MSNBC’s Joy Reid Is Now SHILLING For MS-13 After Attacking President Trump For Using Words Such As Church And Family

Another day, another example of the extreme anti-American sentiment running through parts of the Democratic Party as MSNBC’s Joy Reid not only attacked the president for using seemingly normal words such as church and family but also spent time directly shilling for the murderous illegal immigrant gang known as MS-13.

That’s right, not content with attacking the very idea of America, Reid used her on air time during the networks coverage of the State of the Union address to laughably claim that no one has ever heard of MS-13 unless they watch Fox News. Or, in other words, MS-13 isn’t actually a danger to Americans and should be left alone.

Fox News reports:

During MSNBC’s coverage of the State of the Union, Reid mocked the president’s remarks while analyzing the speech with “Hardball” host Chris Matthews.

“He gives a speech tonight, in which he makes it sound like the biggest issue in the United States, the biggest threat is MS-13, a gang nobody that doesn’t watch Fox News has ever heard of. So he makes it sound like they’re the biggest threat.”

Reid said Trump simply mentioned the deadly gang to accommodate the “audience he wants applause from.”

First off. In no way shape or form did President Trump say MS-13 was the “biggest” issue in America, that claim is all in the head of Reid and Reid alone. Secondly, MS-13 is incredibly dangerous and has killed an untold number of American citizens and people across the world. How someone could appear on television and seemingly defend them while attacking the American people is beyond me.

Amazingly, this shilling for MS-13 came around the same time that Reid was actually triggered by the president using words such as church and family.

While this seems insane to a normal person, it actually makes sense when you consider the anti-family agenda of the globalist world order.

Church … family … police … military … the national anthem … Trump trying to call on all the tropes of 1950s-era nationalism. The goal of this speech appears to be to force the normalization of Trump on the terms of the bygone era his supporters are nostalgic for. #SOTU

— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) January 31, 2018

“This is not satire. I repeat this is not a satirical piece. Joy Reid was actually triggered and angered by the use of the words family, church, police, and military. If this is not direct proof of hardcore anti-American, pro-globalist sentiment I don’t know what is,” I reported at the time.

Paul Joseph Watson also noted the insanity:

Yes, you read that right. Reid is literally upset that Trump used the words church, family, police, military and the national anthem during his address to lawmakers.

It was perhaps the most bizarre reaction of the night, and there was no shortage of competition.

Twitter users took Reid to task for her apparent unease with every day words and ‘American as apple pie’ concepts.

“No, Joy, the Left is so out of touch you don’t even recognize normal when you see it,” responded one.

It has become strikingly clear that hard-left deep state puppets such as Reid are becoming more and more bold in their anti-American proclamations at a time when the mainstream media has been willing to cheer on literally anyone that “stands against” Donald Trump.

One has to wonder how long it will take some Democrats, and, more importantly, independents, to realize that the Democratic Party of yesterday no longer exists and has been replaced by one that openly puts the needs of illegal immigrants in front of the American people?

How Wealthy Americans Are Already Trying To Game Trump"s Tax Bill

Earlier this month, Trump touted the idea that, under his tax plan, 1,000"s of Americans would be able to "file their taxes on a single, little beautiful sheet of paper."  Of course, this so-called "postcard" that Trump and Paul Ryan have referenced repeatedly over the past several months is basically nothing more than a 1040EZ shrunken down to fit on a smaller piece of paper but who are we to rain on their parade?

That said, while many Americans will enjoy an easier tax filing in 2018, or at least as easy as the 1040EZ, others, especially high-income folks living in high-tax states like New York and California, are suddenly scrambling to retain accountants to figure out how they might best game the new tax code to avoid higher rates. 

Of course, one of the key opportunities for "gaming" results from the new taxation rules for "pass-through" entities.  Unlike high-income earners filing as individuals who lost a substantial portion of their deductions, pass through entities, with the exception of certain professionals like doctors, lawyers and stockbrokers, are still eligible for a 20% deduction from their earnings.  To put that into perspective, a 20% deduction reduces Trump"s top marginal tax rate for pass-through entities to 29.6% from the 37% that will be paid by individual filers.

Not surprisingly, as CBS points out, the change has pretty much everyone suddenly plotting a post-holiday discussion with their boss to see if they can be fired and promptly re-hired as an independent contractor.

