Martial Law Enforcement

Jason Westcott was afraid.

One night last fall, he discovered via Facebook that a friend of a friend was planning with some co-conspirators to break in to his home. They were intent on stealing Wescott’s handgun and a couple of TV sets. According to the Facebook message, the suspect was planning on “burning” Westcott, who promptly called the Tampa Bay police and reported the plot.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the investigating officers responding to Westcott’s call had a simple message for him: “If anyone breaks into this house, grab your gun and shoot to kill.”

Around 7:30 pm on May 27th, the intruders arrived. Westcott followed the officers’ advice, grabbed his gun to defend his home, and died pointing it at the intruders.  They used a semi-automatic shotgun and handgun to shoot down the 29-year-old motorcycle mechanic.  He was hit three times, once in the arm and twice in his side, and pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

The intruders, however, weren’t small-time crooks looking to make a small score. Rather they were members of the Tampa Bay Police Department’s SWAT team, which was executing a search warrant on suspicion that Westcott and his partner were marijuana dealers. They had been tipped off by a confidential informant, whom they drove to Westcott’s home four times between February and May to purchase small amounts of marijuana, at $20-$60 a pop. The informer notified police that he saw two handguns in the home, which was why the Tampa Bay police deployed a SWAT team to execute the search warrant.

In the end, the same police department that told Westcott to protect his home with defensive force killed him when he did. After searching his small rental, the cops indeed found weed, two dollars’ worth, and one legal handgun — the one he was clutching when the bullets ripped into him.

Welcome to a new era of American policing, where cops increasingly see themselves as soldiers occupying enemy territory, often with the help of Uncle Sam’s armory, and where even nonviolent crimes are met with overwhelming force and brutality.

Read the rest of the article here: (A lot more information)

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/martial-law-enforcement/

Communication Breakdown – How to Stay in Touch after a HEMP Attack

What is a HEMP attack? No, it’s not a bunch of hippies smoking pot on your front lawn. HEMP stands for High-Altitude nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse and is an extreme form of EMP. Any strong enough EMP can damage sensitive electronics that we rely on so heavily today.

Sources of EMP

The most common EMP comes from lightning strikes and normal power surges as equipment is turned on and off. Other natural causes, such as solar flares, can also create an EMP. In 1989 the entire electrical grid of Quebec was shut down in about 90 seconds due to a solar flare that hit on the opposite side of the earth.

Modern electronics with microchips are most susceptible, followed by older transistorized circuits. That’s why we have surge suppressors for computers and other sensitive equipment. But most will not protect against a nuclear EMP attack.

EMP damages electronics by overvoltage. The EMP induces an extreme voltage into the conductors of small integrated circuits, causing them to arc and break down. In other words, they get fried.

What many people see as advances in technology also makes us more vulnerable to a HEMP attack. Smaller and more sophisticated electronics are more easily damaged by EMP. And as our society integrates more electronics into everything from the power grid to banking to coffee makers, more of the infrastructure is at risk.

The threat of a HEMP from a nuke is more sinister and dangerous than lightning. When a nuclear weapon is detonated, it produces a very high EMP that spreads like a “wall of energy” and will wipe out anything with solid state electronics over hundreds of miles. Commercial surge suppressors and most military-grade units are not fast enough to stop it. Power lines act as huge antennae to carry the pulse even further, knocking out power grids and electronics that are plugged into the wall socket.

This excerpt from the film TRINITY AND BEYOND, THE ATOMIC BOMB MOVIE shows a few high altitude tests conducted by the United States military shortly before the Limited Test Ban Treaty was signed. It is complete with foreboding, dramatic music and even includes a (simulated?) AM radio cutting out during a detonation.

http://youtu.be/iyPsIOxMmqY

EMP Protection

So how do you protect against an EMP attack? There are two ways to do it:

1. Shield the equipment from the EMP
2. Harden the electronics so they aren’t susceptible to EMP

Shielding is the first and easiest line of defense. Sometimes called a Faraday cage, after its inventor, Michael Faraday, an electrically conductive enclosed shield will equalize the electrical charge on the outside, cancelling it on the inside of the shield and protecting the contents.

A true Faraday cage is made of conductive metals, like copper or aluminum or a properly engineered steel enclosure. The inside of a microwave oven is an example of a Faraday cage. But an adequate electromagnetic shield can be made from galvanized steel or aluminum foil. Bare or painted steel doesn’t work, because rust and paint are insulators.

Most safes and file cabinets will not work to shield against EMP. The entire container must be conductive with no breaks in the electrical path. Gaps will “leak” EMP to the inside, making most containers ineffective. Conductive screen or mesh with fine holes will work, though (like the screen on a microwave oven door).

