What if the economy doesn't get better?

What if it gets way worse?

What if we experience severe hyperinflation, and even more severe unemployment?

What will you do if it begins to look like we're headed for rioting, looting, urban unrest, marshall law, or even civil war?

Do you believe it can't happen because the United States is "too big to fail"?

Do you have a backup plan in case it does? If so, tell us about it...

I will petition my government to build a 30 foot fence along the border to keep all of the American refugees from pouring across the border.

What will you do if it begins to look like we're headed for rioting, looting, urban unrest, marshall law, or even civil war?

Interesting... But don't you want to add, "...with OUR money?"

You know, I think they just may be happier going to Somalia. There isn't much of a government there which is what you teabagger types want anyway. You know, no regulations, no laws, freedom as you like to say.

Ya I think that's the place for you.

The referendum took place in Quebec on October 30, 1995, and the motion to decide whether Quebec should secede from Canada was defeated by a very narrow margin of 50.58% "No" to 49.42% "Yes".

No: 2,362,648 (50.58%) Yes: 2,308,360 (49.42%)
Valid ballots 4,671,008 98.18%
Rejected ballots 86,501 1.82%
Participation rate 4,757,509 93.52%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_referendum,_1995

"Only when the last tree has died,
Only when the last river has been poisoned, Only when the last fish has been caught will man realize he cannot eat money..." -Cree native American proverb.

Bossier City Louisiana Prepares for “End of the World Scenario”
Author: Mac Slavo
- February 28th, 2010

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, emergency responders from both public and private sectors were eager to respond within hours. The failure was not with the individuals on the ground ready to help, but rather, it was with management. All levels of government failed the people of New Orleans, from the President on down to Mayor Ray Nagin. No one would make a decision, and this cost hundreds of lives and millions of dollars in additional damage.
In disaster situations - real disasters - the bureaucracy always finds a way to make a difficult task even harder.
Our inability to depend on the very officials we’ve elected to help us when it really counts is the very reason why the idea of taking personal responsibility for oneself during a SHTF emergency sounds so appealing.
If only every city could have forward looking leaders like Sherriff Larry Deen, who recently launched “Operation Exodus”, a program designed to prepare his city for what the Shreveport Times calls an end-of-the-world scenario:
The Bossier Parish sheriff’s office is launching a program called “Operation Exodus,” a policing plan for an end-of-the-world scenario involving a mostly white group of ex-police volunteers and a .50-caliber machine gun, inspired in part from the Book of Exodus in the Bible.
“The buck stops with Larry Deen,” said Bossier Parish Sheriff Larry Deen. “The liability stops with Larry Deen. I am the chief law enforcement officer in this parish, and it is incumbent upon me protect all of the people in it.”
Deen said he had been formulating a plan to protect Bossier Parish’s vital resources, like food and gasoline, in the event of a catastrophic event, such as war or a terrorist attack. Deen said he had been thinking of the plan since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

'Operation Exodus': Louisiana Sheriff Taps Locals For Emergency Security Plan
Zachary Roth | March 3, 2010, 5:55PM
A Louisiana sheriff plans to arm volunteers with shotguns, riot shields, batons, and a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on a "war wagon," as part of "Operation Exodus," a program to provide security in the event of a terrorist attack or civic unrest. "It's a calling," he says.
The office of Sheriff Larry Deen of Bossier Parish, near Shreveport in the northwest part of the state, last month selected for the program 200 local residents -- mostly ex-law-enforcement personnel -- and began training them in "defensive techniques in the event of a struggle," reports the Shreveport Times. The plan calls for the new recruits to be sent to protect food from grocery stores, gas from gas stations, and other crucial local resources, should the situation demand it.
A press release from Deen's office announcing the program declared that "recent terror threats" had made clear that "homegrown terrorists are in our midst." It continued: "With the easy accessibility of the internet, it is quite possible that these local and international terrorists can form a national or multiple location attack on our nation at any given moment."
"The buck stops with Larry Deen," the sheriff, who didn't immediately respond to our interview request, told the Times. "I am the chief law enforcement officer in this parish, and it is incumbent upon me protect all of the people in it."
The press release added that Operation Exodus got its name in part "because of its Biblical relevance," explaining that "In the book of Exodus, the Israelites were totally on their own, learning to be self-sufficient and handle everything alone, just as the plan provides."
In a video of the first training session, posted on the sheriff's office's website, the recruits -- almost all white and male, and many appearing to be past middle-age -- gamely practice their hand-to-hand combat techniques:
Doyle Dempsey, a sheriff's deputy, explains in the video that the training session is designed to "set up a prevention mode to implement during Operation Exodus." The idea, says Dempsey, is to "show an overwhelming show of force prior to any incident taking place."
The video also shows a sign, apparently posted at the training session, which reads: "Hard In Drill Easy In Battle. Somewhere Right Now Your Enemy Is Training So That When He Meets You He Defeats You."
Deen said that the program will cost just $4,500, in part because weapons, such as a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on what the sheriff's office calls "the war wagon," have previously been bought.
Deen added he'd been mulling such a plan since the 9/11 attacks -- but he denied to the Times that he was creating a militia. "We run from that word," he said. "We're just the opposite [of] that word."

