PrisonPlanet.com
Paul Joseph Watson
Businesses who don’t follow government orders would be suspended for at least 90 days with no congressional oversight.
An amalgamated cybersecurity bill that lawmakers hope to pass before the end of the year includes new powers which would allow President Obama to shut down not only entire areas of the Internet, but also businesses and industries that fail to comply with government orders following the declaration of a national emergency – increasing fears that the legislation will be abused as a political tool.
The draft bill is a combination of two pieces of legislation originally crafted by Senators Lieberman and Rockefeller. One of the differences between the new bill and the original Lieberman version is that the Internet “kill switch” power has been limited to 90 days without congressional oversight, rather than the original period of four months contained in the Lieberman bill.
In other words, President Obama can issue an emergency declaration that lasts 30 days and he can renew it for a further 60 days before congress can step in to oversee the powers.
The new powers would give Obama a free hand to not only shut down entire areas of the Internet and block all Internet traffic from certain countries, but under the amalgamated bill he would also have the power to completely shut down industries that don’t follow government orders, according to a Reuters summary of the new bill.
“Industries, companies or portions of companies could be temporarily shut down, or be required to take other steps to address threats,” states the report, citing concerns about an “imminent threat to the U.S. electrical grid or other critical infrastructure such as the water supply or financial network.”
The only protection afforded to companies under the new laws is that they would have to be defined as “critical” in order to come under government regulation, but since the government itself would decide to what companies this label applies, it’s hardly a comforting layer of security.
“Even in the absence of an imminent threat, companies could face government scrutiny. Company employees working in cybersecurity would need appropriate skills. It also would require companies to report cyber threats to the government, and to have plans for responding to a cyber attack,” states the report.
As we have highlighted, the threat from cyber-terrorists to the U.S. power grid or water supply is minimal. The perpetrators of an attack on such infrastructure would have to have direct physical access to the systems that operate these plants to cause any damage. The recent Stuxnet malware attack, for example, was introduced and spread through a physical USB device, not via the public Internet.
Any perceived threat from the public Internet to these systems is therefore completely contrived and strips bare what many fear is the real agenda behind cybersecurity – to enable the government to regulate free speech on the Internet.
Handing Obama the power to shut down certain companies or businesses is likely to heighten already existing fears that the new cybersecurity federal bureaucracy could be used as a political tool.
As we reported back in March, the Obama administration’s release of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative, a government plan to “secure” (or control) the nation’s public and private sector computer networks, coincided with Democrats attempting to claim that the independent news website The Drudge Report was serving malware, an incident Senator Jim Inhofe described as a deliberate ploy “to discourage people from using Drudge”.
Senator Joe Lieberman appeared to admit that the legislation had more to do with simply protecting US infrastructure when he told CNN’s Candy Crowley that the bill was intended to mimic the Communist Chinese system of Internet policing.
“Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in case of war and we need to have that here too,” said Lieberman.
As we have documented, the Chinese government does not disconnect parts of the Internet because of genuine security concerns, it habitually does so only to oppress and silence victims of government abuse and atrocities, and to strangle dissent against the state, a practice many fear is the ultimate intention of cybersecurity in the United States.
The implementation of the cybersecurity apparatus would represent another huge expansion of the federal government, creating an Office of Cyber Policy within the executive branch and also “A new National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC) within the Department of Homeland Security, led by a separate director who would enforce cybersecurity policies throughout the government and the private sector.”
Lawmakers have indicated that they intend to push through the bill before the end of the year, though with Congress set to leave Friday amidst deadlock on a number of issues, cybersecurity looks like it will have to wait until mid-November, providing its opponents with extra time to point out the inherent threats the legislation poses to free speech and free enterprise.
Read Full Article With Links HERE
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Grotesque US Human Rights Violations in Gulf Spotlighted
Debra Dupree
Examiner.com
Today, as human suffering and dying continues to intensify due to the petrochemical-military-industrial-complex's Gulf Operation, a company that tracks human rights abuses of 5000 companies in over 180 countries has opened a new online information portal on human rights impacts of the U.S. Gulf Coast. The non-profit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre launched its special online information hub that will also include human rights impacts of oil pollution Ecuador and Nigeria.
The new site url is: www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/Oilpollution
Each day, a new list of horrors inundate front-line Gulf workers. Today, the list from one website alone, Florida Oil Spill Law lists the following news from the Gulf Coast:
Coast:
•More reports of deadly flesh-eating bacteria in the Gulf -- 12 y/o dies after only his feet touched the water (VIDEO)
•*JUST IN* Feds funding study of oil spill's effect on FLESH-EATING bacteria -- Blamed for multiple recent Gulf-area deaths after water/seafood contact (VIDEOS)
•Official: “You WANT to be honest with people… BUT you don’t want to alarm them” — How do you warn public without a panic?
•Pharmacist: Something is “making people behave differently” — more and more with “thick throats” and headaches, nausea
•Plumes of Corexit/oil mix causing microorganisms to have “mutant DNA” that can be “passed on” says USF researcher appearing tomorrow on National Geographic
•Local Official: Reports that BP SPRAYING DISPERSANT “from an airplane with no lights” and that “BOATS are covertly DUMPING it into the water”
•*JUST IN* Feds funding study of oil spill’s effect on FLESH-EATING bacteria — Blamed for multiple recent Gulf-area deaths after water/seafood contact (VIDEOS)
•More reports of deadly flesh-eating bacteria in the Gulf — 12 y/o dies after only his feet touched the water (VIDEO) (436)
•Like an “Acid Cloud”: Entire family sickened — 10 y/o son’s nose “gushing blood everywhere”, daughter “could not breath”… NUMBNESS (VIDEO)
Read Full Article With Links HERE
Examiner.com
Today, as human suffering and dying continues to intensify due to the petrochemical-military-industrial-complex's Gulf Operation, a company that tracks human rights abuses of 5000 companies in over 180 countries has opened a new online information portal on human rights impacts of the U.S. Gulf Coast. The non-profit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre launched its special online information hub that will also include human rights impacts of oil pollution Ecuador and Nigeria.
The new site url is: www.business-humanrights.org/Documents/Oilpollution
Each day, a new list of horrors inundate front-line Gulf workers. Today, the list from one website alone, Florida Oil Spill Law lists the following news from the Gulf Coast:
Coast:
•More reports of deadly flesh-eating bacteria in the Gulf -- 12 y/o dies after only his feet touched the water (VIDEO)
•*JUST IN* Feds funding study of oil spill's effect on FLESH-EATING bacteria -- Blamed for multiple recent Gulf-area deaths after water/seafood contact (VIDEOS)
•Official: “You WANT to be honest with people… BUT you don’t want to alarm them” — How do you warn public without a panic?
