No Obama Amnesty

Congressman,

I’m writing to let you know my opinion concerning our President’s plan to issue an “executive amnesty” to millions of criminals who have entered our country illegally.  We have a path to citizenship and I do not believe we should reward lawbreakers this prized status.  Such an amnesty would be a slap in the face to those who followed the legal path.

Mr. Obama’s amnesty would also be a violation of our nation’s laws.

Please don’t let him get away with this lawless amnesty.  As such, if he attempts such an illegal action, it is my opinion, as a tax-paying, working American citizen, he should be censured and impeached.

Thank you for your time.

You can find your Congressman here:  http://www.house.gov/representatives

And your Senator here:  http://www.senate.gov/general

$20 Challenge Soup

Last week, I posted a video (or a link to a video) of my shot at the $20 Challenge:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BIKvZzt07k

The $20 prepper challenge is an informal, get-ready contest going around the underground readiness community.  Basically, acquire as much readiness, preparedness, emergency supplies as possible for $20.  Then post a video of your goods with an explanation of why you chose those specific items.  It is a community sharing and education project to expand awareness and give those on a budget an idea of how they can start getting ready without breaking the bank.

In that video, I talked about soup made from the supplies I bought. I've made this soup before, but not with the same ingredients.  So I made a batch of it Saturday morning ... and it was delicious.  This recipe will make 6 cups of soup.

Here are the ingredients:

6 cups water
7 bullion cubes (extra cube makes for a more flavorful broth)
3 cups egg noodles
1 can chicken

Bring the water and bullion to a boil until the cubes are dissolved.
Add noodles and chicken (do not drain), cook until noodles are done.
Add pepper and spices to taste.

The supplies I bought as part of my $20 challenge will make the recipe above twice.

A Republic, if You Can Keep it...

(Editor's note: David and I served together overseas in the 1980's.  We were both military trained journalists assigned to Misawa AB, Japan.  We have managed to keep in touch, with a few long breaks, for the last 30 years.  David wrote the editorial in 2014.  As we were discussing current politics over the phone recently, we decided it would be worth publishing again, because it's right on target with what's happening in this country now.)

Special Guest Editorial 

By David Carrigan
Constitutionalist
Lamar, Missouri

Part 1

It's only a Republic, if we can keep it.

I, my father, his grandson, and every generation of my family have served many hundreds of years to defend this country's Life, Liberty and Freedom. (Unfortunately, we haven't missed a war since the early 1800's. Not all made it through.)

For those of you that don't understand the principles this country was founded upon, allow me to enlighten you and give you a very important lesson. (And correct the garbage you were force-fed in the public (indoctrination centers) school system.)

The United States of America is not a democracy. (At least it wasn't originally set up as one.)

It's a Republic.

What does that mean?

Simply stated -- A Republic is representative government ruled by law (the Constitution). A democracy is direct government ruled by the majority (mob rule). A Republic recognizes the inalienable rights of individuals while democracies are only concerned with group wants or needs (the public good).

Many of you are shaking your heads, thinking what's the big deal. Well the big deal is this.

Democracies always self-destruct when the non-productive majority realizes that it can vote itself handouts (think welfare and government programs) from the productive minority (business owners) by electing the candidate promising the most benefits (usually democrats - thnk Obama) from the public treasury. To maintain their power, these candidates must adopt an ever-increasing tax and spend policy to satisfy the ever-increasing desires of the majority.

Sound Familiar?

Then, as taxes increase, incentive to produce decreases, causing many of the once productive to drop out and join the non-productive. When there are no longer enough producers to fund the legitimate functions of government and the socialist programs, the democracy will collapse, always to be followed by a Dictatorship.

Are your eyes open yet?

Old military training manuals used to contain the correct definitions of Democracy and Republic. The following comes from Training Manual No. 2000-25 published by the War Department, November 30, 1928.

DEMOCRACY:

- A government of the masses.

- Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of "direct" expression.

- Results in mobocracy.

- Attitude toward property is communistic--negating property rights.

- Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether it be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences.

- Results in demogogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.

REPUBLIC:

- Authority is derived through the election by the people of public officials best fitted to represent them.

- Attitude toward law is the administration of justice in accord with fixed principles and established evidence, with a strict regard to consequences.

- A greater number of citizens and extent of territory may be brought within its compass.

- Avoids the dangerous extreme of either tyranny or mobocracy.

- Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment, and progress.
Is the "standard form" of government throughout the world.

The manuals containing these definitions were ordered destroyed without explanation about the same time that President Franklin D. Roosevelt made private ownership of our lawful money (US Minted Gold Coins) illegal.

Shortly after the people turned in their $20 gold coins, the price was increased from $20 per ounce to $35 per ounce. Almost overnight F.D.R., the most popular president this century (elected 4 times) looted almost half of this nation's wealth, while convincing the people that it was for their own good. Many of F.D.R.'s policies were suggested by his right hand man, Harry Hopkins, who said,

"Tax and Tax, Spend and Spend, Elect and Elect, because the people are too damn dumb to know the difference".

Article IV Section 4, of the Constitution "guarantees to every state in this union a Republican form of government".... Conversely, the word Democracy is not mentioned even once in the Constitution.

James Madison warned us of the dangers of democracies with these words,

"Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths...",

Violent in their deaths? Really?

Remember the Roman Empire or Greece. Great place to visit ruins....

He continued, "We may define a republic to be ... a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior.