The easiest way to shield small electronics, like a radio or laptop computer, is to place them in a heavy duty zip lock freezer bag, then wrap the whole thing tightly in heavy duty aluminum foil. Be sure to seal any gaps in the foil by folding the seams tightly and be careful to avoid puncturing it to prevent EMP leakage. Thicker foil is more tear resistant, but makes no difference in blocking EMP.

If you do this right, it will work with one layer of each. But for some added insurance add more layers. Add another freezer bag and another layer of foil. Each layer will help to greatly reduce any leakage of EMP if you don’t get it perfectly sealed. Just make sure you alternate layers. If the two layers of foil come in contact, the EMP induced voltage will simply pass from the outer layer to the inner, making the outer layer ineffective.

Testing Your Shield for Leakage

The easiest way to test that you are shielding your device properly is to shield a radio tuned to a strong radio signal. Here are step by step instructions:

Supplies:

• Portable AM/FM radio
• Fresh set of batteries
• 2 or 3 heavy duty freezer bags that fit the radio
• Heavy duty aluminum foil.

You’ll also need a strong radio signal supplied by a radio station (don’t try to do it with other radio sources like your cell phone – it will not work properly with week signals – you want tens of kilowatts or more).

1. Install the batteries, make sure the antenna is fully collapsed (in the storage position) and turn the radio on. Start with the FM band.
2. Tune the radio to the strongest FM station you can find. If you live in a rural area, you may need to get closer to a station to do this test. Make sure the signal comes in loud and clear with the antenna down.
3. Turn the volume up so you will be able to hear the radio through several layers of foil and plastic bags.
4. Put the radio in the first freezer bag, fold the bag over tightly and seal it. You should still hear the FM station clearly.
5. Next wrap a tight layer of heavy duty aluminum foil around the bagged radio. Make sure the foil sheet is large enough that you can fold the seams at least twice. If you do this right, you should hear the signal drop off to practically nothing.
6. If you can still hear the radio clearly, you haven’t sealed the foil effectively. Try again until you get it right and make sure there are no gaps.
7. If you are unable to shield it with one layer of foil, add more layers alternating the freezer bags with foil until you get no signal.

After doing the test with an FM station, take everything apart and repeat with a strong AM station. You should get the same result (no signal). It may be harder to shield AM than FM, so don’t get discouraged if you have to add more layers.

Make sure you test both AM and FM (the order doesn’t matter). EMP from a nuke is broadband throughout the RF spectrum, so tuning it to both bands is a better test of real conditions.

After doing your test, unwrap everything and remove the batteries from the radio before sealing it back up. You don’t want find out in an emergency that the batteries leaked and now the radio won’t work.

EMP-Hardened Electronics

So what do you do if you need access to your radio on a regular basis? Obviously you don’t want it wrapped in foil if you use it every day. One option is to simply buy more than one radio. But there is also another option.

The solution might be with old technology: vacuum tubes. If you are old enough to remember the RCA repairman, then you probably recognize vacuum tubes or electron tubes. The British call them valves.

Vacuum tubes can withstand EMP thousands of times higher than modern solid-state electronics. A well-built tube radio can be a hardened communication system that will get you through almost any emergency including a HEMP. And if it ever breaks down, it can usually be fixed with just a little basic tube electronics knowledge.

Ham radio operators are known to be the first ones to establish communication during a disaster. And many of them are returning to the use of vacuum tube radios. Tube transmitters are normally run off AC wall current today, but there are easy options to set them up for battery power. Even a set of D-cell and 9V batteries can provide makeshift power for a small radio (scroll down to the battery box project).

If you decide to use a solid state power supply with a deep cycle marine battery, just remember to shield the power supply with freezer bags and foil like we showed you above. During normal use you can use the grid to power the radio.

Today tubes are still manufactured in Eastern Europe and China. In fact, there has been a mini-boom of sorts in tube manufacturing for guitar amplifiers and high end audio amps. And fortunately there are large numbers of NOS (New Old Stock) tubes of many kinds still available through online stores and eBay. As long as the seal isn’t broken between the glass and the pins most tubes will last indefinitely.

Vacuum tubes are far more robust against EMP than any solid state device, but there are still a few precautions that need to be taken to protect a tube radio from EMP:

• Disconnect the antenna when not in use. The antenna not only pulls in the radio signal, but it will also pull in an EMP. Lightning arrestors aren’t enough to prevent a nuke EMP from getting through.
• Disconnect the AC power source when not in use. EMP will travel through power lines just like an antenna. In fact it is best to remove the AC power cord as it will also act as an antenna.
• Radios powered by AC line voltage need a rectifier to convert AC to DC. Earlier rectifiers were vacuum tubes and are also resistant to EMP. But later models used fragile selenium rectifiers that are susceptible to EMP. So look for an older radio that has a tube rectifier.

