The incident began at Lincoln Middle School on April 18 when Marcum was asked by a teacher to remove the NRA shirt, which features the words “protect your right” above an image of a hunting rifle, or be suspended, despite the fact that the shirt did not violate the school’s dress code which bars images featuring “profanity, violence, discriminatory messages or sexually suggestive phrases.”

After Marcum refused to take off the shirt, calmly attempting to explain to school administrators that he was exercising his first amendment right, cops were called solely, “Because I would not take this shirt off, because I believe that I should have a right to wear this,” according to Marcum.

When Marcum refused to be silent, he was arrested and charged with “disturbing the education process” and obstruction of a police officer. On Friday, Judge Eric O’Brien bizarrely sided with police and allowed the prosecution to proceed with the case.

Police initially claimed Marcum made “terroristic threats” for daring to exercise his first amendment, but later backed down from that charge.

Both police and prosecuting attorney Michael White refused to speak to the media about the case. Marcum faces a year in jail when he returns to court on July 11, unless his attorney can get the charges dropped in the meantime.

“Every aspect of this is just totally wrong,” said Marcum’s step father Allen Lardieri, pointing out that Marcum doesn’t have a criminal background.

“Me — I’m more of a fighter, and so is Jared. And eventually we’re going to get through this,” he added. “I don’t think it should have ever gotten this far.”

The case has garnered national attention as it underscores how both authorities and the education system treat the first and second amendments as nuisances to be frowned upon and discouraged.

Since the Sandy Hook shootings last year, there have been innumerable instances where schools have reacted with outright panic and hysteria to toy guns, objects shaped like guns or even the mere discussion of guns by students.

Back in February, another 14-year-old boy was asked by administrators at Genoa-Kingston Middle School to remove a t-shirt which featured the word “Marines” above an image of two interlocking rifles.

*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SHTFplan/~3/x6ZmfQmF34U/14-year-old-faces-year-in-jail-over-pro-gun-t-shirt_06172013

Introductory Note: My upcoming novel opens with a prominent disclaimer that includes: “This is a work of fiction.  All of the events described are imaginary, taking place in the future, and do not represent the world as we know it in the present day. It does not reflect the current geopolitical situation, governmental policies, or the strategic posture of any nation. It is not intended to be commentary on the policies, leadership, goals, strategies, or plans of any nation. This novel is not intended to be predictive of the territorial aspirations tactics of any nation or any planned use of terrorist tactics. Again, it takes place in the future, under fictional new leadership. Any resemblance to living people is purely coincidental.”

Chapter 11: The Missing Umbrella

“All politicians will allow, and most philosophers, that reasons of state may, in particular emergencies, dispense with the rules of justice, and invalidate any treaty or alliance, where the strict observance of it would be prejudicial, in a considerable degree, to either of the contracting parties. But nothing less than the most extreme necessity, it is confessed, can justify individuals in a breach of promise, or an invasion of the properties of others.” – David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, 1777

Surabaya, Indonesia, August, The Second Year

Soekirnan Assegaf was excited to get his first command, even if it was one of the smallest ships in the Indonesian Navy. His most recent assignment had been as a weapons officer aboard the large patrol boat KRI Tenggiri. (The ship had formerly been called the Ardent when it was in service with the Royal Australian Navy.) Much of that time had been spent cruising the Strait of Malacca. It had only been three months since Assegaf had been advanced in rank from Letnan Satu (First Lieutenant) to Kapten (Captain). Unlike most of his contemporaries who were receiving logistics and staff officer assignments, he was getting his own ship.

The bad news for Assegaf was that his new home port would be at Manado on Sulawesi island. This port was considered the gateway to the Celebes Sea. It was 675 miles from Surabaya and more than 1,000 miles from his family’s home in Jakarta. He would only have one or two leaves each year, and undoubtedly his transport to Jakarta would be on slow and noisy C-235 or C-295 combination cargo and passenger logistics flights, with several island-hopping stops along the way.

