Episode-1373- Listener Feedback for 6-23-14
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (26.5MB)
Join Me Today as I Answer Your eMails
Today on the Survival Podcast I take your comments, questions and thoughts on chickens, GMOs, drugs, government, economics, taxes, personal debt and more.
Make sure if you submit content for a feedback show that you put something like “comment for jack”, “question for jack” or “article for jack” in the subject line to assure proper identification for my screening process.
Please understand I receive several hundred emails a day and can’t get them all on the air.
I also do put out a lot of information on Facebook from emails that I can’t fit on the program though so keep em coming.
Join Me Today As I Respond to Your Emails On
- How can you profitably raise Non GMO meat birds
- As part of the above, why don’t you see more “non GMO labels” in stores
- Marijuana proves your government lies, period, no way can your refute this
- What incubator we use and why
- More from the Jack was right files, mileage taxes are coming
- FACTA money grab and capital control yes, the death of the dollar, sigh, no!
- Dealing with collections agents
Resources for today’s show…
- Join the Members Brigade
- The Year 1373
- Join Our Forum
- 13Skills.com
- Join Our Forum
- Walking To Freedom
- TSP Gear
- PermaEthos.com
- Ready Made Resources – (sponsor of the day)
- Back Yard Food Production – (sponsor of the day)
- Your government claims pot is more dangerous than Meth and Cocaine
- The non GMO project
- IncuView™ All-In-One Automatic Egg Incubator
- Video about the mileage tax I played today
- The Secret Tax that Could Collapse the Dollar, NOT!
Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air.
Also remember we have an expert council you can address your calls to. If you do this you should email me right after your call at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with expert council call in the subject line. In the body of your email tell me that you just called in a question for the council and what number you called in from. I will then give the call priority when I screen calls.
Our Expert Council is Made Up of…
- Kerry Davis – Dark Angel Medical – Emergency Medicine and Life Saving Care
- Bryan Black – ITS Tactical – All Things Tactical, E&E, Lock Picking, etc.
- Frank Sharp Jr. – Fortress Defense Consultants – Weapons, Tactics and Security
- Darby Simpson – DarbySimpson.com – Livestock and Farm Management/ Homestead Consulting
- Ben Falk – Whole Systems Design – Permaculture
- Tim Glance – Old Grouch’s Military Surplus – Bug Out Vehicles, Military Surplus and Communications
- Steven Harris – Solar1234 – All things Energy
- Chef Keith Snow – Harvest Eating – Cooking
- John Pugliano – Investable Wealth – Investing and Finance
- Gary Collins – PrimalPowerMethod.com – Health and Nutrition (primal/paleo/etc)
- Michael Jordan – The Bee Whisper – All Things Bees
Join the MSB Today
Want Every Episode of TSP Ever Produced?
Remember in addition to discounts to over 40 vendors who supply stuff you are likely buying anyway, tons of free ebooks and video content, MSB Members also get every edition of The Survival Podcast ever produced in convenient zip files in blocks of 24. More info on the MSB can be found here.
“We’re feeding schedule II drugs to our kids everyday.” Yup. Wow. It’s that crazy. Thanks for taking the time to point it out for the insanity it is Jack. Incredible – sometimes I almost forget for a moment how far off the rails it’s gotten and how far off center “normal” has become.
As a pharnacist, the csa is a joke. Although marijuana is a good example, the real hypocrisy is DMT. DMT is a molecule that everyone, and I mean everyone, naturally produces by our pineal gland. We produce this EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. According to this logic of the csa, we are all in possession and use of a class 1 substance.
Furthermore, certain churches and tribes have sued and won the right to use this substance in religious ceremonies.. Although I have no problem with them using that, I do have a problem with someone else going to prison for along ass time for the same possession, that we are all guilty of by simply being human, although dmt is not limited to only human beings.
But Jack, driving on public roads is a privilege, not a right, so what’s wrong with a driving tax? Don’t drive if you don’t want a tracking device in your car.
Because it isn’t just a tax and by the way you make an excellent point it is a privilege and that means they can do this unless the collective owners of the road (us) stop them and we won’t.
I disagree with you that it’s a privilege to drive on a public road for the same reason that it’s not a privilege to walk on a public sidewalk. For some reason the libertarian movement has no problem espousing this notion that freedom of movement is a privilege when it comes to public roads.
Imagine, for the sake of parallelism, that suddenly the government says that it’s also illegal to bear arms in a public roads since it’s a privilege to drive on them in the first place. Or how about, you can carry while on your property, but the moment you leave your house your 2nd amendment rights have to be surrender in exchange for the privilege to transit on a public road.
It’s a slippery slope.
Someone mentioned below that we need to go back to the horse. The mode of transit is not the problem. It is the mentality of the people. Back in the day of the horse and carriage no one would have been accepted that riding a horse was privilege.
For someone that votes for the R you have a hard time understanding current reality.
Again the slope slipped a LONG time ago.
So, do you agree that it’s not a privilege but a right to drive on public roads?
I may surprise you this coming election.
No I don’t agree because you have no leg to stand on. If you want to say it SHOULD BE A RIGHT there may be something to discuss but your stance is well, just in conflict with facts, I don’t waste much time on such things. If I didn’t type at about 120 WPM you’d not even get this response.
