(NaturalNews) Earlier in the week, a tipster brought to my attention that an article I wrote reviewing a natural toothpaste product had been ripped off and pasted on some sort of Nazi website (without my permission or knowledge, of course).
“I guess Nazis want healthy teeth, too!” they told me.
This was all happening while Angelina Jolie was breaking the news about the surgical removal of her breastseven though she has no breast cancer. The mere presence of the BRCA1 gene in her body, she explained, caused her to cut off her body parts as a bizarre form of disease “prevention.”
My how the world has changed, hasn’t it? Because I remember a time when Nazis were cutting off body parts and women wanted healthy teeth.
Society has flipped upside-down
I remember a time when journalism meant asking questions instead of following orders.
I remember a time when whistleblowers who exposed corruption were celebrated rather than arrested.
I remember a time when police assisted people in wheelchairs instead of tasing them.
I remember a time when non-profits that taught the Constitution were celebrated by the community rather than investigated by the IRS.
I remember a time when someone having “friends” meant real people in the real world, not virtual people on Facebook.
I remember a time when food was grown by farmers using seeds, not “mass produced” by “agri-giants” using GMOs.
I remember a time when heroes were men who charged enemy machine gun nests on remote Pacific islands and took out enemy soldiers with bayonets. Now “heroes” are just overpaid professional sports players who announce they’re gay.
I remember a time when the water that came out of your tap wasn’t poisoned with fluoride, laced with pharmaceuticals or contaminated with explosive gasses from fracking.
I remember a time when the word “terrorist” meant someone who hated America, not someone who loves the Constitution.
I remember a time when government food stamps were handed out to Americans, not illegal immigrants.
Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I remember a time when most people actually believed in individual liberty and responsibility, not collectivist government “taking care of them.”
Society has flipped and is upside down. Maybe it’s time we flipped it right side up!
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about making more and more of my own supplies. While I’ve made things like toothpaste, deodorant, laundry detergent, and a few other cleaning products in the past, I’ve been contemplating going “all in” if you will, and attempting to make as much as I can. My reasoning is for cost savings, healthier products, and maybe just because I can.
The question here today is: does this make sense from a preparedness stand point? As an example, should I be stockpiling a year or two worth soap or the ingredients to make the soap? And, of course, all of the other supplies we might use such as toothpaste, lotion, deodorant, cleaning products, and so on.
I would imagine the obvious and immediate answer is “yes” because being able to make your own supplies means less and less dependence on others… and I would tend to agree with that assessment. The problem, however, is the fact that you would then need to make your own supplies. And, in an emergency scenario, the last thing you need to be doing is spending time making deodorant.
So, here’s how I see it…
Advantages and disadvantages of stockpiling supplies
Everything you would need to rely on is already on hand and ready to use, which is a huge benefit when you’re already stressed and likely very busy doing other things such as pulling guard duty, tending the garden, chopping wood, and who knows what else needs to be done. But, this also means a finite amount of whatever we’re talking about. That is, if you only have ten bars of soap on hand to see you through the next year or two then that’s what you’ve got and then you’re in the same boat as everyone else. But, like I said, you don’t have any work to do here.
The disadvantages would be that you (1) have no ability to make more of what you need and (2) probably have no knowledge of how to make supplies. For example, if you know that you can make toothpaste using baking soda as a primary ingredient and you can get your hands on a bag of it but not toothpaste, then you’ll understand that it’s worth your time and effort to procure the bag of baking soda. Make sense?
Advantages and disadvantages of stockpiling ingredients
Here you have the supplies to make what you need. There’s no wondering if you’ll have more soap since you’ll have the base ingredients to make it. Of course, it’s expected that you’ll have a finite amount of base ingredients too (just as if you were stockpiling supplies) but the assumption is that you’ll be able to stock more of the base ingredients (at less cost) so that you can then make more supplies. Another benefit is that oftentimes base ingredients are used in a variety of recipes so you can make many supplies from just a handful of base ingredients (e.g., baking soda, vinegar, etc).
The disadvantages are that you would need to make supplies as needed. Obviously, you’re not going to make a single bar of soap at a time but I doubt you’re going to make enough for a year or two at a time, so there is the need to do the work. And, when multiplied by the many hygiene and cleaning needs that a typical household needs over the course of a year, the work needed to make supplies from scratch will become serious work.
There is some common ground
Certainly, I’m presenting you with an “either/or” situation. In reality, it makes sense that you’re not going to be presented with one option or the other. In fact, it makes sense that you can and should do both. If you have both the supplies you need to see you through a year, for example, and the base ingredients to make more of what you need then you’re in the best position possible to see you and your family through hard times. That, in my opinion, is the best strategy of all.
