Mesa County Police Have Been Using Drones For Years, Still Coming Up With Rules On Use

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The march towards drones becoming a common tool for domestic law enforcement agencies seems inevitable and some people aren't happy about it. We've already covered the backlash against one artist who satarized New York City's drone program. San Diego, for their part, valiantly refused to honor an FOIA request on their domestic UAV program because they determined on their own that there wouldn't be a public benefit to the disclosure. MuckRock thought that was a dodge not afforded San Diego under FOIA rules, but San Diego again declined to say anything at all about the program.

"Sorry, citizen, but Detective Iron Death-Spy is very, very shy."

Image source: CC BY 2.0

But one thing that has generally been accepted is that law enforcement agencies were required to operate these drones under very strict guidelines and within very strict geographic boundaries. It would appear, for Mesa County, Colorado at least, that may not be universally true. The EFF's Drone Census project has uncovered that Mesa County has two UAVs and can operate them without many of the restrictions in place elsewhere.

The MCSO must abide by standard FAA restrictions on domestic UAV flights, which cap flights to below 400 feet and preclude night flights or operating over "populated areas, heavily trafficked roads, or an open-air assembly of people." But MCSO's drone authorization includes no geographic restrictions: effectively, the agency can fly its UAVs anywhere in Mesa County. This freedom has allowed the agency to log dozens of operational missions since fall 2010. MCSO flight logs indicate that its UAV team has logged more than 160 flight hours on its drones since January 2011.

So, whereas other UAV programs are restricted to flying over areas where they could chiefly assist in locating missing people in difficult to surveil areas, Mesa County can fly them anywhere within their jurisdiction without any limitations beyond the somewhat vague-sounding "populated areas, heavily trafficked roads" or the open air above a large assembly of people. That can leave a great deal of sky to buzz around with less of the oversight I think is desperately needed in programs like this.

Now, just to be clear, these drones do not carry arms. They are used for imaging. Then again, as the creep continues, the rules keep shifting towards greater use and application, so it wouldn't be fair to slam anyone concerned that someday we may indeed see armed UAVs over our skies. Equally worrying is this:

MCSO has been using drones operationally for two years, but the department has no written drone policy outlining the uses for which its officers may deploy UAVs. Ms. Barnes writes that MCSO is "currently in the process of drafting a written policy for the use of our unmanned aircraft."

Well, that's just peaches. Military-style technology deployed domestically without any official policy for its use. I feel so warm and fuzzy inside.

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and the government can,t understand why such a large potion of the population is pissed at them.

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Social Security Ponzi Scheme Coming To An End

Chris | InformationLiberation

Socialist security, possibly the world's largest wealth redistribution scheme in history is finally now coming to an end. Like a scam chain letter, the first people who "sent in a dollar" got a hundred back in return, but the last pay in and get nothing. Such is the case now with socialist security reports the AP, "People retiring today are part of the first generation of workers who have paid more in Social Security taxes during their careers than they will receive in benefits after they retire. It?s a historic shift that will only get worse for future retirees."

Unfortunately, unlike a scam pyramid scheme chain letter, citizens are not allowed to opt out, so everyone from now on will be paying in with the guarantee they will be losing money, and getting absolutely no "security." Rather than a "social safety net," it's a ring of jail bars locking everyone into perpetual debt slavery. Such a situation cannot continue for very long, and as the AP notes, it will only get worse as more and more of the baby boomers retire.

?For the early generations, it was an incredibly good deal,? said Andrew Biggs, a former deputy Social Security commissioner who is now a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. ?The government gave you free money and getting free money is popular.?

If you retired in 1960, you could expect to get back seven times more in benefits than you paid in Social Security taxes, and more if you were a low-income worker, as long you made it to age 78 for men and 81 for women.

As recently as 1985, workers at every income level could retire and expect to get more in benefits than they paid in Social Security taxes, though they didn?t do quite as well as their parents and grandparents.

Not anymore.

A married couple retiring last year after both spouses earned average lifetime wages paid about $598,000 in Social Security taxes during their careers. They can expect to collect about $556,000 in benefits, if the man lives to 82 and the woman lives to 85, according to a 2011 study by the Urban Institute, a Washington think tank.

As a young person myself, I'm ecstatic to see this socialist ponzi scheme fail. While I feel for people who "paid into it" their whole lives and will now get nothing, the fact of the matter is the money was stolen from them, and stealing from future generations won't make things any better. Taxes are theft, all of them, the sooner people accept it, the sooner the healing process can begin.
_
Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.

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Congratulations Chris !
You are now officially a neo-con stooge .

You are quoting a fellow of The American Enterprise Institute, the home-dungeon of intellectual heavyweights like Richard Perle and Dick Cheneys wife ..

Thanks.

By those standards, I'm a stooge of some 40000 people/organizations I've quoted over the last 7 years running this site, maybe you could add them all up and tell me how I'm a stooge of them all (and every single person associated with them).

If you think the socialist security system is wonderful, just say it, I'd love to hear you defend this bankrupt socialist scam.

