stephanie brail

Here are my latest “unpsychic predictions” – as always, I’m not claiming to be some master psychic, so take them with a grain of salt! I have had some predictions that have not come to pass (but we’ll see, there’s still time), and some that were iffy, but I’ve also had some hits.

HIT: On November 6, I predicted Glenn Beck would be somehow “taken out.” Since then, Beck has been taken off the air at FOX, though you didn’t really need to be psychic to guess his days might be numbered. I also said he may have health issues coming up for him. Given that he’s had health issues in the past, once again, you don’t need to be psychic to guess that he’ll have more problems in the future. But I’m sticking with that – that Beck is going to have some major health problems, possibly soon.

HIT: In my predictions for 2011, I predicted a lot of storms for 2011, including tornadoes. Sadly, we’ve had the worst outbreak of tornadoes since 1925. I feel we are going to continue to have bad weather this year, and we will have hurricanes too.

MISS (so far): I had been feeling for a while that Obama would not be running in 2012 and either resign, move on to a U.N. post, or be totally taken down by scandal (which I had not posted here). In my last installment, I had previously said that he may have a mild (and fabricated?) accident and be taken out of the public eye for a little bit, because he was getting too unpopular and the powers that be would maybe want him to take a holiday to generate some sympathy from the American people. Instead, with this Osama bin Laden news, it seems the powers that be want Obama in the spotlight a bit more. More on this below.

OK…now on to the new predictions.

Overall, I feel we’re in a very crucial time in American history, and the events that happen in the next 12 months or so are going to be extremely critical. Much of what is going to happen will be shocking, depressing, and downright scary. I am sorry to give bad news. The best thing you can do at this time is to connect with your spirituality through regular spiritual practice, or, if you aren’t spiritual, take good care of yourself and do things that nurture you. Now, on to my first order of business.

1. I HAVE A VERY BAD FEELING. I had a bad feeling prior to the Japan earthquake and mentioned it privately to people close to me, but did not get around to posting about it on the blog. It was also vague and I didn’t have any specifics – just a bad feeling. Now, I have a bad feeling again. It really came up for me when I saw the news about Osama bin Laden being killed. OK, I know not all of you reading this are into conspiracies, but my feeling is that this event is being totally manufactured and Osama bin Laden has probably been dead for a while. I am not the only “tin foil hat” person to think this.

Are we being set up for a “false flag” attack by Osama’s avengers? Am I picking up on an honest-to-goodness real terrorist attack in the works? I don’t know. I just feel that whatever is going on behind the scenes in regards to this story, it’s not good. Something EVIL is afoot. We’re being manipulated, folks, big time. For example, new reports were initially reporting that Osama bin Laden had been dead for a week but it was not announced until they could verify it. Then Obama announced in his speech that he’d given the “kill” order the same morning of his speech. This all comes out exactly eight years after Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech. To. The. Day.

Something’s not right here.

If you live in a big city, like Los Angeles or New York City, please be prepared with extra food and water. If you really want to get overly cautious, get some of those surgical masks to filter out dust when you breathe. They aren’t that much money; better to be safe than sorry.

Now, on the positive, perhaps we’re just being manipulated because the powers that be needed to give a bump to Obama’s approval ratings. I would certainly prefer that to a terrorist attack. But that brings me to…

2. Obama’s Birth Certificate. Being the conspiracy-curious person that I am, I’ve been following Karl Denninger’s analysis of Obama’s long-form birth certificate since it was released. Karl, who not only voted for but endorsed Obama, is convinced that the birth certificate is a fake. I am not entirely convinced, but a friend of mine who works for immigration and has been trained to examine documents like these, says there are certain anomalies just on the document itself (having nothing to do with the electronic file) that could call into question its authenticity. He’s a Democrat and no birther, so there may be something to the claims that something is fishy with the long-form birth certificate.

None of this will get any serious play with the mainstream media, however. The mainstream media has a vested interest in the status quo and will therefore continue on its path of ridiculing “birthers” and anyone who “believes the moon landing was faked.” Let me make it clear that I am no fan of the Republican party. But I don’t trust the Democrats either. I think both parties are run by big money. Bush was a puppet, and so is Obama.

Unfortunately, the reality is (and I reluctantly agree) that even if something really were fraudulent, it would be too damaging to the nation to have Obama go down over this. So I don’t think anything will come of the birth certificate investigations going on.

Here’s my prediction however, with a caveat. I have a feeling that this whole birth certificate brouhaha may be the beginning of Obama’s downfall. The birth certificate investigations are perhaps going to lead people down a path to something bigger. Perhaps much bigger.

