This week on Survival Saturday, learn about how astronomical consumer credit card debt is providing Americans with the deadly illusion of prosperity, get proof that the average diet is more akin to Soylent Green than actual food, and hear about the government’s latest volley in their determined assault on privacy- it’s for your own good, you know.
Survival Saturday is a round-up of the week’s news and recommended reading material for folks who are interested in being prepared.
This Week in the News
Shock: Americans Owe Nearly a Trillion Dollars on Credit Cards
Many times when you point out to a doubter that our economy has not recovered at all, they smugly point out the full parking lots at the mall or tell you about the line they had to wait in to buy the newest electronic gadget. But this is just an illusion of prosperity, perpetrated by the financial industry’s concentrated efforts to keep us spending to the point of “cannibal consumption.” The real tale is told by the fact that Americans are in more deeply debt than any time in the history of our country and that number just keeps growing. According to an astonishing report by Michael Snyder, “U.S. consumers accumulated more new credit card debt during the 4th quarter of 2015 than they did during the years of 2009, 2010 and 2011 combined.”
Numbers like this underscore the fact that most folks are only one missed paycheck away from personal financial disaster. As jobs continue to be lost, prices continue to increase, and companies like Wal-Mart close hundreds of stores, we’ll begin to see the effect more frequently. This spending frenzy simply cannot continue. People are reaching the point at which they simply can no longer pay their bills or keep a roof of their family’s head. Here’s what to do if you happen to be in that dire situation yourself and here is a proven method to dig yourself out of debt.
How Long Before Your Cell Phone Is No Longer Private?
A couple of weeks ago, Apple famously refused the FBI’s request to unlock the iPhones of the people accused of the San Bernadino shooting. (Here’s the awesome letter from CEO Tim Cook.) Former Congressman Ron Paul resoundingly supported Apple’s decision, saying that the company was a “better defender of our liberties than our own government.” The FBI vs. Apple argument will be heard in front of a US Magistrate on March 22. If the government has its way, your text messages, call log, and personal information will be up for grabs to law enforcement entities in this latest volley of regulatory harassment and the attempt to legalize the invasion of privacy.
In a speech on Friday, Obama earnestly promoted the backdoor access to cell phones to apprehend child pornographers, to prevent terrorist acts, and for tax enforcement. Also, for sheer entertainment value, he threw in a few lines about his commitment to privacy and preserving civil liberties. Of course, even without Apple’s help, the Feds can attempt to hack your phone, but here’s a cool strategy that could make the task take 127 years.
Mindblowing Statistics on the State of American “Food” Intake
Did you know that nearly 60% of what Americans consume is ultra-processed? The definition of “ultra-processed food” is “Formulations of several ingredients which, besides salt, sugar, oils, and fats, include food substances not used in culinary preparations, in particular, flavors, colors, sweeteners, emulsifiers and other additives used to imitate sensorial qualities of unprocessed or minimally processed foods and their culinary preparations or to disguise undesirable qualities of the final product.” Soylent Green, anyone? Basically, it’s just as I wrote in my article on The Great American Grocery Hoax: the stuff being sold to us is not actually food.
Is it any wonder then, that another recent study confirmed that more than half of all Californians are diabetic or pre-diabetic? Or that cancer is the #1 cause of death in the Western world and that nearly half of us will get it during our lifetimes?
What you eat can actually influence which genes are actually activated or suppressed, exerting more control over whether you get a hereditary disease than the combined genetics of your parents. But you don’t have to fall victim to the horrible offerings in the grocery store. Learn how to eat again with this e-course (I took it and it’s excellent!) and take back the reins by learning to raise your own food in this free online summit, even if you don’t live on a farm.
Want more info on self-reliance and old-fashioned skills?
Sometimes we don’t spend enough time thinking about the weather and how it affects our efforts to be self-reliant. Too much rain and your plants and livestock are at risk, too little rain and your plants and livestock are at risk. Add to this the fury of Mother Nature when she unleashes high winds and tornadoes, and any sensible person begins to realize that we can prep all we want, but we are still at the mercy of the weather. This week, the report discusses acts of nature, along with a healthy helping of information about eggs from the backyard and, of course, unique and frugal DIYs from across the web.
