America’s Police State: Worse than Communist North Korea?

William Norman Grigg
Lew Rockwell Blog
January 16, 2014

If Kelly Thomas had lived in Communist North Korea, rather than conservative Orange County, California, he might have survived his encounter with the police.

Two days ago, a jury in Orange County, acquitted the two police officers who led the fatal gang-beating of Thomas, an unarmed, mentally troubled homeless man. The jurors acted on the assumption that the lethal violence was justified because the victim tried to defend himself after the police began their assault.

American police taught to treat any act of non-compliance as “resisting arrest,” a supposed offense that justifies the use of pain compliance and – in cases like that of Kelly Thomas –lethal force, if it is necessary to subdue the victim. In fact, most police who go “hands-on” with a victim will pre-emptively shout “Stop resisting!” even when no resistance is offered. Any incidental contact with the sanctified person of a police officer is treated as criminal battery or even aggravated assault.

Interestingly, this doesn’t appear to be the case in North Korea.

Last night (January 14), the PBS program Frontline aired a documentary entitled The Secret State of North Korea that drew heavily from footage collected by a group of underground videographers. Among the scenes captured in that documentary are two encounters between women and soldiers acting as police officers. (The Communist government in North Korea, unlike the proto-totalitarian US regime, doesn’t cling to the fiction that the military and police are separate entities.)

In the first confrontation, a woman running a private bus service is accosted by a soldier who attempts to issue a citation. She is angrily and openly defiant of the uniformed bully’s “authority”; at one point, she actually shoves him several times and treats him to a well-earned outpouring of verbal abuse before turning back to her work. The second incident involved a woman who refused to accept a citation for wearing pants in defiance of a mandatory dress code.

If these incidents had occurred in the United States, the women would have been beaten, tasered, and — quite possibly — killed. The onlookers who had recorded the encounters on video would probably have been arrested for “obstruction,” and their cameras would have been confiscated on the scene.

“Often now when North Koreans are challenged for infringing a certain law, as long as the offense is not political, they won’t hesitate to protest if they believe the law to be irrational,” explains Jiro Isimaru, the Japanese journalist who organized the underground videographer network. This is in stark contrast with the common perception that North Koreans have been “brainwashed” into docile conformity and reflexive submission.

That isn’t true, apparently, of a growing segment of the population suffering under Communist rule in North Korea. It is emphatically true, tragically, of too many citizens of the purported Land of the Free.

Video: Obama's Top 10 Constitutional Violations of 2013

FIU law professor Elizabeth Price Foley on Fox News breaking down Obama's top Constitutional violations of 2013:

Federal Judge Rules NSA Surveillance Legal

NSA program a “counter-punch” to al-Qaeda

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
December 27, 2013

U.S. District Judge William Paley ruled today that the NSA’s rampant violations of the Fourth Amendment are legal.

He cited al-Qaeda and 9/11 when he dismissed a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the NSA’s surveillance program.

Paley said the NSA program “represents the government’s counter-punch” to al-Qaeda. Despite recent evidence to the contrary, Paley also said violating the rights of millions of Americans prevents terror attacks.

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Handling of Fukushima Cleanup is "Comedy of Errors" With Record Radiation

RT interview with Alex Kerr - an expert on Japan

Japan is breaking its own radioactive records - as huge amounts of beta-ray emitting substances have been discovered at another reactor at the crippled Fukushima power plant. 

Meanwhile the government says the decontamination work scheduled to be completed by March - may take another 3 years. 

Survival Kit Review: Guardian 72-Hour Emergency Survival Kit

The Guardian 72-hour Emergency Survival Kit from Survival-Center.com comes in a real nice backpack that is super sturdy, and a lot better quality than you would expect in a survival kit like this. 

Additionally, this kit has a date on it that shows when the survival kit was manufactured, so you know that you're not getting old product -- which is really important when you're shopping for a survival kit or bugout bag. 

It comes with a 65-piece First Aid Kit that is pretty comprehensive. It has a handy mess kit for eating, to make your life a little simpler.  The kit comes with three packages of tissue which is really important because toilet paper and tissue are real hard to out in the wild! 

It also comes a really neat camp stove which folds up, the pellets go inside of it. All you have to do is open it, turn it over, set a pellet inside, and light it, giving you instant heat and the ability to cook your meal. 

Guardian was also thoughtful enough to include a real nice stainless steel cup that fits on top this stove so that you can heat your food and have a place to decontaminate water. A metal cup is a real nice feature in a kit like this -- most manufacturers would have settled for cheaper plastic, but Guardian realized that it needs to be able to be used over an open flame. 

Guardian also has included a water bottle that comes with a filtration system -- they claim that it up filters out Giardia and Cryptosporidium.  It's a charcoal filter and their claim is that it filters up to 100 gallons of water which is really nice to have.

It comes with two mylar style space blankets to keep you warm. There are two in here the survival kit with a large surface area so you can probably keep four people warm with them.  

Additionally, you have the outdoor meal portion of it which is comprised of dehydrated food. There are 12 servings, and Guardian basically gives you the ability to cook the whole thing using the can. You simply pour the food inside the pot, put some filtered water in, and you've got an instant meal ready to go.