A developing storm in the northern Plains, which will generate multiple rounds of severe weather this weekend, will also produce widespread heavy rain from the Dakotas through Minnesota.
AccuWeather.com meteorologists are forecasting a widespread 2-4 inches of rainfall through Monday from Bismarck, N.D., to Pierre, S.D., Fargo, N.D., and Duluth, Minn.
This bull’s-eye of heavy rain will be in the worst possible location, right along the Red River of the North and across its tributaries.
Flood watches have already been posted for the Red River at Fargo along with the Buffalo River and the Wild Rice River in Minnesota. For the latest updated watches and warnings, click over to the AccuWeather.com Severe Weather Center.
According to the National Weather Service in Fargo, N.D., the Red River at Fargo is forecast to rise above flood stage by Sunday afternoon before peaking about 3 feet above flood stage during the middle of the week.
The above graphic shows the forecasted rise in the water level on the Red River at Fargo into next week. The graphic is courtesy of the National Weather Service in Fargo.
Of course, that estimate can change based on where the heaviest rain falls and subsequent events to follow.
It will take longer for the level to rise at the Red River near Grand Forks, N.D. Forecasts are for the river to reach flood stage by sometime on Friday.
The heaviest rain is expected to fall late Saturday night through much of the day Sunday. Embedded thunderstorms can lead to rainfall rates of 1-2 inches per hour at times, also creating a threat for flash flooding.
Residents living in the Dakotas or in the vicinity of the Red River of the North should take the proper precautions to guard against another round of flooding.
Keep checking back with AccuWeather.com over the upcoming days as we monitor the flood threat returning to the northern Plains. Rainfall will continue into the day Monday and linger into Tuesday as the aforementioned storm stalls across the area.
Residents are urged to keep up to date on the latest watches and warnings as they are issued. For the latest updated watches and warnings, click over to the AccuWeather.com Severe Weather Center.
The Patriot Nurse explains some good practices to follow to help minimize the spread of infections. Though, titled as for the “bug out” location I would say this is great for anyone, anywhere…
Smoke from agricultural fires in the Yucatan Peninsula will affect parts of Texas and Louisiana over the weekend.
Low-level winds will blow smoke from these fires across the Gulf of Mexico to the Texas coastline and southwestern Louisiana.
Smoke from these fires will also affect the eastern Coast of Mexico.
Low-level winds are expected to continue blowing in the same direction over the next few days, resulting in smoky conditions in these areas heading into next week.
According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, smoke from agricultural burning in Mexico and Central America will likely raise the daily air quality index to “Moderate” south and east of a line from Sanderson to Vernon.
This area includes Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin and Fort Worth; the top five populated cities in Texas.
Smoke is also expected to make its way into southwestern Louisiana, which could also raise air quality indexes for parts of the state.
Those sensitive to ozone and other airborne pollutants should exercise caution in these areas.
Conditions are expected to remain hot and dry across the Yucatan Peninsula over the next several days. This will allow farmers to continue to burn their fields and crops.
Story by AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Brian Lada, with contributions by Rob Miller.
Two disturbing developments have occurred in the last couple of days that have gone relatively unnoticed compared to the recent IRS, AP, and Benghazi scandals.
First, the senate is debating an expansion of the already broad powers of the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) so the U.S. can essentially engage any area in the world in the war on terror, including America. Which brings us to the second development: the Pentagon has recently granted itself police powers on American soil.
Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Sheehan told Congress yesterday that the AUMF authorized the US military to operate on a worldwide battlefield from Boston to Pakistan. Sheehan emphasized that the Administration is authorized to put boots on the ground wherever the enemy chooses to base themselves, essentially ignoring the declaration of war clause in the US Constitution.
Senator Angus King said this interpretation of the AUMF is a “nullity” to the Constitution because it ignores Congress’ role to declare war. King called it the “most astoundingly disturbing hearing” he’s been to in the Senate.
Even ultra-hawk John McCain agreed that the AUMF has gone way beyond its authority.
“This authority … has grown way out of proportion and is no longer applicable to the conditions that prevailed, that motivated the United States Congress to pass the authorization for the use of military force that we did in 2001,” McCain said.
Glenn Greenwald wrote an excellent piece describing how this hearing reveals the not-so-secret plan to make the war on terror a permanent fixture in Western society.
It is hard to resist the conclusion that this war has no purpose other than its own eternal perpetuation. This war is not a means to any end but rather is the end in itself. Not only is it the end itself, but it is also its own fuel: it is precisely this endless war – justified in the name of stopping the threat of terrorism – that is the single greatest cause of that threat.
