KC amp Associates Investigations Research Associates

Quinault Valley Guns amp Blades Urban Escape amp Evasion Course

International Relations Military Terrorism Business Security

wwwkcandassociatesorg orderskcandassociatesorg

Kathleen Louise dePass Press AgentPublicist 3602882652

Triste cosa es no tener amigos pero maacutes triste ha de ser no tener enemigos porque quieacuten no

tenga enemigos sentildeal es de que no tiene talento que haga sombra ni caraacutecter que impresione ni

valor temido ni honra de la que se murmure ni bienes que se le codicien ni cosa alguna que se

le envidie A sad thing it is to not have friends but even sadder must it be not having any

enemies that a man should have no enemies is a sign that he has no talent to outshine others

nor character that inspires nor valor that is feared nor honor to be rumored nor goods to be

coveted nor anything to be envied -Jose Marti

From the desk of Craig B Hulet

Are You A Teenager Who Reads News Online According to the Justice Department You

May Be a Criminal

During his first term President Barack Obama declared October 2009 to be ldquoNational

Information Literacy Awareness Monthrdquo emphasizing that for students learning to navigate the

online world is as important a skill as reading writing and arithmetic It was a move that echoed

his predecessors strong support of global literacymdashsuch as reading newspapersmdashmost notably

through First Lady Laura Bushs advocacy

Yet disturbingly the Departments of Justice (DOJ) of both the Bush and Obama administrations

have embraced an expansive interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) that

would literally make it a crime for many kids to read the news online And itrsquos the main reason

why the law must be reformed

As wersquove explained previously in multiple cases the DOJ has taken the position that a violation

of a websitersquos Terms of Service or an employerrsquos Terms of Use policy can be treated as a

criminal act And the House Judiciary Committee has floated a proposal that largely adopts the

DOJrsquos position making it possible to prosecute a user for accessing website for a purpose other

than intended by the publisher For a number of reasons including the requirements of the

Childrenrsquos Online Privacy Protection Act many news sites have terms of service that prohibit

minors from using their interactive services and sometimes even visiting their websites

Take for example the Hearst Corporationrsquos family of publications If you read the terms of use

for the Houston Chronicle the San Francisco Chronicle or Popular Mechanics websites yoursquoll

find this language screamed in all-caps

YOU MAY NOT ACCESS OR USE THE COVERED SITES OR ACCEPT THE

AGREEMENT IF YOU ARE NOT AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLDrdquo

In the DOJrsquos world this means anyone under 18 who reads a Hearst newspaper online could

hypothetically face jail time But Hearstrsquos publications arenrsquot the only ones with overly

restrictive usage terms U-T San Diego and the Miami Herald have similar policies Even NPR is

guilty saying teenagers canrsquot access their ldquoservicesrdquo (including the site NPR podcasts and the

media player) without a permission slip

ldquoIf you are between the ages of 13 and 18 you may browse the NPR Services or register for

email newsletters or other features of the NPR Services (excluding the NPR Community) with

the consent of your parent(s) or guardian(s) so long as you do not submit any User Materialsrdquo

Some sites must have recognized the problem and crafted their policies to only forbid users

under the age of 13 These include the New York Times the Boston Globe and the Arizona

Republic NBCNewscom uses this wording

By using or attempting to use the Site or Services you certify that you are at least 13 years of

age or other required greater age for certain features and meet any other eligibility and residency

requirements of the Siterdquo

This means that inquisitive 12-year-olds who visit NBCNewscom to learn about current events

would be by default misrepresenting their ages Again this could be criminal under the DOJs

interpretation of the CFAA

Wersquod like to say that wersquore being facetious but unfortunately the Justice Department has

already demonstrated its willingness to pursue CFAA to absurd extremes Luckily the Ninth

Circuit rejected the governmentrsquos arguments concluding that under such an ruling millions of

unsuspecting citizens would suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of the law As Judge

Alex Kozinski so aptly wrote Under the governmentrsquos proposed interpretation of the

CFAAdescribing yourself as tall dark and handsome when yoursquore actually short and homely

will earn you a handsome orange jumpsuit

And itrsquos no excuse to say that the vast majority of these cases will never be prosecuted As the

Ninth Circuit explained ldquoUbiquitous seldom-prosecuted crimes invite arbitrary and

discriminatory enforcementrdquo Instead of pursuing only suspects of actual crimes it opens the

door for prosecutors to go after people because the government doesnrsquot like them

Unfortunately therersquos no sign the Justice Department has given up on this interpretation outside

the Ninth and Fourth Circuits which is why the Professor Tim Wu in the New Yorker recently

called the CFAA ldquothe most outrageous criminal law yoursquove never heard ofrdquo

The potential criminalization of terms of service is a prime reason that Congress needs to

overhaul CFAA and itrsquos certainly why the House Judiciary Committee should abandon the

seemingly DOJ-drafted bill it floated recently and instead sit down with Rep Zoe Lofgren Rep

Darrell Issa and others to negotiate real reform

Are you a minor with a thirst for information You and your parents who vote should together

tell Congress to fix CFAA

White Men Have Much to Discuss About Mass Shootings read the headline of a piece in

the Washington Posts Outlook section Sunday Having spent most of our adult life in the

opinion journalism business we are no stranger to the instinct for provocation But really

Washington Post this is embarrassing

The authors identical twin sisters called Charlotte and Harriet Childress are researchers and

consultants on social and political issues whatever that means according to their Post shirttail

bio They have a book called Clueless at the Top which is not an autobiography but a

meditation on outdated hierarchies in American culture whatever that means Their website

informs visitors that the twins received close to a million dollars in grants from the National

Science Foundation

The NSF is a federal agency so your tax dollars have subsidized the authors of what can only be

described as a racist rant Heres the opening

Imagine if African American men and boys were committing mass shootings month after month

year after year Articles and interviews would flood the media and wed have political debates

demanding that African Americans be held accountable Then if an atrocity such as the

Newtown Conn shootings took place and African American male leaders held a news

conference to offer solutions their credibility would be questionable The public would tell these

leaders that they need to focus on problems in their own culture and communities

But when the criminals and leaders are white men race and gender become the elephant in the

room

Nearly all of the mass shootings in this country in recent years--not just Newtown Aurora Fort

Hood Tucson and Columbine--have been committed by white men and boys Yet when the

National Rifle Association (NRA) led by white men held a news conference after the Newtown

massacre to advise Americans on how to reduce gun violence its leaders opinions were widely

discussed

There is so much wrong with this we could write a column about it Which come to think of it

is exactly what we are doing even as we type

To begin with while its true that all but a few mass murderers have been men the twins cherry-

pick their examples and simply ignore nonwhite killers They leave out Colin Ferguson the

black man who opened fire in a Long Island Rail Road train in 1993 killing 6 and wounding 19

He had a number of problems in his life and every problem he was involved in he attached

some racial motivation to the person and institution he was dealing with regardless of their

race detective Mel Kenny of the Nassau County Police told the New York Times

The Times also reported that in response to the shooting several prominent black leaders

including the Rev Al Sharpton and the Rev Herbert W Daughtry held a news conference on

the steps of [New York] City Hall urging that blacks in general not be blamed for the crime

Blacks in general were not blamed for the crime Contrary to the Childress twins speculation

the public did not tell these leaders that they need to focus on problems in their own culture

and communities

As National Review Onlines Robert VerBruggen notes the twins also omit two nonwhite mass

murderers of Asian heritage Korean immigrant Cho Seung-Hui (32 dead 17 wounded at

Virginia Tech in 2007) and Laotian immigrant Chai Soua Vang (6 dead 2 wounded at Meteor

Wis in 2004) Immigrants with mental health issues are not committing mass shootings in

malls and movie theaters the twins assert--a lie that is technically true since Cho and Vang

massacred their victims in other locations

In addition including the Fort Hood shooting is a stretch The defendant in that case Nidal

Hasan is white according to standard racial taxonomy But he is also Arab-American which

makes him a nonwhite minority by the conventions of contemporary identity politics The facts

of the case suggest the motive was related to a nonracial aspect of his identity that also puts him

in the minority his religion Islam

Verbruggen cites a claim by lefty journalist David Sirota that 70 percent of mass shooters have

been white men Sirota regards that as a gross disproportion in a country where only 30 percent

of the population is white men But as VerBruggen notes the disparity is almost completely

explained by sex Men for reasons that are surely biological have a much greater propensity for

physical violence than women do

Whats even weirder about the Childress twins piece is that their counterfactual actually is not

counterfactual at all if you broaden the scope beyond acts of mass murder to murder more

generally or all violent crime Blacks do in fact commit a large disproportion of violent crimes

and while the subject is not taboo in respectable public debate it is delicate

Example A week before the twins piece the Post published a news article titled Gun Deaths

Shaped by Race in America The Posts analysis found Whites are far more likely to shoot

themselves and African Americans are far more likely to be shot by someone else No mention

was made of the racial distribution of homicide perpetrators

But the absolute strangest thing about the twins racist rant is the self-satisfied tone They think

theyre breaking a taboo bravely challenging convention by scapegoating white men Give us a

break Antiwhite and antimale bigotry couldnt be less courageous or more clicheacuted Its been a

constant feature of academic discourse for decades and of journalistic writing for years It has

been the dominant theme of political coverage since Barack Obamas re-election

And its not just the twins Consider this outburst from Mark Karlin editor of something called

Buzzflash at Truthout

You wont find anyone willing to dare say it much in the media but a good percentage of the

white men who oppose gun control of any sort--and who back measures that would even allow

alleged terrorists and straw purchases for drug dealers to buy guns--are just afraid that without

their guns their phallic power will be reduced to size

You can feel at least temporarily reassured when a long-barreled assault weapon compensates for

just another average manhood its an irresistable [sic] testosterone high to the beleaguered white

male

Call this Freudian psychobabble analysis but when you add it into the mix of just angry white

males who want their guns to show that they are still top dog on the political social and marital

hierarchy you got [sic] a good percentage of the psychologically need gun owners [sic]

In this case replace white with black and youd actually have something no one remotely

respectable would dare say especially a white dude like Karlin But a racist attack on white men

is so boring its not even offensive although it probably should be

And lets put Karlin on the couch for a moment He begins by touting his own courage then he

goes on to describe his chosen scapegoats as cowards with tiny genitals Sometimes a cigar is

just a cigar but not this time Karlin is doing exactly what he claims white male gun-owners do

Thats the logical phallus-y at the center of his argument

Hes Not Good Enough

When a woman marries young its a personal threat to Amanda Marcotte the Slate blogress who

has the hilarious distinction of having been forced to resign in disgrace from the John Edwards

campaign

Yesterday Slates womens section known as DoubleX published a sweet and contrarian essay

by Julia Shaw who became a bride at 23 after initially resisting the idea

I wasnt anti-marriage I thought I would get married but it would be later after a flurry of

accomplishments When David and I started dating his senior year and my sophomore year I

worried he would derail my education He definitely had all the qualities I wanted in a man

intelligence ambition good character plus he was a true gentleman Still I asked him Youre

not asking me out because you want to get married by graduation This was a Christian college

we went to so my question was not out of bounds I still regret those words Looking back my

artificial rigid timeline of success almost derailed my real happiness

Marcotte could not let this go unanswered Within 22 hours she had posted a forceful rebuttal