First, you convince your boss to let you quit and hire you back as a contractor after you"ve set yourself up as a sole proprietorship. Assuming you can do that and your tax treatment is better, you can offer your ex-employer the same services for less -- the company does not have to worry about giving you benefits or paying its share of your Social Security and Medicare taxes. That latter part is the iffy one for you, and the numbers would have to work out. "Do you really want to go without health care and a 401(k)?" asked online financial adviser group Betterment"s tax expert, Eric Bronnenkant.

Meanwhile, even lawyers, who are specifically excluded from the pass-through rules, could qualify by leaving their law firms and pursuing a position as an in-house counsel.

An end run works like this: A law partner, sick of the barricade to a kinder tax rate other pass-through people enjoy, moves over to be in-house counsel at an engineering firm, which is not on the ban list. "Now she"s no longer in a specified service," wrote Ari Glogower, a law professor at Ohio State University, on Vox.com. "Voila, she may qualify for the pass-through deduction."

As we pointed out earlier this week (see: Why Wall Street Is Furious At The Trump Tax Plan), for others who can"t game the pass-through system, like most of the traders earning big bucks on wall street, the best option might be to simply move from New York to a lower-taxed state like Florida or Texas.

Still others are considering a move to lower-taxed states like Florida and Texas which, as Todd Morgan, chairman of Bel Air Investment Advisors in Los Angeles notes, sounds like a great idea right to the point that you realize that actually entails uprooting your entire family and starting a whole new life in a different part of the country...something that generally doesn"t go over well with teenage kids..."If you’re already rich why would you move to another state and live a different life just to save some money on taxes?  What are you going to do with the money? Buy more clothes? Eat more food?"

Finally, the tax bill could even influence decisions on if/when people decide to get a divorce.  As Bloomberg points out, starting January 1, 2019 divorce suddenly becomes way more attractive for the recipients of alimony and punitive for payers as the payments will not longer be counted as income or allowed as a deduction.

Tax considerations are even changing for those getting a divorce.

 

Under the law, divorced taxpayers who pay alimony would no longer be able to deduct those payments from their income, and recipients of alimony would also no longer need to report the money as income. However, the provision doesn’t go into effect right away and instead applies to divorces finalized after Dec. 31, 2018. So, depending on whether you’re set to pay or receive alimony, you might want to speed up or slow down those divorce proceedings.

...which may or may not have been a clause specifically added by Melania...

Vegan Food Truck Owner Receives Death Threats After Opining About Vegas Shooting

Delinda and Kyle Jensen have always been open to talking to customers about the opinions they have at their Mother Nature Vegan Cuisine food truck. But their opinions have now resulted in death threats since the comments made about the Las Vegas shooting did not go over very well.

Delinda Jensen, who is 60 years old, has gotten several death threats after posting this Facebook comment: “Yes I am jaded. Fifty-nine meat eaters dead. How many animals will live because of this?” She then made a comment under that same post that said: “I don’t give a (expletive) about carnists anymore.”

According to the Washington Post, Jensen has since deactivated her Facebook account, hidden her food truck, and canceled all of her bookings. She has also installed a security camera at her home. Her son said people have driven by their home shouting threats and obscenities, and they have had to call the police several times out of fear for their safety.

Jensen said she became a vegan two years ago and started the Mother Nature Vegan Cuisine food truck with her son. She said she was trying to make the point that she believes animals are tortured and killed unnecessarily for their meat, however, now the former adjunct history professor at Marywood University said she is living in fear since her post set off an intense and immediate backlash on social media last week. Many Facebook users shared Jensen’s post, which generated hundreds of hate-filled comments and threats with very little defense of her stance.

But she also says she’s sorry, and regrets making the post on Facebook. “Was it poorly written? Absolutely. Do I regret it? Yes. I am so sorry I wrote that,” she said. “Meat eaters or not, no one deserves to die like that. I wasn’t celebrating the death of those people.”

“I (expletive) up,” Jensen said while sitting at her kitchen table with son and business partner, Kyle.  Jensen tried to explain her motivation for writing the post, by saying she wanted to make the point that too many animals are tortured and killed every year. She estimates 20 billion-plus animals are killed for human consumption yearly. Jensen said people can eat good food without the inhumanity of abusing and killing innocent animals. She also said that just one vegan translates into saving 155 animals per year.

