Survival Saturday: Politics Edition

By Daisy Luther

Survival Saturday is  a round-up of the week’s news and resources for folks who are interested in being prepared.

This Week in the News

This week, there was no way around it. The Survival Saturday round-up, with the exception of a little blurb about imaginary creatures and their effect on national security, is all about the political circus otherwise known as the presidential election of 2016.

I really wanted to stay out of politics, but I’m so sickened by this election and by the blindness of the American people that I just couldn’t keep my fingers off the keyboard any longer.

Disclaimer:

I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat. If you call me either conservative or liberal, I will be equally outraged and wildly offended. I am utterly repelled by partisan politics.

I am a gun-toting, freedom-loving, coffee-guzzling, organic-farming, single mama blogger who believes that your religion and sexuality is no one’s  business but your own and that you are ultimately the only one responsible for your own life and well-being. If the Libertarian Party was actually libertarian, I’d be that, but they’re a little too Big Government Neo-Con-ish for my liking.

I am anti-regulation and anti-permit and anti-license and anti-tax.  Why on earth should I need permission from anyone in the government to live my life as I see fit? Why on earth should I be extorted annually? I am my own first responder. Leave me alone.

I think voting is a scam to make us believe that we actually have some say in what goes in in Washington and that the game is irrevocably rigged. My goal is to point out the truth and wave that truth flag so hard that people have to pay attention. Only by making more people aware of how corrupt our system is can it ever be changed.

With that preface out of the way, let’s get started.

How the Democratic Party deliberately screwed Bernie Sanders

The thing that is different about this election is that people are fed up. They really seem to want something different from the same old political families that are really like an American version of the monarchy. No one wanted to see Jeb Bush in office and folks are equally unhappy with the idea of a Clinton spouse running the show. That’s why a Socialist and a business tycoon have made it further in this process than anyone every dreamed possible. Americans are sick of politicians. They want change. However, the political system is fighting back, and they’re fighting dirty as they try to cling to their status quo.

It is probably no surprise to anyone reading this that the electoral process in the US is a sham, a cover for the Banana Republic that is our government.  But just in case you are still under the delusion that your vote really counts, behold this information from Wikileaks.

Wikileaks uncovered  straight from the horse’s mouth about 20,000 emails indicating that the Democratic National Committee colluded with the Clinton campaign to discredit popular candidate Bernie Sanders and undermine his bid for the nomination.  While I am absolutely not a fan of Sanders and his Socialist philosophy (*involuntary shudder*) if we really did have a fair electoral process, we’d all get to choose for ourselves as opposed to having the Chosen One rammed down our throats.

Here are a few choice quotes from an RT article for you to mull over the next time you’re pondering a fair and balanced world:

…A communication from late May laid out the pros and cons of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz accepting an invitation to CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’, and indicated that the DNC was plotting its moves based on what would be amenable to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

…The DNC also appears to have made a secret “agreement” with Kenneth Vogel, an influential report for Politico.

An email from late April with the subject line “per agreement… any thoughts appreciated” shows that Vogel sent an advanced copy of a story about Hillary Clinton’s fundraising to the DNC even before his editor even saw it.

…Another email released in the Friday leak indicates that the DNC was in close contact with news websites on articles related to the Democratic Party.

A Real Clear Politics article said that Sanders supporters were causing a lack of unity at the Nevada Democratic Convention.

“This headline needs to be changed,”  Wasserman Schultz wrote to Miranda.

…In a May 5 email, two top DNC executives plotted a smear against Sanders by drawing his Jewish faith into question and painting him as an atheist in strongly religious states.

“It might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief,” DNC Chief Financial Officer Brad Marshall wrote. “Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.”

“AMEN,” DNC Chief Executive Officer Amy K. Dacey replied

…An email titled ‘Bernie narrative’ sent by DNC National Press Secretary Mark Paustenbach to Miranda indicates that top officials in the party were trying to find an angle to disparage the Vermont senator in the media.

“Wondering if there’s a good Bernie narrative for a story, which is that Bernie never ever had his act together, that his campaign was a mess,” Paustenbach wrote in the May 21 message. “Specifically, [Debbie Wasserman Schultz] had to call Bernie directly in order to get the campaign to do things because they’d either ignored or forgotten to something critical.”

It goes on and on, but you get the idea. Sanders never had a chance. His own party made sure of it. Even though he probably actually won in some states where it was still proclaimed that HRC won, he never could have won the election. He was a stumbling block to Hillary’s rise to power. Even CNN said, “One email features DNC staffers appearing to ponder ways to undercut Sanders, an insurgent Democrat who had a bitter relationship with party leadership. Sanders supporters charged that the DNC was biased toward Clinton, and Sanders late in the primary endorsed DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s primary opponent in her Florida congressional race.” And it looks like Sanders was right, doesn’t it? One must wonder what type of promise or threat was levied to entice Sanders to publically endorse Hillary Clinton.

