Prepping for Normal People: How to Prep When You’re NOT an Epic Wilderness Survival Guru

This article was originally published by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper

Did you ever read a blog post on a prepper site and sigh, because the person writing the post seemed to have been born a survivalist?

In your mind’s eye, you could envision them at the tender age of six, weaving a snare from some vines that they wisely assessed not to be poison ivy, catching a rabbit, skinning and gutting it with a pocketknife, and cooking it over a fire they started with two sticks that they rubbed together, while wearing their little elementary-school-sized camo outfit.

Discouraging, isn’t it?

But not everyone can be Daryl Dixon.

Normal people can survive, too.

Prepping for normal people often seems out of reach, but it’s not as outrageous as it sounds.

In fact, I really don’t believe that the majority of preppers actually are rugged survival gurus. Most of us had to make a conscious effort to learn. Most of us aren’t wilderness guides or professional hunters or military special forces operatives.  We don’t regularly pop a deer in the backyard with a homemade bow, we don’t have a bunker with 30 years of storable food and an aquifer we can access from within the safety of its walls, we don’t isolate our children from all forms of popular culture, and we don’t live in the middle of nowhere, so deep in the woods that we have to carefully climb a tree while clenching a laptop in our teeth to get an internet signal. We aren’t all off-grid homesteaders that weave our own fabric from the sheep we nurtured through a Himalayan winter.

Nope.

We are regular moms and dads. We are grandparents or teenagers. We go to the movies, grab an occasional coffee at Starbucks, and shop at Safeway. Our kids have friends whose parents would have no clue what to do in a disaster. We have Golden Retrievers, Pomeranians, parakeets, and cats.  We have jobs with officemates who have no idea we possess a year’s worth of beans. We live in downtown apartments, Victorian cottages, and raised ranch homes in the suburbs.

There’s something that sets us apart from the normies.

The thing that sets us apart – and sets you apart too – is the willingness to accept that life is not rainbows and lollipops. Not only do we accept it, but we do our best to take responsibility for our families should a disaster strike, whether that disaster is something on such a grand scale that it affects the entire region, or so small and personal that it only affects those living in your home.

So don’t read that stuff and sigh anymore. While there are those people who truly have been born to the lifestyle, most of us aren’t that way.

And that means we all started somewhere.

Maybe it was the realization that it was better to buy more of the sale stuff so we’d have it on hand for lean weeks. Maybe a week-long power outage occurred and we didn’t want to be caught with our drawers down again. A storm, a job loss, a devastating illness – whatever the reason we started, chances are we didn’t start out by moving to a yurt in the wilderness and living off the land.

Anyone can do this.  Anyone.

All it takes is the willingness to learn and the enthusiasm to practice.  Preparedness is an evolution, one that we all begin at a different place.

Here’s an example.

I grew up a pampered city girl. My family was reasonably well-to-do, and when we went on vacation, we usually stayed at resorts or nice hotels. We didn’t ever go rough it in the woods, and the one time we “camped” (when I was about 6 years old) it was in a luxury trailer with a bedroom and a functioning bathroom. Needless to say, very few wilderness survival skills were learned. In fact, my mom didn’t even want me to walk out into the woods because she was worried I’d be bitten by a snake.

Fast forward to adulthood, when I was a single mom with two girls. I had been prepping for years, building stockpiles, learning to can, and doing all of the stuff city preppers do. I decided to up the ante, and when my oldest went off to college, my youngest and I moved out to the boondocks of Ontario, Canada. It was then that I realized I had no freakin’ idea what I was doing. None. I couldn’t even build a fire in the woodstove that would stay lit, and the woodstove was the only heat in the cabin. I thought, “What the heck have I done?” I wanted to bail, but I didn’t have enough money to scurry back to civilization.

So I learned.

I learned to build a fire, stack wood, deal with 5 feet – yes, 5 feet – of snow, avoid attracting bears to our cabin, paddle a canoe (once I finally learned to get in the canoe without flipping over), cook on  a woodstove during a blizzard power outage, live with intermittent running water and electricity – all sorts of stuff.

And I didn’t do ANY of it right the very first time I did it.

I broke things, froze wood to the wall of my cabin, shivered when the fire went out, freaked out when there was a bear on my porch, climbed out a window and dug my shovel out of the snow with cooking pots because I had left it outside and snow had blown against my door, burying the shovel and trapping us inside. Seriously, no one ever would have made a cool show about us living in the woods, not unless it was a comedy.

But I learned.

Anybody can learn, even a city girl like me.

I am MUCH better prepared after the year we spent doing that stuff. Now, that stuff is easy for me and I could flawlessly demonstrate many skills while people looked on, impressed. But it didn’t start out that way. I often meet people who are far more skilled than I am and I welcome the chance to learn from them.

I’m not writing this so you think, “Wow, why would I take any advice from her, ever? She didn’t even know how to build a fire a few years ago.”

I’m writing this so that you don’t become discouraged. So that you remember that preparedness is an evolution. It’s a journey that starts when you do.

Wherever you are right now is a great place to start. The best! If you are willing to research, learn, and practice, in 6 months you’ll be amazed at how much your skills have improved. If you start building your supplies now, no matter how slowly, in 6 months, your stores will have increased.

Learn some skills.

So get a few good books, find some good websites, and tackle some skill-building.

