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 on Survival Saturday, much that is wrong with the world boils down to statism, of which I am not a fan. Copious regulations make everything a bureaucratic nightmare. Our taxes are going up, we’re at risk of a false flag, and Obamacare looks like it’s here to stay. Both sides of the political paradigm are up in arms about whose statism is better. Freedom of speech is only acceptable for similar opinions and anything else should not be allowed.
In my humble opinion, there’s nothing more anti-freedom than statism. It is the biggest threat to our country and deterrent of productivity there is. There’s nothing I hate more than gratuitous rules.
To summarize, haters gonna hate and statists gonna state.
The middle class is getting NAILED by Obamacare and Trump’s new tax plan.
I really wanted to believe that because Donald Trump didn’t need money, he would be less likely to be swayed by Wall Street and big corporations. I wanted to believe he would finally see to it that Obamacare was abolished and that we’d be able to keep more of our money after taxes. (Oh, and that he’d be ‘anti-interventionist,’ an illusion that was destroyed within his first week in office.)
I’m just a middle-class single mom, busting my tail to support my kids, get them through college without student debt, and keep my bills paid. Heck, one day I’d even like to buy a house, which is becoming more and more of a far-fetched dream every year. Especially now. Thanks, President Trump.
First, Obamacare has made health care so unaffordable for anyone who makes a little money that it is completely out of reach. For my family, it would cost almost double that of a mortgage if I deigned to enroll. And now, even the cheapest, crappiest plans have gone up in price. It’s almost 10k in most of the US for a plan that pays 60% of your costs AFTER you’ve paid an average deductible of over $12,000. Go here for more details on how we’re all getting the shaft from something Donald Trump promised to get rid of. If I bought that, I would be even LESS LIKELY to be able to afford medical care than if I just continue to muddle through and pay cash for what I can. And for those of you still sure that it will be abolished? It won’t. It’s just going to get worse and worse and suck more of the life out of you. In 94% of America, Obamacare is unaffordable according to Obamacare’s OWN CALCULATIONS.
Secondly, this new tax bill is SCREWING just about everyone making between 50k and 730k a year. Which is basically, ALL of us. That is the very definition of the middle class, right?
Zero Hedge tells us this is the nitty-gritty of the tax plan:
- collapse the seven individual income tax rates to three (12, 25, and 35 percent),
- increase the standard deduction,
- eliminate personal exemptions,
- increase the child tax credit,
- eliminate most itemized deductions,
- repeal the individual and corporate alternative minimum taxes,
- repeal the estate tax,
- reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent, tax pass-through business income at a top rate of 25 percent,
- allow businesses to fully expense investment in equipment and machinery for at least five years,
- adopt a territorial tax system that would exempt the foreign earnings of US corporations from US tax
(source)
Great, right? Thanks, Trump.
James Quinn of The Burning Platform blog puts it even more succinctly:
When I saw that slimy tentacle of the Goldman Sachs vampire squid, Gary Cohn, bloviating about Trump’s tax plan and how it was going to do wonders for the middle class, I knew I was probably going to get screwed again. And after perusing the outline of their plan, it is certain I will be getting it up the ass once again from my beloved government. (source)
And he’s right. This new plan will NOT benefit the middle class. It will benefit the 1% and giant corporations, just like every other tax plan ever. To say that I’m irate would be an understatement. Haters gonna hate and statists gonna state.
Puerto Rico is a living nightmare and our regulations are getting in the way of helping them.
Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Maria demolished most of Puerto Rico, they’re still not getting as much help as they should be. A lot of folks didn’t even realize Puerto Rico was part of the United States, for crying out loud. Do they just not teach geography and civics in schools anymore? (You don’t have to answer that.) Just so you know, American Samoa, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands are also part of America. If they get hit by a disaster we’re supposed to provide them with the same assistance as Texas and Florida.
Anyway, it’s hell in Puerto Rico right now. There’s still no power (and there won’t be for months.) Communication is incredibly limited, there’s no fresh water to drink, and very little food is left. This article goes into detail about the situation there.