Sad post Chris, why don't you focus on the main problem facing our economy which is corporate welfare not social welfare. Your AP quote also doesn't account for inflation as well as the extreme increase in the cost of medical care in your "give a dollar, expect 100 dollars back" examples. This just reeks of right wing bias and I expect more from this site.

Lets use Ron Paul as a great example of what to do with SS instead of the neo con stooges who just want to end social welfare to have more money for corporate welfare. Dr. Paul's solution involves a public option to pay into SS, which is a great start towards fixing the social safety net instead of just cutting it lose.

After that the only way to "fix" SS is to fix our medical industry, which is one of the primary reasons the cost of living for retirees has increased so drastically over the last 50 years causing them to need so much more back from SS. Without a end to the "for profit" medical industry, we will continue to price out the middle class from affording the costs to stay healthy as they retire. I know socialized medicine is a boogeyman term here, but other developed countries do it just fine and are in much better shape than we are with our system.

The Folks complaining about this article are more than likely Boomers who have no problem at all with their kids and grand kids furniture being burnt to keep those checks coming as long as they still have a finger to point. They got theirs stolen and now they enable the thieves to steal from their kids knowing there is nothing in it for them. America lost EVERYTHING under the leadership of the Boomers...the "entitlement" generation. Their policies are all based on a time horizon that has the end of the world and obligations to future generations? coinciding with their death. ..the WORST generation EVER!.............. I just wanted to add to the discussion that when the social security program first started,the actual number issued was not supposed to be used as identification by law.
Today it is.
We literally have a national ID number,and its being issued to our children practically automatically at birth.

My concerns for social security, besides the obvious fiscal issues,are that it promotes government dependency at the cost of individual liberty.

It does this on many levels.

And to top it all off,there is no where in the Constitution authorizing the federal government to institute such a program.Nowhere.

America will be great again when Americans fully accept that to have liberty,they might have to have less government "safety nets" and actually be more responsible for themselves,and instead of relying on a nanny state to save up for their retirement for them- do it themselves.

But I know,I know,thats scary.

And its sad how cowardly and dependent we've become.

As a Boomer who is going to be 56 next month, let me back up what is being stated in this posting with a real life example. After my husband passed away in '04 my family said I should go to the happy little folks at the Social Security office and apply for his SS. I knew this was BS, since as a nurse turned writer who does a lot of research, there are bills in various forms of development which will change what my age group would be eligible to receive. Since my goal in life is to be financially independent, I treated this as a candid interview project. After talking with a few dedicated government wage slaves, I did manage to find at least one person there who had possibly awakened to what SS really is, a scam to slip Americans into dependent socialism.
If you doubt me, prove me wrong. Your best bet is look at history.
But back to our visit with the SS office wage slave. This person told me to apply 6 months before my 62nd birthday if, the age limit had not been moved up to 70 by then and, if SS still existed.
As a researcher and writer who is well aware of the plans the Illuminati has in store for this country, I agree with what Chris has written.
D.M. Simonds
ScribeCaveDotCom
The choice is yours. To Anon 98150, the "main problem facing our economy" is not simply corporate welfare nor social welfare, it's all welfare, from corporate welfare to the military industrial complex to welfare to make dependent government slaves who will defend the state enslaving them just so long as they get a check of loot for themselves, it's all done under the same principle and it's all entirely criminal.

The example of give a dollar get a hundred back no longer applies, but it did apply to the first people who were part of this ponzi scheme, read the story of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_May_Fuller who "paid in" (had confiscated) $24.75, then got a wealth transfer of $22,888.92 given to her. That's almost a thousand to one return.

Ron Paul's "solution" will never be implemented as the people running the system are crooked criminals who do not want the welfare system to change, it's true if they cut the wars they could keep the scam going a bit longer, but that wouldn't change much, the fact of the matter is the ponzi scheme is coming to an end now and as with all ponzi schemes when the money stops coming in it must collapse.

As SS functions now it's a scheme to rob poor young people to pay for rich old people, why is that something which should be "saved"? If the state cut all spending even then it shouldn't go to social security, just stop actively stealing from people through taxation and let people keep the money which is rightly theirs, that's a much better "solution" to this problem than let's keep current confiscation levels the same and hope the criminals in congress who did not earn it spend the money more wisely.

"Like a scam chain letter, the first people who "sent in a dollar" got a hundred back in return, but the last pay in and get nothing. "

Sort of like the Youngevity products Tangy Tangerine multi level marketing ponzi scheme, huh?

I do not agree with this whole article. The banksters created this ponzi scheme, and until an economic order based on Logos is put it place, I thank God that there has been and will be for a while this safety net that has allowed millions of people to survive.

Jeannon, this sort of misplaced sympathy is giving some 70 years olds a couple extra dollars to live on and enriching a few score of bureaucrats at the expense of robbing tens of millions of their freedoms and economic potentials in the prime of their lives.

The first generation in the system knew retirement would now be easier so could go spend much of what was already saved on vacations or whatever, the next generation didn't bother to save enough b/c of course they factored the gov't money into retirement. Additionally they started taking other forms of gov't social welfare in home loans, loans for their kids schooling, etc... The 3rd generation took gov't by the tens of thousands starting at 18 and kept borrowing in one form or another until they were 30.