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
Doesn’t apply and you’d never get any court anywhere to ever say it did ever under our current system. Frankly you are starting to bore the shit out of me here. You are trying to convince me the sky is orange.
We pay road taxes when we buy gasoline, right? So why isn’t using roads a right?
Well because you are NOT THE SOLE OWNER, got that. Say you and me and 20 guys go in on 100 acres and see it all as common property, we are all on the deed, we are all equal owners. So does any one of us just have the right to choose to just do whatever the hell they want on that land?
Okay well the roads of this nation (public anyway) have about 300,000,000 co owners and that board of owners gets to decide how the commerce on said roads is handled.
Cup Plant (Silphium perfoliatum), Bundleflower (Desmanthus spp.) and sugarberry (Celtis spp.) are some of the most valuable perennial fodders to add to Jack’s excellent design concept
Time to bring back the horse and buggy…or maybe the old plans I saw on Popular Mechanics years and years ago for making your own hovercraft. Or maybe the jet packs that so many people thought we’d all be using by the year 2000.
If there are such things as ghosts, we must all be breaking the hearts of the men and women, mostly men, who died in WW1 and 2 to preserve our freedom. Maybe it’s as they say, we didn’t pay for it (they did) so we simply don’t value it.
It’s hard to believe that people are worrying about such things as what a sports team is named and whether people have 80% of their front yard in lawn or not when daily we are legislated to become more like ants in an anthill, simply existing to serve the system. How fearful people are, to be so immobilized.
Mileage tax: Around here (both MA and NH), they’re still raising gas taxes while at the same time saying they need the mileage tax. So, their claims to “lost revenue” are complete BS.
Regardless, how do we stop this? Wrap foil around the GPS device so it can’t detect the car is moving along the roads?
Didn’t you hear what I said? We don’t as long as this nation has its head up its ass this is GOING TO HAPPEN. You can’t wrap foil because you will then get pulled over.
Yes I heard what you said. It may still work depending on what they implement. The end game could of course be all new cars with this integrated, so any attempt to disable or mask signal results in car not working. But, we have a lot of used cars out there that this would have to be integrated with. If one version of the device is is a GPS tracker that transmits its coordinate data every so often (or manually during inspections), blocking the signal should work. Just because the end game may be a system I cannot defeat is no excuse for me to refrain from messing with what they come up with first in order to give them the proverbial finger. I just hope they don’t check mileage gauge at inspection time to make sure it matches.
No it won’t work, EVER and I mean EVER to hide your signal. This is going to be a TAX, so if you dark out your signal you are going to be committing TAX FRAUD and you are going to jail or may be federal prison when the feds get involved and they will.
If they can track what vehicles are chipped well they can single out those that are not. Your vehicle is on the road, it is not tracking you are a red blob on a sea of green, oh since the cameras ID your plate they also know who you are. Lights flash or hell may be they just arrest you at work when you get there or at home or when you stop at a restaurant.
They can certainly do all that. I guess I am hoping they aren’t all that smart and implement it with flaws. But, they are evil and the flaws are easy to identify, so I should probably not be that hopeful. It may be interesting if anyone has analyzed what the volunteers in Oregon are getting for the system being installed.
Please forgive me if I sound like an idiot… I know they are going to implement this no matter what, and the people as a whole are going to welcome it with open arms. I am just grasping at straws trying to avoid the inevitable.
=(
Galt –
IMO spending time trying to figure out how to ‘trick’ (get one over on) your MASTER, makes about as much sense as hanging a ‘kick me’ sign on someone who just mugged you. And then feeling like you’re #winning!
There are innumerable ways for you to ‘Go Galt’. Want to avoid the mileage tax?
– move
– become self-employed and work from home
– homestead (less trips to the store)
– ride a bike (see MMM)
2 & 3 are truly ‘Going Galt’. More self-sufficiency = less opportunities for ‘them’ to tax you, and an equivalent diminishing of their power.
The smaller the pool of tax victims they have to squeeze, the harder they’ll have to squeeze, and the more likely their victims will finally wake up and DEMAND change.
All IMHO.
I already did the move thing (which is why I am in NH now as a FSP early mover). That probably only avoids the mileage tax for a while longer than neighboring MA which is actively discussing it with little resistance.
The others are more difficult. It is 37 miles to the office so riding a bike is not possible yet, plus winter prevents any bike riding. Working from home would help that, but I am a software engineer at a company that talks a lot about helping the planet to go green using software, but at the same time does not allow full time work from home. I could change jobs, likely at reduced pay and no reduction in commuting distance. There isn’t much market for self employed software engineers outside of the contractor type of job (it would have same issues of taxes and big companies anyway), although I suppose some may exist. Due to family medical bills, I need the increased pay so cannot afford to go for lesser paying job yet. But, I expect to someday, perhaps involuntarily. I have rural land for a cabin that may be my destination.
Problem is sooner or later you have to go somewhere or put yourself on house arrest. As for moving, move where? I am thinking Costa Rica or Panama.
Personally I’m looking at Chile. =)
IMO the big long term problem is that technology makes totalitarianism cheaper. And because its new and sparkly, people willingly pay for it, even without the boot of taxation.
One of my favorite new versions of this is Google Self-Driving Cars. Sounds great right? Less accidents, you can text while your car drives.. what could go wrong?
