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From Modern Survival Blog

…says Joel Skousen interviewed recently by John Wells on Coast-to-Coast-AM. Joel, a political scientist specializing in the philosophy of law and Constitutional theory, has been an expert in the field for decades, and believes we still have time before the inevitable day when the major cities of the US will be nuked.

Joel espouses a strong message for sure, but perhaps one that we should not overlook while being open minded to the possibilities of our uncertain future.

“We have time” he says, but how much time? He discusses various preconditions, some of which could present themselves within several years. However he believes with apparent 90% certainty that this will come to pass within 10 years, and quite possibly sooner.

He, and many others including yours-truly, believes there is a globalist agenda afoot, and has been for some time. Not a NATO-type agenda, but a darker globalist militarized New-World-Order agenda. One where ‘they’ want to force Americans (and the rest of the West) into… a new world government.

Listening to the 2 hour interview was fascinating. The man clearly is intelligent and has a unique ability to observe the many events going on around us (and those that have already occurred historically) and tie it all together in a spider web that all comes together in the middle, and explain it in such a way that makes sense – if you’re open to the concept of this conspiracy.

I couldn’t possibly summarize it…

learn to store your food long term using food grade buckets, mylar bags, and oxygen absorbers. learn more at www.emprepdork.blogspot.com
Video Rating: 4 / 5

From Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

The Pentagon is about to waste $ 1.5 trillion, 38% of entire defense budget for a “virtual flying piano“. That may sound preposterous, and it is. Unfortunately, it is also true.

Foreign Policy Magazine discusses the sad saga of The Jet That Ate the Pentagon.

This month, we learned that the Pentagon has increased the price tag for the F-35 by another $ 289 million — just the latest in a long string of cost increases — and that the program is expected to account for a whopping 38 percent of Pentagon procurement for defense programs, assuming its cost will grow no more.

How bad is it? A review of the F-35′s cost, schedule, and performance — three essential measures of any Pentagon program — shows the problems are fundamental and still growing.

Although the plane was originally billed as a low-cost solution, major cost increases have plagued the program throughout the last decade. Last year, Pentagon leadership told Congress the acquisition price had increased another 16 percent, from $ 328.3 billion to $ 379.4 billion for the 2,457 aircraft to be bought. Not to worry, however — they pledged to finally reverse the growth.

The result? This February, the price increased another 4 percent to $ 395.7 billion and then even further in April. Don’t expect the cost overruns to end there: The test program is only 20 percent complete, the Government Accountability Office has reported, and

…

From The Market Ticker

There’s an old saying that goes something like this:

Will you stop pissing on me and calling it rain?

Peter Orszag makes the following observation in a “View” column today on Bloomberg:

Bernanke said in his speech on April 13, at a conference sponsored by the Russell Sage Foundation and the Century Foundation, that “any theory of the crisis that ties its magnitude to the size of the housing bust must also explain why the fall of dot-com stock prices just a few years earlier, which destroyed as much or more paper wealth — more than $ 8 trillion — resulted in a relatively short and mild recession and no major financial instability.”

…

The Fed chairman is right: The housing crisis was much more damaging because the initial impact was concentrated in a highly leveraged financial sector and then substantially amplified as those losses cascaded.

The rest of the column is basically a scolding on the “miss”, ignoring the real policy question that should be debated and answered:

How did it come to be that one of the key items for every person’s personal comfort and indeed their life — housing — came to be a “highly-leveraged financial sector”, what intentional government distortions made this possible, and how do we withdraw those distortions so that (1) it doesn’t happen again and (2) necessary components of everyday life — such as housing — are not…

From SurvivalBlog.com

I got myself into prepping and survivalism after the turn of the century, so my main resource was the Internet. That in and of itself was a whole learning process, as well — but the scope of this article will focus on what appeared to be an amazing find in that great, infinite Google. $ 80 for an accurate, reliable, rugged bolt-action repeater that was on-par with a .30-06, ballistically… and had dirt-cheap ammo, to boot? There had to be a catch, and oh, how the forum-goers toting $ 5,000 AR setups assured me (and plenty of people in similar metaphorical boats) that it couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn (from the inside), it blew up, all the bolts stuck, the triggers were horrible and couldn’t be fixed, and the corrosive ammo wasn’t worth the trouble.

Boy, how I learned how wrong they were. Though I’ve had a fascination with the rifles for quite some time, I ended up acquiring other weapons first, as fate would have it. However, I’ve since gotten my own example, and no longer have to bother friends or roommates to get a chance to toy around with one (although an acquaintance at gunsmithing school had a beautiful 91/30 he’d refinished the wood on, himself).