It took more than a week for the Jones Act to be lifted so that aid could be gotten to PR. The Jones Act, also known as the Merchant Marine Act, was some ridiculous obscure law that didn’t allow anything but American goods to be on American ships staffed by American sailors going from port to port in America. There are some other ridiculous laws stifling recovery efforts, too.
Now, the US Army has taken control of recovery operations there. They are nothing if not organized, so let’s hope that people are getting the assistance that they need. The island is practically uninhabitable right now, so it’s possible that millions of Puerto Ricans will be relocated to the mainland.
In an ironic aside, President Trump was excoriated by the Washington Post for playing golf while Puerto Ricans were suffering. But looking back, they defended President Obama for doing the same thing.
This whole football nonsense is a ridiculous distraction.
Everyone is up in arms about a bunch of football players who are either standing or kneeling. Talk about your bread and circuses. While North Korea (or some American who wants to pin the blame on North Korea) draws a bead on our country and while our fellow Americans are literally STARVING TO DEATH after a terrible storm, everyone’s paying attention to this nonsense, up to and including our fearless leader, President Trump.
Some folks feel that this freedom of expression “shouldn’t be allowed” because it differs with their opinion, while others, many of whom probably never watched a football game in their lives, are adamant in their support because, white privilege or something.
Either way, whatever you believe, don’t you think we have bigger things on the horizon than the opinions of some football players? Get ahold of yourself, people. Stop being distracted by this stuff – you are being deliberately manipulated, because, statism. It’s all about control, no matter from what angle you come at this.
This Week in Preparedness…
This week, I’ve been doing a lot of food preservation. (Fall has such wonderful goodies for harvest.) Many of the recipes I’m using for those last-minute harvests from my garden can be found in my book, The Prepper’s Canning Guide. Tomato soup, Southern chow-chow relish, marinara, pumpkin, and applesauce will be loading my pantry shelves. What about you? Are you putting back some harvest goodies for the winter?
Some of the disasters we’ve seen lately have made me do a lot of thinking about what I’d do if I lost everything. It’s a sobering thought, after all of these years of prepping, stockpiling, and collecting reference books, that one day we could all be left with nothing. I was thinking, in Puerto Rico, there isn’t even anything to forage because most of the plants and trees were stripped absolutely bare. Many of the natural water sources were tainted with floodwaters, leaving them dangerous even after careful purification efforts. Not only did they lose everything, but there are few resources to turn to for survival.
This weekend, we’re off to the farmer’s market for more fall goodies. What about you?
Other Articles of Interest
Puerto Rico: What It’s Really Like After the SHTF
FEMA Director Urges Americans to Develop “a true culture of preparedness” But No One Is Listening
Watch This Video Compilation of Epic Disasters from the Past Few Months
North Korea says US has declared war
Hackers Are Getting Personal: 4 Ways Every Person Using a Cell Phone or Computer Is at Risk
Anything to add to Survival Saturday?
Do you have any news links you want to share? What are your thoughts on the topics above? Now’s the time! Please post your links in the comments section below and join the discussion!
Just want to let you know that it is possible to care about the crisis in Puerto Rico AND about football players disrespecting our flag/country. Passion is infinite–we don’t have to choose: in fact, I think the more passionate we are about our country, the more compassion for its territories.
In Australia, the tax rate for someone earning US minimum wage (a mere $15,080 per year at $7.25 per hour) is only 19%. The average wage is around USD $47,000 a year with a tax rate of 32.5%. You complain about how taxes are going sky high, and how The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is making everyone bankrupt. If you lived in Australia, you would:
1) Earn a higher wage without bankrupting companies
2) Have affordable healthcare which no-one called the communist takeover of capitalist values
The US should stop complaining that the government wants (or wanted) to help people with preexisting conditions and maybe needs money to pay off it’s massive debt (Australia also rarely has a debt nearing USD $1 trillion).
Giving the government money, believe it or not, PAYS for things. Like roads, clean water, electricity and that military that the US is so proud of (the US military gets around 60% of your tax money, money that could be going towards paying for the ACA, which would drive down your insurance costs).
So please, stop complaint that’s the government is taking your money and is caring about sick people. If you think your taxes are being wasted, then try to change how your money is being used (like calling your senator, or making a petition, or something that says ”move money from this area to this area”). Thank you.