There are some awesome epic wilderness survival gurus and some off-grid families that truly want to help and teach. I know some of them. And there are some arrogant jerks who think that their way is the only way, and that anyone who is unlike them doesn’t stand a chance.  I know some of them, too. If a so-called teacher makes you feel like you don’t stand a chance because of your current point in the journey, get as far away from that person as possible. Whatever they have to teach you will be drowned out by the noise of their derogatory and discouraging attitudes.

There are many positive places to learn, like this website. Places where you can feel free to ask questions without feeling embarrassed.  There are warm and inviting places on the internet where people aren’t judgemental and where they gladly share their knowledge with newcomers.

You don’t have to start out as an epic survival guru.

No matter who you are.

No matter where you are.

All it takes to improve your chances of survival is the willingness to learn and the courage to try.

Check out these warm and welcoming preparedness websites:

Just start learning.

Most of us didn’t spring from the womb with a fire-starting flint and a #10 can. Most of us started exactly where you are now.


The Pantry Primer

Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.

Daisy is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting, homeschooling blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, and the pursuit of liberty on her websites, The Organic Prepper and DaisyLuther.com She is the author of 4 books and the co-founder of Preppers University, where she teaches intensive preparedness courses in a live online classroom setting. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter,.

Vietnam’s Energy Dilemma Is About To Become A Crisis

Authored by Tim Daiss via Oilprice.com,

Vietnam can’t seem to get a break. The country lies just beneath China, its giant neighbor to the north, and shares many of the same socialist ideals that Beijing promulgates. However, Sino-Vietnamese relations have been a source of tension for years dating back to the colonization of Vietnam by China centuries ago – a historical fact that the average Vietnamese citizen has never forgotten. Even after the protracted and costly war between North Vietnam and the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese government, that ended more than 40 years ago, China (which had proven a valuable ally for Hanoi during the war) turned on its smaller communist ally and invaded the country in 1979. It was a brief but bloody border war which showed Beijing that Vietnam could still hold its own.

<!–[if IE 9]><![endif]–>

Fast forward several decades and Hanoi is still trying to placate Beijing while at the same time rapidly improving relations with one-time adversary Washington. In fact, U.S.- Vietnamese relations, both trade and bilateral, have improved so much recently that the two sides could now arguably be called allies in the Asia-Pacific region. Of course, much of that alliance, similar in some respects to the decades-old U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia, is born of necessity. The U.S.-Saudi alliance was berthed in the aftermath of World War 2, held together amid shared concerns during the cold war, and remains amid worries over Iranian hegemony ambitions in the Middle East. The U.S.-Vietnamese alliance is largely held together over the mutual aim of both Washington and Hanoi to keep China’s economic and military ambitions in check in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in the volatile South China Sea, where Beijing claims as much as 90 percent of the troubled body of water.

Vietnam’s energy quandary

However, Hanoi’s angst with Beijing isn’t just political, it also related to Vietnam’s energy sector.

China’s increased muscle-flexing in the region has negatively impacted Vietnam’s ability to develop its own offshore natural gas resources.

Last March, according to a BBC report at the time, state-owned Petro Vietnam ordered Spanish energy firm Repsol to suspend an oil and gas project, which was in its final stages, off the country’s southeast coast within Vietnam’s, own 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The pull-out cost Repsol some $200mn in lost investment, an amount that the company has to date been unsuccessful at recouping. It was the second time in less than a year that Hanoi had bowed to Chinese pressure in its own waters. In July 2017, Hanoi also ordered Repsol to stop oil drilling operations at an adjacent location, Block 136/3, in response to what media at the time called “threats from China.” The geopolitical squabble in 2017 came just days after Repsol reportedly made a major gas discovery in the area.

Consequently, to offset both its blockage of developing its own gas resources and to help Vietnam meet its growing energy demand amid stellar economic growth, the country needs to turn to renewables. However, it’s still in the early stages of developing renewable energy sources and needs to introduce more incentive policies to attract more investment, media in the country reported last week, citing both domestic and international experts.

Hoang Quoc Vuong, Vietnam’s deputy minister of industry and trade, said that the rapid increase in energy demand and consumption of around 10 percent per year is having negative impacts on the environment, exhausting natural resources and also impacting the country’s energy security. Nonetheless, he reasoned, Vietnam’s clean energy development still has limitations, including unstable supply, difficulty in energy transmission and high costs. He added that the ministry was studying solutions to efficiently develop renewable energy towards a low-carbon economy.

For more than a decade, Vietnam’s economic growth has been second only to China as the country continues to develop and modernize. According to a report by the country’s Central Economic Commission, Vietnam’s economic growth stood at 7.08 percent last year. Vietnam ranks second among Southeast Asian countries with a total power system capacity of nearly 50,000 MW and is ranked 23rd on a global scale.

However, Vuong added that it’s necessary for Vietnam to develop a structure of energy supply sources, including hydroelectric, thermoelectric and renewables. Promoting an energy transition towards a low-carbon economy was critical, he said. By the end of last year, total hydropower capacity in the country of more than 90 million reached 22,000 MW, while solar capacity and wind power capacity is estimated to reach 1,000 MW and 1,500 MW, respectively. Vuong added that the ministry was also receiving a number of proposals to develop wind and solar power projects in the country.