Assegaf’s new assignment was to command KRI Sadarin. Depending on the perspective of who saw it, Sadarin could either be described as a large boat or a small ship. It was fifty-one feet long and displaced twenty-three tons when fully fueled. It was in the Hawker-De Havilland Carpenteria class, powered by a pair of MTU diesels. These engines produced 1,360 horsepower and gave Sadarin a top speed of twenty-nine knots. The boat had been built in 1977, but since then it had been re-engined twice—most recently in 2010.

With its standard fuel tanks, Sadarin had a range of 950 miles at eighteen knots. A typical patrol was five days, but the frequent picket duty patrols were an agonizing fourteen days. Living for such a long stretch of time in cramped quarters and subsisting on plain, uninteresting rations often led to short tempers. Stowing extra fuel (in 45-liter bladders strapped down in spare berths), extra water (in crates on deck) and extra provisions (in every available space) made the small ship seem even smaller.

The crew of Sadarin was normally ten, but for picket duty the crew had just eight men, and three of them weren’t even sailors. They were otaks (“brains”) that had been detailed from Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Udara–the Indonesian Air Force. These three men had no other duty than to stare at air-surface radar screens around the clock.

Assegaf loved the power and agility of his boat. He became famous for shouting in English the command, “Ludicrous Speed!”— quoting from one of his favorite American comedy films. Seldom content with cruising Sadarin at the nominal fuel-conserving sixteen knots, he often came back into port dangerously low on fuel. Behind his back, Assegaf’s men called him either Speed Racer or Kapten Ludicrous.
In 2002, Indonesia had been forced to cede the islands of Ligitan and Sipadan (near eastern Borneo) to Malaysia by order of the International Court of Justice. This made the entire Indonesian military machine obsessed with defending their territory and exclusive waters. In particular, the Indonesian Navy had closely watched the oil-producing Ambalat region of the Celebes Sea since 2002. The frequent patrols of Sadarin were just one small part of that increased vigilance.

Even before he was given command of Sadarin, Soekirnan Assegaf had earned a reputation for being impulsive and stern in handing out reprimands to subordinates. But he was also fairly sensitive to the needs of his men while on long patrols. Unlike most other skippers of patrol boats, he encouraged his men to fish once they were well away from the port of Manado. The fresh fish supplemented their usual diet of yams, breadfruit, rice, sago, kangkung (water spinach), dried fish, krupuk crackers, canned chicken, and canned mutton.

Assegaf also allowed movies and music to be played on board, often piping songs from MP3 players directly into the ship’s speakerphone system. Both when he was a naval cadet and later in his career, he spent an inordinate portion of his pay on movies for his collection. Many of these were pirated copies that he bought on the back streets of Surabaya for only 20,000 Rupiah apiece or about two dollars each. Some of the more recently released films were muddy duplicates that had actually been surreptitiously videotaped inside Jakarta movie theaters, so occasionally they’d see the silhouette of a head popping up at the bottom of the screen, or the conversation of obnoxious movie patrons would be mixed in with the movie’s dialogue. On board Sadarin, almost every night at sea was movie night, and there was seldom a repeat. The exception was usually Maria Ozawa movies.

Assegaf’s penchant for American movies did not go unnoticed by his superiors. Without his knowledge, he was placed on a watch list by Indonesian Naval Intelligence. His personnel file was flagged by one of the more devout Muslims on the counterintelligence staff at his base headquarters. Even though Assegaf was loyal to the Jakarta government, some of his personal habits were flagged as “suspicious.” Members of his crew were questioned at intervals about his behavior, his religious practices, his preferences in entertainment, any foreign contacts, and whether or not he had made any comments about the Jakarta government, or about Indonesia’s role in the expansion campaign in the Philippines.