It is essential to such a government that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans and claim for their government the honorable title of republic." - James Madison, Federalist No. 10, (1787)

Benjamin Franklin said it best just after the completion and signing of the Constitution.

In reply to a woman's inquiry as to the type of government the Founders had created, Benjamin Franklin said, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

Part 2:

The Rise and Fall of the Great America, like Rome.

You must all ask yourself today!

Have we done this to ourselves or was this all engineered?

The enactment of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913 allowing the government to impose a tax on your income, thereby opening Pandora’s Box to a 60,000 page tax code and allowing politicians to sell their votes to the highest bidder.

The signing into law of the Federal Reserve Act by Woodrow Wilson in 1913, transferring control of our currency system to Wall Street banks. The man made inflation created by the Federal Reserve has reduced the purchasing power of the USD by 97% since 1913 and has allowed politicians to promise $100 trillion of benefits to Americans, that can never be delivered.

The Social Security Act signed into law by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1935, supposedly to help widows and orphans, morphed into a giant ponzi scheme used by politicians to make Americans think it was a retirement plan and the money was in a lockbox. The scam continues, but ponzi schemes always collapse.

Fannie Mae was created in 1938 as a government agency and Freddie Mac was created in 1970 as a quasi-government agency. By promoting home ownership and subsidizing loans to people who should have never gotten loans these agencies caused hundreds of billions in mal-investment. As tools of politicians, they were used to push social agendas. The result will be in excess of $300 billion in losses to the American taxpayer.

The Korean War set a precedent where the President did not need to seek Congress to declare war as required under the Constitution. This has allowed the President the freedom to fight undeclared wars around the world for decades, while spending trillions, with no approval from Congress.

LBJ’s Great Society programs such as Medicare and Medicaid were sold to Americans as cost saving programs that would improve healthcare for all Americans. We now spend 17% of our GDP on healthcare and these two programs have an unfunded liability of almost $100 trillion.

Nixon closing the gold window in 1971 removed all restraint on the Federal Reserve, banks and politicians. With a fiat currency backed by nothing but promises, it was only a matter of time before the greed and corruption of bankers and politicians overcame any self imposed fiscal responsibility. The result has been the National Debt going from $400 billion in 1971 to $14.4 trillion today, a 3,600% increase in 40 years. Meanwhile, GDP only increased 1,350% over this same time frame.

The embrace of consumer debt by the Baby Boom generation beginning in 1980 created an atmosphere of living for today and not worrying about the future. This attitude has left 50% of all the households in the country with a net worth of $70,000 or below.

The repeal of the Glass Steagall Act in 1999 unleashed the hounds of hell upon America, as the soulless blood sucking vampires on Wall Street proceeded to rape and pillage the American economy with their financial derivatives of mass destruction and marketing of debt to the clueless masses. The housing bust and impoverishment of the middle class can be laid at the feet of these evil greedy bastards.

Bush’s unpaid for wars of choice, his reckless tax cuts, and his foolish expansion of a bankrupt Medicare program in the midst of two wars turbo charged the country on its path to default.

By bailing out Wall Street on the backs of the middle class in 2008/2009, the politicians in this country showed their hand. They will protect their fellow power brokers and contributors and throw the American people under the bus. Wall Street controls Congress.

The Keynesian schemes rolled out by Obama and his minions have just added trillions of debt while depressing the economic system and doing nothing to help the average person. The Fed created inflation has inflamed revolution through out the world and further impoverished the middle class who need to eat and fill up their cars.

In the midst of a Depression Obama chose to create a brand new healthcare bureaucracy, add 30 million people into the government controlled system, and commit the US taxpayer to trillions of future healthcare costs.

Wake Up America....

The $20 Preparedness Challenge

I've uploaded a new video to YouTube.  It's my take on the $20 Preparedness Challenge: Buy as much useful, necessary material as possible, for $20, to help deal with the expected future unpleasantness.  A good way to budget your preparedness dollars, using only a small amount each payday.

You can see the video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BIKvZzt07k

25 Years and ... Today?

I make a public announcement on this day every year, provided I make it through: 

My name is John Smith (really) and today (Nov. 1, 2014), I have been alcohol free for 25 years.

When people tell me I should be proud of such an accomplishment, I'm not intending to be a smart ass when I tell them I'm not proud; I'm thankful.  Why would I be proud of doing the right thing?  That's like an NFL receiver celebrating and chest thumping for catching a routine pass -- that's what he's supposed to do.  I thank the Lord for giving me a life free from alcohol.  There was a time when I didn't believe that was possible.

Short story:  With my second marriage collapsing in ruins and my career in the toilet, I told a trusted friend that I needed help.  I subsequently spent the most unpleasant six weeks of my life in a military rehabilitation program.  There, I found Alcoholics Anonymous.  AA saved my life by giving me the tools I needed to deal with my addiction.  I haven't been to an AA meeting in over 20 years. But I use those tools every day.

And, I have a plan.  I call it my "76 Plan."

When I'm 76, if I make it that far, on Oct. 31, 2039, when I've made it 50 years without a drink of alcohol, I'm going out and buying me a case of Bud, a bottle of Jack, a bag of good weed and carton of Marlboros.  Then, I'm going out like Jim Morrison -- I'm going to get so stoned my heart stops.

Meanwhile, I've just got to get through today... To those dealing with addiction: Ask for help. And don't give up hope.  

To see the accompanying video for this article, go here:  http://youtu.be/I5AOUzyxi54