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Turn Out The Lights U.S. Cities Are Becoming Cesspools Of Filth, Decay And Wret

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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Author Topic: Turn Out The Lights U.S. Cities Are Becoming Cesspools Of Filth, Decay And Wret  (Read 26206 times)
Psalm 51:17
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« Reply #150 on: January 17, 2014, 01:40:55 pm »

Dependency on the carnal, worldly system is what the evil men of the world want, and it's working among the masses. All you have to do is look at the kinds of trash strewn around the poor sections of society. The only animal carcass you'll find is chicken bones from KFC.

4 people who earn six figures and still feel broke
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/i-earn-six-figures-and-still-feel-broke-215546862.html
1/16/14

To most working class families, a six-figure salary may seem like the antidote to all financial troubles. But earning more doesn’t necessarily confer superior financial management skills, and even high-earners find that it’s shockingly easy to fall into one particularly nefarious debt trap — living beyond one’s means.

“As incomes rise most [people] adjust their standard of living up,” says Kevin J. Meehan, a certified financial planner in Itasca, Ill. “The challenge is that the higher your income goes, the more variable it becomes, [because] much is based on bonuses, options and commissions. When the income goes down — whether on a permanent or temporary basis — most have little free cash to fall back on.”

Often, the higher your income bracket, the more pressure there is to have the kind of lifestyle -- whether it’s from your neighbors, your family or yourself. On top of that, high-paying careers come at a hefty price, typically in the form of college education. A 20-something today will graduate with more than $29,000 worth of student loan debt, certainly enough to put a dent in any future earnings. Add graduate school to the mix (an MBA from a top 20 business school cost $102,000 in 2012), and even with a $100,000 job, you’re still looking at years of loan payments with little room left for saving.

“We have encountered many clients who are high earners, but are not big savers,” says Kacie Swartz, a certified financial planner in Austin,Texas. “It’s no surprise that a higher income can change one’s perspective of ‘want’ and ‘need’.”

--

“Once I put everything on paper, I was just paralyzed."

Ruben Omega, 34, was pulling in more than $100,000 as a product manager at a pharmaceutical company when he realized he was broke.

It was 2010, three years after he and his wife bought their first home in the San Francisco Bay area and had just welcomed their first son. Omega was taking home close to $6,000 a month (after taxes), and yet they were still overdrafting their bank accounts. Debt collectors were constantly calling. Each month, his $3,000 mortgage bill brought another wave of terror and yet their loan servicer told them they earned too much to qualify for a loan modification. He felt poorer now that he was earning six figures than he had scraping by on the $33,000 he was making out of college.       

“Something just didn’t click,” Omega told us. “[My wife and I] felt that our income should be OK but we didn’t feel comfortable. It was like panic mode all the time.”                                 

Grudgingly, they sat down together and brought out the calculator. Even before factoring in their mortgage, the couple owed nearly $190,000 – $168,000 worth of student, home equity, and 401(k) loans, plus another $20,000 on credit cards.

“Once I put everything on paper, I was just paralyzed,” he says. “I actually couldn’t do anything for a while after seeing that.”

When the shock wore off, the real work began. His wife, who cared for their two sons during the week, took up waitressing on the weekends. They used spreadsheets and budgeting websites like ReadyForZero and You Need a Budget to track their progress. Dinners out and vacations stopped. When they needed a new car, they bought used and paid in cash. They got rid of their landline. One of the toughest changes they made was consolidating their three checking accounts so they could keep better track of their money flow.

Their biggest financial mistake was also the hardest to rectify — their house. San Francisco is one of the most notoriously expensive housing markets, and Omega bought the home from his uncle for $520,000 at the peak of the bubble. With an interest-only loan, the $3,000 he shelled out each month didn’t even cover property taxes or insurance. It was way more than they could afford.

“I probably attempted three times to do loan modifications but [my bank] kept saying we made too much,” he says. “Finally, the mortgage was transferred to another lender in 2011, and we were granted a modification.”

They worked as a team, but the stress of tackling so much debt at once took its toll. Omega said he’d sometimes hound his wife, who has an engineering degree, to get “a real job” instead of waitressing. “If anything, it might have been more stressful for her because she was on the other end of my complaining and she takes care of the kids,” he says.

The family is in a much better place today. Buoyed by Omega's $120,000 salary and new budgeting routine, they’ve paid down nearly $100,000 in debt with $70,000 left to go. The effort will take at least three to five years, he estimates.

“I feel happier now than I did before,” he says. “There’s great certainty in knowing where [my money] is going. Whenever someone calls my phone now and I don’t know the number, I just answer it.”

--

"You feel that you deserve nice things and you just have to get over that."

On paper, Jessica Michaels is one of the lucky ones. The 28-year-old Chicago native landed her first job out of a law school in September, a $100,000-plus position at a major law firm in Washington, D.C.

But ask her about her 401(k) balance and the nerves start to creep in.

“I have zero retirement savings at this point, and that’s one of my anxieties,” she says. “I have a fear that I’m not going to save enough for retirement
.”

It’s a familiar feeling for Michaels. Less than five years ago, she was a beat reporter for a local newspaper in Colorado Springs, Colo., just “$40 away from qualifying for food stamps,” she says. What she could not afford, she put on plastic. By the time she gave up on journalism and decided to take a stab at law school, she had accrued more than $10,000 worth of credit card debt.

I shouldn’t have been living the lifestyle I was living when I wasn’t making that much money,” she says. “That was a mistake I made and I didn’t really think about it. Now I’m paying for that.”

She got a near-perfect LSAT score and was accepted to the University of Chicago. But even after scholarships, she still had to take out $150,000 in loans to cover her tuition and living expenses.

After factoring in her $2,500-a-month student loan bill, saving to replace her rapidly dying car, credit payments, and rent for the D.C. apartment she shares with her boyfriend, more than three-quarters of her paycheck is gone the minute she gets it. Less than a year after moving from Chicago to D.C., they’re already planning to move to a smaller apartment.

“I need to save enough money to move. Ideally, I’d pay off my credit cards first and save up $10,000,” says Michaels, who admits some ambivalence about not being able to afford her desired lifestyle despite a good income.

“But at this point, when I think about how long it will take me to do these things, I get a little overwhelmed. At the same time I [think] I shouldn’t feel that way because I’m making that much money. You feel that you deserve nice things and you just have to get over that. I can’t afford it.”

“There’s at least one week every month where we are broke."

Theresa Lee, 28, earns more than $100,000 as a product manager for a media company. It’s the kind of income she dreamed of as the first kid in her family to attend college.

But like many 20-somethings just starting to get a grip on their careers, Lee says she’s still paying for her years of financial hardship
.

“There’s at least one week every month where [my fiance and I] are broke after we’ve paid all of our bills and we’re waiting for the next paycheck,” says Lee, who lives in Bradley Beach, N.J.

By the time she graduated from a private college in Queens, N.Y., Lee had racked up more than $60,000 in private loans that offered little in the way of flexible payment plans. For a few years, she bounced from one mediocre paycheck to the next, earning $50,000 at the most.

“I was having to stagger my rent payments in order to pay my loans,” she says. “One paycheck went to loans and the other went to rent [for my apartment in Manhattan].” What little surplus she had was spent on food, leaving next to nothing available for savings.

By late 2012, Lee worked her way to a comfortable marketing position at a financial services company. Then she and her fiance learned they were pregnant and she suddenly found herself taking maternity leave just months after starting the job, leaving her savings account as empty as it had ever been.

With the addition of their newborn daughter last March and the time Lee took off, funds today are far from free-flowing.

“We’ve been using generic everything for the baby’s expenses and we shop in bulk,” she says. “I contribute only 1% to my 401(k) right now and as for emergency savings, I have none. None. All of our disposable income is going toward the cost of our wedding at this point.”

They had planned on downsizing from their $2,300-a-month apartment but put it off when the baby was born. The plan is back on the table now.

“We’ll be saving about $500 a month, but we’ll be further away [from our jobs],” she says. “I feel like we’re not drowning, but for the amount of money we make we should not have to stretch our paychecks like we were in college.”
--

"I don't feel financially comfortable"

Ruben Neira is no stranger to failure. The 56-year-old Chilean immigrant has always been an entrepreneur at heart. After moving to Plano, Texas with his wife and two daughters in 1995, he designed their family home and oversaw its construction and launched a successful career as a private physical therapist, bringing home more than $100,000 a year.

But lately, his penchant for new business ideas has proven costly. Since 2006, Neira and a business partner have struggled to get a software company they founded off the ground. They plan on licensing software that helps physicians digitize their medical records. In the meantime, he’s maintained his day job as a therapist, working about five to six hours a day. However, seven years in, his personal investment in his side business began to take a toll.

“I’ve invested a couple hundred thousand dollars of my own money into the business,” he says. “It’s just starting to make money but until six months ago, we had to pay for everything. And now that the company is starting to sell licenses, the [profits] are basically just paying for more software development.”

In the seven years it took to get the business off the ground, Neira found himself sinking deeper into debt. He and his wife are working to pay down $40,000 worth of credit card debt. And he recently found out he had been underpaying his taxes, resulting in a staggering $40,000 IRS bill. Even with an installment plan in place, it will take him five years to settle his tax debts.

To help, he and his wife decided last year to sell their home, which would relieve them of $2,000 monthly mortgage payments and free them to move into an apartment. So far, their timing has been good. Property values in his neighborhood have gone up nearly 10% since they put their home on the market.