There was an unspoken division and preference within the Indonesian military that viewed “seculars” with suspicion, and gave promotion and assignment preference to devout Muslims. In the last few years before the global Crunch period began, rapid promotion blatantly went to those who were outwardly devout carpet-bowers. Indonesia’s secular constitution was sharply eroded, most noticeably starting in 2003 when Sharia law was recognized in Aceh province. This process started to spread in the early 2010s, and by the time of the Crunch, it went into high gear. The increasingly muzzled Indonesian press at first called this Aechinization, but later more discreetly called it “moderation of morals” or “return to devout values.”

Aechinization flew in the face of the nation’s tradition of Pancasila state ideology, which had asserted that Indonesia would recognize multiple religions but be secularly governed. Most recently, under legislation spearheaded by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Justice Welfare Party (PKS), kissing in public had been banned, as well as “lascivious clothing”. To some clerics, the new dress code was interpreted as head-to-toe coverage for women, even in Indonesia’s sweltering climate. All of these steps were heralded as “defense against western decadence.”

The PKS, which was directly patterned after the Muslim Brotherhood, began to assert more and more control over all the branches of the Indonesian military. Non-Muslims were increasingly marginalized and sometimes targeted for malicious rumors, “morals investigations,” and negative efficiency reports.

Indonesia’s population of 225 million included 197 million Muslims. Kapten Assegaf was one of the many that were “Muslim in name only.” In the eyes of the new Aechinated Navy, his stance was not career enhancing. In the new Indonesia, the radical imams had slowly been putting a theocracy in place for more than a decade. Most of Assegaf’s contemporaries saw it as inevitable. Some of the more radicalized ones that were PKS members actually embraced the change. The dissenting “decadent” minority started derisively calling the fundamentalists The Jerks of Java.

In the early 2000s, the Laskar Jihad, led by Ja’far Umar Thalib was in the media spotlight. These jihadis were directly influenced by modern Saudi Wahhabism. After a couple of years, Laskar Jihad appeared to die out. In actuality, it went underground, burrowing into many government ministries in Indonesia and Malaysia. The jihadis eventually gained control of every branch of government, including the armed forces. The culmination came with the seating of the new President, just before the Crunch. His green lapel pin told the world that the radical Islamists controlled every apparatus of the government, from top to bottom.
The Reformasi (Reformation) era had ended and the “Sarip” era—the era of the theocrats–had begun. They had completed their silent coup with little more than whispers of dissent in the heavily state-controlled press.

The Crunch was the final blow for the Indonesian moderates. The radical fundamentalists that dominated under the new President pointed to the economic collapse as an “ah-ha” moment and proof that “western decadence” and non-Islamic banking practices had been what precipitated the collapse. This cemented their power and marked a radical shift in their foreign policy. From then on, open jihad became their byword.
Indonesia and Malaysia had experienced a simmering conflict since the end of hostilities in 1966. But as time went on, the tensions lessened, and they became regular trading partners. As The Crunch set in, this bi-lateral trade grew increasingly more important, as global trade collapsed.

Several things worked synergistically to unite Indonesia and Malaysia: The new presidents of both countries were distant cousins and both were strident Wahhabists. Just before the Crunch, Indonesia had assisted Malaysia in both earthquake relief and in setting up desalinization plants during a drought. Then came the “fairytale romance” between the son of the Indonesian president and the daughter of the Malaysian president which culminated in a marriage that was played up intensely by the mass media in both countries, much like British Royal weddings. Ironically, the conservative clerics, who had ordered the removal of the mushy soap operas from Indonesian television left a vacuum that was partly filled by media coverage of the romance and marriage.

As Caleb Burroughs heard all this on the BBC broadcasts, he thought about how his mates over in Afghanistan would go on high alert when the word “wedding” was listed in the Intel Officer’s portion of the Commander’s brief. “Wedding” was almost always was a code word for a jihadi attack. It seemed a cruel irony to have it actually touted as such in the media. “Life imitates art,” he thought to himself.
Shortly after the much-publicized wedding, a variation on the Austrian anchsluss occurred in Malaysia wherein it quickly became a puppet state of Indonesia. The state-controlled mass media in both countries tried to put a positive spin on the takeover, calling it “the perkawinan” (marriage) of the two countries.

