July 2013 – Page 2 – The Burning Platform

FLEEING CALIFORNIA, ANOTHER VIEW

Over on the “California Fleeing” article posted by AWD, I took a few pings for not writing off California as a failed state just yet and pointing to California’s geographic location and its abundance of natural resources. Those pings ticked me off, so I guess I’ll have to give you Doom and Gloomers a reality check. Here goes.

California is the nation’s #2 producer of commercial seafood, after Louisiana.

California is the nation’s #3 producer of commercial timber, after Washington and Oregon.

California is the nation’s LEADING producer of commercial hard minerals, including silver, copper (yes, copper – not Montana or Arizona, but California), manganese, tungsten, and uranium. If you throw in the value of oil and natural gas production to the mineral mix, it still ranks #3 behind Texas and Louisiana.

California has the greatest variety of minerals to be found anywhere in the U.S., with 39 minerals of commercial value found ONLY in California. Think Rare Earth minerals for starters, because your laptops, iPads, and smart phones wouldn’t work without them.

California ranks #1 in the U.S. for tourist visits and tourism dollars. “Hey, SSS,” you might ask, “what does tourism have to do with location and natural resources?” “How about its climate, beaches, Yosemite National Park, the Sierra Nevada mountains, Lake Tahoe, Redwood forests, Sequoia National Forest, and Death Valley for starters,” I would answer. Places like Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, ski areas, sports tournaments, zoos, Hollywood movie set tours, and world class resorts don’t hurt, of course.

I saved the best for last. Do you like to eat? Well, do you, punk?

native advertising

California is the #1 farming state in the U.S., by a country mile. It is the #5 supplier of food on the entire fucking planet. It produces 50% (!!!!) of U.S. grown fruits and vegetables, and get this, it is the #1 producer of dairy products – milk, cream, ice cream, and cheese – in the nation. Not Wisconsin, amigos, California.

As for so-called “specialty foods,” no other state comes close to California. The list is long: almonds, artichokes (mmm, tasty), avocados, figs, olives, pistachios, plums/prunes, pomegranites, raisins, and walnuts, just to name a few. All of this enormous agricultural activity is made possible by California’s unique location and its wide variety of climates and soils.

Here’s my bottom line. Even a long, recent string of extremely liberal governments in Sacramento has been unable to destroy this wealth of natural resources which sustains California even today. Not that the liberal left in that goofy state isn’t trying. And I certainly don’t dismiss some critical issues California faces, with water and energy production at the top of the list.

But, for the above reasons mentioned, I wouldn’t write off California just yet. Mother Nature has blessed that state many times over. Too bad the majority of voters there don’t appreciate it, or even realize it.

Actual photo of SSS, TBP’s lead investigative reporter who smugly dismisses his detractors.

llpoh – What Attorneys Are Saying

Some time ago I mentioned conversation with my tax attorney friend. He has been telling me stories from his regular meetings with fellow tax attorneys. The stories are both interesting and disturbing. My friend and his associates represent a very wide range of clients – multinationals, small and medium businesses, and individuals who are modestly wealthy to super wealthy. Following are some of things that he is finding, and what the attorneys are saying and hearing:

He says that every attorney he knows is being inundated with requests for help protecting, and liquidating, individual’s assets. Extremely high numbers of small and medium business owners are looking to sell up, or to simply walk away from their businesses, and to shelter assets from tax. The requests for assistance are far greater than ever before seen or known. Obamacare, tax on investment income, escalating red tape, etc. are given as reasons. People want to protect what they have spent their lives earning, and no longer see the risk being worth the reward. He says the amount of capital being pulled out of the economy is astonishing.

He indicates that larger businesses – multinationals and larger nationals – are seeking advice on how to relocate entirely overseas. In other words, they are seeking to no longer be incorporated in the US, and seek to move their companies entirely off-shore. He indicates that this is largely in response to the US having the highest corporate tax rate in the world, and that they feel that they are being unfairly targeted in the media and by the government for failing to pay their “fair share”, and they believe that their tax is going to skyrocket, and that they will become uncompetitive as a result. Their response is to seek to take their businesses elsewhere.