Despite his losses, Neira, who has continued working part-time through his physical therapy practice, is hopeful his software business will one day pay the bills.

“In the past, my wife and my daughters have hated my passion for doing new things, but I’ve had way more debt than this before from another business that didn’t work out and I got it down to zero,” he says. “I know that it just cannot be a success overnight. It takes time and hard work and patience. I have so much fun with what I do.”

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« Reply #151 on: January 17, 2014, 02:27:59 pm »

Quote
...living beyond one’s means.

That's called, "The love of money..."
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« Reply #152 on: February 05, 2014, 07:34:02 am »

You Can Buy A House For One Dollar Or Less In Economically Depressed Cities All Over America

Would you like to buy a house for one dollar?  If someone came up to you on the street and asked you that question, you would probably respond by saying that it sounds too good to be true.  But this is actually happening in economically-depressed cities all over America.  Of course there are a number of reasons why you might want to think twice before buying any of these homes, and I will get into those reasons in just a little bit.  First, however, it is worth noting that many of the cities where these "free houses" are available were once some of the most prosperous cities in the entire country.  In fact, the city of Detroit once had the highest per capita income in the entire nation.  But as millions of good jobs have been shipped overseas, these once prosperous communities have degenerated into rotting, decaying hellholes.  Now homes that once housed thriving middle class families cannot even be given away.  This is happening all over America, and what we are witnessing right now is only just the beginning.

(Read More....) http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/you-can-buy-a-house-for-one-dollar-or-less-in-economically-depressed-cities-all-over-america
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The Man from George Street
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« Reply #153 on: February 05, 2014, 09:48:40 am »

That, and the government wanted to sell the USS Forestall aircraft carrier, but claimed nobody bid on it. Not one bid, eh?

So, the government in their wasteful wisdom, cut a deal with a company and sold it to them as scrap for $1. One single US dollar.

Now granted, the company has to move it from the northeast to a Gulf coast facility to cut it up, and towing a carrier isn't cheap, but come on! The US gave that thing away, and the public made one dollar on the deal.

Imagine how many people would love to live on an aircraft carrier? Convert that huge thing to a bunch of apartments, and now it's making money.

There is big money to be made in dealing with government surplus material, that includes ships and vehicles all over the country.

http://www.govliquidation.com/

There are also individual agencies that sell their surplus, be it DEA, FBI, all the military branches, and many state agencies like sheriff departments.

The big thing with those sells is that one, you got to pay cash, no matter the purchase. And two, it's your responsibility to get the items off the property in a certain time frame, at your own expense. Most deals involve LARGE volumes of stuff, like say dozens of boxes of older uniforms, or several pallets of computer monitors. I found on a site once old military artillery brass being sold as scrap, in dozens of big crates, tens of thousands of pounds of scrap brass.

If you got cash and the equipment, you can get all kinds of things in surplus sales.
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« Reply #154 on: February 21, 2014, 11:46:55 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/detroit-files-plan-fix-debt-160238371.html;_ylt=A0LEV0XajwdTy1UAmW9XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTB0bmhzcGJhBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkA1NNRTQwMl8x
Detroit files plan to fix debt, leave bankruptcy

Detroit files plan to restructure debt, emerge from largest municipal bankruptcy in US history

2/21/14

DETROIT (AP) -- Detroit's emergency manager filed a plan Friday to restructure the city's $18 billion debt by making cuts to pensions and creditors while offering a blueprint for emerging from the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

An early draft of state-appointed Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr's plan called for city pensioners to receive $4.3 billion in payments and bondholders about $1.1 billion during the next 40 years. That draft also detailed plans to help pensioners keep more of what they are owed by using state and private funds to protect against the sale of city-owned art at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

"My advisers and I have now expended many months in negotiations, including within Bankruptcy Court-mandated mediations, with all classes of creditors to get to this point, and we are satisfied with the progress made thus far," Orr said in a statement. "However, there is still much work in front of all of us to continue the recovery from a decades-long downward spiral. We must move swiftly to emerge from bankruptcy so that the financial distress harming the City can end.

"We maintain that the Plan provides the best path forward for all parties to resolve their respective issues and for Detroit to become once again a city in which people want to invest, live and work."

The plan still faces numerous obstacles. Most aspects are still being negotiated in mediation sessions with stakeholders. Court appeals are all but certain even after the final version is approved in bankruptcy court.

The early draft included the possible spinoff of the city's Water and Sewerage Department to a regional authority. The city would receive $47 million annually under a lease deal.

Orr included in his early draft a promise of millions of dollars from foundations, the state and the Detroit Institute of Arts to prevent any possible sale of city-owned pieces in the museum to bolster at-risk pensions.

The city also would establish a voluntary employees' beneficiary association that would provide health care benefits to retirees.

The plan was accompanied by a disclosure statement, which outlined the level of reinvestment, including municipal services, planned during the next 10 years.

Orr had hoped creditors would sign off on the plan before he submitted it to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes. But the clock was ticking because Rhodes had set a March 1 deadline. Nevertheless, with negotiations ongoing, changes are expected.

Orr has said the city's debt is at least $18 billion. About $6 billion is Detroit Water and Sewerage Department debt, which is secured by water bill payments. An additional $12 billion is unsecured, meaning it's not covered by a revenue stream. That includes about $2 billion in general obligation bond debt, $5.7 billion in unfunded retire health care obligations and $3.5 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.

Pension officials have disputed that figure.
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« Reply #155 on: February 22, 2014, 04:25:22 am »

Quote
Orr has said the city's debt is at least $18 billion. About $6 billion is Detroit Water and Sewerage Department debt, which is secured by water bill payments. An additional $12 billion is unsecured, meaning it's not covered by a revenue stream. That includes about $2 billion in general obligation bond debt, $5.7 billion in unfunded retire health care obligations and $3.5 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.

Now I don't pretend to know much about government stuff like bonds, etc, but after reading this whole article, it's only at the end of the article that they admit this is nothing more than a city trying to get out of their pension and bonds obligations.

At first thought, this appeared, and has been presented as to be a case of a city that has slowly died after the collapse of the US auto industry. Jobs go away, people either move or stay and be jobless. Sounded plausible. Apparently, that's not the case at all.

As the smoke screen clears some, we are seeing the truth is not what has been presented. Not even close. The downfall of Detroit and other cities has to do with certain elements that don't want to pay for their obligations, such as retirement pensions.

What better way to break the unions and pensions stranglehold than to simply ship the jobs overseas where they don't have any pensions and doing business and pay is cheap compared to the US.

No clue why they have such large debt with the water and sewer departments. No question in my mind that there must be some kind of shady dealings going on for the water and sewer departments to be in debt at all. I mean seriously, who doesn't pay their water bill? That's the lowest amount utility bill there is for a residence or business. If the payments by water customers are paying the bills, why is the water department even part of the conversation? Most likely corruption somewhere.

So what this is really about is corrupt and incompetent government officials wasting the public's money, putting the public further and further in debt to the point they say they can't pay, so they in turn give the public the shaft by "restructuring" their ill gotten debt, so that the very community they serve gets nothing, while certain creditors get their cash.

Quote
Most aspects are still being negotiated in mediation sessions with stakeholders

Curious way to put it! "Stakeholders"? And who might they be? Special interest groups and those who have connections to government officials? And why them, versus the public? These things get behind closed doors and make deals in private, with no public input hardly, only for the government to announced they have" reached a deal with creditors" and the public gets squat.
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« Reply #156 on: March 03, 2014, 06:18:04 pm »

3 huge cities flirting with bankruptcy

Staggering under pension obligations and debt, any of these could follow Detroit into court.

3/3/14
http://money.msn.com/investing/post--3-huge-cities-flirting-with-bankruptcy

By Karen Riccio
 
Detroit's looming bankruptcy is making news again, this time focusing on current restructuring plans aimed to wipe out $18 billion in debt by axing pension checks of city retirees, including police and fire.

Massive long-term retirement and healthcare promises were by no means solely responsible for the city's fall, but these massive pensions coupled with a tax base weakened by high unemployment and housing vacancies caused the budget to bleed out quicker.

The Michigan city may be the most recent victim of bankruptcy, but many of the 61 largest U.S. cities have adopted the same retirement legacy leading to $118 billion in unfunded healthcare debts. Retired city workers stop contributing to the system; the system keeps paying them; and before you know, a fiscal crisis has begun.

If you think the three cities below are too big to fail, think again.

The solid performance in the stock market in 2013 may have allowed some of their investments within pensions to grow and cover costs. However, when the growth rate of investments slow, and the payout rate speeds up, expect to see any one of these cities next in line at bankruptcy court:

New York City

When adjusted for population, New York owes $20 billion more for retiree health care than Detroit, or a total of $88.2 billion.

On top of those obligations, the Big Apple owed pensioners $69.9 billion more than it set aside as of last year's annual report. Again, adjusted for population, that's $28 billion more than Detroit owes.

One of the reasons New York City can't balance its annual budget is because it has to spend one-third of its revenues on health, retirement benefits, and debt. New York's budget has run an operating deficit six of the past seven years (with the shortfalls covered by pre-2008 surpluses).

Chicago

The Windy City may be closer to bankruptcy than New York. Fitch Ratings recently downgraded the city three notches because of pension liabilities for its 30,000 retired workers and a struggling economy.

Makes perfect sense when you consider that Chicago's four pension systems -- for police, firefighters, laborers and municipal workers -- were short by $19.5 billion at the end of 2012. That does not include the ailing pension fund for Chicago teachers, which had its own $8 billion shortfall at the end of the last fiscal year.