Watching conservatives desperately try to bully women into younger marriage with a couple of

promises and a whole lot of threats is highly entertaining but clearly not persuasive Women

marry later because it makes sense given their own career aspirations Im glad young

marriage is working out for Shaw but for the majority of women dating and cohabitating until

theyre more sure is working out just fine If hes good enough to marry hell still be around

when youre ready to make that leap

That last sentence is a perfect laboratory specimen of feminist rationalization

Consider the Shaw counterfactual--or if you like consider the Kate Bolick factual The man

wants to marry the woman doesnt It happens not infrequently as members of both sexes are

known to pursue suboptimal reproductive strategies

Best of the Web Today columnist James Taranto on why Princeton alumna Susan Patton was

right to suggest that smart women should try to seek out husbands in college Photos AP

The woman rejects the mans proposal but keeps dating him or maybe she eventually dumps

him as Bolick did In due course she changes her mind and decides she would like to spend the

rest of her life with him after all But by that point hes moved on to someone else or hes just

gotten fed up and he dumps her

Again heres Marcottes advice for the young woman If hes good enough to marry hell still be

around when youre ready to make that leap Lets translate that from feminist-speak to English

If the romance fails his inadequacy as a man is entirely to blame you have no responsibility for

making it work

If you follow that advice youre likely to end up alone Marcotte seems to imagine it will be a

consolation that youll be resentful too

Fox Butterfield Is That You

[Susan] Pattons piece is peppered with a number of bold potentially offensive assertions but

she deserves some credit for offering advice on an important subject thats all too often

neglected--Walter Russell Mead The-American-Interestcom April 1

Metaphor Alert

Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said Todays charges demonstrate once again that a

show-me-the-money culture seems to pervade every level of New York government The

complaint describes an unappetizing smorgasbord of graft and greed involving six officials who

together built a corridor of corruption stretching from Queens and the Bronx to Rockland County

and all the way up to Albany itself As alleged Senator Malcolm Smith tried to bribe his way to

a shot at Gracie Mansion-Smith drew up the game plan and Councilman Halloran essentially

quarterbacked that drive by finding party chairmen who were wide open to receiving bribes

After the string of public corruption scandals that we have brought to light many may rightly

resign themselves to the sad truth that perhaps the most powerful special interest in politics is

self-interest We will continue pursuing and punishing every corrupt official we find but the

public corruption crisis in New York is more than a prosecutors problem --FBI press release

April 2

Out on a Limb

The fatal shooting of a north Texas district attorney and his wife just two months after an

assistant district attorney was gunned down near the local courthouse could have a chilling

effect on recruiting future prosecutors officials said--Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Matt

Pearce Los Angeles Times website April 1

Police Couple Dead in Murder-Suicide Both Ailing--headline Associated Press April 2

Charlotte and Harriet Childress are researchers and consultants on social and political issues

They are the co-authors of ldquoClueless at the Top While the Rest of Us Turn Elsewhere for Life

Liberty and Happinessrdquo on outdated hierarchies in American culture

Imagine if African American men and boys were committing mass shootings month after month

year after year Articles and interviews would flood the media and wersquod have political debates

demanding that African Americans be ldquoheld accountablerdquo Then if an atrocity such as the

Newtown Conn shootings took place and African American male leaders held a news

conference to offer solutions their credibility would be questionable The public would tell these

leaders that they need to focus on problems in their own culture and communities

But when the criminals and leaders are white men race and gender become the elephant in the

room

Nearly all of the mass shootings in this country in recent years mdash not just Newtown Aurora

Fort Hood Tucson and Columbine mdash have been committed by white men and boys Yet when

the National Rifle Association (NRA) led by white men held a news conference after the

Newtown massacre to advise Americans on how to reduce gun violence its leadersrsquo opinions

were widely discussed

Unlike other groups white men are not used to being singled out So we expect that many of

them will protest it is unfair if we talk about them But our nation must correctly define their

contribution to our problem of gun violence if it is to be solved

When white men try to divert attention from gun control by talking about mental health issues

many people buy into the idea that the United States has a national mental health problem or

flawed systems with which to address those problems and they think that is what produces mass

shootings

But women and girls with mental health issues are not picking up semiautomatic weapons and

shooting schoolchildren Immigrants with mental health issues are not committing mass

shootings in malls and movie theaters Latinos with mental health issues are not continually

killing groups of strangers

Each of us is programmed from childhood to believe that the top group of our hierarchies mdash and

in the US culture thatrsquos white men mdash represents everyone so it can feel awkward even

ridiculous when we try to call attention to those people as a distinct group and hold them

accountable

For example our schools teach American history as the history of everyone in this nation But

the stories we learn are predominantly about white men To study the history of other groups

people have to take separate classes such as African American history womenrsquos history or

Native American history And if we take ldquoHispanic American Historyrdquo we donrsquot expect to learn

ldquoAsian American Historyrdquo because a class about anyone but white men is assumed not to be

inclusive of anyone else

This societal and cultural programming makes it easy for conservative white-male-led groups to

convince the nation that an organization led by white men such as the NRA or the tea party

movement can represent the interests of the entire nation when in fact they predominately

represent only their own experiences and perspectives

If life were equitable white male gun-rights advocates would face some serious questions to

assess their degree of credibility and objectivity We would expect them to explain

What facets of white male culture create so many mass shootings

Why are so many white men and boys producing and entertaining themselves with violent video

games and other media

Why do white men buy sell and manufacture guns for profit attend gun shows and demonstrate

for unrestricted gun access disproportionately more than people of other ethnicities or races

Why are white male congressmen leading the fight against gun control

If Americans ask the right questions on gun issues we will get the right answers These answers

will encourage white men to examine their role in their own culture and to help other white men

and boys become healthier and less violent

David Stockman The United States is broke mdash fiscally morally intellectually

By The New York Times Herald-Tribune

Monday April 1 2013

By DAVID A STOCKMAN

GREENWICH Conn -- The Dow Jones and Standard amp Poorrsquos 500 indexes reached record

highs on Thursday having completely erased the losses since the stock marketrsquos last peak in

2007 But instead of cheering we should be very afraid

David Stockman

Over the last 13 years the stock market has twice crashed and touched off a recession American

households lost $5 trillion in the 2000 dot-com bust and more than $7 trillion in the 2007

housing crash Sooner or later mdash within a few years I predict mdash this latest Wall Street bubble

inflated by an egregious flood of phony money from the Federal Reserve rather than real

economic gains will explode too

Since the SampP 500 first reached its current level in March 2000 the mad money printers at the

Federal Reserve have expanded their balance sheet sixfold (to $32 trillion from $500 billion)

Yet during that stretch economic output has grown by an average of 17 percent a year (the

slowest since the Civil War) real business investment has crawled forward at only 08 percent

per year and the payroll job count has crept up at a negligible 01 percent annually Real median

family income growth has dropped 8 percent and the number of full-time middle class jobs 6

percent The real net worth of the ldquobottomrdquo 90 percent has dropped by one-fourth The number

of food stamp and disability aid recipients has more than doubled to 59 million about one in

five Americans

So the Main Street economy is failing while Washington is piling a soaring debt burden on our

descendants unable to rein in either the warfare state or the welfare state or raise the taxes

needed to pay the nationrsquos bills By default the Fed has resorted to a radical uncharted spree of

money printing But the flood of liquidity instead of spurring banks to lend and corporations to

spend has stayed trapped in the canyons of Wall Street where it is inflating yet another

unsustainable bubble

When it bursts there will be no new round of bailouts like the ones the banks got in 2008

Instead America will descend into an era of zero-sum austerity and virulent political conflict

extinguishing even todayrsquos feeble remnants of economic growth

THIS dyspeptic prospect results from the fact that we are now state-wrecked With only brief

interruptions wersquove had eight decades of increasingly frenetic fiscal and monetary policy

activism intended to counter the cyclical bumps and grinds of the free market and its purported

tendency to underproduce jobs and economic output The toll has been heavy

As the federal government and its central-bank sidekick the Fed have groped for one goal after

another mdash smoothing out the business cycle minimizing inflation and unemployment at the

same time rolling out a giant social insurance blanket promoting homeownership subsidizing

medical care propping up old industries (agriculture automobiles) and fostering new ones

(ldquocleanrdquo energy biotechnology) and above all bailing out Wall Street mdash they have now

succumbed to overload overreach and outside capture by powerful interests The modern

Keynesian state is broke paralyzed and mired in empty ritual incantations about stimulating

ldquodemandrdquo even as it fosters a mutant crony capitalism that periodically lavishes the top 1

percent with speculative windfalls

The culprits are bipartisan though yoursquod never guess that from the blather that passes for

political discourse these days The state-wreck originated in 1933 when Franklin D Roosevelt

opted for fiat money (currency not fundamentally backed by gold) economic nationalism and

capitalist cartels in agriculture and industry

Under the exigencies of World War II (which did far more to end the Depression than the New

Deal did) the state got hugely bloated but remarkably the bloat was put into brief remission

during a midcentury golden era of sound money and fiscal rectitude with Dwight D Eisenhower

in the White House and William McChesney Martin Jr at the Fed

Then came Lyndon B Johnsonrsquos ldquoguns and butterrdquo excesses which were intensified over one

perfidious weekend at Camp David Md in 1971 when Richard M Nixon essentially defaulted

on the nationrsquos debt obligations by finally ending the convertibility of gold to the dollar That

one act mdash arguably a sin graver than Watergate mdash meant the end of national financial discipline

and the start of a four-decade spree during which we have lived high on the hog running a

cumulative $8 trillion current-account deficit In effect America underwent an internal leveraged

buyout raising our ratio of total debt (public and private) to economic output to about 36 from

its historic level of about 16 Hence the $30 trillion in excess debt (more than half the total debt

$56 trillion) that hangs over the American economy today

This explosion of borrowing was the stepchild of the floating-money contraption deposited in the

Nixon White House by Milton Friedman the supposed hero of free-market economics who in

fact sowed the seed for a never-ending expansion of the money supply The Fed which

celebrates its centenary this year fueled a roaring inflation in goods and commodities during the

1970s that was brought under control only by the iron resolve of Paul A Volcker its chairman

from 1979 to 1987

Under his successor the lapsed hero Alan Greenspan the Fed dropped Friedmanrsquos penurious

rules for monetary expansion keeping interest rates too low for too long and flooding Wall

Street with freshly minted cash What became known as the ldquoGreenspan putrdquo mdash the implicit

assumption that the Fed would step in if asset prices dropped as they did after the 1987 stock-

market crash mdash was reinforced by the Fedrsquos unforgivable 1998 bailout of the hedge fund Long-

Term Capital Management

That Mr Greenspanrsquos loose monetary policies didnrsquot set off inflation was only because domestic

prices for goods and labor were crushed by the huge flow of imports from the factories of Asia

By offshoring Americarsquos tradable-goods sector the Fed kept the Consumer Price Index

contained but also permitted the excess liquidity to foster a roaring inflation in financial assets