•Pharmacist: Something is “making people behave differently” — more and more with “thick throats” and headaches, nausea
•Plumes of Corexit/oil mix causing microorganisms to have “mutant DNA” that can be “passed on” says USF researcher appearing tomorrow on National Geographic
•Local Official: Reports that BP SPRAYING DISPERSANT “from an airplane with no lights” and that “BOATS are covertly DUMPING it into the water”
•*JUST IN* Feds funding study of oil spill’s effect on FLESH-EATING bacteria — Blamed for multiple recent Gulf-area deaths after water/seafood contact (VIDEOS)
•More reports of deadly flesh-eating bacteria in the Gulf — 12 y/o dies after only his feet touched the water (VIDEO) (436)
•Like an “Acid Cloud”: Entire family sickened — 10 y/o son’s nose “gushing blood everywhere”, daughter “could not breath”… NUMBNESS (VIDEO)
Read Full Article With Links HERE
How I Believe The Dollar Will Die
By Ray Gano
Survival 4 Christians
I want to say that first of all I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet nor am I claiming to be a prophet. I am a watchman on the wall who has been sounding this alarm for over five years now regarding the demise of the dollar. Many people have listened and heeded the warnings.
What you are about to read is based on historical research, observing past and present situations as well as what has happened in other countries that are currently or have gone through a massive economic downfall. We are following these countries almost step by step towards implosion.
I believe that in the near future the dollar will die.
We are over leveraged to the point that a single event within the stock market can now bring this nation to her knees.
This is not a matter of "IF" it is a matter of "WHEN" and that is a historical fact.
Solomon, the wisest man of all times stated the following…
Ecclesiastes 1:9 (KJV) The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Man has not learned his lessons from history, therefore he is destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
How It Will All Go Down
One day when nothing much is going on with the stock markets, there will be a commodities jump. Some commodity like gold or oil will "spike" out of the blue.
This will trigger already pre-programmed events and T-Bills / treasuries will be sold off because that is the only thing of "value" that today's fund manager have at their fingertips.
The reason they will sell these treasuries off is to catch the quick chance to ride the "spike" and cash in on some profits.
What this will do is set into play another series of pre-programmed events at the FED. The FED computers seeing these T-Bills / treasuries being sold will snatch them up so that they can still maintain the low yields they have been manipulating in order to prevent deflation of the dollar. But the reverse is what will take place.
Because the feds bought up those T-Bills / treasuries this will set into action other asset managers, mega banks and other funds pre-programmed events and they too will sell off their T-Bills / treasuries to get in on the FED buying.
All of a sudden, all these computer programs that have been pre-programmed to catch the next profit margin will sell off their T-Bills / treasuries.
Now mind you, all of this can take place within a matter of minutes before anyone is really aware that this is going on. When someone finally realizes what is going on, it will be too late, the lots will be cast and the damage is already done.
It is at that moment the US dollar will die and the only thing that was "propping up the dollar," the trust and faith of the people in the currency, is also gone. The trust and faith of the currency was just sold down the river and cannot be recovered no matter what the Federal Reserve, Banks or even the government will do. The death blow has been struck and we have entered upon the path of no return.
Now that all these fund managers, banks and asset managers have sold off their T-Bills / Treasuries and they are now sitting on a wad of cash. They are not going to buy more T-Bills / treasuries because they themselves have lost faith in the dollar a long time ago. They will not reinvest in a already sinking ship. The fact of the matter is that they were praying for that one chance to dump their T-Bills / treasuries and cash them out before the dollar died completely.
So where do these banks, fund managers, asset managers and others put all their money ?
Commodities.
By the end of that incredible day, commodities of all types, precious metals, industrial metals, oil, foodstuffs, all will increase exponentially.
If you see this happen, it will be your signal to go to the store as fast as you can and buy every bit of food you are able to purchase. Fill all your cars up and any extra gas cans you have. Charge it, write checks, do whatever you need to do. The dollar has gone bust and the world is about to get on the "E" ticket ride on the fastest speeding train ride the world has ever seen.
See this is the signal you need to keep a serious eye out for.
The important thing to remember is that when this is taking place, stop everything you are doing and get food, gas and draw out as much cash as you can.
Why do this? Because ordinary people have not been tipped off yet. Sure we all have lost faith in the dollar, but it will become reality when Wall Street crashes into Main Street in about 3-7 days after this event takes place.
Now why go out and get all these items no matter what the cost? Once T-Bills / Treasuries are not the sure method of value as viewed by Wall Street, one question will come to everyone's mind. Where are all those money managers going to stick all these dollars they got from selling off Treasuries?
Will they…
A - Put it in the bank?
B - Under Aunt Flo's mattress?
C - Some overseas currency?
No. They are going to run to what people have run to throughout history. They are going to start buying up commodities
When the dollar dies and the faith and trust of the currency called the US Dollar is no more, commodities will be viewed as the only sure place of value, to put one's cash.
Also, it won't be commodity stocks, ETF’s, or bonds. These will die alongside with the death of the dollar, because they were based on the value of the US dollar. Anything attached to the dollar will become just as worthless.
So what we will witness is a major run on actual hard, hold in your hand commodities.
By the end of this panic driven spiral, commodities will have risen between 50% and 100%.
By week’s end, we could very well be looking at an increase of 150% to 250%.
All of a sudden everyone will be on the search to purchase any tangible asset that will hold value. Gold, silver, food, daily use items. The prices for consumable commodities will begin to go through the roof.
But my personal belief is that it will be silver that will be the real sky rocket. We could very easily see silver and gold "normalize" and go back to a historical norm of 10 -1 ratio. Today gold is sitting around $1290.00 an oz. 10 % of that is $129.00 that will be the minimum that silver will sell for. But odds are that it will sell even higher because of panic purchasing on Wall Street. It is a very good possibility that gold could reach a $3000.00 to $5000.00 price per ounce. This will put silver in and around $300-$500 per ounce.
What is today's price for silver per ounce? It is sitting around $21.50. Compare that to $300 - $500 per ounce and that is quiet a return on an ounce of silver.
But at this moment we are still primarily talking / focusing on events taking place on Wall Street.
Once we see this commodity balloon start to go up, that is when ordinary folks will see their first examples of hyperinflation come into play.
In fact the first place they will probably see hyperinflation is at the gas pump when the prices of gas go up drastically over night.
I personally believe that it will be oil that will kick off all these events. If oil spikes from $75.95, which is the price it is sitting at the moment of writing this article to let's say $150 in one day. The next day it shoots higher and higher. Within three to five days oil is sitting at $300.00 a barrel which is a very feasible scenario. Panic as well as supply and demand will cause gas to shoot up to $10, $15, $20 per gallon and possibly even more.
So what happens next?
Well Wall Street is already in a major panic, this will trickle down to "Main Street."
Remember me stating earlier that when you see these early signals go buy food, gas, and pull your money? Well "main street" is about to wake up and markets and prices of consumable commodities are about to go vertical.
People will storm Walmart and the other stores buying up everything in sight. It will be utter chaos. Bread, noodles, camp fuel, ammo, any daily need products are going to fly off the shelves.
This is why I have been telling people to store up and buy what they can now because we need to view what we are purchasing now as a "hedge" against inflation. For example the week prior you could purchase a 20 lb bag of rice for just $12.00. What is going to happen to that bag of rice when gas prices go to $15.00 - $30.00 for a gallon of gas? What about when the laws of supply and demand take effect. What about when hyperinflation becomes a reality?