The option to raise property taxes to cover the annual required pension contribution is simply out of the question considering homeowners would be looking at a 35 percent tax increase.

Next year, Chicago must come up with a state-mandated $590 million increase in its contribution to police and fire pension funds, so it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

Los Angeles

When former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan gazed into his crystal ball in 2010, he told the Wall Street Journal, "Los Angeles is facing a terminal fiscal crisis: Between now and 2014 the city will likely declare bankruptcy."

The tremendous growth in payouts for retirement benefits over the years certainly lends merit to his prophecy. According to Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, pension costs in L.A. increased from 8.5 percent of total city expenditures in 1999 to 15.4 percent for fiscal 2012.

Stanford's study also estimated that each of the city's three independent pension funds is unfunded by billions of dollars: the city of Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System is $9.25 billion unfunded; the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System is $11.32 billion unfunded; and the city of Los Angeles Water and Power Employees’ Retirement System is $6.59 billion unfunded.

Many cities have begun to make reforms like trimming benefits, upping the retirement age, increasing employees’ contributions, shifting retirees into Medicare, or reexamining the meaning of "defined benefit" pension plans.

It's likely, though, that reform can't come fast enough for some cities and bankruptcy may be imminent.

One good bit of news in all of this is that municipal bonds are very resilient even when a city files for bankruptcy. For instance, in the well-known and large municipal bond default of Orange County, Calif., the recovery rate was 100 cents on the dollar. Bondholders that held on to maturity did not lose any money because Orange County did not miss a single interest payment or principal payment.

Just be sure to pay attention to a municipal bond's rating. If it falls to junk status, you might want to bail out.
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« Reply #157 on: March 06, 2014, 05:13:52 am »

16 Examples That Show The United States Has Become A Seriously Messed Up Country

In recent years, it has been quite common to hear our politicians and top media personalities talk about the need for America to use military force to impose “our values” on the rest of the world.  But what “values” could they possibly be talking about?  The truth is that we don’t have any “values” worth sharing with anyone at this point.  America has become a festering cesspool of garbage and filth, and it is getting worse with each passing day.  As a nation, we need to humble ourselves and turn away from our wicked deeds and rediscover the values that once made this country great.  But instead, we seem to have developed a thirst for evil that can never be satisfied.  The entire nation seems to be slowly going insane, and not that many people are even alarmed by this.  I hope that you will share this article with others, because the American people desperately need a giant wake up call.  The following are 16 examples that show that the United States has become a seriously messed up country…

#1 The American flag is starting to be banned in schools all over the nation, and federal courts are backing them up on this…

    Last week in Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School Dist., the 9th Circuit ruled that a public school can actually ban the American flag. Making matters worse, the decision allows the school to ban the American flag and still allow students to display flags of other countries.

#2 Speaking of our courts, many of them appear to have literally gone insane.  Just check out what the highest court in Massachusetts recently ruled…

    Massachusetts’ highest court has ruled that a man accused of secretly snapping photos up a woman’s skirt on an MBTA train did not break the law.

    The State Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday dismissed charges against Michael Robertson of Andover, who was arrested in August 2010 by transit police.

    Officers had set up a sting on the Green Line after getting reports that Robertson was using his cellphone to take photos and video up female rider’s skirts and dresses.

#3 Parents are starting to lose the natural affection that they should have for their children.  For example, a pregnant mother that already had three children recently tried to kill them all by driving her minivan into the ocean…

    “The two in the back seat was crying, with their arms out saying ‘Our mommy’s trying to kill us, please help,’” said Tesseneer.

    A bystander’s video of the rescue shows a rescuer carrying two children away from the sinking van when the children tell them there was another child inside.

    “The kids are like, ‘No there’s a baby. There’s a baby,’” Tesseneer said. “She (the mother) wouldn’t say a word. She didn’t tell us nothing about a baby.”

    The men are seen on video frantically trying to get to the small child through the hatchback and the driver’s side door.

#4 In the old days, some people would cruelly abandon their pets in the woods, but now this is actually happening to children…

    A Florida couple was arrested for allegedly abandoning their three young children in the woods, authorities said.
    Michael and Sarah Butcher, both 30, were first arrested Friday after illegally parking their red truck in a private RV park in Punta Gorda.

    Cops later found crystal meth in their car’s glove compartment, along with a syringe and a burnt spoon, according to the arrest report.

    After the pair was taken to jail –- where they repeatedly claimed to be brother and sister –- the police received a call that three children were found walking in the woods, “very dirty, hungry, and cold,” according to a police report.

#5 Teenagers in America just continue to become even more cruel.  Perhaps we should rethink the way that we are raising our children…

    Four teenagers are accused of carving a swastika into the forehead of a 16-year-old boy.

    The Oregonian reports that Jenna Montgomery, 15, Jess Taylor, 17, Blue Kalmbach, 15, and a 14-year-old boy attacked the boy in a shed, shooting him with a BB gun and hitting him with a crow bar, on top of carving a swastika into his forehead.

#6 The FDA is actually considering making it legal for doctors and scientists to create “three parent babies” in the United States.

#7 Our financial system appears to be more corrupt than it ever has been before.  And yet nobody ever seems to go to prison…

    In a nearly $13 billion settlement with the U.S. Justice Department in November 2013, JPMorganChase admitted that it, along with every other large U.S. bank, had engaged in mortgage fraud as a routine business practice, sowing the seeds of the mortgage meltdown. JPMorgan and other megabanks have now been caught in over a dozen major frauds, including LIBOR-rigging and bid-rigging; yet no prominent banker has gone to jail.

#8 Sexual perversion of all types is running rampant in America.  Just consider what one Florida man recently did with a dog…

    Police have arrested a Tampa man after his neighbors reported that he was having sex with a dog.

    According to Tampa Police, officers were flagged down by the man’s neighbors on N. Marks Street Tuesday afternoon.

    “When officers arrived on scene, they were greeted by a small crowd of residents who were disturbed by their neighbor’s activity with the dog,” a police spokeswoman explained. “Several of the witnesses stated that they yelled at the suspect to stop, but he ignored their commands.”

#9 An all-time high 59 percent of all Americans believe that the traditional definition of marriage needs to be changed.

#10 The popularity of “throuples” has surged so much that a new dating website has been launched that will cater to them specifically.

#11 Authorities around the nation are alarmed at the rise in occult-inspired crimes that appears to be happening.  Most of you have probably heard about “the Craigslist Killer” by now…

    A woman in Pennsylvania who has been charged with murder for killing  a man she met on Craigslist has told reporters that she has committed over 20 murders as part of a satanic cult.

    “When I hit 22 [murders], I stopped counting,” 19-year-old Miranda Barbour told the Daily Item on Saturday.

#12 The United States already has the highest rate of divorce in the entire world, and now the divorce rate is on the rise again.  Some pundits are blaming the “improving economy” for this.

#13 In America today, there are 60 million people that abuse alcohol and there are 22 million people that use illegal drugs.

#14 As I wrote about recently, there are 747,408 registered sex offenders in the U.S. according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.  That number only includes the ones that have been caught and convicted.

#15 Planned Parenthood has produced a video “that promotes bondage and sadomasochism” to teens…

    Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE)–which received more than $2.75 million in government funding in 2012–has produced and posted online a video specifically aimed at teenagers that promotes bondage and sadomasochism (BDSM) and proposes “rules” to follow when engaging in these activities.

    “People sometimes think that those who practice BDSM are emotionally scarred or were once abused—not true, it’s a total myth,” the host of the video, Laci Green, informs its intended audience of teens.

    “BDSM relies upon and creates trust,” she says.

By the way, the U.S. government gives hundreds of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood each year.

#16 Speaking of Planned Parenthood, more than 56 million American babies have been slaughtered in this country since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.

What should be done to a nation that does such a thing?

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/16-examples-that-show-the-united-states-has-become-a-seriously-messed-up-country
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« Reply #158 on: March 06, 2014, 08:51:15 pm »

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#12 The United States already has the highest rate of divorce in the entire world, and now the divorce rate is on the rise again.  Some pundits are blaming the “improving economy” for this.

Ultimately, the Apostate church system is largely to blame - it was all and good that they exposed abortion and sodomy through and through, but not once have they said anything about no-fault divorce, especially when their own(ie-Charles Stanley, Hal Lindsey, etc) got them.
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« Reply #159 on: March 11, 2014, 05:26:04 am »

55 Things About America You May Not Know

Is America the greatest nation on the planet?  Before you answer that question, you might want to check out the statistics that I have shared in this article first.  The reality is that the United States is in a deep state of decline, and it is getting harder to deny that fact with each passing day.  Mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually and financially we are a train wreck.  Many that are “patriotic” attempt to put a happy face on our growing problems, but the truly patriotic thing to do is to admit just how bad things have gotten so that we can start finding solutions.  If you truly love this country, then you should know that this nation needs a huge wake up call.  We have abandoned the values and the principles that early Americans held so dear, and as a result our society is a giant mess.  The following are 55 things about America that you may not know…

#1 We are supposed to have a government “of the people, by the people, for the people”, but only 25 percent of all Americans know how long U.S. Senators are elected for (6 years), and only 20 percent of all Americans know how many U.S. senators there are.

#2 Americans spend more on health care per capita than anyone else in the world by far, and yet we only rank 35th in life expectancy.

#3 Only one state in the entire country has an obesity rate of under 20 percent.  11 states have an obesity rate of over 30 percent.

#4 Of all the major industrialized nations, America is the most obese.  Mexico is #2.

#5 Back in 1962, only 13 percent of all Americans were obese, but it is being projected that 42 percent of all Americans could be obese by the year 2030.

#6 According to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 31 percent of all food in the United States gets wasted.  In case you were wondering, that amounts to approximately 133 billion pounds of food a year.

#7 America has the highest incarceration rate and the largest total prison population in the entire world by a wide margin.

#8 In America, we even put 81-year-old women in prison for feeding the birds.

#9 According to a Newsweek survey taken a few years ago, 29 percent of all Americans could not even name the vice president.

#10 Americans spend more time sitting in traffic than anyone else in the world.

#11 60 percent of Americans report feeling “angry or irritable”.  Two years ago that number was at 50 percent.

#12 36 percent of Americans admit that they have yelled at a customer service agent during the past year.

#13 Only 30 percent of all Americans can tell you in what year the 9/11 attacks happened.

#14 There are more “deaths by reptile” in America than anywhere else in the world.

#15 Right now, 29 percent of all Americans under the age of 35 are living with their parents.

#16 Average SAT scores have been falling for years, and the level of education that our kids are receiving in most of our public schools is a total joke.

#17 According to a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, nearly 70 percent of all Americans are on at least one prescription drug.  An astounding 20 percent of all Americans are on at least five prescription drugs.

#18 Americans spend more than 280 billion dollars on prescription drugs each year.

#19 According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doctors in the United States write more than 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants each year.

#20 Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are.

#21 In the United States today, prescription painkillers kill more Americans than heroin and **** combined.

#22 America has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.

#23 According to the federal government, the number of heroin addicts in the United States has more than doubled since 2002.

#24 It is hard to believe, but 56 percent of all Americans now have “subprime credit”.

#25 America exports more weapons to other countries than anyone else in the world.

#26 The United States has the most complicated tax system on the entire planet.

#27 Corruption is rampant throughout our society.  In fact, America leads the world in money given to fake charities.

#28 America leads the world in soft drink consumption by a wide margin.  Today, the average American drinks more than 600 sodas a year.

#29 In 2008, 53 percent of all Americans considered themselves to be “middle class”.  In 2014, only 44 percent of all Americans consider themselves to be “middle class”.

#30 70 percent of Americans do not “feel engaged or inspired at their jobs”.

#31 40 percent of all workers in the United States actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968 after you account for inflation.

#32 Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps.  Today, about one out of every 6 Americans is on food stamps.

#33 The marriage rate in the United States has fallen to an all-time low.  Right now it is sitting at a yearly rate of 6.8 marriages per 1000 people.

#34 In the United States today, more than half of all couples “move in together” before they get married.

#35 America has the highest divorce rate in the world by a good margin.

#36 America has the highest percentage of one person households on the entire planet.

#37 100 years ago, 4.52 were living in the average U.S. household, but now the average U.S. household only consists of 2.59 people.

#38 According to the Pew Research Center, only 51 percent of all American adults are currently married.  Back in 1960, 72 percent of all adults in the United States were married.

#39 For women under the age of 30 in the United States, more than half of all babies are being born out of wedlock.

#40 At this point, approximately one out of every three children in the United States lives in a home without a father.

#41 In 1970, the average woman had her first child when she was 21.4 years old.  Now the average woman has her first child when she is 25.6 years old.

#42 America has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world by a very wide margin.

#43 Approximately one out of every four teen girls in the United States has at least one sexually transmitted disease.

#44 America has the highest STD infection rate in the entire industrialized world.

#45 According to the latest figures released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there are 20 million new sexually-transmitted infections in the United States every single year, and Americans in the 15 to 24-year-old age range account for approximately 50 percent of those new sexually-transmitted infections.

#46 As I wrote about recently, there are 747,408 registered sex offenders in the U.S. according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

#47 America produces more pornography than any other nation in the world.

#48 America has the most lawyers per capita in the entire world.

#49 If you choose to be a “Constitutionalist” in America today, you may get labeled as a potential terrorist by the U.S. government.

#50 America has the largest national debt in the history of the world.  Back in 1980, the U.S. national debt was less than one trillion dollars.  Today, it is over 17 trillion dollars.

#51 According to the Congressional Budget Office, interest payments on the national debt will nearly quadruple over the next ten years.

#52 Americans spend more money on elections than anyone else does in the world by a very wide margin.

#53 65 percent of Americans are dissatisfied “with the U.S. system of government and its effectiveness”.  That is the highest level of dissatisfaction that Gallup has ever recorded.

#54 Only 8 percent of Americans believe that Congress is doing a “good” or “excellent” job.

#55 70 percent of Americans do not have confidence that the federal government will “make progress on the important problems and issues facing the country in 2014.”

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/55-things-about-america-you-may-not-know
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« Reply #160 on: March 11, 2014, 11:43:28 am »

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#9 According to a Newsweek survey taken a few years ago, 29 percent of all Americans could not even name the vice president.

I noticed that too recently - yes, even Vice Presidents get a lot of publicity too(ie-Al Gore and **** Cheney). But for some reason, Biden has quietly slipped under the radar, despite a lot of his foot-in-the-mouth-disease comments he's made during the course of this administration. Also, Biden is Jesuit trained, so guess it's no surprise if he's playing the role of the Black Pope in the Oval Office.

Quote
#11 60 percent of Americans report feeling “angry or irritable”.  Two years ago that number was at 50 percent.

There was a 1993 Michael Douglas movie "Falling Down" - it was about a man whose life was falling apart(got fired, had an estranged family), and he just ended up losing it throughout the movie. Anyhow - when I saw this movie 20 years ago, and fast-forwarding to this present day, couldn't help but think how this movie telegraphed a lot of punches.

For example - around the beginning of the movie, Douglas tells a Chinese convenient store owner how "This country invests a lot in your country..."(para) - back then, I don't think anyone was aware over how China was slowly but surely owning a lot of our debt. But nonetheless, that movie all but depicted the one day life of a man you see in modern-day society now.

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#13 Only 30 percent of all Americans can tell you in what year the 9/11 attacks happened.

Again, yes, I noticed that too - this "attack" was the day that all but changed the world(ie-in particular, further destroying the US Constitution), but somehow people just never understood the implications of it from day 1.

Quote
#16 Average SAT scores have been falling for years, and the level of education that our kids are receiving in most of our public schools is a total joke.

Hate to say it, but the SAT was a joke from the get-go - I say this b/c it's probably not a good idea to expose children to a lot of the modern-day vocabulary words in it. For example, in the 1611 King James Bible, replenish(which is mentioned in Genesis 1 over God's 6 day creation) means to FILL(and that is ALL). However, as time has gone on, and the culture has "changed", they've modernized this word(for example) to mean REFILL. Hhhhmmm...maybe that's why the Genesis 1:1-2 gay theory ended up taking off?

Quote
#17 According to a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, nearly 70 percent of all Americans are on at least one prescription drug.  An astounding 20 percent of all Americans are on at least five prescription drugs.

THAT many?? Shocked Yeah, it's come to a point now where they're taking these Big Pharma meds like they're candy or ice cream.

Quote
#33 The marriage rate in the United States has fallen to an all-time low.  Right now it is sitting at a yearly rate of 6.8 marriages per 1000 people.

#34 In the United States today, more than half of all couples “move in together” before they get married.

#35 America has the highest divorce rate in the world by a good margin.

This is largely b/c of all of the modern-day perverted bibles put out into the market, which Churchianity has embraced. They remove all references to fornication, and replace them with words and phrases that are left up to open interpretation. Wescott and Hort HATED America, FYI. Now you're seeing the rotten fruits of this.
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« Reply #161 on: March 28, 2014, 05:45:51 am »

What Happens When Teachers, Delivery People And Fast Food Workers Don’t Care Anymore…

One of the big problems in America today is that a lot of people simply do not seem to care about what they are doing anymore.  The level of sloth, laziness and apathy that we are witnessing in this country is absolutely mind-numbing.  Of course this is not true of everyone.  There are still many Americans that are extremely hard working.  But overall, it really appears that people are not taking as much pride in their work as they once did.  Some of the examples that I am about to show you are quite funny.  Others are more than just a little bit disturbing.  But they all have a common theme.  Americans from all walks of life are simply giving up.  Whether they are teachers, delivery people or fast food workers, the truth is that there are a whole lot of people out there that seem to have mentally checked out.

For example, take a close look at the midterm exam posted below.  Does anything stand out to you?...

REST: http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/what-happens-when-teachers-delivery-people-and-fast-food-workers-dont-care-anymore
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« Reply #162 on: March 28, 2014, 06:08:57 am »

The example of the fast food worker eating soft serve directly from the dispenser is not a good example of indifference. Who hasn't had the passing desire to do just that? Or maybe a mouth full from a Slurpee dispenser? How how about just digging your hand directly into a big bucket of ice cream and chowing down?

Indifference? Nah, more like many I think are more embolden by the cameras that are just about everywhere these days. People like to show off because ultimately, they are vain and want attention. They truly are bored because they have no real direction in their lives.
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« Reply #163 on: March 28, 2014, 07:30:45 am »

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For example, take a close look at the midterm exam posted below.  Does anything stand out to you?...