The Self-Reliance Weekly Report links you to all the best articles relating to prepping, homesteading, DIY, and independence.
Click here to check out this week’s Self-Reliance Report!
What to Learn This Week
Learn How to Eat Again
Retrain yourself. Forget the fake, chemical-laden offerings sold at the store as food. You and your family deserve better. This e-course is a perfect way to learn how to eat real food at every meal, even when time is short, Broken up into short, simple lessons, the course will guide you through a lifestyle change that will have long-term ramifications on both your health and your budget.
I took it myself to preview it for you and I’m positive you’ll learn a lot! Best of all, it’s approximately the price of one pizza delivery meal.
Learn How to Grow Your Own Food
When you sign up for the Homegrown Food Summit, be prepared to get inundated (in the best possible way) with valuable free gifts and opportunities to win amazing self-reliance prizes. The online courses will change the way you raise your food forever.
The summit includes more than 50 hours of video training. Watch today’s videos right now, for free!
Sign Up for FREE
Anything to add to Survival Saturday?
Do you have any news links you want to share? Now’s the time! You are absolutely welcome to post your links in the comments below. (I love hearing about the things that you found important this week!)
Daisy,
Do you know of a good solar powered generator? I noticed several brands out there, but not sure about the quality.
Thanks,
Sue.
Another fact which jumps out at me when you write, “consumers accumulated more new credit card debt during the 4th quarter of 2015 than they did during the years of 2009, 2010 and 2011 combined” is that Mr. Banker reaped enormous profits from those credit card transactions. Americans just keep on feeding the beast and helping to forge thier own chains.
I’ve even read misled defenders of liberty promote using credit cards so long as the balance is paid off every month, what they leave out of that equation is the profits the credit card companies generate from the merchants for using those credit cards. That does not seem like a path to liberty to me, yet as with all the subprime auto loans out there, all the new auto purchases are seen as a positive economic indicator, a.k.a. ‘a good thing’. It’s the ‘unseen’ so few realize or mention.
It seems like more and more I’m having to wait in line at a store while some ‘bright person’ waits to get thier credit card transaction approved to buy $1.99 worth of stuff. (Really!?! $1.99! They don’t have two Bucks? Life is about earning cash back and accumulating vacation points like they’re in some kind of video game?) I remeber watching a TeeVee comercial back in the day about how purchasing with a credit card was supposed to be sooo much faster than paying with cash, when in fact, it’s quite the opposite – and – there’s No Strings attached when paying with cash!
The credit card dependent and the underwater auto owers sure will have difficulty when The Great Default happens (especially when so-called assets like used cars crash in value) it’s too bad they all listened to those who preached the notion of growing yourself out of debt by getting even more debt, a.k.a. John Mauldin’s Flying Pigs:
http://www.garynorth.com/public/14944.cfm
Perhaps the notion of 210 Trillion Dollar unfunded liabilities has no meaning? Yeah, and pigs Can fly!
Anyway, in the comments section at Geoengineering Watch someone posted this link saying ‘they knew’ about the connection of Glyphosate to cancer as early as the 1980’s in this study:
http://www.amsi.ge/jbpc/31515/jbpc31515.html
Denial sure is a big river. Denial plays a big role in this study about how the symptoms the Gulf War vets brought home started appearing in their spouses, and “including spread of the illness to the civilian population”… this is ugly stuff which has been swept under the rug for a long ass time:
WRITTEN TESTIMONY OF
Dr. Garth L. Nicolson
Special Oversight Board for Department of Defense Investigations
of Gulf War Chemical and Biological Incidents
U. S. Senate Hart Office Building SH-216
November 19, 1998
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/testimony.htm
Hello Daisy; Anxious to hear how your move is going. Hope all is well with you.
I clicked on the “free” online summit and the minimum to buy it is $69.
Ah – it was free while it was going on – after the summit was over, the recordings went on sale. So sorry about that!