The best way to learn about vacuum tube transmitters and radios is through a local ham radio club. And you no longer have to learn Morse code to get an amateur radio operator license if you choose to go that far.

All geekiness aside, there is probably no better resource for communication in any emergency than ham operators. And many of them will be glad to share their expertise to help you set up an emergency transmitter. They are also a good source of electronics education that could be valuable after a major “event.”

If you want to learn more about EMP and protecting against it, the best resource I have found on the net is by electrical engineer Jerry Emanuelson on his site futurescience.com.

http://survivallife.com/2014/08/11/communication-breakdown-how-to-stay-in-touch-after-a-hemp-attack/#

Ebola coming to the US. Atlanta to be specific!

Read it here:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/31/health/ebola-outbreak/index.html

Then you really need to read this:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/this-is-what-is-going-to-happen-if-ebola-comes-to-america

Alternative Means of Power for When the Grid Goes Down

by Mark Werner 06/30/2014
hardenedstructuresofgeorgia.com

Whether you lose your power from a storm, hurricane, tornado, EMP, or a total economic collapse, having a means to get that power restored quickly can be the difference between getting through the disaster comfortably or living in misery.

Having a generator can be a big help, but is only as good as your fuel supply. Once that runs out, you're back to primitive living. Unless, of course, you can supply yourself with a relatively limitless supply of fuel that is efficient and renewable.

The fuel I'm referring to is wood. Not in a conventional sense. You can't build a fire under your generator and expect to get electricity flowing. You can, though, convert that wood into a gas that the generator can use to run the engine.

This process is called gasification through a process called pyrolysis. You probably performed an example of this as a 9th grade science experiment when you placed a piece of wood in a test tube and cooked it over a fire. You then lit a match and ignited the gas coming out of the tube. The gas is a combination of methane, hydrogen, and carbon monoxide. All of these gases burn and will work well in a generator's engine. It just has to be clean.

People have been using this 'wood gas' for many years. As a matter of fact, thousands of private and commercial cars and trucks ran on wood gas in Europe during World War II, because fuel was needed to keep the military going. They did this using a gasifier, which is a contained unit that converts wood to a gas.

There are many people experimenting with wood gasifiers. Just Google it. There are also a hand full of companies that have refined their gasifiers to a point where they can feasibly sell it. They can be built and sized for different applications such as for running a generator, or a car, truck, or even a tractor.

Below is a set up I put together to provide enough power to run a small neighborhood. I can reconfigure it to run many other things. It's a larger gasifier, built to run large engines. I had this gasifier made for me by Victory Gasworks in Washington State.

Victory Gasifier running a 45KW generator

There are other companies making smaller units from $2,500 https://practicalpreppers.com/online-shop/power-solutions/gasifier-detail-view, or $4,500 https://practicalpreppers.com/online-shop/power-solutions/the-l-e-a-f-wood-gasifier-detail-view, or $6,000 and more http://www.gekgasifier.com/products/product-overview. Victory makes high end units made of all stainless steel and designed to last a lifetime, and they are more expensive http://victorygasworks.com/.

I suggest that you add a wood gasifier to your homestead prepping list. It will make your life a whole lot easier when you need it.

How Sanctions Against Russia Could Signal the Beginning of ‘World War III’

Mar. 18, 2014 3:26pm Sara Carter

Russia is preparing to fight World War III against the United States, not with conventional weapons but with the American dollar, a financial analyst told TheBlaze.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures after signing a treaty to incorporate Crimea into Russia in the Kremlin in Moscow, Tuesday, March 18, 2014. Putin described the move as the restoration of historic injustice and a necessary response to what he called the Western encroachment on Russia’s vital interests. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Kevin Freeman, a global financial analyst with expertise in financial warfare and terrorism, warned that Russia, along with allies like China, could cripple the U.S. financial system.

It’s not a theory but a “very real reality” that should not be ignored, he said.

“The real risk is if we go after them with economic weapons, they come back after us and this creates World War III,” said Freeman, who has consulted for the Pentagon, CIA and FBI. ”This is a very tough game of chicken that we’re playing, and Putin is serious.”