What people need to realize is that Hyperinflation is not "inflation" at all. Hyperinflation is the complete breakdown in the trust with that countries currency. Because people no longer trust their own currency, It will take more pieces of paper to purchase stuff. The currency is literally not worth the paper and ink it is printed with.
So what "main street" will do is what they have done throughout history. Exchange currency for commodities. This is why gold, silver, gas, food, camping supplies, anything deemed of value will rise in price and the other, the dollar will be used to paper ones walls, light fires, blow ones nose, etc.
But here is another effect that will take place that will wipe many people out completely.
Because people have freaked out and have panic-bought basic commodities, their 401K,s IRAs, Savings account, Retirement accounts, stocks, bonds, anything tied to the paper dollar will collapse.
Sure people may have 50,000 - 100,000 - 500,000 in one or more of these methods of saving, but when the price of a bag of rice shoots up to $1500.00 a bag, the currency you have becomes pretty much worthless.
Do you know that today a dozen eggs in Zimbabwei, which is still in the beginning stages of hyperinflation costs 1.3 trillion Z Dollars?
If a dozen eggs cost that here in the US when hyperinflation hits, how much will you be able to purchase with your 50,000 - 100,000 - 500,000 in the savings?
So even if you have a lot of dollars, their value is worth nothing. People who were once well off will be dirt poor over night.
What is taking place at that time is that everyone is rushing the banks to get their cash, so that they can turn their worthless cash into any consumable commodity that will retain its value.
Now I know I have covered a lot here, so let's do a quick review.
Here is the sequence…
A spike takes place in oil, gold, some major commodity.
Asset managers dump treasuries for cash so they can catch the spike for a short profit.
FEDs rush in and buy up Treasuries, causing a secondary sell off from other asset managers, banks & large corporations
The treasury market will tank.
Because of this, a few days later stocks, bonds and other equities to also drop in price like a lead balloon after the treasury sell off panic takes place.
Because all these asset managers "et al" are sitting on cash, they will need to put it somewhere safe, that will be commodities. The prices of gold, silver, oil, food stuff, any commodities of value. The price if these commodities will go vertical.
Simply put equities die, commodities go bust.
Everyone will be rushing to commodities. It is a self perpetuating speeding train. Nothing will be able to stop it nor will anything be able to apply the brakes.
This is where we pick up again…
Where Wall Street Meets Main Street
This speeding train coming from Wall Street will hit Main Street and everyday people will wake up to this fact. Panic will ensue.
Like the asset managers they will dumping anything they perceive to be of real world value, but for main street these real world assets are cars, trucks, laptop computers, iPods, even houses. All of these items will lose value in order to purchase commodities like gold, silver, food, gas, heating oil, any sort of daily consumable need.
But Ray, gold and silver are not a daily need. You cannot eat gold and silver.
You are completely correct. But the world will still revolve around money and this is where the natural laws of God take effect.
The only true money that is God created and ordained will rise to the surface again. It has never fallen out of favor, has always held its value, and it ALWAYS replaces devalued, depreciated fiat currency. God's only ordained and created form of money is gold and silver.
What main street people are going to find out is that real-world assets will not go up in value in a hyperinflation scenario. They will drop. In fact throughout history they have never held their value when the hyperinflation comes.
What happens is that real world assets collapse along with the dollar. In fact they deflate or go down in price in relation to consumables / commodities.
Look at how many people have their wealth locked up in their house.
During a hyperinflation an estimated $250,000 house can easily fall to $50,000 or even less.
In fact what will happen is real world assets will all of a sudden be pegged to gold and silver. This is God's natural law taking effect. So the good news is that if you have 50 ounces of silver, you will be able to purchase that home that has dropped to $50,000. The reason is because in a hyperinflation market real world assets such as a cars, trucks and even a house lose their value and pretty much become worthless, whereas 50 ounces of silver will buy you just about anything you will need.
Now if you are still reading this and you have gotten this far you might be saying that the government will step in, Wall Street has computers to prevent this, the President will stop it, etc etc.
Someone somewhere in power will stop this runaway train and apply the brakes and stop the hyperinflation.
Well the answer is that no one will be able to stop it. Congress, senate, the president, the Feds are all helpless.
This sort of event has happened time and time again. It is all part of the FIAT Currency model. The first time this took place was in ancient Greece. It took place in France, England, Germany, just about every country that has instituted a fiat currency.
Do you know that hyperinflation has taken place in the US twice already?
Once during the revolutionarily war days and then during the Lincoln administration. In both of these times, a fiat currency was created, the people lost faith, it busted and hyperinflation ensued. It is all there in the history books and they were not able to stop the speeding train either.
So can the FEDS stop this hyperinflation?
No they are the ones that started this whole mess. They can't fix it.
Well can the Federal government stop it? Create more laws, regulations, quite possibly a bank holiday? They probably will try and history shows that when government does step in, they will always devalue the currency. They will split it so now instead of having $100.00 you have $200.00. Problem is that a bag of rice costs $500.00 so splitting the currency will do nothing except to cause prices to shoot up even higher.
Well why not implement price controls? If the government is foolish enough to do this, it will whip lash back into their faces and reappear as rampant black market.
So those ideas will not work.
Many conspiracy websites love to say that soldiers will be put out on the street.
Folks, US men and women in the military are feeling the pain just as much as you are. The military will have a hard enough time just keeping their ranks in order. You think that we will have it bad? Our men and women in the military will have it worse. Half of military families are already on food stamps, what do you think will happen when hyperinflation takes hold?
Another point you have to remember is that our military is stretched so thin overseas that we can barely hold on to the two fighting fronts we are involved in already.
In other words, there isn't man power enough. America is too big and to even try this basically equates to one soldier per city they must patrol. Are these severely reduced forces going to be able to really do anything? No.
Bring in UN Troops / Foreign troops? This is another popular idea that has floated around on the conspiracy sites.
What many people fail to remember is that by this time the US is going to be a hotbed of chaos.
The introduction of any foreign troops would instantly polarize the nation and all of a sudden 500 million guns that are in the hands of the US public would be pulled out of the closet and it would be open hunting season for any UN / Foreign troop. In other words it would be a blood bath for anyone stepping foot onto US soil. This is a fact. Give chaos a rally point and it will naturally gravitate to it.
What about more stimulus, start up the printing presses, inject more money?
Can't. This is hyperinflation, people do not want the paper dollar in the first place. Commodities are the only true asset of value. Flooding the market with even more worthless cash is not going to help.
What we might see, but this will take time to enact is food / gas rationing. A return to the ration cards like they had during WWII. But by the time this is put into effect the people will be adapting to the "new normal" and operating within a commodities based economy. Black and grey markets will already be in effect, people will have learned how to get their needed items. The laws of supply and demand will have already kicked in and a "new normal" economy will take effect.
So by now all of you reading this are asking that one critical question…
What do we do?
Welcome To The New Normal
See the key to survival is not surviving the nuclear bomb, it is surviving the next day and then the next after the bomb hit.
The same will be the case when Hyperinflation hits.
