Free Republic

London, England-In yet another outrageous piece of social engineering from our coalition government, pensioners will be encouraged to downsize to smaller properties allowing local councils to rent their homes out as council houses and manage the tenancy. Local authorities will ‘help’ older people move from their homes into ‘more suitable accommodation’. Grant Schapps, the Housing Minister, who is a conservative member of parliament claims the scheme will solve a so-called ‘housing crisis’ as well as creating a system that will ‘permit access to various sources of wealth’ that are currently not being used to pay for care. Read that as...

FORT LAUDERDALE— Tania Ouaknine is convinced the police are watching her. She's not paranoid — it says as much on the red sign painted along the side on the hulking armored truck that's been parked in front of her eight-room Parisian Motel for several days. "Warning: You are under video surveillance," reads the bold message on the side of the truck. From the front bumper of the menacing vehicle, another sign taunts: "Whatcha gonna do when we come for you?"

The Federal Criminal Appeals blog reports on a decision from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding when the government can use drug possession as an excuse to deny weapons-possession rights. In short, it can't just assert that there is a good reason to bar drug users from guns: it has to try to prove it. But the Court also seems to think such proof won't be too hard. Let's take a walk through the decision to see what happened and why the Fourth Circuit decided as it did: Following a police search that uncovered marijuana and firearms in Benjamin...

Are George Soros, The IMF And The World Bank Purposely Trying To Scare The Living Daylights Out Of Us? Michael SnyderJanuary 25, 2012 Over the past couple of weeks, George Soros, the IMF and the World Bank have all issued incredibly chilling warnings about the possibility of an impending economic collapse. Considering the power and the influence that Soros, the IMF and the World Bank all have over the global financial system, this is very alarming. So are they purposely trying to scare the living daylights out of us? Soros is even warning of riots in the streets of America....

DeKalb County, GA - On Tuesday night, a DeKalb County police officer went to a family's home on Silva Court in response to a domestic dispute call. When the officer went into the family's garage, he encountered a German shepherd who was on a chain. Upon seeing a stranger approach, the German shepherd lunged - the officer's response was to shoot and kill the dog. Tragically, after the damage was done, it was discovered that the responding police officer had actually gone to the wrong house. Right now, the officer is not facing any charges - there will be an...

Doctor Doom Warns: “World War III Will Occur In the Next Five Years” January 17th, 2012 Well known economist, trend forecaster and Gloom, Boom and Doom Report publisher Dr. Marc Faber joined some of the world’s leading investment minds at the Barron’s 2012 Roundtable to discuss what’s in store for 2012 and beyond with respect to the economy, inflation, political stability and a host of other issues. As is generally the case, Dr. Faber doesn’t mince words and warns that, despite what happens in the near term, the end game is global conflict. Excerpted from Barron’s 2012 Roundtable via SGT...

I am trying to work and listen at the same time, but is anybody else hearing this?? Obama is asking Congress to reinstate his Executive authority to streamline six agencies into one, so he could "help businesses grow, save businesses time, save businesses money." He's making it sound like the best thing since sliced bread. News media is eating it up. "Reform and remake our government so that it works. This should not be a partisan issue."

Writing back in 2007, Naomi Wolfe catalogued the steps to creating a dictatorship (which she sought to apply to George W. Bush). Interestingly enough, they apply far more to the man who replaced him. Wolfe's steps include: 1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy Isn't that precisely what Occupy Wall Street has done with the banks and businesses? OWS has ties to Obama's friends in ACORN, as well as to SEIU. Isn't that what was done with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his attempts to save that state from bankruptcy? Isn't that what the EPA is doing with its...

Either Monday or Tuesday the Senate will vote on a bill that allows the US military to imprison civilians with no formal charges and hold them with no trial. The ACLU reports even US citizens wouldn't be immune as the legislation aims to declare national territory part of the "battlefield" in the War on Terror. Termed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and drafted behind closed doors by Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) the NDAA would: 1) Explicitly authorize the federal government to indefinitely imprison without charge or trial American citizens and others picked up inside and...

With police clearing out many of the "Occupy" encampments, one might think that the Obama-approved protests will be over soon. However, at the national convention of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) last weekend, there was talk of how the protests will eventually expand and "take indoor spaces" such as city halls and state capitols, in order to "unite" with "mass movements against state and local budget cuts and in defense of public sector unions." DSA members across the U.S. have been actively participating in the Occupy movement. Such a strategy would put police officers, many of them members of...