A self-perpetuating permanent war against a shadowy undefinable enemy appears to be the future of American foreign policy. How convenient for the war machine and tyrants who claim surveillance is safety.
But perhaps most disturbing of all of this is the military’s authority to police American streets as if it was in civil war. For all those still in denial that America is a militarized police state, this should be the ultimate cure to your delusion.
By making a few subtle changes to a regulation in the U.S. Code titled “Defense Support of Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies” the military has quietly granted itself the ability to police the streets without obtaining prior local or state consent, upending a precedent that has been in place for more than two centuries.
The most objectionable aspect of the regulatory change is the inclusion of vague language that permits military intervention in the event of “civil disturbances.” According to the rule: “Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances.”
A law from 1878 called the Posse Comitatus Act was put in place to prevent the Department of Defense from interfering with local law enforcement. But now, the DoD claims they’ve had this authority for over 100 years.
“The authorization has been around over 100 years; it’s not a new authority. It’s been there but it hasn’t been exercised. This is a carryover of domestic policy,” said an unnamed defense official who also emphasized that all soldiers take an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies “foreign and domestic” indicating that citizens are a threat to the Constitution.
Yet, the Constitution is a document that polices the government, not the people. In other words, the only people who can be “enemies” of the Constitution are those who took an oath to defend it. Therefore, only government officials can be an enemy the Constitution.
This follows a recent West Point study that sought to define the American people as “domestic enemies” in order to justify soldiers breaking their oath to corral pesky citizens.
The West Point Terrorism Center wrote that “conspiracy theorists” who worry that local law enforcement will be steadily replaced by federally-controlled law enforcement could potentially be a domestic enemy:
Some groups are driven by a strong conviction that the American political system and its proxies were hijacked by external forces interested in promoting a “New World Order,” (NWO) in which the United States will be embedded in the UN or another version of global government. The NWO will be advanced, they believe, via steady transition of powers from local to federal law-enforcement agencies, i.e., the transformation of local police and law-enforcement agencies into a federally controlled “National Police” agency that will in turn merge with a “Multi-National Peace Keeping Force.” The latter deployment on US soil will be justified via a domestic campaign implemented by interested parties that will emphasize American society’s deficiencies and US government incompetency.
So, as the US military claims to have the authority to be a “National Police” force, researchers who claim there is an agenda to do just that are now labeled as domestic terrorists?
Does this make any sense? Will oath takers see through these ridiculous interpretations and engage the real domestic enemy to the Constitution? Or will they just follow orders when the time comes to crack down on Americans?
The threat for severe weather will continue this weekend. This next round of severe weather comes in the wake of storms on Friday which produced at least 10 tornadoes in the Plains.
With multiple systems at work across the country, many areas will be seeing showers and thunderstorms into Saturday night. However, some areas, highlighted here, will be the most at risk for severe weather.
A low pressure system emerging from the northern Rockies will create the potential for severe weather in the northern Plains.
Thunderstorms will develop from South Dakota to Texas Saturday afternoon and will continue into Saturday night as the area of low pressure strengthens over the Plains.
Some of the cities in this threat include Rapid City and Sioux Falls, S.D.; North Platte and Omaha, Neb.; Wichita, Kan. and Oklahoma City, Okla.
Thunderstorms that develop in this area will be capable of producing large, damaging hail, destructive wind gusts and even a few tornadoes.
Heavy downpours from these storms can lead to localized flash flooding, especially in low-lying areas and areas with poor drainage. Though heavy rains expected across the Dakotas will lead to a renewed flood threat for the Red River and its tributaries.
Tornadoes may develop in some severe storms with the greatest threat of tornado development occurring in the evening hours. The zone with the greatest tornado threat lies from western Nebraska through western Kansas and northwest Oklahoma. That area includes the cities of North Platte, Neb, Hays, Kan., and Woodward, Okla.
The threat of severe weather will expand across the Plains on Sunday as the area of low pressure continues to develop.
Texas
Many areas will be partly sunny across northern Texas on Saturday, allowing for extreme heat to hit the area. Some high temperatures could be knocking on the doorstep of all-time records, including the city of Wichita Falls.
However, this extreme heating through the day will help to fuel the development of some thunderstorms in the afternoon as a low pressure develops in northern Texas.
These thunderstorms will be quite isolated, but the conditions will be favorable for those few storms to develop into a strong or severe storm.
The main threats with these storms will likely be large-sized hail and possibly damaging wind gusts.
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