I used the analogy of a nuke because that is what Hollywood has portrayed. They always show the nuke going off, everyone "ducks and covers," fall out settles and then the happy couple walking off into the sun set. They never show what takes place after everything settles down and people adapt to the new normal.
If you have read any of my previous articles on preparedness you will know that I do not buy into the Hollywood's idea of the apocalypse. They never take into the boring everyday idea that people eventually will adapt to the new normal and it will become business as usual, just the rules have changed.
It isn't going to be a world filled with mutant biker gangs, nor will there be blood thirsty zombies. No thermal nuclear wasteland, no empty cities. Nothing that Hollywood said it would be like.
All we need to do is look at countries that have succumbed to an economic disaster already.
For example look at Argentina.
Argentina had a massive economic downfall in December 2001. Their banks closed, money devalued, their world was turned upside down. They have a massive rise in crime, drugs, prostitution, alcohol, murder, kidnapping, theft, muggings. Argentina went from first world country to a third world country over night.
So what do you do?
How you prepare for hyperinflation is to do just as Noah did. Create / build your own ark before the event takes place. But this ark is built up of true tangible assets. No equities, stocks, bonds, ETF’s, mutual funds, nothing that is tied to the US Dollar or any other foreign FIAT currency.
See if and when that hyperinflation thunderstorm takes place, you will have that "ark" you have built to see you through the storm.
When the zenith of hyperinflation takes place there will be a plethora of opportunity that you can then purchase.
Robert Kiyosaki who I consider one of my mentors, suggests purchasing cash stream producing residential property. He also likes mining, pharma, industrial production and transportation. At the height of the hyperinflation storm, these will be at rock bottom prices at pennies on the dollar.
A famous quote came from the depression era, when the very same thing took place. That famous quote was "Buy when there is blood in the streets."
I believe that America will end up pretty much like it is today. But it will be a "new normal." We will refer to everything as before "Bank Day" BBD and after "Bank Day" ABD. Crime will be higher, jobs will be scarce, food and gas prices will be 300% - 400% higher. But we will adapt and over come as we always have.
Another thing that quiet possibly will come out of this that has not happened before in other countries is that we will return to God. This country was founded on biblical principles, it is who we are and it is those ideals that influence us at our core as a people.
This nation always has a "great awakening" to God the father, the Creator of the universe after every great financial upheaval.
Finally, turning the ship around after hyperinflation hits will take 15 - 20 years. It took approximately 25 years for our last depression, it will probably take that same amount of time for us to get back on the right track after this one.
Just look at Argentina, here it is 2010 and she is still in the throes of economic chaos and it is nine years after their event took place. Look at Japan, she lost two decades due to her economic downfall. Did either of these countries fall into apocalyptic chaos? Mutant biker gangs? Zombies? Wastelands?
No and it will not happen here either.
What will help us speed up the healing of this nation will be a word that many people do not want to hear nor accept.
That word is sacrifice.
Will we be willing to take on three to four hard years of sacrifice so that we can emerge a healed nation faster?
I doubt it, but if we as a nation repent of our sins and turn back to the Lord anything is possible. But to do this we will need strong men and women to boldly preach the gospel. Godly people will need to show that man is lost but can be saved from the fires of Hell through the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. We will need to return to being accountable to Jehovah God.
Getting through this coming economic storm just might be what the doctor ordered to return this nation to what she once used to be, a good and great nation that fears God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
But I am sorry to say that history shows another solution, at least in other nations.
What has always come out of the economic upheaval is a strong charismatic leader.
They will return (force) the nation back to a gold and silver based economy.
The good of the "people" outweighs the good of the one.
The good of the nation outweighs the good of the family.
The state becomes their god and the dictator their high priest.
This is the solution that brought about Caesar, Napoleon, and someone we all have heard of, Adolf Hitler.
All these great leaders were born out of economic upheaval.
All lead their nations to greatness quickly.
All ruled with an iron fist and they all did away with dissidents who stood against them.
Often these dissidents were good men and women who maintained a moral fortitude and in most cases that was backed up by their belief in the one true God Jehovah and His Son Jesus Christ.
It is hard to say what the future will hold. There are so many paths that we can travel down. But man in all his wisdom always seems to choose the path of least resistance instead of the path of good. At least that is what history has shown.
The US was born out of the desire for religious freedom, and that is what makes us a different nation. We have survived two other economic upheavals resulting in hyperinflation, we will survive the third. But how we come out on the other side can be anyone's guess. History shows that our last "great awakening" took place after the civil war's hyperinflation, the late 1800s.
Although many turned to the Lord in the great depression of the 1920-30s, it was not like the prior revival of the late 1800s.
In all of this, we as bible believing Christians will need to stand in this evil day or there is the chance that we will fall by the wayside. What will take place depends on what we do now. We can either prepare and build our ark for the sake of the gospel, or bury our heads in the sand and ignore the lessons of the past.
I pray that there are enough who love the Lord that will work hard to build an ark for the good of protecting and freely sharing the gospel. Because the other option will result in utter tyranny and oppression like no other.
I leave you with what God's Word says…
Ecclesiastes 1:9 (KJV) The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Proverbs 6:6 (KJV) Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
Proverbs 30:25 (KJV) The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;
Joshua 24:15 (KJV) And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
View Original Article HERE
Survival 4 Christians
I want to say that first of all I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet nor am I claiming to be a prophet. I am a watchman on the wall who has been sounding this alarm for over five years now regarding the demise of the dollar. Many people have listened and heeded the warnings.
What you are about to read is based on historical research, observing past and present situations as well as what has happened in other countries that are currently or have gone through a massive economic downfall. We are following these countries almost step by step towards implosion.
I believe that in the near future the dollar will die.
We are over leveraged to the point that a single event within the stock market can now bring this nation to her knees.
This is not a matter of "IF" it is a matter of "WHEN" and that is a historical fact.
Solomon, the wisest man of all times stated the following…
Ecclesiastes 1:9 (KJV) The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Man has not learned his lessons from history, therefore he is destined to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.
How It Will All Go Down
One day when nothing much is going on with the stock markets, there will be a commodities jump. Some commodity like gold or oil will "spike" out of the blue.
This will trigger already pre-programmed events and T-Bills / treasuries will be sold off because that is the only thing of "value" that today's fund manager have at their fingertips.
The reason they will sell these treasuries off is to catch the quick chance to ride the "spike" and cash in on some profits.
What this will do is set into play another series of pre-programmed events at the FED. The FED computers seeing these T-Bills / treasuries being sold will snatch them up so that they can still maintain the low yields they have been manipulating in order to prevent deflation of the dollar. But the reverse is what will take place.
Because the feds bought up those T-Bills / treasuries this will set into action other asset managers, mega banks and other funds pre-programmed events and they too will sell off their T-Bills / treasuries to get in on the FED buying.
All of a sudden, all these computer programs that have been pre-programmed to catch the next profit margin will sell off their T-Bills / treasuries.
Now mind you, all of this can take place within a matter of minutes before anyone is really aware that this is going on. When someone finally realizes what is going on, it will be too late, the lots will be cast and the damage is already done.