Louisiana Officer in Beating Case Reinstated and Given Back Pay Despite Shocking Videotape
Published 1, August 14, 2009
It is always controversial when society “allows the criminal to go free because the constable blundered,” but what about allowing the constable to go free because the constable blundered? Shreveport police officer Wiley Willis became a national figure after shocking pictures were released of a woman who was beaten in his custody — after he turned off a camera in a police station. Now he has been reinstated because a polygrapher failed to record the result of a test of Willis. Not only was Willis never charged criminally, but he will now receive full back pay at the insistence of the Shreveport police officers union.

After turning off the camera, Willis left Angela Garbarino (who was arrested for DWI) with a broken nose and other injuries.
The Civil Service Board ruled that Willis’ rights, under the Police Officer Bill of Rights, were violated because an expert failed to record a polygraph examination Willis took as part of the Police Department’s investigation into Garbarino’s injuries, including two black eyes and a broken nose. Willis asks if the camera is on before turning it off. When he turns the camera on again, Garbarino is beaten and bloody.
The Police Chief has denounced the “technicality” and the reinstatement.

What if it gets way worse?

What will you do if it begins to look like we're headed for rioting, looting, urban unrest, marshall law, or even civil war?

Do you believe it can't happen because the United States is "too big to fail"?

Do you have a backup plan in case it does? If so, tell us about it...

Do you have a backup plan in case it does? If so, tell us about it...

Friday, March 5, 2010

Consumer confidence in Canada has risen to pre-recession levels and remains ahead of similar U.S. indexes, data released Thursday shows.

The Investors Group said consumer confidence in this country has risen 3.5 points since November to 89. South of the border, the measure stands at 73.6, an increase from 67.4 recorded in November.

"With three quarters of similar consumer confidence results, we're back up to the relatively high levels that we consistently recorded throughout 2006 and 2007,” Doug Anderson, senior vice-president at Investors Group said.

“The U.S. is continuing an upward trend, but still lags well behind Canada and still not what it was before the economic crisis.”

About half of Canadian respondents said now is a good time to make a major purchase, while 31% believe it is a bad time to make such a purchase. These numbers are relatively unchanged from August and November, Investors Group said.

And Canadians are three times more likely to see themselves enjoying good financial times a year down the road than bad.

When it comes to the economy as a whole, Canadians are increasingly optimistic, Investors Group found. Thirty per cent of respondents said they see good times ahead in the next year for the national economy, while 13% see bad times, an improvement from November, when 25% saw good economic times ahead for Canada.

Looking out five years, a majority of Canadians, or 60%, believe there will be good times financially for the Canadian economy, while 28% believe there will be high unemployment and recession over this period.

http://www.torontosun.com/money/2010/03/04/13111016.html

Canadian economy grows 5%, tops forecasts

Gross domestic product expands at fastest clip in nearly a decade in the fourth quarter, making rate hikes more likely

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/canadian-economy-grows-5-tops-forecasts/article1485166/

As an affluent, high-tech industrial society in the trillion-dollar class, Canada resembles the US in its market-oriented economic system, pattern of production, and affluent living standards. Since World War II, the impressive growth of the manufacturing, mining, and service sectors has transformed the nation from a largely rural economy into one primarily industrial and urban. The 1989 US-Canada Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (which includes Mexico) touched off a dramatic increase in trade and economic integration with the US, its principal trading partner. Canada enjoys a substantial trade surplus with the US, which absorbs nearly 80% of Canadian exports each year. Canada is the US's largest foreign supplier of energy, including oil, gas, uranium, and electric power. Given its great natural resources, skilled labor force, and modern capital plant, Canada enjoyed solid economic growth from 1993 through 2007. Buffeted by the global economic crisis, the economy dropped into a sharp recession in the final months of 2008, and Ottawa posted its first fiscal deficit in 2009 after 12 years of surplus. Canada's major banks, however, emerged from the financial crisis of 2008-09 among the strongest in the world, owing to the country's tradition of conservative lending practices and strong capitalization.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ca.html