The result of such "social welfare" is a generation that is underwater on homes that won't sell, can't afford to pay student loan payments that they can't escape, and have to fear losing their jobs in the terrible economy the previous decades of spend now pay later has caused....all the while any money they do make has portions taken out to give some 60 and 70 year olds a nicer tv in the retirement home.

Kill social security (in phases if need be), cut gov't house/school loans, and free the markets that haven't seen freedom in my lifetime; it will do more to help the poor than all the "social welfare" I've ever seen.

The SS trust is unindentured. Tighten up your Contract with SS. SIN in Canada. Remember, yourSS/SIN# Is the same # as your Individual Master File at the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Quit bitchin, assert your rights.

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FBI's Facial Recognition is Coming to a State Near You

BY JENNIFER LYNCH

Recently-released documents show that the FBI has been working since late 2011 with four states--Michigan, Hawaii, Maryland, and possibly Oregon--to ramp up the Next Generation Identification (NGI) Facial Recognition Program. When the program is fully deployed in 2014, the FBI expects its facial recognition database will contain at least 12 million "searchable frontal photos." (p. 6)

The documents, which the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) obtained from a recent meeting of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Advisory Policy Board,? shed new light on the FBI's plans for NGI--the Bureau's massive biometrics database that combines fingerprints, iris scans, palm prints, facial recognition and extensive biographical data collected from over 100 million Americans.

The Advisory Board documents show that FBI's database of facial images will provide search results automatically (the system won't need to rely on a human to check the results before forwarding them to the state or local agency) and that the FBI is developing "Universal Face Workstation software" to allow states that don't have their own "Face/Photo search capabilities"? to search through the FBI's images.

After we read through the Advisory Board documents, we quickly sent Open Records requests to several of the states involved in the pilot program. The documents we received from Maryland and Hawaii further flesh out the story. For example, the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Hawaii and the FBI shows that the government is building NGI to "permit photo submissions independent of arrests." This is a problem because, the FBI has stated it wants to use its facial recognition system to "identify[] subjects in public datasets" and "conduct[] automated surveillance at lookout locations" (p.5). This suggests the FBI wants to be able to search and identify people in photos of crowds and in pictures posted on social media sites--even if the people in those photos haven't been arrested for or even suspected of a crime. The FBI may also want to incorporate those crowd or social media photos into its face recognition database.

And an MOU between Maryland and the FBI will allow Maryland to submit photos in bulk to the database--something that Maryland described in an email as a "photo data dump." This kind of an agreement could be used in the future to incorporate the same kind of facial identifying information already collected by 32 of 50 state DMVs solely to prevent fraud and identity theft.

The Advisory Board documents contain other concerning information. For example, one document discusses the FBI's plans to combine civil and criminal biometrics records by giving them a single searchable "master name" or unique identifying number. As we've noted, criminal and civil records have always been kept separate in the past. While this may be a function of the differences in how each type of print is collected and stored, it has effectively meant that civil prints--collected for employment verification, for background checks, for federal jobs, and even to become a lawyer in California--have not been automatically searched every time criminal prints are checked against the database. That will all change once FBI implements its unique identity system. Although FBI states that "the criminal and civil files will remain logically separated...[to] ensure that retained civil submissions remain untainted by criminal submissions" it's hard to see how this is functionally true, given that civil files will be searched at the same time as criminal files.

Another document discusses the federal government's extensive biometrics sharing relationships with other countries. It notes that the FBI's Global Initiatives Unit has already collected over 990,000 records from foreign partners, with over 600,000 of those coming from Afghanistan. The FBI already has information sharing relationships with 77 countries, (p.2), but CJIS is now trying to partner with "Visa Waiver Program countries" like Ireland, Spain and Australia to allow automatic access to each other's biometric databases on a "hit/no hit basis." This kind of access has already been set up to connect the German and US biometric databases.

And finally, as NDLON has discussed in greater detail, the documents show just how far the FBI and DHS partnership has progressed to maximize datasharing as part of the Secure Communities program. For example, NDLON notes that FBI has mobile devices that permit searches of the entire IDENT database in the field. These mobile devices may subject individuals to immigration background checks without ever being arrested or booked.

The FBI has not updated the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for its photo database since 2008--well before signing MOUs with the states to share face recognition data and before the development and deployment of NGI's facial recognition capabilities. As EFF recently testified during a Senate Subcommittee hearing on facial recognition, Americans should be very concerned about the government's plans to build up its facial recognition capabilities:

Facial recognition takes the risks inherent in other biometrics to a new level...[it] allows for covert, remote, and mass capture and identification of images, and the photos that may end up in a database include not just a person's face but also what she is wearing, what she might be carrying, and who she is associated with.

Without an updated PIA, it is impossible to tell exactly how the FBI plans to acquire and use facial recognition data now and in the future. However, given the information in these new documents and the FBI's broad goals for face recognition data, the time is right for laws that limit face recognition data collection.

To see all the documents, go to our landing page for NGI and click on "Documents" in the middle toolbar.