Well.. of course FOR YOUR SAFETY the self-driving car will need to be remotely controllable, so that if you say, have a medical emergency, the car can deliver you to the hospital. And to reduce theft, and catch criminals, the car will verify your identity when you get in the car.
So you can be tracked. You can be on a NO DRIVE list (no car will allow you to be a passenger).. and the car will deliver you to your local torture/detainment center if someone pushes a button somewhere.
Or.. just drive you off a cliff, if you’re really inconvenient, due to a ‘technical glitch’ or DANGEROUS hackers! messing with your car (push button assassination with built in plausible deny ability).
Of course simpler uses are available.. planning on driving to that protest? Oh sorry, your self-driving car has been ‘denied’ the ability to drive into that area due to ‘security concerns’.
One of the things I think we need to get used to as individuals is exploring what OUR options for freedom are, rather than concerning ourselves with ‘what options are available to everyone’. And then of course to work to EXPAND our freedom options.. as individuals.
This isn’t to say that we need to abandon ‘the masses’ to their fate.. just that you can’t DRAG anyone to freedom. And people that are ACTIVELY enslaving themselves need to be left alone.
In other words, if you, as an individual, are CHOOSING slavery. I, as someone who believes in your freedom to choose, will not oppose your choice.
I will not willingly participate in your enslavement, and as I oppose slavery in general, I will hopefully set an example of the advantages of being a free individual.. but that’s it.
As Mackay said:
‘Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.’
because I like to expand my own posts.. 😉
an example of ‘encouraging liberty’ would be this podcast, as it does three things:
1) encourages people to DESIRE more freedom
2) points out where they are LESS free than they believe themselves to be
3) suggests methods for increasing their freedom
Hey Jack just a quick comment on the chicken feed replacement. If someone is in the desert or dry climate, such as Arizona, wouldn’t Mesquite pods work well as a feed replacement. I’ve done some initial research on this and it appears chickens will eat these pods and they are up to 17% protein. just a thought. Thanks.
Of course there is almost always something that will work.
Regarding the Non-GMO feed:
I have also been interested in this and $30 / 50lb bag of organic feed was not an option. Green Mountain Feed just introduced non-GMO feed (rather than organic) which is about 33% less than the organic which is great. Unfortunately no one really carries it that I can find. My local feed store I got to order a pallet for me which is a lot of money, but worth it for me as I raise about 300 meat birds this year. We have a lot of customers that want “organic” but really are just worried about non-GMO, so this is a great alternative in the interim as we start to build out our farm and do may of the types of things Jack spoke about today on the Podcast. If anyone is in the New England region, check on the non-GMO feeds at:
http://www.greenmountainfeeds.com/products/non-gmo/
Right on spot with the drug issue Jack! As I’ve mentioned before one of my sons, he’s a twin, is on the “spectrum” for autism and ADHD. He’s five years old and the doctor wanted to put him on medication and I told that doctor he is fired and that he’s luck I don’t take to pill and put them were the son does not shine! I can’t believe that a medical doctor would prescribe what is basically meth to a 5 year old! He has no business treating cats & dogs let alone children!
Agh don’t mind the grammar errors. I was typing in anger.
I should also mention that my mother tells my wife and I that our son is exactly like I was at 5 years old. So either my son does not really have what the doctor says he has or he does and so do I. Either way I’ve been a very productive man, and I believe he will too, that has a very well paying career and I’m what a lot of people would consider successful. I was able to do okay in school and I was never on any medication!
Well… every body is different. That is the problem. Because every body is different, the body will react differently to each type of drug. For most medicines the differences have very little consequence, but in some cases it can be deadly.
My doctor prescribed a fairly standard antidepressant to me after my father died, my father-in-law died, my two dogs died and I lost my job after I was disabled when I passed out and struck my head… all in one year. To say the least, I was a little down and while I was sure I would eventually get through it, it was a little tough that year so I went to my general practitioner and he prescribed a fairly standard antidepressant.
I felt worse. I felt A LOT WORSE.
Being an adult and a rather persistent man, I called my doctor and demanded that he do something. He changed the prescription to something different but still a fairly standard antidepressant. I got even worse so it was back to the doctor. He said, “You are too hard,” or words to that effect. He referred me to a psychiatrist. After going over my medical history the psychiatrist said that it was a good thing the general practitioner had referred me to him. He prescribed a special antidepressant that made the guys down at the insurance company very upset because they couldn’t believe that I was so special that I needed this special drug. Nevertheless, the psychiatrist insisted. I needed it.
FYI, this special drug was not that unusual but doctors had been over-prescribing it for helping people to get over smoking or losing weight that the insurance company was getting torqued off paying for this stuff. The doctors were handing it out like candy.
When I looked it up later I noticed that drug contained something that would be considered “a really good weekend” in Africa. I never felt high so there must not have been a lot of it in there, and the drug helped. These were not “happy pills.” I took them for about 6 months and then weaned myself off of them with the doctor’s advice.
Every body is different. THESE pills worked for me where the OTHER pills actually hurt me even though ALL of these pills were being prescribed to every idiot and his mother without a problem. But for MY body it was a problem.
