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Charlie Chaplin final speech in The Great Dictator

The Game Is Rigged: Why Americans Keep Losing to the Police State

By John W. Whitehead  December 9, 2014 | Comments| Print friendly |

  "The truth is that the State is a conspiracy designed not only to exploit, but above all to corrupt its citizens."—Leo Tolstoy

My 7-year-old granddaughter has suddenly developed a keen interest in card games: Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Old Maid, Blackjack, and War. We've fallen into a set pattern now: every time we play, she deals the cards, and I pretend not to see her stacking the deck in her favor. And of course, I always lose.

I don't mind losing to my granddaughter at Old Maid, knowing full well the game is rigged. For now, it's fun and games, and she's winning. Where the rub comes in is in knowing that someday she'll be old enough to realize that being a citizen in the American police state is much like playing against a stacked deck: you're always going to lose.

The game is rigged, and "we the people" keep getting dealt the same losing hand. Even so, we stay in the game, against all odds, trusting that our luck will change.

The problem, of course, is that luck will not save us. The people dealing the cards—the politicians, the corporations, the judges, the prosecutors, the police, the bureaucrats, the military, the media, etc.—have only one prevailing concern, and that is to maintain their power and control over the country and us.

It really doesn't matter what you call them—the 1%, the elite, the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex—so long as you understand that while they are dealing the cards, the deck will always be stacked in their favor.

Incredibly, no matter how many times we see this played out, Americans continue to naively buy into the idea that it's our politics that divide us as a nation. As if there were really a difference between the Democrats and Republicans. As if the policies of George W. Bush were any different from those of Barack Obama. As if we weren't a nation of sheep being fattened for the kill by a ravenous government of wolves.

We're in trouble, folks, and changing the dealer won't save us: it's time to get out of the game.

We have relinquished control of our government to overlords who care nothing for our rights, our dignity or our humanity, and now we're saddled with an authoritarian regime that is deaf to our cries, dumb to our troubles, blind to our needs, and accountable to no one.

Even revelations of wrongdoing amount to little in the way of changes for the better.

For instance, after six years of investigation, 6,000 written pages and $40 million to write a report that will not be released to the public in its entirety, the U.S. Senate has finally concluded that the CIA lied about its torture tactics, failed to acquire any life-saving intelligence, and was more brutal and extensive than previously admitted. This is no revelation. It's a costly sleight of hand intended to distract us from the fact that nothing has changed. We're still a military empire waging endless wars against shadowy enemies, all the while fattening the wallets of the defense contractors for whom war is money.

Same goes for the government's surveillance programs. More than a year after Edward Snowden's revelations dominated news headlines, the government's domestic surveillance programs are just as invasive as ever. In fact, while the nation was distracted by the hubbub over the long-awaited release of the Senate's CIA torture, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court quietly reauthorized the National Security Agency's surveillance of phone records. This was in response to the Obama administration's request to keep the program alive.

Police misconduct and brutality have been dominating the news headlines for months now, but don't expect any change for the better. In fact, with Obama's blessing, police departments continue to make themselves battle ready with weapons and gear created for the military. Police shootings of unarmed citizens continue with alarming regularity. And grand juries, little more than puppets controlled by state prosecutors, continue to legitimize the police state by absolving police of any wrongdoing.

These grand juries embody everything that's wrong with America today. In an age of secret meetings, secret surveillance, secret laws, secret tribunals and secret courts, the grand jury—which meets secretly, hears secret testimony, and is exposed to only what a prosecutor deems appropriate—has become yet another bureaucratic appendage to a government utterly lacking in transparency, accountability and adherence to the rule of law.

It's a sorry lesson in how a well-intentioned law or program can be perverted, corrupted and used to advance illegitimate purposes. The war on terror, the war on drugs, asset forfeiture schemes, road safety schemes, school zero tolerance policies, eminent domain, private prisons: all of these programs started out as legitimate responses to pressing concerns. However, once you add money and power into the mix, even the most benevolent plans can be put to malevolent purposes.

In this way, the war on terror has become a convenient ruse to justify surveillance of all Americans, to create a suspect society, to expand the military empire, and to allow the president to expand the powers of the Executive Branch to imperial heights.