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Talking Surveillance Cameras Coming to U.S. Streets

?Intellistreets? system now being installed with DHS backing
Paul Joseph Watson

Talking surveillance cameras that bark orders at passers-by and can also record conversations are heading for U.S. streets, with manufacturer Illuminating Concepts announcing the progress of its ?Intellistreets? system.

As we first reported last year, high tech street lights with ?homeland security applications? are now being installed in major U.S. cities.

The street lights also have loudspeakers that can give audible warnings to individuals, mimicking the talking surveillance cameras in the UK that shout out orders through microphones telling people to pick up litter or leave the area.

A recent press release put out by Amerlux announces the company?s partnership with Illuminating Concepts to further advance the rollout of ?Intellistreets?. The announcement confirms that the street lights will have a number of ?homeland security features? including a loudspeaker system that will be used to ?engage captive audiences?.

?The built-in speaker can broadcast emergency information,? states the press release, adding, ?SmartSite luminaires can be equipped with a variety of cameras and sensors to ensure real-time 24/7-security coverage. The sensors detect a variety of threats that enable rapid response from emergency personnel or help prevent crime and gain control of the streets.?

The press release adds that the SmartSite system developed to operate the ?Intellistreets? surveillance hubs is intended not only for street lighting but also for ?retail malls, sports venues, on college campuses, and in new construction,? and ?might well become commonplace? in the near future.

Not only can the street lights, now being rolled out in Detroit, Chicago and Pittsburgh with Department of Energy backing, act as surveillance cameras, Minority Report-style advertising hubs, and Homeland Security alert systems, they are "also capable of recording conversations," according to a report by ABC 7.

The ABC video clip, featured at the end of this article, includes creepy footage of the street lights being used to transmit Orwellian security alerts, including "pay attention please"?.please stand by for a public safety announcement," and "this is a security alert".

Illuminating Concepts responded to the controversy over ?Intellistreets? last year by ludicrously claiming the system did not represent a "big brother" intrusion, as if talking surveillance cameras that also record private conversations are a perfectly normal concept.

The company also denied that it had received funding from the Department of Homeland Security yet subsequent reports confirmed that owner Ron Harwood is now "working with Homeland Security" to implement the high tech network, which is connected via a ubiquitous wi-fi system.

In reality, the system represents Big Brother on steroids ? George Orwell?s worst nightmare come to life with interconnected wireless ?telescreens? blanketing America, all in the name of safety and security.

__
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.

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not a smart idea....but i'm looking forward to them. just imagine getting inside....like a worm. Straight from "They Live":
OBEY

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"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened..." - Winston Churchill

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Panopticon Coming to a Neighborhood Near You!

by Jeff Berwick

The US is fast becoming one massive open air prison camp. Few realize that one by one their natural rights are being stripped by the fascist "criminal" law system. As we've noted in the past, more than 30% of those under 23 have been arrested as the fascist US Government works to ensnare as many as possible into permanent indentured servitude through a criminal record. From the New Yorker

Over all, there are now more people under "correctional supervision" in America ? more than six million ? than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height. That city of the confined and the controlled, Lockuptown, is now the second largest in the United States.

Once you have that special status the doors quickly close for you, and you will never be able to legally escape from the US. Your travel will be restricted and you will not be eligible to apply for a foreign passport.

Seemingly not content with having the largest prison population in the world, the US leviathan continues to expand its web to ensnare more into "the system".

THE PANOPTICON

Original Drawing of a Panopticon Prison

In the late eighteenth century. English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham came up with the concept of the panopticon. The purpose of the design is to allow the observation of (-opticon) all (pan-) inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether or not they are being watched.

Although Bentham considered the use of such a structure for all manner of institutions, prisons were the first place where the concept was implemented.

The corporatist state is doing its best to create the ultimate Panopticon within the borders of the US. We noted one recent development with the deployment of the "Peacemaker" to the streets of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

The "Peacemaker"

You can find out all you need to know about the "Peacemaker" here.

The costumed enforcer sums it up with one line: "the bad guys know ? hey we're watching you". Forgoing for the moment the question of who really is the bad guys here (hint: the government and police), he fails to mention that the "peacemaker" isn't just watching "the bad guys". It is watching everyone who happens to pass by its hulking form.

Sadly people have been brainwashed since birth into thinking that the State is good and it protects them, and that without the State the world would be very dangerous. This in turn causes them support these continued attacks on their own liberties. Ayn Rand termed this the "sanction of the victim"

One of the brainwashed in the video thinks that those who complain about the Orwellian vehicle should be paid special attention. I would suggest to the slave that he takes it one step further ? if he has nothing to hide, why not place a set of cameras within his own home? Hey, he is already funding them with his tax dollars, why bother using a private security firm? You think that sounds unreasonable? Well guess what ? the Brits have already put that into practice.

From Wired in 2009

?400 million ($668 million) will be spent on installing and monitoring CCTV cameras in the homes of private citizens. Why? To make sure the kids are doing their homework, going to bed early and eating their vegetables. The scheme has, astonishingly, already been running in 2,000 family homes. The government's "children's secretary" Ed Balls is behind the plan, which is aimed at problem, antisocial families. The idea is that, if a child has a more stable home life, he or she will be less likely to stray into crime and drugs.