Mr Greenspanrsquos pandering incited the greatest equity boom in history with the stock market

rising fivefold between the 1987 crash and the 2000 dot-com bust

Soon Americans stopped saving and consumed everything they earned and all they could

borrow The Asians burned by their own 1997 financial crisis were happy to oblige us They mdash

China and Japan above all mdash accumulated huge dollar reserves transforming their central banks

into a string of monetary roach motels where sovereign debt goes in but never comes out Wersquove

been living on borrowed time mdash and spending Asiansrsquo borrowed dimes

This dynamic reinforced the Reaganite shibboleth that ldquodeficits donrsquot matterrdquo and the fact that

nearly $5 trillion of the nationrsquos $12 trillion in ldquopublicly heldrdquo debt is actually sequestered in the

vaults of central banks The destruction of fiscal rectitude under Ronald Reagan mdash one reason I

resigned as his budget chief in 1985 mdash was the greatest of his many dramatic acts It created a

template for the Republicansrsquo utter abandonment of the balanced-budget policies of Calvin

Coolidge and allowed George W Bush to dive into the deep end bankrupting the nation through

two misbegotten and unfinanced wars a giant expansion of Medicare and a tax-cutting spree for

the wealthy that turned K Street lobbyists into the de facto office of national tax policy In effect

the GOP embraced Keynesianism mdash for the wealthy

The explosion of the housing market abetted by phony credit ratings securitization shenanigans

and willful malpractice by mortgage lenders originators and brokers has been well documented

Less known is the balance-sheet explosion among the top 10 Wall Street banks during the eight

years ending in 2008 Though their tiny sliver of equity capital hardly grew their dependence on

unstable ldquohot moneyrdquo soared as the regulatory harness the Glass-Steagall Act had wisely

imposed during the Depression was totally dismantled

Within weeks of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in September 2008 Washington with Wall

Streetrsquos gun to its head propped up the remnants of this financial mess in a panic-stricken melee

of bailouts and money-printing that is the single most shameful chapter in American financial

history

There was never a remote threat of a Great Depression 20 or of a financial nuclear winter

contrary to the dire warnings of Ben S Bernanke the Fed chairman since 2006 The Great Fear

mdash manifested by the stock market plunge when the House voted down the TARP bailout before

caving and passing it mdash was purely another Wall Street concoction Had President Bush and his

Goldman Sachs adviser (a k a Treasury Secretary) Henry M Paulson Jr stood firm the crisis

would have burned out on its own and meted out to speculators the losses they so richly

ldquodemandrdquo even as it fosters a mutant crony capitalism that periodically lavishes the top 1

percent with speculative windfalls

The culprits are bipartisan though yoursquod never guess that from the blather that passes for

political discourse these days The state-wreck originated in 1933 when Franklin D Roosevelt

opted for fiat money (currency not fundamentally backed by gold) economic nationalism and

capitalist cartels in agriculture and industry

Under the exigencies of World War II (which did far more to end the Depression than the New

Deal did) the state got hugely bloated but remarkably the bloat was put into brief remission

during a midcentury golden era of sound money and fiscal rectitude with Dwight D Eisenhower

in the White House and William McChesney Martin Jr at the Fed

Then came Lyndon B Johnsonrsquos ldquoguns and butterrdquo excesses which were intensified over one

perfidious weekend at Camp David Md in 1971 when Richard M Nixon essentially defaulted

on the nationrsquos debt obligations by finally ending the convertibility of gold to the dollar That

one act mdash arguably a sin graver than Watergate mdash meant the end of national financial discipline

and the start of a four-decade spree during which we have lived high on the hog running a

cumulative $8 trillion current-account deficit In effect America underwent an internal leveraged

buyout raising our ratio of total debt (public and private) to economic output to about 36 from

its historic level of about 16 Hence the $30 trillion in excess debt (more than half the total debt

$56 trillion) that hangs over the American economy today

This explosion of borrowing was the stepchild of the floating-money contraption deposited in the

Nixon White House by Milton Friedman the supposed hero of free-market economics who in

fact sowed the seed for a never-ending expansion of the money supply The Fed which

celebrates its centenary this year fueled a roaring inflation in goods and commodities during the

1970s that was brought under control only by the iron resolve of Paul A Volcker its chairman

from 1979 to 1987

Under his successor the lapsed hero Alan Greenspan the Fed dropped Friedmanrsquos penurious

rules for monetary expansion keeping interest rates too low for too long and flooding Wall

Street with freshly minted cash What became known as the ldquoGreenspan putrdquo mdash the implicit

assumption that the Fed would step in if asset prices dropped as they did after the 1987 stock-

market crash mdash was reinforced by the Fedrsquos unforgivable 1998 bailout of the hedge fund Long-

Term Capital Management

That Mr Greenspanrsquos loose monetary policies didnrsquot set off inflation was only because domestic

prices for goods and labor were crushed by the huge flow of imports from the factories of Asia

By offshoring Americarsquos tradable-goods sector the Fed kept the Consumer Price Index

contained but also permitted the excess liquidity to foster a roaring inflation in financial assets

Mr Greenspanrsquos pandering incited the greatest equity boom in history with the stock market

rising fivefold between the 1987 crash and the 2000 dot-com bust

Soon Americans stopped saving and consumed everything they earned and all they could

borrow The Asians burned by their own 1997 financial crisis were happy to oblige us They mdash

China and Japan above all mdash accumulated huge dollar reserves transforming their central banks

into a string of monetary roach motels where sovereign debt goes in but never comes out Wersquove

been living on borrowed time mdash and spending Asiansrsquo borrowed dimes

This dynamic reinforced the Reaganite shibboleth that ldquodeficits donrsquot matterrdquo and the fact that

nearly $5 trillion of the nationrsquos $12 trillion in ldquopublicly heldrdquo debt is actually sequestered in the

vaults of central banks The destruction of fiscal rectitude under Ronald Reagan mdash one reason I

resigned as his budget chief in 1985 mdash was the greatest of his many dramatic acts It created a

template for the Republicansrsquo utter abandonment of the balanced-budget policies of Calvin

Coolidge and allowed George W Bush to dive into the deep end bankrupting the nation through

two misbegotten and unfinanced wars a giant expansion of Medicare and a tax-cutting spree for

the wealthy that turned K Street lobbyists into the de facto office of national tax policy In effect

the GOP embraced Keynesianism mdash for the wealthy

The explosion of the housing market abetted by phony credit ratings securitization shenanigans

and willful malpractice by mortgage lenders originators and brokers has been well documented

Less known is the balance-sheet explosion among the top 10 Wall Street banks during the eight

years ending in 2008 Though their tiny sliver of equity capital hardly grew their dependence on

unstable ldquohot moneyrdquo soared as the regulatory harness the Glass-Steagall Act had wisely

imposed during the Depression was totally dismantled

Within weeks of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in September 2008 Washington with Wall

Streetrsquos gun to its head propped up the remnants of this financial mess in a panic-stricken melee

of bailouts and money-printing that is the single most shameful chapter in American financial

history

There was never a remote threat of a Great Depression 20 or of a financial nuclear winter

contrary to the dire warnings of Ben S Bernanke the Fed chairman since 2006 The Great Fear

mdash manifested by the stock market plunge when the House voted down the TARP bailout before

caving and passing it mdash was purely another Wall Street concoction Had President Bush and his

Goldman Sachs adviser (a k a Treasury Secretary) Henry M Paulson Jr stood firm the crisis

would have burned out on its own and meted out to speculators the losses they so richly

By offshoring Americarsquos tradable-goods sector the Fed kept the Consumer Price Index

contained but also permitted the excess liquidity to foster a roaring inflation in financial assets

Mr Greenspanrsquos pandering incited the greatest equity boom in history with the stock market

rising fivefold between the 1987 crash and the 2000 dot-com bust

Soon Americans stopped saving and consumed everything they earned and all they could

borrow The Asians burned by their own 1997 financial crisis were happy to oblige us They mdash

China and Japan above all mdash accumulated huge dollar reserves transforming their central banks

into a string of monetary roach motels where sovereign debt goes in but never comes out Wersquove

been living on borrowed time mdash and spending Asiansrsquo borrowed dimes

This dynamic reinforced the Reaganite shibboleth that ldquodeficits donrsquot matterrdquo and the fact that

nearly $5 trillion of the nationrsquos $12 trillion in ldquopublicly heldrdquo debt is actually sequestered in the

vaults of central banks The destruction of fiscal rectitude under Ronald Reagan mdash one reason I

resigned as his budget chief in 1985 mdash was the greatest of his many dramatic acts It created a

template for the Republicansrsquo utter abandonment of the balanced-budget policies of Calvin

Coolidge and allowed George W Bush to dive into the deep end bankrupting the nation through

two misbegotten and unfinanced wars a giant expansion of Medicare and a tax-cutting spree for

the wealthy that turned K Street lobbyists into the de facto office of national tax policy In effect

the GOP embraced Keynesianism mdash for the wealthy

The explosion of the housing market abetted by phony credit ratings securitization shenanigans

and willful malpractice by mortgage lenders originators and brokers has been well documented

Less known is the balance-sheet explosion among the top 10 Wall Street banks during the eight

years ending in 2008 Though their tiny sliver of equity capital hardly grew their dependence on

unstable ldquohot moneyrdquo soared as the regulatory harness the Glass-Steagall Act had wisely

imposed during the Depression was totally dismantled

Within weeks of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in September 2008 Washington with Wall

Streetrsquos gun to its head propped up the remnants of this financial mess in a panic-stricken melee

of bailouts and money-printing that is the single most shameful chapter in American financial

history

There was never a remote threat of a Great Depression 20 or of a financial nuclear winter

contrary to the dire warnings of Ben S Bernanke the Fed chairman since 2006 The Great Fear

mdash manifested by the stock market plunge when the House voted down the TARP bailout before

caving and passing it mdash was purely another Wall Street concoction Had President Bush and his

Goldman Sachs adviser (a k a Treasury Secretary) Henry M Paulson Jr stood firm the crisis

would have burned out on its own and meted out to speculators the losses they so richly

deserved The Main Street banking system was never in serious jeopardy ATMs were not going

dark and the money market industry was not imploding

Instead the White House Congress and the Fed under Mr Bush and then President Obama

made a series of desperate reckless maneuvers that were not only unnecessary but ruinous The

auto bailouts for example simply shifted jobs around mdash particularly to the aging electorally

vital Rust Belt mdash rather than saving them The ldquogreen energyrdquo component of Mr Obamarsquos

stimulus was mainly a nearly $1 billion giveaway to crony capitalists like the venture capitalist

John Doerr and the self-proclaimed outer-space visionary Elon Musk to make new toys for the

affluent

Less than 5 percent of the $800 billion Obama stimulus went to the truly needy for food stamps

earned-income tax credits and other forms of poverty relief The preponderant share ended up in

money dumps to state and local governments pork-barrel infrastructure projects business tax

loopholes and indiscriminate middle-class tax cuts The Democratic Keynesians as intellectually

bankrupt as their Republican counterparts (though less hypocritical) had no solution beyond

handing out borrowed money to consumers hoping they would buy a lawn mower a flat-screen

