China aircraft carrier @ WikipediaChina Aircraft Carrier – photo by Wikipedia

Well what an interesting week. We have the U.S. funding ISIS in Syria as a proxy in an attempt to bring down Assad without simultaneously bringing down the condemnation of the rest of the world on their heads.

Syria is almost in the very shadow of Putin’s Russia.

Russia, laboring under sanctions already imposed by the western countries, enters the scene to fight those same “terrorists” at Assad’s request. And now we have news that “China will be helping out the Syrian government in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIL/ISIS) by sending ‘military advisers,'” according to RT (Russian Television).

A touchy situation, to say the least.

As incredible as it seems, we suspect that the banking cartel wants an expanded war eventually for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is to blame the intensifying economic instability on something other than themselves and, they hope, save their own skins.

People are waking up now–pretty fast. Surprises us. Several months ago the state of unconsciousness of the U.S. general public appeared terminal. But we think we sense a stirring. Perhaps there is still life there. If the trend continues, this corporate cartel knows that they just might find the blame where it belongs, on their own doorstep.

But if there is a full blown war then everyone’s attention will be diverted, the bankers can blame the war for the financial crisis ahead, and perhaps even manage to appear to come to the rescue instead of being the instigators.

Not only are people awakening politically, they are even refusing vaccines in greater and greater numbers as the truth comes out about what has been contained in these vaccines, one example being a cancer virus, SV-40, which was in the polio vaccine. The drug company had been warned by one of the developers that she had discovered the cancer virus and the vaccine could not be used.

By an unfortunate coincidence she was murdered about that time and the entire country received the vaccine. At least those who were willing. And the cancer rate in the U. S. went from 1 in 30 to almost 1 in 2.

Are we saying the increase in cancer was because of that vaccine? We don’t claim to know. We think other factors may have contributed. Chemicals in the packaged food, other toxins and possibly even other vaccines. For those who are interested, you can read about it in the book written by Edward H. Haslam entitled Dr. Mary’s Monkey. Available at Amazon and elsewhere.

In America, the government and the American people historically resisted the idea of a central bank. Thomas Jefferson is credited with the statement: “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.”

President Andrew Jackson successfully resisted the establishment of a central bank in spite of two unsuccessful attempts on his life. He asked that on his tombstone be engraved the words “I killed the bank.”

However, in 1913 the central bank was established and came to control the issue of currency of the United States. Only they didn’t call it a central bank, they called it the Federal Reserve. That name has something in common with the Patriot Act in that the name “Patriot Act” is the exact opposite of anything patriotic, just as the Federal Reserve is not federal and has no reserves.

For decades, most people did not understand how the Federal Reserve operates. But more and more the awareness is dawning. People didn’t realize that when they borrowed for a mortgage, no money changed hands. It cost the banker nothing. He just entered the figure on a ledger sheet. But then the homeowner had to go to work, day in and day out, and pay the bank with real, hard-earned dollars, plus interest, plus penalties if he was late. And if he lost his job and defaulted, the bank got his house, for which they had never paid a cent.

It seems to us the wake-up in America,  once begun, is escalating. Things are getting out of hand. So we are watching an increase in the push by the central powers for greater control of the population.

In some areas your children can’t go to school unless they are vaccinated–or so you are told. Often it is not true. But now in California they are trying to require vaccination, no exemptions. No vaccination–no school. But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining. Maybe for the children of savvy parents, those parents will finally become convinced to home school and give their children a real education.

One of the sisters of this writer contacted us this week. She has been given an ultimatum by her employer, vaccinate or lose her job. We put her in touch with an attorney who is working with others in similar situations. Will she win? We don’t know.

We can think of so many good reasons for diversifying, getting ourselves, or at least some assets out of the country while we still can, keeping an up-to-date passport , planning and preparing for challenging times, and for those who plan to stay in place, getting out of any major city if possible. If not, move at least to the outskirts so that you can leave quickly if necessary. And in case Plan A doesn’t work, know ahead of time what is your Plan B.

We learned a surprising lesson once when trying to leave Florida, two days before a major hurricane, with winds in excess of 200 mph, was scheduled to make landfall near our home. We found out that getting out of Florida in a crisis is not possible. Even that early the normally 70 m.p.h highways were parking lots, moving a few inches at a time. Taking a side road we knew about, we managed to get to the Leesburg area from Melbourne, about a 2 hour drive, and there we gave up trying. Fortunately that hurricane passed off shore, but it taught us a lesson. If you’re in an area like that and you can’t move out, or choose not to move, then having food and supplies so you can stay in your home for at least two weeks could be a good plan. Some financial advisers say to have at least three months of your gross income in cash outside the banks and some are saying be prepared for even longer periods. We suggest taking all that into consideration. If you’re going to stay there, one political analyst that offers helpful advice is Joel Skousen. There are many interviews by Joel on You Tube.

In this vein, this writer’s own parents were visiting family in Montana when the banks closed in the 1930s and they couldn’t get enough money to get back to Miami. Fortunately they were visiting family or they would have been on the street. My father found work sanding floors. He worked until they could get back to his parents’ home. They lost everything that was in the bank and never got access again to their safe box. If you think of that scenario, it isn’t difficult to understand why one might be wise to take the step of having cash on hand, just in case. We don’t expect the banks to close–but neither did they.

Here at FFJ we receive so many emails from subscribers telling us they lost their savings–$200,000 or $300,000 or more– in the stock market in 2008 and now they can’t afford to leave the States and they are really worried. This is why we hasten to say it isn’t going to come down tomorrow. We don’t think any of us have time to waste, but we believe that there is time and no need to  panic.

Often whether you can afford to leave depends on the lifestyle you require. We believe most of us are in for a lifestyle adjustment, no  matter where we live, as we come down off the fake economy that has resulted from creating currency out of thin air at will–and debt. Having said that, we wouldn’t go to Uruguay if we were on a tight budget. Uruguay was once very inexpensive but today a retiree would do better in Florida than Uruguay as far as cost of living is concerned.

However, Argentina is a different matter. We know one expat who came over a decade ago with enough money to buy a small apartment and tells us she lives on $500 a month Social Security.

This city is a city of culture and you can even attend the opera without charge at a certain time on the weekend. There are many art museums, all that we know of are free.

Medical care is free if you go to one of the public hospitals. We can’t vouch for all hospitals in Argentina but we are assured the ones in our area are very good. One of our Argentina friends recently had eye surgery for cataracts at the public hospital and is doing fine. In fact, he is an engineer and just can’t understand why we don’t go to the free hospital.

We see some expats who have a heart attack, for example, and head right back to the States. We would not do that. We have confidence in the doctors here. For our part, we don’t take advantage of free medical care. It is one of our principles that we didn’t come to Argentina to take advantage of free stuff so we pay our own way, but doing so really isn’t a burden because medical care is reasonable here, unlike the thousands you would pay in the far north. We also do not fault people like our engineer friend who does take advantage of it.
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This writer did have experience with a public hospital on one occasion after a fall. A neighbor thought I had a broken arm (it did look broken) and loaded me in his car and took me to the closest hospital, which was the public hospital. The doctors (two of them saw it) x-rayed, told us it wasn’t broken, explained what was making it look broken, put the arm in a cast, which I took off myself two weeks later and I’ve been fine ever since.

I was impressed by the doctors. The hospital isn’t fancy at all. Nothing like in the States. It’s pretty bare bones actually. But the care was excellent. In fact, they offered more care than I took advantage of. It was refreshing that we saw no sign of a god-complex in either of the doctors. They treated us as equals, talked over the options with us and asked us what we wanted to do.

You can attend the university here for free–or send your children. You can get a four-year degree, but you must pay if you go on to a post graduate degree.

We know one expat who lives in our neighborhood, one of the best neighborhoods here, who pays less than $400 US in rent for a one-bedroom furnished apartment with balcony. The furniture is pretty old and, in fact, so is the apartment. It needs to be updated, but it works. The neighborhood is excellent.

In our case, you all know by now about my recovery from various health issues including cancer, by going back to a natural lifestyle. A lifestyle that we consider God’s plan for our health that He gave in Genesis 1 in the Bible–and elsewhere. I have something in common with the M.D., Dr. Loraine Day, to whom I credit my total recovery. When she realized she had recovered from breast cancer after being given up to die, she left the medical profession. She was the head of her department in the San Francisco hospital and was a teacher of young physicians in the medical school. She left her career because she believed everything she had been taught was wrong.

Of course I was not a physician but after my recovery, my resolve is never to go the medical route except in the case of a broken bone or an accident. Then one would certainly need a good orthopedic surgeon and I’d be looking for one in that case. Also I will go for non intrusive, non invasive scans, as I did recently of arteries, and blood tests. But for other issues, there is a better way in my opinion. One of the political analysts I hear says forget about prescriptions. You aren’t going to be able to get them in the crisis ahead. Change your lifestyle so that you don’t need them any more.

We could not agree more. We say do it now while there is no crisis. I not only don’t take prescriptions (because I don’t need them) I canceled my health insurance and my medicare. I can use that money myself.

Now . . . I have proved this for myself by experience. I don’t recommend that anyone go off medications except under the supervision of their health care provider. The message is not to quit drugs that we need. The message is to get ourselves in health so that even our M.D. agrees that we don’t need it any more. We need to use good judgment. And if you do that, your skeptical physician will begin to see possibilities that he never heard of in medical school.

Now, having said all that, just as in the States things are changing, they could change here.

We know at least one expat here who prefers to rent, keep his money invested in paper assets, keep his possessions to a minimum, so that he is free to change countries if he decides to do so. Different expats have different financial strategies and goals. We think a real estate rental, producing income, in a location that you like, a very good idea, rather than keep everything in a bank or a brokerage, especially in the U.S.

But financial management is a personal decision. A person could leave the rental–in Chile, for example–with a management company, collect the rent, and that apartment or house would be available if they ever felt they needed it for their family. Again, one more flag planted in another country–diversification of assets.

If you have helpful ideas or experiences to pass on, be sure to post in comments. You may very well help someone and that’s why we’re here. And whatever your decision, here are a couple of very interesting resources we think might be helpful. Both are free, just download.

Household Cyclopedia of 1881— interesting if only for the reading, having to do with self-dependent skills that have been all but lost in our industrialized world. Get Household Cyclopedia of 1881 here.

And next is a preparations recommendation booklet put out by FEMA in the U.S, Are You Ready? In depth Citizen Preparedness Guide by FEMA Get Fema’s Preparedness Recommendations here.

email: info@fourflagsjournal.com