It gets worse. The government is also maintaining a private army, incredibly not called "Thought Police", which will "be sent round to carry out home checks," according to the Sunday Express. And in a scheme which firmly cements the nation's reputation as a "nanny state", the kids and their families will be forced to sign "behavior contracts" which will "set out parents' duties to ensure children behave and do their homework.

All "for the children" you see.

"SMILE, YOU'RE ON CANDID CAMERA"

Now you might say that the "Peacemaker" isn't quite the definition of the surveillance state ? I mean you can see the thing! But don't worry, your overlords have been working quietly to ensure they cover every square foot of their empire.

All for your own good.

Janet Napolitano, director of the Department of Homeland Security now appears in every Walmart in the country, hoping to enlist the good consumers in the fight against "threats". Every eye of every citizen is a potential tool of the "Homeland". Of course, the ones who should really be watched are the watchers.

TERROR FROM ABOVE

Predictably, the tools of the global war on terror have now been turned into tools of oppression for the jack booted thugs in the USSA. The Predator Drone, a mainstay of the CIA's assassination campaigns is now being utilized for "interior law enforcement support"

General Atomics MQ-1 Predator

Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen surveillance flights since June. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said.

"We don't use [drones] on every call out," said Bill Macki, head of the police SWAT team in Grand Forks. "If we have something in town like an apartment complex, we don't call them."

The drones belong to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which operates eight Predators on the country's northern and southwestern borders to search for illegal immigrants and smugglers. The previously unreported use of its drones to assist local, state and federal law enforcement has occurred without any public acknowledgment or debate. Link

Equipped with "high-resolution cameras, heat sensors and sophisticated radar", these machines are just the thing needed to ensure the tax slaves are KEPT IN.

And while you are kept as a blood bag for the vampire state, you will have to deal with an ever-increasing network of internal travel controls. Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams are expanding across the USA, targeting bus terminals, rail stations, and highway travel. "Border" police are also getting into the act, setting up shop miles from the actual borders of the USSA.

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT

A letter from one TDV reader, Warren W., confirms the dire reality of the situation, he writes:

Just back from driving I10 from Fla. to AZ. At about 100 miles either side of El Paso, US Customs & "Border Patrol" (in quotes because they aren't at the border where they could do some real patrolling) have set up permanent shop on I10.

The eastbound roadblock is east of El Paso and the westbound one is west of El Paso. They are huge, drive-through type buildings straddling the interstate, kind of like what California used to have for checking to see if we had any fruit. The buildings have offices also.

When I passed the eastbound roadblock, the westbound lanes I was in were lined with a gauntlet of at least a dozen cameras we had to drive past. I don't think it paranoid to imagine facial recognition and license plate scanning was occurring.

After seeing that, I was quite sure there would be a roadblock for westbound travelers but had no idea where it would be. It turned out to be in New Mexico.

Anticipating "my" roadblock, I told myself that, although it would ruin my day and involve risk of tasering, beating and/or incineration, I would have to insist on a search warrant if my car was singled out for a search. And what a search it would be ? $2,500 cash, a Ruger LCP in my back pocket, a Glock in the glove box, and Ron Paul stickers on front and rear bumpers. Can you say Profile?

As it turned out, there was only one guy at "my" roadblock telling each vehicle's operator to keep going. So I wasn't searched. But on the way in the building I was filmed again by a similar camera gauntlet that I had previously experienced.

There were probably half a dozen "Border Patrol" SUVs parked at the office which meant that the other tax eaters, instead of opening up new lanes so we did not have to waste time in a single file lane, were enjoying the comfort of their office instead.

As a side note, every car I saw pulled over by state troopers on I10 in New Mexico (about 3) had the trooper ransacking the trunk.

Bentham's dream of the Panopticon is close to becoming a reality. It is time for you to consider your options and consider getting your gold and yourself out of dodge.

PANOPTICON AVOIDANCE CHECKLIST

Make plans to get out of countries like the US and the UK as soon as possible before they trap you into an arrest which will limit your travel movements severely.Apply for a foreign passport (the best we know of is in the Dominican Republic).Once you have a foreign passport, consider renouncing your US/UK or other western police state passport. Wait lists to renounce US passports have recently increased from 6 months to over 2 years as a flood of US citizens look to get out while they still can.Get your assets outside of the control of your own government. Transport and store your gold and silver around the world (TDV will be releasing a full Special Report called "Getting Your Gold Out of Dodge" in the next month with lots of information on how to do this).There are plenty of countries where the Government is not a giant all-seeing machine but is more of a nuisance. Some people state that they'd rather live inside the police state of the US than in some "corrupt" foreign country. That is your choice. But we'd rather give some policeman 200 pesos and get on with our day than to live inside the panopticon in the US and become ensnared into the criminal caste system in the US where escape is nearly impossible.
__
Jeff Berwick [send him mail] is an anarcho-capitalist freedom fighter and Chief Editor of the libertarian, Austrian economics grounded newsletter, The Dollar Vigilante. The Dollar Vigilante focuses on strategies, investments and expatriation opportunities to survive & prosper during and after the US dollar collapse.