It should be clear that a party which enables crony capitalists like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid can’t be trusted and Wikileaks has made the corruption all the more evident by exposing their email schemes. Note: When will politicians learn that emails are forever?

Anyone who was pro-Sanders who goes to the polls to vote for Clinton (let’s pretend for a second that it matters for the sake of this argument) is allowing themselves to be herded along by those smug, manipulative puppeteers from the Democratic National Committee. If you really want to see some change, run. Run as far away from the Hillary Clinton camp as you possibly can.

Pokemon Apocalypse

Listen up: you kids better stay off my lawn.

This Pokemon thing. I will never understand the fascination with hunting imaginary digital thingamajigs that only the person holding the phone can see. However, it seems like I’m somewhat in the minority as this new game which has nerds getting outside for the first time sine 3rd grade recess is taking the globe by storm. I’m blown away that there is actually a guide to this game that is a best-seller on Amazon.

But, as Mac Slavo wrote:

When it comes to survival, you can count out large swaths of millennials who are busy playing the latest mobile video game craze, and are instead winning the Darwin Award in locales all around the world…

…Completely oblivious and unaware, many of these hapless video gamers have fallen off of cliffs, wandered near live wires while pursuing Pokemon in electrical plants and trespassing in downright dangerous places.

Zero Hedge believes Niantic may have unleashed the Zombie apocalypse for real with this game. “In retrospect, if ISIS had really wanted to destroy western civilization it should have skipped all the suicide bombers and “made in the San Fernando Valley” decapitation videos, and just hired a few good programmers…” Watch what happened in Central Park when a rare Pokemon creature made a digital appearance.

ZH also posted this video of people chasing down another imaginary creature. Watch as the guy in the black shirt and white hat takes out a “competitor” as they both pursue something that isn’t even actually there.

But there’s actually more to it than the general diversion that has people walking off of cliffs and running heedlessly across city streets while searching for augmented-reality monsters.

First of all, if a person adds the app to his phone via his Google log-in, then developers have “full access” to everything in the connected Google account. Emails, Google documents. the whole shebang – according to Niantic, the makers of the game, everything but your passwords. (So they say, right?)

But, as always, there’s more. You might want to grab your tinfoil, because Indonesia has issued a warning that Pokemon Go is a security threat “that could enable its enemies to gain access to top-secret data and penetrate sensitive government and military sites.”  The Indonesian government has banned anyone from playing Pokemon Go on military bases or inside government buildings. Egypt thinks it is a national security threat created by the CIA.

What do you think? Is Pokemon Go a brainwashing tool for the Sheeple, a tool for espionage, or a harmless pastime?

Please keep this in mind: Your digital creature-hunting hobby is not a viable excuse for trespassing.

 

The Left Is Talking About a Coup

Interestingly, the liberal Left, who usually wants to be associated with hugs, vegan cupcakes, and political correctness, keeps talking about a coup as a result of this year’s election.

Normally discussion of overthrowing the government is the scope of the anti-government types who are seeking more freedom, but in honor of Upside-down and Backward Year, the liberals are both plotting for and fearing a coup.

In an LA Times essay, James Kirchick suggested that if Donald Trump wins the presidency, a military coup like the failed attempt in Turkey wouldn’t be out of line here. (He must have been reading Edward Luttwick’s classic guide.) According to Kirchick, after he enumerates the myriad faults of Donald J. Trump, “Voters must stop him before the military has to. ”

Of course, in a ridiculous paragraph that proves Kirchick has absolutely no grasp on reality, he also wrote glowingly of Hillary Clinton. (Warning: Don’t read this while eating. Induces vomiting.)

Needless to say, such dystopian situations are unimaginable under a President Hillary Clinton, who, whatever her faults, would never contemplate ordering a bombing run or — heaven forbid — a nuclear strike on a country just because its leader slighted her small hands at a summit. Rubio might detest her, but he cannot honestly say that Clinton, a former secretary of State, should not be trusted with the nation’s nuclear codes.

I guess he missed those stories about when warmongering HRC urged her hubby to bomb Serbia (her plea to bomb the country for 78 days straight is counted as a major point in her favor in one particularly nauseating book written about her) or her part in the bombing of Libya that took the lives of over 1100 civilians.(She doesn’t regret it.)

But I digress. Back to coups.