TV or at least dinner at Red Lobster

But even Mr Obamarsquos hopelessly glib policies could not match the audacity of the Fed which

dropped interest rates to zero and then digitally printed new money at the astounding rate of $600

million per hour Fast-money speculators have been ldquopurchasingrdquo giant piles of Treasury debt

and mortgage-backed securities almost entirely by using short-term overnight money borrowed

at essentially zero cost thanks to the Fed Uncle Ben has lined their pockets

If and when the Fed mdash which now promises to get unemployment below 65 percent as long as

inflation doesnrsquot exceed 25 percent mdash even hints at shrinking its balance sheet it will elicit a

tidal wave of sell orders because even a modest drop in bond prices would destroy the

arbitrageursrsquo profits Notwithstanding Mr Bernankersquos assurances about eventually gradually

making a smooth exit the Fed is domiciled in a monetary prison of its own making

While the Fed fiddles Congress burns Self-titled fiscal hawks like Paul D Ryan the chairman

of the House Budget Committee are terrified of telling the truth that the 10-year deficit is

actually $15 trillion to $20 trillion far larger than the Congressional Budget Officersquos estimate of

$7 trillion Its latest forecast which imagines 164 million new jobs in the next decade compared

with only 25 million in the last 10 years is only one of the more extreme examples of

Washingtonrsquos delusions

Even a supposedly ldquoboldrdquo measure mdash linking the cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security

payments to a different kind of inflation index mdash would save just $200 billion over a decade

amounting to hardly 1 percent of the problem Mr Ryanrsquos latest budget shamelessly gives Social

Security and Medicare a 10-year pass notwithstanding that a fair portion of their nearly $19

trillion cost over that decade would go to the affluent elderly At the same time his proposal for

draconian 30 percent cuts over a decade on the $7 trillion safety net mdash Medicaid food stamps

and the earned-income tax credit mdash is another front in the GOPrsquos war against the 99 percent

Without any changes over the next decade or so the gross federal debt now nearly $17 trillion

will hurtle toward $30 trillion and soar to 150 percent of gross domestic product from around

105 percent today Since our constitutional stasis rules out any prospect of a ldquogrand bargainrdquo the

nationrsquos fiscal collapse will play out incrementally like a GreekCypriot tragedy in carefully

choreographed crises over debt ceilings continuing resolutions and temporary budgetary

patches

The future is bleak The greatest construction boom in recorded history mdash Chinarsquos money dump

on infrastructure over the last 15 years mdash is slowing Brazil India Russia Turkey South Africa

and all the other growing middle-income nations cannot make up for the shortfall in demand

The American machinery of monetary and fiscal stimulus has reached its limits Japan is sinking

into old-age bankruptcy and Europe into welfare-state senescence The new rulers enthroned in

Beijing last year know that after two decades of wild lending speculation and building even

they will face a day of reckoning too

THE state-wreck ahead is a far cry from the ldquoGreat Moderationrdquo proclaimed in 2004 by Mr

Bernanke who predicted that prosperity would be everlasting because the Fed had tamed the

business cycle and as late as March 2007 testified that the impact of the subprime meltdown

ldquoseems likely to be containedrdquo Instead of moderation whatrsquos at hand is a Great Deformation

arising from a rogue central bank that has abetted the Wall Street casino crucified savers on a

cross of zero interest rates and fueled a global commodity bubble that erodes Main Street living

standards through rising food and energy prices mdash a form of inflation that the Fed fecklessly

disregards in calculating inflation

These policies have brought America to an end-stage metastasis The way out would be so

radical it canrsquot happen It would necessitate a sweeping divorce of the state and the market

economy It would require a renunciation of crony capitalism and its first cousin Keynesian

economics in all its forms The state would need to get out of the business of imperial hubris

economic uplift and social insurance and shift its focus to managing and financing an effective

affordable means-tested safety net

All this would require drastic deflation of the realm of politics and the abolition of incumbency

itself because the machinery of the state and the machinery of re-election have become

conterminous Prying them apart would entail sweeping constitutional surgery amendments to

give the president and members of Congress a single six-year term with no re-election

providing 100 percent public financing for candidates strictly limiting the duration of campaigns

(say to eight weeks) and prohibiting for life lobbying by anyone who has been on a legislative

or executive payroll It would also require overturning Citizens United and mandating that

Congress pass a balanced budget or face an automatic sequester of spending

It would also require purging the corrosive financialization that has turned the economy into a

giant casino since the 1970s This would mean putting the great Wall Street banks out in the cold

to compete as at-risk free enterprises without access to cheap Fed loans or deposit insurance

Banks would be able to take deposits and make commercial loans but be banned from trading

underwriting and money management in all its forms

It would require finally benching the Fedrsquos central planners and restoring the central bankrsquos

original mission to provide liquidity in times of crisis but never to buy government debt or try to

micromanage the economy Getting the Fed out of the financial markets is the only way to put

free markets and genuine wealth creation back into capitalism

That of course will never happen because there are trillions of dollars of assets from Shanghai

skyscrapers to Fortune 1000 stocks to the latest housing market ldquorecoveryrdquo artificially propped

up by the Fedrsquos interest-rate repression The United States is broke mdash fiscally morally

intellectually mdash and the Fed has incited a global currency war (Japan just signed up the

Brazilians and Chinese are angry and the German-dominated euro zone is crumbling) that will

soon overwhelm it When the latest bubble pops there will be nothing to stop the collapse If this

sounds like advice to get out of the markets and hide out in cash it is

David A Stockman is a former Republican congressman from Michigan President Ronald

Reaganrsquos budget director from 1981 to 1985 and the author most recently of ldquoThe Great

Deformation The Corruption of Capitalism in Americardquo

DHS buying billions of rounds of ammunition in order to significantly lower costs

NaturalNews)

Responding to a letter from Sen Tom Coburn the Department of Homeland Security -- an

agency that has no business being armed in the first place -- says its buying billions of rounds

of ammunition in order to significantly lower costs

Its all about saving money you see DHS isnt arming up in anticipation of a shooting war on the

streets of America and its not buying thousands of armored assault vehicles for that purpose

either No DHS is only buying all this ammo to save you money

This response by DHS of course is an obvious lie Why Because a significant portion of the

bullet purchases specify hollow point rounds In case you didnt know hollow points are

significantly MORE expensive than ball ammo (FMJ) Under the Geneva convention hollow

points are illegal to use in war because they cause far greater tissue damage too So they can

only be used domestically inside the United States in a civil action not an international war

If DHS really wanted to significantly lower costs on ammunition it would have purchased

FMJ rounds (full metal jacket) not hollow points But in April of 2012 ammunition

manufacturer ATK announced it had been awarded a DHS purchase contract for 450 million

rounds of hollow point 40 caliber ammo Thats almost half a billion rounds right there and

theyre all hollow point rounds

The press release claimed The special hollow point effectively passes through a variety of

barriers and holds its jacket in the toughest conditions You can read the full original press

release at Infowarscom

The press release on the ATK website by the way has been modified to remove any mention of

450 million rounds Read it here

httpwwwatkcomnews-releasesatk-secures-40-caliber-ammunition-co

First it was a conspiracy theory that the bullets existed now its a verified fact that billions of

rounds are being purchased

Infowarscom initially publicized this story With the outstanding reporting of Kurt Nimmo Paul

Joseph Watson Alex Jones and others the alternative media forced this story into the

mainstream

But for most of 2012 anyone who claimed DHS was purchasing all this ammo was labeled a

conspiracy theorist by the leftist delusional media which somehow believed that all this

hardware being purchased by DHS was imaginary

Over time of course as all the contracts came out and the proof was undeniable the mainstream

media was forced to admit it wasnt a conspiracy theory after all A Forbescom report that called

for a national conversation signalled a breakthrough in mainstream awareness of the issue and

it was soon followed by members of Congress demanding answers from DHS

The cover stories collapse

The first response from DHS was that there were no bullets They didnt exist The contracts

were purely fictional and DHS had no intention of actually taking delivery on any bullets

When that cover story was exposed as an obvious lie the story shifted to its current distortion

We bought all that ammo to save you money (By the way where are the apologies to all of us

who first reported the DHS ammo purchases and were called conspiracy theorists for breaking

the story on now-verified facts)

Ah so now the bullets DO exist after all but we should all be thankful DHS is buying all these

bullets because its a wonderful example of fiscal responsibility you see Because when a

government is economically on the verge of collapse operated by criminals and destroying the

liberties of the people the most important way to save money is to load up on billions of

rounds of ammo It makes perfect sense does it not

But now the saving money cover story is also collapsing due to the fact that most of the bullets

purchased are hollow point rounds and hollow point rounds are the most expensive rounds you

can buy This includes hundreds of thousands of sniper rounds by the way which are specified

in the purchase contracts as BTHP -- meaning Boat Tail Hollow Point These sniper rounds

are long-range bullets with remarkable flight stability Depending on the ballistics coefficients

and muzzle velocities some of these bullets have ranges of well over one mile

Exactly who does DHS need to shoot with hollow point bullets at a range of one mile

Private citizens are buying 50 million rounds EACH WEEK

According to my sources private citizens across the USA have been buying up far larger

quantities of ammo than DHS At peak production US ammunition manufacturers can produce

nearly one billion rounds of ammo each week Most of that production goes straight to the

Pentagon for military use But roughly one-twentieth of it is available for the law enforcement

and civilian markets

That comes to 50 million rounds each week being placed on the market Most of this is being

frantically bought up by individual gun owners Most ammo doesnt even make it to store

shelves as full pallets are being trucked off in back lots mere minutes after they arrive at gun

shops and retailers

If these numbers are accurate -- and Im not 100 sure of their accuracy yet -- this means US

civilians could be buying up to 24 billion rounds of ammo in a years time outpacing even DHS

ammo purchases Even more impressively private citizens are buying up millions of guns each

month All these hundreds of millions of rounds of ammo and millions of firearms are being

hidden away until they are needed

It doesnt take long to realize whats really happening here a massive arms race is underway in

America Rest assured that gun purchasers are not buying guns just so they can turn them in

They are not buying ammo just to turn around and register it with the government They are not

buying 30-round magazines for the purpose of registering them with the criminal traitorous

lawmakers of states like Connecticut They are buying guns and ammo in order to prepare an

armed defense against a corrupt criminal government that has abandoned the rule of law (the

Constitution) and is now aggressively stripping Americans of their guaranteed fundamental

rights (the Bill of Rights) Citizens should stockpile ammo just like DHS

If it comes to a shooting war private citizens are allies of sheriffs veterans and many members

of law enforcement including many federal officers Entire communities will likely band

together to defend themselves against federal coercion or even UN troops attempting to overtake

and occupy American cities

Informed Americans know that stockpiling ammo is a wise activity especially given the likely

need to help arm your local sheriffs deputies who are sworn to help defend your community

against tyranny (wwwOathKeepersorg) Additionally stockpiling ammo is exactly what the

government is doing so if anybody asks why you and I are stockpiling ammo our answer can be

exactly the same as DHS Were doing it to significantly lower costs by purchasing in bulk