And he got an A- for his efforts on that midterm! Cheesy

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« Reply #164 on: April 16, 2014, 02:23:15 pm »

Chicago: 36 Shootings in 36 Hours

 Chicago, which has some of strictest gun laws on the books, has a new tragic statistic to add to its crime-heavy history: 36 shootings in 36 hours.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/chicago-36-shootings-36-hours
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« Reply #165 on: April 16, 2014, 02:49:06 pm »

Chicago: 36 Shootings in 36 Hours

 Chicago, which has some of strictest gun laws on the books, has a new tragic statistic to add to its crime-heavy history: 36 shootings in 36 hours.

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/chicago-36-shootings-36-hours

 Shocked Shocked
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« Reply #166 on: April 21, 2014, 05:31:48 am »

5 children shot, among at least 35 wounded over the weekend in Chicago - @ABC7Chicago


https://twitter.com/ABC7Chicago
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« Reply #167 on: April 21, 2014, 11:46:29 am »

5 children shot, among at least 35 wounded over the weekend in Chicago - @ABC7Chicago


https://twitter.com/ABC7Chicago

And it's just continuing - yes, gun control has played a large part, but nonetheless never in my wildest imaginations would I have thought it would get THIS wretched.
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« Reply #168 on: April 25, 2014, 07:30:01 am »

Bulletproof Subways A Sign Of Violent Times?



While out on an unrelated assignment, CBS 2 investigative reporter Dave Savini decided to stop by a South Side Subway sandwich shop for a meal.

Savini was struck by the fact that the counter of the store at 116th Street and South Halsted was encased in bullet-proof glass.

Such a sight would be common at crime magnets like gas stations or currency exchanges, but a Subway?

The store was clean and looked just like any other well-run Subway restaurant, except for the bullet-proof protection for the employees and lack of a bathroom for customers.

https://twitter.com/davesavinicbs2/status/459318237809737729/photo/1

In fact, a few patrons asked for hand sanitizer because they couldn’t wash their hands.

Savini took a few photos and sent out a tweet, saying the scene was a sad depiction of gun violence in Chicago:

The restaurant is located on the border of the Roseland and West Pullman neighborhoods, which has seen its share of gang violence.

However, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis, crime in those areas recently has declined.

Nonetheless, both communities rank in the top 15 in Chicago for violent crime.

Savini also posted his photos on Facebook, where one user remarked that there is a similar set up at a Subway in the Austin neighborhood.

An internet search also found a few bulletproof Subways in Oakland and Detroit.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/04/24/bulletproof-subways-a-sign-of-violent-times/
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« Reply #169 on: April 25, 2014, 09:36:53 am »

20 years ago, there was a scene in the Woody Harrelson/Wesley Snipes movie "Money Train" where someone walked up to the booth operator and set it on fire.

I bring this up b/c it was subsequently after that when a "copycat" happened in a NY subway, and Bob Dole/Capitol Hill started making a big fuss out of this movie(which is why both the crime and the scene in this movie got so much publicity then).

Pt being that they can "protect" themselves all they want, but ultimately there's 100s of ways a crime can be committed.
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« Reply #170 on: May 14, 2014, 06:37:28 am »

Feds released hundreds of immigrant murderers, drunk drivers, sex-crimes convicts

Immigration officials knowingly released dozens of murderers and thousands of drunken drivers back into the U.S. in 2013, according to Obama administration statistics that could undercut the president’s argument that he is trying to focus on the most serious criminals in his immigration enforcement.

Among the 36,000 immigrants whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released from custody last year there were 116 with convictions for homicide, 43 for negligent manslaughter, 14 for voluntary manslaughter and one with a conviction classified by ICE as “homicide-willful kill-public official-gun.”

The immigrants were in deportation proceedings, meaning ICE was trying to remove them from the country and could have held them in detention but released them anyway, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, which published the numbers Monday. The Washington Times also obtained the data.

“This would be considered the worst prison break in American history, except it was sanctioned by the president and perpetrated by our own immigration officials,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, Texas Republican. “The administration’s actions are outrageous. They willfully and knowingly put the interests of criminal immigrants before the safety and security of the American people.”

The data raised thorny questions about how the government decides which immigrants to detain and which it will release as they await court hearings and final action on deportation.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/12/feds-released-hundreds-immigrant-murderers-drunken/#ixzz31gmmiCOE
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« Reply #171 on: May 14, 2014, 10:10:17 am »

16 Reasons Why the United States is Going to Hell in a Handbasket

A couple of weeks a go after expressing an urgency to put our preps into high-gear, several readers asked why that I felt so strongly, about it, and why I felt the “the end” was getting close. I think that is a good and reasonable question, so I decided to do a write up, and offer an explanation. As you can see, I don’t think any one problem or event will cause the collapse of the American empire, but a number of separate but interlocking events and issues.

Another point to consider is that the U.S. government has the resources, and inside information that would allow them to foretell when a major disaster or complete collapse is coming and they have been prepping and building underground bunkers on a mass scale and despite the fact our tax dollars are being used to build those bunkers we are not invited.

Free Trade with Communist China

Communist China is not our friend and has overtaken the U.S. economically, and will be in a position to surpass the U.S. militarily within the next ten years. Yet we continue to import, buy and consume their products by the millions everyday. In fact it’s getting more and more difficult to  buy a product in the U.S. that does not have the “made in china” label attached to it. U.S. goods and private services trade with China totaled $439 billion in imports 2012.

Meanwhile china uses those funds to build it’s military might and expand it’s military technology.  The U.S has even been selling and giving china advanced technology that could be used against the U.S.  in a military confrontation. A large portion of that technology has passed from the U.S. to Israel and then from Israel on to China.

In 2012 a pentagon contractor was caught selling military technology to China (no doubt bought with funds that U.S. consumers of “made in China” products had sent them) according to the report they had sold China the software and engines needed to make its first-ever modern attack helicopter.

A break down of the traditional family

America has turned from a nation promoting morality and a belief in God to a nation where anything goes, with the most perverse and ungodly acts being accepted, promoted and even glorified.  And if anyone disagrees, or speaks-out against this immorality they are quickly labeled as promoting hate, bigotry or of being a racist. This quickly shuts most opponents up while simultaneously, implanting the message in everyone’s mind, that those acts in-question are are to be accepted and are somehow cool.

A  break down of morality

Everywhere we turn today we (and our children) are bombarded with images of sex and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, music, and TV. This constant bombardment has promoted promiscuity, and corrupted the minds of the American people and made us into a nation a degenerates and perverts. And in many cases molesters of children and even animals.

According to this report Americans spend 13.1 billion dollars on pornography every year.

    Americans spend 13.1 billion dollars on pornography every year, which is the same amount the country spends on foreign aid. More than 260 million Internet pages are pornographic, an increase of 1,800% in just five years. Christian Broadcasting Network said: “We’re living in a sex-saturated society. Even the popular culture is often pulsing to a pornographic beat. Clothing that was seen only in **** magazines decades ago, now drapes some of our most celebrated pop icons

A declining belief in God, the Bible and Christian values

According to a report on The Daily Mail,  “Americans starting to lose faith? Belief in God and miracles declines as Darwinism becomes more popular” from the report;  The number of Americans who believe in God is declining, as a new poll shows a move away from traditional beliefs.  The Harris poll, which questioned more than 2,250 adults about their beliefs, found that those with the strongest faith lived mostly in the South, voted Republican, and were black.  The online poll also showed that more Americans were describing themselves at ‘not very religious’ and that there was an increase in those believing in Darwin’s theory of evolution.

As a nation we are turning away from God and the religious principles that this nation was built on, these founding principles have been what has held us together as a nation and kept us strong, but it seems that we are banning God from the country and our lives.

Declining freedom and turning away from a constitutional government

We have been seeing a decline in freedom for a longtime but after 9-11 the lose of personal freedom, privacy and constitutional rights have been on a rapid decline. Now we are constantly, watched, monitored and recorded, we can now legally be detained and held indefinitely without a trial or due process. And U.S. citizens can even be assassinated on U.S. soil by order of the president.

Just like the imaginary, war on drugs, the war on terror has been used as an excuse to trample on individual constitutional rights and to increase the power of the government and the ultra wealthy that control the country from behind the curtains. Scare the population enough and they will willingly turn over their freedom and rights for a promised margin of safety – even Glenn Beck was so afraid after 9-11 that he supported Patriot Act.

As has been said; and is practiced religiously, by those in power “never let a crisis good  go to waste“, this is also the same tactic that the Obama administration tried to use to destroy the second amendment after the Sandy Hook ordeal…

A militarization of  the police forces nationwide

It seems that just about everyday I get emails from readers and read news reports of police abuse of power – everything from shooting and killing an unarmed and handcuffed man, to shooting a suspect in the back while running away, or a man executed by police for camping on public land (did you hear the “officer” yell, Booyah after shooting the man 6 times?), all justified of course,  to police shooting and killing chained and caged dogs. Even puppies and a 5 pound Chihuahua aren’t safe from thugs in uniform.

And now to make matters worse police departments around the country seem to be gearing up for war with military hardware, and tactics. Who do they plan on going to war with you ask, well the American people of course, who else. We are already living in a police state under a “soft” form of martial law, and they are getting ready to tighten the screws down even tighter, that’s why those in power are getting all of this in place.

A one party political system

Many Americans think that they have a choice when they enter the voting booth. Well guess what they don’t – republicans and democrats, democrats and republicans what’s the difference? Neither represent the American people or give one big crap about defending individual rights or the Constitution.