However, hurdles remain to achieve those goals. The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently said that Vietnam in the early stages of developing renewable energy, thus the government needed to develop appropriate mechanisms to reduce risks for investors in renewable energy development. Pham Huong Giang, deputy head of the Renewable Energy Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the ministry was studying mechanisms to promote investment in developing renewable energy.

GOP Rep Introduces Bill to Punish Clinton & Comey for “Lying to Congress”

GOP Rep introduces bill targeting Clinton for lying to Congress

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz has introduced a new Bill that will hold Hillary Clinton, James Comey, and several other public figures accountable for lying to Congress. 

Introducing a resolution this week, Gaetz pointed out a longtime Trump ally, Roger Stone – who pleaded not guilty after he was arrested for allegedly lying to Congress – while others go unpunished.

Ijr.com reports: “Unfortunately, it often seems that we have a two-tiered justice system at work; certain people have the book thrown at them, while others face no consequences at all for their behavior,” Gaetz said, according to the Washington Examiner. “This is unfair and wrong, and I hope to correct this with my resolution.”

Gaetz’s “Justice for All” resolution, H.Res.97, calls for those lying to Congress to be “prosecuted equitably.”

“That stops today,” Gaetz wrote on Twitter, discussing his bill.

According to the resolution, Comey claimed he never authorized anyone to leak information to the media, “despite reports from the Office of the Inspector General indicating his response was likely untrue.”

Clinton said “there was nothing marked classified on my e-mails, either sent or received,” but it was “proven untrue” by FBI and the Office of the Inspector General reports, according to the resolution.

Additionally, the resolution states that Holder “provided false information” about the “Fast and Furious” program, along with two other instances of providing false information.

Gaetz’s resolution also targets former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and former Director of the Exempt Organizations Unit of the Internal Revenue Service Lois Lerner.

As Germany And France Come Apart, So Too Will The EU

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

If we follow the logic and evidence presented in these seven points, we are forced to conclude that the fractures in France, Germany and the EU are widening by the day.

When is a nation-state no longer a functional state? It’s an interesting question to ask of the European nation-states trapped in the devolving European Union. Longtime correspondent Mark G. recently posed seven indicators of dissolving national sovereignty; here’s his commentary:

“RE: The Ghosts of 1968 (February 14, 2018):

In France the “Ghosts of 1968” have become the Poltergeists of 2018. This looks like another real watershed in European and world history. Once again Parisian mobs have appeared and have collectively realized they now hold the real power. And their issues are all anti-EU (European Union) and anti-NWO. (New World Order)

I’m honing my German Collapse Scenario as more data flows in, as it is in ever-faster and larger quantities. ‘Germany’ will implode in parallel with the EU.

So-called ‘states’ with:

1. no effective military forces

2. no control of their own borders

3. no control of their currency and banks

4. a government with a ‘diverse’ population in which the majority either has no loyalty to Berlin (recent ‘refugee’ immigrants) or has dropped its loyalty (large parts of Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg), and which is also losing the allegiance of the many eastern European immigrants in Germany. These people are among the most energized opponents of the ‘refugee’ influx.

5. Fast rising anarchy and lawlessness by the recent ‘refugee’ immigrants, and which is well known to the population, as are the official orders to the police to minimize crime statistics reporting by not opening official cases.

and

6. A mass media believed by no one due to the bald lies it broadcasts 24/7 daily about numbers 1-5.

…will soon cease to exist. This is confirmed by:

7. The continuing spiral of the ruling post WWII political parties into their own political black holes. CDU/CSU on the right and SDP on the left have all lost their hold on the modern German population.

The biggest joke of all is that Theresa May is negotiating the terms of “Brexit” from the EU with a political corpse and not a viable polity.

Another round or lap is coming soon. Personally I think the only thing staving off another eurozone banking crisis is the absolute certainty that no imaginable German government can currently agree to the slightest external concession without risking an internal political collapse.

Thus all the various Eurozone elites involved are refraining from provoking such a crisis for calculated narrow reasons. This leaves it to a European mob in some capital to initiate it by confronting a national government with either internal political collapse or re-entering EU-wide monetary and fiscal conflict with the ECB/EU gang.

And yes, I’m sure you spotted the next part. Poland and Hungary acting on behalf of the Phoenix Rising Ersatz Austro-Hungarian Empire will twist the EU’s tail at that time as hard as they can for maximum regional advantage.”

The fracturing of Germany is conventionally viewed as somewhere between implausible and impossible, and the same can be said of France and Germany drifting apart and the EU dissolving: the mainstream is committed to presenting Germany, the German-French alliance, the euro and the EU as rock-solid.

Yet if we follow the logic and evidence presented in these seven points, we are forced to conclude that the fractures in France, Germany and the EU are widening by the day, and that the ceaseless propaganda spewed by the ruling elites isn’t mending the fractures or restoring the illusion of stability.

(Regarding the French yellow vest dissenters: the 80,000 mobilized security forces are intentionally seeking to incite violence to justify crushing the yellow vest dissenters with massive paramilitary force: French Democracy Dead or Alive?)

In the long run of history, the apparent solidity of 20 or 30 years can shatter very rapidly as populations under increasing financial and political stress default to much more enduring divisions and loyalties.

*  *  *

Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($6.95 ebook, $12 print): Read the first section for free in PDF format. My new mystery The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake is a ridiculously affordable $1.29 (Kindle) or $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF). My book Money and Work Unchained is now $6.95 for the Kindle ebook and $15 for the print edition. Read the first section for free in PDF format. If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.