The kingdom of Brunei also made special concessions that effectively put Indonesian theocrats in control of the country. Remarkably, these changes in Malaysia and Brunei all took place without a shot being fired. These anschslusse were the ideal outcome for Indonesia because they needed all of their available military power for their planned invasion of The Philippines, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. They could not have spared the manpower that otherwise would have been needed to occupy Malaysia and Brunei.

The Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) soon transferred most of their large ships to the Indonesian Navy at nominal cost. These included their recently launched guided missile destroyer (KD Sabah), two frigates, two corvettes, three nearly-new landing craft, sixteen Ligan-class new generation fast attack craft, two 37-meter Fast Troop Vessels (FTV), as well as the majority of their replenishment ships and military transport ships.

Meanwhile, the Sultan of Brunei “gifted” Indonesia his navy’s four 41-meter Ijhtihad-class fast patrol boats and all three of his 80-meter Darausalam class multi-purpose patrol vessels, complete with missiles and helicopters. All of these Bruneian ships were only a few years old and had been built to be state of the art. With all this talk of jihad, the Sultan felt obliged to donate the ships. To do anything less might have triggered a fundamentalist uprising in Brunei.

Ironically, the Indonesian government which under previous leadership had spoken out so forcefully against the Jamaal Islamiyah militants and the Bali bombing would less than two decades later be espousing many of the same fundamentalist Islamic goals, and building their own time bombs.

o o o

A few years before the Crunch, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard urged schoolchildren to prepare for “The Asian Century” by learning Asian languages. Little did she know that Bohasa Indonesian would become the most important language to learn because Indonesian culture would soon be forcefully injected into Australian life.

It was no great surprise when China invaded Taiwan. They’d been itching to do so for decades. But Indonesia’s next moves had not been fully anticipated by Australia’s strategic analysts. What the analysts overlooked was the full significance of the loss of American military power in the Pacific region. Without the American presence, many nations in East Asia felt emboldened.

Australia signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970 and ratified it in 1973. But even before then, they were dependent on America’s military might to assure peace in the Pacific region. Now the Americans were gone. All around the eastern periphery of Asia, alliances were shifting. The posturing and saber-rattling began. Borders were stretched. Old territorial disputes re-emerged. Ethnic minorities were sent packing. Darkness was falling on the Pacific.

Article source: http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/06/sample-chapter-from-my-upcoming-novel-expatriates.html

At the time, the world was literally on the brink of an unprecedented economic collapse. It was so serious, in fact, that members of Congress were told that should they fail to come to an agreement the fallout would leave the United States in such a state of disarray that martial law would be declared and tanks would be deployed to major American cities.

In the midst of it all, as if they had a private pipeline into the bailout meetings, the big boys were positioning themselves to profit. And profit they did, as the stock market rose from 6500 points in late 2008 to record highs as recently as last month. They made billions of dollars on the backs of bailouts funded by taxpayers who were themselves struggling to pay their mortgages and put food on the table.

They knew then what their friends at the Federal Reserve, Treasury and investment banks were planning to do. And they took the opportunity to make a killing.

Now, with the stock market indicating to the masses that the promised recovery has taken hold, and with mainstream analysts arguing that happy days are here again, those same moguls of finance who were undoubtedly tipped off in 2008, are making some very big moves yet again.

But these particular moves are  exactly the opposite of what you might expect given that we’re at the beginning of a supposed recovery:

Despite the 6.5% stock market rally over the last three months, a handful of billionaires are quietly dumping their American stocks . . . and fast.

Warren Buffett, who has been a cheerleader for U.S. stocks for quite some time, is dumping shares at an alarming rate. He recently complained of “disappointing performance” in dyed-in-the-wool American companies like Johnson Johnson, Procter Gamble, and Kraft Foods.