They include some waterproof survival matches, a deck of cards pass the time, a notebook and a pencil --  also included is a pair of work gloves. 

They've also have a handy flashlight crank gizmo and it does a number of things -- you crank it to give it power, and it claims to never require batteries. That gives you the ability to always have light, and it has a couple different settings to save power. 

It also has an integrated alarm, and am/fm radio. It's nice, and something you might not expect in a kit like this.

Lastly, they include this bag which says infectious waste biohazard. I think a tarp, or a poncho, might have been more useful than the bio hazard bags, but overall can't complain it's a really good and thorough, comprehensive kit made by Guardian.

Go here to grab your 72 Hour Emergency Kit from Gaurdian:

http://www.survival-center.com/Guardian-72-Hour-Survival-Kit-Backpack_p_929.html

FCC Begins Tracking 'Obama Phone' Use

William Bigelow
Breitbart
December 20, 2013

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has finally started to crack down on waste and fraud in its phone subsidy program for the poor by compiling a database of subscribers.

The $1.85 billion program, called Lifeline, and popularly referred to as the “Obama Phone” program after a viral video of a woman saying she would vote for President Obama because he gave her a free phone, was started in 1984 so that the poor could communicate with families, emergency services, and jobs. The program, which pays for their phone service but not the phones, has been funded by charges on the monthly bills of every landline and wireless-phone customer.

Some of the companies receiving funding through Lifeline offer free phones to subscribers. As of early 2013, Lifeline paid carriers $9.25 per subscriber per month for free or discounted wireless service.

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7 "Survival" Items You Should NEVER Travel Without

I often travel around the United States, both to speak and to do research on topics that are important to us as preppers. Invariably, I will occasionally travel by air, and while my preference is to drive, there are some distances in which driving just doesn’t make a lot of sense. 

At the end of the day, I don’t like flying mainly because many of the tools I would like to have with me aboard an aircraft are simply too large to bring, impractical, or illegal. Most of what I carry inside my bugout bag wouldn’t make it past your average TSA screener, anyways.

When I arrive at my destination, I’ll usually rent a car, and as a prepper, this presents somewhat of a problem. First, I have to rely on the maintenance done by the rental car company, rather than my own two eyes like on my vehicle at home. 

Second, a Chevy Impala or Malibu, or even Ford Taurus isn’t really what I’d term a “bug out vehicle”. 

Unfortunately, sometimes travel is necessary, so we have to make due with what we have. I don’t want to get so fixated on survival that I don’t enjoy this great country of ours by not seeing it all.

I do, however, like to bring a few items with me for use inside the vehicle. It’s not really a car bugout kit; I couldn’t realistically bring all the items with me that would be in my car bugout kit at home – items such as jumper cables, extra food, and tow straps just don’t get packed in my luggage. 

Just because I don’t bring a full on bug out bag with me on the plane, doesn’t mean I am not prepared, however. Without fail, I always find myself bringing the same few items with me wherever I go, and they make a lot of sense to have with you. 

Here is what I pack:

• A Good Multitool : Notice I said a good multitool. Something like a Leatherman or Gerber that has the usual million functions. If it has a knife, it will need to go in your checked luggage, but I would rather bring a full featured multitool in my check luggage than a TSA compliant one in my carry on. The reason why is simple – it’s not for use on the plane – it’s for use in the car and general area where I will be staying.
• Paper maps of the area I am visiting: I love tech, don’t get me wrong. I have digital maps of the area I will travel to both on my phone and tablet, but paper maps have never failed me yet. They fold flat, take up little space inside your suitcase, and they never need batteries.
• A powerful yet small flashlight: I like the Fenix PD22 – it cranks out almost 200 lumens and is about the size of a roll of Lifesavers. Make sure and pack extra batteries!
• A mylar emergency blanket: Sometimes called a space blanket, these look like a giant piece of tin foil when unfolded. They can retain up to 90% of your body heat, meaning if your rental breaks down, you can avoid freezing to death. Oh, and they fold flat in a package about the size of your average cell phone.
• A real knife: You can’t bring knives on planes, so I don’t even try. I do, however, like to have a full-size folding pocket knife, preferably with glass breaker tip and seatbelt cutter in my checked luggage. Invaluable in countless situations.
• Paracord: On average, I carry about thirty to fifty feet of Paracord rolled up in my luggage. It doesn’t take up much space and is great for all sorts of improvised uses.
• A tourniquet: I carry an Army style CAT tourniquet with me. If I’m out and about in a area that’s new to me, I don’t want to bleed out after an accident because I don’t know where the local hospital is. A tourniquet buys me a little time should I get injured.

Lastly, after I pick up the rental, I try and hit a local convenience store and pick up a couple of energy bars and at least two gallon jugs of water to throw in the back. 

There’s no point in driving around a new area without at least a little food and a couple days worth of water in the rental. Sure, traveling puts you at somewhat of a tactical disadvantage, but you can still carry a few items with you that will ensure you are prepared.