It comes from this vague feeling that what’s happening now with Obama is way too similar to what happened with Clinton over Monica Lewinsky. I remember when that happened. I was a huge Clinton fan and just loved him to pieces. I did not want to believe that he was a sleazy, dirty old man who was a sexual predator of young interns. So when Clinton first said “I never had sexual relations with that woman,” I believed him. Well, Clinton lied. What was a ridiculous side show turned into Clinton’s impeachment. By this point, we were well into Clinton’s second term so there was really no point to all of it, but Clinton’s legacy was tarnished.

Obama is not in his second term. If anything comes out about him now, it will destroy his chances for re-election. So you can bet his opponents are going to be digging up as much dirt as they can about him. But right now, when someone makes allegations against Obama, Obama’s fans are going to react just like I did when Clinton was first accused: They’ll go into denial. But there are some things that you just can’t deny. Blue dresses with love-making aftermath being one of them.

So the race is on now to see who will prevail in the court of public opinion – the dirt diggers or the propaganda coming out of the White House. Jerome Corsi’s book exposing Obama is coming out in a few weeks, which may also explain the timing of the birth certificate release (not Trump!) and the Osama bin Laden announcement. (Corsi is the guy who “swift-boated” Kerry. As a Democrat at the time, I hated him. But he’s got some sway with conservatives and the center-right because of this.)

So I think there’s a big chance of Obama going down in a major scandal. But I’m not 100% on this. I felt pretty darn certain that Obama was going to have mud in his face like Clinton did, until I saw the news about Osama bin Laden this evening. Prior to the Osama bin Laden announcement, I felt Obama was going to be a fall guy and replaced with a new puppet, possibly a Republican. It now looks like the powers that be are going to try to prop Obama up as long as he can. Maybe it’s because the Tea Party is a wild card and they can’t be assured of getting a Republican puppet nominated. Who knows.

But it’s also a race against time to see if Obama and his handlers are able to make it through the next year without making a really stupid mistake. And that’s possible. Sometimes arrogance leads to a downfall. Obama may feel that he’s so beyond reproach – and he has the shield of “racist!” thrown at anyone who tries to go after him – that he may just do something beyond dumb. Like get caught with his pants down.

3. Not Just June Gloom – June DOOM. The economy is going to take a major beating in June and we may see another big market crash. Ben Bernanke, or “The Bernank,” as people “affectionately” call him, is going to announce whether he’ll be doing more quantitative easing then. If we also have a false flag attack (or a real terrorist attack), then the negative economic affects are going to be multiplied. HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS!!

I am absolutely not qualified to give investment advice, but if I had money in the stock market right now I’d take it out.

On the positive, if you were thinking of getting into precious metals, there may be a buying opportunity coming up.

The next major month of economic risk is November.

4. Fukushima. Let’s not forget the ongoing crisis in Japan at the Fukushima nuclear plant. This is a very serious, serious issue and the media has all but dropped it from the headlines. They are supposedly going to try to put a covering on the plant to contain the radiation, except that the radiation is seeping into the groundwater (so they really need underground containment). The people running this are somewhat incompetent…and Japan is in full-on censorship mode now. I wouldn’t be surprised if they screw up something and there’s an accident during containment construction. And there will probably be another big aftershock in Japan screwing things up even more. It’s not good. I have a healing prayer available here for this situation…please pray.

5. Quakes? A lot of tin foil hat folks are suggesting that the bad weather in the heartland is purposefully being manipulated via HAARP and they are saturating the ground with water to instigate a large quake on the New Madrid fault line. Ehhh…I don’t know about this. I’m going to stick with something big happening on the west coast first. I could be wrong.

6. Any Good News? My intuition is telling me that a lot of the crap we have to go through right now is to help wake us all up. There’s a purpose to it all, that’s all I can tell you.

Be safe!

I’m taking a terrific class in “Integral Christianity” with Leslie Hershberger. She posted a piece she wrote after the Arizona shooting, and it stirred up some thoughts I’ve been mulling over recently. My response to her ended up becoming a lengthy post (I admit, I’m long-winded), and I thought I’d share it here, as it also touches on issues that I brought up in my last post about “belief gestapo.” Here’s what I wrote:

Interesting. You had a good approach in your article. May I also suggest doing some processing with Byron Katie’s “The Work” on issues like these? Is it really true that only one side is actively using language or imagery of violence and hate?

My reaction after the shooting was different. As a “post-partisan,” I had been getting more and more turned off by the political atmosphere that was demonizing Tea Party people, and I knew as soon as I heard of the shooting they’d be blamed before any evidence was weighed. Here was my blog post about it:

http://www.stephaniebrail.com/health/the-real-issue-with-jared-loughner-mental-illness-and-drugs/

I’m not a Tea Party person. But since I’ve become an independent, I have gotten just as suspicious of the Democrats as I am of the Republicans. Without my previous loyalty to the Democratic Party, I am much less likely to have my buttons pushed by Democratic talking points. When the Democratic Party starts to label fiscal conservatives as “extreme,” I take that label now with a huuuge grain of salt. Whereas before, when the Democrats pointed fingers at conservatives, I would get all riled up and scared that the “Christian Taliban” would be taking over the country! I would shut down to any sort of information, opinion or perspectives of conservatives since they were the “enemy” to be feared, not understood.

I filter things differently now. I try to understand the other side than demonizing them automatically. When the Democrats say “Republicans want to kill women!!” over the abortion issue, I filter it with the understanding that the Democratic politician in question is possibly sincere, but also possibly trying to keep my vote as a woman, and what better way to do that than to put me in fear that the other party is going to kill me?

So I no longer get all riled up and angry. I think to myself, “Gee, maybe some pro-life people genuinely believe that a fetus is a baby. If I believed that, I’d be fighting to stop abortion too.” There’s no need to hate or fear people who believe that. Maybe we can find some middle ground. That’s my thinking now.

I have more compassion now, and I see how my own side was manipulating me all these years.

I’ll relate this to a current issue that I’ve been debating with Facebook friends. A woman was just hired in my home town to be the HR director, only she has publicly stated that she believes homosexuality is a choice. People tried to stop her hire (despite this being against the federal civil rights law banning job discrimination based on religion).

In trying to share this with people on a Facebook thread, and in standing up for the rights of those who have socially conservative religious beliefs we may not agree with, I was demonized and accused of secretly hating gays, despite the fact that I actively choose to attend and support a religious denomination that has stuck its neck out to ordain gays and lesbians.

I also shared the story of how a friend of mine was actually targeted by gay activists who tried to get her fired from her job for being a Catholic who supported Proposition 8. But rather than being shocked and appalled at this, such behavior was deemed OK because she wasn’t beaten or her house set on fire. I countered with: She may recover from a house fire more quickly than having her career set on fire. It’s still a horrible thing, trying to destroy a person’s career.

What are we coming to, that we want to push “enlightened” beliefs on people through such punitive hate and anger?

It seems now, that in certain circles, if you do not believe X then you are immediately labeled as being a “hater” and people will literally try to destroy your career and livelihood over your beliefs.

I am therefore very concerned that in an effort to respond to perceived and real discrimination, well-meaning people, blind to their own anger, end up becoming that which they despise – intolerant, judgmental, and discriminatory.

See my blog post on it here:

http://www.stephaniebrail.com/politics/belief-gestapo-homosexuality/

I also see an incredible amount of fear among my liberal friends who do not associate much with conservatives. They are literally scared to death and think that conservative Americans are the biggest threat since the Nazis. When you try to explain that this is not really the case, they can get very agitated and upset with you for trying to express the other viewpoint. They don’t ever stop one minute to consider whether their viewpoint of conservatives and Tea Party people is a caricature – a caricature created and nurtured by people who have an interest in maintaining the power of the Democratic Party and the greater status quo that keeps us stuck in a two-party system, with both parties beholden to corporations and special interests. This includes the major corporations and Wall Street firms who donated large sums of money to Obama’s campaign. Companies like GE, a major financial supporter of Obama and until recently, the owner of MSNBC. GE, a company recently under fire for not paying taxes.

We let ourselves get manipulated by the corporate media, and unwittingly participate in the very hate, labeling, and stereotyping we decry. They tell us that the Tea Party is to be feared, and we believe them, because in our own little bubble of friends, we don’t know anyone who thinks differently than us. In fact, some go so far as to disown people who don’t believe the same way. I know someone who refuses to be friends with Republicans. He’s really limiting himself with that attitude.

The irony is this, and it’s something that my liberal friends really need to take heed of: If you are acting in reaction to a perceived outside “threat,” you can very well end up becoming that which you despise and end up creating the very oppressive, totalitarian atmosphere you so fear. Wouldn’t the start of this be banning people from jobs due to religious beliefs? A slippery slope, indeed.

So. In doing Bryon Katie’s “The Work” on issues like these, you can try asking yourself questions such as: “The Tea Party is filled with hate – is that really true?” or “If a person believes homosexuality is a sin, that must mean they hate gay people – is that really true?”

http://www.thework.com/thework-4questions.php

I feel a much better response than fear, judgments and assumptions, is to try to work to understand the other side. Then, rather than trying to force your beliefs on someone, simply try to lead by example or support positive efforts. Don’t just work to destroy. If you want gays to be accepted in the church, donate some money to the Episcopal Church or other congregations who accept gays. Don’t try to harm people who are social conservatives. This won’t do anything to open their hearts and it creates an oppressive atmosphere for all.

I will be writing more about this distinction between “constructive” activism and “destructive” activism in the future.

It’s time we stop making Jared Lee Loughner a political football and start looking at the real problem: mental illness.

As soon as I saw the news about Jared Loughner’s shooting in Arizona, I knew that somehow Sarah Palin and the Tea Party would be blamed before all the evidence was weighed, solely because the politician in question is a Democrat. I’ve since gotten into a variety of discussions on the issue on Facebook, where the knee jerk reaction has indeed been to blame Palin, because of the infamous “crosshairs” graphic posted on her website last year. Never mind that the shooter hasn’t self-identified as a Tea Partier; never mind that the Democratic Party itself has used bullseyes and military language on their own websites in the past (see graphic). But this politicizing of the issue is done because people want scapegoats, and some have political agendas that require exploiting tragedies as a means to an end. Meanwhile, the real problem is left unaddressed.

As the controversy has grown, the left points to Mein Kampf a book by Ayn Rand on Jared’s favorite book list, while the right points to his love of the Communist Manifesto, each side trying to paint the shooter as either a radical leftist or right-wing conspiracy theorist. Jared had also posted a creepy video burning an American flag on YouTube, complete with violent music as accompaniment, but I have yet to see anyone blame this violent-sounding band for the shooting.

Unfortunately, because a politician was involved, the assumption must be that the “other side” is to blame. The thing is, what side? Apparently some die-hard Democrats were upset with the Arizona congresswoman because she voted against Pelosi. Would it prove anything if he were some sort of crazy liberal punishing a Blue Dog Democrat? Would it prove anything if he were actually a Tea Partier? (Unlikely, though, with the flag burning.) Crazy is crazy, and it’s clear there are crazies on both sides. People bombing abortion clinics? Right-wing crazies. People giving Bristol Palin death threats over a stupid tv show called Dancing With the Stars? Left-wing crazies.

Should people worry about censoring what is clearly metaphorical language (i.e., “targeting the opposition,” a very common phrase, not just in politics, but in sports and business) simply because one lone lunatic might take it seriously? Do we need to start censoring our national dialogue because we are afraid of being held hostage by a few mentally ill people who might go postal? The issue here isn’t right or left, it’s crazy.

Mental Illness: The Real Problem

Missing in all this back and forth over politics and rhetoric is discussion of the real reason behind why Jared Loughner shot up a bunch of people in Arizona, and it was simply this: He is mentally ill. He has also been self-medicating his illness with marijuana apparently, and according to a friend of his on Twitter, he had dropped out of school after getting alcohol poisoning in 2006. Based on his incoherent statements on YouTube, Jared has a very thin grasp on reality. He is obviously sick.

I don’t think it really matters whether Jared is a self-identified liberal or conservative. From the mishmash of ideas he presents, he seems to be beyond categorization. I doubt very much that any particular politician or political group caused him to act out – it was his own demons and lack of grasp of reality that were the problem. Had it not been a politician, he might have just as easily stalked and shot at a celebrity. It’s certainly happened many times before with celebrities.

A mentally ill, unstable person who is prone to violence is absolutely not representative of any particular group or ideology. And rather than using this tragedy as a reason to blame political ideologies we don’t agree with, maybe we can start talking a bit more about mental health in this country.

Mike Adams, founder of Natural News, and a libertarian-minded holistic health writer, suggests that we may need to dig a little deeper about Jared’s mental health problems. One of the big questions Mike asks is, was Jared on any sort of psychiatric drug?

While we have no proof yet that psychiatric drugs are involved here, we do see a very suspicious pattern of mental instability that suggests a likely connection. The sleepwalking behaviors Loughner describes are, in fact, common side effects of psychotropic drugs such as Ambien, which is famous for causing people to actually “sleep drive” into town and suddenly awake in the middle of the road, driving their car in their pajamas, with no knowledge of how they got there (http://www.naturalnews.com/019413.html).

I must stress that we don’t yet know whether Loughner was on sleeping medications or psychiatric drugs, but his behavior fits the pattern of someone who was: The lack of touch with reality, the violent and indiscriminate shooting, and the interweaving of the dream world with the real world. These are red flags of someone who is either suffering from a severe nutritional deficiency that affects brain function (vitamin D, for example, is important for preventing schizophrenia) or someone whose brain has been chemically altered through pharmacological intervention.

(Read more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030953_Gabrielle_Giffords_shooting.html#ixzz1AbXPmuUn)

Whether or not Jared was on prescription drugs, he was smoking pot and possibly drinking a lot of alcohol. And while I know that pot is generally harmless in that it does not create violent, psychotic breaks in normal people, long-term use of marijuana has shown to increase the likelihood of developing schizophrenia and psychosis in young adults:

Young adults who used marijuana as teens were more likely than those who didn’t to develop schizophrenia and psychotic symptoms including hallucinations and delusions, an Australian study found.

Those who used the drug for six or more years were twice as likely to develop a psychosis such as schizophrenia or to have delusional disorders than those who never used marijuana, according to research released online by the Archives of General Psychiatry. They were also four times as likely to score high on a list of psychotic-like experiences.

The findings build on previous research and shows that marijuana use isn’t as harmless as some people think, lead study author John McGrath said yesterday in an e-mail. The study was the first to look at sibling pairs to discount genetic or environmental influence and still find marijuana linked to later psychosis, the authors said in the study.

(Read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-26/long-time-marijuana-use-linked-to-psychosis-in-young-adults.html)

Why aren’t we discussing this? I realize that it’s not “hip” to criticize marijuana in some circles, but I’m sorry, this evidence does not look good. I have known plenty of people who smoked pot regularly, and I can honestly say that it did not help them. They thought they were OK, but they were in denial. I’ve seen it increase neurosis and make people emotionally numb and apathetic. Isn’t it possible that long-term pot use in a young man who may already be prone to mental illness could make his mental health much worse?

Look. I know what pot does to your brain. I used it plenty in college. It distorts reality. And when I read Jared’s YouTube ramblings, they sounded like something someone high would write.

Tie that in with alcohol, and who knows whatever drugs he might have been using, prescription and otherwise, and you have a recipe for disaster.

On a spiritual level, constant drug use also has negative effects. In the Pranic Healing school of healing, they teach that drug use breaks down your aura and leaves you open to negative energies (elementals) that attach to your energy system and harm your health and well-being. In Kabbalah, drugs are seen as an evil, because they keep you from undergoing the emotional growth that is required for spiritual transformation.

Now, please don’t misunderstand me. If you are an otherwise healthy person who just wants to relax with a joint once in a while, fine, I don’t care. But drugs aren’t safe for everyone. For some people, they can be quite disabling. And pot is just not something that I would recommend for a person who has schizophrenic tendencies.

Unfortunately, we live in a culture where drug use is glorified and the mental health profession is still unable to actual “cure” most mental illness, except by prescribing drugs that sometimes make the problem worse. Holistic alternatives and nutrition can help (as Mike Adams says, even a Vitamin D deficiency can cause mental health issues). But we also show little compassion sometimes with friends and family who are mentally ill – we often criticize, mock and ostracize them, giving them more reason to become alienated and angry. We need more compassion, and better solutions to mental health problems so people like Jared aren’t tempted to self-medicate with illegal drugs that just make the psychosis worse in the long run.

So if we can get past the politics to talk about the real problem here – our collective approach to mental health – maybe we can actually start some useful dialogue on the issue.

I think we are all intuitive, so what I share here are some intuitive feelings and then some stuff that’s purely pulled out of thin air. I don’t claim to be a “psychic.”

2011-2012: I’m not posting any specific 2011 predictions right now (maybe at the beginning of January), but I’ve noticed a lot of intuitives getting very nervous about something “big” happening next year. Part of me wonders if we’re all just collectively freaking out because we’ve bought into the Mayan calendar story (2012 is just around the corner!!!), but I also know logically that the economic mess we are in is probably not going to end well.

I do agree something shocking and unexpected will happen next year. What is that shocking and unexpected thing going to be? I can’t tell you! If I could, it would not be shocking nor unexpected!

Now…I do feel a dark cloud is coming in over America…the energy is not good but we in part create that energy. So I’m thinking about ways to inject some pro-active, positive energy into all the doom and gloom. I don’t know about you, but I’m not taking the possible collapse of America and life as we know it sitting down.

WikiLeaks & Cyberwars: The cyberwars have begun. (They are also referred to as “data wars.”) “Hactivists” (the combination of “hacker” + “activist”) are hackers who are using their skills for protest. In response to the shutdown of WikiLeaks accounts, hacktivists have been hitting Mastercard, PayPal, and Amazon’s websites. This is just the beginning, I feel, and if the government/corporate oligarchies continue to smack down on free speech, you can bet the hactivism is just going to increase.

After all, who actually runs the computers and networks of the government and corporations? Computer nerds, who are often anti-authoritarian and not tied to social approval like CEOs and politicians are. I would not be surprised if hactivists shut down the country for a day…but of course, when that happens, more smackdowns will occur and then more protests. All of this will be an excuse for more governmental control, which will end up stirring up more anti-government sentiment and so-on and so-forth. Things could get super messy and disruptive.

Alternative Internets: With the above in mind, I expect that alternative Internets will start cropping up that are beyond corporate/government control. I didn’t make this up – years ago I read about an idea for a peer-to-peer Internet run on wifi from personal computers. Not only do I think there will be an Alter-Internet someday, but a variety of Internets, some of which will be set up for people who have a particular interest (such as gaming). Some will be open and some will be encrypted so only those who have the codes can enter. These Internets will be vital to maintain freedom of speech and help organize people when and if governments get out of control.

Martial Law: Are the TSA body scanners preparing us for martial law? I don’t sense martial law coming in for all of America, but I do feel there will be civil unrest in some cities that will end up creating a de facto martial law when the National Guard gets called in. I really do have a bad feeling about the future of Los Angeles, which is one reason why I left.

President Palin? I think Palin may run for 2012, but I don’t think it’s her time to president. Strangely enough, I think she still has a good chance of being our first woman president, but maybe in about 20 years, when the country will be hugely different (maybe even organized differently), the zeitgeist will have shifted dramatically, and those people who have been rabidly anti-Palin will frankly have bigger and better things to worry about, such as their gas rationing under Peak Oil.

For some reason, I see Palin reinventing herself in the next 10-20 years as being an advocate for the poor. That might sound strange…but understand that she still won’t be pushing for government programs, but trying to get people together to help people in need. When the economy collapses, a lot of middle class will become poor, so poverty will become a huge issue for a lot of Americans. When Palin takes up this banner, people will perceive her differently. (Do not ask me where this strange idea comes from, as I said, I am pulling some of this stuff out of thin air.)

Obama Retiring: I don’t see Obama as president in 2012. I do not feel he will be assassinated (so don’t worry about that), though I always felt he would die somewhat young (more due to his health from his cigarette addiction). I don’t see him being president past this term, perhaps because he chooses not to run again. But I also feel there will be a lot of shocking, bizarre, crazy things that will happen in the next presidential election, so how this all falls out will be nothing that we could have possibly predicted.

Economy: The Powers That Be will continue to try to prop up the dollar, the banks, and the economy through short-term measures that will ultimately result in a lot more long-term pain. All of this will result in major financial crisis for the globe (and all of this may have been orchestrated). Will there be a United States dollar in the future? Hmmm maybe. But don’t put all your eggs into that basket. This is why there has been such a rush for gold and silver, though there’s no guarantee anything is safe. Your best bet is to look beyond the mainstream media spin and start reading the econobloggers such as Karl Denninger, who really lays out the corruption in colorful language and takes everyone to task, including Democrats, Republicans, the Tea Party, everybody.

OK, those are my current predictions…if you have any others you want to share, please do below!

What is up with all the hate going on in white America today? I’m not talking about the racist hate of whites vs. blacks, but the hate of white vs. white. It’s like the Civil War never ended. We still have the North vs. the South, with the North (along with the West Coast) being the team for the so-called “elite” and “educated,” while the South is the team for the “rednecks” and “dumb hicks.” The North is Blue, the South is Red, and we’re about ready to have a gun fight.

The venom is getting away over the top. Am I the only one sick of it? And I am sorry to say, right now it’s my friends on the “Left Coast” who are really getting out of hand and making me start to wonder if they shouldn’t be checking themselves into a looney bin. I swear, if it were legal to do so, some leftists would go out on shooting sprees against Tea Party people if they could.

It’s one thing to be concerned about the mix of reactionary fundamentalism and politics, but do we need to respond by being that much more intolerant and insane?

Don’t get me wrong. I get it. Really, I do. I was afraid of the “religious right” for a long, long time, and I was mad at them back when Phyllis Schlafly worked to stop ERA and Tipper Gore wanted to put parental advisory labels on records. Oh wait…Tipper Gore was Al Gore’s wife! Sorry, she’s a Democrat! But she in part stirred my rebellion against overly preachy, religious people wanting to stifle my free speech and right to choose. I marched on Washington – twice! – in pro-choice marches. I was a card carrying feminist. So I am no redneck or conservative, by any stretch of the imagination.

But honestly, even in my days as a young activist, I never hated other Americans to the point of being obsessed. I didn’t like the religious right, and I was never a fan of the Republican party, but I don’t ever remember hating them to the point of disowning someone who was more conservative than I.

These days, however, it seems the far left has gone into a crazed, foaming-at-the-mouth jihad against anyone who identifies as Tea Party. I realize they feel they are only naturally reacting to what they perceive as a hateful brigand of conservative harpies and monsters coming to destroy America…but see, that’s the problem. The problem is that they can’t see that most people in the Tea Party are peaceful, well-meaning Americans who just know that something is wrong, really wrong, with the way our country is being run.

Of course, a slew of media propaganda (no doubt put forward by the establishment of both the Democrat and Republican parties) has done its best to label Tea Partiers as crazy racists, but still…the response I am seeing from the far left is really scary. OK, fine, you disagree with the Tea Party…but why do you hate them so much? Why so much uncontrolled anger and rage? Why so much abject disdain and intolerance for those who disagree with you politically? Why make it into life and death?

I guess I’m a bit more shocked by the behavior from the left right now because I’ve been a victim of it myself. Since 2008, I’ve had two-long time friends disown me over politics. It was a shock, and I’m still amazed at the underlying insanity fueling their hatred of those that think differently…hatred that that they think is perfectly “normal.”

I always used to take for granted that my “liberal” friends and acquaintances would be tolerant and open to other viewpoints. What a shock to find out that they are worse than some extreme fundamentalist religious wackos! At least the religious wackos have, well, religion as their defense.

I was a Hillary supporter during the 2008 election. I initially liked Obama, but the more I found out about him, the more I was concerned that he was a plant…a puppet of the elite who was put in to mesmerize the masses with his smooth talking charm. I thought he’d be a disaster as president and did not support him.

I don’t regret that – time has borne out that Obama, no matter what he says, is more about helping out Wall Street than Main Street. He filled his economic team with guys from Goldman Sachs. Anyone who really looks at what he’s done objectively would see that he’s Bush III.

But we die-hard Hillary supporters were called racist for not liking Obama. It kind of makes you realize that a lot of labels are thrown around without any substance to them.

So the irony of my friends disowning me is that I wasn’t pro-Republican, and I certainly wasn’t pro-Wall Street. In fact, my opposition to Obama had a lot to do with my feeling he was on the side of the banks, not the people. (True, I realize that the Clintons are also among the power elite, but I feel they are less “controllable” and that’s why Hillary was pushed out.)

My big sin, actually, was that I stuck up for Sarah Palin. See, I also see Sarah Palin as someone who is outside the incestuous, Ivy League, investment banker, moneyed elite that controls the country. I don’t agree with everything about her, but I like her, and admire her, and feel a lot of the criticism of her is unfair and based on sexism and classism.

I don’t actually think Palin should be president in 2012, because she’s been made into a polarizing figure. And really, she’s actually best “agitating” from the sidelines. I believe that we need a moderate, middle of the road president that can bring left and right together. Sarah Palin is not that person, but neither is Barack Obama.

I also feel that Palin has a few blindspots – alternative energy being one of my pet issues that she’s not into. But I was very much cheering her on when she called out Ben Bernanke on QE2. And while I actually like Michelle Obama and support her anti-childhood obesity efforts, I also applauded Sarah Palin for bringing cookies to that school where they wanted to ban all sweets from school parties. (Yes, let’s support healthier eating, but let’s not get too overboard with the food police!)

I explain all this to show that my reasons for liking one candidate over another are nuanced, thoughtful reasons that have nothing to do with mindless support of one party over another.

But for this reason – that I like Sarah Palin more than I do Obama, and because I defend her sometimes for feminist reasons – two male friends of mine, one a dear friend of over 10 years, and another a former beloved teacher – excommunicated me from their lives.

The teacher I knew was a bit off his rocker – he was obsessed with George Bush and alienated a lot of people because of his stident opinions – but my friend? I thought he was a normal, apolitical guy. Not some crazed, partisan, political hater. It blew me away then and still does now. This was a guy, mind you, that I had helped through a really rough time just recently, the kind of guy friend you talk with and say you might have a kid with if you ever get to “that age” and don’t find true love. Wow. Really? You choose hatred of Sarah Palin over me? Wow. You’re lost, dude.

Given that experience, I have a very sympathetic ear to anyone who is bashing Obama. And I know most Obama bashing has nothing to do with his race. My take? The man is insincere and narcissistic – and people don’t like that about him. Most could care less about his skin color. And if you need proof that the right is not inherently racist, take a good look at what they say about Condoleeza Rice – they love her. The Tea Party also elected two black Congressmen in the Deep South from primarily white, conservative districts. These guys are black Tea Partiers, which the media likes to pretend do not exist.