In the U.S. we have a one party system masquerading as a two party system, to give voters the illusion of having a choice and hope for change, but both parties are controlled by the same people who really run the country. The system is rigged and we don’t have a choice…

Corruption of the political system

See above.  As former Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura has said; when you spend millions of dollars to get elected to a position that pays a hundred thousand a year, we know those figure don’t add up. They are all a bunch of crooks – money, ego and a hunger for power has corrupted the American political system.

    “The truth is there are very few members [of the U.S. Congress] who I could even name or could think of who didn’t at some level participate in that [system of bribery and corruption in Washington D.C.].” Jack Abramoff, professional lobbyist and onetime power broker for the elite of Washington, D.C. (during a CBS’s 60 Minutes interview, Sunday November 6, 2011)

School system used to indoctrinate children

Government ran school systems are nothing more than indoctrination centers for our children, a place where they can be groomed and molded to the liking the government via propaganda that was designed by trained psychoanalysts to make future generations of American citizens into subservient slaves in a Big Brother police state.

When I was going to school, I carried pocket knives, (so did other kids and no one got cut or murdered) and I even read gun magazines in the classroom and no one said anything, other than my teachers asking to take a look at the magazines after I was done. I think they were just glad that I was reading something. I remember one boy bringing a sling-shot to school, and we set up a cardboard box and shot at it with the sling-shot, while the teachers watched.

Now school is like a prison where everything is watched and monitored and any form of free expression is suppressed and quickly beaten down. They are training children to be adults who view being constantly watched and monitored by “authorities”  as normal and even to be welcomed and demanded by a subservient population.

They are also training children to be dumbed down adults that can not think for themselves, to have no personal beliefs, thoughts or opinion other than what they are told by the “authorities” via the government controlled main-stream media.  Children are

He alone, who owns the youth, gains the Future!

– Adolf Hitler, speech at the Reichsparteitag, 1935

Please read – Hitler Youth… and Indoctrination by Our Public Schools.

A government controlled main-stream media via newspapers, magazines, radio, movies and TV

The stuff that you see on broadcasts like CNN aren’t news or reporting but the controlled media simply spewing forth talking points that have been provided for them by the white house and other government agencies – this has been admitted to by main stream “news” organizations.

    The corporate media is now openly admitting that they are in fact controlled stenographers that do nothing more than echo pre-scripted narratives outlined in talking points created by the rulers of America’s shadow government.

They use the main stream corporate media to push their agenda and views and to pursued the American people to do and believe what they want them to do and believe all while believing that it’s for their own good and was their decision.  This is called mass media brainwashing and those in power are good at it.

    People as drones, as automatons, in some kind of mind-control stupor, while thinking they are living in a free society.  I don’t say this with disdain, but more as matter of fact.

Taking control of the internet…

Just about the only semi-free media left is the internet, and that is why they want to control it. Currently the Obama administration is about to introduce a Chinese-style ID program for everyone and a few other tweaks that will afford government agencies and their controllers to tights their grip and control of everything done and said online.

    What Obama has done to free speech is kill it dead utilizing a bias-oriented justice system and governmental control. He has effectively put the gears forward to shut down free speech on the internet, and is now planning an even more erroneous putsch that will destroy freedom of expression completely. Plans are coming into place for a Chinese style thought control program called the “National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace” which will force every internet user to completely give up their privacy, be labelled, and tracked even further than is usual by the NSA.

And now we have Democrats proposing trolling media, and internet for “hate speech” which will be defined as whatever they say it is. Folks it’s all about control, control of everything you do, control of what you thing and control of what you say, and the best way for those in power to do that is to have full control over all media outlets, including the internet.

Political Correctness is out of control

You might be a racist if you have an American flag, don’t like Mexican food, disagree with Obama policy, but the one 100% guaranteed way to know if you’re a racist is to look in the mirror – if you see a white person looking back at you then you’re a racist – because only white people can be racist. At least this seems to be the general assumption made by the main-stream media and race-baiters like Al sharpton, who would probably call me a racist because, I own white-leghorn hens or maybe it would be because I own two black giant hens, who knows how he would go, but one thing is certain he would probably find a way to make it racial and the main stream media would be all over it.

By now, I’m sure, that you’ve heard about the LA clippers owner Donald Sterling and his racist, comments that he made to his girlfriend during what he thought was a private conversation. And while his comments were undoubtedly, racist against blacks, those comments are his personal views and no matter how wrong those comments might be or whom those comments might offend, is he not entitled to his beliefs and to express those beliefs in a “private” conversation?

Apparently not. At least according to the NBA, the players, the media and fans nationwide. Because of his private (but recorded) comments he has been banned from attending any NBA events, he will have to pay a $2.5 million fine and they are trying to force him to sell his property, which is the L.A. Clippers team.

While his comments were offensive, and disgusting and he is obviously an elitist prick, should anyone be able ban him from public events, or force him to pay a fine or sell his property for something he said in a private conversation?

Almost as soon as this story broke the race baiter Al Sharpton was threatening to call for an advertising boycott of the NBA during an interview with TMZ if Sterling was not punished for his speech.

And who could forget the Paula Dean fiasco…  where she while under oath during a court appearance admitted to using the dreaded “N word” in a private conversation with her husband in the past, resulting in her being fired from the food network, being dropped by sponsors and having her merchandise pulled from store shelves across the nation. All because of something she said 20 years in a private conversation with her husband.

The list could go on and on, but I don’t want to waste anymore time on this. The race issue is being constantly poked by operatives of the federal government like Al Sharpton to keep racial tensions high and the government controlled main-stream media uses this stuff as a distraction to keep everyone occupied and infighting so we don’t come together and see what is really happening with their corruption, to our country,  to our economy and to our freedom.

They want to keep us divided alone racial lines so that they can better lie to and control us.

An entailment mentality

Sadly, the United states is turning, (some would say it has already turned) from being a nation of producers and working folks to a nation of takers that feel that they are somehow entitled to “free money” for doing nothing but setting an their ass, watching TV, playing video games, drinking, doing drugs and breeding like rabbits, after all the more that they breed and produce the larger their check will get in most cases.

According to http://www.heritage.org/

    America is increasingly moving away from a nation of self-reliant individuals, where civil society flourishes, toward a nation of individuals less inclined to practicing self-reliance and personal responsibility. Government programs not only crowd out civil society, but too frequently trap individuals and families in long-term dependence, leaving them incapable of escaping their condition for generations to come.

And according to Statistic Brain there are 12,800,000 Americans on welfare, 46,700,000 on food stamps or SNAP, 5,600,000 on unemployment, with a total government spending on welfare annually (not including food stamps or unemployment) of $131.9 billion. Folks these are the true zombies, that will be clawing at your door when the welfare stops coming and they get tired of waiting for the taxpayer to feed them.

Foreign companies taking over big business and buying up property in the U.S.

China and to a lesser extent other nations are buying up business and property in the United States, for example China recently, purchased 90% ownership in AIG’s airplane leasing unit, International Lease Finance Corporation, to a Chinese investor group for approximately $5.28 billion. And according to the same site the Chinese have also bought 80.1 percent of ILFC for approximately $4.23 billion, with an option for an additional 9.9 percent stake. According to its website, ILFC is ‘world’s largest independent aircraft lessor measured by number of owned aircraft.’

And it’s not only airplanes that the Chinese are interested in – CNBC reports that the Chinese are on a buying spree and sweeping up every energy and natural resource in the United States that they can get their hands on. And they’re even buying up and taking control of the U.S. food supply - China’s largest acquisition to date of a U.S. company, Smithfield Foods, is raising among market watchers who question China’s interest in taking possession of one of America’s largest food producers – via CNBC.

And they’re not stopping there the Chinese are also buying large chunks of land across America, according to Michael Snyder, it the Chinese are on a real estate buying spree all over America…

Declaring  anyone who doesn’t agree with government policies as having a psychiatric disorder

Support the U.S. Constitution, or disagree with government policy or the policy makers then you might have a  psychiatric disorder. After all according to B.O. we “wrongheaded” Americans need to just trust the government more and everything will be peaches and cream from then on…

Obama: “Wrongheaded” Americans Must Trust Government More

    President Obama today said Americans had developed the “wrongheaded” view that Washington won’t look out for them, a fallacy he said was stoked by conservatives and their philosophy that says people are “on their own.”

Disagree with Al Gore and others on global warming then you probably have a psychiatric disorder, don’t want to join the Borg, then you undoubtedly have a psychiatric disorder because Psychiatrists now say non-conformity is a mental illness. Yep, nothing to see here folks, take your meds, and relax, everything is going to be okay. No more “wrongheaded” Americans allowed, you will be assimilated.

Folks this is being done for a couple of reasons, number one if they can legally declare you a nutcase  then they can legally and easily, take away your rights, or lock you up and two no one wants to be labeled or considered a crazy person, so most folks will shut-up and keep their thoughts about the government and governmental policy to themselves.

U.S. national debt at unprecedented levels

As of May 13 2014 the current national debt stands at 17,518,681,450,890 – yep, that’s a lot of numbers, over seventeen trillion in debt and growing fast. To put it into perspective and to see what a trillion dollars looks like click here. How much longer this spending and adding to the national debt can go on before completely crashing is up for debate, but the world is starting to lose faith in the U.S. dollar and are looking to move away from and out of the U.S. currency.

When the world (or a couple key countries) lose faith in the U.S. dollar and stop lending to us, because of our massive  growing debt and our out of control currency printing, the U.S. economy will crash. This won’t happen over night, and has in fact been happening for years, but as we are getting closer to “the end” the whole process will be put into overdrive – we can see this starting now with our lenders using  their dollars to buy euros or yen or gold rather than U.S. bonds.