The threat of economic warfare is nothing new. Freeman, who was hired by the Pentagon as a contractor to investigate the 2008 stock market crash, believes the economic crisis was the result of a purposeful attack on the U.S. financial market by a state actor or by financial terrorists. Last September, For The Record revealed how hostile nations such as China and Russia may have been the instigators of the 2008 crash and how a system with substantial growing debt is vulnerable to such attacks.

 “Russia is playing a very good game of Chess and there’s every reason to believe that Russia has thought this out in advance,” said Vitaly Chernetsky, a Ukraine expert at the University of Kansas.It’s up to the rest of the world to decide what will be needed to stop Putin’s momentum, he said.

U.S. analysts told TheBlaze that the sanctions announced Monday against seven of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs and politicians may not be enough to stop Putin. Some Russian leaders have even joked that these are insignificant measures from a weak U.S. administration.

“There is no doubt that Russia has been thinking long and hard about how to disrupt U.S. power and the value of the dollar in the global market,” a U.S. defense official said. “We’re mindful but I don’t think we’re mindful enough. One thing is certain the greatest threat to our stability is not a conventional war but the destabilization of our economy by an enemy.”

For the past five years, Putin has promised that he would take America’s role as the leading global financial mammoth away, vowing to create alternatives to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. In 2011, he criticized the U.S. debt load, saying the “U.S. is living way beyond their means and shifting a part of their weight of their problems to the world economy.”

“To some extent [the U.S. is] living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar,” Putin said.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported a significant drop in foreign central banks’ Treasury bond holdings at the Federal Reserve. Analysts said they believed the drop was a result of Russia shifting Treasury bond holdings out of the Fed and into offshore accounts so it would be able to buy or sell its portfolio if the U.S. and its European allies imposed economic sanctions over Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Kremlin economic aide Sergei Glazyev made Russia’s intentions for economic warfare very clear, saying, “an attempt to announce sanctions would end in a crash for the financial system of the United States, which would cause the end of domination of the United States in the global financial system.”

Glazyvev said Russia could stop using the dollar, creating its own payment system with “our partners in the East and South.”

In 2011, the Washington Times obtained Freeman’s 2009 unclassified report, which outlined that “a three-phased attack was planned and is in the process against the United States economy.”

Despite a final report from the federal government’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that blamed the crash on such economic factors as high-risk mortgage lending practices and poor federal regulation and supervision, Freeman noted that evidence suggesting that “outside forces” likely played a role, a factor the commission did not examine.

Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson described the 2008 scenario Freeman investigated for the Pentagon in quotes published Monday in the BBC.

“I’m not going to name the senior person, but I was meeting with someone … this person told me that the Chinese had received a message from the Russians which was, ‘Hey let’s join together and sell Fannie and Freddie securities on the market,’ Paulson told the BBC. “The Chinese weren’t going to do that but again, it just drove home to me how vulnerable I felt until we had put Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship [the rescue plan for them, that was eventually put in place].”

Freeman told TheBlaze that if the Chinese would have become involved it “would have worsened our financial crisis.”

“We might still be digging out, and we are still digging out to a certain degree, but it would have been far worse. But, what if they dumped all their holdings; not just the Fannie and Freddie debt, but all of their Treasury debt and they got the Chinese and others to do it? Oh, my goodness!”

Parallels between the 1929 stock crash and now

By Glen Tate (299days.com)

We all know the stock market will crash. The record high stock prices today are all artificial: the fake corporate earnings, the Fed pumping $1 trillion a year into the economy (mostly into the stock market, at least indirectly), the fundamental weakness of the economy, and the fact that a significant portion of the money in the stock market is just from people blindly throwing their money into 401(k)s instead of people investing in companies that will actually make an honest profit.  That is, the current high numbers in the stock market are not because the companies are worth it; it’s due to the above-mentioned phony bologna.

There are some big differences between 1929 and now, and they relate to how much more devastating a crash would be now. In 1929, we had a fundamentally strong economy.  It was largely unregulated. There was no Obamacare, no ridiculous taxes, no EPA, etc. In 1929 the Federal Reserve was not pumping any money into the stock market; now it’s a trillion dollars a year.  Another huge difference is that in 1929, very few people were actually in the stock market.  Investors in 1929 were almost exclusively the rich.  Now most of the country has a 401(k).  The destruction of a crash would hit most Americans now, not just a handful of rich people.  In 1929, America was far, far different socially. There was no welfare and people were about a 1,000 times more self-sufficient than now.  Most people in 1929 lived on farms and could grow their own food and there was no entitlement mentality.  Now there is violence when EBT cards don’t work for a few hours in a few areas.