Imagine a 17 year old boy who is still trying to become a man and has a problem relating to others. He is prescribed a pill that, for anyone else, works reasonably well or does nothing at all… but in THIS kid, it turns him into a homicidal maniac. Does he lean on the doctor and make the doctor feel so uncomfortable that he finally gets a referral to a doctor that knows what he is doing? Not likely. The boy will probably continue to take the meds, being pressured by his helpless parents (otherwise known as live targets) to take them.
My neighbors had a child who was diagnosed with ADHD. The kid hated the drug they gave him so much that his parents used it as a punishment. “You have better behave or you have to take the drug!”
OK…. let’s think about this situation for a moment. If a child has a serious medical problem, telling him to just change his attitude is not going to cure anything. That is why you give him medicine. On the other hand, if changing his attitude actually helps and he can tough it out without the meds… then why the heck is he taking the meds other than as a convenience? If it really is a convenience then that is your decision, but when it becomes a punishment to take the drug and you feel better toughing it out without it, then it seems to me that a person ought to tough it out.
I don’t know what was going on with their kid. He was a little wild. True. He could control himself when his parents took control. I understand it was a pain-in-the-neck and a lot of work managing him but drugging their kid or giving him the wrong medication for his body (which is what it seemed they were doing) was only hurting their kid.
(Whispered voice ON) Don’t tell anyone I told you this, but because so many fathers are out of the picture, mothers feel overwhelmed when trying to control their sons. Drugging boys seem to be their only course of action and even when a father is in the picture, when all of the mother’s friends are drugging their sons there is social pressure because it is medicine and ADHD is considered a medical condition (which it is, if properly diagnosed) so these mothers feel guilty like they are doing something wrong by NOT drugging their sons.(Whispered voice OFF)
I suggest reading:
“War Against Boys, The: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men” by Christina Hoff Summers. — How being male is being treated as some sort of disease.
“Men and Marriage” (was Sexual Suicide) by George F. Gilder. — How important men are in raising boys and how important women are in moderating men…. not moderating boys. Women can’t moderate boys and when they try, the boys grow up to be distorted men. (Otherwise known as a social problem.)
“Why Men Are the Way They Are” by Warren Farrell. — This books is probably more appealing to women but it says the same thing as Gilder’s book without all the macho stuff. Men would probably prefer Gilder’s book but they are both good.
Do meds have their place? Yes.
The problem is meds are the instant fix doctors go too! When we suggested diet changes by eliminating red dye and gluten out of his diet. The doctor completely disagreed with us and tried to push the meds. That’s when I said screw you and took our son home. Oh and guess what….we adjusted his diet and he is MUCH better. All it took was feeding our kids better food and not shoving a flipping speed pill down his throat like the doctor wanted.
That is why they are called “Medical Doctors” (MD). At one time doctors did not give meds. Osteopaths (DO) are a good example. When antibiotics were invented in the 20th century, everyone saw them as a miracle. Osteopaths (DO) were not trained in medicines per se but when medicines became popular medical doctors (MD) offered the DO an MD many of them took it. It was popular and like I said… a miracle…. which I suppose it was and still is though we don’t appreciate it.
I don’t think I’ve contradicted anyone’s complaints. I’m widening the scope. MDs have a narrow vision. Like a guy holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Medicine is good for a lot of things. I don’t want to be without it but we are witnessing the limits of medicine. What works for one person does not work for another.
My mother-in-law sees doctors as gods. I don’t see them as gods. I know too many doctors personally to believe that. Perhaps we all need to see doctors as who they are… well trained people who are our advisers… not our parents.
” I don’t see them as gods. I know too many doctors personally to believe that. Perhaps we all need to see doctors as who they are… well trained people who are our advisers… not our parents.”
Perhaps doctors need to look in the mirror and realize who they are? Well trained people who ore our advisers.
As long as we continue to treat doctors as gods they will continue to believe it. It is beguiling…. that feeling of authority. We can hope for better, more noble people to become doctors but until then, these are the guys we have to work with. It is our job to point out when they are screwing up. It is their job too but let’s just focus on our job right now. We are the ones to pay the price when they screw up.
I treat them like advisers… like an employee. I remember that I make the final decision. That makes the final responsibility mine.
Last doctor’s visit (last week I think) my wife asked me why I am so hostile to the doctor.
I replied, “I’m not hostile. I treat her like she was one of my employees.”
“But you don’t have employees, Alex.”
Yes. I do. They are called lawyers, doctors, teachers, bakers, etc. I have all sorts of employees who are there to advise me, but I make the final decision about myself because I’m the one who must live by those decisions (or die by them).
Just wanted to say that I am glad you are standing up for your son and not medicating him.
Another long post. I talk about how marijuana became listed along with more serious drugs, how we need to get government out of the business of helping alcoholics and drug addicts and help them ourselves and (oddly enough) how learning about how Al Qaeda works as an organization can help us understand how we are being effective in solving a problem.
Regarding how serious marijuana may or may not be…
I am a volunteer chaplain at our local county jail. Most of the guys I meet have alcohol and/or drug problems and the reason they are in jail can be directly attributable to drinking or taking drugs. In other words, had they NOT been drinking or taking drugs it is unlikely they would have been arrested for whatever it was they were doing at the time the State of Texas objected to their actions and asked them to come along.