He says that there is currently an attack by the IRS on expatriates (the US is effectively the only country on earth that requires its citizens to pay tax on world-wide income. A person can live for decades overseas, have no US income whatsoever, and will still be liable for US tax). There are around 6 million US expatriates living overseas. They fall into two categories in general – reasonably affluent professionals and such working overseas, and retirees living in low cost of living places. He says that the IRS sees them as a source of revenue, and believes they are being targeted as they effectively have no representation. The targeting takes the form of tax reporting. The number of tax forms required of overseas Americans is extraordinary, and invasive. Bank accounts must be reported (if you sign checks for a company, those must be reported – bank account number, value, etc.), all assets must be reported, financial reports of companies you work for must be reported if you own 10% of shares in the company, trusts must be reported, gifts from foreign “entities must be reported, investments in mutual funds must be reported, retirement account info must be reported. If you are a businessman with interests in a business overseas, the reporting requirements require hundreds of hours of work per year. And an individual is not capable of doing it him or herself, and must get professional help. My friend says that the reporting requirements are so difficult that NO ONE can meet the burden without making mistakes, and making mistakes can be a criminal offense or subject the person to draconian civil penalty.

My friend says that the reason that these reports are being required is to 1) confiscate assets of expats living overseas, and 2) to force the expats to return to the US, and to bring their assets with them. The general belief is that the expatriates are seen as having escaped the clutches of the taxman, and that a concerted effort is being made to draw them back into the system.

My friend says that the attorneys are advising their clients that the must consider that all forms of communication are being intercepted and listened into – phone, email, text, anything. He says that the attorneys are advising that only face to face communication can be considered to be confidential, and that they should behave accordingly. He said that especially applies to overseas communications. He also indicates that the general belief is that every electronic communication must be considered to be being copied and saved by the US government, and that as computer systems improve that every communication a person makes will be instantly available for scrutiny by the government, and that he does not believe that privilege can be counted on to apply to communications made via technology. That is astonishing.

All in all, tax attorneys are seeing what everyone on TBP is seeing – the system is in collapse, freedoms are being ripped from the people, and that responsible, productive people are scrambling to protect what they have earned as they believe that a massive confiscatory movement is underway, and if they do not act soon, their assets will be taken from them, and business is jumping ship at increased pace as they believe they are being targeted.

I doubt this surprises many. Prepare accordingly is my best advice.

Tyra-Nanny

I would like to add a word to our vocabulary (I have even submitted it to Urban Dictionary and it’s currently under review):

tyra-nanny (noun) (tee-ruh-nahn-nee): a tyrannical fascist governing body that commits its atrocities under the falsely altruistic auspices of security and protection, i.e. A fascist nanny state. (adj): tyra-nannical

Each 4th of July is more empty than the last. I will spend this day of mourning with a few family and friends, likely wearing a shirt with a RP, TJ, or BF quote across it and explaining it to people who are inquisitive. I refuse to fly the US Flag, this nation is barely a shell of itself. When you see signs like this how can a person think they are free?

In protest we should be waiving the Gadsden Flag.

Today we live in a seemingly constant state of government surveillance and control. The alphabet agencies such as the EPA and FDA are regulating and making rulings on what we can and can’t do with our property. The FBI, NSA, TSA, DHS and ATF operate under the pretense of violence and the threat of violence so that you won’t do things deemed “naughty.” They know what is best for all of us, and will harm and threaten to harm us for our own good.

The purpose of the USA government as it was created was to protect liberty. My definition of liberty is aligned with TJ’s.

“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action, according to our will, within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.”

~Thomas Jefferson~

Does that sound the US of A today? What does Jefferson know, he was just a slave-owning Founding Father? (sic) But ignore the name of the quotee and examine the idea within the statement. Liberty is not being able to collect SSDI, welfare checks, SNAP cards, send your lil monsters to a parasitic Public School System and using the threat of violence and force to make people pay for you to live. Liberty is not legislating the type of food we are allowed to eat and/or how much trans-fats or sugar are in said food. Government wasn’t put in place to teach our children. It isn’t meant to be the pseudo-parents and guardians of all the adult citizens. We are supposed to be our own guardians. We are supposed to be free and sovereign beings and our children are supposed to be taught by their parents and families.

Ammendments like the 1st, 2nd and 4th mean exactly what they say. When verbage from the 2nd ammendment is ignored but the Commerce Clause it used to regulate every possible human function and action, the government is not the custodian of freedom, it is the destroyer of it.