In the latest filing for Buffett’s holding company Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett has been drastically reducing his exposure to stocks that depend on consumer purchasing habits. Berkshire sold roughly 19 million shares of Johnson Johnson, and reduced his overall stake in “consumer product stocks” by 21%. Berkshire Hathaway also sold its entire stake in California-based computer parts supplier Intel.

With 70% of the U.S. economy dependent on consumer spending, Buffett’s apparent lack of faith in these companies’ future prospects is worrisome.

Unfortunately Buffett isn’t alone.

Fellow billionaire John Paulson, who made a fortune betting on the subprime mortgage meltdown, is clearing out of U.S. stocks too. During the second quarter of the year, Paulson’s hedge fund, Paulson Co., dumped 14 million shares of JPMorgan Chase. The fund also dumped its entire position in discount retailer Family Dollar and consumer-goods maker Sara Lee.

Finally, billionaire George Soros recently sold nearly all of his bank stocks, including shares of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs. Between the three banks, Soros sold more than a million shares.

So why are these billionaires dumping their shares of U.S. companies?

From Money News via StanDeyo.com

The simple answer is… they know.

They know that this market has been propped up by trillion dollar infusions from the Federal Reserve.

They know that Americans have lost 55% of their wealth since this crisis started.

They know nearly 25% of Americans are out of work (as opposed to the official 7.5% figures from the BLS) and that no meaningful jobs are being created.

They know that half of American households require government assistance, 100 million people are on welfare and nearly a quarter of them need nutritional assistance to put food on the table..

They know that the economic growth rates being disseminated to the people are completely bogus because they fail to account for the inflationary impact of the Fed’s monetary expansion.

They know this is wholly unsustainable, and they are getting out of Dodge before the next phase of this crisis takes hold and hammers the world yet again.

Ben Bernanke’s magic show will soon come to an end, and all of his tricks will be exposed for the statistical illusions they really are.

Billionaires know this and they are preparing for the inevitable. The government, likewise, is preparing for financial collapse and the potential for widespread violence that will follow.

You should be doing the same.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SHTFplan/~3/OtkcfkKu8cs/they-know-billionaires-are-quietly-and-rapidly-dumping-millions-of-shares-of-stock_06172013

JWR Replies: This topic has been discussed before in SurvivalBlog, but mostly vis-a-vis the need to keep maps updated with current magnetic declination data. (The difference between magnetic north and true north.)

The geomagnetic north pole moves laterally because of shifts deep in the Earth’s core. It is presently in far northern Canada, but it is gradually shifting to the northwest and it is presumed that it will probably be in Siberia in a decade or two. (Although it is notable that the auroral toroid is pushing more toward the southeast.) Many credible sources, like Polar Endeavour, show the “walking” or “wandering” (or more properly “progressing”) of the pole position at about 35 miles per year. Wikipedia states: “Over the past 150 years the poles have moved westward at a rate of 0.05° to 0.1° per year, with little net north or south motion.” National Geographic confirms that the movement of the pole has accelerated since 1989 to as much as 37 miles per year. (Ditto for progression of the antipodal geomagnetic south pole, though it is not tracked as consistently.) This is confirmed by NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC.) But I can’t find any credible source that mentions a figure anywhere near “161 miles in six months”! And the web site you mentioned shows an inverted map of pole progression that might lead a casual observer to believe that the geomagnetic north pole is shifting to the south.

Based on an iterative method that relies on historical ship’s logs, it has been determined that the geomagnetic north pole actually shifted southeastward from around 1600 to the 1830s. But since then it has been progressing in a more northwesterly direction. The chances that the geomagnetic pole will shift below 68 degrees of latitude or above 88 degrees of latitude in this millennium are miniscule. Granted, the longitudinal shifts could be quite large (because of Great Circle geometry, the closer that the geomagnetic pole progresses toward 90 degrees), but the substantive issue is the measure of latitude shifts. We need to be content to sticking to observable science. Let’s leave emotion and hyperbole out of the conversation.