Example: One inmate explained that he had been drinking and using drugs when he heard a prophetic voice that compelled him to take off all his clothes. Someone in the public park noticed a man naked in the park and called an officer of the law. When the officer arrived he did not arrest the man but told him that it was cool. “Keep Austin Weird,” the officer said, “But you can’t walk around naked or we have to arrest you. Please put your clothes back on, sir.” The soon-to-be inmate was not belligerent. He crossed his legs and explained that he could not comply. Off to jail he went. Perhaps it WAS a prophetic voice. In jail he sobered up and realized he needed help with his drinking and drug problem.
Drugs react differently in different bodies. That includes alcohol, marijuana and various other drugs. Some people can take them and it does no harm or very little harm. Others take them and are trapped or led down a path of slow and easy self-destruction… a missed appointment, a failed business deal here or there… you are sidelined as being less than dependable and then forgotten. Missed opportunities. Lost relationships as the girl you’ve been dating sees “Loser” written on your forehead and politely moves on… the mother of your children… gone.
I agree with Jack that the drug classification the government has engaged in makes no sense whatsoever. To cut them some slack, though, it was not planned this way but was built up over years. As priorities changed the list became seriously distorted so that now it is a joke and should be abandoned. Back in the days of my careless youth possessing ANY amount of marijuana , no matter how small, got you more years in prison than murder. A brave young lawyer challenged that law by defending a Hell’s Angel’s Biker on a marijuana possession violation and won. (BTW, he told me became the friend of every Hells Angels Biker in the State of California after that. :-)) That was decades ago but that explains why marijuana started so high on the official list. It was considered a “gateway drug”… a guaranteed trip to “reefer madness” and heroin addiction. But even a few year later try being the politician that suggested that some illegal drug be downsized on the list. Even when Willy Nelson was busted, it was still tricky, politically speaking and the list is political.
Look… I’ve met guys who tell me that if they hadn’t been drinking they wouldn’t have ended up shooting heroine. They’ve told me this. I’ve look in their eyes. It was the truth. If you are drinking a beer right now, I seriously doubt you have any desire to shoot heroine…. most of you. There is that one guy over there. (DON’T LOOK! :-)) It happens. It really does, but we don’t prohibit drinking beer or whiskey simply because there is one in a thousand that might take heroin… or simply drink to excess and become an alcoholic.
It happens and when it does we try to help these bewildered men and women who look at their friends and say, “But YOU do it and it doesn’t effect YOU. Why me?”
Every body is different. That is why. If we don’t want government to handle this problem then we have to handle it ourselves. That is why there are Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and Narcotics Anonymous meetings everywhere. Here in Austin, Texas there are over 425 AA meetings. That is not including Cedar Park, Hutto and San Marcos which have their own meetings. In Dallas/Fort Worth you can’t walk ten feet without falling through the door of an AA meeting.
Each meeting is self-supporting. Each meeting is run by volunteers. Some cities pay an office staff to coordinate between meetings: a paid office staff of two people in Austin. That one office covers an area half way to San Antonio… and it works. It runs a 24 hour hotline using call-forwarding to volunteers willing to talk to drunks and drug addicts about anything… no matter how horrifying. My friend, Mary, took a call…. a young boy. His father came home drunk and brought along a stripper. Mary suggested that he call his mother. The boy couldn’t stay there any longer. The stripper was becoming “interested” in the boy since his father was passed out.
Maybe you can’t do that sort of thing but there are others who can! All without government help. How is such a vast organization organized? Who leads it? Actually, there is no leader. Yes. Really. If the cops busted into an AA meeting with guns drawn and shouted “Who’s in charge here!” all you would hear would be laughter.
If you would like to learn how a leaderless organization works, read the book:
“The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations” by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom.
The book is more a list of leaderless organizations and descriptions on how they work. It is not a cookbook so you are on your own. Alcoholics Anonymous is listed along with the terrorist organization, Al Qaeda. I laugh every time the news reports that… “We got the number two man in Al Qaeda!” That is somewhat the equivalent of busting into an AA meeting and arresting the guy running the meeting. There will be another meeting next week with another guy running it. They won’t miss a beat. Read the book and find out how that could possibly happen. Here is a clue. To kill a spider, you cut off its head and the legs die, but a starfish has no head. You cut off a leg and the other legs just drag the starfish along until a new leg grows.
A spider organization often doesn’t know how to fight a starfish organization. No matter how many times the spider knocks off “the head” of the starfish, it just keeps on going.
The Tea Party is such an organization. So is the 9-12 project. There are others.
But hey alcohol popped up every other word in your post so should we make it illegal?
Frankly even though I drink and won’t apologize for it, I find alcohol more dangerous than pot even though I don’t and won’t smoke it.
Sorry for writing such a long posting, Jack.
Just to be clear, I do NOT wish alcohol to be illegal. I think how Texas handles alcohol is fine. You can take your kids into a bar as long as they are serving food like a restaurant. I think Texas goes a little overboard with how they handle teen drinking issues…. mostly at parties where even if a teen in NOT drinking they are charged with drinking. That makes the law seem ridiculous in a teenager’s eyes and promotes disrespect for the law in teenagers. (As an adult I know there is plenty of time to develop a disrespect for the law. We don’t need to star so early.)
