Aug 07

Recycling Collapses in California – Huge Crises

rePlanet Closes All Recycling Centers – 800 Employees Laid Off – Consumers Have Nowhere To Go To Get Deposit Money Back.

Conspiracy Theories Deepen as CalRecycle knew that rePlanet was running at a loss for years and refused to help.

The giant recycling Company rePlanet has closed down.  It was running at a loss for quite some time, and it was up to the State of California’s CalRecycle to help them out.  Because the big grocery chains and the gas station stores and the 7-11 stores lobbied so they would not have to bear an unreasonable cost and hassle to take care of the recycling bottles and cans and returning deposits, companies like rePlanet took up the challenge.  The problem was rising costs, rising wages, and now facing a 25% tariff tax on all recyclables going to China, they needed financial help from the State.  Not enough was offered, so down they went, and now almost 1,500 recycling outlets have closed down in the last few years.

The State, however, is laughing all the way to the bank.  They get all the money from the CRV deposits and make even more money because they don’t have to pay it back to the consumer.  They make some $200,000,000 per year on this.  This is now a serious fraud on the California consumer, who pays a deposit and now can’t find a place to get their money back.

And then there are the cities, many of whom have closed down their recycling yards.  They now get all their bottles and cans FREE in the blue recycle bins, and SELL them to the State of Callifornia, thereby making millions of dollars.

Read our other posts on this, and also go to www.SouthlandNewsBureau for more..

Also check out www.container-Recycling.org for more information

Apr 16

Nomadic Woman Lives Out of Backpack For 20 Years

A Review of Her Backpack Contents and Tips For Extended Travel

by Adventurer Shashi Harrie

Video by Paulie Hunt

Photos by Julie Webster

Shashi’s Latest and Famous Backpack

Contents of Sashi’s Backpack.

Our dear friend Shashi was just about to leave for another travel adventure.  She had been globe-trotting for over 20 years, living simply and mostly out of her back pack and a rolly suitcase.  She has been almost everywhere, including Tibet and Latin America.  This trip was to go back to India, seeking wisdom at her favorite Ashram.

Before she left we persuaded her to meet at a friend’s apartment and go through her entire backpack kit.  Over the years she had refined the things she carried to get the lightest items, but also the strongest and long lasting items.  I know that one of  her favorite places was REI in Santa Monica for excellent camping gear.  She agreed to share her experience and go through the items that she has found to be a necessity for extended travel and adventure.  She caries a water filter, a rice cooker, and a device to grind nuts and seeds, because she will be eating mostly things she prepares and finds in even small villages, including rice, beans and fresh veggies.. Being on the road can be expensive if you travel like a rich tourist and stay in hotels and have all meals in restaurants.  Shashi prefers to be on foot or bus and find a really cheap place to  stay or camp and cook her own food.  This savings allows her to travel constantly on a very small fixed income.  She also works a little along the way, or  trades services with businesses.  She has fixed computers, done bookkeeping, is a licensed acupuncturist, a trained karate security guard, and many other talents.

Please enjoy the video below and following that some photos we took of her equipment.  Notice that to keep organized, things are kept in cloth or vinyl waterproof bags and little pouches.  For instance, the first aid kit is in one bag, toiletries in another, food prep stuff in another.   That keeps everything organized in her backpack.

Note:  The video below is only 16 minutes.  We will upload the entire 50 minute version soon.

 

Shashi Harri  (L) and Julie Webster

Big Fun Videographer Paulie with Shashi Harri

I am very  sad to say that our dear friend passed away on her last trip in early 2019, due to  being caught in a dreadful storm and getting pneumonia.  We will certainly miss her calm disposition and great knowledge.  This is her last gift to those who live out of their backpacks, by choice or by chance and hard times.  She was so happy to share this information with everyone at gypsycool.  Rest In Peace dear Shashi Harrie.

Jan 07

A Visit to Slab City – the Future of Civilization?

Trek to The City on the Edge of Forever

Skip Rorshach Freedman

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I rolled into Niland, California on a lightly-overcast afternoon in the middle of December. The sun is almost set, but there will easily be enough light to get to Slab City and find a suitable spot to camp tonight. The street going east out of Niland [Main Street] is little better than the washboard road that goes out to Area 51, except this is only three miles long instead of fifteen. Driving down this road you begin to get a sense of just how immense this place is. It was originally Camp Dunlap Marine Base from 1949 to 1956 (yes, they tore it down after only seven years), which explains the big concrete slabs that give the place its name. First thing you come to is Salvation Mountain on the right, some guy’s huge multicolored religious monument.