Full geomagnetic reversal has not occurred in recorded history. But geologists who are believers in Ancient Earth theories assert that several polarity reversals have been recorded geologically in rock formations at the mid-ocean tectonic ridges, and that these reversals happen roughly once every 450,000 years. Citing some geologists who have studied the geologic record, Wikipedia states: “The Earth’s field has alternated between periods of normal polarity, in which the direction of the field was the same as the present direction, and reverse polarity, in which the field was the opposite. These periods are called chrons.” It has also recently been asserted by some German scientists that a brief reversal–called a “geomagnetic excursion“–lasting only a few hundred years may have taken place 41,000 years ago.

Could there be a magnetic pole reversal in our lifetime? Not likely. Should we be worried? I don’t think so. I’m much, much more worried about the statist Democrats shifting out of the White House. (Or worse yet, failing to shift.) I’m also concerned about incipient cataclysmic shifts in the value of paper currencies. Not magnetic pole shifts!

My advice: be very leery about what you hear on late night radio shows or what you see on web pages that don’t cite any reliable references. (There are even some idiotic cranks out there who claim that the physical tilt of the Earth has shifted! My GPS receiver tells me otherwise.)

Article source: http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/06/letter-re-rapid-progression-of-the-geomagnetic-north-pole.html

Personally, I wear a helmet, leather jacket, good boots, gloves, etc. whenever I’m on the bike. I usually wear them when I’m not on the bike as well, out of habit. But I also carry a decent medical kit on the bike or in the truck, whichever I’m using at the time. I’m an EMT and like to be prepared for incidents that occur when I’m not on the clock. Add a bullet/stab-proof vest whenever feasible, a sidearm (when allowed, which in my case means not at work), materials for making fire, a knife and some other goodies, and I think I have ATGATT.

This term has replaced EDC in my vocabulary: Your “every-day carry” should be “all the gear, all the time.” It doesn’t take much space or weigh much if you go minimalist, and it really could save your life, or someone else’s. I also have a G.O.O.D. bag, and one for my wife and daughter, but if necessary I’d be fine with the things I carry/wear every day. I’m not saying I carry an axe, adze and flock of chickens with me. Difficult, that would be. But I could go into the boonies now and stay there for a week or perhaps a month without suffering much, partially due to experience and partially due to equipment.

Thanks again, JWR, for providing SurvivalBlog. I learn something new every time I visit, which means frequently. – J.D.C. in Mississippi

JWR Replies: Your point is well taken. It reminds me of a conversation that I had with my late wife, The Memsahib back around 2006. We had just seen some news footage of a street riot in the Middle East, and I asked rhetorically: “What is the best way to survive that, aside from conveniently not being there? Her response: “Well, I suppose a full set of off-road motorcycling gear would be a good start.”

And it bears mentioning that a large portion of life-threatening trauma (both combat and accidents) is head trauma. Kevlar helmets (including the later-generation ACH and MICH) are sold by several mail-order firms like BulletProofME.com. Proper sizing is important for helmets, so don’t just buy any Kevlar helmet on eBay. Many of these same companies also sell kevlar body armor vests. There again, sizing is crucial.

Following the theme of your letter, it is important to wear a full set of safety gear whenever you fire up a chainsaw, even if it just to “make a couple of quick cuts.” (Kelvlar safety chap, boots, combination helmet with face screen, etc.) Murphy’s Law dictates that the one time that you omit the safety gear will be the time that your foot slips.

Article source: http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/06/letter-re-wearing-and-carrying-safety-gear-at-all-times.html

Article source: http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/06/pats-product-review-the-echo-sling.html

With crime rates skyrocketing, home prices dropping to under $500 for a house, and the local government out of solutions, the city of Detroit is the latest to join the likes of Stockton, California, having just defaulted on its loans from creditors.