Thus the argument that individuals dont need all that ammo falls flat on its face Need is not

a requirement in the eyes of the government The only justification necessary is a claim to be

saving money no matter how much ammo is being stockpiled

The next time someone asks you why you need an AR-15 just reply Im buying them in bulk

to significantly lower costs just like our government The same retort can be used to justify

purchases of armored vehicles and long-range sniper rounds too The left will never see the

bullets coming

Shockingly voters on the left who are terrified that individuals might stockpile ammo are

mysteriously quite comfortable that DHS is doing exactly that on a much larger scale

Individuals are not to be trusted in a socialist nation you see Only the government can be

trusted they believe Little do these people know that most of these DHS bullets are ultimately

meant for them

The first place DHS will set up operations will be the high-density cities where status quo

residents are surprisingly easy to be rounded up marched to the edge of open pits then ordered

to thank their government executioners while being shot in the head with 40 caliber hollow point

bullets that were purchased in bulk to save money Rejoice Mass murder has never been so

affordable

You may not think any of this could possibly happen but then again you probably didnt think

DHS was buying 2+ billion rounds of ammo when we first reported it (Im talking to newer

visitors now not long-time Natural News readers) Like most people you are hopelessly

ignorant of reality and you have bet your life on the lies of a criminal government that places no

value whatsoever on your existence You live in a never-ending state of denial because the zone

of denial is far more comfortable than facing the truth that your own government is arming

against you amassing enough ammunition and armored assault vehicles to wage a 20-year war

on the streets of America all while gutting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (to the cheers

of the socialist left)

If you believe DHS is buying all this just for training purposes you are a fool Any

organization that needs two billion rounds of ammunition to train is a standing army Two

billion rounds of ammunition in the hands of a corrupt criminal government does not create

security

America is raising a generation of interns

People my age expect to start at the bottom says one 25-year-old But in this economy the

bottom keeps getting lower and lower

By Hannah Seligson | March 30 2013

IN MANY WAYS Kate is a perfect reflection of the opportunities and hardships of being young

today Shes smart and motivated and has a degree from an Ivy League school yet at 25 she

worries shell never attain the status or lifestyle of her boomer parents She majored in political

science and has a burnished social conscience something she honed teaching creative writing in

a womens prison But Kates most salient mdash and at this point defining mdash generational trait

might be that she doesnt have a full-time job Instead she has been an intern for a year and a

half

She had one internship at a political organization and another at a media company and is now an

unpaid intern at a lobbying firm To make ends meet she works as a hostess three or four nights

a week which means she often clocks 15-hour days

I dont mean to sound like I have an ego but I am an intelligent hard-working person Kate

says Someone would be happy they hired me

Its a refrain heard many times from the millions of 20-something Kates who are scrambling to

find jobs with a steady paycheck and benefits After all who wants to still be an intern at an age

when you should have a 401(k) and a modicum of job security or at least be earning more than

you did at your summer job during high school People my age expect to start at the bottom

Kate says but in this economy the bottom keeps getting lower and lower

When I ask Kate how many jobs shes applied for she says Like a million

Desperate as she is the Department of Labor doesnt consider her to be unemployed because she

has two jobs Instead Kate who often works more than 60 hours a week is in a class of workers

who dont show up in government reports Shes one of the permaterns mdash those perpetual

interns mostly in their 20s mdash who have been battered by the recession and are holding out hope

that the conventional career wisdom that an internship leads to a job isnt folklore from a bygone

era

The serial intern isnt unique to DC You can find young people languishing at film studios in

Los Angeles and magazine empires in New York City The permatern phenomenon points

toward wider trends in the economy mdash namely the cutthroat competition for knowledge-

economy jobs the lack of investment in this generation and the skills gap between what a

generation weaned on a liberal-arts education is trained for and what the in-demand skills and

professions are right now (ie not another poli-sci or English major) The result For many in

Washington the American dream starts with a highbrow internship that pays $435 an hour mdash

then another and maybe another

Thats how much Jessica Schulberg 22 made for the 10 months she worked at the Woodrow

Wilson International Center for Scholars a haven for academics and journalists researching

public-policy issues Every month before taxes Jessica was paid a stipend of $700

supplemented by waitressing and bartending

I felt like 10 months was a long time to be there says Jessica But with only a bachelors

degree she felt she wasnt qualified for many entry-level jobs a suspicion confirmed by

numerous rejections The places where she was applying mdash think tanks and nonprofits mdash were

all receiving a million applications from people just like me she says

So Jessica went with plan B two years of graduate school to earn a masters in international

politics A partial scholarship made the decision easier but Jessica says shell have to go into

debt to cover some of the $50000 a year in tuition Shell graduate next year

Somewhat amazingly Jessica is upbeat about her situation The internship at the Wilson Center

made her feel like one of the lucky ones During her stint she assisted foreign-policy

heavyweights like Michael Adler a foreign correspondent for Agence France-Presse on a book

about diplomacy in Iran She did research for Mark Mazzetti a national-security correspondent

for The New York Times

WHEN DID LUCKY become working for below minimum wage for months Jessica doesnt

pause when I ask her this mdash its clearly a bargain she has mulled many times You either do

what you like to do for free or you have an entry-level job for $25000 where you answer the

phone and are someones assistant

Has it always been this hard to break into even the most competitive jobs in DC In a word no

Take Mazzetti 38 a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist When he was starting

out Mazzetti interned at The Economists Washington bureau In the old days there were

internships in journalism that gave paths to more regular jobs he says His internship turned

into a position that sent him to Austin I could pay the rent and it was a blast he recalls

It does seem like in general it is harder to get anything full-time and permanent in Washington

now because of the economy Mazzetti says Young and incredibly smart people have to take

jobs for no money or very little money

Internship coordinators around town say theyre seeing more applicants with advanced degrees

and previous internships than in the past But the full-time jobs that are supposed to follow a

prestigious internship arent as plentiful as they once were A 2012 study by consulting firm

Millennial Branding found that while 91 percent of the 225 surveyed employers said students

should have one to two internships before they graduate half of the employers hadnt hired any

interns in the previous six months In other words internships dont always lead to a job offer

Those internships that offer a path to a full-time position are that much more competitive At the

Atlantic Media Co which publishes The Atlantic and several other magazines a high percentage

of fellows move into other roles in the organization But an internship at the company is among

the toughest to land The company receives 1000 reacutesumeacutes for 25 positions Thats about a 2

percent acceptance rate

After hearing these numbers I began to understand why Jessica felt lucky Maybe she is

fortunate to be earning $435 an hour at her ivory-tower job while she works nights and

weekends as a waitress Maybe a 10-month paid internship followed by graduate school and then

perhaps another internship is the new lucky particularly at a time when so many young people

cant find work at all

Still I wondered Where was the anger at the injustice that a smart young woman couldnt find a

permanent job and had to keep prolonging her $435-an-hour internship I dont think you can

be angry Jessica says Its just how it is People older than me are struggling

Ross Perlin 29 author of Intern Nation views the situation as much more insidious Low-paid

and unpaid work is the new normal Perlin says and if you cant do those internships you may

be totally shut out of certain fields How is that fair

The economics of being a permatern are pretty brutal Thanks to the Affordable Care Act Jessica

can stay on her parents health insurance until shes 26 defraying a major expense Without that

safety net its unclear what shed do mdash either forgo health insurance or ask for a subsidy from

her parents who can afford mini-bailouts for their daughter

The job market hasnt always been structured in a way that requires college graduates to work for

less than a barista for months or years on end Perlin says that before the internship boom in

the 1950s and 60s the expectation was that employers would invest in young people and that

they in turn would pay the investment back by becoming taxpayers and active members of

society

There has been a cultural shift toward something more sinister mdash that you have to invest in

yourself and we are each out there on our own Perlin explains There is no idea of a social

investment in our promising young people Increasingly you invest in your own human capital

or your family does There is no sense of shared responsibility

BUT ARENT THERE jobs for the hordes of serial interns Dont they just need to lower their

sights No one after all is forcing them into professions that make getting into Harvard look

easy Isnt this just another example of the entitled Gen Y attitude that sees some work as beneath

them

Kate maintains she isnt holding out for the perfect job but will wait until she gets a career-

building job mdash a luxury she has as the child of 1960s idealists and more important one with no

student loans And she points out that according to a recent poll her college major mdash political

science mdash is among the least employable due to a saturation in the marketplace

Not everyone in the generation meets such a fate Jessicas brother who is 28 and a mechanical

aerospace engineer has been gainfully employed since the day he graduated from college

Jessica says So heres another chasm in the 20-something cohort the one between the liberal-

arts kids and the engineering and science majors Engineering is an in-demand skill Jessica

says International relationspolicy kids are a dime a dozen so the intern pay difference makes

sense in that regard

The expectation that ones career should be fulfilling is another reason why the mid-20s or

even early-30s intern has become a familiar sight in Washington offices People in this

generation despite the recession are looking for what they really want to do so they take a hit in

the form of an internship to land one of those coveted jobs that pays the bills and is fun says

Ryan Healy of career-advice site BrazenCareeristcom

But Aaron Smith of youth-advocacy organization Young Invincibles sees permaterns to be more

a result of the economic rugs being pulled out from under this generation The economy needs

to add a really high number of youth jobs over the next 10 years to get us back to where we were

before he says

Like others Smith sees a mismatch between the jobs that are available and what young people

are seeking and trained for There is a huge demand for [people in science engineering and

math] and we dont produce enough of those graduates to fill that need Smith says Students

need to be more cognizant of the labor market

But as long as Washington continues to be a hub of politics media nonprofits and development

agencies young people will continue to flock here to elbow their way into the regions uumlber-

competitive ecosystems They just might find that interning for a year or two is part of the long

hard slog into the permanent full-time workforce Or theyll give up or go with plan B

On the bright side Lauren Berger founder of InternQueencom a website that helps students

find internships says she isnt seeing serial interns as much as she did during the peak of the

recession in 2008 and 2009 She says that when she gets emails from people who have been

interning for four years she replies Enough with the internships already

If only some had that choice

Domestic drones and their unique dangers

Dismissive claims that drones do nothing more than helicopters and satellites already do are

wildly misinformed

o Glenn Greenwald

o guardiancouk Friday 29 March 2013 1048 EDT

AR Drone almost certainly the worlds first Wi-Fi enabled iPhone-controllable miniature flying

device

The use of drones by domestic US law enforcement agencies is growing rapidly both in terms of

numbers and types of usage As a result civil liberties and privacy groups led by the ACLU -

while accepting that domestic drones are inevitable - have been devoting increasing efforts to

publicizing their unique dangers and agitating for statutory limits These efforts are being

impeded by those who mock the idea that domestic drones pose unique dangers (often the same

people who mock concern over their usage on foreign soil) This dismissive posture is grounded

not only in soft authoritarianism (a religious-type faith in the Goodness of US political leaders

and state power generally) but also ignorance over current drone capabilities the ways drones

are now being developed and marketed for domestic use and the activities of the increasingly

powerful domestic drone lobby So its quite worthwhile to lay out the key under-discussed facts

shaping this issue

Im going to focus here most on domestic surveillance drones but I want to say a few words

about weaponized drones The belief that weaponized drones wont be used on US soil is

patently irrational Of course they will be Its not just likely but inevitable Police departments

are already speaking openly about how their drones could be equipped to carry nonlethal

weapons such as Tasers or a bean-bag gun The drone industry has already developed and is

now aggressively marketing precisely such weaponized drones for domestic law enforcement

use It likely wont be in the form that has received the most media attention the type of large