“It’s almost like a lynch mob is forming,” said Jensen. “It seems that it’s no longer about the Facebook post — now it’s about eating meat.” Jensen is still angry at herself for what she called “a moment of stupidity.” She felt her vegan business was doing good things for people; like giving them a healthy alternative to meat. Jensen would bring her truck to Public Square on Mondays and it was very popular. “We even gave food to the homeless for free,” she said. But now, “We’re done. We canceled all of our booked events. We had a really good product, too.”

“We are not bad people,” she said. “We are aware that there are people on social media who have been trying to organize groups to come after us.” So at night, Jensen and her son lock all the doors and turn out the lights. They leave porch lights on so security cameras can record anyone trying to get near them. “I’ll just take it one day at a time,” she said. “I understand the tragedies of history — there’s never anything to celebrate. I never once felt ‘Yay, yippee, 59 people are dead.’”

But that isn’t how those who read her post felt on social media. “I did write an apology on Facebook right after the post went up,” Jensen said. “It didn’t matter. People were already running with it.” Kyle, who has a degree in culinary arts, is sure he will find another job, but his mother may be out of work for good. “I’m not mad at my mom,” he said. “We are a family. We’ve been through a lot. But people have destroyed our business.”

“This was our life and now it’s gone,” she said. “I’m so scared to go out anywhere.”

You’re A Prepper. Your Family’s Not. What Should You Do?

Image source: Pixabay.com

Perhaps one of the hardest things to do when prepping is convincing family and friends to join you.

Ask any long-time prepper, and they’re likely to have had trouble discussing the topic with loved ones. Prepping isn’t something you can hide from immediate family, either.  A basement full of food supplies would be hard to keep a secret, as would a cabinet stocked with guns and ammo.

Need help? You definitely can win people to your side, even through small, incremental ways.

1. Find examples of people and situations they can relate to. All of us know people who’ve suffered through a disaster, a sudden job loss, a health crisis or something that’s drastically disruptive of normal life. This is where facts and history can be your best resource. Whether they be calamitous events from recent history (Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, the 2008 economic crisis) or those from decades past (World War II, The Great Depression), there always will be real-life devastations to discuss. If you stick to news and factual events, there’s a higher chance you’ll get people to seriously consider preparing for a disaster.

2. Use the government’s own advice. FEMA and DHS advice the public to be ready to be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. This means one should be able to provide for one’s own shelter, first aid, food, water and sanitation for three days. This is because local responders may not be able to reach calamity victims immediately, or they may need to focus their efforts elsewhere.

3. Books, TV and movies might help. Hollywood never runs out of apocalyptic films to titillate people into thinking the end of the world can and will happen within our lifetime. World War Z. 2012. The Day After Tomorrow. If fiction won’t get your friends thinking, there are loads of non-fiction material they can peruse. Nat Geo documentaries like American Blackout and The Next Mega Tsunami point to the probability of a grid-down scenario and a devastating tsunami. Science-based books like Our Final Hour:  A Scientist’s Warning – How Terror, Error and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind’s Future in this Century (Martin Rees), The Coming Plague:  Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance (Laurie Garett) and Cyberwar:  The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About it (Richard Clarke) explain just how fragile and vulnerable our world is to different kinds of calamities.

4. No date-setting. Don’t prognosticate that the world as we know it is sure to end next month, next quarter or next year. Even the best or most-followed financial analysts, geo-scientists, astrophysicists and prophetic preachers have made wrong predictions about when the dollar would collapse, when Planet X would do a fly-by or when the Lord’s return will be.

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Again, just stick to realistic data about natural disasters, unemployment, soaring food prices and the closure of stores. They’ll get your drift.

5. Understand the diversity of people’s backgrounds and opinions – and be patient. Most people have not gone through any life-threatening crisis, so they’ll have a hard time relating to your concern. A great majority of the populace are too busy, distracted or simply too stressed from the regular demands of daily life. So, the concept of societal collapse may not only be foreign to them, but also a bit too far-fetched.

Image source: Pixabay.com

6. Pitch it on grounds of pragmatism and concern, not fear and paranoia. Tell loved ones you want them to prep out of genuine concern for their welfare, not just because hundreds of families are doing it on Doomsday Preppers. Pitch it as a smart, practical thing to do to provide for one’s family in cases of emergency. It’s not very different from taking out a health, accident or life insurance policy.

7. Go easy with the gals. Most women don’t take to guns and ammo as quickly as men do. There’s certainly a place and a time for learning to shoot and stockpiling weapons, but don’t let it be the start of a prepping discussion with the ladies. A better area to start on would be food security, such as gardening and food storage.

