When The S*** Hits the Fan

Archives for May 16, 2016

Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Use #Facebook’s #Reactions Buttons

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(ANTIMEDIA) Belgian police are warning users not to use the Facebook Reactions feature to respond to posts if they want to protect their privacy. In February, the series of six emoticons, allowing users to express a range of emotions from anger to love, were added to the original thumbs-up option. They came in response to calls for a ‘Dislike’ button.

However, the new expressions are another big ‘like’ for Facebook and a ‘dislike’ for its users — according to Belgian police who claim the site is using them as a way to collect information on people to target advertising toward them. In a statement released on their official website on Wednesday, the Belgian force warned people to avoid using the series of emoticons if they want to preserve their privacy.

The statement on the police website reads, “The icons help not only express your feelings, they also help Facebook assess the effectiveness of the ads on your profile.” It adds, “One more reason not to click if you want to protect your privacy.”

The statement warns that users are simply a ‘product’ to Facebook, claiming their reactions to posts are helping the social networking giant build up a profile of them. As a result of the profiling, the site will target ads it thinks users will be more receptive to based on how they are reacting to specific posts at the time.

“By limiting the number of icons to six, Facebook is counting on you to express your thoughts more easily so that the algorithms that run in the background are more effective,” the police said. “By mouse clicks you can let them know what makes you happy.”

RELATED: Why Facebook Really Wants You to Use Its New Reaction Buttons

In short, the moment Facebook gauges that the user is in a good mood, it will cash in on that by showing them an ad.

It’s no secret Facebook’s growth is fuelled by advertising. In 2015, the company received 96.5% of its revenue from ads, which generated a staggering $17.08 billion in revenue. Just days after former Facebook employees accused the platform of censoring stories while pushing others, few will be surprised to learn the marketing champion has seized another opportunity to do what it does best — collect more information on its users.

This article (Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Use Facebook’s Reactions Buttons) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Michaela Whitton and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. Image credit: Droid Stuff. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org

From theantimedia.org Team

“This Is A Scary Time” – CEO Explains The Single Biggest Reason People Are Buying #Gold And #Silver

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gold-silver-fear

We can talk about technical charts, supply and demand fundamentals, and price manipulation, all of which point to significant increases in the value of gold and silver for the foreseeable future.

But according to Golden Arrow Resources CEO Joseph Grosso, who is credited with the discovery of the largest silver deposit in history, the single biggest reason that retail investors, institutional players and governments around the world are gobbling up physical precious metals, resource stocks and ETF’s at unprecedented levels is that they are scared to death of the state of the global economy and where it will go next.

Like an expecting father waiting for five years to see a baby being born, we are at the inception of a mining economy… There is a pause, a slight pause towards the U.S. dollar and that pause is allowing the oldest currency in the world, gold and silver [to rise] and that is now in favor.

…Because there is fear. When there is fear, that’s when gold does best. 

… Right now, this is a scary time… People want to hop out [of traditional assets] and find safety in precious metals. 

In the following interview with SGT Report the level-headed Grosso explains that there is still hope for America and the U.S. economy, but there will be a lot of pain before it gets better, the consequence of which is an environment that has historically boded well for precious metals as safe haven assets.


(Watch at Youtube)

SGT Report: There is a web bot project out there that mines the internet for data… and the data mined by the web bot project suggests that some time in the future, because of worldwide monetary chaos, we will eventually see silver return to a 10-to-1 or 8-to-1, with some of the indicators suggesting it could actually go to a 1-to-1 silver-to-gold ratio… Right now the silver-to-gold ratio is hovering somewhere around 70-to-1… And you know as well as anyone, because you mine the stuff, silver is found in the earth’s crust much closer to a 10-to-1 ratio…

Joe Grosso: What you’re saying is really what dreams are made of… I remember a time when silver was somewhere around 40-to-1 and then it gravitated to 80-to-1.

So I do feel that there is a catch up for silver to come into a more humane ratio between the two, but it is of course it is the biggest dream that we will have a ratio of 10-to-1… this would make the silver price worth about $130 per ounce [at current gold price].

We’d like to see a return in the next three to five years where a lot of mines had to shut down and they can re-open again. Unfortunately for some, they have been liquidating assets… and out of the spoils we are now looking at acquiring or merging ourselves.

…

Silver… we’re glad to be in silver because it has two uses. One, as a precious metal. And second, almost 50% of the silver produced in the world is used for industrial use.

As Joe Grosso notes, mining companies have been pummeled over the last five years, leaving many to be either completely liquidated, or pausing operations until such time that prices eventually rise as a result of either core supply and demand fundamentals, or outright panic buying during economic crisis.

But unlike most proponents of a rising silver price, Grosso brings a unique perspective to the conversation, because he doesn’t necessarily see Venezuela-style meltdown, hyperinflation and chaos coming to the United States:

I am firmly of the belief that Venezuela will not happen in America… I think the American people have been tried [historically]… It’s happened before and America came out of it… It will happen again and America will come out of it… It’s a tough time… The administration will be under a lot of pressure…

But you do have what it takes. You have a fully developed economy which has been going for years… The comparison is pale in my estimation… The United States is in a much better position to recover.

I think that America will come out of it. 

America is America.

… I really feel that we need to be grown up enough to know that in order to cure any illness, you need a bitter medicine. The more powerful the medicine, the quicker we will return to normality. 

And America, I feel, will know that. You have the intelligence to know that. Not everything is only up and up and up and up.

It needs to be dealt with, with stronger resolve. And I am sure your country will understand that the tough things that are to come is the medicine that is going to resolve the problem. 

But if you don’t take it, you don’t resolve it. 

The American people do, indeed, understand that the system is broken as evidenced by the rise of extremely popular anti-establishment political candidates on both sides of the aisle.

It appears that, at least on some level, the people are willing to take the medicine.

But whether the governing bodies dispense it is a whole nother matter.

Failure to do so, says Grasso, means that things will only get worse.

If and when things get worse, panicked and concerned citizens the world over will continue to shift capital into assets like gold and silver, which will be the only currencies left standing when it really hits the fan.

To learn more about Joe Grasso and his latest projects visit Golden Arrow Resources.

For more important news updates and interview like the one you just watched visit SGT Report.

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

#911: Man Plans ‘9/11 Redux to Prove Conspiracy Theories’ By Crashing Plane Into Old Building

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WTC-collapse

Depending upon how you look at it, the idea is either bold or insane.

But it is sure to draw plenty of attention.

An American expat living in Thailand is hoping to raise enough money to purchase an old jet and an old building in the countryside in effort to recreate the attacks of 9/11 on the Twin Towers.

Though he says he isn’t a conspiracy theorist, Paul Salo is hoping to use this ‘9/11 redux’ demonstration to lend credence to those who say the impact of a plane crash wasn’t enough to cause the collapses seen on September 11… or to disprove those ideas once and for all.

The Daily Mail reports:

An American expat who lives in Thailand is raising money to recreate the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in an effort to prove conspiracy theories right or wrong.

[…]

The American entrepreneur, who has lived in Asia since 1989, added that he thinks his reconstruction will find that there was ‘similar physics’ that caused the twin towers in New York to collapse.

In the video to promote the ‘reconstruction’ of the tragic day, Salo said: ‘If you doubt anything about 9/11 we want to blast this to smithereens or we want to prove you completely right.’

‘We’re going to purchase a 747 or equivalent aircraft that’s about to go out of service, we’re going to fill it full of jet fuel, we’re going to purchase a building that’s about to be torn down in the countryside … and we’re going to crash it at 500 miles per hour into that building,’ he says in the video.

‘If there’s just a smoking hole in the building and nothing happens, you pretty much know it was a hoax, right? Cause it’s obvious, right?

Here’s his video explaining the project:

Through a Facebook page titled ‘9/11 Redux,’ Paul Salo hopes to raise between $300,000 and $1.5 million through crowd funding in order to buy the used plane, the building and pay for the crew necessary to oversee the project and verify the specs and assess the ‘similar structure’ of the building he would use.

Crowfunding project: We will autopilot fly a fully loaded 767 or equivalent aircraft into the closest building we can find in structure to the WTC. A force for truth when there are no other options. The gov won’t do it. Companies won’t do it. Individuals can’t do it. We do it. Join us.

The entire event would be filmed from multiple angles, and the plane’s black box would provide data about what took place in the staged crash. With the aid of experts and building inspectors, he aims to make the event as similar as possible to the original… without, of course, any people in harm’s way.

Salo claims that he has been in early talks with the Thai military and that he isn’t pushing any one side of the contentious debate about what really happened on 9/11 that continues to stir controversy and deep-seated feelings about a government conspiracy.

Salo writes on Facebook: “We don’t have a fixed mindset: Open for any truth that will come through these activities.”

Those who have questioned the truth about 9/11 have pointed to statements by the engineers and architects of the actual World Trade Center who suggest that jet fuel could not have caused the collapse of the buiding’s heavily reinforced steel column structure.

Numerous groups, including Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, have challenged the official version of events and sought to disprove the government narrative.

Paul Salo, however, does not claim to be affiliated with any of these people… he just wants to stage the crash to add first hand example to the ongoing debate on all sides.

The technical differences between the enormous skyscrapers that once stood in lower Manhattan and the kind of old building that can be bought up may be significant, but there is no doubt that the gutsy crowdfunding project would be an interesting addition to the debate.

Do you think the experiment would offer proof?

Read more:

9/11: A Conspiracy Theory: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know In Under 5 Minutes

Proof: Secret Barometric Bomb Technologies, Nuclear Technologies, Used To Bring WTC Towers Down

9/11 Fourteen Years Later: Attack Was “Catalyst for Refugees Now Over-Running Europe”

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com

Create a #Collapse Supply List Based on the Things They Are Out of in #Venezuela

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Create a Collapse Supply List Based on the Things They Are Out of in Venezuela

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Sometimes a cautionary tale is more motivating than any amount of positive reinforcement every could be, and the horrifying reports from Venezuela are a perfect example. If you’re paying attention to the things they’ve run out of, you can put together a collapse supply list to see you through the crisis in the event of a breakdown in our own country. The time to prepare is now, well before the situation devolves to one that is similar.

Every day, there is more dire news out of Venezuela.  It’s so bad there that even the mainstream news can no longer ignore that the country is in the midst of an economic collapse. Thousands have turned to looting in order to feed their families. Even their soldiers have been stealing food. Long lines, empty stores, and hospitals without electricity are the norm instead of an unusual occurrence.

It wasn’t always like that. Life before Venezuela devolved into socialism looked a whole lot like our lives do today. In fact, as recently as the 1970s, Venezuela was one of the top 20 richest countries in the world.

So, today, our financial situation certainly looks far brighter than that of Venezuela, but according to a lot of experts, that is a glossy veneer over a crumbling foundation.  Obama calls it “peddling fiction” but the outlook here is not good. Financial statistics are massaged and many of them hidden to keep us in the dark. Jobs are nearly impossible to find, and heaven help you if you lose one.  The price of living is going up, but financial solvency is going down as personal debt outstrips the ability to pay it. Pension funds that people rely on are going bankrupt, one after another.

It really isn’t a question of if, but when.

Economic collapse starts out as “going through hard times.” It isn’t mobs on the streets or regression to Third World status initially. Before it ever gets to that, you have time to prepare. So let’s get started.

Pay Attention to What They’re Out of in Venezuela

The best way to make your supply list is to figure out what they’ve run out of in Venezuela.  Below, you can find a list of the things they do not have, along with suggestions for stocking up or educating yourself.

If we never have a problem in the United States, you can rest assured that none of these supplies are crazy things you’ll never use. Most are the most basic of necessities and you’ll find it’s very convenient to be able to “shop in your pantry” whenever you need something. As well, learning to be more self-reliant is a great way to save money, live simpler, and often be healthier than those who depend on the store to meet all their needs.

Food

The first thing we saw as Venezuela began going down was that the government cracked down on the ability to stock up on food.  They instituted a fingerprint registry for buying food, made prepping illegal, and began to dole out supplies. The government took over most of the stores, then forced farmers to hand over the majority of their crops at the price the government chose to pay. These crops were then marked up extravagantly and sold to people who suddenly found they could no longer afford to eat. Eventually, the government announced that the country was out of food and that if people wanted to eat, they’d better grow their own.

Supplies mentioned in articles that people have stolen and waited all day in line for are milk, bread, chicken, rice, and flour.

Here’s a list of food and related supplies you should stock up on.

  • Long-term emergency food buckets: I never used to stockpile these because most of them have horrible ingredients. However, Preppers Market products are non-GMO, have few additives, and even have gluten free buckets. They’re packed in square containers for easy stacking at the back of your closet, and each container is a month of food for one person. You can build up quite a stockpile this way that doesn’t take up a lot of space. As well, it’s packaged to last for up to 30 years, so you can get it and forget it. (ORDER HERE)
  • Build a pantry: Purchase things on sale to build your first line of defense against food instability. The pantry you build today can help you weather difficult times in the future. Stock up on shelf-stable versions of the things you generally consume in your family. You want to create at least a couple of months’ supply where you can supplement what you get at the store with what you have in your kitchen cupboards. Check out my book The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide to Whole Food on a  Half Price Budget for details on building your short-term supply. Be sure to focus on pantry staples (here’s a list) so that you can combine ingredients for delicious, from scratch meals.
  • Gardening Supplies: Once everyone wants them, the price will skyrocket. Stock up now on seeds, tools, compost bins, soil amendments, and testing kits.These books can help for those who want to start a small-scale homestead:

Also, check out this article: The Self-Reliance Manifesto: More Than 300 Resources to Guide You on the Path to Radical Freedom

  • Ways to Garden in an Apartment: I frequently suggest that people take more steps toward self-reliance and there are always folks who say, “That’s fine for you – you live in the country. I can’t grow food in an apartment.”  Well, you’d better figure out how to grow food in an apartment, because I can tell you quite clearly, President Maduro’s suggestion that people grow food didn’t have the caveat of “if it’s convenient and you live in the country.”  I understand that you can’t raise all of your food in a tiny apartment with a postage stamp balcony. But you can raise something. Lettuce for salads, sprouts that can be used in many different ways, or if you’re really industrious you could try aquaponics and/or rabbits. Everything you do produce can help to supplement the meager rations you may be forced to live on. These books and supplies can help:
  • Milk: One of the first things people run out of is milk. If your family regularly drinks milk, or if you add it to your coffee, the lack of it is something that will be immediately evident and make them feel deprived in an already unsettling situation. You can freeze milk when it’s on sale, and you should also stock up on shelf-stable dry milk. That’s the best way to have it on hand for the long haul. (Order Hormone-free dry milk HERE)

Hygiene Items

It’s important to be able to remain clean if you want to stay healthy. Following are some of the supplies that have been in shortage in Venezuela for months now.

  • Soap
  • Laundry detergent
  • Toilet paper
  • Diapers
  • Feminine hygiene supplies

For some of these items, you can learn to make them yourself. For others, you can make or purchase reusable versions.

Public Utilities

The country is rationing electricity and has been for quite some time. Currently, there are mandatory rolling blackouts. This is affecting everyday life, in that food can’t be kept in freezers, they are dealing with the hot humid weather without air conditioning, and they must use alternative lighting.

Stock up now on ways to deal with those concerns. These articles, books, and supplies can help you make your plan.

Medicine and Medical Care

Your heart will break into a million pieces, but this article from the front page of the NY Times (hat tip to Mary) tells you the real nitty gritty of the situation in Venezuela. A hospital is just as likely to kill you as make you better now, due to terrible sanitation and a lack of supplies.

They’re out of antibiotics, cancer medicine, and equipment. They can’t do dialysis or other life-saving treatments. They have no running water so they’re doing operations on a table still covered with blood from the last patient. The rolling blackouts mean that every single days, babies and other patients dependent on respirators are dying. Doctors are making lists of supplies for the families of patients to go out and attempt to procure from the black market.

It is essential that you keep some supplies on hand and that you begin learning all you can about survival medicine.

The best book for that is Cat Ellis’s book, Prepper’s Natural Medicine. It isn’t dependent on expensive, difficult-to-find supplies, but on things you can find in your area. This book is something you absolutely must add to your stockpile. If you can treat most ailments at home and stay away from hospitals, you’re far more likely to survive in a scenario like the one described above. A trip to the hospital in that situation is probably more likely to result in your death than avoiding it altogether.

  • Stock up on over the counter medications for pain relief, allergies, colds, diarrhea, and inflammation.
  • Some people purchase veterinary antibiotics like this.
  • Create a kit of wound treatment supplies to help prevent infection. (This fantastic article can help you decide what you need.)
  • I’m a huge fan of Vetricyn. We spray it on human wounds as well as animal ones.
  • Besides Cat’s book of natural medicine, look into adding other guides to your stash. I like the field manuals from the US military, which are available on Amazon.

Now is the time.

Be watching for a comprehensive 3-month program that is coming soon to help you get prepared with one-on-one help from some of the most popular preparedness authors around. More details are coming soon.

If you wait until a crisis is already occurring, you’ve waited too long, which is exactly what the people of Venezuela are learning. By preparing ahead of time and filling your collapse supply list, while you may still experience difficult times, your struggle will not be as extreme as the ones we’re seeing.

Did the #Nevada Democratic Party Just Steal Another State From #Bernie Sanders?

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(ANTIMEDIA) Nevada — In what might best be described as a minor electoral coup, the Nevada Democratic Party did its utmost to ensure a caucus victory for Hillary Clinton — and it appears they succeeded.

“We need civility in the Democratic Party — civility,” bemoaned Sen. Barbara Boxer to the largely outraged crowd, amid boos and shouts of “recount,” in the Paris hotel in Las Vegas on Saturday. “When you’re booing me, you’re booing Bernie Sanders,” asserted Boxer, a Hillary supporter, fanning the flames. “You know something, I grew up in Brooklyn and I’m not afraid of bullies. I’m for Hillary Clinton because she’s for all of us. So keep yourselves booing and boo yourselves out of the election.”

Boxer’s obstinate fealty to Clinton did nothing to pacify the thousands milling about, jeering — especially when she added, “We had our Nevada Caucus and Hillary Clinton won.”

As Nevada State Democratic Party Chairwoman and member of the national DNC’s Executive Committee, Roberta Lange, stood at the podium before thousands of mostly irate party members, an unidentified woman — as captured in video footage uploaded to Facebook — made a request on behalf of the crowd:

“I am asking you to have a recount. 9:30 was too soon for a preliminary vote. The petition did not get to everyone.”

Many attendees demanded that 64 excluded Sanders delegates, listed in a “minority report,” be allowed to participate. But Lange instead swiftly called for a voice vote to implement a temporary change of party rules on a permanent basis. Then she took it upon herself to affirm the result — which, as video shows the obstreperous reaction, was at least debatable — abruptly adjourned the meeting with an impotent slam of the gavel, and simply walked out, leaving pandemonium in her wake.

Stunned at Lange’s unceremonious departure, the throngs of Sanders devotees screamed incredulously at the now vacant podium, demanding an explanation for what had just taken place. Murmurs showed resolve to wait in the convention room until just democracy could be carried out — to no avail.

Shortly after Lange’s exit, which was followed by other party officials who then had to be escorted by police offstage, hotel security and armed local law enforcement officers appeared at the front of the auditorium.

“I don’t know if anyone can see this,” says Adryenn Ashley, who uploaded video to Facebook as events unfolded. “I don’t know if you can hear this, but there are 20 armed sheriffs here to help them steal the election … They’re saying leave now or else.”

At one point, a Hillary T-shirt-adorned woman even called for Bernie supporters to be ‘arrested.’

As hotel security can be heard on video saying, as officers ushered the outraged attendees from the meeting floor, “it is now in the hands of the attorneys,” and “[p]lease leave peacefully. Please leave, it is not safe here.”

But as one Sanders supporter rightly intoned, “If we do not leave, it becomes a big issue. I’m not leaving.”

Eventually, attendees disbursed — however disenfranchised they felt.

In the aftermath, those aforementioned 64 excluded delegates secured Clinton’s win by 33 — with final tallies on the day at 1,695 attending for Hillary to Sanders’ 1,662.

So contentious were the totals that Nevada Democratic convention credentials committee co-chair, Leslie Sexton, claimed the action by the state party rules committee “violates the spirit and values of our state and our nation.” As reported by RealClearPolitics, she continued:

“The credentials minority report is based on the challenge of 64 Sanders delegates. Contrary to the procedures and precedents set by the committee, nearly none of these 64 people were presented with the opportunity to be heard by the committee or to demonstrate that they are registered Democrats. Without the opportunity to be heard, no delegate could be stricken. The actions of the credentials committee violate the spirit of the Nevada state delegate plan which encourages full participation in the delegate process, and it violates the spirit and values of our state and our nation.”

Perhaps Sexton absolutely characterizes the disenfranchisement of the voting public as the primary season rolls on, as state after state reports innumerable complaints from voters. Or perhaps, her statement evidences a larger pattern of usurpation of the vote — as state after state reports mysteriously cleansed voter rolls, registration ballot shortages, inexcusably long lines, and inexplicably under-trained volunteers — who often sport candidate-specific paraphernalia, in direct conflict with established electoral law.

As outrageous as the Nevada State Convention might have seemed, it stands as yet further evidence that votes will be taken by whom the establishment deems pertinent to the narrative. If the DNC touts Hillary Clinton then, voters be damned, she will be their nominee.

With rumors a contested Democratic National Convention may be in the works, it would seem more pertinent than ever to examine how vehemently the establishment guards its go-to candidate — something with which past supporters of Ron Paul have well familiarized themselves.

It now stands virtually impossible to deny — elections are nothing more than a rigged theater of political appeasement.

This article (Did the Nevada Democratic Party Just Steal Another State From Bernie Sanders?) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Claire Bernish and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. Image credit: Marc Nozell. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.

From theantimedia.org Team