It is at that moment the US dollar will die and the only thing that was "propping up the dollar," the trust and faith of the people in the currency, is also gone. The trust and faith of the currency was just sold down the river and cannot be recovered no matter what the Federal Reserve, Banks or even the government will do. The death blow has been struck and we have entered upon the path of no return.
Now that all these fund managers, banks and asset managers have sold off their T-Bills / Treasuries and they are now sitting on a wad of cash. They are not going to buy more T-Bills / treasuries because they themselves have lost faith in the dollar a long time ago. They will not reinvest in a already sinking ship. The fact of the matter is that they were praying for that one chance to dump their T-Bills / treasuries and cash them out before the dollar died completely.
So where do these banks, fund managers, asset managers and others put all their money ?
Commodities.
By the end of that incredible day, commodities of all types, precious metals, industrial metals, oil, foodstuffs, all will increase exponentially.
If you see this happen, it will be your signal to go to the store as fast as you can and buy every bit of food you are able to purchase. Fill all your cars up and any extra gas cans you have. Charge it, write checks, do whatever you need to do. The dollar has gone bust and the world is about to get on the "E" ticket ride on the fastest speeding train ride the world has ever seen.
See this is the signal you need to keep a serious eye out for.
The important thing to remember is that when this is taking place, stop everything you are doing and get food, gas and draw out as much cash as you can.
Why do this? Because ordinary people have not been tipped off yet. Sure we all have lost faith in the dollar, but it will become reality when Wall Street crashes into Main Street in about 3-7 days after this event takes place.
Now why go out and get all these items no matter what the cost? Once T-Bills / Treasuries are not the sure method of value as viewed by Wall Street, one question will come to everyone's mind. Where are all those money managers going to stick all these dollars they got from selling off Treasuries?
Will they…
A - Put it in the bank?
B - Under Aunt Flo's mattress?
C - Some overseas currency?
No. They are going to run to what people have run to throughout history. They are going to start buying up commodities
When the dollar dies and the faith and trust of the currency called the US Dollar is no more, commodities will be viewed as the only sure place of value, to put one's cash.
Also, it won't be commodity stocks, ETF’s, or bonds. These will die alongside with the death of the dollar, because they were based on the value of the US dollar. Anything attached to the dollar will become just as worthless.
So what we will witness is a major run on actual hard, hold in your hand commodities.
By the end of this panic driven spiral, commodities will have risen between 50% and 100%.
By week’s end, we could very well be looking at an increase of 150% to 250%.
All of a sudden everyone will be on the search to purchase any tangible asset that will hold value. Gold, silver, food, daily use items. The prices for consumable commodities will begin to go through the roof.
But my personal belief is that it will be silver that will be the real sky rocket. We could very easily see silver and gold "normalize" and go back to a historical norm of 10 -1 ratio. Today gold is sitting around $1290.00 an oz. 10 % of that is $129.00 that will be the minimum that silver will sell for. But odds are that it will sell even higher because of panic purchasing on Wall Street. It is a very good possibility that gold could reach a $3000.00 to $5000.00 price per ounce. This will put silver in and around $300-$500 per ounce.
What is today's price for silver per ounce? It is sitting around $21.50. Compare that to $300 - $500 per ounce and that is quiet a return on an ounce of silver.
But at this moment we are still primarily talking / focusing on events taking place on Wall Street.
Once we see this commodity balloon start to go up, that is when ordinary folks will see their first examples of hyperinflation come into play.
In fact the first place they will probably see hyperinflation is at the gas pump when the prices of gas go up drastically over night.
I personally believe that it will be oil that will kick off all these events. If oil spikes from $75.95, which is the price it is sitting at the moment of writing this article to let's say $150 in one day. The next day it shoots higher and higher. Within three to five days oil is sitting at $300.00 a barrel which is a very feasible scenario. Panic as well as supply and demand will cause gas to shoot up to $10, $15, $20 per gallon and possibly even more.
So what happens next?
Well Wall Street is already in a major panic, this will trickle down to "Main Street."
Remember me stating earlier that when you see these early signals go buy food, gas, and pull your money? Well "main street" is about to wake up and markets and prices of consumable commodities are about to go vertical.
People will storm Walmart and the other stores buying up everything in sight. It will be utter chaos. Bread, noodles, camp fuel, ammo, any daily need products are going to fly off the shelves.
This is why I have been telling people to store up and buy what they can now because we need to view what we are purchasing now as a "hedge" against inflation. For example the week prior you could purchase a 20 lb bag of rice for just $12.00. What is going to happen to that bag of rice when gas prices go to $15.00 - $30.00 for a gallon of gas? What about when the laws of supply and demand take effect. What about when hyperinflation becomes a reality?
What people need to realize is that Hyperinflation is not "inflation" at all. Hyperinflation is the complete breakdown in the trust with that countries currency. Because people no longer trust their own currency, It will take more pieces of paper to purchase stuff. The currency is literally not worth the paper and ink it is printed with.
So what "main street" will do is what they have done throughout history. Exchange currency for commodities. This is why gold, silver, gas, food, camping supplies, anything deemed of value will rise in price and the other, the dollar will be used to paper ones walls, light fires, blow ones nose, etc.
But here is another effect that will take place that will wipe many people out completely.
Because people have freaked out and have panic-bought basic commodities, their 401K,s IRAs, Savings account, Retirement accounts, stocks, bonds, anything tied to the paper dollar will collapse.
Sure people may have 50,000 - 100,000 - 500,000 in one or more of these methods of saving, but when the price of a bag of rice shoots up to $1500.00 a bag, the currency you have becomes pretty much worthless.
Do you know that today a dozen eggs in Zimbabwei, which is still in the beginning stages of hyperinflation costs 1.3 trillion Z Dollars?
If a dozen eggs cost that here in the US when hyperinflation hits, how much will you be able to purchase with your 50,000 - 100,000 - 500,000 in the savings?
So even if you have a lot of dollars, their value is worth nothing. People who were once well off will be dirt poor over night.
What is taking place at that time is that everyone is rushing the banks to get their cash, so that they can turn their worthless cash into any consumable commodity that will retain its value.
Now I know I have covered a lot here, so let's do a quick review.
Here is the sequence…
A spike takes place in oil, gold, some major commodity.
Asset managers dump treasuries for cash so they can catch the spike for a short profit.
FEDs rush in and buy up Treasuries, causing a secondary sell off from other asset managers, banks & large corporations
The treasury market will tank.
Because of this, a few days later stocks, bonds and other equities to also drop in price like a lead balloon after the treasury sell off panic takes place.
Because all these asset managers "et al" are sitting on cash, they will need to put it somewhere safe, that will be commodities. The prices of gold, silver, oil, food stuff, any commodities of value. The price if these commodities will go vertical.
Simply put equities die, commodities go bust.
Everyone will be rushing to commodities. It is a self perpetuating speeding train. Nothing will be able to stop it nor will anything be able to apply the brakes.
This is where we pick up again…
Where Wall Street Meets Main Street
This speeding train coming from Wall Street will hit Main Street and everyday people will wake up to this fact. Panic will ensue.