8. Wait. Once you’ve delivered your message, let it sink in. People take time to process surprising new concepts, and a doomsday situation is certainly a big one for them. Let them chew on it first, hoping they’ll come around to the wisdom of prepping, in due time. But give them leeway to approach the subject at their own pace.

9. Lead by example. When people see how serious you are in prepping, they just might see the value in it, too, on their own. Be the example of preparedness that they need. Once you’ve finished trying to convince them, you’ve done your part. People have the freedom to agree with you or not, anyway. If and when things do start to unravel, then you’d be in a great position to help them. Lastly, don’t give in to the temptation to say “I told you so.” That’s the last thing people want to hear when they’re suffering.

What advice would you add? Share it in the section below:

You’re A Pepper. Your Family’s Not. What Should You Do?

Image source: Pixabay.com

Perhaps one of the hardest things to do when prepping is convincing family and friends to join you.

Ask any long-time prepper, and they’re likely to have had trouble discussing the topic with loved ones. Prepping isn’t something you can hide from immediate family, either.  A basement full of food supplies would be hard to keep a secret, as would a cabinet stocked with guns and ammo.

Need help? You definitely can win people to your side, even through small, incremental ways.

1. Find examples of people and situations they can relate to. All of us know people who’ve suffered through a disaster, a sudden job loss, a health crisis or something that’s drastically disruptive of normal life. This is where facts and history can be your best resource. Whether they be calamitous events from recent history (Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, the 2008 economic crisis) or those from decades past (World War II, The Great Depression), there always will be real-life devastations to discuss. If you stick to news and factual events, there’s a higher chance you’ll get people to seriously consider preparing for a disaster.

2. Use the government’s own advice. FEMA and DHS advice the public to be ready to be self-sufficient for at least 72 hours in the event of a natural or man-made disaster. This means one should be able to provide for one’s own shelter, first aid, food, water and sanitation for three days. This is because local responders may not be able to reach calamity victims immediately, or they may need to focus their efforts elsewhere.

3. Books, TV and movies might help. Hollywood never runs out of apocalyptic films to titillate people into thinking the end of the world can and will happen within our lifetime. World War Z. 2012. The Day After Tomorrow. If fiction won’t get your friends thinking, there are loads of non-fiction material they can peruse. Nat Geo documentaries like American Blackout and The Next Mega Tsunami point to the probability of a grid-down scenario and a devastating tsunami. Science-based books like Our Final Hour:  A Scientist’s Warning – How Terror, Error and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind’s Future in this Century (Martin Rees), The Coming Plague:  Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance (Laurie Garett) and Cyberwar:  The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About it (Richard Clarke) explain just how fragile and vulnerable our world is to different kinds of calamities.

4. No date-setting. Don’t prognosticate that the world as we know it is sure to end next month, next quarter or next year. Even the best or most-followed financial analysts, geo-scientists, astrophysicists and prophetic preachers have made wrong predictions about when the dollar would collapse, when Planet X would do a fly-by or when the Lord’s return will be.

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Again, just stick to realistic data about natural disasters, unemployment, soaring food prices and the closure of stores. They’ll get your drift.

5. Understand the diversity of people’s backgrounds and opinions – and be patient. Most people have not gone through any life-threatening crisis, so they’ll have a hard time relating to your concern. A great majority of the populace are too busy, distracted or simply too stressed from the regular demands of daily life. So, the concept of societal collapse may not only be foreign to them, but also a bit too far-fetched.

Image source: Pixabay.com

6. Pitch it on grounds of pragmatism and concern, not fear and paranoia. Tell loved ones you want them to prep out of genuine concern for their welfare, not just because hundreds of families are doing it on Doomsday Preppers. Pitch it as a smart, practical thing to do to provide for one’s family in cases of emergency. It’s not very different from taking out a health, accident or life insurance policy.

7. Go easy with the gals. Most women don’t take to guns and ammo as quickly as men do. There’s certainly a place and a time for learning to shoot and stockpiling weapons, but don’t let it be the start of a prepping discussion with the ladies. A better area to start on would be food security, such as gardening and food storage.

8. Wait. Once you’ve delivered your message, let it sink in. People take time to process surprising new concepts, and a doomsday situation is certainly a big one for them. Let them chew on it first, hoping they’ll come around to the wisdom of prepping, in due time. But give them leeway to approach the subject at their own pace.