Predator or Reaper drones that shoot Hellfire missiles which destroy homes and cars in Pakistan

Yemen Somalia Afghanistan and multiple other countries aimed at Muslims (although US law

enforcement agencies already possess Predator drones and have used them over US soil for

surveillance)

The serial intern isnt unique to DC You can find young people languishing at film studios in

Los Angeles and magazine empires in New York City The permatern phenomenon points

toward wider trends in the economy mdash namely the cutthroat competition for knowledge-

economy jobs the lack of investment in this generation and the skills gap between what a

generation weaned on a liberal-arts education is trained for and what the in-demand skills and

professions are right now (ie not another poli-sci or English major) The result For many in

Washington the American dream starts with a highbrow internship that pays $435 an hour mdash

then another and maybe another

Thats how much Jessica Schulberg 22 made for the 10 months she worked at the Woodrow

Wilson International Center for Scholars a haven for academics and journalists researching

public-policy issues Every month before taxes Jessica was paid a stipend of $700

supplemented by waitressing and bartending

I felt like 10 months was a long time to be there says Jessica But with only a bachelors

degree she felt she wasnt qualified for many entry-level jobs a suspicion confirmed by

numerous rejections The places where she was applying mdash think tanks and nonprofits mdash were

all receiving a million applications from people just like me she says

So Jessica went with plan B two years of graduate school to earn a masters in international

politics A partial scholarship made the decision easier but Jessica says shell have to go into

debt to cover some of the $50000 a year in tuition Shell graduate next year

Somewhat amazingly Jessica is upbeat about her situation The internship at the Wilson Center

made her feel like one of the lucky ones During her stint she assisted foreign-policy

heavyweights like Michael Adler a foreign correspondent for Agence France-Presse on a book

about diplomacy in Iran She did research for Mark Mazzetti a national-security correspondent

for The New York Times

WHEN DID LUCKY become working for below minimum wage for months Jessica doesnt

pause when I ask her this mdash its clearly a bargain she has mulled many times You either do

what you like to do for free or you have an entry-level job for $25000 where you answer the

phone and are someones assistant

Has it always been this hard to break into even the most competitive jobs in DC In a word no

Take Mazzetti 38 a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist When he was starting

out Mazzetti interned at The Economists Washington bureau In the old days there were

internships in journalism that gave paths to more regular jobs he says His internship turned

into a position that sent him to Austin I could pay the rent and it was a blast he recalls

It does seem like in general it is harder to get anything full-time and permanent in Washington

now because of the economy Mazzetti says Young and incredibly smart people have to take

jobs for no money or very little money

Internship coordinators around town say theyre seeing more applicants with advanced degrees

and previous internships than in the past But the full-time jobs that are supposed to follow a

prestigious internship arent as plentiful as they once were A 2012 study by consulting firm

Millennial Branding found that while 91 percent of the 225 surveyed employers said students

should have one to two internships before they graduate half of the employers hadnt hired any

interns in the previous six months In other words internships dont always lead to a job offer

Those internships that offer a path to a full-time position are that much more competitive At the

Atlantic Media Co which publishes The Atlantic and several other magazines a high percentage

of fellows move into other roles in the organization But an internship at the company is among

the toughest to land The company receives 1000 reacutesumeacutes for 25 positions Thats about a 2

percent acceptance rate

After hearing these numbers I began to understand why Jessica felt lucky Maybe she is

fortunate to be earning $435 an hour at her ivory-tower job while she works nights and

weekends as a waitress Maybe a 10-month paid internship followed by graduate school and then

perhaps another internship is the new lucky particularly at a time when so many young people

cant find work at all

Still I wondered Where was the anger at the injustice that a smart young woman couldnt find a

permanent job and had to keep prolonging her $435-an-hour internship I dont think you can

be angry Jessica says Its just how it is People older than me are struggling

Ross Perlin 29 author of Intern Nation views the situation as much more insidious Low-paid

and unpaid work is the new normal Perlin says and if you cant do those internships you may

be totally shut out of certain fields How is that fair

The economics of being a permatern are pretty brutal Thanks to the Affordable Care Act Jessica

can stay on her parents health insurance until shes 26 defraying a major expense Without that

safety net its unclear what shed do mdash either forgo health insurance or ask for a subsidy from

her parents who can afford mini-bailouts for their daughter

The job market hasnt always been structured in a way that requires college graduates to work for

less than a barista for months or years on end Perlin says that before the internship boom in

the 1950s and 60s the expectation was that employers would invest in young people and that

they in turn would pay the investment back by becoming taxpayers and active members of

society

There has been a cultural shift toward something more sinister mdash that you have to invest in

yourself and we are each out there on our own Perlin explains There is no idea of a social

investment in our promising young people Increasingly you invest in your own human capital

or your family does There is no sense of shared responsibility

BUT ARENT THERE jobs for the hordes of serial interns Dont they just need to lower their

sights No one after all is forcing them into professions that make getting into Harvard look

easy Isnt this just another example of the entitled Gen Y attitude that sees some work as beneath

them

Kate maintains she isnt holding out for the perfect job but will wait until she gets a career-

building job mdash a luxury she has as the child of 1960s idealists and more important one with no

student loans And she points out that according to a recent poll her college major mdash political

science mdash is among the least employable due to a saturation in the marketplace

Not everyone in the generation meets such a fate Jessicas brother who is 28 and a mechanical

aerospace engineer has been gainfully employed since the day he graduated from college

Jessica says So heres another chasm in the 20-something cohort the one between the liberal-

arts kids and the engineering and science majors Engineering is an in-demand skill Jessica

says International relationspolicy kids are a dime a dozen so the intern pay difference makes

sense in that regard

The expectation that ones career should be fulfilling is another reason why the mid-20s or

even early-30s intern has become a familiar sight in Washington offices People in this

generation despite the recession are looking for what they really want to do so they take a hit in

the form of an internship to land one of those coveted jobs that pays the bills and is fun says

Ryan Healy of career-advice site BrazenCareeristcom

But Aaron Smith of youth-advocacy organization Young Invincibles sees permaterns to be more

a result of the economic rugs being pulled out from under this generation The economy needs

to add a really high number of youth jobs over the next 10 years to get us back to where we were

before he says

Like others Smith sees a mismatch between the jobs that are available and what young people

are seeking and trained for There is a huge demand for [people in science engineering and

math] and we dont produce enough of those graduates to fill that need Smith says Students

need to be more cognizant of the labor market

But as long as Washington continues to be a hub of politics media nonprofits and development

agencies young people will continue to flock here to elbow their way into the regions uumlber-

competitive ecosystems They just might find that interning for a year or two is part of the long

hard slog into the permanent full-time workforce Or theyll give up or go with plan B

On the bright side Lauren Berger founder of InternQueencom a website that helps students

find internships says she isnt seeing serial interns as much as she did during the peak of the

recession in 2008 and 2009 She says that when she gets emails from people who have been

interning for four years she replies Enough with the internships already

If only some had that choice

Domestic drones and their unique dangers

Dismissive claims that drones do nothing more than helicopters and satellites already do are

wildly misinformed

o Glenn Greenwald

o guardiancouk Friday 29 March 2013 1048 EDT

AR Drone almost certainly the worlds first Wi-Fi enabled iPhone-controllable miniature flying

device

The use of drones by domestic US law enforcement agencies is growing rapidly both in terms of

numbers and types of usage As a result civil liberties and privacy groups led by the ACLU -

while accepting that domestic drones are inevitable - have been devoting increasing efforts to

publicizing their unique dangers and agitating for statutory limits These efforts are being

impeded by those who mock the idea that domestic drones pose unique dangers (often the same

people who mock concern over their usage on foreign soil) This dismissive posture is grounded

not only in soft authoritarianism (a religious-type faith in the Goodness of US political leaders

and state power generally) but also ignorance over current drone capabilities the ways drones

are now being developed and marketed for domestic use and the activities of the increasingly

powerful domestic drone lobby So its quite worthwhile to lay out the key under-discussed facts

shaping this issue

Im going to focus here most on domestic surveillance drones but I want to say a few words

about weaponized drones The belief that weaponized drones wont be used on US soil is

patently irrational Of course they will be Its not just likely but inevitable Police departments

are already speaking openly about how their drones could be equipped to carry nonlethal

weapons such as Tasers or a bean-bag gun The drone industry has already developed and is

now aggressively marketing precisely such weaponized drones for domestic law enforcement

use It likely wont be in the form that has received the most media attention the type of large

Predator or Reaper drones that shoot Hellfire missiles which destroy homes and cars in Pakistan

Yemen Somalia Afghanistan and multiple other countries aimed at Muslims (although US law

enforcement agencies already possess Predator drones and have used them over US soil for

surveillance)

Internship coordinators around town say theyre seeing more applicants with advanced degrees

and previous internships than in the past But the full-time jobs that are supposed to follow a

prestigious internship arent as plentiful as they once were A 2012 study by consulting firm

Millennial Branding found that while 91 percent of the 225 surveyed employers said students

should have one to two internships before they graduate half of the employers hadnt hired any

interns in the previous six months In other words internships dont always lead to a job offer

Those internships that offer a path to a full-time position are that much more competitive At the

Atlantic Media Co which publishes The Atlantic and several other magazines a high percentage

of fellows move into other roles in the organization But an internship at the company is among

the toughest to land The company receives 1000 reacutesumeacutes for 25 positions Thats about a 2

percent acceptance rate

After hearing these numbers I began to understand why Jessica felt lucky Maybe she is

fortunate to be earning $435 an hour at her ivory-tower job while she works nights and

weekends as a waitress Maybe a 10-month paid internship followed by graduate school and then

perhaps another internship is the new lucky particularly at a time when so many young people

cant find work at all

Still I wondered Where was the anger at the injustice that a smart young woman couldnt find a

permanent job and had to keep prolonging her $435-an-hour internship I dont think you can

be angry Jessica says Its just how it is People older than me are struggling

Ross Perlin 29 author of Intern Nation views the situation as much more insidious Low-paid

and unpaid work is the new normal Perlin says and if you cant do those internships you may

be totally shut out of certain fields How is that fair

The economics of being a permatern are pretty brutal Thanks to the Affordable Care Act Jessica

can stay on her parents health insurance until shes 26 defraying a major expense Without that

safety net its unclear what shed do mdash either forgo health insurance or ask for a subsidy from

her parents who can afford mini-bailouts for their daughter

The job market hasnt always been structured in a way that requires college graduates to work for

less than a barista for months or years on end Perlin says that before the internship boom in

the 1950s and 60s the expectation was that employers would invest in young people and that

they in turn would pay the investment back by becoming taxpayers and active members of

society

There has been a cultural shift toward something more sinister mdash that you have to invest in

yourself and we are each out there on our own Perlin explains There is no idea of a social

investment in our promising young people Increasingly you invest in your own human capital

or your family does There is no sense of shared responsibility

BUT ARENT THERE jobs for the hordes of serial interns Dont they just need to lower their

sights No one after all is forcing them into professions that make getting into Harvard look

easy Isnt this just another example of the entitled Gen Y attitude that sees some work as beneath

them

Kate maintains she isnt holding out for the perfect job but will wait until she gets a career-

building job mdash a luxury she has as the child of 1960s idealists and more important one with no

student loans And she points out that according to a recent poll her college major mdash political

science mdash is among the least employable due to a saturation in the marketplace