You see the U.S. dollar is backed by nothing but air and everyone with half a brain knows it – but the fact that many people still view it as having some value, allows you to be able to make purchases with it. But as you can see by the chart below since 1913 the dollar has continually, been decreasing in buying power and will continue to do so… This has been caused mostly by uncontrolled currency printing and increasing debt. For a complete breakdown of how the financial system “works” and is crashing please read  DollarCollapse FAQ’s this is the best and easiest  to understand explanation that I’ve found.

Dollarpurchasing-power1913-to-2013

Well there you have it folks – my thoughts and a few explanations of what I think is wrong in America, why we are collapsing as a nation and why I prep.  I could go on forever, and we could get into issues like our failed foreign policy, the three global predator predator nations all fighting for control and to be the leader of the new world order, the corrupt banking system etc… but we will leave that for another day…

I would love to read your thoughts in the comments below…

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/united-states-collapse/
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« Reply #172 on: May 15, 2014, 04:01:06 am »

Quote
16 Reasons Why the United States is Going to Hell in a Handbasket

Personally, I couldn't care less. Prophecy says that is exactly where the US and the rest of the world is headed.
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« Reply #173 on: May 15, 2014, 04:16:44 am »

Not just the US, Britain and Australia are decayed, the worse it gets people might wake up and believe this world is not worth living for, that their minds be turned to the teachings of the Lord Jesus and seek Him in their situation.

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« Reply #174 on: May 23, 2014, 03:52:07 pm »

Detroit motorists under siege in 'Carjack City'

When they pull up to a gas station these days, Detroit drivers are looking beyond the price per gallon at a far more threatening concern: carjackers.

The armed auto thieves have become so common here that parts of the bankrupt metropolis are referred to as "Carjack City," and many motorists fear getting out of their vehicles even for a few moments to fill a tank.

So gas stations are taking steps to protect customers, and the city has formed a special police team to go after suspects. Convicted carjackers will even get their faces and prison sentences plastered onto billboards.

"You need to catch these people and make a good example of them," said Mousa Bazzi, who owns a Mobil station in a semi-desolate neighborhood bordering Detroit's east riverfront. He keeps his business well-lit and continually has two to four employees inside to ensure "there's always an extra hand or two" in case of trouble.

Authorities blame many of the carjackings, ironically, on improvements in vehicle security. Anti-theft equipment, GPS systems and advanced locks now prevent many vehicles from being driven without a key in the ignition.

That makes it difficult or impossible for thieves to steal parked cars, leading them to target vehicles that are occupied, said Jonathan Parnell, of Detroit's auto-theft squad.

Also contributing to the thefts is a strong demand for stolen wheels and tires, police said.

Bazzi's station displays pale-green decals depicting a lighthouse — a sign that his business has joined the city's anti-carjacking effort. To be part of the program, stations must have security cameras, good lighting, be open 24 hours and have clerks willing to help motorists and provide a phone for emergency calls.

"There is a waiting list," Sgt. Michael Woody said. "We have so many gas stations that want to become a lighthouse. You get better protection with that big sticker in the window that tells criminals there is proper equipment that will help police investigate these crimes."

Detroit police reported 720 carjackings last year in the city of fewer than 700,000 people. That's down from nearly 850 in 2011 and 1,231 in 2008.

The decline may partly be due to Detroit's freefalling population, but the thefts still exceed the carjackings in some comparably sized U.S. cities.

Sharlonda Buckman, executive director of a Detroit nonprofit, was at a gas station on an October morning when she ran inside for aspirin. Back inside her SUV, she was just closing the door when she saw a carjacker shove his gun inside.

She screamed and jumped out of the vehicle. The carjacker jumped in and drove off. Three other customers gave chase in their vehicles. One caught up to the SUV and got shot in the leg by the carjacker, who was later arrested.

Now, Buckman said, she tries not to pump gas at all.

"If the night catches me, I won't pump gas in the city," she said. "Or I'll call somebody to meet me."

It's difficult to know how Detroit's carjackings rank nationally because many police agencies lump carjackings with all armed robberies in annual reports to the FBI.

Newark, New Jersey, with a population of 280,000, had 382 carjackings last year, giving it a per capita rate that is actually higher than Detroit's. Memphis, Tennessee, with a population of 655,000, had slightly more than 400 carjackings over three years from 2011 through 2013. El Paso, a rapidly growing western Texas city of 670,000, reported only 15 carjackings last year and 18 in 2012.

Through May 19, Detroit has recorded 191 carjackings in 2014, including the Feb. 24 shooting death of CVS security guard Courtney Meeks, who rushed toward a car being taken by three men, and the Feb. 4 slaying of Donald Bradshaw, a 68-year-old man who was beaten to death with a tire iron after he was carjacked at an intersection.

Prosecutors, the FBI and Detroit police recently announced a campaign to spread the word about stiffer federal penalties for carjacking, which can include the death penalty if someone is killed. A similar campaign that includes billboards with photos of convicted carjackers started last summer in Newark.

Detroit police have also announced a partnership with General Motors' OnStar roadside assistance service to track down stolen vehicles and promote rewards tied to an anonymous tip line.

To avoid becoming a victim, security guard Greg Champion wears a handgun on his hip whenever he's pumping gas.

"I don't want to surprise you," Champion said. "I want you to know I'm armed, and I want you to know I can defend myself, and I want you to go somewhere else."

Christine Reed takes the opposite approach. The 27-year-old mother of two won't stop for gas in Detroit. She lives north of the city in Warren and works four days a week cleaning offices downtown.

If she's in a bad section of town, Reed said, she passes through red lights because it's tougher to carjack a moving target.

"It's not a safe place anymore," Reed said. "It's dangerous."

The state-appointed emergency manager tasked with restructuring Detroit's $18 billion in debt has said crime needs to be reduced to make the city attractive to new residents and businesses.

That's going to take more and better resources, said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who complains that she has only a few assistants to try carjackings.

"When nobody has any resources ... all we can be is reactive," she said.

http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/ap_d522409e321848e6b400060aab947e09
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« Reply #175 on: May 27, 2014, 06:21:06 am »

Report: 1 in 3 Babies Aborted in Detroit

 A new report about the high number of abortions in Detroit, considered by many to be a failed city because of its financial devastation, reveals that an estimated 31 percent of pregnancies there end in abortion, what one doctor compared to the worst rates on earth.

“We’re seeing a picture that looks more like some Third World country than someplace in the United States,” Dr. Susan Schooley, head of the Department of Family Medicine at Henry Ford Hospital, told The Detroit News.

Among the worst abortion rates around the globe are repressive nations like Vietnam, where there are 83 abortions per 1,000 women, the Russian Federation, where the rate is 68, and Ukraine, where the rate is 57 per 1,000 women.

Continue reading this story >>
http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/1-in-3-babies-aborted-in-this-american-city/
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« Reply #176 on: June 23, 2014, 11:11:08 am »

Nearly Half Of Detroit Water Customers Can’t Pay Their Bill

It’s a basic human right: water. But could the United Nations soon help the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department provide the service to struggling customers?

Water department spokeswoman Curtrise Garner says it’s a possibility — but for now, the water bills must be paid.

“We do have programs that do help those that are just totally in need; can’t afford it — but we also know that there are also people who can’t afford it would can not pay and we know this because, once we shut water off, the next day they are in paying the bill in full. So we do know that that has become a habit as well,” said Garner.

“At the DWAS Department — it’s not our goal to shut off water. We want people’s water on, just like they do; but you do have to pay for your water…That’s the bottom line.”

Garner said the reality is that nearly half of Detroit Water and Sewerage customers can’t pay their bills and that has led activists to lobby the UN to step up and take action.

“If they do contact us we are willing to speak with them,” she said, adding “We owe it to the customers that are paying to collect from those that aren’t. Somebody has to pay for the water.”

And while Garner says water is “a God-given right,” she says there is a cost to move water from the water resource to the customer and that the infrastructure costs money.

According to the Free Press, the average Detroit water bill is now $75 a month — much higher than the nation’s average rate of about $40.

So, what’s the solution?

WWJ Newsradio 950 listeners have been sounding off on Facebook.

Posted Kathy Ward, “This is just insane. If someone is that destitute that they truly cannot afford their water bill, there are already welfare programs in place for that. I’m guessing those same people not paying their water also have a TV, cable, I-phone, etc. People need to get their priorities straight, not expect another government handout.”

Wrote Rodney Carter, “Call President Obama he has plenty of taxpayers cash to spend. Wasn’t that a campaign promise he made along with free rent and gas and payin’ my car note…Socialism only works if there is someone to pay for it.”

Calvin Adkins added, “If there are programs available to help these families, I am all for it. God has blessed me with ability to pay my bills so being hateful towards those who aren’t able is just not in me. Yes, there are able bodies out there abusing the system. And those individuals should be sought out. But before we go after those people, how about we go after the real welfare abusers. The elected officials, oil companies, insurance companies, banks, Wall Street. Because those abusers are the biggest beneficiaries of our hard work and tax dollars. Stop kicking those who are already down.”

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2014/06/23/nearly-half-of-detroit-water-customers-cant-pay-their-bill/
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« Reply #177 on: July 08, 2014, 11:01:03 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/14-killed-dozens-hurt-chicago-shootings-222104647.html
14 killed, dozens hurt in Chicago shootings
7/7/14

CHICAGO (AP) — Extra police officers on Chicago's streets were not enough to quell a long weekend of violence that ended with 14 people shot to death and dozens more injured.

