levels are "low," but we're not told the truth of how radioactive cesium isotopes persist in the food supply for centuries . How is the human race going to survive its exposure to CT scans, radioactive food, chest X-rays, TSA body scanners and even the secret DHS mobile X-ray vans that can penetrate your body with X-rays as you're walking into a football stadium? The total radiation burden on the human race is now reaching a point of mass infertility . That may be the whole idea, actually. It's accelerating, too December, 2012 may be a useful date as some sort of mid-point in the crisis, or perhaps as a trigger date for some further acceleration of society's rapid unraveling. But make no mistake: We are already living in the collapse of our modern world. And you have a front-row seat! (Exciting, huh?) Think about what's happening around you these days. These are the signs of the last, desperate clutches of a civilization built on utterly unsustainable practices that don't value life on our world. These are the End Times of the corporate oligarchy; the monopolistic for-profit corporation machine that destroyed everything in our world in exchange for a slightly higher quarterly earnings report. In the quest for more money, humanity has sacrificed its food supply, its pollinators, it's oceans, forests and soils. Greed-driven humans have used other humans as medical experiments and cannon fodder. We have created wars to sell more bombs, and we've invented disease to sell psychiatric chemicals. These are the practices of a failed civilization... and one whose days are numbered. Watching it all crumble is far more interesting than watching it continue its destructive ways, of course, because those of us paying attention realize a future civilization must rise up in the place of this one after the collapse . Say goodbye to the false power of institutions It would be nice if our future leaders remembered the importance of liberty and personal responsibility, of course. The answer to all the world's problems, it turns out, is freedom -- freedom in medicine, freedom in economics and freedom from government tyranny. Because, let's face it: The root cause of most these problems that are bringing down our world right now is bad government . It is bad government (Big Government) that approved the GMOs. Bad government enforced the medical monopoly and allowed the pesticides to kill the honeybees. Bad government drove us into inescapable debt and costly foreign wars. Bad government outlawed health freedom and protected the monopolistic practices of the food companies, drug companies and chemical companies. The downfall of modern human civilization is, as you probably guessed, also the downfall of the very idea that Big Government creates a better society. Because if there's one idea that needs to stay dead after the collapse, it's the idea that We the People somehow need another group of people (government workers) to live off our hard work while hounding us with their false authority, directing every little detail of our lives. What we need in our world isn't more government, but more freedom . If we had freedom, integrity and personal responsibility, we wouldn't even be facing the global collapse that has already begun. But alas, the human race is an infant species and it must learn some lessons the hard way, it seems. This lesson should be long remembered: If you let the corporations, the banks and the governments run your economies, your farms and your lives, they will enslave you and steal your future while you sleep; they will inject silent poisons into the very world around you until you awaken one day to find that all you created has been destroyed. They will promise you paradise but deliver only death. Beware of any entity that is not a living person -- no government, no institution, no corporation has a soul, nor a heart, nor a conscience. They are forces of organized destruction that decimate those things we hold dear while delivering to us things that will only enslave us or harm us. Beware the corporation; the government; the non-profit institution working as a front group for private industry. Never allow yourself to be ruled over by any institution which exists only as a fictional construct organized from the projection of human greed. And be ready for the acceleration of the collapse. Because if you are reading this, you are the future of the human race . You have a duty to stay alive, keep your genes intact, and be around to help create the Next Society after this one crumbles into history. Stay informed! FREE subscription to the Health Ranger's email newsletter http://www.naturalnews.com/032258_economic_collapse_2012.html Financial alert: Germany's Constitutional Court decision either means a rapid Eurozone financial collapse, or inevitable hyperinflation Tuesday, September 11, 2012 by Mike Adams , the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) (NaturalNews) The financial collapse of the Eurozone may be upon us. This Wednesday, September 12, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany must decide whether it is legal for Germany to participate in the financial bailouts of other nations in the Eurozone. The court has been inundated with tens of thousands of petitions (not just petition signers, but tens of thousands of individual petitions) demanding the court say NO to the bailouts and stop draining Germany's economy to rescue the failed debt spending of other nations. Here's why this matters: A NO decision means a rapid financial collapse of the Eurozone If Germany votes NO, then Germany stops bailing out Greece, Spain and other nations on the brink of financial disaster. Sometime in the coming days, weeks or, in the best case, a few months, European nations start collapsing , complete with bank holidays, riots in the streets and almost certainly martial law. This collapse will, at first, cause a flight of capital to the