Regarding making drugs legal, I’m not sure I care that much one way or the other. Technically speaking, I think the current illegal drugs should be legal but I know that this will cause all sorts of problems… problems that our current overloaded infrastructure cannot handle. Nevertheless… all I will do is to point that out and let everyone do what they think is best. Make drugs legal. Fine. Keep them illegal. Fine. There are arguments on both sides. I probably lean a little toward making them legal but either way it is going to be a social problem.
FYI: I don’t think I’ve contradicted anything anyone has said here, but I haven’t read everything so I can’t be sure. If I did it was inadvertent. My goal was to point out the problem with any drug, some of the history behind the political list of drugs (which is a ridiculous list) and how we can combat drug and alcohol abuse on a personal level without government help. I focus on alcohol because I know it best. I was one heck of a drunk. The man who save my life was one heck of a heroin addict. We saved each other, I think. He had the more difficult task.
Re: FATCA
It’s exactly as said in the show, FATCA primarily has to do with the sharing and disclosure of information regarding US persons’ banking activities, and nothing to do with currencies. Its effects won’t even be noticed by most Americans, except for the few that try to bank or do business abroad. And that almost guarantees it is here to stay (grumble).
Talk of FATCA and a mileage tax brings me to again ponder the US gov’t hurried grasp for more control/power versus the inevitable decline in revenues and loss of international clout it will experience. How far will its “effective” reach be when the dust settles in 5-10 years’ time? I have a suspicion the gov’t will probably turn inward, having an increased level of economic power and control over its “law-abiding” citizens within its borders, but at the same time losing much of its economic control and influence in the international arena. I suspect the ‘winners’ in that environment will include the mega-rich, the grey/black marketeers, those operating or having assets & income streams outside the country, and those with a resilient home/homestead AND income streams that lie partly or wholly outside of the “official” economy. In short, those who control the laws & rules, those who ignore the laws & rules (and smart/lucky enough to get away with it), and those who operate where the laws & rules don’t reach. I’m not very comfortable with working outside the laws (even the massively unjust ones) if it puts my family’s welfare at risk, so it makes the decision to build a business abroad easier. I really hope it doesn’t end up as negative as all that, but that’s where I see the trend going.
– Nick
Jack when I heard the Segment about taxing US citizens doing business in other countries it reminded me of the many friends I have working for foreign companies drilling abroad while they are US citizens none of them live here in the USA and they all have Hong Kong bank accounts and haven’t paid taxes in many many years, it seems this is an attempt to make them pay even though they don’t live here in the US or use the services here
No not really, such people in that capacity don’t have to pay US income taxes.
Ok cool thanks
Those friends probably are eligible for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, which if you qualify lets you exclude the first $97,600 from your taxable income. So in many cases US citizens would not owe any US tax if they truly live and work in another country. Since the US taxes its citizens based on citizenship and not where they live or work, this exclusion is kind of a half-assed way of giving some US citizens abroad a partial break from what is a total BS policy that taxes them double no matter where they live or work.
FATCA doesn’t tax these people any more (or less), what it does is increase the reporting requirements for both US citizens and foreign financial institutions who have them as clients. And the penalties for citizens who don’t report are SEVERE, even if reporting said accounts and assets didn’t add one red cent to the taxes owed. And foreign banks also have to make the decision to keep their US clients and comply with extensive IRS reporting requirements or just ditch the US clients to avoid the hassle. Not all banks have ditched US clients (mine hasn’t… yet), but it’s getting harder to find ones who will accept us. Like Jack said it is a kind of capital control, albeit a somewhat indirect one. My guess is they also want all this reporting information in the (likely) event that tax rules are changed to heavily tax overseas income and assets. Going to such lengths to collect the information only makes sense if it can be of use, and the likeliest use is future taxes. The twisted beauty of it from their perspective is that the majority of Americans wouldn’t care (and would probably even be easily manipulated into thinking it’s a great idea) since most think only rich people and tax evaders bank or do business overseas. Convenient scapegoats, essentially.
– Nick
I lived in Europe for 20 years and had a bank account in that country, but that was a little before it was so easy to track things. A few years ago I went back to Europe, and getting a bank account wasn’t easy. I was working for an American company and paying American taxes. The bank would tell me it was no problem opening an account, but as soon as they punched in “US Passport” as an ID the computer went “Beep!” and they told me I had to get “special paperwork…” I did finally find a bank that opened an account for me… It was similar to a Credit Union, called a “Volksbank.” They are independent banks.
US Citizens are subject to double taxation for all income earned overseas. Even if you work on the local economy and pay their taxes, you could still be held liable for US Taxes. Now, they generally give you a “foreign tax credit” that you can deduct from any taxes due, and to be honest, most European income taxes are higher than US taxes, so it’s usually not a problem, but technically they can expect you to pay taxes even though you have already paid foreign taxes. Most of this is regulated by tax treaties between countries… For example, I had employees in Germany who received ESOP benefits from a US Company, and I had to fill out IRS paperwork for them so that they wouldn’t be taxed in the US, but in Germany.
But just so you future expats know, the IRS has offices all over the world in their treaty countries, so they are willing to go looking for you if you make it easy.
Dang it how does Jack keep predicting the future? XD
Don’t forget about the Fair Transportation Bureau SWAT teams. Put that foil around the transponder and you will get a flash bang through your window.