During a Monday news conference, just hours after two more people were shot to death earlier in the day, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said his department's best efforts could not prevent the bloodshed that spiked dramatically on Sunday. Chicago's total of 53 shooting incidents for the holiday weekend easily eclipsed Detroit and New York combined, which had a total of 46 shooting incidents, 10 of which were fatal.

"Going into the holiday weekend we had a plan, including putting hundreds more officers on the streets and what were the results?" McCarthy asked. "The results were a lot of shootings, a lot of murders, unfortunately."

The shootings over the Fourth of July holiday weekend included eight incidents that involved police, according to McCarthy. In five of those instances, officers shot at suspects. Two people — both 16 — were killed in those shootouts. McCarthy said that based on preliminary investigations, all of the officer-involved shootings appear to have been justified, including one in which officers fired after a suspect who tried to run them over with his car.

Even with the weekend shootings, Chicago police are on pace with last year for officer-involved shootings, with 33 so far in 2014, compared with 35 at the same time last year, according to McCarthy.

The Associated Press took its tally of shooting deaths for the holiday weekend from the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, from Thursday through Sunday. The number of shooting incidents came from Chicago police and was for Thursday evening through Sunday. The two deaths early Monday morning were not included in the weekend totals.

McCarthy, who came to the nation's third-largest city from New York, used the opportunity to again highlight the number of guns that are on Chicago's streets. While Chicago has tough gun sales and possession ordinances, McCarthy maintains that Illinois needs stiffer penalties for people who violate gun laws.

McCarthy said his officers are seeing more suspects who are reluctant to throw down their guns when confronted by police because they're more concerned with harsh treatment from their gangs if they lose their weapons than the legal system if they are arrested with them.

"Possession of a loaded firearm is not even considered a violent felony in the state of Illinois for sentencing purposes," McCarthy said, noting that gangs, on the other hand, may severely beat a member who loses a gun.

The latest spate of shootings also indicates how dangerous the streets can be, particularly in the summer when the warm weather puts more people on the streets. McCarthy noted that nearly half of the 53 shooting incidents over the holiday weekend happened on Sunday, when temperatures climbed into the upper 80s.

Still, the superintendent stressed that even with the weekend deaths, Chicago has had fewer homicides as of July 6 (185) than it did for the same period last year (196). At the same time, he said, the city has had 46 more shooting incidents than last year.
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« Reply #178 on: August 12, 2014, 06:07:11 am »

BRAWL AT ST. LOUIS GALLERIA... DEVELOPING...
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/massive-brawl-shuts-down-st-louis-galleria-mall-on-lockdown/

Rioters Chuck Bricks on I-270...
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/massive-brawl-shuts-down-st-louis-galleria-mall-on-lockdown/

Violence erupts after black teen shot by police in Missouri...
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/violence-breaks-out-near-site-of-vigil-for-teen-killed/article_f9d627dc-e3c8-5bde-b2ab-7f0a3d36a083.html

LOOTING...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/vandalism-looting-reported-vigil-missouri-man-killed-cop/story?id=24923516

ATM STOLEN FROM QUICKTRIP; STORE TORCHED; TANKS BROUGHT IN...
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/breaking-ferguson-protesters-attack-police-cars-loot-quicktrip-following-teen-killing-video/

Employee Feared Death...
http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/08/11/quiktrip-employee-workers-hid-in-back-room-as-ferguson-store-was-looted-set-on-fire/

Mayor: 'People started driving in from other areas to steal stuff'...
http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/missouri-mayor-looters-were-out-of-towners/

Armed business owners defend shops...
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/08/armed-guards-at-strip-mall-save-north-st-louis-businesses-from-looters/

Men stand guard outside their liquor store...
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/08/11/when-missouri-looting-broke-out-these-men-did-what-they-had-to-do-to-protect-their-store/

'Anonymous' hacks city website...
http://www.kmov.com/news/local/Anonymous-says-they-will-launch-cyber-attacks-against-Ferguson-PD-270706191.html

After riots, hundreds protest...

http://news.yahoo.com/riot-erupts-following-shooting-death-unarmed-black-teen-050037811.html

Trayvon Martin attorney to represent slain teen...
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2014/08/11/trayvon-martin-family-attorney-to-represent-slain-missouri-teen/13882389/

Officer Responsible For Shooting To Be Identified...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/officer-shot-unarmed-missouri-teen-michael-brown-identified/story?id=24929787

More demonstrations planned...

http://fox2now.com/2014/08/11/protesters-meet-with-police-in-riot-gear-more-demonstrations-tuesday/

Police investigation could take up to six weeks...
http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/08/10/police-michael-brown-had-struggled-with-officer-before-shooting

Holder launches probe...
http://thehill.com/regulation/administration/214879-holder-opens-federal-probe-of-slain-teen

FLASHBACK '08: A New, 'Post-Racial' America...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18489466

New crowdsourcing App warning about 'sketchy' parts of town accused of racism...
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2462271,00.asp

News crew robbed investigating...
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dc-news-crew-robbed-while-reporting-on-sketchy-neighborhoods/
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« Reply #179 on: August 12, 2014, 07:16:27 am »

Ferguson Is A Perfect Example Of How Quickly The Streets Of America Can Descend Into Chaos

Rioting, looting, burning down stores and shooting police officers - is this about to become the "new normal" in America?  What we just witnessed happen in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri is a prime example of how quickly the streets of America can descend into chaos.  There is so much anger and frustration in this country, especially among our young people, that all it takes is a "trigger event" to spark a wildfire.  In this case, it was the shooting of an unarmed black teen by a police officer.  According to the police, 18-year-old Michael Brown got into a physical altercation with an officer and was subsequently shot.  Word spread quickly throughout the community, and protests were rapidly organized.  But the protests didn't stay peaceful.  People started chanting "kill the police" and throwing rocks and bottles.  Store windows were smashed, the looting began, and people went absolutely crazy.  And it wasn't just a few people that were doing the looting.  Huge mobs of people looted stores all over Ferguson.  At one point an ATM was even dragged out of a QuikTrip gas station and a while after that the store was set on fire.  But this is what happens when things descend into chaos.  The owners of those stores didn't have anything to do with the shooting of Michael Brown, but the violence got directed at them anyway.  And someday when we see similar scenes erupt in major cities all over the nation, it won't matter what your political beliefs are.  You just better not be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Ferguson is a little town just outside of St. Louis with a population of about 21,000 people.  You wouldn't think that it would be possible to see such massive rioting in such a small community.  But that is precisely what happened.  On Monday, millions of Americans were absolutely mesmerized by the images coming out of Ferguson.  The following is how one news source described what happened...

    Brian Schellman, with the St. Louis County Police Department, said close to 300 police officers from at least 15 different departments were called to Ferguson when angry mobs began smashing windows, setting fires and looting businesses in the area.

    Schellman said a St. Louis County officer injured his knee while at a Foot Locker store during the rioting. He said another officer was injured when he had a brick thrown at him.

    Throughout the evening, numerous cop cars sustained damage and Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson said someone in a yellow pickup truck fired shots at officers while circling a WalMart parking lot.  Chief Jackson said he got into a cop car to give chase to the truck but the truck got away.

    Police said shots were also fired at a police helicopter in the area.

But words do not really accurately convey the level of craziness that was unleashed.  I would encourage you to watch some of the videos on YouTube of the rioting and looting that were going on in Ferguson.  The video posted below is just one example...

Sadly, this violence might continue for a while.

Just check out what one very angry 30-year-old man told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch...

    DeAndre Smith, 30, of Ferguson was happy to justify the looting when a reporter asked him about it Monday morning.

    "This is exactly what is supposed to be happening when an injustice is happening in your community," he said, adding: "You have kids getting killed for nothing."

    Smith, who moved to St. Louis from New York in December, said there could be more to come.

    "I don't think it's over honestly," he said. "I just think they got a taste of what fighting back means."

Of course this is not the first time that we have seen this kind of thing happen.  Earlier this year, all it took was a snow storm for people in Atlanta to start behaving like crazed lunatics.  And late last year we saw rioting and looting all over the nation when a technical glitch caused the EBT system to go down for a short while.

Even though the economy has somewhat stabilized (at least for the moment), levels of anger and frustration have continued to grow in this country.  We have been taught to hate one another and to blame one another for our problems, and so now the U.S. is more divided than at any other point in recent memory.  For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled "America The Divided: Everyone Knows We Have Problems But There Is Very Little Agreement On Solutions".

We live at a time when things are so tense that even a small spark can light an absolutely huge fire.  America has become a tinderbox.  Next time it might not be a racially-charged shooting.  Next time it might be an Ebola outbreak that sparks looting and panic.  Or it might be some sort of financial collapse.  We just don't know.

But what we do know is that there are lots and lots of people that are willing to riot and loot and commit unspeakable crimes given the right circumstances.

Decades of social decay have gotten us to the point where the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted every single day is wearing dangerously thin.

The truth is that it is not going to take much to push this nation over the edge.

If this kind of rioting can take place in a community with just over 20,000 people, what would a full-blown riot look like in a city with millions of people?

That is a very sobering thing to think about.

Once upon a time in America, you could leave your doors unlocked at night and you could let your kids play in the streets without ever having to worry.

But now we are a sick, decaying nation that has millions of people ready to riot and loot at the drop of a hat.

Is there any hope for us?

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/ferguson-is-a-perfect-example-of-how-quickly-the-streets-of-america-can-descend-into-chaos
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