My rifle is a round receiver Tula, 91/30. I was lucky enough to get one with an excellent bore, bolt, and all the accessories (oiler, tools in cloth wrap, sling, bayonet…

From What if IT is today? – A Survivalist’s Blog

In my quest to clean stuff up I came across a bag of collector cards…at least to those who collect them.  I put an add in Craigslist that I wanted to sell them for $ 100 firm. I got one response.  I have to include it here word for word.  His emails and my responses:

Can u sent pics of da cards

No.  They are in a big plastic bag.  Some are in page sleeves.  I can bring it into town and meet you someplace either Monday or Tuesday of this week or next weekend.

Wats da least u want

$ 100.  If you look at the cards and don’t think it’s worth it then you don’t have to buy them.

How mny halos in totl

I have no idea.  You can count them when you look at them.

Whr u from u dnt knoe how many halos.

Does your grandma know about halos – other than the ones around angels? 

Funny, I haven’t heard back since!

A few years ago, when son, daughter-in-law, and baby were in their car accident I left the house a few hours after I got the phone call.  I caught the first plane to the city where they were hospitalized.  I had no idea how long I would be away from work or home.  This was before I had the responsibility of raising the two grandkids that I have now.  At 1:00 in the…

i wouldnt be irish without a few spuds in the garden!
Video Rating: 4 / 5

From The Economic Collapse

Who is the biggest loser in the ongoing decline of the U.S. economy?  Is it the wealthy?  No, the stock market has been soaring lately and their incomes are actually going up.  Is it the poor?  Well, the poor are definitely hurting very badly, but when you don’t have much to begin with you don’t have much to lose.  Unfortunately, it is the middle class that has lost the most during this economic downturn.  According to Bloomberg, 95 percent of the jobs lost during the recession were middle class jobs.  That is an absolutely astounding figure.  Yes, some executives lost their jobs during the last recession as did some minimum-wage workers.  But overwhelmingly the jobs that were lost were middle income jobs.  Sadly, the limited number of jobs that have been added since the end of the last recession have mostly been low income jobs.  A higher percentage of Americans are working low income jobs than ever before, and the cost of living continues to rise at a very brisk pace.  This is causing an erosion of the middle class unlike anything we have ever seen in American history.

When I was growing up I was taught that the fact that we had the largest middle class in the history of the world was evidence that our economic system was working incredibly well.

So what does the fact…

From Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

As the economic crisis lingers on, the number of ludicrous proposals to deal with the crisis rises every month.

I have lost count by now of preposterous ideas and who made them (does anyone have the complete list?), but a proposal by Harvard Economics professor Martin Feldstein to force taxpayers to buy Spanish bonds surely makes the list of top-five ludicrous proposals.

Martin Feldstein, writing for the Financial Times says Taxpayers must backstop Spain’s budget

Spain is rapidly approaching a liquidity impasse. Markets are nervous because it’s not clear how the government will finance its budget deficit and the rollover of its maturing bonds. To meet its financing needs, the Spanish government needs the confidence of foreign and domestic investors.

Building investor confidence during this process requires a plan to avoid a Greek-style default.

One part of such a plan is to negotiate access to the European Stability Mechanism, the €700bn fund created to protect member governments from default. But if the refinancing shortfall from private sources is very large, Spain will need to supplement the funds from the ESM.

Raising those additional funds by increasing taxes would push the Spanish economy into a deeper recession and would weaken the supply-side incentives needed to stimulate long-term growth.

An alternative emergency approach would be to mandate, on a temporary basis, bond purchases by Spanish households and businesses. Here’s how such a plan might be implemented.

The Spanish government could

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From The Market Ticker

It gets old Paul, and you need to have your degree revoked.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman suggested Federal Reserve policy makers led by Ben S. Bernanke are “reckless” for refusing to pursue higher inflation, which he said could lower U.S. unemployment.

“The reckless thing is to allow mass unemployment to continue,” Krugman, a Princeton University professor, said on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart” yesterday. “We have had a massive failure of our political system that has come to accept that 8 percent unemployment is the new normal and there is nothing that can be done,” Krugman said. “We’re in a low-key version of the Great Depression.”

….

“Inflation is theft,” said Paul, a Republican presidential candidate who said he will stay in the race until his party’s convention in August. “You’re stealing value from people who save money. It really destroys an important feature of the economy — and that is saving.”

Ron Paul has it half right.  The problem is that he hasn’t (and I don’t know why he won’t) go after the debasement committed by private banking interests at the behest of government.

Here is the reality of inflation in the money supply (including credit) and income change over the last 30 years:

Rebased to (1) be an income growth (or loss) figure by (1) subtracting one from the other and (2) removing purely-financial product credit growth (which some will argue never makes…