Edward Snowden is being hunted and chastised by our criminal government because he told us the crimes they were committing and rights they were routinely violating. Those who scream the loudest that he is a traitor are the ones with treasonous blood on their hands. Finding the perpetrator of treason is similar to finding the person who farted in a crowded room. The Feinsteins, Boners, Grahams, Schumers and Kings are the ones spewing shit from their mouths.

: He who accuses, blew the fuses.; He who pointed the finger, pulled the finger.

Our owners have been at war with us. The criticial thinking members of the populace are the enemy of the state. RP sums it up well in his recent quote:

“My understanding is that espionage means giving secret or classified information to the enemy. Since Snowden shared information with the American people, his indictment for espionage could reveal (or confirm) that the US Government views you and me as the enemy.”

~Ron Paul~

There are plain clothes ABC agents running and yelling at 20 year old girls with guns in hand because she bought a case of bottled water that they suspected was alcohol. Six agents staking out the area around a convenient store in Virgina terrorized a college student buying water. She saw people yelling, waving guns, pounding on her windows and jumping on her car so she did the only rational thing. She quickly got the fuck outta there. After escaping, she then called 911 to report she had been attacked. Her attackers promptly showed up to arrest her and charge her with assaulting law enforcement officers (Read the story HERE). All this because a 20 year old college student might be drinking alcohol. To supposedly protect the children from alcohol we allow gun waving sociopathic baboons terrorize us and our children. This is insanity.

The police and DHS are becoming the domestic military force that our rulers need to keep us “in line” and make sure we don’t get too uppity. A man saw a situation where there were police, he was told to turn down the music in his car. He did and then exited his car and while walking his dog he started to film what was going on to “make sure no one’s civil rights were being violated.” After the situation settled down the man returned to his vehicle and put his dog in the car. The police, who hate being filmed approached him, questioned him and started to arrest him. His dog (a 3yo 130lb rottweiler) leaped out of the car and ran towards its owner. In the name of “officer safety” the cops then fired upon and killed this man’s dog in front of him. Would I feel threatened if I saw a 130lb rott running towards me. Abso-fucking-lutely, but if I was a worthless cop fuckwad arresting someone because they were filming me I would deserve to be attacked by this protective companion. The dog understands the Constiution better than these pigs. Story can be read HERE (of course this article is in a UK paper because you have to leave the US to get any truthful news). If that isn’t enough to turn your stomach, read this story posted on The Burning Platform titled THIS IS YOUR STANDARD LEO where an animal control officer (and former pigfuck) executed kittens. Yes, you read that right, he shot 8-10 week old kittens on a private resident’s property while children were watching from a window. Don’t for one second believe that the cops won’t summary execute you if they are ordered to do so or is deemed necessary for their or the states’ safety.

: Does seeing this make you feel safe?

Protect everyone from drugs, alcohols, guns, violence, poverty, etc… ad infinitum. But how is this done? By empowering the State to use violence and terrorism against us and our fellow man. And what’s the outcome? We are turning into a society of dependent, pansy-ass whining dipshits that are dumber than a bag full of doorknobs being protected at gunpoint by our owners, a bunch of aristocratic sociopaths.

I wish people would wake up and not swallow the crock of shit spouted by the RA-RA cheerleaders of the MSM’s presstitutes on I-SeeBS and FUX News.

Here is a Quiz:

What are acceptable names of this monument?

Choices:

A. “Lady Liberty”, “Statue of Liberty”

B. Hot French Lady in Toga

C. “Nanny Security”, “Statue of Serfdom”

Answer: A (and B) should be the answers but they aren’t true in today’s Amerika. If you live in the USSA and have been presented the truth and didn’t answer C, then you are a hypocrite and/or a moron. They should start a construction project, the preliminary blueprints are below.

The government has declared that we are their property. Our livelihood and fruits of our labor and literally our lives are theirs to barter with at the bargaining table that includes the Military Industrial Complex, Banksters, Big Pharma, Big GMO Food and Big Insurance. And what does an owner do with their property? They protect it for as long as it is profitable to do so. We are all milk cows being plucked of our resources by our owners day in and day out, our tags (SS#, DL# and soon E-Verify) mark all of us so everyone knows who owns us. The only choice we really have is to remain a milk cow or refuse and become a beef cow.