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Getting out of the US is a good idea. Unfortunately, there's a reason for the phrase "New WORLD Order". When that comes into existence, things will be the same no matter where you are. No place on Earth is safe. Help each other resist worldwide tyranny! "Once you have that special status the doors quickly close for you, and you will never be able to legally escape from the US. Your travel will be restricted and you will not be eligible to apply for a foreign passport."

Legally escape? Who cares. Corporate rules aren't laws. The sooner we realize that, the better. All the cops, the border patrol, the FBI, whatever, do is enforce corporate rules. If they enforced the "law" then things would be a lot different. Its all about profit and control and none of it lawful.

I don't care about "legally" escaping. Legalities are for slaves. If you're already worried about "legally" doing anything, you're already a slave by your own choosing.

I do not consent and I waive the benefits. Under common law, anything that doesn't hurt someone is lawful. The corporation can kiss my ass.

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1 Through 30 -- The Coming U.S. Financial Crisis By The Numbers

by Michael Snyder

The United States is drowning in a sea of red ink from coast to coast and most Americans have absolutely no idea what is about to happen.? Hopefully you have started to prepare for the coming U.S. financial crisis.? If not, hopefully this article will be a wake up call for you.? Right now, governments all over Europe are on the verge of financial implosion.? Most Americans aren't paying much attention to that, but they should be, because what is happening to Greece and Italy right now will eventually be happening here.? Just recently, the U.S. national debt passed the 15 trillion dollar mark.? State and local government debt is also at record levels.? Tens of millions of American families are in debt up to their eyeballs, and millions more Americans fell into poverty last year.? Meanwhile, the "too big to fail" banks just keep getting larger and the Federal Reserve continues to inflate the debt bubble.? At some point this debt bubble is going to burst, and when it does it is going to unleash financial hell all over America.

Below you will find a list of numbers - 1 through 30.? For each number, a statistic has been chosen that demonstrates the financial nightmare that the United States is facing.? It is simply not possible to rack up debt at staggering rates forever.? At some point the debt spiral is going to stop.

A lot of politicians are claiming that they can stop the coming financial crisis from happening.? But the truth is that unless our entire financial system is fundamentally transformed, nothing is going to be able to stop the financial nightmare that is headed our way.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of our politicians still believe that the current financial system can be fixed and the vast majority of them still fully support the Federal Reserve.

That is going to prove to be a gigantic mistake.? The following are 30 facts that show that the United States is heading directly for a massive financial crisis....

1 - For fiscal year 2011, the U.S. federal government had a budget deficit of nearly 1.3 trillion dollars.? That was the third year in a row that our budget deficit has topped one trillion dollars.

2 - The balance sheet of the Federal Reserve has been ballooning like crazy.? At this point, the Federal Reserve has very little capital backing a balance sheet that is well over 2 trillion dollars.

The following is how Michael Pento of Euro Pacific Capital describes the situation that the Fed is in....

Today, the Fed has $52.5 billion of capital backing a $2.7 trillion balance sheet.

Prior to the bursting of the credit bubble, the public was shocked to learn that our biggest investment banks were levered 30-to-1. When asset values fell, those banks were quickly wiped out. But now the Fed is holding many of the same types of assets and is levered 51-to-1! If the value of their portfolio were to fall by just 2%, the Fed itself would be wiped out.

3 - It is being estimated that it would take a total of 3 trillion euros to bail out all of the countries in Europe that are in imminent danger of financial implosion.? Europe is heading for a gigantic financial crisis, and when it happens the United States is going to be dragged down as well.

4 - As the U.S. economy continues to decline, millions of American families are having a very hard time feeding themselves.? Today, one out of every seven Americans is on food stamps and one out of every four American children is on food stamps.

5 - The U.S. Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.? It looks like the federal government is going to have to help the U.S. Postal Service out financially.

6 - Freddie Mac says that it is going to need another $6 billion bailout from the federal government.

7 - Fannie Mae says that it is going to need another $7.8 billion bailout from the federal government.

8 - We are told that the economy is recovering, but the number of Americans on food stamps has grown by another 8 percent over the past year.

9 - The U.S. unemployment rate has been hovering around 9 percent for 30 straight months.? It is currently sitting at 9.0 percent.

10 - The total cost of just three federal government programs - the Department of Defense, Social Security and Medicare - exceeded the total amount of taxes brought in during fiscal 2010 by 10 billion dollars.

11 - Back in the year 2000, 11.3% of all Americans were living in poverty.? Today, 15.1% of all Americans are living in poverty.

12 - The "free trade" agenda being pushed by our globalist politicians is absolutely killing us.? Even in industries that we were once dominant in we are now getting wiped out.? For instance, in 2010 South Korea exported 12 times as many automobiles, trucks and parts to us as we exported to them.? Hundreds of billions of dollars that should be going to support American jobs and businesses is going overseas instead.

13 - Since 1985, the federal government has added 13 trillion dollars to the national debt.