An essay on Huffington Post stresses another concern about an overthrow. You know how they say that someone’s bad intentions causes them to see everyone else through the same bad-intentioned lens? This essay was written with the concern that if Trump loses, all of his Republican friends will don battle gear and take on the peace-loving Democrats. You know, the ones like Hillary who has already proven her willingness to bomb civilians.

The essay is aghast that any Republican (or person in his or her right mind) would think that Hillary, having potentially committed treason through her carelessness with emails, should be punished as any other treasonous individual would be. Read on for the horrified rhetoric about scary conservatives.

Perhaps most disturbingly of all, the Quicken Loans Arena echoed with calls to lock Hillary Clinton up and, even more appallingly, some supporters of the Republican candidate have suggested executing her for treason…

…Simply put, people who call for their opponents to be arrested or killed, while imbuing their own candidate with messianic powers, do not accept political defeat easily. Moreover, the alleged more mature voices within the Republican Party who have stood by and said nothing while this all occurred are clearly unwilling or unable to moderate what could charitably be described as the angry, unhinged mob formerly known as the Republican base.

This is an essay you have to read for an ironic laugh. Here is one more choice excerpt:

Throughout this long campaign we have seen Trump encourage and even advocate violent behavior, stand by while his Democratic opponent is accused of treason and murder, and evince little understanding of democratic processes or mores.

However…

The only records I’ve seen of political supporters behaving badly have been the Democrats determined to stop Donald Trump. For example, do you remember when a bunch of them rallied together to shut down a Trump event in San Jose by jumping on cars, pelting supporters with eggs, and actually punching Trump supporters as they tried to enter the event? Here’s a video of some anti-Trump melees.

I’m pretty sure there’s a name for the phenomenon and it’s called projection.

Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others. For example, a person who is habitually rude may constantly accuse other people of being rude. It incorporates blame shifting.  According to some research, the projection of one’s unconscious qualities onto others is a common process in everyday life.

Finally, RNC Shenanigans

This week marked the Republican National Convention, in which Donald Trump was officially made the Republican nominee for President. Here are the highlights (or lowlights, depending on one’s perspective.)

• We got to see the end of Ted Cruz’s career happen live. It’s rare that you actually get to see the exact moment that a politician’s career ends. Not everyone was on board with Trump’s nomination. The country watched as Ted Cruz publically committed career suicide by accepting the invitation to speak but refusing to endorse Trump. While I can’t blame the guy for refusing to endorse Trump after the ugly primary battle between the two, a better (and more career-saving) option would have been to decline the invitation, stay home, have some pizza, and watch rom-coms on Netflix as opposed to publically snubbing his party’s candidate.
• The RNC delegate goody bag contained creepy plastic fetuses. Because I guess every Republican should have a toy fetus to carry around in his or her briefcase or purse.
• This year, there was uncharacteristic acceptance of gay people. Milo Yiannopolis was a luminary after being banned forever from Twitter for hurting a woman’s feelings (he threw a party), and he did more to advance acceptance of gay people in a conservative arena than well, anyone, ever, in the history of Republican National Conventions. Peter Theil, one of the founders of PayPal, was also the first openly gay speaker at the RNC.
• Mrs. Trump was embarrassed. Melania Trump was accused of plagiarizing the speech that Michelle Obama was also accused of plagiarizing. Speechwriter Meredith McIver took the fall for the notable similarities in the speech. No one was fired.
• Donald Trump’s acceptance speech brought down the house. Every prepper worth his or her salt had to be delighted to finally hear someone talking about the things that concern us all. Trump touched on crimes being committed by illegal immigrants, the threat of ISIS terror on our on shores, guns, and economic collapse. I personally thought it was a pretty fantastic speech, although I prefer a small government, low-intervention approach, myself. The left was, of course, terrified and “triggered” by the “dark speech from a vengeful demagogue.” Because, you know, reality. It’s scary. The video of the speech is below, in case you missed it and want to hear it.

Trump’s speech closely echoes his book on how to fix what is wrong with America.

Stay tuned next week for a similar report on DNC shenanigans.

The Bookshelf

The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted

Coup d’Etat

Clinton Cash

How to Fix Our Crippled America

The Prepper’s Blueprint

This Week in Preparedness…

It’s harvest time! From my own personal family cookbook, here is a way to use up your freshly ripened tomatoes in a spaghetti sauce that will make everyone think you have an Italian grandma hidden away.

Other stuff you need to check out this week:

23 Brilliant Uses of Duct Tape In Real Life

The Top 50 Non-Food Stockpile Necessities

Preppers Market: Emergency Food Should Not Be a Health Crisis

How California Still Isn’t Prepared for the Next Big Earthquake

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. What do you think of the current political climate? Any thoughts on the RNC or the upcoming DNC? Speak up!