“The owners of this country know the truth: It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

~George Carlin~

They are continually sacrificing a portion of the populace through the meat grinder in the War on Terror. More warzones are a certainly with these insane megalomaniacs at the helm. It has been said that War is the health of the State and with the War on Drugs, War on Poverty, War on Browns (throughout the world), War on the Middle Class, War on Guns, War on Obesity and the War on the US Constitution; the State has never been healthier. But when the State is healthy, Liberty is dying.

And all this atrophy of liberty is being conducted in the name of safety. Safety for the children, safety for the environment, safety for the stupid. The way the hoi polloi think the world should work makes me sick. If the government did something that actually enhanced liberty (like repealing the PATRIOT Act) these people would expect the world to stop spinning.

“I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery.”

~Thomas Jefferson~

I don’t have TJ’s way with words so I will simply say: Fuck Safety! I demand Freedom along with all its greatness and chaos and I will be taking it back piece by piece.

http://youtu.be/XTCHoLhozIY

” None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”

JW von Goethe

http://thestrangestbrew.com/

Have you ever wanted to KILL YOURSELF … even if it was just a passing thought?

I’ve been reading this guy James Altucher, a damn fine writer, several years now. Here -http://www.jamesaltucher.com/

His amazing heartfelt article below titled, “THERE’S NO PAINLESS WAY TO KILL YOURSELF” caused me to reflect on my own such thoughts over the years.

Mostly I’ve had thoughts in the past such as “I wish I were dead!” I guess that’s not the same as “I want to kill myself”. Or, is it? I don’t know, but it might be.

The first time was around 3rd grade. I had zero friends … for years since we arrived in America. No one in our Newark neighborhood — predominately Polish, Jewish, Italian, and Russian — wanted anything to do with the Nazi family (as they perceived us) in the neighborhood. Not knowing English I didn’t know jackshit what was being taught in Catholic school. I got bad grades. Very bad. My dad would kick my ass when I brought home a bad report card. One day I brought home a particularly bad one. We lived in a 3rd floor apartment. As I heard him come up the stairs I ran to my room, and hid under the bed, absolutely terrified. I distinctly remember as if it were yesterday how I wished I were dead. The evening did not end well for me.

The second time was around 11th grade. Stuff that happened in Catholic school finally came home to roost. Don’t want to go into the details but you can use your imagination. It was the only time I actually attempted suicide. My parents were gone to visit friends about an hour away. I sealed the garage, pulled out a lounge chair, had a bottle of Vodka (for courage), turned on the car … guzzled a large amount of Vodka, and closed my eyes. Fortunately for me, I suppose, my parents came home several hours earlier than expected.

The last time was when I got divorced after 19 years of marriage. In a nutshell I let her keep ALL the assets, and I took ALL the debts, which were significant. You know that saying,”he doesn’t have a pot to piss in”? That was me, overnight. But, the worst part was that my ex-wife decided that I was actually possessed by Satan (she meant that literally), and that contact with my two sons should cease. I don’t want to get into the reasons why I didn’t fight it except to say I thought it was best for DN and SJ to not be involved in ugly fighting between parents. Then 9-11 happened and within the year the software company I was heavily involved with went belly up. No job. No money. No kids. And when all that happens you eventually wind up with “no friends”. I was never more down, and I wished I could just die.

Thankfully, I no longer harbor any such thoughts. Probably because I am a masochist. I WANT to be around when the shit hits the fan. I WANT to see bankerfuks and their ilk hang from lampposts. I WANT to be part of that process. Lol

But the real reason is probably because I simply don’t give a shit about material things anymore. My kids are grown and on their own. What the hell do I need a lot of shit for? I don’t. I appreciate the little I have without wanting to have more. Except for my new food dehydrator. That little fucker brings me great joy. I made strawberry rollups the other day. LIFE IS GOOD!!!

I hope you all don’t think this is a morbid post. It is what it is. My life, that is. I’m guessing there won’t be many responses. Who the hell wants to admit they ever even THOUGHT about offing themselves? Lol I hope I’m wrong, though. Maybe you can share your general thoughts about the topic. Or, stories you know about other people.

How shall I then live now? My pal Jeebus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Later on it is written, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”.

That’s my ultimate GOAL, to live like that … but it IS difficult with the Amerika I used to love crumbling all around me. That’s the final reason I don’t dream of offing myself. I have this teeny tiny sliver of hope that America will be restored once again … and I want to be around to see it, if possible.