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“The Last Free Place”

 Moving on, there are scores of RV’s, buses, trucks and vans scattered every which way as I cruise along the dusty jarring road. Looks a lot like Burning Man, except people are more spread out here and this desert actually has some vegetation. It’s been called “The Last Free Place”, and there are good reasons for that. It’s around 50 miles southeast of Indio (itself a desolate desert metropolis) out in the middle of the Sonoran Desert and almost at the south end of the Salton Sea. There’s also no electricity [unless you make your own], running water, trash pickup, or restrooms – you pack in everything you need.

Rattling along looking for an out-of-the-way spot, I end up heading off toward the back. There are a lot of packed-dirt trails heading off in various directions. Looks like most of the better-looking vehicles are back here, so this is definitely the place to be. There are quite a few solar cell arrays and wind generators at this end of town as well. I cruise down one path and see a five-foot rise about a couple hundred yards down. The van slips a bit going up, but makes it easily to the level top. There are scrub bushes on either side, with small piles of rusted cans at their base. In fact, there’s trash like that everywhere around here. Most bushes have at least some kind of refuse under them: discarded clothes, cans, plastic bags, or heaven alone knows what.

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Hopping out to stretch my legs, the temperature is in the upper 60’s with low humidity. Nice and quiet, except for about four or five dogs barking in scattered directions. It’s dark in about an hour and the full moon rises in the southeast. Occasional stars peek through the low clouds and a gas generator hums somewhere off to the north. A few campfires are going, which gives a smell of creosote to the air. Some barely audible voices drift through the light breeze, presumably from the campfires. I get back in the van, pop open a can of Ravioli, and watch a movie on the DVD player. After that I drift into a dreamless desert sleep.
………

Just after 7:30 in the morning I wake up to the sound of faint yelling. Cracking open my passenger window, I see some dude standing on a huge raised slab with multicolored grafitti abut a hundred yards away screaming challenges to an unknown person. He’s pacing back and forth, flailing his arms wildly, while pointing out the apparent cowardice of his rival – who appears to be entirely imaginary. Probably acute amphetamine psychosis, a meth-head burnout. Guess he just went off the deep end; isolation like this doesn’t work for everyone. Using the sighting scope, he’s short, a little stocky and wearing an Army jacket – doesn’t even look to be thirty. After about a half hour, his voice starts getting a bit hoarse, so he hops on his bicycle and heads in the direction of town. His manic threats slowly fade out into the crisp morning air.

Welcome to Slab City.

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I have my usual leisurely breakfast while reading several chapters of a book, then get a little writing done on my third book. At 11:00 a pair of fighter jets from the adjacent Marine Base practice bombing runs between Slab City and the Chocolate Mountains to the east. Their sound is trailing them by at least a quarter mile or so. They head north swooping low in formation, pull up in about a 70-degree climb, then loop back the other way. After six of these exercises they fly off to the south. Show’s over.

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I do a little more reading, then head over to Salvation Mountain to check it out in more detail. It’s a huge monstrosity built on the face of what’s essentually a sand dune. Mostly constructed by Leonard Knight between 1984 and 2011 (he died two years ago at age 82), it’s made of large tree trunks, intertwined branches, bales of hay, salvaged metal pieces (mostly car doors), and a lot of plaster. There are multiple rooms and grottoes at the south end. Most of the entire thing is also painted with a couple hundred gallons of salvaged latex paint of various colors. The painting still continues through sporadic volunteers. If I’d planned on hanging around longer, I would have helped out with a brush; but I’m only going to do a day here.

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There are a couple of signs pointing to the library, so I follow them around the back past Camp Goonies (a collective of high-tech tinkerers) and eventually run into an unassuming building a little ways back from the road. At first glance, it looked to be little more than a small shack surrounded by trees, but it’s actually rather sizable. It’s open-ended at two sides and has a motley collection of rug pieces completely covering the sand floor. The precarious bookshelves look to harbor somewhere around a thousand books, by my estimate. I was told by the resident librarian (a way-cool dude whose name I forgot to write down) that it’s the “take a book-leave a book” system. I mentioned the Gypsy Cool website and he said that he’d run into it before. I left them several copies of my books – a lot of folks here could probably use some of the techniques described in them (which were written to help the 99%, and irritate the rest). One thing’s for sure, people definitely have a lot of time to catch up on their reading here. Not much else to do.