The “Right to Repair” Movement Is Fighting Planned Obsolescence

This article was originally published by Meadow Clark at The Organic Prepper

When planned obsolescence goes too far, the people of the Right to Repair want the right to…repair things.  They aren’t fighting back with pitchforks and torches, but rather, screwdrivers and torch lights.

As a prepper, having supplies that last and are able to be repaired can only be a good thing. And part of the reasons it’s so difficult to reduce our consumerism is that everything just keeps breaking on us.

So, what do climate change regulations, so-called efficiency products, and planned obsolescence all have in common?

All three are crashing into each other and making everyone miserable and poorer.

What is planned obsolescence?

Planned obsolescence means the deliberate altering of a product to break down at a certain point (often right after the warranty is up) forcing the consumer to buy another. Another aspect of planned obsolescence is designing the product to prevent repair either by gluing parts together or using obscure parts and not allowing the sale of spare parts. In many cases, the products are too cheaply made to warrant money spent on repairs, so millions of products end up in the dump, making people wonder why they buy things in the first place.

Car manufacturers are notorious for planned obsolescence now. Older cars are now prized for their repairability and ease of getting spare parts. One of the most insidious examples of planned obsolescence is when Apple was caught deliberately slowing down older versions of its iPhones. Appliances and electronics are among the most infuriating culprits. “Fast fashion” is the clothing version of planned obsolescence.

Planned obsolescence has coincided with the climate change fever pitch and the fear of CO2 emissions. These two things have coincided with goods that are ostensibly manufactured to be energy “efficient.” As some folks are pointing out, however, it is anything but efficient to create more and more junk, then having it sit in landfills and break down into the environment.

How can you have environmentally friendly products that do nothing more than create waste? A senseless waste of resources. In 2017 alone, 525,000 tons of waste electronic and electrical waste were collected, just in the UK. And this waste only applies to household appliances. This is to say nothing of the labor involved to mine the resources and make these cheap goods.

More than that, people are just plain ticked off to have spent so much time and money on products that are purposely designed to break and engineered in a way that bans people from repairing them. It’s not that people don’t want to repair products. It’s that the product doesn’t allow for it – there are no available spare parts. And most frustrating of all, it can cost more to repair some products than to buy more.

Meet the Right to Repair movement.

The practice of planned obsolescence obviously benefits money hungry companies at the unfair expense of the customer.

People from the UK and the U.S. have spoken up about the inability to repair cheap goods.

The UK community repair movement is a worldwide group of “repair activists” that want others to stand with them to persuade designers, manufacturers, and government to make sure that products at least have the ability to be repaired.

They have released “The Manchester Declaration,” which says:

We are part of a growing movement pushing for our Right to Repair worldwide, alongside independent repair businesses and citizens frustrated with the early obsolescence of most of today’s products.

We ask UK legislators and decision-makers at all levels, as well as product manufacturers and designers, to stand with us for our Right to Repair, by making repair more accessible and affordable, and ensuring that we adopt product standards making products better supported, well documented and easier to repair by design. (source)

If you are interested in joining, find them over at the Restart Project.

What is the government’s role?

BBC reports that stopping the anti-repair practice consists of…

[…] a series of proposals from European environment ministers to force manufacturers to make goods that last longer and are easier to mend.The European proposals refer to lighting, televisions and large home appliances.

At least 18 US states are considering similar laws in a growing backlash against products which can’t be prised apart because they’re glued together, or which don’t have a supply of spare parts, or repair instructions. (source)

Will all these bureaucracies and directives really bring about products that work? I have suspicions. The urgency behind climate change and Agenda 21/Agenda 2030 wants to see a world with less consumption, fewer resources, and fewer goods. Every day the media pushes a false narrative of scarcity.

It is more likely there will be crimps on many resources.

How will this plan move forward?

If you’re wondering how this will proceed, here’s a summary.

European environment ministers have a series of proposals forcing manufacturers to make goods that last longer and are easier to mend. The European proposals refer to lighting, televisions and large home appliances.

Plans for the EU Ecodesign Directive are complex and controversial. Manufacturers say the proposed rules on repairability are too strict and will stifle innovation.

Consumer campaigners complain the EU Commission has allowed firms to keep control of the repair process by insisting some products are mended by professionals under the control of manufacturers.

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) said: “This restricts the access of independent repairers to spare parts and information – and that limits the scope and affordability of repair services.” The EEB also wants other products like smart phones and printers included in the legislation. (source)

Environment Minister Thérèse Coffey said that efficiency was “key to improving our productivity and making best use of precious resources”.

“That is why we are supporting measures in the new Ecodesign Directive product regulations to encourage repair and re-use of a range of products,” she told BBC News.

No, the Right to Repair movement will not stop planned obsolescence.

Like I said before, efficiency means using less energy and other resources, putting a strain on the consumer.

In the UK, the amount of power allowed for vacuum cleaner suction continues to be slashed. When you think of an “efficiency” toilet, remember it is anything but. When you have to flush two or three times, does that really help the environment?

The government is supporting all things that crimp energy usage and pretending that they’re doing you a favor. Kind of like those “eco-friendly” shower heads that give you that I-showered-but-it-looks-like-I-didn’t look.

More about being allowed to repair products:

There’s another debate about how readily consumers should be allowed to mend appliances. The Right to Repair movement wants products that can be fully disassembled and repaired with spare parts and advice supplied by the manufacturer.