Under cover of the war on drugs, the nation's police forces have been transformed into extensions of the military, with SWAT team raids carried out on unsuspecting homeowners for the slightest charge, and police officers given carte blanche authority to shoot first and ask questions later.

Asset forfeiture schemes, engineered as a way to strip organized crime syndicates of their ill-gotten wealth, have, in the hands of law enforcement agencies, become corrupt systems aimed at fleecing the citizenry while padding the pockets of the police.

Eminent domain, intended by the founders as a means to build roads and hospitals for the benefit of the general public, has become a handy loophole by which local governments can evict homeowners to make way for costly developments and shopping centers.

Private prisons, touted as an economically savvy solution to cash-strapped states with overcrowded prisons have turned into profit- and quota-driven detention centers that jail Americans guilty of little more than living off the grid, growing vegetable gardens in the front yards, or holding Bible studies in their back yards.

Traffic safety schemes such as automated red light and speed cameras, ostensibly aimed at making the nation's roads safer, have been shown to be thinly disguised road taxes, levying hefty fines on drivers, most of whom would never have been pulled over, let alone ticketed, by an actual police officer.

School zero tolerance policies, a response to a handful of school shootings, have become exercises in folly, turning the schools into quasi-prisons, complete with armed police, metal detectors and lockdowns. The horror stories abound of 4- and 6-year-olds being handcuffed, shackled and dragged, kicking and screaming, to police headquarters for daring to act like children while at school.

As for grand juries, which were intended to serve as a check on the powers of the police and prosecutors, they have gone from being the citizen's shield against injustice to a weapon in the hands of government agents. A far cry from a people's court, today's grand jury system is so blatantly rigged in favor of the government as to be laughable. Unless, that is, you happen to be one of the growing numbers of Americans betrayed and/or victimized by their own government, in which case, you'll find nothing amusing about the way in which grand juries are used to terrorize the populace all the while covering up police misconduct.

Unfortunately, as I make clear in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, we're long past the point of simple fixes. The system has grown too large, too corrupt, and too unaccountable. If there's to be any hope for tomorrow, it has to start at the local level, where Americans still have a chance to make their voices heard. Stop buying into the schemes of the elite, stop being distracted by their sleight-of-hands, stop being manipulated into believing that an election will change anything, and stop playing a rigged game where you'll always be the loser.

It's time to change the rules of the game. For that matter, it's time to change the game.

Scroll down this page for Disqus Comments | 0 Comments--Comment here Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book The Freedom Wars (TRI Press) is available online at amazon.com. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at rutherford.org

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Senator John McCain Delivers Speech Condemning CIA Torture Report - The Atlantic

This Is How a Prisoner of War Feels About Torture

In a speech from the Senate floor, John McCain broke with his Republican colleagues to commend the Senate's CIA report, relying on his own experience in Vietnam.

Dec 9 2014, 5:39 PM ET

Stephen Morton/AP

The release of a Senate report on the CIA's former interrogation program brought both political division and shock on Tuesday. While the shock was more universal, the division fell mostly along partisan lines with one notable exception: Senator John McCain.

In a nearly 15-minute speech from the Senate floor, McCain offered what is arguably the most robust defense so far of the report's release, referencing his own experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and rebuking his Republican colleagues by endorsing the study's findings.

It is a thorough and thoughtful study of practices that I believe not only failed their purpose—to secure actionable intelligence to prevent further attacks on the U.S. and our allies—but actually damaged our security interests, as well as our reputation as a force for good in the world.

His longtime amigo Senator Lindsey Graham was one of many politicians and intelligence officials to say that the report—which contained graphic accounts of physical and psychological abuse—could damage American interests abroad and that the timing of its publication was "politically motivated."

"The timing of the release is problematic given the growing threats we face," Graham said on Tuesday. "Terrorism is on the rise, and our enemies will seize upon this report at a critical time. Simply put, this is not the time to release the report."

McCain responded directly to the claim. He condemned the use of misinformation to garner support for past CIA practices and linked this history to the current campaign to keep the Senate report under wraps. "There is, I fear, misinformation being used today to prevent the release of this report, disputing its findings and warning about the security consequences of their public disclosure.

"They will say whatever they think their torturers want them to say if they believe it will stop their suffering."

But most poignantly, McCain spoke of his own five-and-a-half-year captivity in Vietnam to argue that torture fails to yield credible information.

