The New American Thanksgiving

If you are like most Americans, Thanksgiving was a day of overabundance.  Turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce, and yams would decorate our tables.  I was curious as to exactly what Thanksgiving meant in Old America.  So I went to the expert on all subjects - Google

I found this definition:

thanks·giv·ing

noun /ˌTHaNGksˈgiviNG/ 

thanksgivings, plural
The expression of gratitude, esp. to God

- he offered prayers in thanksgiving for his safe arrival
- he described the service as a thanksgiving

(in North America) An annual national holiday marked by religious observances and a traditional meal including turkey. The holiday commemorates a harvest festival celebrated by the Pilgrims in 1621, and is held in the US on the fourth Thursday in November. A similar holiday is held in Canada, usually on the second Monday in October.

An interesting side note is that the American Indians mark this day as a 'Day of Mourning'

I had always thought of Thanksgiving as a time to be thankful for what you have.  I do not mean material items, I am talking about family, health and good times.  

We now live in the 'New America'

The New American Thanksgiving is of course different than pre-Obama era Thanksgivings.

In New America, it is all about surviving.  Watch this video taken at Walmart on Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving:

Here are the remains of the stampede:



So how is a New America occupier to survive such mayhem? After all, we want the free stuff and cheap products.  I did some research and found this video that gives some great advice.  Other great advice includes starting your list early.  If we read deeper into the subject according to Donna L. Montalbo its all about planning.  What would drive a new American to take advantage of this long Thanksgiving weekend.

I advocate owning a gun and learning how to use it.  Unfortunately it is still not acceptable to bring your gun to the store and use it to push your way to the deals.  The chances of getting any kind of deal on black Friday requires sleeping in line for days in front of the stores.  I feel that the New American is smarter and better prepared.

I have a better plan:

In my blog post 'Paying your bills in New America'  I talk about how to work the system to earn a living without really working.  Here is another opportunity to make some extra 'Holiday Cash'.  Get hurt in the stores by slipping on something or falling.  It requires some homework and perhaps some planning but in the end the pay off far out weighs the preparation effort.  Here is some great advice about proving your case.  Again if you read my post you understand that you will not really hurt yourself.  By claiming to hurt your back you should be able to milk the injury for as long as a year or more.  Just  as long as you moan and complain you will get a nice settlement.  Acting ability is key for this to really work.

There are some glitches in this plan.  All big box stores have cameras that monitor your every move in the store.  So you will need to practice the event of falling at home.  Practice makes perfect.  May I suggest that you try Acting School, not only can you learn the art of acting, you will also have the opportunity to apply for student loans which just add to your 'extra cash'.   It's all about how good of an actor you are.  Once you have the act perfected it is just a matter of finding that personal injury attorney and a savvy doctor.  Just as Ms. Montalbo points out, it is all about planning.

All that remains is to collect your payout and go shopping at your leisure.  No lines, no fights, no rush.  In fact you will be using the stores money to buy what you want.  All the while you can still legally collect your unemployment, food stamps and or workman's compensation payments.

In 'New America' the streets are paved with gold.  Nowhere else in the world are you given so much opportunity.  Will you answer the door if Opportunity knocks?

Paying our bills in New America

Making a living in the New America will be challenging over the next 4 years.  High unemployment is expected to continue.  Here is an article giving mathematical sense to the unemployment picture.

"If the U.S. wants to get unemployment at 5% by the end of 2016 we need to gain 368,000 jobs per month.  If we use BLS data we need 184,000 jobs per month"

"It was reported that 12 million jobs will be created from 2012-2016 no matter who wins the race for the White House, which is what the U.S. would get if the economy was a “normal” U.S. economy. If that growth remained constant then we would gain 250,000 jobs per month even with that amount of growth, we will not be at full employment by the end of 2016."

So you might ask; What does all this math mean?  That at best we will have high unemployment over the next 4 years.  So since we have no control over the employment situation, how can the individual person continue a steady income?  After all we all have rent, cell phone bills, food, and car payments.  Lack of income is not a viable option.

Just paying our bills

So you have had a job for many years.  Unfortunately you probably haven't had a raise in several years.  You have put a lot of work into building your career.  The company certainly owes some respect for your loyalty.  Yet your supervisor may come to you in the next few months and announce that over the next year the company will be reducing everyone's hours to a max of 30 per week.  They made this decision because of the implementation of the new health care bill.  That means a full 40 hours per month of pay loss.  

This loss of pay may mean the loss of some of the finer things in life like cell phones, cars, and dare I say food.

  

So what is a loyal employee to do?  

Workman's Compensation Insurance must be carried by all employers.  It is there just in case an employee gets hurt on the job.  So if you happen to 'Fall off a ladder' or 'Hurt your back' doing your job.  You can collect your salary while staying home and healing.  No loss of income.  Of course what happens in the case of a claim like this the employer is charged a higher premium.