Jack,
Have you ever compared your Agritrue to Certified Naturally Grown (http://www.naturallygrown.org/)? It seems it may be similar. Wasn’t sure if you ever looked into this as well. It isn’t that big of an organization (says 700 farms on the website), but it says in the description “They’re producing food for local communities without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or GMO crops.”
Just curious.
Certified Naturally Grown has a good name in Illinois. A lot of respected farmers I know are certified through them. But, from what I understand, it is run by farmers and it sounds like they need dedicated people who have time to make the organization competitive with organic certification.
It is indeed a slippery slope to install GPS tracking in vehicles, whatever the main publicised reason. Do people really believe that the ability to not only track where you go but also the speed you travelled between destinations will not be collated and used for not only control but also revenue as well. With that ability surely it would be morally wrong to not prosecute these offenders of the road.
I live in the UK and the EU has stated that every new car built from 2015 will have to have a similar device automatically installed. The only real difference is the pretence that says it’s, ”Designed to help emergency services find vehicles in the event of crash”.
You just know, with a sickening reality, that the masses will beg for the change as it’s obviously in our own interests and if you have nothing to hide then why would you be against it.
A couple of links, one being the Daily Fail, just so the ‘people’s’ (lol) rag has its say;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2625244/EU-bug-car-UK-tracker-chips-Ministers-admit-powerless-stop-Big-Brother-technology.html
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/eu-signs-off-ecall-all-cars-to-contain-gps-tech-by-2015/
They don’t even need a GPS there are so many RFID sensors all they have to do is get RFIDs into the registration sticker or send you a “free” little thing like a current toll tag and require it in your vehicle. You only need sensors on intersections to track all movement including speed.
Since the RFID will go in your car and be provided for free and the cost of IDs and drivers licenses won’t go up they will tell you that there is “no unfair burden to the poor”.
For years the conspiracy crowd said they would put a chip in your hand (like the bible) there is no need, the sheep will proudly carry their chips in bill folds, pockets and purses. Of course they will have necklaces and bracelets for kids, some sort of amazing life saving story will come from that. Then you will hear how well, kids should have an implant so that it can’t be removed by an abductor.
With more states passing stop and ID (which by the way removes your right to refuse to ID even if you are not being detained), this will become a natural extension. A non chip carrying individual will be stopped on foot or in a car.
“Hey buddy, who are you?” Followed by,
“I don’t have to carry a chip” and responded to with,
“of course you don’t but you do have to tell us who you are”. Followed by,
“am I being detained”, responded to with,
“well, not yet but you will be if you don’t ID right now, your state is now a must ID state and yes we can detain you until we know who you are, it is strange that you carry no ID, who knows you might be a terrorist, oh wait, you are John Thomas of 3214 Smith Street born on Aug. 5th 1978 right? We just ran you though facial recognition and ran your cell phone though a trace so we know who you are”.
And freedom dies not with a war but with thunderous applause.
Any car with a TPMS system (every car made since 2008) has an RFID chip in every tire.
It is already used to track individual vehicle movement in cities and to monitor who is exiting/entering freeways.
@Modern Survival,
You mentioned the Non GMO Project, and that prompted me to mention this. Another podcast that I listen to is the Chicken Thistle Farm Coopcast. It was Andy who mentioned your cast on the air, and that’s how I found you. Kelli is a microbiologist for a university in New York.
Every year one of her class projects is to test for GMOs. They pick items they expect to find GMOs in, and items that are labeled organic. Many of the products the students chose were Non GMO Project items….mostly processed foods like chips other “healthy” snacks.
Far too many students for it to be an accident were finding originators and terminators of GMO in the DNA in their organic labeled product.
The class dug into it and discovered on the Non GMO Project website that “not all of the ingredients are tested, and the final product is not tested due to the possibility of contamination in the processing of the ingredients.” Let the bastardization of organic labeling begin……
It’s in their Coopcast 109. Kelli goes on a wonderful rant towards the end. It checks out.
Figured I’d pass that by you. The only food you can trust is the one you watched grow.
As an Oregonian, I have heard of the mileage thing on our local media. You’re right, they’re doing a great sales job! Portland is fighting for a ‘roads tax’ right now. Why, they say? All those darn Prii, they’re everywhere!! And no wonder, we lead the field in sales of those things: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_electric_vehicles_in_the_United_States
I guess it’s just a matter of time. As I understand it, the tax will be for highways and freeways (initially). I put 20k miles on my Suburu a year, you can bet I’ll be mastering the back roads!!!
Welcome to 1984….
::Quote::
”And freedom dies not with a war but with thunderous applause.”
::Quote::
And right there is the thing the scares me the most. Saying that, I draw strength from the knowledge that people are waking up, albeit slowly, all over the world, and taking responsibility for their actions and removing their false need to remain connected to the poisonous governmental umbilical! Unplug, disconnect.
Jack-
You said “It’s not News – it’s Marketing.”
Would you also make the argument that “it’s not Entertainment Television – it’s Marketing”? I would.