Not everyone in the generation meets such a fate Jessicas brother who is 28 and a mechanical

aerospace engineer has been gainfully employed since the day he graduated from college

Jessica says So heres another chasm in the 20-something cohort the one between the liberal-

arts kids and the engineering and science majors Engineering is an in-demand skill Jessica

says International relationspolicy kids are a dime a dozen so the intern pay difference makes

sense in that regard

The expectation that ones career should be fulfilling is another reason why the mid-20s or

even early-30s intern has become a familiar sight in Washington offices People in this

generation despite the recession are looking for what they really want to do so they take a hit in

the form of an internship to land one of those coveted jobs that pays the bills and is fun says

Ryan Healy of career-advice site BrazenCareeristcom

But Aaron Smith of youth-advocacy organization Young Invincibles sees permaterns to be more

a result of the economic rugs being pulled out from under this generation The economy needs

to add a really high number of youth jobs over the next 10 years to get us back to where we were

before he says

Like others Smith sees a mismatch between the jobs that are available and what young people

are seeking and trained for There is a huge demand for [people in science engineering and

math] and we dont produce enough of those graduates to fill that need Smith says Students

need to be more cognizant of the labor market

But as long as Washington continues to be a hub of politics media nonprofits and development

agencies young people will continue to flock here to elbow their way into the regions uumlber-

competitive ecosystems They just might find that interning for a year or two is part of the long

hard slog into the permanent full-time workforce Or theyll give up or go with plan B

On the bright side Lauren Berger founder of InternQueencom a website that helps students

find internships says she isnt seeing serial interns as much as she did during the peak of the

recession in 2008 and 2009 She says that when she gets emails from people who have been

interning for four years she replies Enough with the internships already

If only some had that choice

Domestic drones and their unique dangers

Dismissive claims that drones do nothing more than helicopters and satellites already do are

wildly misinformed

o Glenn Greenwald

o guardiancouk Friday 29 March 2013 1048 EDT

AR Drone almost certainly the worlds first Wi-Fi enabled iPhone-controllable miniature flying

device

The use of drones by domestic US law enforcement agencies is growing rapidly both in terms of

numbers and types of usage As a result civil liberties and privacy groups led by the ACLU -

while accepting that domestic drones are inevitable - have been devoting increasing efforts to

publicizing their unique dangers and agitating for statutory limits These efforts are being

impeded by those who mock the idea that domestic drones pose unique dangers (often the same

people who mock concern over their usage on foreign soil) This dismissive posture is grounded

not only in soft authoritarianism (a religious-type faith in the Goodness of US political leaders

and state power generally) but also ignorance over current drone capabilities the ways drones

are now being developed and marketed for domestic use and the activities of the increasingly

powerful domestic drone lobby So its quite worthwhile to lay out the key under-discussed facts

shaping this issue

Im going to focus here most on domestic surveillance drones but I want to say a few words

about weaponized drones The belief that weaponized drones wont be used on US soil is

patently irrational Of course they will be Its not just likely but inevitable Police departments

are already speaking openly about how their drones could be equipped to carry nonlethal

weapons such as Tasers or a bean-bag gun The drone industry has already developed and is

now aggressively marketing precisely such weaponized drones for domestic law enforcement

use It likely wont be in the form that has received the most media attention the type of large

Predator or Reaper drones that shoot Hellfire missiles which destroy homes and cars in Pakistan

Yemen Somalia Afghanistan and multiple other countries aimed at Muslims (although US law

enforcement agencies already possess Predator drones and have used them over US soil for

surveillance)

easy Isnt this just another example of the entitled Gen Y attitude that sees some work as beneath

them

Kate maintains she isnt holding out for the perfect job but will wait until she gets a career-

building job mdash a luxury she has as the child of 1960s idealists and more important one with no

student loans And she points out that according to a recent poll her college major mdash political

science mdash is among the least employable due to a saturation in the marketplace

Not everyone in the generation meets such a fate Jessicas brother who is 28 and a mechanical

aerospace engineer has been gainfully employed since the day he graduated from college

Jessica says So heres another chasm in the 20-something cohort the one between the liberal-

arts kids and the engineering and science majors Engineering is an in-demand skill Jessica

says International relationspolicy kids are a dime a dozen so the intern pay difference makes

sense in that regard

The expectation that ones career should be fulfilling is another reason why the mid-20s or

even early-30s intern has become a familiar sight in Washington offices People in this

generation despite the recession are looking for what they really want to do so they take a hit in

the form of an internship to land one of those coveted jobs that pays the bills and is fun says

Ryan Healy of career-advice site BrazenCareeristcom

But Aaron Smith of youth-advocacy organization Young Invincibles sees permaterns to be more

a result of the economic rugs being pulled out from under this generation The economy needs

to add a really high number of youth jobs over the next 10 years to get us back to where we were

before he says

Like others Smith sees a mismatch between the jobs that are available and what young people

are seeking and trained for There is a huge demand for [people in science engineering and

math] and we dont produce enough of those graduates to fill that need Smith says Students

need to be more cognizant of the labor market

But as long as Washington continues to be a hub of politics media nonprofits and development

agencies young people will continue to flock here to elbow their way into the regions uumlber-

competitive ecosystems They just might find that interning for a year or two is part of the long

hard slog into the permanent full-time workforce Or theyll give up or go with plan B

On the bright side Lauren Berger founder of InternQueencom a website that helps students

find internships says she isnt seeing serial interns as much as she did during the peak of the

recession in 2008 and 2009 She says that when she gets emails from people who have been

interning for four years she replies Enough with the internships already

If only some had that choice

Domestic drones and their unique dangers

Dismissive claims that drones do nothing more than helicopters and satellites already do are

wildly misinformed

o Glenn Greenwald

o guardiancouk Friday 29 March 2013 1048 EDT

AR Drone almost certainly the worlds first Wi-Fi enabled iPhone-controllable miniature flying

device

The use of drones by domestic US law enforcement agencies is growing rapidly both in terms of

numbers and types of usage As a result civil liberties and privacy groups led by the ACLU -

while accepting that domestic drones are inevitable - have been devoting increasing efforts to

publicizing their unique dangers and agitating for statutory limits These efforts are being

impeded by those who mock the idea that domestic drones pose unique dangers (often the same

people who mock concern over their usage on foreign soil) This dismissive posture is grounded

not only in soft authoritarianism (a religious-type faith in the Goodness of US political leaders

and state power generally) but also ignorance over current drone capabilities the ways drones

are now being developed and marketed for domestic use and the activities of the increasingly

powerful domestic drone lobby So its quite worthwhile to lay out the key under-discussed facts

shaping this issue

Im going to focus here most on domestic surveillance drones but I want to say a few words

about weaponized drones The belief that weaponized drones wont be used on US soil is

patently irrational Of course they will be Its not just likely but inevitable Police departments

are already speaking openly about how their drones could be equipped to carry nonlethal

weapons such as Tasers or a bean-bag gun The drone industry has already developed and is

now aggressively marketing precisely such weaponized drones for domestic law enforcement

use It likely wont be in the form that has received the most media attention the type of large

Predator or Reaper drones that shoot Hellfire missiles which destroy homes and cars in Pakistan

Yemen Somalia Afghanistan and multiple other countries aimed at Muslims (although US law

enforcement agencies already possess Predator drones and have used them over US soil for

surveillance)

Domestic drones and their unique dangers

Dismissive claims that drones do nothing more than helicopters and satellites already do are

wildly misinformed

o Glenn Greenwald

o guardiancouk Friday 29 March 2013 1048 EDT

AR Drone almost certainly the worlds first Wi-Fi enabled iPhone-controllable miniature flying

device

The use of drones by domestic US law enforcement agencies is growing rapidly both in terms of

numbers and types of usage As a result civil liberties and privacy groups led by the ACLU -

while accepting that domestic drones are inevitable - have been devoting increasing efforts to

publicizing their unique dangers and agitating for statutory limits These efforts are being

impeded by those who mock the idea that domestic drones pose unique dangers (often the same

people who mock concern over their usage on foreign soil) This dismissive posture is grounded

not only in soft authoritarianism (a religious-type faith in the Goodness of US political leaders

and state power generally) but also ignorance over current drone capabilities the ways drones

are now being developed and marketed for domestic use and the activities of the increasingly

powerful domestic drone lobby So its quite worthwhile to lay out the key under-discussed facts

shaping this issue

Im going to focus here most on domestic surveillance drones but I want to say a few words

about weaponized drones The belief that weaponized drones wont be used on US soil is

patently irrational Of course they will be Its not just likely but inevitable Police departments

are already speaking openly about how their drones could be equipped to carry nonlethal

weapons such as Tasers or a bean-bag gun The drone industry has already developed and is

now aggressively marketing precisely such weaponized drones for domestic law enforcement

use It likely wont be in the form that has received the most media attention the type of large

Predator or Reaper drones that shoot Hellfire missiles which destroy homes and cars in Pakistan

Yemen Somalia Afghanistan and multiple other countries aimed at Muslims (although US law

enforcement agencies already possess Predator drones and have used them over US soil for

surveillance)

Instead as I detailed in a 2012 examination of the drone industrys own promotional materials

and reports to their shareholders domestic weaponized drones will be much smaller and cheaper

as well as more agile - but just as lethal The nations leading manufacturer of small unmanned

aircraft systems (UAS) used both for surveillance and attack purposes is AeroVironment Inc

(AV) Its 2011 Annual Report filed with the SEC repeatedly emphasizes that its business strategy

depends upon expanding its market from foreign wars to domestic usage including law

enforcement

AVs annual report added Initial likely non-military users of small UAS include public safety

organizations such as law enforcement agencies These domestic marketing efforts are

intensifying with the perception that US spending on foreign wars will decrease As a February