Like the asset managers they will dumping anything they perceive to be of real world value, but for main street these real world assets are cars, trucks, laptop computers, iPods, even houses. All of these items will lose value in order to purchase commodities like gold, silver, food, gas, heating oil, any sort of daily consumable need.
But Ray, gold and silver are not a daily need. You cannot eat gold and silver.
You are completely correct. But the world will still revolve around money and this is where the natural laws of God take effect.
The only true money that is God created and ordained will rise to the surface again. It has never fallen out of favor, has always held its value, and it ALWAYS replaces devalued, depreciated fiat currency. God's only ordained and created form of money is gold and silver.
What main street people are going to find out is that real-world assets will not go up in value in a hyperinflation scenario. They will drop. In fact throughout history they have never held their value when the hyperinflation comes.
What happens is that real world assets collapse along with the dollar. In fact they deflate or go down in price in relation to consumables / commodities.
Look at how many people have their wealth locked up in their house.
During a hyperinflation an estimated $250,000 house can easily fall to $50,000 or even less.
In fact what will happen is real world assets will all of a sudden be pegged to gold and silver. This is God's natural law taking effect. So the good news is that if you have 50 ounces of silver, you will be able to purchase that home that has dropped to $50,000. The reason is because in a hyperinflation market real world assets such as a cars, trucks and even a house lose their value and pretty much become worthless, whereas 50 ounces of silver will buy you just about anything you will need.
Now if you are still reading this and you have gotten this far you might be saying that the government will step in, Wall Street has computers to prevent this, the President will stop it, etc etc.
Someone somewhere in power will stop this runaway train and apply the brakes and stop the hyperinflation.
Well the answer is that no one will be able to stop it. Congress, senate, the president, the Feds are all helpless.
This sort of event has happened time and time again. It is all part of the FIAT Currency model. The first time this took place was in ancient Greece. It took place in France, England, Germany, just about every country that has instituted a fiat currency.
Do you know that hyperinflation has taken place in the US twice already?
Once during the revolutionarily war days and then during the Lincoln administration. In both of these times, a fiat currency was created, the people lost faith, it busted and hyperinflation ensued. It is all there in the history books and they were not able to stop the speeding train either.
So can the FEDS stop this hyperinflation?
No they are the ones that started this whole mess. They can't fix it.
Well can the Federal government stop it? Create more laws, regulations, quite possibly a bank holiday? They probably will try and history shows that when government does step in, they will always devalue the currency. They will split it so now instead of having $100.00 you have $200.00. Problem is that a bag of rice costs $500.00 so splitting the currency will do nothing except to cause prices to shoot up even higher.
Well why not implement price controls? If the government is foolish enough to do this, it will whip lash back into their faces and reappear as rampant black market.
So those ideas will not work.
Many conspiracy websites love to say that soldiers will be put out on the street.
Folks, US men and women in the military are feeling the pain just as much as you are. The military will have a hard enough time just keeping their ranks in order. You think that we will have it bad? Our men and women in the military will have it worse. Half of military families are already on food stamps, what do you think will happen when hyperinflation takes hold?
Another point you have to remember is that our military is stretched so thin overseas that we can barely hold on to the two fighting fronts we are involved in already.
In other words, there isn't man power enough. America is too big and to even try this basically equates to one soldier per city they must patrol. Are these severely reduced forces going to be able to really do anything? No.
Bring in UN Troops / Foreign troops? This is another popular idea that has floated around on the conspiracy sites.
What many people fail to remember is that by this time the US is going to be a hotbed of chaos.
The introduction of any foreign troops would instantly polarize the nation and all of a sudden 500 million guns that are in the hands of the US public would be pulled out of the closet and it would be open hunting season for any UN / Foreign troop. In other words it would be a blood bath for anyone stepping foot onto US soil. This is a fact. Give chaos a rally point and it will naturally gravitate to it.
What about more stimulus, start up the printing presses, inject more money?
Can't. This is hyperinflation, people do not want the paper dollar in the first place. Commodities are the only true asset of value. Flooding the market with even more worthless cash is not going to help.
What we might see, but this will take time to enact is food / gas rationing. A return to the ration cards like they had during WWII. But by the time this is put into effect the people will be adapting to the "new normal" and operating within a commodities based economy. Black and grey markets will already be in effect, people will have learned how to get their needed items. The laws of supply and demand will have already kicked in and a "new normal" economy will take effect.
So by now all of you reading this are asking that one critical question…
What do we do?
Welcome To The New Normal
See the key to survival is not surviving the nuclear bomb, it is surviving the next day and then the next after the bomb hit.
The same will be the case when Hyperinflation hits.
I used the analogy of a nuke because that is what Hollywood has portrayed. They always show the nuke going off, everyone "ducks and covers," fall out settles and then the happy couple walking off into the sun set. They never show what takes place after everything settles down and people adapt to the new normal.
If you have read any of my previous articles on preparedness you will know that I do not buy into the Hollywood's idea of the apocalypse. They never take into the boring everyday idea that people eventually will adapt to the new normal and it will become business as usual, just the rules have changed.
It isn't going to be a world filled with mutant biker gangs, nor will there be blood thirsty zombies. No thermal nuclear wasteland, no empty cities. Nothing that Hollywood said it would be like.
All we need to do is look at countries that have succumbed to an economic disaster already.
For example look at Argentina.
Argentina had a massive economic downfall in December 2001. Their banks closed, money devalued, their world was turned upside down. They have a massive rise in crime, drugs, prostitution, alcohol, murder, kidnapping, theft, muggings. Argentina went from first world country to a third world country over night.
So what do you do?
How you prepare for hyperinflation is to do just as Noah did. Create / build your own ark before the event takes place. But this ark is built up of true tangible assets. No equities, stocks, bonds, ETF’s, mutual funds, nothing that is tied to the US Dollar or any other foreign FIAT currency.
See if and when that hyperinflation thunderstorm takes place, you will have that "ark" you have built to see you through the storm.
When the zenith of hyperinflation takes place there will be a plethora of opportunity that you can then purchase.
Robert Kiyosaki who I consider one of my mentors, suggests purchasing cash stream producing residential property. He also likes mining, pharma, industrial production and transportation. At the height of the hyperinflation storm, these will be at rock bottom prices at pennies on the dollar.
A famous quote came from the depression era, when the very same thing took place. That famous quote was "Buy when there is blood in the streets."
I believe that America will end up pretty much like it is today. But it will be a "new normal." We will refer to everything as before "Bank Day" BBD and after "Bank Day" ABD. Crime will be higher, jobs will be scarce, food and gas prices will be 300% - 400% higher. But we will adapt and over come as we always have.
Another thing that quiet possibly will come out of this that has not happened before in other countries is that we will return to God. This country was founded on biblical principles, it is who we are and it is those ideals that influence us at our core as a people.
This nation always has a "great awakening" to God the father, the Creator of the universe after every great financial upheaval.
Finally, turning the ship around after hyperinflation hits will take 15 - 20 years. It took approximately 25 years for our last depression, it will probably take that same amount of time for us to get back on the right track after this one.
Just look at Argentina, here it is 2010 and she is still in the throes of economic chaos and it is nine years after their event took place. Look at Japan, she lost two decades due to her economic downfall. Did either of these countries fall into apocalyptic chaos? Mutant biker gangs? Zombies? Wastelands?
No and it will not happen here either.
What will help us speed up the healing of this nation will be a word that many people do not want to hear nor accept.
That word is sacrifice.
Will we be willing to take on three to four hard years of sacrifice so that we can emerge a healed nation faster?
I doubt it, but if we as a nation repent of our sins and turn back to the Lord anything is possible. But to do this we will need strong men and women to boldly preach the gospel. Godly people will need to show that man is lost but can be saved from the fires of Hell through the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. We will need to return to being accountable to Jehovah God.
Getting through this coming economic storm just might be what the doctor ordered to return this nation to what she once used to be, a good and great nation that fears God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
But I am sorry to say that history shows another solution, at least in other nations.
What has always come out of the economic upheaval is a strong charismatic leader.
They will return (force) the nation back to a gold and silver based economy.
The good of the "people" outweighs the good of the one.
The good of the nation outweighs the good of the family.
The state becomes their god and the dictator their high priest.
This is the solution that brought about Caesar, Napoleon, and someone we all have heard of, Adolf Hitler.
All these great leaders were born out of economic upheaval.
All lead their nations to greatness quickly.
All ruled with an iron fist and they all did away with dissidents who stood against them.
Often these dissidents were good men and women who maintained a moral fortitude and in most cases that was backed up by their belief in the one true God Jehovah and His Son Jesus Christ.
It is hard to say what the future will hold. There are so many paths that we can travel down. But man in all his wisdom always seems to choose the path of least resistance instead of the path of good. At least that is what history has shown.
The US was born out of the desire for religious freedom, and that is what makes us a different nation. We have survived two other economic upheavals resulting in hyperinflation, we will survive the third. But how we come out on the other side can be anyone's guess. History shows that our last "great awakening" took place after the civil war's hyperinflation, the late 1800s.
Although many turned to the Lord in the great depression of the 1920-30s, it was not like the prior revival of the late 1800s.
In all of this, we as bible believing Christians will need to stand in this evil day or there is the chance that we will fall by the wayside. What will take place depends on what we do now. We can either prepare and build our ark for the sake of the gospel, or bury our heads in the sand and ignore the lessons of the past.
I pray that there are enough who love the Lord that will work hard to build an ark for the good of protecting and freely sharing the gospel. Because the other option will result in utter tyranny and oppression like no other.
I leave you with what God's Word says…
Ecclesiastes 1:9 (KJV) The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Proverbs 6:6 (KJV) Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
Proverbs 30:25 (KJV) The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;
Joshua 24:15 (KJV) And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
View Original Article HERE
GPS and the Police State We Inhabit: Living in Oceania
The Rutherford Institute
John Whitehead
Voicing his discontent with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in United States v. Pineda-Moreno, which declared the warrantless use of a GPS tracking device to be constitutional, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski warned, “We are taking a giant leap into the unknown, and the consequences for ourselves and our children may be dire and irreversible. Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we’re living in Oceania.”
Indeed, we are already living in George Orwell’s totalitarian state known as Oceania, where the all-seeing government sees and tracks everything we do. By asserting that the police can constitutionally sneak onto a private driveway without a warrant and stick a GPS tag on your car so that they can remotely track you, the Ninth Circuit didn’t necessarily break any new ground. Rather, they merely confirmed what we have suspected all along: that the concept of private property is dead and along with it, the right against unreasonable searches and seizures once protected by the Fourth Amendment.
Having outstripped our ability as humans to control it, technology has become our Frankenstein’s monster. Delighted with technology’s conveniences, its ability to make our lives easier by doing an endless array of tasks faster and more efficiently, we have given it free rein in our lives, with little thought to the legal or moral ramifications of doing so. Thus, we have no one but ourselves to blame for the fact that technology now operates virtually autonomously according to its own invasive code, respecting no one’s intimate moments or privacy and impervious to the foibles of human beings and human relationships.
For example, consider how enthusiastically we welcomed Global Positioning System (GPS) devices into our lives. We’ve installed this satellite-based technology in everything from our phones to our cars to our pets. Yet by ensuring that we never get lost, never lose our loved ones and never lose our wireless signals, we are also making it possible for the government to never lose sight of us, as well.
GPS, originally known as Navstar, is funded and operated by none other than the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. military controls the satellites used by GPS devices and transmits signals to ground GPS receivers. The U.S Air Force, by means of ground stations, sustains 24 operational GPS satellites at all times. These synchronized satellites emit signals at the same time. A GPS receiver located on earth collects the signals that travel at the speed of light. The receiver calculates the distance to the satellites by determining the time it takes for the emitted signal to reach the GPS receiver. Once a time is determined for at least four of the GPS satellites, the receiver can pinpoint your location in three dimensions, including latitude, longitude, and altitude.
While many Americans are literally lost without their GPS devices, it has also become a ubiquitous convenience for law enforcement agencies. For example, in 2009, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) introduced a prototype “smart” police car. This smart cruiser is the most advanced of its kind, equipped with license plate cameras, computers, a GPS projectile launcher, and even a heat detector in the front grill to differentiate between people and animals. The license plate reader can scan and download five to eight thousand license plates per shift. It saves the information it collects and can access the information instantaneously through the computer system installed in the car. If a stolen or wanted vehicle comes up in the scan, the license plate reader will automatically label the vehicle as a threat and a camera will take a colored picture of the vehicle and send the GPS coordinates of the vehicle to the police station.
In addition to the high tech license plate readers and cameras, the smart car is equipped with GPS-enabled projectiles. The device is similar to a dart launcher and is near the front bumper of the vehicle. The projectile is three inches in diameter. When engaged, the device shoots the GPS projectile at the target vehicle. The law enforcement agent inside the car arms and fires the projectile. With the aid of a military grade laser, the law enforcement agent can aim with tremendous precision. Once attached to the target, the projectiles have the capability of tracking the target in real time for days. The LAPD is currently shopping for a manufacturer willing to mass produce these cars in order to make them available to law enforcement agencies across the country.
Frankly, given how attached Americans have become to their cell phones--and how easily trackable, as a result, it’s a wonder the government even bothers with any other technologies. Currently, cell phone service providers have the ability to pinpoint a phone’s location to an area as small as a city block. (It should come as no surprise that government agents have wasted little time in adding this technology to their bag of tricks, employing GPS on multiple occasions to track individuals without establishing probable cause or obtaining a search warrant.) Most corporate cell phone providers can also store vast amounts of data containing the location of the cell phone and its specific uses (such as the contents of text messages and websites visited), sometimes even in real time.
In an effort to handle the massive amount of requests from federal agents for access to the GPS data, several cell phone providers now offer automated services for obtaining internal cell phone data. Sprint Nextel, for example, has an entire website devoted to cell phone records that law enforcement officers can access. Called the Mobile Locator, the system allows law enforcement to access information, such as call history, without a search warrant, thus completely bypassing the protections afforded us by the Fourth Amendment. It also enables government agents to monitor an individual in real-time on a zoomable, online map.
A recent study by Indiana University reveals the extent to which government agents are making use of this resource. According to the study, over a period of 13 months, Sprint responded to eight million requests from law enforcement for GPS data. In addition to GPS data, Sprint also stores IP data and URL web history for a two-year period, which it also makes available to law enforcement upon request.
Intelligence and law enforcement agencies insist that a search warrant is not required to access the information because cell phone users, having disclosed their information to a third party, have no reasonable expectation of privacy anyhow. All the while, the American people remain clueless about the existence of these databases, the ease with which law enforcement agents can access them, and their overall loss of privacy.
The bottom line: there really is no place to hide in the American Oceania. As Judge Kozinski concludes:
You can preserve your anonymity from prying eyes, even in public, by traveling at night, through heavy traffic, in crowds, by using a circuitous route, disguising your appearance, passing in and out of buildings and being careful not to be followed. But there’s no hiding from the all-seeing network of GPS satellites that hover overhead, which never sleep, never blink, never get confused and never lose attention. Nor is there respite from the dense network of cell towers that honeycomb the inhabited United States. Acting together these two technologies alone can provide law enforcement with a swift, efficient, silent, invisible and cheap way of tracking the movements of virtually anyone and everyone they choose. Most targets won’t know they need to disguise their movements or turn off their cell phones because they’ll have no reason to suspect that Big Brother is watching them.
View Original Article HERE
John Whitehead
Voicing his discontent with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in United States v. Pineda-Moreno, which declared the warrantless use of a GPS tracking device to be constitutional, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski warned, “We are taking a giant leap into the unknown, and the consequences for ourselves and our children may be dire and irreversible. Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we’re living in Oceania.”
Indeed, we are already living in George Orwell’s totalitarian state known as Oceania, where the all-seeing government sees and tracks everything we do. By asserting that the police can constitutionally sneak onto a private driveway without a warrant and stick a GPS tag on your car so that they can remotely track you, the Ninth Circuit didn’t necessarily break any new ground. Rather, they merely confirmed what we have suspected all along: that the concept of private property is dead and along with it, the right against unreasonable searches and seizures once protected by the Fourth Amendment.
Having outstripped our ability as humans to control it, technology has become our Frankenstein’s monster. Delighted with technology’s conveniences, its ability to make our lives easier by doing an endless array of tasks faster and more efficiently, we have given it free rein in our lives, with little thought to the legal or moral ramifications of doing so. Thus, we have no one but ourselves to blame for the fact that technology now operates virtually autonomously according to its own invasive code, respecting no one’s intimate moments or privacy and impervious to the foibles of human beings and human relationships.
For example, consider how enthusiastically we welcomed Global Positioning System (GPS) devices into our lives. We’ve installed this satellite-based technology in everything from our phones to our cars to our pets. Yet by ensuring that we never get lost, never lose our loved ones and never lose our wireless signals, we are also making it possible for the government to never lose sight of us, as well.
GPS, originally known as Navstar, is funded and operated by none other than the U.S. Department of Defense. The U.S. military controls the satellites used by GPS devices and transmits signals to ground GPS receivers. The U.S Air Force, by means of ground stations, sustains 24 operational GPS satellites at all times. These synchronized satellites emit signals at the same time. A GPS receiver located on earth collects the signals that travel at the speed of light. The receiver calculates the distance to the satellites by determining the time it takes for the emitted signal to reach the GPS receiver. Once a time is determined for at least four of the GPS satellites, the receiver can pinpoint your location in three dimensions, including latitude, longitude, and altitude.
While many Americans are literally lost without their GPS devices, it has also become a ubiquitous convenience for law enforcement agencies. For example, in 2009, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) introduced a prototype “smart” police car. This smart cruiser is the most advanced of its kind, equipped with license plate cameras, computers, a GPS projectile launcher, and even a heat detector in the front grill to differentiate between people and animals. The license plate reader can scan and download five to eight thousand license plates per shift. It saves the information it collects and can access the information instantaneously through the computer system installed in the car. If a stolen or wanted vehicle comes up in the scan, the license plate reader will automatically label the vehicle as a threat and a camera will take a colored picture of the vehicle and send the GPS coordinates of the vehicle to the police station.
In addition to the high tech license plate readers and cameras, the smart car is equipped with GPS-enabled projectiles. The device is similar to a dart launcher and is near the front bumper of the vehicle. The projectile is three inches in diameter. When engaged, the device shoots the GPS projectile at the target vehicle. The law enforcement agent inside the car arms and fires the projectile. With the aid of a military grade laser, the law enforcement agent can aim with tremendous precision. Once attached to the target, the projectiles have the capability of tracking the target in real time for days. The LAPD is currently shopping for a manufacturer willing to mass produce these cars in order to make them available to law enforcement agencies across the country.
Frankly, given how attached Americans have become to their cell phones--and how easily trackable, as a result, it’s a wonder the government even bothers with any other technologies. Currently, cell phone service providers have the ability to pinpoint a phone’s location to an area as small as a city block. (It should come as no surprise that government agents have wasted little time in adding this technology to their bag of tricks, employing GPS on multiple occasions to track individuals without establishing probable cause or obtaining a search warrant.) Most corporate cell phone providers can also store vast amounts of data containing the location of the cell phone and its specific uses (such as the contents of text messages and websites visited), sometimes even in real time.
In an effort to handle the massive amount of requests from federal agents for access to the GPS data, several cell phone providers now offer automated services for obtaining internal cell phone data. Sprint Nextel, for example, has an entire website devoted to cell phone records that law enforcement officers can access. Called the Mobile Locator, the system allows law enforcement to access information, such as call history, without a search warrant, thus completely bypassing the protections afforded us by the Fourth Amendment. It also enables government agents to monitor an individual in real-time on a zoomable, online map.
A recent study by Indiana University reveals the extent to which government agents are making use of this resource. According to the study, over a period of 13 months, Sprint responded to eight million requests from law enforcement for GPS data. In addition to GPS data, Sprint also stores IP data and URL web history for a two-year period, which it also makes available to law enforcement upon request.
Intelligence and law enforcement agencies insist that a search warrant is not required to access the information because cell phone users, having disclosed their information to a third party, have no reasonable expectation of privacy anyhow. All the while, the American people remain clueless about the existence of these databases, the ease with which law enforcement agents can access them, and their overall loss of privacy.
The bottom line: there really is no place to hide in the American Oceania. As Judge Kozinski concludes:
You can preserve your anonymity from prying eyes, even in public, by traveling at night, through heavy traffic, in crowds, by using a circuitous route, disguising your appearance, passing in and out of buildings and being careful not to be followed. But there’s no hiding from the all-seeing network of GPS satellites that hover overhead, which never sleep, never blink, never get confused and never lose attention. Nor is there respite from the dense network of cell towers that honeycomb the inhabited United States. Acting together these two technologies alone can provide law enforcement with a swift, efficient, silent, invisible and cheap way of tracking the movements of virtually anyone and everyone they choose. Most targets won’t know they need to disguise their movements or turn off their cell phones because they’ll have no reason to suspect that Big Brother is watching them.
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