I am not a stock trader trying to predict when the market will crash.  I focus on the consequences of a crash. What all this means, at least to me, is that the current stock market is much more fake, and the consequences for a crash are much more dire. In 1929, it would have been absurd to think there would be massive riots after a crash.  Now, it is widely accepted.  In fact, the federal government is actively planning for these riots.  Think about that: the government is not only acknowledging rioting after a crash, but is planning on how to deal with it.

I think the graph is important to think about.  If nothing else, it should kick people into gear when it comes to getting ready for the crash that is coming.

----------------------------------

Blogger note:
Here's a little VERY valuable hint:   Get out of all of the markets, including your IRAs and 401Ks, get out of your CDs and other bank investments, then take all that cash and buy physical GOLD and SILVER and do it NOW!  Take the penalties. Keep in mind that when the stock or bond market crashes, it WILL take the whole banking system with it.

(Or you can just ignore me and lose everything you have accumulated in your lifetime in as little as one single day)

Still not convinced?  If your investments are not currently getting a 16% or better return, you are already losing money in your savings or investments every day.  According to the CPI formula of the 1980s, true inflation today is about 15.5%. The gov't has been changing the formula over and over again, pulling out things like food and fuel prices, or anything else volatile enough to increase the inflation number. The FED reports inflation as 2% so they won't have to increase social security benefits or pay higher yields on treasury notes. Don't believe it? Then why does the 20oz can of green beans at the grocery store now weigh 11oz and costs 150% more? Why are most items on the dollar menu no longer a dollar? WAKE UP AMERICA!

Too Many Government Websites

On the White House website, they posted a blog article about how the Federal Government had too many websites. Over 2000 of them. Unfortunately, as they they always do, they missed the entire point of this revelation.

Their focus, upon learning of this fact, is to simply reduce the number of websites. 

What they should be doing is reducing the number of government organizations behind these websites that are intruding on American’s lives and unnecessarily robbing them of their hard earned cash through taxation.

You can read the article here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/06/13/toomanywebsitesgov

If you want to get an idea of how bloated the government is, just google .gov

_________________________________________________________________

I know this analogy is a bit dated and I'm sure you or someone else could easily come up with a current version that more people would understand, but here goes:

We have a train with a steam engine that needs to deliver goods to market. The steam engine is commerce, businesses producing products for market. Since the steam engine runs on steam, it has to be heated, or manufactured. We make the steam by shoveling coal (I know. Mean ole nasty coal.) into a fire box to heat the water. I’ll tell you what. We’ll use wood instead. The people throwing the wood are the employees and business owners. Everything is going great. The fire box is hot, there is lots of steam to work the pistons that move the wheels, and the locomotive is cruising down the tracks.

Everything is going great for a while. Pretty soon, the government notices that the train is moving smoothly from point A to point B and thinks, “We can use this train for passengers too!” So the government tells the train that they have to carry passengers for free. It won’t affect them. They’ll just fill up the empty spaces among the goods.

Things are going well for a while. Then the passengers start getting thirsty. The government says to the employees, “You have plenty of water in your boiler storage tank. We need some to give to the passengers so they won’t die of thirst.”

Well, the train keeps chugging along at a steady pace, so the government allows more passengers to ride for free. This is a really long trip, so the old and new passengers get thirsty again, and the government takes more water from the storage tank.

Pretty soon, as the government keeps adding passengers, the train gets heavier and heavier. To keep the train moving, the employees and business owners work harder, throwing more and more wood on the fire, and they’re getting tired. Soon, the storage tank runs dry and the train breaks down. The workers quit and the passengers, who became so accustomed to the free water, die of thirst.

The government has taken over $17,265,000,000.00 worth of water out of the storage tank and it’s about to run dry. 52% of Americans are receiving some form of government assistance, not including Social Security and Medicare. Many of these people have been receiving these entitlements for more than five generations.

When the tank runs dry, they will starve and will loot and kill to find food and water.

The government can correct all of this by reducing its size and breadth and wean the people from the government teat. Will they ever do it? When pigs fly!

How to Beat the IRS and the Money Printers at the Same Time

So, how are conservatives beating the IRS, not to mention the Fed?  By buying private non-reportable physical gold & silver and sitting on it.   In other words, they're getting some wealth out of the crooked casino and away from the grimy paws of the IRS.  But in order to beat the IRS at their own game, they're buying “the right gold."

First, let’s look at investing in "the wrong gold" -- gold on paper through an ETF -- and how that plays right into the hands of the IRS and Fed.  You buy $100,000 in paper gold through your broker in the form of an ETF.  Gold doubles, you sell and realize a 100k profit and now you get to send a check for $28,000 to the IRS.  That’s right, you buy gold to protect yourself from inflation, inflation happens, your paper money buys less so your gold went up but, for some crazy reason, you have to give the IRS 28% of your “growth."