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I made it a point to traverse each dusty dirt road in Slab City (there’s eight total, more or less), going past places like the Slab City Hostel, the Live Music place (true to its name), the Sun Works (a solar-related workshop), and the Slab City Christian Club (completely deserted, guess religion isn’t big here). There was every kind of dwelling from simple tents to semi-permanent buildings erected on abandoned concrete foundations. Occasionally, non-functioning vehicles are built directly into these structures. There’s some very inventive construction here using salvaged materials, with a lot of Burning Man influence – except I didn’t see any domes. There were a good number of big fancy RV’s, most likely nomadic Snowbirds from up north.

On the whole, the handful of people I ran into here were reasonably friendly, for California. The younger longhairs were generally more abrasive, but that’s typical these days (Libtards, maybe?). I’d guess the median age this time of year is around 45 or so. Noticed a lot of retirees sitting around in chairs here and there, and saw only two kids. A person would need to be sturdy stock to survive here long-term in these primitive conditions, especially in the summer when the temperature is said to get up to 120 degrees. Definitely count me out on that.

As I was leaving, the old guard shack for the Marine Base had “Caution: Reality Ahead” painted on the side – a very apt reminder. Slab City is definitely a state of mind. What it might lack in overall social cohesiveness, it more than makes up for in personal freedom. And that’s quite acceptable for “The Last Free Place” – probably in this entire oppressive Police State of America. I wish ya’ luck, guys. Let Freedom Ring.

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Sep 13

New Book By Skip Freedman

A New Book By Skip Freedman Has Just Been Released:

“Enema of the State” Reveals Exactly Who Is Behind The Globalist Created Misery

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Skip Rorshach Freedman has just finished the second book in his Practical Living trilogy, directly from the road and the urban jungles in the Police State of America. EntitledEnema of the State: Practical Resistance Against a Corrupt and Criminal System, it exposes the hidden aspects of the world’s current problems: the thieving and manipulative banking system, politics in general, the menacing intelligence community, controlled mainstream press, Big Business, and the continually-expanding police state. Skip farts directly into the face of the New World Order and their mindless minions by offering up realistic ways to resist (and potentially even tear down) these offending institutions. And, as usual, he gives us more great tips on dealing with cops and other irritants. Going beyond Gypsies of the New Millennium, this book is packed with useful factoids and amazing revelations – plus it gives names and addresses of the major entities that are contributing to the destruction of our planet and its quality of life. The Windsors, Rothschilds, Rockefellers and other dinosaur Elites are blatantly exposed for the psychopathic parasites they are. In an insane world of manufactured attrocities and illusions, this is a easy read that will show you exactly how the world really works while empowering the 99% with knowledge to do something about it. You can handle the truth. This book has an extensive bibliography that lists hundreds and hundreds of books for further reading and research, as well as websites.

This book is currently ONLY available through www.Biblio.com.  Go to this excellent book site and order your copy today, only $15 plus shipping.

Also Available is Skip’s First Book:

Gypsies of the New Millenium

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A straightforward, no-nonsense manifesto on living the nomadic underground life. Clearly maps out the current insanity of today’s world situation while offering invaluable tips on food, health, security, money, van living, and dealing with cops. Gets you well on your way to dropping out of this oppressive system, then lists over 1,300 additional books where you can find everything else you need to help weather these uncertain and chaotic times.

This handbook covers everything you need to know to live on the edge and survive.  The author, Skip Freedman has lived the nomadic life in his van for over 10 years.  He knows every angle of how to survive in these urban mini-police states.  And by the way, a vast preponderance of folks who live nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyles have jobs and work when they need to.  As we have said on this website, if you have an indication that you are going to lose your job and not be able to pay your rent or house payment, do not wait for the ax to fall.  Do yourself a favor and prepare now.  Get a van, RV, or other suitable vehicle now, and trick it out.  You will be glad you did.

There are thousands of folks in the Los Angeles area who are living nomadic lifestyles.  Most of us work, but we were tanked by the economic collapse that started in 2000 that wiped out the good factory jobs, literally exporting them overseas.  It meant that many of us had to get lower paying jobs, and we soon found that after paying rent and bills we were underwater financially.  The solution was to cut living expenses:  move out of the expensive apartment, get a storage unit, join a health club for showers, and live in a vehicle. There are many articles on gypsycool.com about how to do this, with many more coming. We still work for a living, but have money to spend on what we want, not give it to some landlord for an overpriced roof over our heads.

I wish that everyone could get Skip’s book and read it.  The print is small to save printing costs, but the information is the best around.  As an added bonus, Skip spend several years compiling a fantastic bibliography of books on the subject that he has written about.  You can get most of these at your library, even if the library has to order them for you.  There is also youtube.com, which has thousands of great videos on the subject of van, nomadic, or semi-nomadic living.

This book is ONLY available through www.Biblio.com for $15.00 plus shipping.


 

Nov 26

Free Clothing in West Hollywood

Annual Free Clothing Give-Away Sunday December 6, 2015

8:00 a.m. –  12:00 noon

Rain or Shine

National Council of Jewish Women Parking Lot

543 N. Fairfax Avenie

(1 block south of Melrose at Clinton)

Los Angeles, CA 90036

Thousands of pieces of clothing – all free

No Suitcases, Backpacks or Bags Allowed

They will provide bags for you.

For More Information 323-651-2930

Free Clothing

Nov 01

Comment and Review of Gypsies of the New Millenium

Old Gypsy Wagon

Old Gypsy Wagon

A straightforward, no-nonsense manifesto on living the nomadic underground life. Clearly maps out the current insanity of today’s world situation while offering invaluable tips on food, health, security, money, van living, and dealing with cops. Gets you well on your way to dropping out of this oppressive system, then lists over 1,300 additional books where you can find everything else you need to help weather these uncertain and chaotic times.

Ed Murray

Oct 28

How To Live in Your Van and Survive

New Edition of Famous Underground Handbook Now Available

IMG_3165

A straightforward, no-nonsense manifesto on living the nomadic underground life. Clearly maps out the current insanity of today’s world situation while offering invaluable tips on food, health, security, money, van living, and dealing with cops. Gets you well on your way to dropping out of this oppressive system, then lists over 1,300 additional books where you can find everything else you need to help weather these uncertain and chaotic times.

This handbook covers everything you need to know to live on the edge and survive.  The author, Skip Freedman has lived the nomadic life in his van for over 10 years.  He knows every angle of how to survive in these urban mini-police states.  And by the way, a vast preponderance of folks who live nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyles have jobs and work when they need to.  As we have said on this website, if you have an indication that you are going to lose your job and not be able to pay your rent or house payment, do not wait for the ax to fall.  Do yourself a favor and prepare now.  Get a van, RV, or other suitable vehicle now, and trick it out.  You will be glad you did.

There are thousands of folks in the Los Angeles area who are living nomadic lifestyles.  Most of us work, but we were tanked by the economic collapse that started in 2000 that wiped out the good factory jobs, literally exporting them overseas.  It meant that many of us had to get lower paying jobs, and we soon found that after paying rent and bills we were underwater financially.  The solution was to cut living expenses:  move out of the expensive apartment, get a storage unit, join a health club for showers, and live in a vehicle. There are many articles on gypsycool.com about how to do this, with many more coming. We still work for a living, but have money to spend on what we want, not give it to some landlord for an overpriced roof over our heads.

I wish that everyone could get Skip’s book and read it.  The print is small to save printing costs, but the information is the best around.  As an added bonus, Skip spend several years compiling a fantastic bibliography of books on the subject that he has written about.  You can get most of these at your library, even if the library has to order them for you.  There is also youtube.com, which has thousands of great videos on the subject of van, nomadic, or semi-nomadic living.

Order this book today.  It is not available anywhere else, at least for a while.  That’s right, this website is the ONLY place you can get the book. At this time it is not on amazon.com or any other place, meaning that the price to you is a low direct price from the publisher and author.  Amazon wants as much as 60% of the price from small publishers.  That means if it does get to amazon that the price will be $20-$40..00

Where to get the book:.

The book is 8 1/2 X 11 size with a comb binding so it will lay flat or open fully by folding the pages around.  The book is available in the United States through www.Biblio.com for $15.00.