9. Lead by example. When people see how serious you are in prepping, they just might see the value in it, too, on their own. Be the example of preparedness that they need. Once you’ve finished trying to convince them, you’ve done your part. People have the freedom to agree with you or not, anyway. If and when things do start to unravel, then you’d be in a great position to help them. Lastly, don’t give in to the temptation to say “I told you so.” That’s the last thing people want to hear when they’re suffering.

What advice would you add? Share it in the section below:

Why Are So Many Millennials Living With Their Parents Instead Of Getting Married And Starting Their Own Families?

Did you know that the percentage of 18 to 34-year-old Americans that are married and living with a spouse has dropped by more than half since 1975?  Back then, 57 percent of everyone in that age group “lived with a spouse”, but today that number has dropped to just 27 percent.  These numbers come from “the Changing Economics and Demographics of Young Adulthood” report that was just released by the U.S. Census Bureau.  Some are postulating that the reason for this dramatic cultural shift is a phenomenon known as “extended adolescence”, while others fear that large numbers of young men and/or young women are giving up on the concept of marriage altogether.

Instead of getting married and starting their own households, many young adults are deciding that living with Mom and Dad is the best approach.  In fact, this new Census Bureau report found that one out of every three 18 to 34-year-old Americans is currently living with their parents…

According to the Changing Economics and Demographics of Young Adulthood report for 2016, one in three Americans ages 18 to 34 are living at home with their parents.

Coming in second place is living with a spouse (27 per cent), followed by other (i.e. living with a roommate or other relatives, 21 per cent), living with a boyfriend or girlfriend (12 per cent) and living alone (8 per cent).

Once the last recession ended, this trend was supposed to start reversing, but instead the number of young adults still living at home has just continued to increase.  This is going to have very serious implications for our looming retirement crisis, and that is something that I am going to write about later today on End Of The American Dream.

And a lot of these young adults are not being productive members of society at all.  In fact, this new report from the Census Bureau found that one out of every four 25 to 34-year-old Americans that are currently living at home do not have a job and they are not going to school either.

In other words, they need to get a life.  I really like how a recent CNBC editorial made this point…

One of the most memorable Saturday Night Live sketches ever was broadcast in 1986 when guest host William Shatner played himself appearing at fictional Star Trek convention. After fielding one childish question after another from costumed fans in their late 20s and 30s, Shatner loses his cool and shouts: “GET A LIFE, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it’s just a TV show! … Move out of your parents’ basements! Get your own apartments and GROW THE HELL UP!”

Thirty-one years later, it sure seems like all of America needs to heed that message. Here’s why: The Census Bureau now says that more 18-34 year-olds are living with their parents than with a spouse.

But a lot of young men these days do not even want to go down the traditional route of marriage, family, career, etc.

In fact, a lot of them are forsaking the concept of marriage together.  Author Suzanne Venker says that a lot of these men are blaming their lack of desire to get married on modern women…

“When I ask them why, the answer is always the same: women aren’t women anymore.” Feminism, which teaches women to think of men as the enemy, has made women “angry” and “defensive, though often unknowingly.”

“Now the men have nowhere to go. It is precisely this dynamic – women good/men bad – that has destroyed the relationship between the sexes. Yet somehow, men are still to blame when love goes awry.”

“Men are tired,” Venker wrote. “Tired of being told there’s something fundamentally wrong with them. Tired of being told that if women aren’t happy, it’s men’s fault.”

On the flip side, a lot of women are extremely distressed that so few men seem to have the willingness to commit these days.  So many men just want to run around having sex with an endless series of women without ever putting a wedding ring on any of their fingers.

Of course many men figure that if they can get some of the best benefits of marriage (sex, companionship, etc.) without having to make a commitment then that is a pretty good deal for them.

Personally, I am a huge advocate of marriage, but the rest of society is moving in the exact opposite direction.  According to the Pew Research Center, 44 percent of 18 to 29-year-old Americans now believe that “marriage is becoming obsolete”.  And for a lot more numbers like this, please see my previous article entitled “43 Facts About Love, Sex, Dating And Marriage That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe”.