Some manufacturers fear that bungling DIY repairers will damage the machines they’re trying to fix, and potentially render them dangerous.

One industry group, Digital Europe, said: “We understand the political ambition to integrate strict energy and resource efficiency aspects in Ecodesign, but we are concerned that some requirements are either unrealistic or provide no added value.

“The draft regulations limit market access, deviate from internationally-recognised best practices and compromise intellectual property.” (source)

Of course, the industries are acting ridiculous in suggesting that in order to protect proprietary design, they need to design garbage goods.

Still, the Right to Repair movement is only asking for a little breadcrumb from the table. It will not stop planned obsolescence and neither will the government.

What’s cool about them is that they are organized, have a cohesive voice, and one clear demand. So more power to that!

This is what real eco-design looks like

So, what does real “eco-design” look like?

It means that a product can last forever and become something else instead of toxic waste that simply gets repurposed.

One author leading the way for “cradle to cradle” design is William McDonough who wrote, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things and The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability–Designing for Abundance.

Even products and things that are touted as “eco-friendly” are anything but friendly. For instance, putting people in third-world countries into homes made from plastic garbage should be a disgrace. It doesn’t give people a safe home and it doesn’t solve the problem of plastic waste. Nor does a baby rattle made from recycled plastic which contains endocrine-disrupting phthalates. Rotating non-biodegradable waste will not get rid of the main problem: that we’ve created toxic products that have no outlet.

McDonough argues that we can change all that if we design a product that will always have a new life (become reborn) and never have a reason to be eradicated. Check out his TED talk on YouTube.

I don’t agree with everything he says, but at least he’s not anti-commerce, anti-earth, and he doesn’t buy the “everyone must sacrifice” lines blaring out from behind the Agenda 21 curtain.

What do you think of this news?

Are you going to join the Right to Repair efforts? How do you personally fight planned obsolescence? Let us know in the comments below!

The Pantry Primer

Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.

Daisy is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting, homeschooling blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, and the pursuit of liberty on her websites, The Organic Prepper and DaisyLuther.com She is the author of 4 books and the co-founder of Preppers University, where she teaches intensive preparedness courses in a live online classroom setting. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter,.

FLASHBACK: Nancy Pelosi Filibusters for More Than 8 Hours on Illegal Aliens — Sits on her butt for Americans

It was not even one year ago that Nancy Pelosi stood for eight hours on the US House floor to filibuster for illegal “dreamers.”

Pelosi wanted citizenship for the illegal immigrant “dreamers.”

Via Reddit The Donald:

President Donald Trump offered Pelosi and Democrats their Dreamers in exchange for a border wall.
Pelosi rejected the offer.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fast forward to today…
Pelosi went home this past weekend rather than stand for Americans and border security.

Pelosi vacationed in Hawaii rather than stand for Americans and border security.

Fast and Furious: Obama’s Potential Watergate Is About Eric Holder’s Missing E-Mails

On June 7 Attorney General Eric Holder told the U.S. House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee: “We’ve looked at 240 custodians, processed millions of electronic records and reviewed over 140,000 documents and produced to you about 7,600.” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) shot back: “So, 140,000 documents. How many documents are responsive but you are withholding at this time?” This isn’t election-year hyperbole. Rep. …
Red Ice Creations News Feed

Bill Maher admits he doesn’t understand fast and furious; marginalizes the issue and attempts to criticize those who do

http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=19250

Federal Jack

Obama’s Nixon moment: Executive Order invoked to block release of incriminating Fast and Furious documents

(NaturalNews) The level of outright criminality in the Obama administration is now apparent to almost everyone. In the face of incriminating documents being released regarding the lawbreaking Fast and Furious operation pulled off by Attorney General Eric Holder, President Obama has invoked executive order to prevent their release.

He followed it by saying, “I am not a crook.”

Oh wait, that was Nixon. But it’s hard to tell the difference anymore except that Nixon’s crimes pale in comparison to the crimes being committed by the Obama administration.

This is an administration that has abolished due process and legalized secret military arrests, interrogations and imprisonment (http://www.naturalnews.com/034537_NDAA_Bill_of_Rights_Obama.html), seized control over U.S. farms, livestock and seeds (http://www.naturalnews.com/035301_Obama_executive_orders_food_supply….), created secret “kill lists” of American citizens to be murdered by the state (including at least one young girl), escalated the failed War on Drugs, paid off Wall Street banksters with another trillion dollars in bailout money, conspired with Monsanto to eliminate regulation of GMOs, and expanded both DHS and the TSA to keep violating Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights across the airports (and city streets) of America.

The list of crimes the Obama administration has committed is too long to even fit in this story. It dwarfs the crimes of the Nixon Administration, Clinton Administration and Bush Administration combined!

And yet, I somehow feel compelled to vote for Obama this November. Watch my satire video: 7 reasons to re-elect President Obama:

http://tv.naturalnews.com/v.asp?v=D5C2DEC34855623A6488F5136D77F013

or on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAiAlSiWKP0

Evidence of felony crimes committed by this administration

The documents in question are internal emails and communications from February, 2011, which would reveal how justice officials came to learn about Fast and Furious. We already know, of course, how they learned about it: They engineered the entire operation! These documents, if released, would undoubtedly prove it.

Thus, the Attorney General and now President Obama are pulling out all the stops, desperately trying to make sure nobody sees these documents. It brings up the question government goons always ask innocent travelers at the airport: If you don’t have anything to hide, you shouldn’t mind us searching you!

If the Obama Administration didn’t have anything to hide, why would they mind releasing a few emails and internal documents from the Attorney General’s office? After all, isn’t the Attorney General supposed to be working on behalf of the People, fighting crime and seeking justice at every turn? Why would emails regarding such activities need to be kept from the public?

The answer, of course, is that these documents likely prove the total criminality of Eric Holder and the government conspiracy behind Fast and Furious.

Fast and Furious was a government-run conspiracy to cause gun violence as a way to criminalize gun ownership in America

The program, after all, allowed tens of thousands of guns and grenades to be sold to Mexican drug gangs, and U.S. ATF agents even assisted the sales! Once the guns were lost in Mexico, many of them resurfaced at the scene of various murders in the USA, including murders of border patrol agents and law enforcement officers.

Thus, Eric Holder and the Obama administration are involved in a deep conspiracy that resulted in the murder of U.S. law enforcement agents. The point of the operation, however, was to cause a spike in gun violence in America which could then be invoked as justification to crush the Second Amendment and outlaw firearms ownership across the country. It is, without question, the most evil government false flag operations we’ve seen since 9/11.

Gee, no wonder they don’t want to release the documents. There’s an election to win, after all, and the worst thing for any election would be for the actual truth to come out. And this is for a President who argued in 2007, on Larry King LIVE, that no President should “hide behind executive privilege every time there’s something a little shaky that’s taking place.”

Watch the video of Obama saying this himself at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpwYh9TD6Nc

The one thing you can count on with Obama, of course, is that what he SAYS and what he DOES are complete opposites. Maybe the Obama of 2012 should consult with the Obama of 2007 and actually do the right thing for the People of America for a change: Release the documents. Now the whole world wants to know what they contain.

Where is Wikileaks when you really need ‘em?

http://www.naturalnews.com/036235_Obama_Nixon_Fast_and_Furious.html#ixzz1yT5OWcWE

Federal Jack

Pentagon sets up fast track for buying cyber war tools

ShareThis

Pentagon sets up fast track for buying cyber war tools 12 Apr 2012 The Pentagon is establishing a fast-track acquisition process that would enable it to develop new cyber warfare capabilities within days or months if urgently needed, the Defense Department said in a report to Congress. The process, which would be overseen by a new senior-level Cyber Investment Management Board, aims to streamline the sluggish traditional defense acquisition process to meet the rapid pace of events US warmongering in cyberspace, the 16-page report said. U.S. Cyber Command, the combatant command set up nearly two years ago to defend military networks and carry out offensive cyber operations if ordered, would validate the needs.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

The Pentagon’s ’freakily fast’ robo-cheetah

A galloping robot set a new speed record for multi-legged machines — clocking in at 18 mph The awkward march of the military’s Robo-mule was sturdy, if inelegant. Now, the newest animal-inspired robot sponsored by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) takes its cues from a much faster beast: The cheetah. Built by robotics firm Boston Dynamics, robo-cheetah just …

Red Ice Creations News Feed

What’s Hiding Behind the Buzzwords in Job Ads? How to navigate in the New World order

Or perhaps, confusing jargon suggests that the company has an ill-defined mission or strategy. “Most people have no idea what the development plans really are; they don’t know where they’re going,” says Fleming.

With that in mind, we’ve asked Fleming, Ullrich and other career experts to help us decode the most commonly used jargon in job ads, often the same buzzwords that fill up resumes.

Detail-oriented. “Watch out for control freaks,” Fleming warns. Unless the position involves detail at its core — like a forensic accountant or administrative assistant — this phrase hints that your every move will be scrutinized and second-guessed.

Team player. It may sound innocuous, but be wary that this innocuous phrase really means that you’ll take whatever the bosses dish out, “for the team.” “Team player is code phrase for someone who will allow us to do whatever we want to you,” Fleming explains.

Fast-paced work environment. This means that the employer wants high productivity at all costs and you’ll be fielding a steady flow of emergencies. “Fast paced means you’re going to work more hours than we’re paying you,” interprets Ullrich. Some industries, such as journalism or communications, are truly fast paced, but you should already know that going into those fields. “Fast-paced work environment means it’s a little bit of a crazy office,” says Kate Giannini, senior recruitment manager at Edelman Public Relations in San Francisco.

Multitask. Neuroscience tells us it’s actually impossible for the human brain to multitask successfully. By trying simultaneously to complete different tasks, we reduce our performance and effectiveness at each individual job. “Multitasking is an utter violation of reality. What they’re trying to say is, ‘We may switch up your job description without telling you and we want you to be okay with it,’ ” Fleming says. You’ll need to be able to quickly prioritize initiatives and figure out which competing task is the most important, Ullrich says.

Self-starter. “It’s saying, ‘When we don’t give you any sense of direction, we want you to pull it out of thin air,'” interprets Fleming. “Self starter is a code phrase for, ‘Can you make ambivalence and lack of direction work?’ ”

Read full article

JW Sues over Fast and Furious

October 14, 2011

From the Desk of Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton:

Holder on Hot Seat, JW Sues Justice for Fast and Furious Documents

The Fast and Furious scandal may be the final undoing of Obama Attorney General Eric Holder. Fast and Furious is a Department of Justice (DOJ)/Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) “gun-running” operation in which guns were sold to Mexican drug cartels in hopes that they would end up at crime scenes! Well, they did, such as the crime scene of the murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry – and countless others in Mexico.