This is partly why the IRS is a joke.  The central planners make inflation to get growth, and then things rise because of that inflation, but then they want some of your growth back into their own pockets?   One would argue that if the central planners are going make inflation all day by printing money that YOU should be allowed to benefit from the asset appreciation that ultimately helps YOU to counter their inflation and the rising price of the goods and services YOU need to survive.  But instead they want to ding you twice – once through an unfair tax called inflation and then again by taxing you on the asset appreciation that inflation created.

So, when we talk about the "right gold," we're talking about physical gold, which has none of the counter-party risk of ETF gold and is more shielded from the IRS.  What many conservatives are doing is removing some wealth from the fractional system controlled by criminals and into an asset that not only lives outside the insolvent banking system and outside the paper fiat currency system, but is also invisible to the IRS.  That's right, the IRS does NOT require the reporting of many types of gold and silver coin purchases and sales.  So not only are conservatives protecting their money and wealth from systematic collapse when they buy gold and silver, they are shielding themselves from IRS scrutiny.

Written by Damon Geller

If after reading these three articles today, you still don't get it... You never will.

http://www.wholesaledirectmetals.com/index.php/gold-blog/546-how-conservatives-get-revenge-on-the-irs/?cid=WNDdedicated

The Fed Just Guaranteed $9 Gas and $3800 Gold

Now that the Fed has announced they are barely tapering their enormous stimulus program, it's more obvious than ever that a few powerful men have hijacked our economic, financial and political structure.  And here's a news flash: They aren’t socialists or capitalists.  They’re criminals.  The Fed's decision to continue buying $75 billion dollars worth of toxic banking assets and U.S. debt per month means the money-printing factory has just gone into high gear. Not only can you say goodbye to your paper-based savings and retirement, but the Fed just guaranteed $9 gas and $3800 gold.

The Fed's Spending Spree

Every month in 2013, the Fed increased its balance sheet by $85 billion, consisting of $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities and $45 billion in 10-30 year treasuries. The Fed is on pace to monetize roughly half of the US budget deficit in 2013. Putting it all together, the Fed's balance sheet has increased to $4 billion. A total increase of $1.17 trillion in one year!  And tapering to $75 billion isn't going to change much.

The Fed has been promising to taper their stimulus program pending the improvement of the labor market.  But as the labor market continues to stagnate, now the Fed has reversed course and announced that they will continue their reckless stimulus program (a.k.a "money printing") for the foreseeable future.

So, how does Fed spending affect the value of your money?  To clearly illustrate this point, let’s take a look at gold price action and debt accumulation since 2005.  I can take this back all the way to 2000, or even further, and it will hold true.  But then we would have to start inflation-adjusting the numbers.  (The US Treasury was used to gather this debt data):

• 2005 US Debt = 7.6T | Gold = $430/oz. | Gas = $1.82/gallon
• 2006 US Debt = 8.1T | Gold = $520/oz. | Gas = $2.28/gallon
• 2007 US Debt = 8.7T | Gold = $635/oz. | Gas = $2.40/gallon
• 2008 US Debt = 10.7T | Gold = $875/oz. | Gas = $2.90/gallon
• 2009 US Debt = 10.6T | Gold = $855/oz. | Gas = $2.75/gallon
• 2010 US Debt = 12.3T | Gold = $1,100/oz. | Gas = $2.80/gallon
• 2011 US Debt = 14T | Gold = $1,320/oz. | Gas = $3.15/gallon
• 2012 US Debt = 15.2T | Gold = $1,540/oz. | Gas = $3.40/gallon
• 2013 US Debt = 17T | Gold = $1,580/oz. | Gas = $4.50/gallon

And here’s where we’re going:

• 2014 US Debt = 18.8T | Gold = $2,200/oz. | Gas = $5.00/gallon
• 2015 US Debt = 21T | Gold = $2,600/oz. | Gas = $6.00/gallon
• 2016 US Debt = 22.7T | Gold = $3,100/oz. | Gas = $6.75/gallon
• 2017 US Debt = 25.5T | Gold = $3,575/oz. | Gas = $7.50/gallon
• 2018 US Debt = 28T | Gold = $3,800/oz. | Gas = $9.00/gallon

So... we'll surge to $28 trillion in U.S. debt by 2018. Based upon the chart above, that will put gas at $9 and gold at $3800.

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

As clear as day, this chart illustrates that Fed stimulus is truly the gift that keeps on giving if you are a holder of gold.

