Pros & Cons of Living in The Era of Technology

There is little doubt that we are currently living in the age of technology. With ever evolving technology at our fingertips is should come as no surprise that every facet of ours lives is now becoming dependent on increasingly complex devices. There is no question that such devices have enriched our lives making them infinitely easier, but all to often we overlook the negative aspects of living in such a digital world. Let’s take some time to weigh out the pros and cons of living in this era of technology.

The Pros of Living A Digital Life

The benefits of technology are all around us and can be seen in everything from electricity to global communications. Our cars and cell phones have navigation systems to ensure that we do not get lost. We can pay our bills at the touch of a button on the internet. Our cellphones have evolved into tiny little computers in our pockets.

We can now communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world at any time not only by telephone, but also by video conference, instant messenger and email. With faster internet connections being introduced on a daily basis it seems like the only limit to what technology can do is our own imagination. All of these innovations have one goal in mind – to make our lives easier!

Let’s look at a couple of examples. First, consider that you are the parent of a teenager. It’s 10pm and your 14-year-old daughter has missed her curfew by 30 minutes. What goes through your mind? Did she get kidnapped? Hit by a car? Attacked? The possibilities are terrifying.

However, thanks to technology she has her mobile phone and you can give her a call (because your teenager will not think to call you first!)  and establish that she is perfectly fine, but missed the bus home from the movies and had to wait for the next one. Some parents might then think, ‘wait, she could be lying! What if she is with that no good boy from a close by town?’

Thankfully, technology has your back and you can use the GPS tracker on the mobile phone monitoring app you installed on her phone and confirm that yes, she truly is at the bus stop by the movie theatre! You could even check her text messages to confirm that she really did go to the movie with Jill and not Jack!

Another scenario could be that you just left the office and are half way home when a colleague calls you in a panic because they need an urgent file from you. You would need to get off the subway and head back to the office, right? WRONG! Thanks to technology you can use your mobile device to log onto your cloud storage and email the file to the colleague and still make it home for dinner!

The Cons of Life in The Technology Era

It all sounds great, but there are still plenty of downsides. It seems like every other day the news is reporting cyber crimes as criminals begin to take advantage of our technology dependence. People have their credit card numbers stolen and businesses have their information hacked or computer systems disabled.

We are so dependant on technology that if for example, the bank’s computer network failed, it is likely that most day-to-day operations would grind to a halt! While global communications are a great innovation they are also a dangerous one as the internet affords everyone some degree of anonymity.

Let’s go back to the example where you are parenting a teenage girl. What if that cinema date was actually her meeting up with someone she got talking to online? Someone she thought was 14 years old like her, but in reality was a 50-year-old predator? Even although most parents try to teach kids about internet safety, teens believe that they are invincible and know best. ‘It will never happen to me’ is a phrase uttered by every teen at some point!

Thankfully, although technology created this dangerous situation, technology can also resolve it. If you have mobile phone spying software installed on her phone then you could have intercepted those plans to meet and put an end to it before anything bad had a chance to develop.

So is technology good or bad? The answer, quite simply is both! Technology is a great thing that makes our lives so much easier, but at the same time it must be treated with respect as it also has negative sides. It’s kind of like a hammer. You can use the hammer to build things or to harm others.

In theory, technology is neutral. At the end of the day it’s up to us to use it for good or evil.

Posted by Deepali

Deepali has been contributor to many magazines and blogs. She is a marketing consultant for mSpy. For more information, visit https://twitter.com/mSpycom. 

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Black Unemployment Facts

The African-American Labor Force in the Recovery

• Download the Report (PDF)

While the unemployment rate for African Americans fell substantially in January to 13.6 percent, it remains significantly higher than the 8.5 percent rate of November 2007, just prior to the recession. Aggregate numbers show that the African-American community as a whole has exhibited poorer labor market outcomes than other races even prior to the recession and during the recovery, demonstrating that they often face different and greater challenges. By breaking down the data by age, gender, education, and other criteria, this report examines in greater detail the trends in employment and unemployment among African Americans and shows how they have been faring in the economic recovery. The "Looking Forward" section at the end of the report discusses the President's 2013 Budget and highlights various ways in which Department of Labor programs have helped to address the challenges faced by African Americans in the labor market.

