Is Recession Preparing a New Breed of Survivalist? [Survival Today - an On going Thread #2]

May 05th,2008

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Congratulations!

[CottonBall]

I hope you are right, but he will find another way.

I'm afraid you are right. The libs stop at nothing to get their way - not even when the people disagree by a huge majority. So much for being 'representatives.'

[DelaWhere]

Suggestions for Vegetable Gardens

Seed or Plants	Amount Per Person Per Year	Suggested varieties	Suggested Planting Dates1	Distance between plants (in.)	Planting Depth (in.)	Min. Soil Temp.(F)2	Approx. No. of seeds per ounce	Days to maturity
Asparagus (crowns)	10	Mary Washington, Jersey Gaint, Jersey Gem	Nov. 15-Mar. 15	15	6.0	-	-	2 years
Beans, Snap	1/4 pound	Tenerette, Harvester, Astro, Roma (flat), Derby, Dandy	Apr. 15-July15	3	1.0	60	100	50-55
Beans, Pole	1/4 pound	Kentucky Wonder 191, Blue Lake Stringless, Romano (flat), Kentucky Blue	Apr. 15-July 1	6	1.0	50	100	65-70
Beans, bush lima	1/2 pound	Fordhook 242, Bridgeton, Early Thorogreen	May1-July 1	6	1.5	65	703	65-80
Beans, pole lima	1/2 pound	King of the Garden, Carolina Sieva (small)	May1-June 15	6	1.5	65	703	75-95
Beets	1/4 packet	Ruby Queen, Early Wonder, Red Ace, Pacemaker II, Emperor	Mar.15-Apr.15; July 15-Aug.1-15	2	0.5	50	1,600	55-60
Broccoli4,5	15 plants	DeCicco, Packman, Premium Crop, Green Duke	Mar.15-31; July 15-Aug.1-15	18	0.5	45	9,000	70-80
Bussels Sprouts4,5	25 plants	Long Island Improved, Jade Cross Hybrid	July 1-15	20	0.5	45	9,000	90-100
Cabbage Plants4,5	25 plants	Round Dutch, Early Jersey Wakefield, Red Express, Red Rookie, Sweetbase	Feb.1-Apr.1; Aug 1-15	12	0.5	45	9,000	70-80
Cabbage, Chinese	1/4 packet	Pak Choi, Mei Ching, Jade Pagoda, China Pride	Mar.15-Apr.1; Aug 1-15	12	0.5	50	9,500	75-85
Cantaloupe	12 plants	Classic, Magnum 45, Ambrosia, Honey Brew	Apr. 20-June 1	24	1.0	70	1,000	85-99
Carrots	1/4 packet	Danvers Half Long, Spartan Bonus, Little Finger, Thumbelina, Scarlet Nantes	Feb 15-Mar 1; July 1-15	2	0.25	45	23,000	85-95
Cauliflower4,5	25 plants	Early Snowball "A", Villet Queen, Snowcrown	Mar. 15-31; Aug 1-15;	18	0.5	45	10,000	55-65
Collards 4,5	25 plants	Vates, Moris' Improved Heading, Carolina	July 15-Aug 15	18	0.5	45	8,000	60-100
Corn, sweet	1 Packet	Silver Queen, Senneca Chief, Honey 'n Pearl, How Sweet It Is, Bodacious, Merit	Apr.15-June 1	12	1.5	50	150	85-90
Cucumbers, pickling	1/4 Packet	Carolina, Calypso, Liberty (mtns.), County Fair '83	Apr. 20-May 15; Aug 1-15	10	1.0	65	1,000	40-50
Cucumbers, slicing	1/4 packet	Poinsett, Sweet Slice, County Fair '83, Salad Bush, Fanfare	Apr. 20- May 15; Aug 1-15	10	1.0	65	1,000	40-50
Eggplant (plants)3,4	2 plants	Florida Highbush, Special Hibush, Iciban, Rosa Bianco	May 1-31	24	0.5	70	6,000	80-85
Kale	1/4 ounce	Green Curled Scotch, Early Siberian, Vates, Dwarf Blue Curled Scotch, Blue Knight	Mar.1-Apr.1; Aug.15-Sept 1	6	0.5	45	10,000	40-50