====================== =

THERE’S NO PAINLESS WAY TO KILL YOURSELF

I gave my 11 year old daughter important advice the other day: there’s no painless way to kill yourself.

“What about with a gun?” she said.

I told her about a friend of mine who shot himself in the mouth. He put the gun in his mouth and pointed upwards towards the brain.

He missed.

He shot off half his face, he went blind in one eye, and he is now in a wheelchair.

If you type in “I Want to Die” into google, my website is the first result.

My first business I sold for $15 million. We built websites for entertainment companies. Bad Boy Records, Miramax, Time Warner, HBO, Sony, Disney, Loud Records, Interscope, on and on. Oh, and Con Edison.

Mobb Deep would hang out in my office. Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails would stop by. RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan would want to play chess. We even made a website for a brothel in Nevada. Then I saw that kids in junior high school were learning HTML. So I sold the business.

I bought an apartment for millions. I rebuilt it. Feng Shui! I bought art. I played a lot of poker. I began investing in companies. A million here. A few hundred thousand there.

Then I started more companies. Then I bought more things. Then I became an addict. The worst kind of addict.

From June 2000 until September, 2001 I probably lost $1 million a month. I couldn’t stop. I wanted to get back up to the peak. I wanted to be loved. I wanted to have $100 million so people would love me.

Writing this now I even feel like slitting my wrists and stomach. I have 2 kids.

I felt like I was going to die. That zero equals death. I couldn’t believe how stupid I had been. I lost all my friends. Nobody returned calls. I would go to the ATM machine – from $15 million to $143 left.

There were no jobs, There was nothing.

One weekend when I had $0 left in my bank account I called my parents to borrow money but they said “no”. “College was enough” they told me, even though I had ended up paying for every dime of college. That was the last time I spoke to my dad, who had a stroke six months later.

I tried meditation to calm down but it didn’t work. I never slept. I lost 30 lbs. I’m 5’9″. I went from 160 to 130. I couldn’t talk to anyone. I couldn’t move. I stopped having ideas. I cried every day.

There was never a moment when I didn’t feel sick. I had let my kids down. I would die and they would never remember me.

We moved 80 miles north of NYC with the tiny bit of money we took out of our apartment after being forced to sell at a million dollar loss. I couldn’t leave the house for three months. I was depressed. I gained back all my weight and then another 30 lbs.

Finally I had to either die or feed my family. I was forced to choose myself.

– I started to exercise every day. I started to eat better. One item for breakfast. A healthy lunch. Tiny dinner. No snacks.
– I started to sleep 9 hours a day.
– I started to only be around people who loved and supported me. I broke off all ties with anyone who I felt bad to be around.
– I wrote down ideas every day of articles I could write and about businesses I could start. Bit by bit I started to get paid to write. If you don’t exercise the idea muscle it atrophies.
– I decided I wanted to help people every day and be honest every day. I was grateful for my daughters. I was grateful for what I had. I didn’t fight reality or regret. This was my reality and I had to make the best of it.
– Every day I came up with ideas for new businesses. I had a waiter’s pad. I would go to a cafe at 6 in the morning with about 4 books and read for an hour or two and then start writing down ideas for new businesses, articles, etc.
– I started a hedge fund. I started a fund of hedge funds. I started a newsletter. I did deals. I made introductions every day, expanding my brand new network from scratch. At least 5 introductions a day.
– I got involved in a mental health company I sold for $41 million.
– I started a website, Stockpickr! which got millions of unique users. I found advertising for it. I sold it to thestreet.com
– I had made millions again from scratch.

Then I stopped using the fundamental techniques I described above. Every time I’ve lost money it’s because I squandered my physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.

I was really bad. I did everything you should not do. I was like an addict. Picture the worst abuses. That was me. Again.

And then I lost it all again. Everything. Agh!

I had to start over. I couldn’t even believe I had to start from scratch atgain.

Every day without fail I focus on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. And it’s worked. I hope. I hope I don’t squander again.

People say it’s not about the end, it’s about the journey.

This is total BS.

It’s not about the journey and it never was.

It’s about right now. Right now is the only place you’ll ever be. Choose yourself not to waste it.

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2013/05/theres-no-painless-way-to-kill-yourself/