Blacks in the Labor Force at a Glance

African Americans made up 11.6 percent of the U.S. labor force — those employed or looking for work — in 2011.¹ African Americans have comprised a gradually growing share of the U.S. labor force over time, rising from 10.9 percent in 1991. Overall, in 2011, 18 million Blacks were employed or looking for work, representing 61.4 percent of all African Americans, somewhat less than the 64.1 participation rate for all Americans.

In 2011, about half of Blacks aged 16 and older had a job, and 18.0 percent of those employed worked part-time.² Blacks are the only racial or ethnic group for whom women represent a larger share of the employed than do men - more than half (53.8 percent) of employed Blacks in 2011 were women, compared to 46.0 percent among employed Whites. Nonetheless, employed black women still earn less than employed black men - black women earn roughly $0.91 to every dollar earned by black men. While the wage gap among Blacks is smaller than that for Whites, this is largely driven by the fact that African-American men face lower wages compared to men in other race groups in the economy. Black men employed full time earned on average $653 per week in 2011, 76.3 percent of the average salary earned by white men. By contrast, black women earn on average $595 per week or 84.6 percent of the average salary earned by white women.³ While the gap between black and white men fell substantially during the 1990s due to increased occupational desegregation, in the last few years the gap in earnings remained stable throughout the recent recession and recovery period.⁴

More than a quarter of employed black workers aged 25 or older have earned a college degree, a share that exceeds that for Hispanics⁵ but continues to trail that for Whites. While black workers continue to trail Whites in educational attainment, the number of African Americans with a college degree has been growing faster. In the past decade, the number of black workers with a college degree has increased by over a quarter, compared to a fifth among White workers.

Black workers are more likely to be employed in the public sector than are either their white or Hispanic counterparts. In 2011, nearly 20 percent of employed Blacks worked for state, local, or federal government compared to 14.2 percent of Whites and 10.4 percent of Hispanics. Blacks are less likely than Hispanics and nearly as likely as Whites to work in the private sector, not including the self-employed.⁶ Few Blacks are self-employed — only 3.8 percent reported being self-employed in 2011 — making them almost half as likely to be self-employed as Whites (7.2 percent).

The average unemployment rate for Blacks in 2011 was 15.8 percent, compared to 7.9 percent for Whites, and 11.5 percent for Hispanics. Historically, Blacks have had persistently higher unemployment rates than the other major racial and ethnic groups. In addition, the increase in the black unemployment rate during the recession was larger than that for other races partly because workers with less education are particularly hard hit during recessions. Moreover, the unemployment rate for Blacks was slower to fall after the official end of the recession. The slower recovery for African Americans in the labor market has been partly the result of government layoffs after the official end of the recession. Blacks have been more vulnerable to the drastic layoffs in government in the past two years because they make up a disproportionate share of public sector workers. Moreover, with the exception of health and education, Blacks are under-represented in the sectors that have experienced the greatest job growth during the recovery, including manufacturing and professional and business services.

In addition, once unemployed, Blacks are less likely to find jobs and tend to stay unemployed for longer periods of time. Blacks remained unemployed longer than Whites or Hispanics in 2011, with a median duration of unemployment of 27.0 weeks (compared to 19.7 for Whites and 18.5 for Hispanics). Nearly half (49.5 percent) of all unemployed Blacks were unemployed 27 weeks or longer in 2011, compared to 41.7 percent of unemployed Whites and 39.9 percent of unemployed Hispanics. Once a worker is unemployed for a prolonged period, it becomes harder to find a new job. Job search becomes harder for such an individual because the worker may not have the networks of employed friends and family to refer them to jobs and because they may become disconnected and depressed the longer they remain unemployed.⁷ Also, job search becomes more difficult without income support, as an unemployed person may not have the resources to afford transportation, seek information and even afford clothes for interviews.⁸ Finally, as the pool of applicants grows larger, employers sometimes use employment status, including unemployment duration, and credit ratings as ways to screen out candidates even if these are poor screens and these candidates may be qualified for the jobs.⁹

Recently there have been some encouraging signs for African Americans. The unemployment rate for Blacks has been trending down since summer 2011. In January 2012, the unemployment rate for Blacks was 13.6 percent; down 3.1 percentage points from the peak of 16.7 percent in August 2011.¹⁰ Continuing employment gains in private sector health care jobs since the end of the recession have helped to bring the unemployment rate down for Blacks, as this industry has a large share of African-American workers. Over the past year ending in January 2012, Blacks have seen strong job growth in a diverse range of industries, including financial activities, professional and business services, and education and health services. African Americans are also benefiting from the slowing pace of job losses in state and local government which have disproportionately affected them.