Kohlrabi	1/4 ounce	White Vienna, Grand Duke Hybrid	Mar.1-Apr.15; Aug 1-Sept. 1	4	0.5	55	8,000	50-60
Lettuce (leaf)	1/4 ounce	Grand Rapids, Salad Bowl, Buttercrunch, Red Sails, Romulus	Mar 1-Apr 1; Aug 1-Sept 1	6	0.25	45	25,000	40-50
Lettuce (head)	15 plants	Great Lakes, Ithaca	Feb 15-Mar 15; Aug 15-31	10	0.25	45	25,000	70-85
Mustard	1/4 ounce	Southern Giant Curled, Tendergreen, Savannah	Mar 1-Apr 1; Aug 1-Sept 15	2	0.5	40	15,000	30-40
Onions (seed)	1/4 ounce	Texas 1015, Granex 33, Candy	Jan 15-Mar 31; Sept 1-30	4	0.5	50	9,500	130-150
Onions (sets or plants)	50	Ebenezer, Excell, Early Grano	Feb 1- Mar 15; Sept 1-15	4	-	-	-	60-80
Okra	1/4 packet	Clemson Spineless, Lee, Annie Oakly, Burgundy	May 1-31	12	1.0	70	500	60-70
Peas (edible-podded)	1/2 pound	Sugar Snap, Mammoth Melting Sugar, Snowbird, Sugar Bon	Jan. 1- Mar.1	1	1.0	40	2003	60-70
Peas, garden	1/2 pound	Wando, Green Arrow, Freezonian, Tall Telephone	Jan. 1-Mar 1	1	1.0	40	2003	65-70
Peas, southern	1/2 pound	Dixilee, Mississippi Silver, Colossus, Hercules, Mississippi Purple Hull	May 1-July 1	4	1.0	70	125	55-65
Peppers, sweet (plants)3,4	4 plants	California Wonder, Yolo Wonder, Pimento, Mexi Bell, Jingle Bells, King Authur	May 1-31	18	0.5	65	4,500	75-80
Peppers, hot (plants)3,4	2 plants	Red Chili, Cayenne, Hungarian Yellow Wax, Super Chili, Super Cayenne, Mitla	May 1-31	15	0.5	65	4,500	75-80
Potatoes (Irish)	10 pounds	Kennecbec, Red Pontiac, Yukon Gold, Superior	Feb 15- Apr 1	10	5.0	40	-	95-120
Pumpkins	1/4 packet	Autumn God, Howden's Field, Spookie (small), Baby Bear, Connecticut Field	Apr. 15- June 15	48	1.5	70	110	115-120
Radishes	1/4 packet	Early Scarlet Globe, Cherry Belle, Snowbells, White Icicile	Feb 1-Apr 1; Aug 15-Sept 15.	1	0.5	45	2,000	25-30
Radish, Diakon	1/4 packet	April Cross, H.N. Cross	Feb 1- Apr 1; Aug. 15-Sept.15	1	0.5	45	2,000	60-75
Rutabagas	1/4 packet	American Purple Top, Laurentian	Feb 1- Apr 1; July 1-Aug 1	4	0.5	60	12,000	70-80
Spinach	1/4 packet	Hybrid 7, Dark Green Bloomsdale, Tyee Hybrid	Feb 15-Mar. 15; Aug 1-15	6	0.5	45	2,800	50-60
Squash, summer	1/4 packet	Seneca Prolific (yellow), Zucchini Elite (green), Sun Drops	Apr. 15- May 15, Aup 1-15	24	1.5	60	300	50-60
Squash, winter	1/4 packet	Sweet Mama, Early Butternut, Spaghetti, Cream of the Crop, Table Ace, Lakota	Apr. 15- May 15, Aup 1-15	24	1.5	60	300	50-60
Sweetpotatoes 5	75 plants	Porto Rico 198, Jewel, Pope	May 15- June 15	10	-	70	-	95-125
Swiss chard	1/4 packet	Lucullus, Rhubard Chard	Mar. 15- May 1	6	0.5	50	1,600	60-70
Tomatoes (plants)3,4	15 plants	Whopper 5, Mt. Pride, Celebrity5,Better Boy5, Husky Gold, Patio, Big Beef5	Apr. 20-Jyly 15	18	0.5	60	10,000	75-85
Turnips	1/4 ounce	Purple Top White Globe, Just Right, Tokyo Cross Hybrid, White Egg, All Top	Feb 1-Apr 15; Aug 1-31	2	0.5	60	13,000	55-60
Watermelons	1/2 ounce	Congo, Sweet Princess, Golden Crown, Yellow Doll, Tiger Baby	Apr. 15- June 1	60	1.5	70	2503	90-100