14 - The U.S. Treasury Department says that instead of $14.3 billion, the total losses from the auto industry bailouts will actually be $23.6 billion.

15 - Amazingly, the U.S. federal government is now 15 trillion dollars in debt.? When Obama first took office the debt was just 10.6 trillion dollars.

16 - According to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, the Federal Reserve made 16 trillion dollars in secret loans to big corporations, Wall Street banks, foreign nations and wealthy individuals during the financial crisis.

17 - The "too big to fail" banks just keep getting larger and larger.? In the year 2000, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo held approximately 22 percent of all banking deposits in FDIC-insured institutions.? By the middle of 2009 that figure?was up to?39 percent.? That is an increase of 17 percent in less than a decade.

18 - More Americans than ever are totally dependent on the government.? In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income.? Today, government transfer payments account for more than 18 percent of all income.

19 - As a result of the lack of good jobs, we have huge numbers of Americans in their prime working years that cannot financially support themselves.? As I have written about previously, 19% of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are living with their parents.

20 - America is rapidly getting poorer.? Today, more than one out of every seven Americans is living in poverty and more than 20 million of them are considered to be living in extreme poverty.

21 - Income inequality is rising to very dangerous levels.? According to a joint House and Senate report entitled "Income Inequality and the Great Recession", the top one percent of all income earners in the United States brought in a total of 10.0 percent of all income in 1980, but by the time 2008 had rolled around that figure had skyrocketed to 21.0 percent.

22 - It is not just the federal government with a debt problem.? State and local government debt has reached an all-time high of 22 percent of U.S. GDP.? Many state and local governments are even closer to going broke than the federal government is.

23 - If you can believe it, during 2010 an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day were shut down in the United States.? Our economy is literally being gutted like a fish.

24 - Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP.? Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.

25 - According to Shadow Government Statistics, the "real" rate of unemployment in the United States is creeping up toward 25 percent.

26 - The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (an agency of the federal government) says that it ran a deficit of $26 billion during the fiscal year that just ended and that it will probably need a bailout from the federal government.

27 - In the midst of everything else, the United States is bleeding national wealth like crazy.? Tens of billions of dollars more goes out of this country each month than comes into it.? Instead of improving, our trade deficit just keeps getting worse.? For example, the U.S. trade deficit with China in 2010 was 27 times larger than it was back in 1990.

28 - The U.S. housing crash is a crisis that never seems to end.? According to one source, approximately 28 percent of all home loans in the United States are currently "underwater".? So what is going to happen if the economy gets even worse?

29 - The federal government has borrowed more than 29,000 dollars per household since Barack Obama first took office.

30 - 30 years ago, the U.S. national debt was about 15 times smaller than it is today.? How in the world are we ever going to explain this foolishness to future generations?

Please share these facts with as many people as you can.? The reality is that most Americans have no idea just how bad things have become.

Instead of dealing with the problems that this country is facing, most Americans just try to numb the pain.? As a nation, we are incredibly addicted to pleasure and entertainment.? It is so much easier to spend endless hours staring at the television than it is to get out there and try to do something to turn this country around.

America is in big time trouble.? We desperately need a new generation of heroes to step up to the plate.

All of us have different talents and all of us have something that we can contribute.

Will you answer the call?

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And So It Begins -- The First Major European Bank Has Been Bailed Out And More Bailouts Are Coming

by Michael Snyder

And so it begins.? The first major European bank bailout of 2011 has now happened.? French/Belgian banking giant Dexia has failed and both governments have pledged to participate in a rescue plan.? But Dexia will not be the last major European bank to fail.? Even now, governments all over Europe are feverishly developing plans to bail out major national banks in the event that the current financial crisis goes from bad to worse.? Instead of learning the lessons of 2008, most major European banks have continued to pile up huge mountains of debt, leverage and risk.? Now the bill for that stupidity is about to be passed on to the taxpayers of those nations.? But with most nations in Europe already drowning in debt, are bank bailouts really the right course of action?? What is it going to happen to Europe if dozens of major banks start failing and trillions of euros are needed to bail them all out?

Dexia is the first victim of the new credit crunch.? It got to the point where Dexia simply could not get access to the funding that it needed in the credit markets.

We are starting to see this all over Europe.? Nobody wants to loan much money to European banks right now because it is unclear what is going to happen next in Europe and it is uncertain which banks are stable and which are on the verge of collapse.

This is so similar to what happened back in 2008.

But Dexia is not going to be "the next Lehman Brothers" because the governments of France and Belgium are stepping in to save Dexia from collapse.

A recent article in the Financial Post described how the rescue of Dexia is likely to proceed....

Dexia will effectively be broken up, with the sale of healthier operations while toxic assets, including Greek and other peripheral euro zone government bonds, will be placed in a state-supported "bad bank."

The details of the plan will be negotiated over the coming days, but authorities are making it clear that Dexia is not going to be allowed to collapse.? Bank of France Governor Christian Noyer is assuring everyone that Dexia is going to have access to plenty of liquidity....

"We will loan Dexia as much as it needs"

It appears that the "too big to fail" doctrine is alive and well in Europe.

Sadly, this is not the first time that Dexia has been bailed out.? France and Belgium also bailed out Dexia back in 2008.