On Wednesday, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued a subpoena to force Holder to testify about Fast and Furious. Fox News reported:

Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a subpoena Wednesday to Attorney General Eric Holder as part of his investigation into the gun trafficking operation known as “Fast and Furious.”

“Top Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Holder, know more about Operation Fast and Furious than they have publicly acknowledged,” the California Republican said in a statement. “The documents this subpoena demands will provide answers to questions that Justice officials have tried to avoid since this investigation began eight months ago. It’s time we know the whole truth.

And why would Rep. Issa have reason to believe Holder and his minions at DOJ have been less than truthful?

Late last week, new allegations emerged that Holder lied to Congress about what he knew and when he knew it concerning the operation, prompting calls for a special counsel to investigate.

Here’s how Holder got himself into trouble.

On May 3, 2011, in a House Judiciary Committee hearing chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) Holder testified: “I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.” But newly released documents show he was receiving weekly briefings on Fast and Furious as far back as July 5, 2010! (See the documents here.)

Holder subsequently said he misunderstood the question. Not many are buying that excuse. It is now up to Holder to explain how his own Justice Department can credibly investigate him for lying to Congress.

Reps. Issa and Lamar Smith and others in Congress, including Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), should be congratulated for taking Fast and Furious so seriously. But, at the same time, if we’re ever going to get to the bottom of this we need an independent investigation. And that’s where your Judicial Watch comes in.

On Tuesday, we sued the DOJ and the ATF to obtain Fast and Furious records. Back on July 13, our investigations team submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking:

  • All records of communication, contracts and correspondence between ATF Director Kenneth E. Melson and any official, officer, or employee of the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) regarding ATF Phoenix Operation Fast and Furious.
  • All records regarding, concerning, or related to, the October 26, 2009 meeting/telephonic conference call between DAG David Ogden, Assistant Attorney General (AAG) Lanny Breuer, ATF Director Melson, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Michelle Leonhart, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller, and other DOJ officials regarding the Southwest Border Strategy (including, but not limited to, any agendas, minutes, transcripts, notes, or presentations).
  • All records prepared for, or submitted to, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding, concerning, or related to, ATF Operation Fast and Furious.

(Judicial Watch filed a similar FOIA request with ATF on the same day. Neither agency responded within the time the law requires – prompting our lawsuits.)

With these lawsuits we’re trying to get to the genesis of the Fast and Furious operation, which was reportedly discussed during that October 26, 2009, telephonic conference call, as well as information being provided to and/or withheld from Congress by the Obama administration.

The requests we’ve made are very basic, and yet we haven’t received one document from the DOJ or ATF regarding Fast and Furious. Given their dissembling, DOJ and ATF are apparently in cover-up mode. Now they’ll have to answer to a federal court for their obfuscation.

Make no mistake; this seems to be one of the most egregious examples of corruption and malfeasance inside of the Obama administration we’ve seen yet.

In Fast and Furious, the ATF, with the full approval of the DOJ, allowed guns to be sold and sent to the Mexican drug cartels.

It’s called letting guns “walk.” And it remained a well-kept Obama administration secret until the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010. Terry was killed in a shootout with Mexican criminals who were armed with Fast and Furious guns found at the crime scene. After Terry’s murder, “ATF agent John Dodson blew the whistle on the operation,” CBS News wrote.

These same Mexican drug cartels seem now to be available for hire for terrorist operations here in the United States.

Once Fast and Furious splashed into the news, the man at the head of ATF, Kenneth Melson, reportedly told Rep. Issa that the senior officials at the DOJ were trying to suppress information about the scandal – an admission that surely earned Melson a transfer to a make-work position at DOJ. The U.S. Attorney in Phoenix who helped run the operation was forced to resign. And the Los Angeles Times reported that two more high ranking ATF officials have been demoted as the DOJ attempts to clean up the mess.

So how is it that Holder, the supervisor of all these men, has kept his job?

Remember, we saw similar behavior from Holder’s DOJ regarding the Black Panther scandal. At least one Obama administration official testified to Congress that no political appointees were involved in the decision at the DOJ to abandon the voter intimidation lawsuit against the Black Panthers. Judicial Watch obtained the evidence proving this was a bald-faced lie. Even Holder himself was a recipient of email updates on the Black Panther case.

Again, a discrepancy between what an Obama administration official said and what the evidence shows.

By now you know my thoughts on Holder. He should resign. In the meantime, we’re going to do our part to uncover the truth behind Fast and Furious.

On this point, Judicial Watch is hosting a special discussion next Tuesday, October 18, with special guest Senator Grassley here at Judicial Watch’s headquarters in DC to discuss Fast and Furious and other current challenges to the rule of law (such as stealth amnesty). Join us in Washington, DC, or watch live online on Tuesday beginning at 8 a.m. EDT, at http://www.judicialwatch.org/live.

Judicial Watch Uncovers Intelligence Document on Beslan Terrorist Attack

As the old saw goes, past is prologue. And one way to see what terrorists have in store for their enemies around the world today, including the United States, is to analyze their past operations. That includes a shockingly brutal terrorist attack that occurred in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia, in September 2004, in which 380 of the 1,100 hostages (children, parents, teachers, and visitors) held captive for three days were murdered.

Judicial Watch recently uncovered an intelligence document providing a detailed analysis of the Beslan attack in response to a FOIA request we filed all the way back on August 26, 2005. The document, jointly released by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and dated October 12, 2004, analyzes the Beslan terrorist attack with a view toward gleaning lessons for potential attacks on schools in the United States.

While the ultimate conclusion of the report is that such attacks posed no immediate threat to the U.S., the bulletin details “several items that law enforcement, school administration and security personnel may consider when developing school security and emergency response plans.”

What are these recommendations? We do not know. The “transparent” Obama administration redacted these recommendations under “deliberative process” exemption, a decision which Judicial Watch is appealing.

While key recommendations were blacked out, the intelligence bulletin discusses a long list of operational details of the raid on the Beslan school, including transportation, techniques for overcoming security, prepositioning of weapons and explosives, terrorist surveillance and planning, controlling hostages by separating children from parents and teachers, and terrorist efforts to thwart Russian government counterterrorism techniques and teams.

The bulletin also highlights Russian failures at the scene, which include failing to implement a comprehensive response plan and failing to establish an effective cordon around the school during the incident. The bulletin closes with the observation that “[e]mergency medical treatment for children is significantly different from adults and should be factored into any plan or exercise.”

Importantly, many of the terrorist techniques that became widely adopted elsewhere, such as IEDs and the use of female suicide bombers were used by terrorist groups in Chechnya. (See this report from The National Academies entitled, “Countering Urban Terrorism in Russia and the United States” for more information on this point.)

Judicial Watch also previously uncovered a Defense Intelligence Agency document detailing al-Qaida’s 1998 activities in Chechnya, which included a “direct route to Chechnya from Pakistan and Afghanistan through Turkey and Azerbaijan.”

So there is clearly an al-Qaida link in Chechnya, and much to learn from terrorist operations in that country, if the Obama administration would only let the American people in on the secret.

The alleged purpose of the intelligence briefing was to glean information to help protect school children from a potential terrorist attack. What sense does it make for the Obama administration to keep secret the bulletin’s important recommendations for schools and emergency responders?

Apparently everything is a secret for the Obama administration – even recommendations for saving school children from a terrorist attack.

Judicial Watch Staff Members Angel Azar and Irene Garcia Honored by Congress

If you’ve been reading the Update for any length of time, you know that Judicial Watch has become the nation’s largest and most effective government watchdog organization. This is due to the hard work and dedication of a great many professionals who serve on Judicial Watch’s staff.

This week I would like to close by congratulating two of them: Angel Azar and Irene Garcia.

On Thursday, October 13, Angel and Irene received a Certificate of Congressional Recognition for “outstanding and invaluable service” to the community as “successful Hispanic leader[s] in South Florida.” This awards ceremony was part of an effort by Congress to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. They are both very deserving of this honor.

Let me tell you just a little bit about Angel and Irene.

Angel is the Southeastern regional fundraising director for Judicial Watch. He is a Dominican-born, retired U.S. Army Veteran who has worked for a number of corporations worldwide. Angel also speaks Spanish, Portuguese, German and Italian. Angel has done good work in the important area of helping Judicial Watch raise support for all its programs.

Irene writes Judicial Watch’s daily blog, Corruption Chronicles, and is the group’s Spanish media liaison. Before joining the organization in 2001, Irene spent 13 years as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times where she covered sports, entertainment, breaking news and politics. Irene, who is Cuban-American, has a journalism degree with a minor in Spanish literature from California State University Northridge. Irene’s journalistic skills in Corruption Chronicles make our site one of the most influential on the Internet.

Angel and Irene are valued members of the Judicial Watch team who continue to work diligently to help our organization confront government corruption and secrecy. I could not be more proud of their accomplishments at Judicial Watch and in their communities.

Until next week…

Tom Fitton
President

Judicial Watch is a non-partisan, educational foundation organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code. Judicial Watch is dedicated to fighting government and judicial corruption and promoting a return to ethics and morality in our nation’s public life. To make a tax-deductible contribution in support of our efforts, click here.

Twitter Judicial Watch on Twitter | Twitter Tom Fitton on Twitter | Facebook Judicial Watch on Facebook

YouTube Judicial Watch on YouTube | RSS Judicial Watch RSS

Judicial Watch’s Weekly Update emails are posted on our website. If you desire to share a link to the email, please use the links available and do not reproduce the entirety or significant portions of this email on your own site.

Judicial Watch RSS feed

JW Presents Sen. Chuck Grassley: “The Rule of Law under Attack – from Stealth Amnesty to the Fast and Furious Scandal”

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced it will host a presentation by Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA): “The Rule of Law under Attack – from Stealth Amnesty to the Fast and Furious Scandal.” Senator Grassley is Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and has a well-earned reputation as a leading Senate watchdog against government waste, fraud, and abuse.

Date Tuesday, October 18
Time 8 a.m. EDT
Location Judicial Watch Inc.*
Main Conference Room
425 Third St., SW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20024

Moderator will be President of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton.

The event is free of charge and open to the press and the public.

Breakfast will be provided.

The doors will open at 7:30 a.m. ET for media set-up. Mult box will be available.

*Across from NASA headquarters, one block south of Southwest Federal Center Metro station.

Judicial Watch RSS feed

We Are Change TV.US