¹Dates shown are for the upper coastal plain and lower piedmont. In western NC delay planting 10 to 20 days in spring and plant 10 to 20 days earlier in fall. In eastern NC plant 7 to 14 days earlier in spring and 7 to 14 days later in fall.
²At these temperatures germination and emergence should be rapid. Planting at lower soil termperature would significantly delay emergence.
³ Seedling depths and soil temperatures are given for gardeners who wish to grow their own plants.
⁴Set plants at least 50 percent of their length below ground.
⁵Carries resistance to verticillian wilt, fusarium wilt, and root-know nematodes.

[CottonBall]

Aw, thanks, 10. (I hope you don’t mind the nickname - easier to type!)

I think granny, DW, and you are the mainstays on this thread and supply most of the much needed information. I’m a newbie and still learning from y’all. (I was born in TX and lived there bout 5 years ago, so I have a license to use that phrase.) But I do enjoy coming here to learn and to chat with everyone.

BTW, how’s your land and lake doing? I’ll bet it’s greening up and getting REAL pretty!

[DelaWhere]

As The One - Øbama - has been trying to get the support of medical practitioners for his new socialized Universal Health Care...

The Allergists voted to scratch it, and the
Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut
feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought
the Administration had a lot of nerve, and the
Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under
a misconception.

The Ophthalmologists considered the idea
shortsighted; the Pathologists yelled, ‘Over my
dead body!’ while the Pediatricians said, ‘Oh,
Grow up!’

The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was
madness, the Radiologists could see right through
it, and the Surgeons decided to wash their hands
of the whole thing.

The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to
swallow, and the Plastic Surgeons said, ‘This
puts a whole new face on the matter.’

The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but
the Urologists felt the scheme wouldn’t hold water.

The Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a
gas, and the Cardiologists didn’t have the heart
to say no.

In the end, the Proctologists left the decision
up to some assholes in Washington.

[Eagle50AE]

Thank You for the date chart..

I helped neighbor (what little i could) on greenhouse today.

should have it completed by mid morning tomorrow..

scored a squirrel cage for battery generator

http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_experiments_waterwheel.html

and 2 h/water tanks for wood heaters..

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1978-01-01/The-Amazing-500-Wood-Burning-Stove-That-You-Can-Build-for-35-Or-Less.aspx

and 2 treadmills. (for motors)

http://www.velacreations.com/chispito.html

these for a third+ backup source ..

Everybody have a backup radio ?? stay tuned

[Eagle50AE]

Hopefully you have a neighbor, close relative or friend which you could set up alternate communications (neighborhood/community watch )

Cellular and PCS portable telephones may not “work” during an emergency. Their central offices and switching infrastructure aren't to enable everybody to use them at once. Design assumptions presume that only about 5 to 10% of users will use the system at one time. If everyone tries to use their phones, the system becomes “overloaded” and you will get a “system busy” or “no service available” message.