So here is what you do to easily guarantee your salary over several years.  Simply wait for your boss to give you the task of lifting something heavy.  This is the easiest injury to fake because there is no actual visible damage.  Everything is based on your indication of pain.  So when lifting the heavy object just grimace in pain and fall to the ground.  Claim that you can't move and have an Ambulance take you to the hospital.  Don't worry any medical attention is completely paid for by the workman's compensation policy.

So as long as you have a doctor that continues to see you in pain he will keep you off the job.  You can stay home and collect that check.  The beauty of this plan is that your job is secure.  If the doctor says you can return to work, the employer has to take you back.  So simply always be in pain.  Collect your salary and play XBox.  This is how we do it in 'New America'.

There are some negatives with this Plan

Never, and I mean never lift anything in public.  You can never go on vacation.  You must always appear to be injured while in public.  You must act like your back hurts no matter what you do.  If you break out of character and an investigator sees you.  You will be busted.

Living in New America requires everyone to gain new talents.  In this case, you need to practice acting.  If you become really good at it you can actually play this game for years.

Rebellion in the New America

If you haven't done so yet be sure to read my post on Verizon and Comcast efforts to monitor what their customers are downloading.  I wanted to update everyone on what I have found out and what is the easiest way to keep your privacy.  Unfortunately I have some bad news, Demoniod had been shutdown.  Another blow to free internet and privacy.

So in the interest of free enterprise and privacy, I ran an experiment.  I signed up for an account at BTGuard.  I signed up for their VPN service which allows me to secure my entire internet connection: Bittorrent, email, web browsing and all other net services.  All become completely anonymous.  I like this service because it is easy to sign up and set up.  Total cost for 3 months of service $27.95.

Once I had it setup which only took about 60 secs.  I was surfing anonymously.  Let me explain:

I used Whatismyipaddress.com to find out what my ip was with verizon.  Here is the screen:

Note that my ip today is 108.16.5.212 and of course it is located in Delaware.  Verizon can see exactly what I am doing and when I am doing it.  They are logging each and every detail of my internet experience.  So now I will be logging into my BTguard connection.  Starting here I am no longer logged into the Verizon servers.  They have no idea what I am doing.  Here is my new ip information:

Notice that now it looks like I am located in the Netherlands with an ip address of 95.211.188.53.  I am now able to download any file available on the net using the torrent client of my choice as well as downloading any and all files from The Pirate Bay.  I can surf any and all websites anonymously.

So I ask the simple question; Is this type of monitoring really working?  Or is it the efforts of big corporations like the music and movie industry?  Read my post on digital rights and how this type of regulation never works.  It is simply a band-aid that is used to appease these large corporations unwillingness to change with technology. 

You might ask why?  I ask why not.  This is the New America, an America that has big brother monitoring our actions then punishing those actions based on an agenda.  As our society falls deeper into entitlements and taxation we will be forced to either become a ward of the state or a revolutionary soldier.

Earning in New America

Hopefully you have read my blog post regarding The New America.  It's all about learning the system and working that system.  By system, I mean the government's various entitlement programs.  In my post I talk about 'unreported cash'.  In this new economy we will be paying higher taxes on our income.  Usually when we earn money, it is by having a job and getting a paycheck every week or two.  This money is called 'reported cash'.  The government gets a piece of it.  So the question is; How do we get our cash so that it is 'unreported'?

Earning 'Unreported Cash'

There are a million ways to earn cash that is unreported.  The idea here is to get paid in hard cold CASH.  No checks, no receipts whatsoever.  So you get paid with cash.  The nice thing about cash is that it is anonymous.  You can spend it anywhere you like and no one asks any questions.  In fact the people that you pay with cash are probably not reporting they were paid.  Again, 'unreported cash'.

To earn cash you need to have a skill like repairing cars, computers, painting houses, building things for people, or sell drugs.  It can be anything that someone is willing to pay you cash for the service.  I would venture to say that the people paying you in cash are using 'unreported cash'.  Hopefully you are following the cycle here.

Spending 'Unreported Cash'   

You have to be careful how you spend this cash.  Never pay for anything with cash that is traceable.  Traceable things include your electric bill, Credit Card payments, mortgage payments, basically anything that leaves a paper trail.  All Uncle Sam has to do is follow the paper.  Here are some things that you can safely spend your 'unreported cash' on:

• Food (you eat it - its gone - whose to say you ever had it)
• Gas for the car (Again you use it - its gone - whose to say you ever had it)
• Vacations
• Repair work on cars and homes
• Hookers and strip clubs (need I say more)
• Shoes and Clothes
• Dining out
• Go to the Movies

Basically anything that does not leave a paperwork trail.  

Benefits of not reporting all your income

There are some hidden benefits of reporting less income every year.  For every $1000 of 'unreported cash' that you earn means that you do not have to pay the tax on the money.  Now if you are in the 28% tax bracket that means you do not have to pay $280 in tax.  In addition, by reporting less income on your tax forms you will be placed in a lower tax bracket.  Not to mention the fact that you may become eligible for more entitlement programs like Food stamps, Welfare, and Section 8 help.

Its a Win - Win situation

Lets face it, everyone wins.  You win because you are saving that higher income tax.  The person that you are paying now has 'unreported cash' and in turn can spend it.  The New Economy grows because now there is more cash flowing.  This cash can help create jobs even perhaps reportable income jobs.  Let's face facts, lower taxes, less government involvement and more money in consumers hands means a healthy thriving economy.

This is the New America

As I work through this new standard of an economy, I realize that the rules of 5 years ago have faded away and there must be a new approach to not only building a business but also planning for the future.  Let's face facts:

1. There will be no recovery to the economy of the early 2000s.
2. Real Estate prices will fluctuate dramatically
3. Taxes will increase to fund entitlement programs
4. Stocks, Bonds and other investments are unreliable and high risk
5. Banks are not in the business of loaning money, instead they are there to get money.
6. Hard cold cash is the new standard

So how do you plan and expect to save for retirement?  Here is what I think.

• Take the largest mortgage you can at the lowest fixed rate and longest term possible.  Let the banks take all the risk on the value of the real estate.  If in fact the value increases you make out.  If it drops you lose nothing.
• Pay off all unsecured debt like credit cards and other type loans.
• When possible keep unreported cash at hand.  Use this cash to pay the consumable bills like food and fuel.  This can not be tracked when you pay cash.
• Do not fund a 401k, SEP or Roth IRA.  When you get ready to take the money.  The tax will be higher in the future than if you were to pay the taxes today.
• Save all reported income you can in an account that you can easily access.  Do not worry about the interest rate.  I suggest an account like Ingdirect.com 
• Always try to earn cash unreported (under the table work).  Ideally you should earn unreported cash while collecting unemployment benefits.  This allows you to keep more of your hard earned money in your pocket rather than it being spread to the poor.
• Store all unreported income in a fireproof safe that has been bolted to your floor.  Never tell anyone you have it.
• Buy and keep available a gun.  Learn how to use it.
• Remember that the less you earn the more the government will give you. i.e. food stamps, welfare, section 8 housing, unemployment etc.

Learn the system then work the system.  We need to get used to understanding exactly what we need to do to survive.  We have a minimum of 4 years to work through before we have the opportunity to make changes.

How to bypass Verizon and Comcast's File Sharing crackdown

If you have spent anytime at all reading my blog.  You know that I am not a Democrat or a Republican and you know that I believe everything on the internet should be shared freely.  I have written about digital rights before and what brings my fingers to the keyboard today is the new process in which the major ISP's like Verizon and Comcast are beginning a monitoring process that will 'Catch' file sharing.  We wrote a blog post about that exact issue on Bob Johnson's Tips and Tricks Blog.

Now, I am not suggesting that you download illegal material.  After all it is 'illegal' and can result in some serious fines.  So, lets say that you want to download via The Pirate Bay a file that is free public information.  Well, this can be a problem, Verizon and Comcast have a third party company monitoring P2P file sharing sites. You would receive the warnings even though the file you were downloading is free to the public.  Comcast and Verizon do not monitor what file you are downloading only that you are using bittorrent and downloading from The Pirate Bay.  So how do we get around this monitoring?

I found this article that gives several solutions on how to evade detection.  Of the solutions presented, I found two that seem to be the best choices for most people.  In addition, I found an article on Mashable that gives you 10 things you didn't know about dropbox.

Solution #1 - BTGuard.com

Using BTGuard, you can Bittorrent anonymously.  Meaning that there is no way to track your ip address since your ip is hidden.  This service is low cost and can be purchased on a monthly basis at $6.95 for the month.  Discounts apply if you sign up for a longer term.  The best service is their VPN service at $9.95 per month.  With this service your entire internet connection is anonymous.

Solution #2 - Closed Torrent community

In a closed torrent community you must be invited by a member to join.  Once a member you are unlikely to be caught downloading because that 3rd party company monitoring traffic is not a member therefore has no access to the service.  Some examples are PassthePopcorn, What.CD, TvTorrents.com, and demoniod.com.

Solution #3 - Dropbox

Using Dropbox you can have the files download to your dropbox.  I found this article on Mashable - 10 things you didn't know that dropbox could do.  By having your bittorrnet download to your dropbox your ip never shows up to that 3rd party monitor.  You might have to buy a larger storage size but seems like a simple solution.

I found these solutions simply by doing a google search on file share monitoring.  As I learn more I will post updates to this article.  If you know of any method please share by leaving comments below.