But of course not all young adults that are living at home are doing it for the wrong reasons.  Thanks to our long-term economic decline, it is much more difficult for young people to find good paying jobs today than it was several decades ago.  The following comes from CNS News…

“More young men are falling to the bottom of the income ladder,” says the Census Bureau study. “In 1975, only 25 percent of men, aged 25 to 34, had incomes of less than $30,000 per year. By 2016, that share rose to 41 percent of young men (incomes for both years are in 2015 dollars).”

I have absolutely no problem at all with young adults that are living at home temporarily for economic reasons.  These Millennials are simply victims of our failing economy, and thus we should not be so quick to judge them.

And many of these young people graduate from college already saddled with tremendous amounts of debt.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of going to college has increased by an astounding 63 percent since 2006.  We assure our youngsters that they will get good paying jobs when they graduate that will enable them to pay off those student loans, but once they do finally graduate many of them are discovering that the good paying jobs that we promised them do not exist.

Today, Americans owe more than a trillion dollars on their student loans.  It has become a major national crisis, and it is financially crippling an entire generation.

So the next time you hear of a young adult that is still living at home, don’t be so quick to judge until you know the facts.

Yes, there are many that need a good kick in the pants to get them going in life, but there are also millions that are simply victims of our ongoing long-term economic collapse.

5 Fun Activities To Create A More Prepared Family

Image source: Pixabay.com

It’s the reason many big companies today are advertising to kids. It’s the reason app developers have stopped pandering to adults as a middleman to the children. It’s in the actions taken by nonprofits and institutions around the nation to create junior ambassadors. The children are the future. Their power simply cannot be denied.

But if we are not growing our own little ambassadors to fight for the cause of liberty and freedom, then how can we expect that heavy torch to be carried into the future? How can we expect the kids to be more self-reliant and independent? The answer is we cannot.

In this age of technological convenience, we must be creative if we hope to grip our children with seemingly ancient ideas of freedom and preparedness. With services like Amazon that deliver anything you ever could want to your doorstep, how can you convince them that doing things the hard way and the old way is needed?

So, what can we do to create a more prepared family?

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Here’s one solution: Blend their interests and desires into activities that bring them closer to self-reliance and preparedness. You see, to be an effective teacher or parent you must carry at least a bit of deception in your arsenal.

Here are five activities:

1. Geocaching.

If you are looking to get the family outside and hunt for some “buried treasure,” there is really no substitute for geocaching. It’s a game of following coordinates via GPS on your smartphone to a location where someone has hidden a cache.

Image source: Pixabay.com

These caches contain very small items … and sometimes contain nothing. You can trade for items in the cache or just sign the booklet inside to let the next explorer know who was there before them.

Geocaching gets the kids outside and teaches them about the powerful method of hiding survival caches. Your survival caches may be filled with bullets and food storage, but these are a little more kid-friendly.

2. Self-defense.

Gone are the days when martial arts were exclusively for the tough guys. Even MMA gyms have incredible kid’s programs that teach them self-defense, among other great lessons. There is simply no better method than to throw them in a class with people their age who will quickly become their friends.

Spend time teaching your kids the good stuff. There are a lot of martial arts out there, but the fact is some are just more effective than others. Consider getting your kids into the following disciplines:

• Muay Thai


• Jiu Jitsu


• Krav Maga

3. Minecraft.

Image source: Pixabay.com

Minecraft is a totally creative buildable universe where your characters can work together not just to build cool structures but also to craft all the tools you’ll need to do so. This crafting element helps kids understand the manipulation of base materials and how they can be turned into something useful.

Example: If you are going to put glass windows in your home, you must collect sand and place it in your furnace. To power your furnace, you either will have to mine coal or make charcoal from wood.

The survival mode also requires you to hunt or farm to feed yourself. You must build shelter to protect yourself from many of the enemies.

In Minecraft, you also will have an inventory to manage. This means you will only have so much room to keep items that you collect.

The game is a blast with kids, and there is no other outlet where you can combine so many survival principles in a fun and enjoyable night-in. All the while, they will be learning about things like resources, crafting, farming, disaster, recovery and adaptability.

4. Shooting.

If your kids are old enough to shoot, then this is one of the most important things you can do as a family.

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Our Second Amendment rights are constantly under fire, and we need a generation of responsible gun owners to take our place. If our kids are going to fight for our rights, they must understand the truth about what a gun is, what it’s capable of and — most importantly — how to safely own and use one.

5. Camping.

You can mutate your camping trips into bug-out trips. It’s a very easy scenario to pose to the kids. Make your camping adventures a little more impromptu and try to utilize as little convenience as possible. Take your bug-out bags and use what’s inside of them.