Angry 'Occupy' Protesters Plan to Take It to the Streets, as Some Threaten ViolencePublished November 16, 2011 | Associated Press NEW YORK – Organizers of protests and marches Thursday in New York City for the two-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement are calling for non-violent demonstrations, but that hasn't stopped some protesters from demanding a fiery confrontation with authorities. "On the 17th, we’re going to burn New York City to the ground," one protester can be heard saying in video recorded after the protesters' home base, Zuccotti Park, was cleared Tuesday. “No more talking. They’ve got guns, we’ve...

David Codrea published an article today about an interesting letter one law abiding silencer owner received from the ATF. The silencer owner in question owns an AWC .22lr silencer that uses a material made of tangled copper ropes to slow down the expanding gasses, a material not unlike the common Brillo pad or Chore Boy Pot Scrubber. He wanted to know whether it would be legal to replace the worn out material in his legally owned silencer with some pot scrubber material, an act which seems pretty innocuous to the impartial observer. The ATF, on the other hand… From the...

(VIDEO AT LINK) OAKLAND, Calif. - A protest that shut down the Port of Oakland to show the broadening reach of the Occupy Wall Street movement ended in violence when police in riot gear arrested dozens of protesters overnight who broke into a vacant building, shattered downtown windows, sprayed graffiti and set blazes along the way. --snip-- Protesters also threw concrete chunks, metal pipes, lit roman candles and molotov cocktails, police said....

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are under increasing attack for egging on the burgeoning Occupy Wall Street protest that has spread to cities across the country. Senior Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said he believes comments Obama made about “running Republicans out of town” could end up turning the protests ugly. “We are going to have riots in this country because of what these people are doing," he warned. Hatch said Obama’s words coupled with by Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa’s Labor Day speech in which he called tea party members “sons of bitches” who should be “taken...

Barack Obama seen nodding in approval. FRANCES FOX PIVEN: “I teach at the Graduate School of the City University of New York. I am here because I am so enthusiastic about the possibilities of this sit-in, over the marches that are occurring over postal worker issues, the sister demonstrations that are starting in Chicago and Los Angeles, and maybe in Boston. I think we desperately need a popular uprising in the United States. None of us know. I study movements. None of us know the exact formula for when those movements erupt, but it could be. And if that is...

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg stated that he’s worried that American young people will begin to riot in our streets because of their unemployment. While the mayor and I disagree on most things, he might be onto to something here. I recently opined that I couldn’t figure out why America’s young people were not already rioting because of the stacks of debt being foisted on their backs by a government that would rather borrow and spend than live within its means. Young people are starting to figure out that our president conned them in the last election, claiming...

Conservative media provocateur Andrew Breitbart, speaking to a Tea Party crowd of over 60 people in Lexington, Ma. on Friday, got a little bit carried away with his own patter. He told the crowd that he sometimes thinks to himself, “Fire the first shot” in a hypothetical civil war with liberals, explaining that “We outnumber them in this country, and we have the guns.” Although Brietbart told the crowd “I’m not kidding,” in response to their laughter, he probably was kidding, and probably shouldn’t have been. Speaking to the $45 a head crowd at the presumptuously named “The Ampitheater” in...

This from the scribe who's devoted an inordinate amount of time over the last three years to indulging a bizarre conspiratorial obsession with Sarah Palin's uterus. His new admonition: Be careful what you wish for, wingnuts -- an Obama loss in 2012 could trigger a neo Civil War. Scary, right? We'll tackle this conclusion in a moment, but first, Sully sets the table with some (now familiar) anti-religious sociological psychobabble: "...The GOP, deep down, is behaving as a religious movement, not as a political party, and a radical religious movement at that. Lofgren sees the "Prosperity Gospel" as a divine...

A new war that threatens to unravel American society may be brewing. The war has already been openly and publicly declared. Not by a foreign enemy or even a terrorist organization, but by members of the United States Congress. By union leaders. And by the vice president of the United States. Even while successfully implementing the most radical leftist agenda this country has ever known, Barack Obama, the Messiah of the radical, socialist left, has taken some big body blows. Frustrated, disillusioned, and angry, the liberal wing of the Democratic party is becoming unhinged day by day as they witness...

You should let the video footage of the wild violence that just took place in London burn into your memory because the same things are going to be happening all over the United States as the economy continues to crumble. We have raised an entire generation of young people with an "entitlement mentality", but now the economy is producing very few good jobs that will actually enable our young people to work for what they feel they are entitled to. If you are under 30 in America today, things look really bleak. The vast majority of the good jobs...

“Chronic unemployment is spilling over into civil unrest…” But I don’t need to see the police blotter to understand the forces at work here. Chronic unemployment is spilling over into civil unrest, as idled workers team with those who are simply too lazy to work and act out in rage and anger against those they perceive as privileged. As this latest incident of social unraveling played out right here at my own doorstep, I found my attention very sharply refocused. When it happens in your own town, you realize that yes, the you-know-what has officially hit the fan! The need...

An American credit downgrade. Europe in turmoil. Israel menaced by an Iran with nuclear ambitions. Mexican drug cartels run amok. Chinese ghost cities. With each passing day the news gets worse. To my amateur historian's eye, we seem to be drowning under the greatest flood of crisis, both international and domestic, since the 1930s. We all know how that ended. Will it be possible, in terrible 2010s, to resolve the world's problems without war? I'm not so certain. About a decade ago, The National Review's John Derbyshire wrote that the odds of us, or our children, dying in a "genuine...

Is the US government starting to implement the policies of the United Nation’s plan for global management of people and resources known as Agenda 21? The latest efforts out of the Department of Transportation (DOT) seem to indicate this is happening. And they are starting by targeting America’s farming communities with costly and oppressive regulations. In Late May, the DOT proposed a rule change for farm equipment, and if it this allowed to take effect, it will place significant regulatory pressure on small farms and family farms all across America – costing them thousands of dollars and possibly forcing many...

What you would be looking at would be civil unrest in most mayor US cities and thousands of minor ones as well. Once the images of people looting and getting away with it hit the TV you’re looking at thousands of bums thinking of doing the same thing and rushing out the door to the nearest store. That gets bad pretty fast. You’re talking about looting, fires, closed stores, destruction of vehicles and private property, and given US context some gang related activity taking advantage of the lawless situation as well to settle scores. While invasion of residential properties wont...

In his latest quarterly Trends Journal (Summer 2011), Gerald Celente provides us another “history of the future,” in which he discusses global economic, monetary, and political events as they happen and what their consequences will be for months, years and decades to come. As he has said before, it is only a matter of time before a major terror attack is executed in a major Western nation. And once it happens it will send shock waves throughout the world, leading to mass global panic and a further tightening of the noose around the necks of the populace: What will another...

FYI: I came across these videos this morning made by The Patriot Nurse. I'm not sure if they've been posted to FR before, but I did look through the archives as best I could. I've watched a couple of them. There are a few on You Tube made by this woman. Just passing along for those interested. I think she gives some good ideas. See links below for some of her videos--they'll link you to her other videos as well.

Gun owner registration … bans on semi-automatic firearms … adoption of a UN gun control treaty -- all of these issues could very well be decided over the next 24 hours. Both houses of Congress will be voting on a debt ceiling bill that establishes a legislative committee with TREMENDOUS powers. Fox News is calling this committee a SUPER CONGRESS, because its legislative proposals (which could include gun control provisions) CANNOT be filibustered or amended in the Senate or House. To understand what a huge deal this is, consider that House Speaker John Boehner is able to keep a mountain...

"Thrown under the bus" has been a singularly American cri de Coeur in these opening years of the third millennium. Why? A Second American Civil War of some sort has been brewing for 38 years. An inner raging conflict has evolved ever since the American Supreme Court repeated its chronically suicidal mistake of the Dred Scott decision. That body of "enlightened despots" passed the Roe v Wade decision. Have they forgotten that the Dred Scott legalization of slavery in 1857 quickly hastened the arrival of the American Civil War? Slavery had existed in the United States since its creation. Slavery...

The ATF’s website has an FAQ section. First up: “I want information on relief of federal firearm disability? (I am a felon but want to own a firearm, how do I get my privilege restored?)” According to dictionary.com, a “privilege” is “a right, immunity or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most: the privileges of the very rich.” It behooves the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to remember that all Americans have the RIGHT to bear arms. And once again, I state my firmly held conviction that ANY American who has paid his or...

As federal criminal statutes have ballooned, it has become increasingly easy for Americans to end up on the wrong side of the law. Many of the new federal laws also set a lower bar for conviction than in the past: Prosecutors don't necessarily need to show that the defendant had criminal intent.

The Norwegian police on Saturday charged a 32-year-old man, whom they identified as a Christian fundamentalist with right-wing connections, over the bombing of a government center here and a shooting attack on a nearby island that together left at least 91 people dead. Multimedia Graphic Scenes of the Attacks in Norway TimesCast | Explosions in Norway Photographs Under Attack in Norway Related The Lede Blog: Video and Updates on Attacks in Norway (July 22, 2011) Enlarge This Image SCANPIX, via Associated Press Deadly explosions shattered windows on Friday at the government headquarters in Oslo, which includes the prime minister’s office....

That giant whooshing, and humming, sound you hear are all the printers at the basement of Marriner Eccles getting refills and start the warm up process. Because according to the Fed Charles Plosser the Federal Reserve is actively preparing for the possibility that the United States could default. Which can only mean one thing: an immediate paradrop of millions of $100 bricks to every man woman and child in the US since as we all know by know Tim Geithner has repeatedly confirmed the Treasury has absolutely no default plans. None.

The American people are broke. When 25% of the people have no income coming in and prices for basic goods continue to rise, there will be no upward movement in the economy. Consumers cannot spend, because they have nothing left – their incomes have been eliminated and so too has their credit. The only hope for growth is more easing by the Fed and more stimulus from Congress, but even that is masking the problem. We may see positive GDP growth as a result, as we have “officially” seen in recent quarters, but this is strictly a mathematical result of...

It Has Started: Wall Street Is Preparing For A Doomsday Scenario Katya Wachtel Jul. 21, 2011, 9:15 AM If you're simply looking at their public statements, Wall Streeters seem to be alarmed about the debt crisis, but don't appear to be sliding into panic mode. In fact, they're just really good actors. Across the financial sector, many are preparing for a debt doomsday scenario, in which the U.S does in fact default, the New York Times reports. Firms are "taking steps to reduce the risk of holding Treasury bonds or angling for ways to make profits from any possible upheaval."...

If you're simply looking at their public statements, Wall Streeters seem to be alarmed about the debt crisis, but don't appear to be sliding into panic mode. In fact, they're just really good actors. Across the financial sector, many are preparing for a debt doomsday scenario, in which the U.S does in fact default, the New York Times reports. Firms are "taking steps to reduce the risk of holding Treasury bonds or angling for ways to make profits from any possible upheaval." It's clear hedge funds have changed gears and many are in heavy de-risking mode, with billion dollar firms...

The Real Reason Hitting The Debt Limit May Mean Social Security Checks Stop July 14th, 2011By Aaron Krowne Founder, ML-Implode.com It’s crunch time, and now we’re hearing as part of the hyper-political debt ceiling debate that that Social Security checks may stop. But interestingly, we’re not just hearing that from Congressional Republicans: Obama has raised that spectre as well. Many left-leaning critics are shocked, believing Social Security to be… well… secure, and are incensed that Obama would be willing to slaughter this sacred cow. After all, if in the case of default, the government can prioritize payments to various areas,...

Leading Trend Forecaster: We Are Not Entering a New Recession Mac Slavo July 14th, 2011 Trend forecaster Gerald Celente, of the Trends Research Institute, in his latest Trend Alert to subscribers, says that media presstitutes continue to sell Americans and the rest of the world the big lie of recovery. It’s nothing more than a cover-up. We never exited the recession that started in 2008.For the second consecutive month, employers added scarcely any jobs in June, startling evidence that the economic recovery is stumbling … The government also revised downward the small gain for the previous month to 25,000 new...

All over America, restlessness and frustration are growing. It has now been almost three years since the great financial crash of 2008, and yet the U.S. economy is still a complete and total mess. In fact, there are all sorts of signs that things are about to get even worse, and the American people are just about fed up. Virtually every major poll, survey and measure of consumer confidence shows that the American people are becoming more pessimistic about the economy. Millions of hard working Americans that worked their fingers to the bone for their employers and that did everything...

I would like to thank my neighbors and friends for participating in our annual emergency preparedness meeting. Your comments and contributions were what made the meeting great. Hopefully we all left with a desire to be better prepared so our family and loved ones are well taken care of in the event of...

Even if you are fortunate enough to have a retreat out in the country getting to your safe haven maybe impossible during upheaval. Roads blocked by wrecked and fuelless vehicles will stop most bugouters in their tracks. Maybe you were born lucky and can make it out safely before the balloon bursts, then what? People in rural areas, will start shooting if threatened by mobs of refugees fleeing the city. Don’t expect to be welcomed with arms outstretched. Most country folks don’t trust outsiders; you will likely be greeted with a load of buckshot and not the cup of fresh...

The Economic Collapse blog reports that Robert Kiyosaki is warning of an impending economic collapse—and advises on preparations that include buying guns. By way of credentials, Kiyosaki is the author of the successful “Rich Dad Poor Dad” books, reportedly having sold over 26 million copies, and runs the Rich Dad financial education website. He co-authored “Why We Want You to be Rich” with Donald Trump. The Economic Collapse lists 11 “sound bites” from a Kiyosaki video (see sidebar media player) that include predictions of collapse where supermarket food supplies are reduced to less than three days—presumably with no restocking in...

U.S. federal debt could potentially be downgraded to junk status by 2030 if the government does not significantly reform entitlement spending, according to a study by Standard & Poor’s, one of the three Wall Street credit ratings agencies. The S&P study, which shows the effects of rising entitlement-driven federal debt on the federal budget and debt rating, indicates that if entitlement costs are not brought under control soon, America will see its coveted AAA debt rating evaporate. S&P said that the weight of retiring Baby Boomers would drive government debt to unsustainable levels, forcing the ratings agency to severely downgrade...

Liberal radio and TV host Thom Hartmann has been engaged in a bit of a feud with Glenn Beck’s The Blaze website over comments Hartmann made on his cable show The Big Picture. A few weeks ago, Hartmann suggested that President Obama retaliate against GOP opposition to raising the debt ceiling by having Tim Geithner cut funding to red states. The Blaze accused him of wanting to “starve people in red states.” Hartmann now notes that Fox News’ Brit Hume has taken notice of the possible strategy, and suggests taking a step that’ll really hurt Republicans: closing all those buildings...

We are either going into a Depression or Hyperinflation. The Dollar will be coming down and things will get tough. The Government is inflating the stock market along with the banks. The quiet before the storm. I feel it in my bones that we are on the brink of something big and bad. Get your S*#t together. The end of QE2, pushing the Debt Ceiling , Greece, Spain, Japan....all coming to a head. This scenario may begin this week considering the most recent report that the Greek military is threatening a military coup if parliment imposes more austerity measures. So...

Tonight, around 11 p.m., a group of at least 60-70 African American youth marched down one of the side streets (W. Thrush) to the 4 lane main drag (Sheridan). They were yelling threats to white residents. Things such as we need to kill alll the white people around here.

Double Red Alert Posted by Ann Barnhardt - June 24, AD 2011 9:01 AM MST Two HUGE intel leads in my email box this morning from way-back contacts that I've had for years, that are actually somewhat connected concepts. 1. File this one under "Now It All Makes Sense". A Missouri farming and ranching contact just got off a conference call wherein he was informed that the federal government is sending out letters to all of the flooded out farmers in the Missouri River flood plain and bottoms notifying them that the Army Corps of Engineers will offer to BUY...

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - All eight suspects are in custody after a brutal attack in Five Points early Monday morning which left the teenage victim in critical condition, according to Columbia police. Columbia Police Department spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons said most of the eight suspects are juveniles, and did not release the names of any of the suspects. Timmons said no charges have been filed so far, though possible charges could include assault and battery and strong-arm robbery.

There are many survival preparedness items that you can store now, and “forget” about, which you may need later during varying degrees of an emergency. The following are 55 suggested items that you can store and have ready.

Trend forecaster Gerald Celente of the Trends Journal advises subscribers of his quarterly newsletter that the collapse is on it’s way and will become apparent to the population of the entire world in short order. While pundits argue over whether or not a double dip recession is coming, many on the street have finally begun to realize that another recession is the least of our problems.