They call it “Quantitative Easing," or QE.  The reason QE is like the gift that keeps on giving for a holder of gold is because it blatantly debases the U.S. dollar.  Allow me to illustrate:

Round one (QE1) started November 25, 2008 and ended March 31, 2010.  During that 17-month period, a gallon of gas rose from $1.75 to $2.75 and gold rose from $725/oz. to $1125/oz.

QE2 was started Nov 3, 2010 and lasted seven months until June 30, 2011.  During the seven months of QE2, gas prices rose from $2.80 to $3.60 and gold from $1325 to $1700.   QE2 was also marked by massive global food inflation and global riots.   QE2 ended June 30, and we have had no further ‘major’ balance sheet expansion until mid-September 2012.

In the last few weeks leading up to QE3 and the week after, gold rose 15%.  During the summer of 2013, when the Fed starting backing off their "tapering" talk, gold rose a staggering 13% in a matter of months.  The proof is in the numbers.

QE3 Will Not Improve Labor; It will Ruin The Economy

This policy is complete insanity.  By 2018 when the debt peaks, gas will be over $9 per gallon!  These same factors put gold at $3800 by 2018! It debases the U.S. dollar significantly at a time when we need fiscal responsibility more than ever.  But here’s the real insanity behind this kind of move and its perceived intentions:  How does spending $85 billion a month buying toxic paper from banks even help the labor market anyway?  How can the Fed even get away with another huge lie and distortion like this one?

These policies aren’t really aimed at fixing the labor market or improving the real economy at all.  These policies are designed to be bailouts for too-big-to-fail banks and to keep rates low so that the Fed can service $17 trillion in debt.   This was a move that had complete panic all over it.

Protecting Your Wealth from the Madness

To actually achieve sound wealth protection at this point, you need to look for true diversification (as opposed to banker diversification), by removing some of your wealth from “the system.”  You need to get a portion of your wealth out of the insolvent banking institutions that don’t pay you any yield anyway, and then you need to buy some real money.  Some grass-fed, non-GMO, organic, real MONEY.  The unprocessed kind.  The kind that is not attached to all the political lies and corporate greed.  Money free of debt and that can’t be printed by criminals.  The kind that has outlasted every paper fiat currency ever invented by man for over 5000 years.

"The greatest trick central bankers ever pulled was convincing the world that they work for the public and not for the banks." If you presently do not own any gold, then you do not have the luxury of time.  The foundation and the safety of our monetary, banking and financial systems has never been less sound.  Never.  And while the media may try and convince you otherwise, I hope you have gained the ammunition to see the truth and make some decisions about how you will prepare for the inevitable math of the future.  You don’t have to be an optimist to make money, and you don’t have to be a pessimist to protect it.  You need to be a realist.

Written by Damon Geller

http://www.wholesaledirectmetals.com/index.php/gold-blog/594-the-fed-just-guaranteed-9-gas-and-3800-gold/?cid=WNDdedicated

Alarming Gov't Plan to Confiscate Your Savings

Governments have been confiscating citizens’ savings for decades through deficits, inflation and outright theft, and it's about to get worse.  Bankrupt governments will do whatever is necessary to survive and feed the welfare state, and they have never been more bankrupt than they are right now.  Look no further than Poland confiscating half of citizen pensions.  If you knew the government was going to steal your savings from you, would you do anything differently to protect your savings now?  It’s an important question to think about now, because they ARE coming for your money, and some newly-discovered facts prove it.

“In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation.  Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth.  Gold stands in the way of this insidious process.” -- Alan Greenspan

The Fatter the Government, The Skinnier the People

The U.S. Debt, not including unfunded liabilities, is over $17 trillion dollars.  The sociopaths who are driving the titanic will be arguing over raising the debt ceiling again.  If we look back to September of 2011, which was the last loud debt-ceiling argument, gold rose 21% in a period of three months while politicians caused a major corrosion of confidence in our leaders.  When governments are broke, everything is fair game.

Government officials are parasites; they don’t produce anything.  They only feed off of those who do.  As one person said, the fatter the government, the skinner the people.  And when government officials cannot meet their obligations or fulfill the promises they made to the public, they’ll figure out ways to appropriate the public’s money to fund their projects.  Government officials don’t produce wealth; they only redistribute your wealth.  Desperate government officials will always resort to expropriation, which is outright confiscation.

If the Federal Reserve is currently buying 90% of the U.S. Treasury market and they are going insolvent, who do you think the government will lean on to pick up the slack?  The answer is YOU. Ten thousand Baby Boomers will turn 65 years-old every day until 2030.  And while the government has a debt problem of $17 trillion, not so coincidentally, our country's IRAs, 401Ks and retirement accounts amount to that same number:  $17 trillion.  What a convenient resource for the Federal Government.