Image source: Pixabay.com

Challenge your kids to leave the electronics at home and bring with them only their wits. Of course, this will put more pressure on you to keep them entertained. Don’t worry; I have answers for that, too.

• Navigation with a compass.


• Finding wild edibles.


• Firecraft.


• Fishing.


• Watching wildlife.

Camping is a no-brainer, but you can take it to another level if you are smart about how you spend your time.

There is an old saying: “Bait your hook with your heart and they will always bite.” When it comes to your family, it’s no different. Show them your passion and then compromise to make it fun for them.

What advice would you add? Share your tips in the section below:

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800 families file lawsuit against Saudi Arabia over 9/11

New York, NY — Eight-hundred families of 9/11 victims and 1,500 first responders, along with others who suffered as a result of the attacks, have filed a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia over its alleged complicity in the 2001 terror attacks, according to an exclusive report by local New York outlet Pix 11.

The legal document, filed in a federal court in Manhattan, describes the Saudi role in the attacks. Pix 11 reports:

“The document details how officials from Saudi embassies supported hijackers Salem al-Hazmi and Khalid Al-Mihdhar 18 months before 9/11.

“The officials allegedly helped them find apartments, learn English and obtain credit cards and cash. The documents state that the officials helped them learn how to blend into the American landscape.”

For years, suspicions have swirled that some Saudi officials had ties to the gruesome attacks. The recent release of FBI reports produced shortly after the attacks provided details to justify growing skepticism against the Saudis. These details were further bolstered by the release of 28 pages originally withheld from the 9/11 commission report. Though the U.S. government downplayed the findings, even some lawmakers expressed concern.

Pix 11 further described the lawsuit, which reportedly relies on information from the FBI’s investigations:

“The suit also produces evidence that officials in the Saudi embassy in Germany supported lead hijacker Mohamed Atta. It claims that a Saudi official was in the same hotel in Virginia with several hijackers the night before the attacks.”

The suit also alleges “some of the hijackers had special markers in their passports, identifying them as al-Qaida sympathizers.”

According to the suit, filed by aviation law firm Kreindler & Kreindler, “Saudi royals, who for years had been trying to curry favor with fundamentalists to avoid losing power, were aware that funds from Saudi charities were being funneled to al-Qaida.”

“The charities were alter egos of the Saudi government,” Jim Kreindler told Pix 11.

According to Kreindler, “there was a direct link between all the charities and Osama bin Laden and…they operated with the full knowledge of Saudi officials.”

The lawsuit reportedly details how funds were transferred from charities inside Saudi Arabia to the terror group. One of those charities, Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, has been designated a sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. government.

Kreindler insists Saudi involvement occurred and was blatantly malicious.

“The Saudis were so duplicitous,” he said. “They claim to be allies fighting with U.S. against Iran, while at the same time working with the terrorists. There’s no question they had a hand in the 9/11 attacks.”

Via Anti-Media

Featured Image: Wajahat Mahmood/Flickr

US Airstrike Kills At Least 10 Civilians In Syria

November 22, 2016   |   admintam

(ANTIWAR) In an embarrassing bit of timing, as US officials were railing against the Syrian military for targeting civilians at the UN, US warplanes were attacking a cotton mill in northeastern Syria, an attack which killed at least 10 civilians.

It is unclear why the cotton mill, in the village of Salhiyeh, was targeted in the first place, but it is north of the ISIS capital city of Raqqa, which Kurdish YPG forces are in the process of surrounding. The Kurdish forces are almost exclusively north of the city, which is also the direction civilians are fleeing Raqqa.

Among the civilians slain in the cotton mill attack were a displaced family of six who were sheltering in the area. Also killed were three employees and another bystander from the village.

This is the latest in a growing number of incidents in which US airstrikes supporting Kurdish offensives in Syria have killed innocent civilians. Despite these being well documented, official Pentagon figures dramatically under-report the actual death toll of US strikes.

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This article (US Airstrike Kills At Least 10 Civilians In Syria) by Jason Ditz, originally appeared on AntiWar.com and was used with permission. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.

US Airstrike Kills Eight Civilians Including Three Children in Iraq

November 2, 2016   |   admintam

(ANTIWAR) On October 22, US warplanes carried out airstrikes against the village of Fadhiliya, a few kilometers away from the city of Mosul. Two of the strikes hit a civilian house within, killing eight civilians from a single family, including three children.