USA, making the U.S. look stronger in the short term, but given how many U.S. banks are invested in European financial instruments (derivatives), the U.S. banking collapse won't be far behind. A YES decision means runaway hyperinflation across the Eurozone If the German court votes YES to the continued financial bailouts, then Germany must crank up the printing presses and start creating money at such a rapid pace that hyperinflation becomes almost inevitable. Literally trillions of Euros would have to be (electronically) printed in Germany , then transferred off to other countries like Italy, Spain and Greece, where banksters and governments have spent themselves beyond the point of collapse and are in desperate need of bailouts. In this scenario, German citizens would be bailing out governments all across Europe... and that's not exactly a happy idea among the Germans who are working for a living and thereby having their wealth stolen away by the state through endless money creation. Either decision spells financial collapse, just on different timelines The upshot of this is that either decision spells financial collapse for the Eurozone. The NO decision means a rapid economic implosion; the YES decision means hyperinflation spiraling out of control. Either decision is bad for the Euro. And just as importantly, either decision also spells eventual catastrophe for the U.S. Here's why: Why the Euro crisis will send a financial tidal wave headed toward U.S. shores U.S. banks have heavy exposure in European debt networks. When the Euro implodes, the ripple effect will very rapidly cause catastrophic debt failures of many of the top U.S. banks -- the big banks with names you know and (foolishly) trust. We are talking about such a massive exposure that when the stuff hits the fan, U.S. banks will be forced to declare bank holidays. A bank holiday, for those who may not know, is when the banks close their doors and announce, "You can't get your money." The term "holiday" was chosen as a kind of Orwellian linguistic trick to make it sound nice, if not downright comforting. In fact, it's a bank seizure of all your deposits and investment funds. This bank holiday may also result in the following devastating effects across the U.S. economy: o A halting of the use of EBT cards (welfare spending cards) o A halting of all e-commerce (online retailing) which goes through those banks o A halting of all commercial payments and transactions through those banks o A halting of all ATMs that use those banks (you can't get your cash out) o A halting of all money transfers and checking activity in those banks o A halting of all PAYROLL from companies using those banks You don't have to be a genius to figure out what this means. Within a matter of days, we're looking at riots in the streets , widespread business bankruptcies, and the inevitable Martial Law, complete with secret arrests, NDAA-authorized killings of American citizens, and the roll out of the government's 1.4 billion rounds of hollow point ammunition to be used against the American people ( http://www.naturalnews.com/036847_ammo_purchases_government_stockpili... ). The global debt meltdown is now impossible to reverse It's not hard to see the writing on the wall with all this. The global debt meltdown that began in the Fall of 2008 is now reaching a point of criticality. Once the collapse begins, it will be impossible to reverse until it "hits bottom." And that bottom could be a very deep hole. I'm not an investment advisor, so I can't give you financial advice. But I can tell you what I believe, which is that anyone who has money in banks like Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Bank of America is likely to lose a significant portion of those deposits in the coming debt meltdown. In case you're keeping track of the numbers, the U.S. government is now $16 trillion in debt , with $4 trillion of that being racked up under President Obama. (That's a trillion bucks a year, yeah, I know.) This level of runaway debt spending is, as any honest economist will tell you, utterly unsustainable . That means it must end, and since nobody in Washington has the courage these days to end it responsibly by cutting government spending and paying down the debt, it must therefore end catastrophically. The collapse could happen overnight, without warning This global debt meltdown could literally happen overnight. You wake up one morning and all your bank accounts are frozen. Credit cards don't work. Checks don't work. ATMs don't work. You can't even make a payment on your home, which of course gives the banks their justification to come seize your home and throw you out on the street. (That's part of their plan, of course.) Opinions differ widely on exactly when this meltdown is going to take place. Brilliant investment strategist Max Keiser says the global meltdown will occur before April of 2013, and he's also on the record saying the U.S. government is going to "fire up the incinerators." That's to deal with the hoards of hungry, angry protesters who have no jobs, no savings and suddenly no welfare money to spend, either. Whether you believe that apocalyptic vision or not, even in the most optimistic case, the debt collapse is inevitable. The laws of mathematics cannot be altered by merely hoping so. "Hope and change" doesn't actually work. You have to have REALITY on your side. Responsible spending. The federal government is the most irresponsible organization on the planet, as it is shoving us all into a financial catastrophe which will have an immense cost in human suffering and death, not to mention loss of freedoms. It is difficult to imagine an "orderly" collapse. Hence the need for Martial Law, over a billion rounds of hollow point bullets purchased by the government, and so on. Did you really think all the 1.4 billion rounds of ammunition were just for "training purposes" as claimed by the mainstream media? C'mon. Stop being so naive. They're for deployment against the people when the collapse comes, got it? The government is also working on creepy robotic land drones that can march around the cities with infrared cameras and shoot mounted weapons at selected human targets. You can see the video yourself at: http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/military-robots/latest-ls... Or click PLAY to watch it here: LS3 - Legged Squad Support System http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7ezXBEBE6U This is not science fiction. It's a DARPA-funded robotic army initiative. They already have the robots playing a game they call "follow the leader" but which is actually "pursue the human prey." The U.S. military is also about to deploy a new wave of "Kamikazee drones" that carry an explosive payload and fly directly into their targets, setting off a massive detonation. This is reported in WIRED (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/09/suicidal-drone-6-miles-away/) which says: The "Lethal Miniature Aerial Munition System" -- It's for when the Army needs someone dead from up to six miles away in 30 minutes or less. All freedom-loving Americans need to get prepared to not just survive the coming collapse, but also to defend yourself against an army of military robots unleashed against the American people. That's the ultimate dream of the global controllers, of course: To deploy an army of mindless robots that won't question orders when directed to open fire on protesters. By the way, if you REALLY want to see what's coming -- and you can stomach it -- watch this mind-blowing trailer for a film project called "Gray State." WARNING: Extremely disturbing images, but probably quite accurate, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy7FVXERKFE Stay informed! FREE subscription to the Health Ranger's email newsletter http://www.naturalnews.com/037155_Eurozone_financial_collapse_Germany.html Homeland Security insider warns orchestrated collapse of U.S. dollar 'has begun' Tuesday, April 02, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer (NaturalNews) The countdown clock is ticking as the insanely evil cabal known as the "global elite" prepares its final moves for a complete world takeover. As relayed by Canada Free Press (CFP), an insider at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is America's very own reanimation of the Nazi SS, recently delivered an ominous warning that America's days are numbered, and that Americans basically need to ready themselves for the worst, which is yet to come. Not only is a complete collapse of the U.S. dollar on the very near horizon, according to the unnamed source, but a single, uniform currency system is already in the works to take its place. All that needs to happen now is for the final hammer to drop, so to speak, an event to truly shake the people and wake them out of their drunken, entertainment-imbibed stupors. But when this finally happens, it will already be too late for anyone to actually do anything about it. "The first shots in a global economic takeover were fired in Cyprus," explains Doug Hagmann from CFP about the situation as it is currently playing out. "It is a plan for a one world Communist economy where the 'middle class' will be wiped out through a series of events that will have the same ultimate effect as we are seeing in present day Cyprus." And just what, exactly, happened in Cyprus? The mainstream media claims it was a simple emergency "tax deal," a "levy" designed to pull the country out of crisis. But in reality, the people of Cyprus, and those with money in Cyprus banks, were literally robbed of untold billions of dollars by the central bankers, who overnight imposed an unannounced freeze on a large portion of depositors' money. According to more recent reports, up to 40 percent of depositors' cash could be apprehended as part of the deal. Federal Reserve recently stole more than 25 percent of Americans' savings and investments with 'quantitative easing' scam But what is happening in Cyprus is also happening in the U.S. Very few Americans, it turns out, are aware of the fact that the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing scheme, which intentionally injects more paper money into the general money supply, causes inflation. And inflation leads to devaluation of money, which in essence is just another form of stealing from the people to bail out the central bankers. Though these cash injections might lead to immediate economic jump starts, they never last, and the long-term consequence of their repeated use is hyperinflation and destruction of the currency. And the unfortunate truth of the matter is that all levels of government have been infiltrated with globalists serving the interests of the central bankers at the expense of the people. "The plan for a global currency or a one world economic order is a matter that transcends political parties," writes Hagmann. "Those who continue to argue in the Republican-Democrat meme are doing nothing more than providing entertainment to distract people from the real issue, that of the global elite versus the rest of us." "The top of the pyramid in this Ponzi scheme is filled with members of both U.S. political parties who are systematically pillaging us and our future generations into financial debt, bondage and slavery. It is a plan that has been in the works for centuries. The problem, however, is that we have been conditioned not to think that big. Yet, the lie is that big." Sources for this article include: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/53842 http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/53832 http://canadafreepress.com http://www.naturalnews.com/039744_US_dollar_collapse_Federal_Reserve.html http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=02e_1366849905 True Prophet Civil War in America Within 90 Days - Get Ready! USA, civil war