So here's the plan:  The government will nationalize retirement accounts like IRAs, 401Ks, pensions, 403Bs, etc.  so that you will be forced to use a portion of your retirement wealth to purchase U.S. government debt – debt that will ultimately default, as it is not possible to sustain our astronomical debt nor the deficits that create it.

Plan to Nationalize Private 401K and IRA Retirement Accounts

If you do some research on US Bill “HB5337,” you will find the plan to nationalize retirement wealth.  On May 6, 2012 Lauren Schmitz, a research analyst at the Bernard L Schwartz Center for Economic Analyst (SCEPA), introduced HB5337.  This 401(k)/IRA de-privatization is the brainchild of Teresa Ghilarducci, whom through funding from the White House and the Ford & Rockefeller Foundations engineered a new “Regulatory & Tax Incentive.” The purpose is to force Americans to convert their Retirement Accounts into Government Managed accounts.

This plan to nationalize private 401K and IRA retirement accounts is being deceptively publicized as the government protecting the public against business failings or state bankruptcies.  Your cash, your retirement funds, your bank deposits and your investments are at huge risk of being confiscated by the government through some contrived reason or another.

The IRS Greases the Wheels of Confiscation

The IRS is refusing to issue tax ID numbers for single-member LLCs that are owned by an IRA, which is the specific structure that U.S. taxpayers create in order to ship their retirement savings overseas. Of course, the IRS simply decided using its sole discretion to stop allowing Americans to create this structure, and hence, force them to keep their retirement savings in the U.S.  Without getting into too much detail on these structures, the bottom line is that the methods by which you could manage your own IRA and keep it out of the hands of the too-big-to-fail banks, and thus away from the grabbing hands of government, are being blocked in an effort to keep all that wealth accessible to the government.

Many People Have Been Robbed Already

Detroit’s bankruptcy destroyed many people’s pensions.  In Cyprus, the government raided people’s savings accounts in an example of outright theft.  And right here at home our too-big-to-fail banks, like BofA, Citigroup, HSBC, Goldman, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and several others, are right now being investigated for robbing pensions via the rigging of interest benchmarks, among other investigations of fraud.  JP Morgan Chase, in the last two years, has paid $7 billion dollars in fines for fraud.

Yet these parasites remain in power, have had no further regulation placed upon them, and continue the same (or worse) risk tactics that led to the financial implosion of 2008 and subsequent taxpayer-funded bailouts.  These criminal organizations look more like organized crime syndicates than legitimate businesses.  Yes, these are the same folks  who are in charge and in possession of your wealth.  Whether you have your retirement funds in a money market, the stock market or the bond (debt) market, a bank or bank holding company hold and controls your wealth.  This means that when Wall Street, which relies on an incestuous relationship with the U.S. government, is asked to hand over access to your money, it’ll be a simple as a keystroke.

The Greatest Heist in Human History

In 1966, before Alan Greenspan became the Federal Reserve Chairman, he wrote an essay called “Gold and Economic Freedom.” In this essay, Greenspan explains, the gold standard limited government spending to the amount of gold held in reserve.  However, The gold standard was also unprofitable to the international bankers and the crooked government they collude with.  So the central bankers, in collusion with devious government officials, embarked on the greatest heist in human history, to repeal the gold standard.  Stopping at nothing, they attacked and crucified anyone who opposed them.  Eventually, the gold standard was repealed, the citizens' gold was confiscated, and a debt-based economy was born.

All the subsequent government deficit-spending and money-printing that followed the abandonment of the gold standard led to the Great Wealth Confiscator:  Inflation.  Inflation raises the cost of goods, while reducing purchasing power.  And massive money-printing always ends in hyper-inflation, which typically causes the price of gold and silver to grow exponentially.

The above article was written by Damon Geller

The Solution? Get your retirement funds out of the control of others and into your own control. Buy physical gold and silver. Now is the time, because gold and silver are artificially low right now due to Great Britain flooding the market to shore up their own debt problems. Right now, the price of gold and silver is below the cost of excavating and refining it! This means the low price won't last long. The market will soon correct itself and the prices will rise considerably. Do not buy gold and silver certificates. These can still be confiscated by the government. At least if you physically have it in your possession, if the gov't comes after it you can bury it until it blows over. Once the gov't takes control of your retirement, you become a government slave. They will control you and every aspect of your life.

All but the last paragraph comes from the link below:

http://www.wholesaledirectmetals.com/index.php/gold-blog/590-the-governments-plan-to-confiscate-your-money