(Your example of this new tracking initiative being used in future television shows like Person of Interest, or CSI, and other crime shows…)
I would also keep en eye out for the “crazy conspiracy character” in those shows that makes a mockery of the awakened individual. He or she will usually be “one of those conspiracy types that you hear about on the news”. I could argue that this character’s role in the television show is being used as a punching bag so to speak, sort of a spoof on reality…. basically, if I were to tell a friend to that “they’ll use that to track you – that’s the end goal of this”, they’ll replay with “Dude, you’re insane. You probably heard that on some TV show. You DO know thats Hollywood, right?”
I happen to believe that most of what comes into my home from the television is called “programming” for a reason, which is why I sold them all. Your thoughts?
I finally found the words I was looking for. Television shows will use characters playing the other side of the argument to look like they’re completely off the reservation with “those crazy tin foil hat conspiracies”, and they’ll take the wind out of any argument that you might legitimately have.
You see it all the time. And you also hear it all the time:
“thats what the guy said in that movie…”
“yeah whatever, you heard that on some TV show…”
“you realize thats all fake, right?…”
Oh definitely 80-90% of entertainment is marketing. Know how I knew the Gas Boom was real before anyone else, it was the plan and I knew that from a TV show called Last Man Standing, where Tim Allen by the way is used to make conservatives look, “off their rockers”.
If they really wanted to just charge people by miles driven to pay for wear and tear on the roads they could get mileage from the yearly odometer reading reported with the annual state inspection or registration. That they would choose an intrusive technology such as a GPS tracker to implement a mileage tax shows that the real goal is tracking, not just replacing the gas tax to pay for roads. Most new vehicles today are sold with Onstar and other similar devices pre-installed, so they are halfway there.
Yes that would be a simple way to do it that would otherwise avoid any privacy issues. I think there should be no taxes (all taxes are theft), but if we must have them it may be more fair to just record mileage and tax on that depending on vehicle class (18 wheeler charged for more road wear), as long as they get rid of the gas tax at the same time. I don’t expect many would get around that by disconnecting odometer (would modern cars even run properly without the odometer? I think they need the info to know how to shift, how much fuel to inject, etc but I am not sure on that…. Cars have crap loads of sensors so I would guess speed is one of the senses they would requite).
Regardless, it is obviously about monitoring everyone and even bring able to prevent travel just by changing a computer entry somewhere.
People used to say I was crazy a few years ago. Now that this stuff is happening, they have switched to saying what is wrong with me for not embracing this. Make up your minds, people…..
Here in south central Missouri it easier as well as cheaper to get certified non gmo feed rather than organic labeling.
Whereas it cost me fifty dollars plus or a dollar per pound versus over half the cost for nongmo feed.
Peanuts are interesting but peanuts unless organically grown I understand use loads of pesticides and other chemicals in traditional processing.
But there are tons of choices to get feed for your animals. For instance. I can grow siberian pea shrub and feed it to my chickens.
Hi Jack,
Great piece on debt collection agencies, however there is one additional thing you could have mentioned.
If a person, for one reason or another, just cannot settle a debt at the moment, there is a way to stop the constant stream of annoying calls and letters from each collection agency:
Under section 805(c) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a consumer has the right to request, in writing (that’s key), that a third party collection agency cease and desist from further contact regarding an alleged debt.
There is a formal letter (copies of the exact wording can be found on the internet) that can be sent via certified mail and return receipt that stops them cold.
Now, it won’t make the debt go away and the collection agency can sell it to yet another agency, but you have one less to deal with and if you have the letter on a computer, all you have to do is change the collection agencies name, etc.
However like you and many other advisors recommend to remain resilient no matter “whether things get tough or even if they don’t,” try to stay out of debt.
Keep up the great work Jack,
John
Jack,
In you lead off story you talk about an exchange with James in a blog post. I would like to read that but cannot find where it is.
Concerning growing your own poultry feed – Harvey Ussery has a great book (and decent website) about using chickens around your homestead, to include how/why to grow and process your own feed. His book is called “The Small Scale Poultry Flock”, and his website is http://www.TheModernHomestead.us . I have met and spoken with him several times, and one thing is for sure – he’s passionate about what he does! Jack, he should be a guest on your show! I will prompt him and maybe we can get him to fill out the form and come on for an interview.
Hi Jack,
In one of your podcasts this month, I heard you mention a product used to grow trees–when I heard you describe it, it made me think of the Waterboxx, but you mentioned the cost and it was far less.
Now I’m going through podcasts, unable to find the info again and am beginning to think I’m losing my mind…any help in tracking that down would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
Yea it isn’t as fancy as the waterboxx and doesn’t have a reservoir but it seems cool, I just got 50 in and will be putting some out today. They are made by Tal-Ya http://www.tal-ya.com/ but finding a place to buy them was like pulling teeth.
They are sold in the US under the name of IrriPan, you can buy them here, http://www.treeprotectionsupply.com/index.php/weed-mats/irripan-weedmat/
I am going to put a few around some existing suffering trees and see if they help, I am also planting 4 chestnuts today that are being installed with them.
P.S. Your section on how to handle debt collections would make a great “How To” instruction manual that people could look up on your website. (Maybe it already is, I haven’t looked. LOL)
When I saw salatin’s field with all these chicks tractors moving across it I thought, I bet you could hook up a winch with a long cable and have it move automatically. A microcontroller and some code should be able to do that. Farmers could take vacations again! Better yet a self contained mover built into the tractor with GPS and an internet connection and you could control the tractor remotely.