But this was not supposed to happen.

Just three months ago, Dexia received "a clean bill of health" from regulators during European Union bank stress testing.

It just shows how credible those "stress tests" really are.

So are more European bank bailouts coming?

It certainly looks that way.

An article in the Financial Post on Tuesday stated the following....

European finance ministers agreed on Tuesday to prepare action to safeguard their banks as doubts grew about whether a planned second bailout package for debt-laden Greece would go ahead.

Of course when they talk about the need "to safeguard their banks" they are talking about those that are deemed "too big to fail".? Just like in the United States, banks that are "too small" don't get bailed out at all.

But western governments are very protective of the big banks.? The big banks are allowed to take gigantic risks, and if they succeed they make tons of money and if they fail then the taxpayers bail them out.

With big trouble on the horizon in Europe, authorities are already getting ready to bail out the major banks.? A Bloomberg article from last month acknowledged that the German government has been very busy getting ready to bail out their major banks in the event that a Greek default becomes a reality....

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government is preparing plans to shore up German banks in the event that Greece fails to meet the terms of its aid package and defaults, three coalition officials said.

As you read this, there are already signs of trouble at major German banks.? For example, Deutsche Bank has just announced that it is eliminating 500 more jobs.

The fundamental problems that Europe is facing are not being solved and the financial crisis is getting progressively worse.? With each passing day, more bad financial news comes pouring in.

For example, Moody's slashed Italy's bond ratings by three levels on Tuesday.

A reduction of just one level is very serious business.? For Moody's to hit Italy that hard is a really big deal.

Italian banks have also been targeted by the credit rating agencies.? The other day, S&P slashed the credit ratings of seven different Italian banks.

If Italy goes down, it is going to be an absolute nightmare.? The Italian economy absolutely dwarfs the Greek economy.? The EU has been really struggling to bail out Greece, and there is no way in the world that they would be able to bail out Italy.

So if nations such as Italy or Spain start collapsing, will the U.S. Federal Reserve step in to help bail them out?

You never know.

The sad truth is that the Federal Reserve can do pretty much whatever it wants and nobody can stop them.

As I wrote about the other day, the Federal Reserve has agreed to join with other major central banks to lend hundreds of billions of dollars to major European banks in October, November and December.

As the past few years have shown, wherever big, global banks are in trouble, the Federal Reserve is sure to step in and help.

And many big banks in Europe are definitely headed for trouble.? Right now, European banks are holding more than $4 trillion in European sovereign debt.

A lot of that debt is bad debt.? Today, troubled European nations Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain owe the rest of the world about 3 trillion euros combined.

That is a whole lot of debt out there, and many big banks are so leveraged that just a 5 percent reduction in the value of their holdings could wipe them out.

Hold on to your hats folks.

So what should we be watching next?

Well, Greece continues to be a huge problem.

The IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Union are very frustrated with Greece right now.

On Monday, it was revealed that Greece is not going to hit the deficit reduction targets set for it by the "troika" either this year or next year.

European officials have been particularly displeased that Greece has been getting all of this aid money and yet has not been strictly adhering to the austerity measures that they agreed to.

However, the reality is that the austerity measures that Greece has actually bothered to implement have hit the Greek economy really hard.? The more Greece reduces government spending the more the Greek economy seems to slow down.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos recently announced that the Greek economy is projected to shrink by 5.3% in 2011, and Greek debt continues to spiral out of control.

Meanwhile, severe economic pain continues to spark huge protests all over Greece.? Scenes of riot police firing tear gas and protesters throwing stones at police have become so common in Greece that most of us don't even pay much attention anymore.

But all of us should pay attention to what is happening in Greece.

Eventually these kinds of economic riots will spread throughout the rest of the western world as well.

And every day Greece just seems to get closer and closer to default.

At this point, global financial markets seem to consider a Greek default to be inevitable.? The yield on 2 year Greek bonds is now over 65 percent.? The yield on 1 year Greek bonds is now over 135 percent.

Greece is toast without more bailout money.

But now major politicians all over Germany are declaring that Germany is done contributing money to the European bailout fund.

And without Germany, the rest of the eurozone is not going to be able to continue the bailouts.

So the clock is ticking.

Once the current bailout fund has dried up, the bailout game will be over.

What will happen then?

Will that be what sets off a massive financial collapse in Europe?

Could we actually see the end of the euro?

For a long time there was speculation that it would be weak nations such as Greece that would leave the euro.

But now it appears increasingly likely that if someone is going to leave the euro it might be Germany.

Most German citizens would be in favor of such a move.? One recent poll conducted for Stern magazine actually found that 54 percent of all Germans would favor leaving the euro.

But if Germany left the euro it would absolutely implode.? German economic strength is the primary thing holding the euro up at this point.

In any event, it is going to be very interesting to watch what will happen to Europe over the coming months.

Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain are all steadily marching toward collapse.

Germany says that it is done bailing out other members of the eurozone.

Dozens of major European banks are teetering on the brink of disaster.

People get ready - a storm is coming.

Time is running out for Europe and there is no help in sight.

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