Despite promises to the contrary, it should come as no surprise that the city is unable to meet its obligations. And it won’t be the last. City and state governments all over America are in the same boat.

This is a serious occurrence, and one that will not only destroy the financial bottom line of lenders and wipe out retirement promises for tens of thousands of current and former employees, but may well foreshadow events to come throughout the rest of the United States in the near future:

The city of Detroit defaulted on $2.5 billion of its outstanding debt. The creditors are getting what they deserve.

He who lends to government depends on the exploitation of the people to get repaid.

The city’s retired city workers were also warned that significant cuts in pensions and health insurance would take place.

This is the problem all governments face. They promised the moon. Then when those workers retired, they had to be replaced. The cost of government is rising exponentially and this causes higher taxes and it becomes a dog chasing its own tail.

There is NO way out but collapse.

The economic model upon which government has been designed post-WWII is simply braindead. Dumb and Dumber could have done a better job.

The  size of government escalates and this creates a deflationary vortex through which the economy is sucked dry.

There is no surviving this crisis.

Politicians are desperate to cling to power so they buy tanks and guns to defend against the inevitable.

Via Martin Armstrong
(emphasis added)

Detroit and Stockton are mere microcosms compared to the almost unimaginable debt obligations held by the United States government. We’re talking about tens of trillions of dollars that will never, ever be repaid. There’s so much money that has been borrowed that future generations yet to be born are already indebted.

Detroit, Chicago and other cash-strapped cities are turning into domestic tribal war zones akin to the middle east, with cops outnumbered 500-to-1. Now, with the revelation that they have no money left, people who believed in the benevolence of government and depended on them to pay for their retirements are going to be left high and dry.

We will see the same across the rest of this nation, as the federal government runs into similar funding problems for the one hundred million Americans dependent on monthly disbursement checks. These checks are either going to be cut, or more likely, our money will be inflated away driving prices for essential goods like food and energy to the moon.

It will end in disaster, and as Martin Armstrong notes, will lead to violent confrontations when people who thought they’d be taken care of from cradle to grave realize that no help is coming.

Absolutely plan on the worst case scenario – because you can be assured the government is.

You can prepare and have a chance to survive and thrive. Or, fail to do so and be guaranteed a world of horrific despair and poverty.

Understand this or pay the price: THERE IS NO WAY OUT BUT COLLAPSE.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/SHTFplan/~3/GJ5ikJ13U5s/detroit-goes-under-there-is-no-way-out-but-collapse_06162013

Spoilers ahead. If you don’t like to know details about a novel before you read, you might want to skip this review.

I picked up The Dog Stars by Peter Heller while waiting in an airport, and frankly I enjoy fiction, but only if its intelligent and well-written, which this one is.

The world has been decimated by a flu pandemic, and it’s a few years post-apocalypse. The survivors have arranged themselves into small enclaves of existence. Told in the first person by Hig, two men with little in common coexist around an airport, its hanger, and a former high-end neighborhood full of decaying McMansions. Hig intrigues because we finally have an intelligent main character. He shoots a gun, gardens, flies an airplane, loves his dog, reads and writes poetry, and thinks. He thinks, he reasons, and he’s introspective.

Strangers are shot on sight. The flu disease has vicious lingering side effects for some. It’s a brutal world. But eventually, all survivors, in all novels, must ask themselves the burning question, “What’s the point?” What’s the point of trying so hard everyday? What now? Is this all there is? Should I keep on trying? I grind away, but does the future hold any hope?

So, when Hig finally approaches the question, he decides to strike out on his own, with the dog, to figure out the answer to his question. What ensues is the story of Hig.

The author writes in that stream of consciousness style with incomplete sentences, but it’s not particularly distracting. There is a love interest and plot twists. I read this book quickly as I wanted to see how it ended. Satisfying is how it ended. Satisfying for me. And Hig finds the answer to his burning question.

Article source: http://www.survivalblog.com/2013/06/betsys-book-review-the-dog-stars-by-peter-heller.html