"I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence. I know that victims of torture will offer intentionally misleading information if they think their captors will believe it. I know they will say whatever they think their torturers want them to say if they believe it will stop their suffering."

McCain added (emphatically) that "the use of torture compromises that which most distinguishes us from our enemies, our belief that all people, even captured enemies, possess basic human rights."

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Sinister Sites – The Denver International Airport

Nov 27th, 2008 | Category: Sinister Sites |454 Comments

An apocalyptic horse with glowing red eyes welcoming visitors? Check.

Nightmarish murals? Check.

Strange words and symbols embedded in the floor? Check.

Gargoyles sitting in suitcases? Check.

Runways shaped like a Nazi swastika? Check.

OK, this place is evil.

But seriously, there are so many irregularities surrounding the DIA, that a voluminous book could be written on the subject.  The facilities and the art displayed lead many observers to believe that the DIA is much more than an airport: it is literally a New-Age cathedral, full of occult symbolism and references to secret societies. The art at the DIA is NOT an aggregation of odd choices made by people with poor taste, like many people think. It is a cohesive collection of symbolic pieces that reflect the philosophy, the beliefs and the goals of the global elite. The DIA is the largest airport in America and it has cost over 4.8 billion dollars. Everything regarding this airport has been meticulously planned and everything is there for a reason.

The Airport

The airport facilities themselves raised a ton of questions regarding the true purpose of the mega-structure. Numerous "creative" theories are floating around the DIA regarding underground military bases, aliens and/or reptilian creatures. While I'm aware that anything is possible, we will stick to the documented facts.

The airport was built in 1995 on 34,000 acres. Its construction forced the Stapleton International airport to shut down, although it used more gates and runways than the DIA. The initial cost of construction was 1.7 billion $ but the final project elevated the bill to 4.8 billion: 3.1 BILLION $ over budget.  Numerous irregularities have been reported regarding the construction of the site:

• Different contractors have been hired for different parts of the airport. They've all been fired after their job was done. This lead observers to believe that it was a strategy to make sure nobody had the full scope of the project.

• 110 million cubic yards of earth have been moved, way more than usually required. This arose suspicion of construction taking place underground.

• 5300 miles of fiber optics were installed for communications (USA coast to coast is 3000 miles in comparison).

• Fueling system that can pump 1000 gallons of jet fuel per minute. This amount is totally absurd for a commercial airport.

• Granite imported from all over the world even if the project was already grossly over budget.

• Construction of a huge tunnel system (trucks can circulate in them) and underground trains. Most of those aren't used at the moment.

Analysis of the data available makes me reach at least one conclusion: this gigantic structure will eventually become much more than a regular commercial airport. It has the capacity to handle a huge amount of people and vehicles, leading observers to think that the structure might be used as military base and others even add that it will be used as a civilian concentration camp in the near future. I will not advance on this subject because I do not have proof of those claims. I however would understand why such plans would be top secret. Let's look at the soothing, traveler-friendly art on display at the DIA.

1- Horse of the Apocalypse

So this is what welcomes you when you enter the gates of hell…sorry, I meant the gates of the airport. A 32 foot high fibreglass stallion with veins popping out of its whole body and demonic eyes that glow red. Nice. I heard the children love it. Interesting fact: the horse killed his creator, Luis Jimenez, while he was working on it. A portion of the sculpture came loose and smashed him, causing fatal injuries. His friends now say that the horse is cursed.

What does it represent? The 1st thing that came to mind when I saw this horrendous piece (for an aiport anyways) is: the Pale horse of the Apocalypse. It is the fourth horse in the book of Revelation in the Bible and is appropriately called "Death".

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse;
and his name that sat on him was
Death, and Hell followed with him. And
power was given unto them over the
fourth part of the earth, to kill with
sword, and with hunger, and with
death, and with the beasts of the earth".
-Revelation 6:7-8

In other words, the horse "Death" brought killing with weapons, with hunger, and with disease. That's pretty extreme a family airport, right? Doesn't seem like that horse should be there. You will soon realize that it fits perfectly with the rest of the DIA. By the way, this is one scary horse anus!

2- Masonic Capstone

The stone is situated in the "Great Hall" of the airport (term that is also used by masons to refer to their meeting hall). There's Freemason symbols on the stone and on the "keypad" which seems to be written in braille.