It is unclear why the report of this airstrike is just coming to light now, over a week later, but it marks the first significant civilian casualties in a US airstrike related to the Mosul invasion. A previous incident the day before, initially reported as a US airstrike against a Shi’ite mosque near Kirkuk, is now being reported as likely an attack by the Iraqi Air Force, and not the US.

Pentagon officials confirmed conducting a number of airstrikes against Fadhiliya at the time of the civilian deaths, and say they are conducting “further investigation” to determine all the facts related to the attack. Saying they take the allegations seriously.

As the fighting around Mosul advances into more densely populated areas around the city itself, the concerns are growing that such airstrikes are going to cause a number of civilian casualties. This is doubly true because now Iraq is warning residents of Mosul against fleeing, and the US has announced its intention to carry out airstrikes to prevent “fleeing ISIS” from getting away.

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This article (US Airstrike Kills Eight Civilians Including Three Children in Iraq) by Jason Ditz, originally appeared on AntiWar.com and was used with permission. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org.

Study: Mobile Devices are Causing, Stress, Anxiety at Home

Smartphones and tablets are replacing face-to-face interactions, and families are suffering because of it, a new study says.

According to lead study author Dr. Jenny Radesky, assistant professor of developmental behavioral pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School, incoming communications from work, friends, and the world at large is “contaminating” family mealtime, bedtime, and playtime. Whether you agree with the term ‘contamination’ or not, I think we can all agree these times are changing due to these technological devices. [1]

Radesky says:

“This tension, this stress, of trying to balance newly emerging technologies with the established patterns and rituals of our lives is extremely common, and was expressed by almost all of our participants. We have to toggle between what might be stress-inducing or highly cognitively demanding mobile content and responding to our kids’ behavior.”

As a result, there is more tension between parents and their children, with increased stress in the home.

The findings are based on interviews with 35 parents and caregivers of young children in the Boston area. The study included 22 mothers, 9 fathers, and 4 grandmothers.

Participants were between the ages of 23 and 55, with an average age of 36, and cared for toddlers or children up to age 8. Roughly 1/3 were single parents, and nearly six in 10 were white.

Joseph Bayer, an assistant professor in the School of Communication at Ohio State University, found the results unsurprising. It all makes perfect sense to Bayer, who says:

“Given past research on texting while driving and mentally demanding tasks, I can see how ‘texting while parenting’ would lead to some cognitive and emotional conflict.” [2]

Some Positive Takeaways

There were some positive associations with using mobile devices at home, too.

Here are a few interesting findings from the study:

• While many parents said devices made it easier for them to work from home, this sometimes created more anxiety.

• Some participants said smartphones gave them a break from the boredom and stress of raising young children.

• Many parents admitted that using a mobile device could affect their mood, thereby affecting their interactions with their child.

• Children sometimes acted out to get attention if their parent or caregiver spent too much time on their device. As a result, caregivers sometimes reacted angrily.

• Parents who used mobile devices during meals interacted less with their children, and became stressed when their children tried to divert their attention away from the device.

Larry Rosen, professor emeritus at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who wasn’t involved in the study, says:

“Younger generations believe that they can multitask with anything and that is simply not true.

What they rapidly discover is that they cannot do two tasks together as well as each separately, and, in fact, it adds another layer of stress to their already stressed lives raising children.”

Radesky holds the same views, saying:

“So much of their lives are contained in these devices – work, friendships, world news, loads of information – so they elicit much more in-depth cognitive and emotional responses from us, and this can be even harder to balance with attention to each other.”

Read: 5 Ways to Recharge, Enjoy Life Without Technology

Setting Some Boundaries

Radesky has some advice for parents and caregivers who are struggling to keep all of the balls in the air while still holding onto their electronic gadgets:

• Set boundaries that include device-free periods and device-free areas of the home.

• Keep track of your mobile use and cut back if you find that you’re spending too much time staring at a device. There are downloadable apps that can help you do that. [1] [2]

• Parents should pay attention to which activities are the most stressful, and try to avoid those tasks when it’s family time. [2]

Here’s something else for parents to consider. A study published this past spring shows that 1/2 of U.S. kids are addicted to technology, so there is no doubt that this problem is pervasive, and growing.

Sources:

[1] HealthDay

[2] Reuters

Featured image source: NPR

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About Julie Fidler:
	Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog.