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Poison to the People!

By Lee Bellinger

4REVEALED – why Congress won’t fix the decrepit USA water grid.

4Meet the sinister “bad water” cabal…and how they win by your family getting slow poison.

4How EPA hides bad news about the water grid under color of authority – a sickening boon to pharmaceutical giants, chemical conglomerates – and all the sneaky SOBs hiding inside America’s nasty water-grid cartel.

Let’s talk about the corrupt water-grid lobby….a well-concealed cabal of vested interests set to sucker-punch the Trump Administration on yet another front.

The news media say that Donald Trump and the Democrats all “agree” on fixing crumbling infrastructure. On the surface, all looks well. Politics 101 says a “bipartisan infrastructure” bill happens. And it will probably be much better than Obama’s “shovel-ready” stimulus.

Independent LivingPrudent strategies for greater self-reliance, freedom, and wealth!

Volume 12, Issue 3 March 2017

Dow 100,000!Why You Should Pay

Attention to the Hype and HopeBy Seth Van Brocklin

4Revealed here…. The better stock market index that’s ignored by the financial media.

4What really happens at the “Dow 100,000” mark.

The title of this article is meant to be sensational and provocative. Just like so many Wall Street publications that aim to get you excited about buying stocks.

However, my motivation is far different. My aim is to help you put all the recent hype and hope surrounding “Dow 20,000” in perspective.

Some market skeptics think it’s best to ignore public sentiment and just focus on fundamentals. I disagree. The reality is that fundamentals don’t move markets from day to day. Fundamentals

See Dow 100,000!, next pageSee Poison to the People!, page 17

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More on What You Won’t Find Anywhere Else INSIDEPreparing for the Years of Instability Ahead – Page 3Don’t Get Squeezed By Financial Choke-Points – Page 5A Good Tax Pro Can Ease Your Mind and Save Your Bacon – Page 6More on the Unstoppable Trend School of Investment… – Page 7Pass This Around to Your Immediate Family… – Page 8Burgers and Fries Don’t Stack Up to Sushi and Miso – Page 8

For Many, the Free Market Is Already Replacing Obamacare (and Medicare) – Page 9Ask Lee Now: Answering Readers’ Questions – 0IRS Moves to Implement Obama’s Legacy in Trump Era – Page 12America’s Wealthy Liberals Go “Prepper” – Page 14OUCH! The Politically Incorrect Truth about Hybrid Cars – Page 16

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© StockCharts.com21-Feb-12:16pm$INDU DJIA INDX

Last 20707.50 Chg +83.45 (+0.40%)

Beware when the Dow wows.

Independent Living2 March 2017

Independent Living • $139/12 issues • 377 Rubin Center Drive • Suite 203 • Fort Mill, SC 29708

don’t create market bubbles and crashes. Extremes in sentiment do.

Fundamentals ultimately do matter, of course. You need to know how a company earns money before you invest in it.

Elevated Markets Render Value Opportunities Scarce

Corporate earnings are likely to be overvalued during bouts of mass optimism and undervalued during times of extreme pessimism. You need to know whether you’re chasing positive sentiment or doing genuine bargain hunting. The best value opportunities almost always come to contrarians who buy when everyone else is too afraid.

Such opportunities are scarce today. Just about everyone is looking ahead to higher highs in the richly valued stock market.

The front page of the January 30, 2017 edition of Bar-ron’s blared the headline, “Next Stop Dow 30,000.” I half expected the publication to call for “Dow 36,000.”

Back When “Dow 36,000” Was the Next StopBack in 1999, when the Dow was trading at around 10,000, James K. Glassman infamously co-wrote a book titled Dow 36,000. He didn’t say exactly when he thought the 36,000 level would be hit. But there’s no doubt that he and virtually everyone on Wall Street thought stock prices would be markedly higher over the ensuing 10 years.

A full 11 years later, in mid-2010, the Dow was right back at 10,000. It had suffered two major crashes since 1999 and netted buy and hold investors nothing.

In real inflation-adjusted terms, the Dow actually lost a substantial amount of value over that period. Back in 1999,

a gallon of gasoline went for as low as $1.10. An ounce of silver sold for just $5.20. An ounce of gold, a mere $283.

Eleven years later, prices for gold, silver, oil and other raw commodities – not to mention housing, healthcare, and other costs of living – were substantially higher. More than double in many cases. Yet the Dow had gained nothing. Stock market investors thus lost real purchasing power.

A similar storyline could play out over the next decade for those who buy stocks now above Dow 20,000.

Will Trumponomics Morph into Trumpflation?Look, I get why so many investors are optimistic. A reform-minded, pro-growth Republican occupies the White House. He wants to cut the tax rate on individu-als and corporations. I don’t dismiss the possibility that the Dow could shoot to 30,000 before the end of Donald Trump’s first term in office.

If that happens, however, I question how real the gains will be.

Even if you knew that 20 years from now the Dow

would be trading at 100,000, that still wouldn’t tell you whether investing in Dow stocks would be a good investment. Yes, you’d make nearly five times your money in nominal terms.

But in real terms, Dow 100,000 may not represent any gains at all from today’s levels. If gold sells for $20,000 per ounce, gasoline costs $20 per gallon, and health insurance costs more than a house does today, then Dow 100,000 would be just a side effect of a massive inflation.

You can bet Wall Street periodicals and cheerleaders on CNBC would celebrate Dow 100,000 just as they did Dow 20,000. They would try to get investors excited about something that is meaningless in real terms.

Investing based on hype and hope is reliably and

Dow 100,000! continued from previous page

Independent Living (ISSN 1943-1686) (USPS 24-808) is published monthly by American Lantern Press, Inc. Known office of publication is 377 Rubin Center Drive, Suite 203, Fort Mill, SC 29708. Periodicals postage paid at Fort Mill, SC, and other mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Independent Living, P.O. Box 1240, Clover, SC 29710-4240.Editor, Lee BellingerKenneth F. Fairleigh Operations Center377 Rubin Center Drive, Suite 203, Fort Mill, SC 297081-803-802-1344 • Fax 1-803-802-1349 • [email protected]

Contributing Editors, Seth Van Brocklin & Heather RobsonToll-free customer service 1-877-371-1807

Visit www.IndependentLivingNews.comCopyright 2017 by American Lantern Press, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Continued on next page

Dow 100,000 may not represent any gains at all from today’s levels.

Independent LivingMarch 2017 3


veritably one of the surest ways to end up holding overvalued assets. Successful investors are indepen-dent-minded value seekers. They don’t necessarily even pay attention to the quote on the Dow.

How Did Goldman Sachs Ascend to the Top of the Dow?

As an index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is antiquated. Since it contains only 30 stocks, it’s inadequate as a gauge of the overall stock market. Moreover, those stocks are weighted by share price according to an arbitrary formula rather than market capitalization.

The stock with the biggest weighting in the Dow by far isn’t even an industrial company. It’s investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS), which now makes up 8.2% of the index. The biggest company in America, Apple (AAPL), is just 4.5% of the Dow. If Goldman Sachs is now America’s biggest engine of economic production, then trading paper is the new alchemy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been around since 1896. It’s still widely followed mainly because of tradition, not because it’s actually a useful index in 2017.

A Truly Representative Stock Market Index That’s Ignored by the Financial Media

The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index is the broadest, most representative index. It tells you how the entire (or close to entire) capitalization-weighted publicly traded U.S. stock market is doing.

The financial media would be doing investors a favor by focusing their attention on the Wilshire 5000 rather than the Dow 30 or even the S&P 500. The most widely tracked index by mutual funds and exchange-traded funds is the S&P 500.

It’s a better index than the Dow, but there’s still no good reason for investors to favor it over the Wilshire 5000. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) is a proxy for the Wilshire 5000. It is, in my opinion, the best and only domestic equity fund you need to own. With an expense ratio of just 0.05%, it’s practically free to own.

VTI contains American stocks only. The better values (lower price/earnings ratios, higher dividend yields) are to be found outside the U.S. Most major foreign markets have yet to make new all-time highs.

A Weaker Dollar Could Boost Foreign StocksYou can own the rest of the world outside the United States through Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US

See Dow 100,000!, next page


2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

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404244464850Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US ETF (Daily) 47.01

© StockCharts.com21-Feb-2017 12:18pmVEU Vanguard FTSE All-W NYSE + BATS

Last 47.01 Chg +0.14 (+0.29%)

You can learn more by watching this index.

Preparing for the Years of Instability AheadNOTE FROM LEE: This month I had intended to talk about rising political violence and more on my very early prediction that secret service protection would have to be extended to pro-Trump members of Congress. Thuggish agitators have already scored big – a presidential visit to Harley Davidson Headquarters had to be moved to the White House. The new Secretary of Education physically blocked from touring a DC school. Republican members of Congress cancelling town hall meetings due to bused in thugs. “Small” stuff so far – but the radical left’s early successes at shutting down speech guarantees escalating political violence. My prognosis for massive escalation is alarming.

Next month watch for this amazing story. You aren’t going to find it on the Internet because it is not accept-able speech. Please watch for it. – Lee



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(VEU). Its regional allocation is 46.0% Europe, 41.2% Asia, 10.4% Americas, 2.4% Africa/Middle East.

Owners of foreign stocks stand to benefit from a weaker dollar. The Trump administration, unlike previ-ous administrations, has openly signaled that it wants the dollar to weaken versus the currencies of major trading partners such as China, Japan, and Germany. A weaker dollar, so goes the thinking, will help make American exports more competitive.

The Trump administration risks starting a currency war with other countries and perhaps an internal war with the Federal Reserve. Fed officials opted not to raise interest rates at their first meeting of the year in January. They say they still intend to hike later this year, which could put upward pressure on the dollar.

In recent years, the Fed’s bark has proven to be worse than its bite. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Fed fails to deliver on its multiple rate hike vows this year, especially if other central banks continue to hold their benchmark interest rates near zero.

Foreign bonds yield virtually nothing these days, so they represent more risk than reward for U.S. investors. You get more yield by sticking to U.S. bonds. With regard to stocks, the yield advantage is reversed! Large cap foreign stocks tend to pay out higher dividends than domestic blue chips.

Foreign stock markets may also be supported by foreign central banks. Many central bankers, including

those in Japan and Europe, are now buying up corporate stocks. The U.S. Federal Reserve may soon follow suit (if it isn’t already doing so covertly).

The Playbook for Investing in Today’s MarketsDon’t try to fight central banks! They have unlimited buying power at their disposal to prop up markets.

The basic playbook: Favor U.S. bonds. Favor foreign stocks. And diversify into physical precious metals for protection against inflation and financial instability.

In future issues, we’ll drill down into more focused investment ideas as opportunities present. In the meantime, it’s prudent to keep some of your powder dry in case overheated markets cool down.


With an expense ratio of just 0.05%, it’s practically free to own.



Don’t Get Squeezed By Financial Choke-PointsAuthor Explains How The Government ‘Machine’ Is Slamming Financial Escape Hatches Closed

[The following is an excerpt from a 2017 economic briefing between national talk show host Michael Savage and author/businessman Craig R. Smith discussing how to maintain personal financial freedom and privacy.]

MICHAEL SAVAGE: In your latest book, MONEY, MORAL-ITY & THE MACHINE, you say financial freedom is systematically being ground up in ‘The Machine’ - the traditional escape hatches have been closing around us and threatening everything we own. Can you give us examples of some of the major choke points for finan-cial freedom that we should be aware of?

CRAIG R. SMITH: Yes. Michael, we outline 19 major choke points in Chapter Five of our book that are limiting Ameri-cans’ financial freedom. Until recently, citizens have always had escape routes to protect their wealth. For example, going into a bank, cashing a check and getting your money out of the bank. Now, you can’t do that anymore without filling out a number of forms or running the risk that the cash you are transporting could be taken into police custody until you can prove it belongs to you.

Another choke point is taxing the escape hatch abroad. In other words, if citizens decide to leave the country, they can’t leave if they owe money in taxes, unless they have paid all their taxes. Today the government is tying your passport for foreign travel to TSA clearance through all kinds of digitally encoded IDs. It’s not as simple as just carrying an American passport and getting on an airplane anymore. We’re ending financial privacy abroad in Switzerland for example. There’s no banking or financial privacy anymore. Your bank records could also be hacked and private informa-

tion shared with other people.

It may even be considered a crime to withdraw your money from your own bank account, or in

some cases, to deposit money. Sergeant Cortazzo is a perfect example. He

deposited $56,000 in cash which he saved up to pay for college

tuition, and the British banking giant UBS ended up seizing his money.

Another big concern is the targeting of retirement accounts such as 401ks and IRAs. That amounts to $20 trillion sitting in retirement accounts right now, and

there’s been ideas floated by some in Congress suggesting,

“Maybe we should just take all that money and issue a government

bond to all the people who have retire-ment accounts that we will pay depositors a set amount over the years”.

Today there are escape hatches that traditionally have been there for the American people to trans-fer their wealth to future generations, or moving it out of the country, or moving it into private areas that are being closed very, very quickly right now. That’s why we believe it’s incumbent upon every American to make sure they have some of their money outside of the system.

FREE For Your Enjoyment and Benefit

Swiss America is offering the full 45-minute Savage/Smith interview on an audio CD, mp3 or printed in their 2017 Real Money Perspec-tives newsletter FREE to Independent Living readers by calling 800-289-2646.



Independent LIvIng is designed to provide the opinions and findings of its contributing writers. these findings are based on research, experience, and analysis of the subject matter covered. sources for information are believed reliable, but absolute accuracy cannot be guaranteed. this information is not provided for purposes of rendering financial, legal, accounting, or other professional advice. it is intended purely for educational purposes. the authors and publisher disclaim any responsibility for a liability or loss incurred as a consequence of the use and application, either directly or indirectly, of any information presented herein. because the united states currently functions under an evolutionary system, the reader bears the burden of ensuring that the principle or law stated in this work is current and binding at the time of an intended use or application. caution: the law in this country is subject to change arbitrarily and without prior notice.

A Good Tax Pro Can Ease Your Mind and Save Your Bacon

Like it or not, tax filing season is upon us. It’s the season of receipts, records, forms, formulas, figures, and an impenetrably complex set

of rules and regulations. You don’t take delight in it unless you’re a self-loather or an IRS bureaucrat.

Maybe 2017 will finally be the year when a President of the United States moves to end the long national nightmare that is the bipartisan-birthed horror show of a tax code. On the campaign trail, Donald Trump pushed for radical simplification and lower rates across the board. We’ll see if he and tax reformers in Congress can actually get something done for taxpayers who have been tormented by the IRS their whole working lives.

In the meantime, what can you do to avoid letting the IRS drive you mad this tax season?

The Ins and Outs of Getting Your Taxes Prepared Professionally

The best thing you can do for your mental health is to let a tax professional do the number crunching for you. It will cost you some up front, but it could save you from a lot of headaches, such as being audited and penalized by the IRS for making a mistake on your return.

As far as financial hazards go, the IRS is one of the biggest. IRS agents can, and do, impose fines and penalties, garnish wages, levy bank accounts, seize cars and homes, board up businesses, send people to jail, and otherwise ruin people’s financial and personal lives. A good tax accountant can help you steer clear of trouble.

You reduce your chances of being audited when your return is prepared and signed by a tax professional

(a CPA, attorney, or enrolled agent). It will cost you to have your taxes professionally prepared, but by spending the money, you could very well spare yourself much greater costs and headaches in the long run.

In addition to helping your return pass muster with the IRS, a seasoned pro might be able to reduce your actual tax burden by suggesting deductions and other strategic moves you may have overlooked. The statutes, regulations, and court decisions that make up tax law are changing constantly. It’s the job of a tax professional to stay on top of these changes and help you make the most of them (or suffer the least from them, as the case may be).

Here’s one more reason why you should strongly consider hiring a certified public accountant to compute your taxes: if a CPA advises you to adopt a strategy that the IRS later disapproves of, you’ll be immune from penalties. Be sure to get any potentially disputable recommendations from your accountant in writing so that, if you are audited, you can prove to the IRS that you acted upon professional advice.

Going through a Tax Lawyer Can Help Protect Your Financial Privacy

There is no accountant-client confidentiality privilege. Your tax preparer may squeal at the demand of any IRS agent.

This is not the case with information kept by your lawyer. It’s always privileged – or at least it’s supposed to be. You can therefore largely eliminate the worry of what your accountant might be telling the government by going through a lawyer, who is legally obligated to keep your information confidential.

Tax Planning




For maximum privacy protection, have a tax lawyer prepare your tax returns. Alternatively, have your lawyer hire an accountant; that way, you create a barrier of attorney-client privilege between you and your accountant.

The U.S. tax code is an abomination perpetrated on the American people. No one, including IRS agents, understands it. Yet we are all required to sign, under penalty of perjury, that our tax returns comply with it. Talk about a catch-22!

Unfortunately, there’s no way around it. You can, however, protect yourself from possible criminal prosecution by always running your finances through a lawyer. If a lawyer okays what you’re doing, then you demonstrate that you were acting in a good-faith belief that your actions were legal. Be sure to get his opinion on any potentially controversial issue in writing so you’ll have proof.

The same goes for any advice you get from an

accountant. Or any information (such as you can ascertain) from an IRS official. Get it in writing for your own protection.

Don’t Overpay for Tax ServicesThe services of a tax professional can range from a small flat fee for a 1040-EZ return at a tax preparation outfit like H&R Block to thousands of dollars for a more complicated return handled by a CPA or lawyer.

Even if you hire an expensive accountant or lawyer for the job, you may end up getting the services of a junior assistant or intern. The accountant or lawyer just signs his or her name to the paperwork prepared by lower level staff.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, provided the professional you hired actually reviews the work of the underlings and doesn’t try to bill you at $300 per hour for work that he farmed out at $30 per hour. Insist on a breakdown for whatever blended rate you are charged.

If you are willing to pay no more than a certain total amount for tax preparation – $1,000, for example

Ease Your Mind and Save Your Bacon continued from previous page

See Ease Your Mind and Save Your Bacon, page 20

There is no accountant-client confidentiality privilege.

More on the Unstoppable Trend School of InvestmentExcerpted comments from financial analyst Keith Fitz-Gerald

Have you spent any time looking at the “Unstop-pable Trend” theory? One of my favorite financial analysts Keith Fitz-Gerald cuts through it all with his investment focus on water.

He calls it the Scarcity/Allocation Trend.

“Water is an important part of the Scarcity/Alloca-tion Trend. And, despite the fact that it’s based on needs and inexorable forces that no one can deny or do without, it’s easily the least understood. That’s in good part what makes it so very interest-ing and so very profitable.”

Listen fellow learner, when you see me quote someone who technically is a competitor of Independent Living in the financial world, you darn well know he has something important to say. Here’s

more insight from Keith Fitz-Gerald :

“By Its very definition, the Scarcity/Allocation Trend acknowledges that resources on Earth are never distributed equally or ideally. Instinctively, that’s a very easy concept to understand. What most people miss, though, is that every shortage or struggle for more favorable allocations among societies and civilizations creates historic transfers of wealth that are almost always accompanied by enormously profitable opportunities.”

To learn more about Keith’s views, go to www.moneymappress.com/guru/keith-fitz-gerald-2/



Pass This Around to Your Immediate Family…Key Advice They’ll All Thank You ForBy Kevin Michalowski, Conceal Carry Magazine

Think about the worst thing that could possibly happen to you. Have you trained for that? Why not? Perhaps denial that it would ever happen is easier than thinking about something so unpleasant.

For me, my worst-case scenario has always been facing an armed attacker when my children are present. This has been an ongoing education for my kids and me over the years. Since both my boys are now young adults, my stress level is down a bit, but there are still many things to consider.

Don’t Play This “What-If” Game With Your Kids’ Lives

You will notice that my scenario is not very specific. I don’t fear five armed bikers having me trapped in the corner of a parking structure when the temperature is below freezing, I’ve forgotten my gloves and two of the three overhead lights are burned out. While that is a wonderful “What if?” game, it is too far into the weeds for me. With my children, I am far more concerned with the general concepts. First and foremost, I need a means to communicate the severity of the situation. (This was of utmost importance when the kids were young.)

Have you ever tried to convince a toddler to do what you want him to do in a store? How’d that work for you? Now think about trying to fight off an attacker while dealing with an uncooperative child. Those of you who have lived through having young children have knowing smiles on your faces right now.

Until my eldest reached about age 5, my plan was to pick up the older boy and push the stroller containing

the younger boy toward safety. But think about this for a minute: That meant I had to have a 5-year-old in my left arm clinging to me. Then I would have to use my left hand to push the stroller, while operating the firearm with my right hand. That is a nearly impossible task. I figured out early on that my best option would be to flee the area at the first hint of trouble. I would seek cover and determine my best options at that point. I still cling to the belief that if I were not the target of the assault, my best option would be to keep my kids safely behind cover while things happened around us.

Keeping Your Kids Safe in a Suddenly Unsafe Public Place

If I were the target of the assault, my plan would be to address the threat first, attempt to neutralize it and then direct my kids to safety.

Now here is the big question: What about the kids?

Is it best to tell the kids to run to cover while I fight? Or should I keep them near me and attempt to fight to protect them? I finally came down on the side of ordering them to run toward cover and thus away from the fight. I planned to fight quickly and then move to retrieve the kids. There are plenty of downsides to this, I know. But I felt that I wanted the kids farther away from any deadly force incident. It would give me more room to move and maybe reduce the chances of one of the boys taking a stray bullet. Maybe. There is really no good option.

The other really important element in all this was communicating to the kids the gravity of the situation.


Burgers and Fries Don’t Stack Up to Sushi and MisoIf you want to live longer, pay a regular visit to your local Japanese restaurant! This may sound like unusual health advice, but it is actually well grounded.

Incorporating staples of Japanese cuisine into one’s diet is an obvious, though rarely mentioned, strategy for improving longevity. It’s based on the fact that

the people with the longest life expectancies in the world reside in the islands of Okinawa, Japan.

A typical meal enjoyed by Okinawans consists of miso soup (with tofu), fresh fish, cabbage, purple sweet potatoes, brown rice, and, of course, antioxidant-rich green tea.



For Many, the Free Market Is Already Replacing Obamacare (and Medicare)

Running against Obamacare was good politically for Republicans when President Obama’s veto would inevitably block any measures to repeal it. Now that

Republicans have the ability to begin fixing America’s broken healthcare system, many are becoming gun shy.

Neither the GOP Congress nor the Trump White House seem eager to make good on their promises to repeal and replace Obamacare. There is still no consensus on what a replacement will even look like.

First Republicans might try to push through some basic reforms of the law without actually eliminating the major components of it. The (Un) Affordable Care Act’s so-called individual mandate could remain in force indefinitely.

Republicans hope that introducing interstate competi-tion will increase insurance options and lower costs for many. However, until the law’s controversial core is repealed, millions of people will continue to be stuck with government-mandated insurance policies that cost

too much and deliver too little.

When Avoiding Health Insurance Makes Financial Sense

For now, the one major way in which patients can reduce costs is to opt out of the system. An increasing number of doctors and hospitals now cater exclusively to people who are willing to pay cash.

By eliminating Obamacare and Medicare rules and paperwork, providers can greatly reduce administrative costs and improve efficiency. This goes ultimately to the benefit of patients. For example, you can often save 50% or more on surgeries by going to cash-only hospitals or negotiating for a cash discount instead of paying the rate set for your insurance provider.

Yes, even if you have insurance, it can sometimes be cheaper to not use it! Especially if your policy carries a high deductible that will leave you mostly uncovered for a medical expense anyway.

Self Reliance

By the time the youngest boy was 5, I decided that we needed a code word – actually a phrase – that, once uttered, meant the situation was deadly and they were to follow every command I gave them without hesitation.

Trying to get young kids to do something without asking why is like herding cats. But I sat my boys down and explained, “Sometimes bad things happen, but I am here to protect you. If you ever hear me say, ‘We are in real danger,’ I want you to stop everything and do exactly as I tell you. When I use those words, that means something so bad is happening that people might die and you need to listen to me and do exactly as I say.”

Keep This Emergency Command in Your Hip Pocket When Out in Public

I seemed to get agreement from the kids and I stressed the importance of this phrase regularly. Still, I had no way of knowing if my words had sunk in until several

years later. As we walked on a busy street in downtown Milwaukee, I noticed a homeless man step out from a bus stop shelter with his eyes locked on mine. He was screaming incoherently. I immediately said, “We are in real danger.” As I stepped off line and retrieved my can of OC spray, I felt my youngest son’s hand on my arm and heard him say, “What do you want us to do?”

I sent them to the far right out of the path of the angry man and I was able to direct him away with a simple shout of, “Get back!”

We went about our business and he went about his. It was then that I knew my previous training had worked. We didn’t have a specific plan, but my kids had remembered the most important element. They followed my instructions.

I recommend a subscription to Conceal Carry magazine. They do great work. www.usconcealedcarry.com

Pass This Around to Your Immediate Family continued from previous page

See The Free Market is Replacing Obamacare, page 13



Paper Records vs. Electronic Records – What’s Best Now?Monte F. writes: You and your staff are producing a wonderful service for all of us! You stated in your December 2016 issue: “…IOUs represented by digital entries in computer systems is vulnerable to being digitally appropriated.” Would having ‘physical share entries’ of my stocks help me in this problem?

Lee responds: If you can get paper stock certificates representing your shares (rare these days but not impossible), that would provide you with something physical to backup what’s in your online accounts.

Financial institutions are encouraging customers to go all-electronic on account statements and tax documents. I think it’s a good idea to keep paper records for all your accounts, even if you can access them over the internet. You never know when you may be locked out or hacked out of an account.

Here’s How to Look into Getting a Concierge DoctorDebra L. writes: How does one go about finding concierge doctors here in SC?

Lee responds: Concierge medicine is growing as the health insurance regime sinks under the weight of government rules. Concierge medicine offers physicians a way to get around all the red tape and practice medicine for the sake of patients. It offers patients a way to get quality, VIP treatment that Obamacare and Medicare typically won’t cover.

A great resource for concierge medicine is the American Academy of Private Physicians (877-746-7301; www.aapp.org). If you’re a patient, its Official Directory of Private Physicians can help you locate a concierge doctor near you. Make sure your concierge doctor’s office has strong administrators – remember that your doctor’s good offices must be able to get things done on your behalf with prescription hassles, immediate referrals when needed and other red-tape cutting services when you need anything medical beyond a routine checkup.

You might also look in your local yellow pages. Some concierge practices advertise as “private” or “cash only” medicine.

Financial Penalties for Refusing Smart Power MetersChuck B. writes: In your Answering Readers’ Questions section a reader asked about avoiding the installation of a Smart Meter on their home. When I lived in California all I had to do is write a letter saying no. I also did it for my rentals. They said OK and charged me an extra $75 monthly for the privilege of keeping the old meter.

Lee responds: That’s a hefty price to pay simply to prevent a utility company from installing a piece of equipment you don’t want. Smart Meters have become a sort of

Ask Lee Now: Answering Readers’ QuestionsWe love to hear from readers! Please email your question or comment to Independent Living editor Lee

Bellinger ([email protected]). Please include your name and home state. You may also reach us via postal mail (P.O. Box 1240; Clover, SC 29710-4240).




“individual mandate” whereby you are presumed to need them and can be penalized for refusing them.

Some readers have written to me with stories of being literally coerced into accepting Smart Meters and having power company workers trespass on their property to install them. I wish I had a magic bullet set of words they could use to legally put a halt to Smart Meter requirements and opt out of penalties.

Unfortunately, state and local governments have their own laws (and interpretations) that tend to favor Smart Meter mandates. Governments want Smart Meter data collection on all households and businesses and see the potential for centralized power rationing.

It’s an uphill battle for privacy advocates. I have great respect for people like you who are willing to bear the financial costs of refusing their spy devices.

Metals and Oil Under TrumpRalph C. writes: There is another massive oil supply glut building in the U.S. Oil prices would be back in the low $30s if not for OPEC manipulating the market. My question is: Won’t gold and silver eventually follow oil prices lower?

Seth Van Brocklin responds: Not necessarily. First of all, I wouldn’t take it for granted that crude oil prices have to go lower from here in dollar terms.

OPEC has an interest in trying to drive the North American frackers, the deep sea drillers, and other high-cost producers out of business. The way to do that is through boom-bust cycles that take oil prices to ridiculously low levels. That takes much non-OPEC production offline. Then the name of the game is to push oil prices far higher than the fundamentals would warrant and cash in on the artificially high prices before new production can come back online.

Oil in the low to mid $50s per barrel, where it has been for the past couple months, is just high enough for major oil producers to be profitable. It’s still well below the $100+ levels seen back in 2014. I wouldn’t be surprised to see oil prices move higher before the next engineered bust. If the dollar weakens in the months ahead (as the Trump administration wants in order to aid American exporters), that would help support higher oil and other hard assets.

As for the precious metals markets, they are positively correlated with the movements in the oil market most of the time. But not always. Gold and silver, unlike oil and other commodities, are money. Therefore, during times of heightened fear or monetary instability, precious metals can attract safe-haven buying as capital flees from more economically sensitive assets.

Gold tends to benefit from negative news. If you’re bearish on the economy, then you’ll want to favor money metals over energy related investments.

Continued from previous page

“Ask Lee Now” is presented for general educational purposes only. Because we don’t know enough about readers’ personal situations, the opinions expressed here should not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument at any time. We will not be responsible for financial decisions that readers make, and they should be made in consultation with their own advisers.



IRS Moves to Implement Obama’s Legacy in Trump Era

The IRS is preparing to imple-ment a dangerous new power. The dreaded agency will begin sending the names of

tax delinquents to the State Department so that their passports can be revoked.

Yes, having tax debt can now cause you to lose your right to travel outside of the country. This virtual Berlin Wall wasn’t constructed by President Donald Trump. He wants his wall to keep non-citizens out of the country, not keep citizens from leaving.

The tax debtor travel ban was signed into law by Barack Obama back in 2015. In true Orwellian fashion, the provision giving the IRS authority to revoke passports was buried in the so-called “Hire More Heroes Act of 2015.”

Deep State Lashes Out Against Americans Struggling with Tax Debt

In February the IRS announced it would begin implement-ing its new powers. As of this writing, the notice on the IRS web site states, “The IRS has not yet started certifying tax debt to the State Department. Certifications to the State Department will begin in early 2017…”

If you owe more than $50,000 to the government, your travel rights could be restricted. The IRS says the pass-port grab will only come after a tax lien has been filed and “all administrative remedies” have been exhausted. In other words, the agency will decide when its previ-ous collection efforts have been insufficient.

Career bureaucrats at the IRS aren’t going to change their ways just because an outsider Republican president now sits in the White House. As President Donald Trump is discovering, the so-called “deep state” is loyal to itself and highly averse to slimming down or doing things differently.

What to Do if the IRS Comes After You for Money

As anyone has been behind on their taxes can attest, a relatively small amount of tax owed can balloon over time due to penalties and interest. Once your

tax debt is designated “seriously delinquent” you become a target for the most extreme IRS

collection tactics. Even if you pay your tax delinquency down below $50,000, your passport could stay revoked until you’ve completely satisfied your liability.

Even if you have a large tax bill that you can’t pay immediately, you can take steps to avoid ending up on the

“seriously delinquent” list.

First step: Don’t ignore notices from the IRS! If you disagree with them, you can formally

dispute them through the IRS Appeals Office. Always communicate with them via return receipt mail and keep copies of everything. Believe it or not, the IRS is often wrong in its calculations or its interpretations of the law.

If you’ve exhausted your ability to keep your dispute going and still owe more than you can pay, try to negotiate with the IRS for manageable payment terms. An installment agreement can usually be arranged. The IRS will sometimes even accept an offer in compromise in which your total tax debt is reduced.

Negotiate Your Tax Debt Down with an Offer in Compromise

Through an offer in compromise, you could potentially settle with the tax man for pennies on the dollar. For example, the IRS might be willing to accept $25,000, or $10,000, or even $5,000 of a $50,000 bill if you convince them that you don’t have and won’t have the resources to pay it in full.

The offer in compromise has been in existence for decades, but only in recent years have significant numbers of taxpayers been able to take advantage of it. Tax problem solver Dan Pilla has spent decades showing taxpayers how to negotiate a settlement with the IRS using the offer in compromise.

IRS agents know that in many cases it’s more cost effec-tive to accept partial payments than to endlessly pursue a taxpayer who simply cannot afford to pay what the IRS wants. According to the IRS’s own Offer in Compro-mise Handbook, “The Service will accept an offer in compromise when it is unlikely that the tax liability can be

Big Brother




collected in full and the amount offered reasonably reflects collection potential. The goal is to achieve collection of what is potentially collectible at the earliest possible time and at the least cost to the government.”

In general, the IRS will accept an offer in compromise if you can show that one or more of the following is true:

• You will never be able to pay the full amount of the tax due.

• You could escape paying the tax through litigation.• You could escape paying the tax through

bankruptcy.• Pursuing the full amount of the debt would

cause you undue hardship or would be fundamentally unfair.

Never be afraid to assert your due process rights! If you feel IRS collection efforts are unfair, make a request for a collection due process hearing.

As Time (January 26, 2017) reports, “With the Affordable Care Act on the chopping block, many experts expect the free-market model to take off. While congressional Republicans have yet to produce a viable replacement for the Obama Administration’s health care law, almost any change is likely to result in more Americans’ choosing high-deductible insurance plans, which would help fuel the cash-based marketplace for years to come.”

Opting Out of Medicare’s Meddlesome Restrictions

What if you’re on Medicare? You don’t have to worry about getting insurance coverage or finding low-cost providers, right?

Think again.

Some doctors are now refusing to take Medicare patients. Dealing with layers of government bureaucracy when it comes to billing and compliance has become too much of a burden. Physicians who want to spend more of their time seeing patients are going “cash only.”

Some patients who have Medicare cards are also seeking to opt out of the system. That’s because Medicare doesn’t actually cover the medical care they need or get them access to the doctors and facilities they want.

According to the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom, Medicare limits options and often drives up costs for patients. The Council relays the following story:

Dr. Kristin Held, a San Antonio physician has opted-out of

Medicare. Here’s why many Medicare patients still see her. Ophthalmology has had many technological advancements, but she says Medicare covers none of them.

So Dr. Held has developed fees for cataract operations using the latest laser technology that cost less to the patient ‘than what Medicare patients would end up paying out-of-pocket” if they saw a doctor that participates in Medicare. In short, Medicare patients pay less out-of-pocket to see Dr. Held but get the latest technology.

So if you’re in Medicare, look for a doctor free from Medicare’s costly restrictions. Encourage all your doctors to opt-out of Medicare. You’ll save money and be protected from government rationing.

Keep Your Options Open or Risk DeathIt’s not necessarily the case that you should completely avoid using Medicare or other health insurance you may have. If you get into a terrible accident and are faced with tens of thousands of dollars in medical costs, that’s what insurance is for.

However, you shouldn’t feel trapped by what your insurer says is covered, and which doctors you can see, and which hospitals you can use. Look into concierge medicine that is more centered around your particular needs as a patient rather than assigning you a number and processing you through the system. Look into urgent care centers as affordable alternatives to hospitals that may be in your health insurance network but that end up charging you an arm and a leg. Look into any opportunity to save money by paying cash for medical services.

Obama’s Legacy in Trump Era continued from previous page

For Many, the Free Market Is Already Replacing Obamacare (and Medicare) continued from page 9

Email Inquiries: [email protected]: 1-800 346-6829Online Newsletter: www.taxhelponline.com/resources-and-publications/electronic-newsletter.htm



America’s Wealthy Liberals Go “Prepper”By Roger King, GridWatch

A few years back, Pew Research placed a bunch of mainstream media outlets on the political spectrum. The New Yorker and Slate pretty much tied for being the most liberal. In fact, Pew put them as far to the left as they put Breitbart, The Blaze, and Glenn Beck to the right. This was before the 2016 presidential race even started.

Before the 2016 presidential race started, you also would not have seen The New Yorker covering preppers. Aside from, perhaps, a disparaging look at anybody they could find who looked to be doing it more for mental health reasons than legitimate, rational concern.

Today, it’s a completely different story.

See the recent The New Yorker and its story titled “Doomsday Prep For The Super-Rich”…

It wasn’t chic until now to shine the spotlight on this. But Silicon Valley CEOs, among others, have been as concerned as their counterparts on the right.

Steve Huffman, cofounder and CEO of Reddit, is no friend of Donald Trump’s supporters. He’s also a regular at Burning Man, the anarchistic annual party in the desert frequented by modern-day hippies and their allies.

Huffman is concerned about, “Some sort of institu-tional collapse, then you just lose shipping—that sort of stuff.”

In short, a society without rule of law, where social order breaks down and chaos ensues. The normal systems that allow society to flourish break down.

He believes our modern society rests on a fragile consensus — and all it would take is one black swan event for us to wake up and realize that everything had changed.

“I think, to some degree, we all collectively take it on faith that our country works, that our currency is valuable, the peaceful transfer of power—that all of

these things that we hold dear work because we believe they work. While I do believe they’re quite resilient, and we’ve been through a lot, certainly we’re going to go through a lot more.”

We all hope for the best, and yet…

Simple logic says we should all be prepared...

A little more than a decade ago, before the financial crisis struck, you would have been labeled a lunatic for doing what’s quickly becoming the norm on both the left and right sides of the political spectrum.

Today, it’s simple prudence. Divisions are deeper between Americans than at any time in our lives. The risk is real. Silicon Valley millionaires are investing in

bunkers and bug out plans.

The American republic could be at risk of permanently fracturing. Since the election, political violence has escalated – threats, riots, large-scale disruptions. The George Soros funded activist group Alliance for Global Justice is spearheading militant protests across the country.

The left now openly talks of shutting down free speech and randomly punching Nazis (a “Nazi” to them being anyone to the right of Mitt Romney). Anti-Trump protestors now proudly display posters on which they vow to become “ungovernable.”

The 2016 Democrat Vice Presidential candidate, Tim Kaine, said “What we’ve got to do is fight in Congress, fight in the courts, fight in the streets…”

Democrats in Congress have engaged in unprecedented acts of political obstructionism. Whereas Republicans confirmed President Obama’s cabinet picks, Democrats are refusing – though for now their efforts are largely futile since they are in the minority. They don’t want Donald Trump to even be able to govern. Left-leaning judges are usurping the constitutional powers of the legislative and executive branches in order to thwart President Trump.

“Well before Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, I sent a holiday greeting to my friends that read: ‘These times are not business as usual. Wishing you the best in a troubled world.’”

- George Soros




Our PowerWhisperer Got Crushed Like a Coke Can In a Freak Delivery Accident

“This mangled PowerWhisperer still

works perfectly – we hope the truck

is okay – Thank you PowerWhisperer

quality control team! – LeeTo learn more call 1-877-371-1807 or go to: https://independentlivingnews.com/crushedpw

Are we heading for even more mass social unrest ahead? Evolutionary biologist Peter Turchin thinks we are. He posits that social instability is on an upward trajectory that won’t peak until the 2020s. Here’s an excerpt from one of Turchin’s recent statements:

“My research showed that about 40 seemingly disparate (but, according to cliodynamics, related) social indicators experi-enced turning points during the 1970s. Historically, such developments have served as leading indicators of political turmoil. My model indicated that social instability and political violence would peak in the 2020s…

We seem to be well on track for the 2020s instability peak. And although the election is over, the deep structural forces that brought us the current political crisis have not gone away. If anything, the negative trends seem to be accelerating.”

Financial Insider Forecasts “Total Chaos”The European Union could be upended this year by the insurgent campaigns of nationalists Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Marine Le Pen in France.

A former associate of George Soros, Vic Sperandeo, told King World News that he expects “complete chaos and world depression” to ensue as the European

Union unravels. “The EU is toast and the whole world is going to feel the effects of the collapse of the EU,” he said. “There will be total chaos.”

Sperandeo predicts that the gold market will be the big beneficiary as safe-haven buyers flee failing currency regimes and gyrating equity markets.

Even if the global financial system doesn’t fall apart, gold and silver could still rally on account of rising inflationary pressures.

They aren’t merely doomsday metals. They are metals for times of uncertainty. We are undoubtedly living in such times today.

“While the establishment may no longer be capable of inspiring and leading the nation, so detested is it, it has not lost its appetite or its ability to break and bring down presidents.”

- Patrick J. Buchanan

Wealthy Liberals Go “Prepper” continued from previous page



OUCH! The Politically Incorrect Truth about Hybrid Cars

By Seth Van Brocklin

President Donald J. Trump vows to roll back regula-tions by as much as 75%. That could mean better and cheaper cars down the road.

In recent years, stringent safety and environmental rules have forced automakers to sacrifice on design, features, and performance while jacking up sticker prices. For example, all sedans now take the same basic swoopy shape in pursuit of maximum aerody-namic qualities.

That’s fine for consumers who are looking for every last miniscule MPG gain they can get. But in the pursuit of meeting ever more stringent government MPG and safety regs, the car industry has had to outfit vehicles with expensive technologies that you may not want or need. Everything from rear-view cameras, to black box data recorders, to “eco mode” engines, to computers that control tailpipe emissions, to air bags that surround you from every direction.

Will Trump Make Cars Great Again?The government has pushed automakers to produce more electric and gas/electric hybrid vehicles. Hybrids are great in theory. They deliver MPG increases without leaving drivers dependent on charging stations. In practice, hybrids are almost always less efficient on a cost to drive basis than conventional gasoline vehicles. As long as gas prices sit under $4 per gallon, hybrids won’t make much economic sense.

Hybrids make the driving experience worse in other ways, according to Eric Peters of EPAutos.com. He was recently a guest on the libertarian Tom Woods Show where he expressed optimism about Trump’s deregula-tion agenda and skepticism about most hybrid vehicles.

Hybrids must carry an extra 400 pounds of batteries and electric motor parts. “That is just a dumb idea because what you end up with is a vehicle that is heavy and that has conflicting mandates,” Peters said. “The hybrid adds weight and it tends to unbalance the car.”

Peters recommends to those who want a highly fuel efficient vehicle to consider a Hyundai sedan.

Hyundai’s turbo-charged 4- cylinder engines deliver excellent MPGs “without the cost, the complexity, and the weight of a hybrid powertrain.”

What about the Prius?The only hybrid on the market that Peters recommends is the Toyota Prius. It was a pioneer in hybrid technol-ogy and continues to be the leader. That’s because the Prius remains the only hybrid model that is engineered

specifically and solely to be a hybrid. The rest are conversions from conventional gasoline engines.

The 2017 Toyota Prius carries a starting MSRP of $24,685 and delivers 50 MPG highway.

It’s a great vehicle for urban drivers who don’t need a lot of cargo space or heavy duty features. A nice used Prius also makes a great first car for a young driver. If you buy new, you’ll pay a premium versus non-hybrid compact and mid-size sedans.

You get about a 20%-25% increase in miles per gallon with the Prius. Whether it’s worth it to pay up for the hybrid drivetrain depends on where gasoline prices head and how many miles you expect to drive.

My All-Purpose, Go Anywhere VehicleWhen I went shopping for a new car last year, I was looking for something more rugged than the Prius. I wanted a roomier vehicle with more ground clearance, all-wheel drive, a roof rack, and other features that would give me versatility and resilience to harsh driving conditions.

That would tend to put me in the market for an SUV. But I didn’t want to own a gas-guzzling tank.

I test drove compact SUVs including the Honda CR-V. I ended up buying a Subaru Outback.

The Outback is in an entirely different class than the CR-V. In fact, it is wider, roomier and has more ground clearance than any of the compact SUVs. The Outback’s car-like profile and boxer engine give it a lower center of gravity than SUVs. As a result, it is more stable on the road and handles better. The Outback also earns top


As long as gas prices sit under $4 per gallon, hybrids won’t make much economic sense.



See Poison to the People!, next page

Let me bring you insight on why excavating and replacing more than a hundred thousand ancient USA underground pipe systems won’t happen anytime soon.

You need to know…lots of powerful players have a vested interest in your family getting ill. That’s the “sick” deal between the EPA and local water grid bureaucrats, pharmaceutical giants, agro-chemical conglomerates and the politically protected and danger-ous bottled water lobby.

How America’s Broken Pipes Enrich Hidden Stakeholders At Your Expense

My research findings peel the onion back in a way no one else has dared. Some very powerful insiders don’t want you to read this.

In politics, visuals matter. Yes, lots of federal cash is to be thrown at bridges, roads, and certainly airports and railroads. Most “infrastructure” money goes to what voters can actually see, understand, and vote for in the next election.

No incumbent wants their name on an underground “pipe cluster” or new sewage plant. Yet bridges, tunnels, airports, speed trains and parks all visit fame on them….their friends…their families and their extended tribes.

Millions of unseen rusted pipes now oozing with nasty stuff is another story. Sure, Congress will dollop some cash to fix it – that way they can say they voted to stop underground seepage that ends up at your tap.

But don’t count on a real water grid overhaul. First, digging up and replacing pipes could cost more than all the Social Security IOUs in Washington put together. It takes forever and there would be extended disruption to voters’ lives.

Second, much of the USA Water grid runs on antique pipes – put into service between 1890 and 1986 (after 1986 new lead pipes were supposedly banned). American Water Works Association (AWA) admits some member utilities don’t even know where to dig. Lots of original construction records have been lost to the ages.

What really matters here is that lots of homes and buildings have since been constructed over these forgotten water piping systems. No way is all that going to get dug up now.

No Way is Congress Going to Take This Huge Mess On

Consider: Any real “water grid infrastructure” plan must include bulldozing and digging up about 81 million private properties – roughly two-thirds of households. Leaded brass fixtures installed eons ago remain under major buildings, cities and roads, says Marc Edwards, engineering professor at Virginia Tech.

Third, no one wants to pay for pipes they can’t see.

Fourth, the public totally buys into political B.S. that water must be cheap or free. And cash-strapped cities

Poison to the People! continued from page 1

marks for performance in the snow, in large measure thanks to Subaru’s symmetrical all-wheel drive system. Most all-wheel drive vehicles are based on modified front-wheel drive systems. All Outbacks are designed from the ground up to be all-wheel drive.

Politically Incorrect Car Advice You Need and Deserve

The 2017 Subaru Outback starts at $25,645 and gets 32 MPG highway. It’s not as efficient as the Prius when it comes to sipping fuel. But the Outback is a larger, more powerful, more capable, and more versatile

vehicle. At only about $1,000 more on the sticker price, it’s an overall bigger bang for your buck.

The Prius comes with 24.6 cubic feet of cargo volume, which is fine for hauling groceries. The Outback’s 35.5 cubic feet of storage expands to 73.3 with the rear seats folded down – enough to transport all kinds of gear. Plus, roof rails come standard on the Outback. You can put skis, bicycles, kayaks, or storage containers (with the right attachments) right up on the roof.

The Outback is also capable of towing up to 2,700 pounds. But an Outback full of passengers with a trailer attached will push its standard 4-cylinder engine to its limit. If you want to tow a small boat or camper, you’d be better served by the 6-cylinder Outback Limited or a full size truck or SUV with more horsepower.

Politically Incorrect Truth about Hybrid Cars continued from previous page



know it – even tiny water rate increases face ferocious push-back from customers.

AWA notes that less than 2% of its 4,000 member water utilities have capital to excavate and replace ancient underground pipes.

Above all, politicians know that the public is content to buy rebottled city tap water.

So much the better for the water grid lobby. Politi-cally connected tap water bottlers have moved into this “niche” fear market. So “everyone” wins…drug-makers…the bottled water industry…its friends in Washington – everyone but your family.

Political path of least resistance REMAINS to patch pipes until the “mains” break. And in the meantime dazzle voters with shiny new airports and roads – stuff that politicians get credit for.

So yes, expect bipartisan-approved cosmetic changes to the water grid. Real action to end these toxic shenanigans is about as close as a manned mission to Mars.

The truth gets uglier and deeper here.

Water utilities lose trillions of gallons of water each year through failing pipes. The American Society of Civil Engineers says it costs about $2.6 billion – and EPA gives the whole thing a free pass. EPA-ignored dangerous crap gets legally injected into government-treated water as it travels to your home.

Not good. Actual purified water is way too scarce for comfort….and truly healthy “non-processed” water even more so.

Only 3% of the world’s water is drinkable. And more than HALF of that is locked up in polar ice packs.

The world’s water supply remains constant – neither growing nor declining. Human water use is up 600% in the last hundred years.

Government entities “manage” most of the worlds usable water supply (i.e. they squander it by making it “free” and plentiful).

What They Don’t Want You to Know About Your Tap Water, Big-Time

Just as processed food giants pack supermarkets with over-processed diabetes-causing synthetic sugars, city water systems over-process water. It arrives at your tap stripped of its hydrating properties – you end up drinking “dead” water that’s been run through leeching pipes.

At the heart of the poison water cabal is the Environ-mental Protection Agency. EPA “oversees” the scary reality of city water coming out of taps in 85% of homes.

What’s completely missed by the public and the media is that EPA regulators hide water problems – all because EPA oversees fellow bureaucrats who run city water systems.

It’s classic government-to-government “oversight” – a protection racket. EPA gives “hall passes” to city-run water utilities to take reckless risks….and gives them the political cover they need to get away with it. That’s how the nation’s banks went to

Hell in a handbasket back in 2008.

So like all government cabals these water grid stakeholders have every reason to NOT fix actual problems….they just hide stuff under color of author-ity. It’s happening everywhere, not just in Flint – but the big media have not yet connected the dots.

Corporate chemical giants are the real powers behind America’s sick water politics. Think Monsanto, Dow, Bayer and all usual suspects in the national illness – especially agricultural corporate giants that work in cahoots with federal agencies.

They need political cover from the EPA as pesticides, hormones and genetic experiments pervade crops and water supplies. The EPA oversees 155,000 creaking public water systems throughout the USA.

An Insidious Cabal of Special Interests Rule the Water Grid!

Very few understand what’s going on with water…how sending you polluted water under color of government approval hugely benefits corporate cronyism – and may even condemn your family as sacrificial sheep.

The bad guys all win in this disgusting situation. All

Poison to the People! continued from previous page


Any real “water grid infrastructure” plan must include bulldozing and digging up about 81 million private properties.



because there’s power and money to be had as EPA-protected toxins seep into your tap water. No one has an incentive to change all this because it would end an insidious gravy train that few people even know exists.

Here’s what you need to know on behalf of your family, your community and your friends:

•The National Academy of Sciences says there are about 100,000 contaminants the public needs to be concerned about. EPA cuts huge slack for local governments and only requires them to test for about 91 of them.

•EPA’s own records admit that 41 states sneak water to families with “higher than acceptable” lead levels.

•NO amount of lead is safe in drinking water. Yet incompetent EPA bureaucrats simply set “minimally acceptable” levels for lead and many other toxins.

•Even the EPA admits in fine print that its oversight of city water systems is a disaster. Only nine states report safe levels of lead (some are Hawaii, Alabama, Arkansas, Nevada, North Dakota and Tennessee).

•The list of nasty microorganisms and industrial byproducts grows – but rarely does EPA mention this to city water plants it oversees. They’ve only added one contaminant to be screened out of your family’s drinking water – perchlorate – in the past 20 years.

•EPA bureaucrats don’t mention dozens of contaminants and chemicals used by local cities to process water for public consumption.

•Nor do they warn you of how local govern-ments prolong the operating life of ancient pipes – by injecting them with preservatives that create phosphorus as a byproduct.

No wonder bottled water has turned into a huge industry in such a short time. Most people think store bought bottled water is safer than drinking out of the tap. This is often false.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates bottled water but 60-70% of all brands are exempt from oversight. Under this regulatory “gap” between FDA and EPA major soft drink makers move in and simply rebottle local tap water….it’s EPA approved and they get to sell it for a 1,000% markup if the label is pretty enough.

What’s Really Going on With the Broken Water Grid

Oh yes, the brands have great images – glaciers, falls, Arctic Flambé, etc. But it’s more likely to have come from the Cleveland Waterworks or been reprocessed at some city water rebottling plant that operates in an ugly industrial park. Very few disclose this practice on their labels.

It’s INSIDIOUS! The bottled water industry actually relies on politically managed and “EPA-approved” tap water to limit their liabilities on the cheap. Then they re-sell

you over-processed “dead” city water that first travels through contaminated, ancient pipes.

REMINDER! Almost HALF of all bottled water retailers draw from municipal water sources. Some do minimal additional filtering as a balm to the public. It is perfectly legal and big business.

Well, now comes the real kicker. The massive bottled water industry actually cites the safety of EPA-controlled city water as a reassurance of their high standards of purity.

Picture what happens after every disaster. Bottled water to the rescue! Cameras focus on local residents getting “bottled water.” Well, that very bottled water in many cases is just the same old bad water that comes out of EPA-regulated taps in your home.

Take this amazing admission by a bottle water cheerleading front group, the International Bottled Water Association:

“By federal law, the FDA regulations governing the safety and quality of bottled water must be as stringent as the EPA regulations which govern tap water.”

The bottled water crowd openly admit that their water is only as safe as your EPA-run tap water. They win coming and going because there is so little disclosure about their operations.


See Poison to the People!, next page

EPA crushes private property rights but gives a free pass to the government-run water cartel.


Lee Bellinger is Editor of Independent Living. A 30 year veteran to newsletter publishing, Bellinger has made it his life mission to help his subscribers protect their freedoms, assets, privacy, wealth, and health from geometrically increasing threats, especially from the federal government and its corporate cronies and other “stakeholders.” A Capitol Hill insider for 30 years, he is a graduate of Hillsdale College in Michigan, worked as an aide to two congressmen, and led a grassroots advocacy group.

The EPA is in cahoots with your incompetent local water company….which in turn supplies bottled water makers with their dubious products. A totally lose-lose for your family – the worst of both worlds! EPA crushes private property rights but gives a free pass to the government-run water cartel.

Beware This Dangerous Bureaucratic Trap, Mr. President

That’s in a nutshell why government control of water is a slowly unfolding catastrophe. So yes it’s great that Donald Trump plans to clip EPA’s wings. What this means is that even EPA’s fake “oversight” of city water plants is going away.

So beware, Mr. President. Don’t listen to water grid overseers – they are all on the train. Do something about that water grid mess that’s real.

Federal agencies want to blame you and the Republicans for “emasculating” the EPA. If they pin the water grid mess on you in that way, IT’S A BIG WIN FOR THE SWAMP!

In the meantime, I strongly recommend that everyone obtain and employ a home water filtration system. There are many types of good filters out there. Be sure yours is capable of removing bacteria, heavy metals, and other contaminates from your drinking water.

For any bottled water that you stock up on for emer-gency use, favor products that are labeled “spring water” rather than “drinking water.” The latter is almost always derived from municipal sources. Unfortunately, not all “spring water” is genuine. But bottled spring water that is sourced from a natural spring is more likely to retain naturally occurring minerals…and less likely to be laced with big city chemicals.


Ease Your Mind and Save Your Bacon continued from page 7

– make that clear up front so that your tax pro knows he can’t tack on more charges.

Obviously, the amount you pay for tax services should be proportional to your actual expected tax liability. If you generated several million dollars in earnings last year, then a few thousand dollars spent on tax services is no big deal.

When You May Not Need to Have a Tax Pro

But spending thousands on tax pros when you make under $100,000 – putting you at relatively low risk for being audited – is probably unneces-sary.

A low cost tax preparation service rather than an expensive tax lawyer or CPA may be better for you. If you have doubts about the competence of the tax preparer you picked, you can always run your return by another tax preparation office to have it double checked before you file.

It’s Safer to File a Delayed Return Than a Rushed Return

In order to avoid high-pressure, high-stress tax filing situations, don’t wait until the last minute to hire a tax preparer. The earlier in tax filing season you get all your forms in order and off to a tax pro, the better.

In the event that you find yourself scrambling to meet the filing deadline, don’t panic. You never want to file a “rush job” return. It’s safer to file for an automatic 6-month extension from the IRS.

That will give you and your preparer enough time to do the job carefully and with thorough checks for errors and omissions.

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