Periods of High Unemployment

In January 2007, the year the recession began, the unemployment rate for black workers was 7.9 percent, compared to 4.2 percent for Whites and 5.8 percent for Hispanics. By January 2009, the unemployment rates had climbed to 7.1 percent for Whites, 12.7 percent for Blacks and 10.0 percent for Hispanics. By the end of 2010, the unemployment rate for Blacks had risen more than for either Whites or Hispanics.

Unemployment for the nation peaked at 10 percent in October 2009, while the unemployment rate for Blacks continued to rise before peaking at 16.7 percent in August 2011 (Chart 1). In comparison, the unemployment rate for Whites peaked along with the national rate in October 2009 at 9.3 percent. Hispanic unemployment peaked at 13.1 percent in November 2010.

Chart 1: Text only

In recent months, there have been signs that African Americans have begun to benefit from the nation's economic recovery. The national unemployment rate in January 2012 was 8.3 percent, well below the nation's average unemployment rate in 2010 of 9.6 percent. Although their unemployment rate started to decline later, African Americans also saw improvement over that time. The black unemployment rate in January 2012 was 13.6 percent, down from the 2010 average of 16.0 percent, and a little lower than February 2009's rate of 13.7 percent.

Chart 2 shows the seasonally-adjusted monthly unemployment rate for black men, women, and youth (aged 16-19). As shown in the chart, the unemployment rate among adult black men (aged 20 and over) has risen considerably more than for adult black women (aged 20 and over), creating an unemployment rate gap that grew throughout the recession and only narrowed in January 2012. In 2007, the unemployment rate gap averaged 1.2 percentage points. By 2009, the average unemployment rate gap between adult black men and women had expanded to 4.8 percentage points, before narrowing slightly over the course of 2010 and 2011 to 3.5 percentage points. In January 2012, the gender unemployment gap was virtually eliminated. Adult black men had an unemployment rate of 12.7 percent compared to a rate of 12.6 percent among adult black women.

Chart 2: Text only

Across all races and ethnic groups, the unemployment rate for youth (aged 16-19) is much higher than that for adults. As Chart 2 illustrates, this is also true among Blacks. The unemployment rate for black youth reached a high of 49.1 percent in November 2009 and as of January 2012 had fallen to 38.5 percent. Not only has the unemployment rate remained high, but a large number of black teens are no longer in the labor force - either working or looking for work — which explains some of the drop in the unemployment rate. In 2007, black teens participated in the labor force at a rate of 30.3 percent. By 2011, that rate had declined to 24.9 percent. Labor force participation of black men and women aged 20-54 declined by 2.3 percentage points from 78.2 percent in 2007 to 75.9 percent in 2011, while participation among older black workers (aged 55 and older) increased by 1.3 percentage points — 35.3 percent in 2007 to 36.6 percent in 2011.

Some of this decline in labor force participation among black teens indeed reflects an increase in the proportion of black teens enrolled in school. Among 16-19 year-olds, 85.4 percent were enrolled in school in October 2011, compared to 80.7 percent in 2007, the year the recession began.¹¹ The rate of school enrollment also increased for Blacks aged 20-24. In October 2011, 34.9 percent of this cohort was enrolled in school compared to 32.8 percent in October 2007.

One factor that may partially explain why black labor force outcomes lag behind those of their white counterparts is their lower educational attainment. However, as Chart 3 illustrates, the role of education in explaining the unemployment disparity faced by African Americans is very complicated. African-American unemployment rates are higher than those for Whites at every education level.

Despite racial difference in unemployment rates by education level, the link between greater educational attainment and improved employment outcomes remains strong for all racial and ethnic groups, including African Americans. Additionally, the unemployment gap between Blacks and Whites is smaller for those with more education. Unemployment rates for African Americans were lowest among those who attained a bachelor's degree or higher. For instance, Blacks with at least a bachelor's degree had an unemployment rate of 7.1 percent (compared to 3.9 percent for Whites) whereas Blacks with some college or an associate's degree had an unemployment rate of 13.1 percent (compared to 7.0 percent for Whites). Unemployment rates are higher for those with fewer years of schooling. Blacks with only a high school diploma had an unemployment rate of 15.5 percent (compared to 8.4 percent for Whites), and Blacks with less than a high school diploma experienced a 24.6 percent unemployment rate (compared to 12.7 percent for Whites with less than a high school diploma).

 Full article > https://www.dol.gov/_sec/media/reports/blacklaborforce/

Hillary / Trump, Americathon revisited

It was all so funny when it started.

Remember, "The Crying Indian"?

Have the chickens come home to roost?

Will your children pay for the sins of their forefathers?

I would gather it's up to these individuals.

I do not forgive, I do not forget, I do not retreat, I do not surrender.

The World's Most Powerful Secret Societies: Who's Really Running the World?

A lot of people dismiss the notion of a “secret society” out of hand.
To them, talk of the Bilderbergs and Freemasons sounds far-fetched, if not outright crazy.
But that's partly because it's easier not to believe.
After all, to believe that a small, secretive group of powerful individuals is calling the shots behind the scenes means conceding that our fate, generally speaking, is out of our control.
It means accepting the rich and powerful run the world, and that our very democracy, in many ways, is a sham.
Still, these societies really do exist.
Are they really puppet masters pulling the strings on the world stage?
Only they know. We're left to speculate.
Still, we can at least acknowledge their existence. And maybe, by evaluating the scant information we do have, start to shed light on their influence in global politics.
So let's get started...

The Bilderbergs

In the sleepy town of Watford, England, a caravan of town cars with blacked out windows winds through the hills. Helicopters fly low overhead, landing at The Grove — a centuries-old chateau-turned-resort.
There's a small group of protesters, but they're easily corralled on a grassy knoll by the hundreds of state security agents on hand. Oddly, there's no press. Roads are closed and the perimeter is secured. The entire town is on lockdown.
“I think it's outrageous that the local taxpayer has to pick up the tab for ostensibly a private meeting of trillionaires, probably the most wealthy people in the world,” bemoans Watford town Mayor Dorothy Thornhill. “Hertfordshire Constabulary have suddenly got this unexpected budget strain dumped on them at literally a month's notice. It's not on.”
It's the 2013 meeting of the Bilderbergs, and all of the world's elite are in attendance: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Ben Bernanke, Paul Volcker, Christine Legarde, Donald Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, Larry Summers, Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, Rupert Murdoch, Jeff Bezos, Eric Schmidt, Angela Merkel, George Soros, Warren Buffett, the Rockerfellers, and more...
The goal of their meeting: To determine the fate of the world.

Bilderberg Framework

It may sound like a Dan Brown novel, but it's not.
This top-secret, invitation-only meeting has taken place every year since 1954. The inaugural meeting was in Oosterbeek, Netherlands at the Bilderberg Hotel, from which the group got its name.
Annual attendees — 80 of the world’s most powerful people — are members. The rest are chosen by the group's Steering Committee. Some attendees are invited occasionally because of their knowledge or involvement in relevant topics. Others are first-timers, chosen for their possible later usefulness.
They must come alone. Personal assistants and body guards are quarantined in a separate hall. And the host state provides security to keep outsiders at bay. One-third of attendees are political figures. The others are from industry, finance, academia, labor, and communications. And the meeting follows Chatham House Rules, letting attendees freely express their views in a relaxed atmosphere, knowing nothing said will be quoted or revealed to the public.
Most importantly, you must never talk about the meetings.

Bilderberg Agenda

Daniel Estulin investigated the group for 15 years. His book, The True Story of the Bilderberg Group, was published in 2005.
He describes the cabal as a “shadow world government” — a “private club where presidents, prime ministers, international bankers and generals rub shoulders, where gracious royal chaperones ensure everyone gets along, and where the people running the wars, markets, and Europe [and America] say what they never dare say in public.”
Estulin describes their agenda thusly:

• One international identity that observes one set of universal values.
• Centralized control of public opinion through propaganda.
• A New World Order with rulers, subjects, and the illusion of democracy.
• A “zero-growth society” without prosperity or progress, only greater wealth and power for the rulers.
• Manufactured crises and perpetual wars.
• Establishing the UN as a de facto world government.
• Making NATO a world military.

The ultimate goal: A One World Government with a single, global marketplace, policed by one world army, and financially regulated by one World Bank.

Bilderberg Partners

The Bilderberg network allegedly controls a number of think tanks and corporations that influence governmental policy around the world.
One such institution is the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the U.S. nonprofit, nonpartisan center that influences foreign policy and international affairs.
One of its 1921 founders, Edward Mandell House, lived in the White House during Woodrow Wilson’s term as president. House reportedly set Wilson's policies, helped draft the Treaty of Versailles, helped pass the Federal Reserve Act in December 1913 and ratify the 16th Amendment shortly thereafter.
Those actions gave money creation power to bankers and created the federal income tax.
David Rockefeller is the honorary chairman of the CFR, as well as the only member of the Advisory Board for the Bilderberg Group.
David Rockerfeller also founded the Trilateral Commission (TC), another “discussion group” established to push the Bilderberg agenda.
Since 1940, every Secretary of State, except James Byrnes, has been a member of the CFR or TC.
On page 405 of his Memoirs, David Rockfeller wrote:
“Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure — one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”
Many presidential candidates were also CFR members, including Herbert Hoover, Adlai Stevenson, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, John Kerry, and John McCain.
The groups are also responsible for spawning a huge number of CIA directors and Treasury Secretaries.
So clearly, the Bilderbergs have considerable influence in the United States and the world at large.
And they're not the only ones.

The Freemasons

They claim to be a fraternal group of men seeking only self-improvement and the betterment of society, but the Freemasons have long been suspected of occult worship and shadow manipulation.
The group got its beginnings 1717 London, where it first attracted the ire of Christians skeptical of the group's religious practices.
As an organization, the Freemasons claim to believe in a supreme being, a “grand architect.” But not everyone is convinced that architect is the Christian God. Some even believe it's Satan. It could also be Baal, Baphomet, Dajjal, Rahu, Osiris, some combination of these, or an entirely original conception independent of any other earthly religion.
It's impossible to know, since the group has been very successful at keeping its rituals secret.
As its symbolism suggests, the Freemasons are a pyramid organization. That means a select few at the top know everything, while the majority of members at the base know little.
Its not enough to simply join the Masons. You need to work your way up the ranks, proving your usefulness and relying on other members for help. Only then will you learn the truth...

Dollars and Sense

Critics say evidence of the group's occult practices hides in plain sight. The Freemason symbol of a compass and a square form a pentagram. This pentagram is the group's calling card, discretely featured on our money and in the cityscape of Washington D.C.
You have to admit, it seems odd to have a pyramid with an all-seeing eye on our $1 bill. It's also odd that the words decorating that pyramid read: "Annuit Coeptis Novus Ordo Seclorum," which translates to "Announcing the Beginning of the New World of the Ages" or "New World Order."
And what's more, if you lay a pentagram over the pyramid, the points reach the letters M-A-S-O-N.



In 1790, President George Washington, a Freemason, appointed another Freemason, the French-born Pierre Charles L'Enfant, to design the federal capital.
An aerial view of the city shows the Capitol building, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and White House form a plane. On that plane, the Capitol building, Jefferson Memorial, and White House form the Freemason compass.
Connected to the compass is the upside down pentagram, formed by DuPont Circle, Logan Circle, Washington Circle, Mt. Vernon Square, and the White House.

The Network

Of course, the Freemasons' aren't just cheeky designers, content to slip their secret symbols into American icons. Their members hide in plain sight, as well.
In addition to George Washington — who earned the distinguished title of Master Mason — 13 other Freemasons made it to the office of President. That includes James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Gerald Ford.
In fact, the Washington Bible, on which many presidents take the oath of office, is a Masonic bible. It belongs to the St. Johns Lodge in New York City.
Generals, Supreme Court Justices, and many influential artists, actors, and musicians were Masons, too.
That includes Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, Paul Revere, Patrick Henry, and Francis Scott Key.
J. Edgar Hoover headed the FBI as a Mason. Senators John McCain and Bob Dole ran for president as Masons. And astronauts John Glenn and Buzz Aldrin flew to the moon — or faked it, depending on what you believe — as Masons. Aldrin even brought a Masonic flag to the moon in 1969.
John Wayne, Clark Gable, Harry Houdini, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, and Mozart... all Masons. Henry Ford, too. Some even say Jack the Ripper was a Mason.

Architects of the New World Order

Clearly, the group has infiltrated every aspect of society, consolidating power at both the federal and local level.
But what is the ultimate goal?
The accumulation and perpetuation of their power and influence, for one. But maybe more, as well.
The Freemasons are suspected of:

• Plotting the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Princess Diana, Abraham Lincoln, John Lennon, and Pope John Paul I.
• Rigging the justice system.
• Instituting the income tax.
• Faking the moon landing.
• And orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks.

So keep your eye out for secret handshakes.

The Skull and Bones

It's easy to dismiss the Order of the Skull and Bones as a bunch of college kids playing games...
But if you look deeper, it's easy to see how a small group of students at one of the world's most prestigious universities could evolve into a powerful collective of influential policymakers.
At best, Bones is a tightly-knit network of rich and powerful men, and at worst, a demonic organization with ties to the Freemasons and the Illuminati.

The Devil and Don Quixote

The Order of the Skull and Bones was founded in 1832 by William Russell, who had spent a year in Germany fraternizing with members of the mystical and elite clubs he found there. That includes groups that mimicked the Enlightenment-era Illuminati, which was allegedly destroyed in 1785.
When Russell returned, he tapped Alfonso Taft, father of President William H. Taft, as a recruit and co-founder.
Members worshipped Eulogia, a fake goddess of eloquence. They glorified pirates, and reportedly hatched schemes of world domination at the "Tomb," an imposing block of windowless granite, furnished on the interior with fittingly morbid décor such as coffins.
The Tomb is rumored to have a landing pad on the roof for the society's private helicopter. And members conduct initiation rituals in the rear courtyard.
Ron Rosenbaum is a columnist for the New York Observer and Yale classmate of George W. Bush, a Bonesman. He lived next to the Tomb and even managed to secretly record an initiation ceremony.
Here's how he described it...
"There is a devil, a Don Quixote, and a Pope who has one foot sheathed in a white monogrammed slipper resting on a stone skull. The initiates are led into the room one at a time. And once an initiate is inside, the Bonesmen shriek at him. Finally, the Bonesman is shoved to his knees in front of Don Quixote as the shrieking crowd falls silent. And Don Quixote lifts his sword and taps the Bonesman on his left shoulder and says, 'By order of our order, I dub thee knight of Eulogia.' A woman holds a knife and pretends to slash the throat of another person lying down before them, and there's screaming and yelling at the neophytes."
Rosenbaum also said Bonesmen spend much of their time fixating on death, lying down in coffins, and even desecrating human remains.
Legend has it, in 1918, Prescott Bush — George W.'s grandfather — and a band of Bonesmen robbed the grave of the Apache Indian chief Geronimo. They took the skull and some personal relics, including his saddle, and brought them back to the Tomb. Bonesemen claim they're still there in a glass case.

An Island Unto Themselves

Again, it would be easy to chalk this up to typical collegiate mischief, thrill-seeking, and fraternity, if the group didn't spawn so many powerful members.
A look at the Skull and Bones roster reveals a well-connected network of powerful Bonesmen.
They've controlled the fortunes of the Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford families, as well as posts in the Central Intelligence Agency, the American Psychological Association, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
In addition to the Tafts and Bushes, the Bones claim...

• Pierre Jay, the first chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
• Winston Lord, the Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, ambassador to China, and Assistant U.S. Secretary of State.
• David Boren, Governor of Oklahoma, U.S. Senator, and President of the University of Oklahoma.
• Raymond Price, speechwriter for Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Bush.
• Stephen Allen Schwarzman, co-founder of The Blackstone Group.
• FedEx founder Frederick Wallace Smith.
• John Chafee, U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Navy, and Governor of Rhode Island.
• William Donaldson, who was appointed chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by George W. Bush. (President Bush tapped five fellow Bonesmen to join his administration.)
• William P. Bundy, the State Department liaison for the Bay of Pigs invasion.
• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart.
• John Kerry, the U.S. Senator and current Secretary of State who ran against George W. Bush in the 2004 election.
• And Austan Goolsbee, staff director to and chief economist of President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

And that's just a small sample. Senators, statesmen, athletes, bankers, captains of industry... even actor Paul Giamatti. The Skull and Bones are everywhere, which is shocking considering the group is relatively small.
Only 15 members are admitted each year, which means there's only about 800 living members at any one time. Yet this small network is politically potent.
It goes without saying that the society itself has amassed its own small fortune. The Bones' assets are managed by the society's alumni organization, the Russell Trust Association. The association was founded in 1856 by William Russell and Daniel Coit Gilman, a Bonesman who later became the president of the University of California, the first president of Johns Hopkins University, and the founding president of the Carnegie Institution.
The Skull and Bones even have their own island — Deer Island, located on the St. Lawrence River by Alexandria, New York.
What goes on there, like what goes on inside the Tomb, is a mystery.

Conclusion

Obviously, the Bilderbergs, Freemasons, and Skull and Bones fraternity have considerable sway in global politics.
Again, it's impossible to say what their agendas really are.
We can only guess.

Dear Outsider Club Member,

Congratulations on taking the initiative to become an Outsider.

If you're like me and millions of others, you're fed up with the status quo and how it's destroyed the ability of ordinary people to live independently and thrive on their own.

In today's environment of too-big-to-jail banks and the corrupt politicians that enable them, there's more and more evidence every day that you have to be in their Insider Club to prosper.

From broken Social Security and disappearing pensions to manipulated commodity prices and constant devaluing of your dollars by the Federal Reserve...

A war has been waged on your ability to get ahead by those who walk the halls of Wall Street and Congress.

They are the Establishment.

And it gets worse...

Not only have they handcuffed your ability to financially flourish, they're also waging war on your liberty and independence.

Warrantless wiretapping, drones, militarized police. I've seen senior citizens arrested for speaking at Town Hall meetings. I've seen families fined for growing gardens on their own property.

They have two goals:

1. To control the world's money supply, and
2. To control you in the process.

This isn't Left versus Right or Conservative versus Liberal. It's Establishment vs. Anti-Establishment.

It's Us vs. Them.

I'm sure you've noticed these things going on around you.

If so, you're part of the Anti-Establishment.

You're a part of a growing movement of like-minded people who see the writing on the wall. You don't like it, and you don't want to be a part of it.

You're an Outsider.

If you fear for the disappearance of liberty... you're an Outsider. If you can't get off the rat wheel, despite doing everything you've been told to do... you're an Outsider. If you can't understand why America jails more people than any other country, but fails to prosecute politicians and bankers for their crimes... you're an Outsider.

If you're one of:

• the 50% of Americans who can't afford to save for retirement, or
• the 58% of private workers with no pension coverage, or
• the 60% of workers with savings and investments worth less than $25,000, or
• the 77% who believe we should cut defense spending, or
• the majority of Americans with “little or no confidence” in U.S. banks, or
• the 86% who disapprove of the current Congress, or
• the 75% of Americans who want Congressional term limits, or
• the 52% who believe government should not favor any particular set of values, or
• the 50% of Americans who think today's youth will be worse off than their parents...

You're an Outsider.

I am, too. That's why I founded the Outsider Club.

Our financial success and the continued existence of our personal freedoms depend on the coming together of like-minded people and the awakening of the herd. A movement — an awakening — is upon us.

Outsider Club is the place for that. A forum to call out the Establishment and the things they're doing, and to learn how to get ahead on your own.

It will show you how to exist independent of the system, to plan your own finances and manage your own investments. It will give you the tools you need to create a real-world financial skill set.

Outsider Club will present information about how to thrive as an Outsider:

• Knowing your rights
• Minimizing taxes, debt, and expenses
• Managing your own finances
• Being more self-reliant
• Accomplishing what you want to accomplish

The awakening is just getting started.

Again, welcome to the Outsider Club.

Your free report is below. It details the first of many great wealth-building and liberty-protecting ideas.

You'll start receiving regular updates over the next few days. I guarantee you'll find something of great value in each and every issue.

And it's all free.

In the meantime, check out the Outsider Club website to get familiar with the experts and their insights into global markets and how the world really works.

Make sure you whitelist us in your email address book so you don't miss an issue.

And shoot us an email at customerservice@outsiderclub.com if you have any questions, feedback, or would just like to introduce yourself.

Thanks for joining Outsider Club. Because you'll never be on the Inside...

Call it like you see it,

Nick Hodge
Founder & President, Outsider Club