So the media does have a lot of blame in the dividing of America, but there’s something deeper going on here. Part of it is class. It seems that urban white people really hate rural white America. With a passion. The so-called “intelligentsia” truly resents and despises “uneducated” heartland Americans. I know this, because I’ve seen it. There’s a huge snob factor going on. And there’s little respect to those who “cling to their guns and religion” (wasn’t it Obama who used that very phrase in San Francisco)?

White trash are the one group that it’s OK to be bigoted and hateful towards. If you despise white trash, you are not prejudiced, or a hater, but a “cool” person. Heck, I even went to a “white trash” party once in Los Angeles, where the theme was to dress up as a yokel.

Why urban white people would hate on other whites with such passion is a bit of a curiosity to me, except that maybe some of them escaped their white trash upbringing and are taking out their anger on their parents by despising all “trailer trash.” It’s also fun to go to websites that post pictures of the freakiest people in WalMart and laugh at them.

Beyond that, I notice a lot of the hate comes from white males especially. The two friends who disowned me were white males…both having issues with maintaining a long-term relationship…both having major issues with alcohol too. They maybe unconsciously expected more from life as privileged white males, and when they didn’t get that, they had to blame the greedy Republicans. This is why they resent the rich. They don’t have religion, so their religion is the Democratic Party. Their Satan is George W. Bush, with Sarah Palin as the lead harpie from Hell.

So the thing they had in common is that they were bitter, unhappy, angry guys who needed a fundamentalist belief in the Democratic Party to have meaning in an otherwise shitty life. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I loved them then, and I still do now, though I don’t want such intolerant people in my personal life, so it’s probably best they left.

Seeing them in all their bitterness, I wonder if a lot of the anger you see directed against Sarah Palin on places such as Huffington Post comes from a deep jealously and resentment of heartland people who may lead “simpler” lives but are happier.

Sarah Palin, I think, stirs up such anger and hatred precisely because she’s happy and successful. She has a hot husband, beautiful children, an astonishing career, and the ear of a nation. And, she’s into Jesus. What’s not to hate? No wonder women on the left are more than willing to participate in outright sexism against her, by using the C-word to describe her and calling her “Caribou Barbie.” It’s sad, really, how far the feminist movement has fallen, when it is OK to use sexist stereotypes to demean an accomplished woman just because she’s joined the wrong political party and happens to be pro-life.

I can only hope that the people who are doing the most frothing at the mouth take a long deep look at themselves and realize that their hatred is a projection of their own issues. Otherwise, we may be headed for Civil War. Psychologically unbalanced people have a habit of snapping.

The ACLU is helping a guy in Arizona fight for the right to fly a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag on his home. At issue is the Homeowners Association (HOA), which is making a stink about the flag. The “Gadsden flag” as it is also known, has been popular in the Ron Paul movement as an icon for constitutionalists. Now it’s also used by many Tea Party members, though the man in question claims he’s not involved with the Tea Party.

Of course, this is not the first instance of an HOA going overboard, but unfortunately, this may be a trend. Yahoo News reports that HOAs are trying to ban these flags around the country. While flags may be a sticky issue (what should you do if someone wants to fly a Nazi flag in the neighborhood?), HOAs seem to have gotten too much power in recent years.

HOAs are also making it hard for people to do practical, sustainable things such as hang laundry out to dry in the backyard, start a garden, or keep chicken on their property for food. As we hit peak oil, the ability to have your own garden may not just be a luxury but a necessity.

I’s not just the HOAs that are the problem. Governments in several Western states, including Utah, Colorado, and Washington, have banned the collection of rainwater in rain barrels, claiming that the water is being “diverted” from other places that might need it.

Rain barrel water and the right to hang a flag on your home may not seem like big deals, but as Mike Adams writes:

Today, we’ve basically been reprogrammed to think that we need permission from the government to exercise our inalienable rights, when in fact the government is supposed to derive its power from us. The American Republic was designed so that government would serve the People to protect and uphold freedom and liberty. But increasingly, our own government is restricting people from their rights to engage in commonsense, fundamental actions such as collecting rainwater or buying raw milk from the farmer next door.

Today, we are living under a government that has slowly siphoned off our freedoms, only to occasionally grant us back a few limited ones under the pretense that they’re doing us a benevolent favor.

HOAs and governments are more than happy to nitpick and slowly chip away at freedoms. But in order to navigate the changes ahead, we’ll need as much room as possible to try to create a new and better world. Let’s try to create a future that is more open and free, not less.