Notice on the capstone the mention "New World Airport Commission". This particular commission does not exist, so it most likely refers to the New World Order. There is also a time capsule buried under the stone to be opened in 2094. The angled arm is very enigmatic seems to have a purpose other than being decorative. Any insights on this?

3- Prophetic Murals

Divided into four walls, the murals painted by Leo Tanguma are supposed to represent peace, harmony and nature. But I'm not getting these messages at all. When you analyze the symbolism of the murals, you realize that they tell a terrifying story of future events about to happen, as if it was some sort of prophecy. There are specific social and political references and other occult details that basically turn those paintings into a New World Order manifesto. Tanguma reportedly confirmed that he was given guidelines for the paintings and was paid 100 000$ for the first ones. He later denied he was given instructions and refuted any questions regarding hidden meanings in his paintings. Previous Leo Tanguma murals were typical Chicano art, politically charged and community oriented. However, his work at the DIA sends a totally different "vibe", giving me the gut feeling that he simply drew someone else's vision. Let's look at the paintings one by one:

• A) "Peace and Harmony with Nature"

So the airport's official website says that the name of the mural is called "Peace and Harmony with Nature". Really? At the center of the piece, saddened children with extinct animal and plant species. In the background, a forest on fire and further back, a city on fire.

An interesting fact about that city is that it has been retouched and painted over many times during the years, as if it represents something important for the creators. It seems surrounded by an ill colored haze, as if it was attacked by a bio-chemical weapon.

One of the children holds a Mayan tablet depicting the end of civilization.

At the bottom, of this peaceful painting, we see three open-caskets containing dead girls from different cultures. Left is a Black woman, center is a Native woman. Why are they laying there with the other animals? Are we predicting the extinction of those races? We already know that the military has developed race-specific chemical weapons. Here's what the Project for New American Century (PNAC), a think tank that defines the foreign and defence policy of the US has to say about this:

"… the art of warfare … will be vastly different than it is today … "combat" likely will take place in new dimensions … advanced forms of biological warfare that can "target" specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool."

The girl on the right holds a Bible and a yellow "Juden" star used by the Nazi to identify jews. It seems to symbolize the death of Judeo-Christian beliefs. The group at the origin of the imagery of this airport are definitively NOT Christian or Jewish. Secret societies have their own belief system that is way too complex to explain here (check the "Educate Yourself' section for more info). I can however tell you that caskets are an important part of masonic symbolism as you can see in the next image depicting the main symbols of freemasonry. Tombs are also a big part of the Skull and Bones' rituals.

• B) Children of the World Dream of Peace

The 2nd mural is a two part piece. We read from left to right, so I will analyze it from left to right.

Children of all colors, dressed in folkloric costumes give weapons wrapped in their country's national flag to a… German boy? Huh? Yes the Bavarian costume leaves no doubt. The boy at the center of the image, holding the hammer and apparently building something is German. Even the American kid (dressed as a boyscout) seems eager to give his weapons and flag to the German boy. You're in the largest airport of America, in the middle of the USA, and this is the mural we  display. America joyfully submitting to Germany. It's just too odd to compute. This obviously represents countries of the world giving up their military might and their national identity for "the common good". Another reference to a New World order, with one government and one army. But why is the German boy at the center of everything? There are so many allusions to Germany and Nazism in this airport, there is NO WAY it can be a coincidence. I can't help but to think of"Operation Paperclip", which brought prominent Nazi scientists and researchers to the USA after WWII. Laying at the bottom of the mural is a broken figure holding a riffle (representing war) with two doves sitting on top of it (representing peace). Heartwarming. Now follow the movement the of the rainbow that starts underneath that statue, going around the children and leading you to part II of the mural (which has recently painted over)

• Part 2

The monster has awakened! This big and aggressive militaristic figure is dressed in a Nazi uniform (notice the symbol on the hat) with a face shaped like a gas mask. His hands are holding a rifle and a scimitar that is rather violently molesting the peace bearing dove. On the left is depicted an endless lineup of crying parents holding their limp, dead baby. This is a truly atrocious painting, with no redeeming message or moral. The fact that this was displayed at the main gate of the largest airport of America, during the age of political correctness (the nineties) is totally aberrant. The militaristic figure is glorified and all-powerful,  situated at the center of the action. It has regained its powers that it seemed to have lost after WWII. It is back in full force and its leading the way to a new holocaust.

Look closely at the people on the left and the dead children sleeping on bricks. There is no traces of violence on them. They're simply devoid of life, as if they were poisoned by the deadly gas emanating from the rainbow above them.  The monster, protected by his gas mask, is pointing the lineup of victims towards the letter on the bottom left.

It is an actual letter written by a Hama Herchenberg, 14 years old, that died December 18, 1943 in Auschwitz Concentration camp (as written at the bottom of the letter). A little disturbing isn't it. Auschwitz was infamous for it use of toxic gas.

The camp commandant, Rudolf Höß, testified at the Nuremberg Trials that up to 3 million people had died at Auschwitz, about 90 percent of whom were Jews^. Most victims were killed in Auschwitz II's gas chambers using Zyklon B
(source: Wikipedia).

The presence of a colorful rainbow and a teddy bear in this image, symbols our minds instantly associate with youth and innocence, is totally sickening and twisted. One last thing about the scimitar: it is a symbol often used in masonic imagery:

• C) Peace and Harmony with Nature

What do you do when you've killed most of the world population with toxic gas? You celebrate around a genetically-modified-glowing plant of course! Happy people from all over the world irresistibly heading towards that plant, some are almost flying towards it. Right above this plant (that doesn't exist in real life) is a Jesus-like figure but is definitively not Jesus.

All of the extinct species of the 1st mural are all back in action and you even see a little dove appearing in the plant. How nice. They feel so much better now that there's much less people on earth now. The animals are happy too and they thank you for dying. People can now use high levels of scientific knowledge to live in a state of synthesized happiness provided by genetically modified plants. Good for them. The whales are jumping in the air, high-fiving humans. If you look closely at the baby tigers, they have faces of human children. Its it quite bizarre. This whole piece reaks of genetic modification and magick.

To sum up, those murals clearly depicted admitted goals you can read in documents calling for a New World Order:

• Massive depopulation of the earth
• Death of Judeo-Christian beliefs
• One World government
• Restoration of nature

If you've read my piece about the Georgia Guidestones, you might notice that the themes are strickingly similar. Coincidence? The Georgia Guidestones also feature a capstone with a time capsule buried under it. There is no "conspiracy theory" here, those are facts. Everything is written in stone for you to see. The elites own this place and they build monuments to celebrate their culture. Their "divine knowledge" is however inaccessible to you unless you're a high ranking member. There is so much to interpret in those murals that I'm convinced I've missed a lot of details (colors, shapes, movement, symbols).

3- The Swastika Runway

After seing all of the allusions to Nazi Germany, would you be surprised if the runways were shaped like a swastika? Here's an aerial view of the runways and below is how the runways appear in Google Map. Draw your own conclusions.

View Larger Map

I highly doubt that the guy who drew the runways did not notice their odd shape. I mean, someone in the process of drawing and/or building had to say "Wait a minute, this kinda looks like that Nazi symbol! We should maybe change it! We don't want our new 4,1G$ airport to be offensive or anything". But that did not happen for some reason.

4- Other weirdness

Like I've said before, a book could be written on the DIA, so I'll leave you with unsorted oddities you can see at the DIA.

• Garogyles

The symbolism of gargoyles has always been a mystery. Nobody can really explain the reason of their presence, specifically on religious buildings. Are they remnants of past pagan beliefs that never went away? Do they represent something only "illuminated" people know about?

"What are these fantastic monsters doing in the cloisters under the very eyes of the brothers as they read? What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, strange savage lions and monsters? To what purpose are here placed these creatures, half beast, half man?
-St Bernard of Clairvaux, 12th century

• The floor

These photos are of a strange set of symbols that run in the floor from the south end of The Great Hall on Level 5 and progress to the north end of The Great Hall.  Note the black disk which is occulting the sun.  There is no mistaking the architecture in the floor as depicting the sun, and the black disk is beginning to eclipse it.  When we arrive at the north end of The Great Hall, there is a statue of Jeppesen which is covering the sun. Is it a reference to the black sun, as revered by the Nazis?

Is it supposed to be "native" art representing mother earth? Looks like an alien "sprinkling" life on earth. Whats with the little faces at the top of the painting? Are they alien watching us from space? I don't know, I can't find any information about this piece. It makes me think of crop circles for some reason.

I hope you've enjoyed this virtual tour of the DIA and that you currently have a huge question mark on top of your head at the moment. For more information regarding secret societies and their beliefs, please visit the "Educate Yourself" page. If you have more information regarding the DIA, please feel free to contact me.

Additional sources of information or theories.

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10 foods never worth paying full price for - MarketWatch

10 foods never worth paying full price for

CateyHill

Reporter

Shutterstock.com

The average family spends more than $200 a week at the grocery store, but if you're savvy about what you put into your cart, you can spend less.

According to an analysis that Coupons.com ran for MarketWatch, some items at the grocery store are discounted more frequently than others — which means you should rarely pay full price for them. Throughout 2014, retailers and manufacturers issued the most coupons for cereal (the average discount was 87 cents), followed by cheese (76 cents) and salty snacks like potato chips, the data, which looked at coupons issues for the year-to-date, revealed.

10 foods never worth paying full price for

In 2014, more coupons were issued for these foods than any other

Food	Average discount
Cereal	$0.87
Cheese	$0.76
Salty snacks (like chips)	$0.79
Yogurt	$0.67
Dinner meats	$0.93
Portable snacks (like single-serve items)	$0.82
Bulk ice cream	$0.94
Sweet snacks (like fruit roll-ups)	$0.67
Mexican products	$0.86
Shelf stable (typically this is canned foods)	$0.83

Source: Coupons.com

To be sure, coupons have their flaws. Just because you use a coupon doesn't mean you're saving money — stores, after all, have been known to manipulate prices accordingly. (To combat that, "know the price ranges of the items they [the store] purchase regularly to be able to recognize if using a coupon is a good deal or not," recommends Stephanie Nelson, founder of CouponMom.) And there is research that shows coupons drive traffic into stores, which then can make people buy unnecessary items once they are there. (To avoid that, experts recommend making a list before shopping using the stores' circular or checking for deals online — and sticking to that list (an app like Grocery IQ makes this easy)).

Despite these coupon pitfalls, savvy shoppers can save money by using coupons (to make it easy to find and redeem them, use apps like Coupons.com and Favado), and combining them with other shopping strategies. Here are a few, lesser-known ways to do that.

Combine sales and loyalty discounts with coupons — on a Wednesday.

In many grocery stores, Wednesday is the best day to shop because "often this is when new sales begin, so you can get early access to the discounted inventory," says Jon Lal, the CEO and founder of BeFrugal.com. Plus, paper products typically go on sale the first week of the month, says consumer savings expert Andrea Woroch. When possible, combine those sales with coupons and make sure to use your loyalty card for maximum savings.

Score rebates — and pile the sales and coupons on top.

Erin Konrad, a spokesperson for CouponPal.com, says she likes apps like Ibotta and Checkout 51, which give you cash-back on items you buy. Using Ibotta, for example, you look at messages for items that have rebates before you shop, then once your buy them, send a photo of your receipt and they will send you cash via PayPal, Venmo or a gift card; some of the current grocery rebates are $1 cash for Jennie-O ground turkey and Pace Picante Salsa and 75 cents for Chobani Greek Yogurt. If possible, combine these rebates with sales and coupons.

Buy the lowest priced item — and top it off with a coupon.

To make sure you're paying the lowest price, check different departments for the same item. "A type of cheese sold in the deli department might cost more than a different brand of the same type of cheese sold in the dairy department," explains Nelson. "One brand of a type of nuts in the produce department might cost less than a different brand of the same type of nuts in the baking aisle."

Along the same lines, if you see an item on your list featured in a special display, you may want to steer clear — even if you have a coupon. "Don't assume that special displays or displays at the end of an aisle are the best prices," Nelson says. "They may actually be selling at full price."

You could also shop "to the left," says Jeanette Pavini, the consumers savings expert at Coupons.com. "'Budget busters are frequently placed at the right side of the store as most shoppers head that way first," she says. "Avoid the trap by heading left before you begin shopping."

Finally, if you do see that an item is on sale but out of stock, "you could ask for a rain check," says Pavini. "This will allow you to get the item at the sale price when it's back in stock. Add a coupon on top of those strategies for more savings.

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This is why Americans are overweight and broke - MarketWatch

This is why Americans are overweight and broke

CateyHill

Reporter

Shutterstock

22% of people surveyed said they blew their budgets on dining out.

If your waistline is expanding while your bank account is shrinking, a new survey may have uncovered the caloric culprit.

According to a survey of more than 1,123 American workers released Tuesday by Principal Financial Group, two in three Americans said they blew their budget in 2014 — and it's Americans' appetites for food that are the main causes for this budget busting.

Dining out is the No. 1 thing Americans say they blew their budget on in 2014 (consequently, it also means they blow their diets: a study of more than 12,500 people published by Public Health Nutrition this year shows that on days when people eat out they consume an average of 200 calories more than those who eat at home). Eating out is followed closely by spending on food/groceries, with 18% of American workers saying they blew their budget on food/groceries.

Meanwhile, the much-ballyhooed "latte factor" doesn't seem to be the problem many financial gurus say it is: Just 3% of Americans say buying coffee caused them to derail their spending. Spending on housing/home improvements and clothing, apparel and shoes also don't make many Americans blow their budgets either, at 10% apiece.

10 ways Americans blow their budget

Percent of employees who say they blew their budget on these items in 2014

Dining out	22%
Food/groceries	18%
Entertainment	15%
Gas	13%
Travel	12%
Clothing/apparel/shoes	10%
Housing/home improvements	10%
Other consumer goods	9%
Coffee	3%
Other	11%
Source: Principal Financial Group	—

Luke Vandermillion, the vice president of retirement and investor services for Principal, says that food may top our budget-blowing list because of "the convenience factor." "It's probably a function of our busy, time-deprived population," he says; we're hungry or need to feed the family and just grab what's convenient rather than what's inexpensive.

So how can Americans save money on food come 2015 (other than trying to avoid buying pricey foods while on the run)? Here are four little-known ways:

Never pay full price for these foods.

Some foods — cheese, cereal and salty snacks in particular — nearly always have a coupon associated with them, which means you likely shouldn't pay full price for them. Here's a list of 10 foods that you can almost always find a coupon for.

Get the same item in a different department.

You can save 50% and sometimes more by shopping for the same item (nuts and cheese in particular) in different departments. Lauren Greutman, the author of "How to Coupon Effectively", says that, for example, she's found sesame seeds in different locations in the store (the spice aisle vs. the sushi counter) that had a price difference of $2.

Going to the fish counter may also derail your budget. You may think the fish that's laid over ice is fresh but it might have been previously frozen on the boat; if you buy that same kind of fish frozen, you can save 40%.

Get paid to shop.

You can get cash for grocery shopping when you use apps like Ibotta and Checkout 51, says Erin Konrad, a spokesperson for CouponPal. Using Ibotta, you look at messages for items that have rebates before you shop, then once you buy them, send a photo of your receipt and they will send you cash via PayPal, Venmo or a gift card.

Royal couple sit courtside as protests continue

(1:23)

Prince William and his wife Catherine made time for some courtside action during their trip to New York City, but protests continued outside Barclays Center in the wake of the Eric Garner grand jury decision.

Dine out during the week, using discounted gift cards and coupons.

Saturday is the most popular day for Americans to eat out — and also one of the least likely days to find a weekly special. Instead, opting to eat out on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday at your local favorite spot may yield deals. You may also want to combine those deals with coupons — Stephanie Nelson, the founder of CouponMom.com, recommends using Restaurant.com to search for coupons and Cherie W. Lowe, the founder of The Queen of Free, says to sign up for restaurant mailing lists to get coupons, freebies and deals — and pay for your meal using a discounted gift card, which you can purchase on a site like GiftCardGranny.com.

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Is It Happening Here?

<< ARI Watch

Is it Happening Here ?

"The devil can cite scripture for his purpose."
– The Merchant of Venice  Act I, scene III

The phrase "It can't happen here" was common in the U.S. in the 1930's. It expressed the feeling that what was happening in Germany could never happen in America. To counter that idea, Ayn Rand in her essay "The New Fascism" recommends we read, even re-read, the novel It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, published in 1935. The theme of the novel is that on the contrary it – fascism – can happen here. America is not automatically immune from turning into a police state. Years ago Sinclair Lewis showed how it could happen, current events show it is happening.
The novel depicts the rise of Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a back-slapping Huey Long type, and his Corpo Party conspirators. Windrip runs for President of the United States, wins, and gradually takes control of every aspect of the country, all the while spouting bromides about freedom, liberty, and individualism. We focus here on that last aspect of the story: how Windrip corrupted the English language to get what he wanted.
During his presidential campaign Windrip calls his enemies "unAmerican." They are the "enemies of American principles." Windrip on the other hand is for "individual freedom."
Sinclair Lewis describes one of Windrip's campaign speeches:

He slid into a rhapsody of general ideas — a mishmash of polite regards to Justice, Freedom, Equality, Order, Prosperity, Patriotism, and any number of other noble but slippery abstractions.

Windrip in his campaign book Zero Hour, ghost written for him by Lee Sarason, the brain behind the Corpos:

"I want to stand up on my hind legs and not just admit but frankly holler right out that we've got to change our system a lot ... . The Executive has got to have a freer hand and be able to move quick in an emergency, and not be tied down by a lot of dumb shyster-lawyer congressmen taking months to shoot off their mouths in debates. BUT — and it's a But as big as Deacon Checkerboard's hay-barn back home — these new economic changes are only a means to an End, and that End is and must be, fundamentally, the same principles of Liberty, Equality, and Justice that were advocated by the Founding Fathers of this great land back in 1776!"

The story revolves around Doremus Jessup, a small-town newspaper owner, and how he copes with what is happening. Before Windrip's administration has fully matured Sinclair Lewis describes Doremus as follows (keep in mind that at the time he was writing "Fascist" meant a follower of Mussolini):

Constantly, in the Informer [Doremus's newspaper], he criticized the government but not too acidly.

The hysteria can't last; be patient, and wait and see, he counseled his readers.

It was not that he was afraid of the authorities. He simply did not believe that this comic tyranny could endure. IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE, said even Doremus — even now.

The one thing that most perplexed him was that there could be a dictator seemingly so different from the fervent Hitlers and gesticulating Fascists ... Did that, puzzled Doremus, make him less or more dangerous?

Doremus describes Windrip as "consistently American" in form "even if he has thrown out all our traditional independence."
Windrip sets up a domestic military which he calls the Minute Men, after the heroes of the American Revolution. They come to be called M.M.'s for short. Here is Lewis on the Minute Men:

... the craftiest thing about the M.M.'s was that they wore no colored shirts, but only plain white when on parade, and light khaki when on outpost duty, so that Buzz Windrip could thunder, and frequently, "Black shirts? Brown shirts? Red shirts? Yes, and maybe cow-brindle shirts! All these degenerate European uniforms of tyranny! No sir! The Minute Men are not Fascist or Communist or anything at all but plain Democratic — the knight-champions of the rights of the Forgotten Men — the shock troops of Freedom!"

Windrip addresses a group of Minute Men hesitant about rounding up resisting citizens:

"I tell you that you are ... the makers of the new America of freedom and justice."

Lewis concerning Independence Day:

The M.M.'s brought out their burnished helmets and all the rideable horses in the neighborhood ... for the great celebration of the New Freedom on the morning of Fourth of July.

Lewis describing Corpo idealists:

Like all religious zealots, they had blessed capacity for blindness, and they were presently convinced that (since the only newspapers they ever read certainly said nothing about it) there were no more of blood-smeared cruelties in court and concentration camp; no restrictions of speech or thought. They believed that they never criticized the Corpo régime not because they were censored, but because "that sort of thing was, like obscenity, such awfully bad form."

Eventually Doremus gets arrested and sent to a concentration camp. At one point during his incarceration a cellmate says:

"You're a lot too simple when you explain everything by saying that the Corpos, especially the M.M.'s, are all fiends. Plenty of 'em are. But even the worst of 'em, even the professional gunmen in the M.M. ranks, don't get as much satisfaction out of punishing us heretics as the honest, dumb Corpos who've been misled by their leaders' mouthing about Freedom, Order, Security, Discipline, Strength! All those swell words ..."

All this by way of comment on what ARI writers are doing with the concepts of selfish-interest and individual rights. See for example Harry Binswanger's sickening praise of Bush and his American catch-phrases (quoted in How to Kill an Idea on this website)  and ARI's promotion of open immigration (quoted in ARI on Immigration).  For another excerpt from It Can't Happen Here see Torture.

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