The Family Radio Service or FRS has utility for short range communications, if you understand and accepts its significant limitations. The FCC created FRS as an unlicensed service for use by families and groups. FRS radios are readily available at discount stores such as Wal-Mart or Radio Shack for about $25. They are pocket-sized, use common AA or AAA batteries and have better audio quality than Citizen's Band or CB portables.

FRS is reliable for only 1/2 to 3/4 mile under typical city conditions. Advertising claims of “range up to two miles,” apply only if you are up high, in the clear without interfereing buildings, terrain or ground clutter. This is line-of-sight communication and FRS is a low-powered, short-range service. It works for much farther than you can yell and is cheaper than using your cell phone minutes within your neighborhod. Reliable communication of over a mile using FRS is the exception and not the rule. Think of FRS as a pocket-sized, half-mile wireless intercom, no more.

Not everyone in your neighborhood will want or need FRS. Canvass your neighborhood and ask who already has one. Buy them for elderly, special needs, high risk populations and “block captains” in your Neighborhood Watch group.

If your local emergency management agency uses CERT, Neighborhood Watch or RACES volunteers, they can monitor FRS Channel 1 to listen for people who need assistance. This channel is widely used as a “neighborhood calling” frequency during emergencies. Turn off any “privacy codes” and listen with “carrier squelch” only (explained later).

The ability to monitor FRS1 to relay distress traffic to authorities may be vital if telephone service is interrupted for any reason. Residents living alone or with impaired mobility should consider FRS to maintain contact with a friend or neighbor within walking distance who is able to assist them in an emergency. Higher-end FRS radios are compatible with voice-actuated headsets, which ease use by persons having limited hand dexterity.

All FRS radios are compatible in operation. You may choose any one of 14”Channels” and talk to anyone within range using the same channel. Not all FRS radios have all 14 channels, but all have at least Channel 1. The idea is that if the power or telephones go out, everyone would turn on their radio to maintain a “listening watch” on Channel 1.

Neighbors should check to ensure that anyone living alone is OK and that in families everyone is accounted for. Relay emergency calls down the line to someone in contact with the “outside world” through a working telephone, a phone patch via amateur radio or any other available communications.

If your family group uses any channel other than Channel 1, let your local emergency management know so that CERT teams, police and fire can program it into their scanners. Schedule a regular weekly test, such as Sunday mornings at ten over coffee, to meet “on the air,” check the radio, and make sure the batteries are OK. Become familiar with how your FRS radio works and determine your area of coverage.

So-called “privacy codes” touted by the radio manufacturers and mass marketers do NOT make your conversation private! Continuous Tone Coded Squelch or CTCSS is used in amateur, business and public safety radios to enable multiple users to share the same channel without hearing each other. Anyone can turn the “privacy code” off enabling them to hear all traffic on the channel. CTCSS is used to reduce ambient noise when you monitor the radio all the time. It is not a scrambler. Don't discuss personal information you want to keep private on FRS!

If FRS is to be of any use in an emergency everyone should DISABLE TONE SQUELCH and use carrier squelch only!

If you ever need to use a 2-way radio in a real emergency, it is vital that you be clearly understood. Professional emergency responders use plain language, and you should do the same. Avoid “ten-codes” and jargon you hear on TV shows because these terms have different meanings in different areas and are easily misunderstood.

To call someone, say the name of the person your want to call, followed by the words “THIS IS,” then say your name and “OVER.” For example:

“MARTHA, THIS IS GEORGE, OVER.”
When Martha hears her name, it gets her attention. She may not know George, so when she hears the words “THIS IS” it alerts her to pay attention to who is calling her. When she hears “OVER” she knows that it is her turn to speak.

Two-way radios are not “full-duplex” like a telephone. You cannot hear what someone else is saying when YOU are talking. Because only one person can talk at a time, it is more important to LISTEN on a 2-way radio than to talk! It's basic “radio etiquette” to establish contact and make sure that you have the other person's attention before just “blabbing away.”

If you hear someone calling you, acknowledge the call by identifying yourself and saying, “GO AHEAD.” This lets the caller know that you heard them, and that you are ready to listen to what they have to say.

When you want them to respond say “OVER.” The word “OVER” leaves no doubt about whose turn it is to talk and avoids any confusion which results from two people speaking at once and nobody hearing the other. When your business is finished, the person who started the conversation should end it by saying their name and the word “OUT” which leaves no mistake that the contact has ended.

Always release the push-to-talk (PTT) button whenever you stop talking. If you forget and keep it pushed down when trying to think of something to say, the radio continues to transmit a carrier, making your battery run down faster and making “dead air” so that nobody else can be heard. In the least sense, doing so is impolite. In an emergency, it could prevent someone with vital information from getting through. Leave a second or two between “hand-offs” to give others a chance to break in.

Speak in short, simple phrases and toss the conversion back and forth with the word “OVER.”

Don't speak immediately when you press the PTT, but wait an instant. Most two-way radios take 100 to 300 milliseconds to change from receive to transmit, so if you speak as soon you “key up” it “clips” the first syllable, making it harder to understand. If that word doesn't make it, you will just have to say it again and run down your batteries faster.

If you must use a 2-way radio to relay an emergency call to someone else who will make a telephone call for you, write the information down and collect your thoughts. The 911 operator will need the exact location, street name, house number and nearest cross street to the emergency. This is vital if a call being relayed is made from a location different from the emergency.

E-911 systems trace incoming calls. It wastes precious response time if a unit is automatically dispatched to where the call is being made from, if it is far from the actual location of the emergency.

Answer the call taker's questions as directly as possible, do not explain. If asked a question, just answer. If you think that additional information is vital, be brief and let the call taker ask for more detail.

It doesn't help to talk louder on the radio in a noisy environment, even though it's may seem natural to speak louder when it is noisy around you. When you yell, the radio clips your voice, distorting voice audio so that it is less understandable.

Speak ACROSS the microphone rather than into it because breath sounds also reduce intelligibility.

Use a natural speaking voice. The proper way to overcome loud ambient noise is to shield the microphone from the wind, point it away from the source of noise or wait until the noise passes. A hand-held microphone or boom-mike with headset may be convenient if you have limited mobility or need your hands free to use tools or equipment, and are speaking to someone nearby.

Any portable transceiver is much less effective when worn on your belt, because the radio signal is absorbed your body. This is very noticeable with low power FRS. Unless you can see the person, house or car that you are talking to, hold the radio vertically, at face level, with its antenna in the clear.

Range is reduced to less than half if you use the radio inside a metal vehicle or inside a steel reinforced building. If you have trouble communicating, pull safely off the road and step outside the vehicle away from the traffic flow to use the radio.

In cold weather keep the radio warm inside a coat pocket or in your purse, NOT exposed on your belt. Adapters, which enable you to power the radio from your auto cigarette lighter plug, are useful for extended operation. If the radio will work with common AA batteries, you don't need to depend on household current to recharge.

A FRS radio is NOT a substitute for a cellular telephone! It is prudent to have a cellular telephone available for personal emergency communications and to use it as long as it still “works.” But, cellular telephones are not totally reliable under all emergency conditions. FRS, despite its significant performance limitations, provides an inexpensive short-range alternative for people who are willing to learn and practice to supplement their community preparedness.

Probably a good idea to Find a HAM in Your area.

[CottonBall]

In the end, the Proctologists left the decision up to some assholes in Washington.

LOL! I was wondering what it was leading up to.

[CottonBall]

Just wanted to be # 5000, for posterity !!

Wow - you timed that perfectly. I'm going to have to be patient to be #10000!

[CottonBall]

Is that snow on your lab?
BTW, she looks great in purple!

[DelaWhere]

Wow...
Great on the greenhouse... They are really enjoyable and productive.

Those links are great... I have bookmarked them and started reading. Lots of good info.

>>>Everybody have a backup radio ?? stay tuned<<<

Oh yes... Have 2 that can be powered by battery, sun, crank dynamo or power line... One has short wave, AM, FM and Weather - Other is AM,FM and Weather plus it will also charge cell phones and has 5 LED light.

This past Sunday, while dinner was in the oven (deer roast), our power went out... Probably a car hit a pole in the rainstorm. Plugged the stove (needs elect. for oven) into the inverter that I have set up to run the fan on the pellet or wood stove... Turned on music on emergency radio, wife lit candles, we had dinner by candlelight - then we had a just baked apple pie for dessert.

Not much disruption - daughter even said ‘Hey Dad, can we do this again?’

3 1/2 hours and we all just had fun (though I didn’t have to fire up the generator - we had plenty of water from the bladder tank even to do dishes with water we heated on the stove. Battery backup worked great - heater never missed a lick even with the stove on too. After power came back on, the charger had the batteries back up in just over an hour.

Guess we can call it a mini-drill...

[CottonBall]

FRS, despite its significant performance limitations, provides an inexpensive short-range alternative for people who are willing to learn and practice to supplement their community preparedness.

Good post on having some sort of communication device. Are these FRS radios the same thing that hikers or kids might use? If so, we have several all over the place - just need to go find them.

I was thinking about getting a ham radio license since hubby has one, so I might be able to find him if he gets lost/stuck snowmobiling or something. Will those work in emergency/chaos conditions?

[DelaWhere]

Actually Eagle50AE is # 15,000 since this is the second thread.

CB will have to try to be # 20,000

WOW...

[DelaWhere]

>>>I was thinking about getting a ham radio license since hubby has one,<<<

ABSOLUTELY! Do it!

>>>Will those work in emergency/chaos conditions?<<<

Those may be the ONLY non governmental communications - well, maybe some citizens band but too many kooks on there.

Ask your hubby about maybe participating together in an ARRL Field Day... In addition to voice, there is Packet Radio - data transmissions that are received and passed on automatically (like the internet does) till your packet gets to the destination, and response back.

Don’t know how 2 meter will fare if you are relying on repeaters though if TSHTF. Longer wave communications should be fine though.

[Eagle50AE]

>> I was thinking about getting a ham radio license since hubby has one <<<

Yes.. No-code required ..Your OM should be PROUD you are interested and work together to get your ticket.

I always have a line to poke fun at my wife during movies where people are lost/out of touch..etc “you know what they need?? yea yea a ham radio...

during natural disasters ham radio sometimes is the only way to reach out and talk l/distance.

I'll be honest... I have had mine packed up for the last 8 years, but slowly I’m testing my rigs and preparing..

yes frs are the FM walkie-talkies at wallmart b/buys etc,,
a good thing to have.. even when doing yard work ....

and they will work under international law until an EO ban ..

after that please rent or cue up "Road Warrior" ha!

[Eagle50AE]

This is a very sobering thread.

The Joys of HyperInflation

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2209486/posts

[upcountry miss]

Coppice-so that is the name for this practice. Have been amazed seeing every year the shoots springing from the base of trees we cut the year before. Usually I cut all but one or possibly two shoots from the base of each stump but didn’t realize there was a name for this activity. We also planted fast growing poplars last year and will plant more this year. We are still harvesting dead black cherry from the swamp, so probably our children will get the most benefit from the poplar.

Received my seeds today-finally!! Every year I get a news letter along with my seeds from this small local co-op. This year, the letter was almost entirely about the heavy demand for seeds and all the varieties that were sold out already. They hired an additional six workers this year just to handle the extra demand.

Also harvested the first of the many trailer loads of seaweed I will add to my compost which presently is mostly horse manure. Sure will help my clay-filled soil. Needless to say, my back is aching tonight and I will be retiring soon.

[nw_arizona_granny]

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6967

* Strategy for forcing political change through orchestrated crisis

First proposed in 1966 and named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, the “Cloward-Piven Strategy” seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.

Inspired by the August 1965 riots in the black district of Watts in Los Angeles (which erupted after police had used batons to subdue a black man suspected of drunk driving), Cloward and Piven published an article titled “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty” in the May 2, 1966 issue of The Nation. Following its publication, The Nation sold an unprecedented 30,000 reprints. Activists were abuzz over the so-called “crisis strategy” or “Cloward-Piven Strategy,” as it came to be called. Many were eager to put it into effect.

In their 1966 article, Cloward and Piven charged that the ruling classes used welfare to weaken the poor; that by providing a social safety net, the rich doused the fires of rebellion. Poor people can advance only when “the rest of society is afraid of them,” Cloward told The New York Times on September 27, 1970. Rather than placating the poor with government hand-outs, wrote Cloward and Piven, activists should work to sabotage and destroy the welfare system; the collapse of the welfare state would ignite a political and financial crisis that would rock the nation; poor people would rise in revolt; only then would “the rest of society” accept their demands.

The key to sparking this rebellion would be to expose the inadequacy of the welfare state. Cloward-Piven’s early promoters cited radical organizer Saul Alinsky as their inspiration. “Make the enemy live up to their (sic) own book of rules,” Alinsky wrote in his 1972 book Rules for Radicals. When pressed to honor every word of every law and statute, every Judaeo-Christian moral tenet, and every implicit promise of the liberal social contract, human agencies inevitably fall short. The system’s failure to “live up” to its rule book can then be used to discredit it altogether, and to replace the capitalist “rule book” with a socialist one.

The authors noted that the number of Americans subsisting on welfare — about 8 million, at the time — probably represented less than half the number who were technically eligible for full benefits. They proposed a “massive drive to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls.” Cloward and Piven calculated that persuading even a fraction of potential welfare recipients to demand their entitlements would bankrupt the system. The result, they predicted, would be “a profound financial and political crisis” that would unleash “powerful forces … for major economic reform at the national level.”

Their article called for “cadres of aggressive organizers” to use “demonstrations to create a climate of militancy.” Intimidated by threats of black violence, politicians would appeal to the federal government for help. Carefully orchestrated media campaigns, carried out by friendly, leftwing journalists, would float the idea of “a federal program of income redistribution,” in the form of a guaranteed living income for all — working and non-working people alike. Local officials would clutch at this idea like drowning men to a lifeline. They would apply pressure on Washington to implement it. With every major city erupting into chaos, Washington would have to act.

This was an example of what are commonly called Trojan Horse movements — mass movements whose outward purpose seems to be providing material help to the downtrodden, but whose real objective is to draft poor people into service as revolutionary foot soldiers; to mobilize poor people en masse to overwhelm government agencies with a flood of demands beyond the capacity of those agencies to meet. The flood of demands was calculated to break the budget, jam the bureaucratic gears into gridlock, and bring the system crashing down. Fear, turmoil, violence and economic collapse would accompany such a breakdown — providing perfect conditions for fostering radical change. That was the theory.

Cloward and Piven recruited a militant black organizer named George Wiley to lead their new movement. In the summer of 1967, Wiley founded the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO). His tactics closely followed the recommendations set out in Cloward and Piven’s article. His followers invaded welfare offices across the United States — often violently — bullying social workers and loudly demanding every penny to which the law “entitled” them. By 1969, NWRO claimed a dues-paying membership of 22,500 families, with 523 chapters across the nation.

Regarding Wiley’s tactics, The New York Times commented on September 27, 1970, “There have been sit-ins in legislative chambers, including a United States Senate committee hearing, mass demonstrations of several thousand welfare recipients, school boycotts, picket lines, mounted police, tear gas, arrests - and, on occasion, rock-throwing, smashed glass doors, overturned desks, scattered papers and ripped-out phones.”These methods proved effective. “The flooding succeeded beyond Wiley’s wildest dreams,” writes Sol Stern in the City Journal. “From 1965 to 1974, the number of single-parent households on welfare soared from 4.3 million to 10.8 million, despite mostly flush economic times. By the early 1970s, one person was on the welfare rolls in New York City for every two working in the city’s private economy.”As a direct result of its massive welfare spending, New York City was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1975. The entire state of New York nearly went down with it. The Cloward-Piven strategy had proved its effectiveness.

The Cloward-Piven strategy depended on surprise. Once society recovered from the initial shock, the backlash began. New York’s welfare crisis horrified America, giving rise to a reform movement which culminated in “the end of welfare as we know it” — the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which imposed time limits on federal welfare, along with strict eligibility and work requirements. Both Cloward and Piven attended the White House signing of the bill as guests of President Clinton.

Most Americans to this day have never heard of Cloward and Piven. But New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani attempted to expose them in the late 1990s. As his drive for welfare reform gained momentum, Giuliani accused the militant scholars by name, citing their 1966 manifesto as evidence that they had engaged in deliberate economic sabotage. “This wasn’t an accident,” Giuliani charged in a 1997 speech. “It wasn’t an atmospheric thing, it wasn’t supernatural. This is the result of policies and programs designed to have the maximum number of people get on welfare.”

Cloward and Piven never again revealed their intentions as candidly as they had in their 1966 article. Even so, their activism in subsequent years continued to rely on the tactic of overloading the system. When the public caught on to their welfare scheme, Cloward and Piven simply moved on, applying pressure to other sectors of the bureaucracy, wherever they detected weakness.

In 1982, partisans of the Cloward-Piven strategy founded a new “voting rights movement,” which purported to take up the unfinished work of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Like ACORN, the organization that spear-headed this campaign, the new “voting rights” movement was led by veterans of George Wiley’s welfare rights crusade. Its flagship organizations were Project Vote and Human SERVE, both founded in 1982. Project Vote is an ACORN front group, launched by former NWRO organizer and ACORN co-founder Zach Polett. Human SERVE was founded by Richard A. Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, along with a former NWRO organizer named Hulbert James.

All three of these organizations — ACORN, Project Vote and Human SERVE — set to work lobbying energetically for the so-called Motor-Voter law, which Bill Clinton ultimately signed in 1993. The Motor-Voter bill is largely responsible for swamping the voter rolls with “dead wood” — invalid registrations signed in the name of deceased, ineligible or non-existent people — thus opening the door to the unprecedented levels of voter fraud and “voter disenfranchisement” claims that followed in subsequent elections.

The new “voting rights” coalition combines mass voter registration drives — typically featuring high levels of fraud — with systematic intimidation of election officials in the form of frivolous lawsuits, unfounded charges of “racism” and “disenfranchisement,” and “direct action” (street protests, violent or otherwise). Just as they swamped America’s welfare offices in the 1960s, Cloward-Piven devotees now seek to overwhelm the nation’s understaffed and poorly policed electoral system. Their tactics set the stage for the Florida recount crisis of 2000, and have introduced a level of fear, tension and foreboding to U.S. elections heretofore encountered mainly in Third World countries.

Both the Living Wage and Voting Rights movements depend heavily on financial support from George Soros’s Open Society Institute and his “Shadow Party,” through whose support the Cloward-Piven strategy continues to provide a blueprint for some of the Left’s most ambitious campaigns.

[MHGinTN]

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[nw_arizona_granny]

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/17/guns-on-a-plane-obama-secretly-ends-program-that-l/print/

Guns on a plane
After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to
carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would
unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of
aircraft and rammed them into buildings.

Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking
public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.

The Obama administration this past week diverted some $2 million from the
pilot training program to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in
field inspections of pilots.

continued.