2013 CBS News report noted focusing on AVs surveillance drones

Now drones are headed off the battlefield Theyre already coming your way

AeroVironment the California company that sells the military something like 85 percent of its

fleet is marketing them now to public safety agencies

Like many drone manufacturers AV is now focused on drone products - such as the Qube -

that are so small that they can be transported in the trunk of a police vehicle or carried in a

backpack and assembled and deployed within a matter of minutes One news report AV touts is

headlined Drone technology could be coming to a Police Department near you which focuses

on the Qube

But another article prominently touted on AVs website describes the tiny UAS product dubbed

the Switchblade which says the article is the leading edge of what is likely to be the broader

even wholesale weaponization of unmanned systems The article creepily hails the Switchblade

drone as the ultimate assassin bug Thats because as I wrote back in 2011 it is controlled by

the operator at the scene and it worms its way around buildings and into small areas sending its

surveillance imagery to an i-Pad held by the operator who can then direct the Switchblade to

lunge toward and kill the target (hence the name) by exploding in his face AVs website right

now proudly touts a February 2013 Defense News article describing how much the US Army

loves the Switchblade and how it is preparing to purchase more Time Magazine heralded this

tiny drone weapon as one of the best inventions of 2012 gushing the Switchblade drone can

be carried into battle in a backpack Its a kamikaze the person controlling it uses a real-time

video feed from the drone to crash it into a precise target - say a sniper Its tiny warhead

detonates on impact

What possible reason could someone identify as to why these small portable weaponized UAS

products will not imminently be used by federal state and local law enforcement agencies in the

US Theyre designed to protect their users in dangerous situations and to enable a target to be

more easily killed Police agencies and the increasingly powerful drone industry will tout their

utility in capturing and killing dangerous criminals and their ability to keep officers safe and

media reports will do the same The handful of genuinely positive uses from drones will be

endlessly touted to distract attention away from the dangers they pose

One has to be incredibly naiumlve to think that these assassin bugs and other lethal drone products

will not be widely used on US soil by an already para-militarized domestic police force As

Radley Balkos forthcoming book Rise of the Warrior Cop details the primary trend in US law

enforcement is what its title describes as The Militarization of Americas Police Forces The

history of domestic law enforcement particularly after 911 has been the importation of military

techniques and weapons into domestic policing It would be shocking if these weapons were not

imminently used by domestic law enforcement agencies

In contrast to weaponized drones even the most naiumlve among us do not doubt the imminent

proliferation of domestic surveillance drones With little debate they have already arrived As

the ACLU put it in their recent report US law enforcement is greatly expanding its use of

domestic drones for surveillance An LA Times article from last month reported that federal

authorities have stepped up efforts to license surveillance drones for law enforcement and other

uses in US airspace and that the Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it had issued

1428 permits to domestic drone operators since 2007 far more than were previously known

Moreover the agency has estimated 10000 drones could be aloft five years later and local

and state law enforcement agencies are expected to be among the largest customers

Concerns about the proliferation of domestic surveillance drones are typically dismissed with the

claim that they do nothing more than police helicopters and satellites already do Such claims are

completely misinformed As the ACLUs 2011 comprehensive report on domestic drones

explained Unmanned aircraft carrying cameras raise the prospect of a significant new avenue

for the surveillance of American life

Multiple attributes of surveillance drones make them uniquely threatening Because they are so

cheap and getting cheaper huge numbers of them can be deployed to create ubiquitous

surveillance in a way that helicopters or satellites never could How this works can already been

seen in Afghanistan where the US military has dubbed its drone surveillance system the

Gorgon Stare named after the mythical Greek creature whose unblinking eyes turned to stone

those who beheld them That drone surveillance system is able to scan an area the size of a

small town and the most sophisticated robotics use artificial intelligence that [can] seek out and

record certain kinds of suspicious activity Boasted one US General Gorgon Stare will be

looking at a whole city so there will be no way for the adversary to know what were looking at

and we can see everything

The NSA already maintains ubiquitous surveillance of electronic communications but the

Surveillance State faces serious limits on its ability to replicate that for physical surveillance

Drones easily overcome those barriers As the ACLU report put it

Ive spoken previously about why a ubiquitous Surveillance State ushers in unique and deeply

harmful effects on human behavior and a nations political culture and wont repeat that here

(heres the video (also embedded below) and the transcript of one speech where I focus on how

that works) Suffice to say as the ACLU explains in its domestic drone report routine aerial

surveillance would profoundly change the character of public life in America because only

drone technology enables such omnipresent physical surveillance

Beyond that the tiny size of surveillance drones enables them to reach places that helicopters

obviously cannot and to do so without detection They can remain in the sky hovering over a

single place for up to 20 hours a duration that is always increasing - obviously far more than

manned helicopters can achieve As AVs own report put it (see page 11) their hovering

capability also means they can surveil a single spot for much longer than many military satellites

most of which move with the earths rotation (the few satellites that remain fixed operate nearly

25000 miles from the surface of the earth therefore limiting the bandwidth they can provide and

requiring relatively larger higher power ground stations) In sum surveillance drones enable a

pervasive stealth and constantly hovering Surveillance State that is now well beyond the

technological and financial abilities of law enforcement agencies

One significant reason why this proliferation of domestic drones has become so likely is the

emergence of a powerful drone lobby I detailed some of how that lobby is functioning here so

will simply note this passage from a recent report from the ACLU of Iowa on its attempts to

persuade legislators to enact statutory limits on the use of domestic drones

Drones have their own trade group the Association for Unmanned Aerial Systems

International which includes some of the nations leading aerospace companies And Congress

now has drone caucuses in both the Senate and House

Howie Klein has been one of the few people focusing on the massive amounts of money from

the drone industry now flowing into the coffers of key Congressional members from both parties

in this drone caucus Suffice to say there is an enormous profit to be made from exploiting the

domestic drone market and as usual that factor is thus far driving the (basically nonexistent)

political response to these threats

What is most often ignored by drone proponents or those who scoff at anti-drone activism are

the unique features of drones the way they enable more warfare more aggression and more

surveillance Drones make war more likely precisely because they entail so little risk to the war-

making country Similarly while the propensity of drones to kill innocent people receives the

bulk of media attention the way in which drones psychologically terrorize the population -

simply by constantly hovering over them unseen but heard - is usually ignored because its not

happening in the US so few people care (see this AP report from yesterday on how the

increasing use of drone attacks in Afghanistan is truly terrorizing local villagers) It remains to be

seen how Americans will react to drones constantly hovering over their homes and their

childrens schools though by that point their presence will be so institutionalized that it will be

likely be too late to stop

Notably this may be one area where an actual bipartisantrans-partisan alliance can meaningfully

emerge as most advocates working on these issues with whom Ive spoken say that libertarian-

minded GOP state legislators have been as responsive as more left-wing Democratic ones in

working to impose some limits One bill now pending in Congress would prohibit the use of

surveillance drones on US soil in the absence of a specific search warrant and has bipartisan

support

Only the most authoritarian among us will be incapable of understanding the multiple dangers

posed by a domestic drone regime (particularly when their party is in control of the government

and they are incapable of perceiving threats from increased state police power) But the

proliferation of domestic drones affords a real opportunity to forge an enduring coalition in

defense of core privacy and other rights that transcends partisan allegiance by working toward

meaningful limits on their use Making people aware of exactly what these unique threats are

from a domestic drone regime is the key first step in constructing that coalition

Harms from the Surveillance State

One of the most difficult challenges in all discussions of privacy rights is articulating what most

people instinctively already know why privacy is so vital and why a ubiquitous Surveillance

State is so destructive Here is the speech I gave last year in Chicago in which I attempted to

articulate those reasons

Modern History Sourcebook

Benito Mussolini

What is Fascism 1932

Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) over the course of his lifetime went from Socialism - he was editor

of Avanti a socialist newspaper - to the leadership of a new political movement called fascism

[after fasces the symbol of bound sticks used a totem of power in ancient Rome]

Mussolini came to power after the March on Rome in 1922 and was appointed Prime Minister

by King Victor Emmanuel

In 1932 Mussolini wrote (with the help of Giovanni Gentile) and entry for the Italian

Encyclopedia on the definition of fascism

Fascism the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite

apart from political considerations of the moment believes neither in the possibility nor the

utility of perpetual peace It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism -- born of a renunciation of

the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice War alone brings up to its highest

tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have courage to

meet it All other trials are substitutes which never really put men into the position where they

have to make the great decision -- the alternative of life or death

The Fascist accepts life and loves it knowing nothing of and despising suicide he rather

conceives of life as duty and struggle and conquest but above all for others -- those who are at

hand and those who are far distant contemporaries and those who will come after

Fascism [is] the complete opposite ofhellipMarxian Socialism the materialist conception of

history of human civilization can be explained simply through the conflict of interests among the

various social groups and by the change and development in the means and instruments of

production Fascism now and always believes in holiness and in heroism that is to say in

actions influenced by no economic motive direct or indirect And if the economic conception of

history be denied according to which theory men are no more than puppets carried to and fro by

the waves of chance while the real directing forces are quite out of their control it follows that

the existence of an unchangeable and unchanging class-war is also denied - the natural progeny

of the economic conception of history And above all Fascism denies that class-war can be the

preponderant force in the transformation of society

After Socialism Fascism combats the whole complex system of democratic ideology and

repudiates it whether in its theoretical premises or in its practical application Fascism denies

that the majority by the simple fact that it is a majority can direct human society it denies that

numbers alone can govern by means of a periodical consultation and it affirms the immutable

beneficial and fruitful inequality of mankind which can never be permanently leveled through

the mere operation of a mechanical process such as universal suffrage

Fascism denies in democracy the absurd conventional untruth of political equality dressed out

in the garb of collective irresponsibility and the myth of happiness and indefinite progress

Given that the nineteenth century was the century of Socialism of Liberalism and of

Democracy it does not necessarily follow that the twentieth century must also be a century of

Socialism Liberalism and Democracy political doctrines pass but humanity remains and it may

rather be expected that this will be a century of authoritya century of Fascism For if the

nineteenth century was a century of individualism it may be expected that this will be the century

of collectivism and hence the century of the State

The foundation of Fascism is the conception of the State its character its duty and its aim

Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute in comparison with which all individuals or

groups are relative only to be conceived of in their relation to the State The conception of the

Liberal State is not that of a directing force guiding the play and development both material and

spiritual of a collective body but merely a force limited to the function of recording results on

the other hand the Fascist State is itself conscious and has itself a will and a personality -- thus it

may be called the ethic State

The Fascist State organizes the nation but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the

individual the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom but retains what is

essential the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual but the State alone

For Fascism the growth of empire that is to say the expansion of the nation is an essential

manifestation of vitality and its opposite a sign of decadence Peoples which are rising or rising

again after a period of decadence are always imperialist and renunciation is a sign of decay and

of death Fascism is the doctrine best adapted to represent the tendencies and the aspirations of a

people like the people of Italy who are rising again after many centuries of abasement and

foreign servitude But empire demands discipline the coordination of all forces and a deeply felt

sense of duty and sacrifice this fact explains many aspects of the practical working of the

regime the character of many forces in the State and the necessarily severe measures which

must be taken against those who would oppose this spontaneous and inevitable movement of

Italy in the twentieth century and would oppose it by recalling the outworn ideology of the

nineteenth century - repudiated wheresoever there has been the courage to undertake great

experiments of social and political transformation for never before has the nation stood more in

need of authority of direction and order If every age has its own characteristic doctrine there

are a thousand signs which point to Fascism as the characteristic doctrine of our time For if a

doctrine must be a living thing this is proved by the fact that Fascism has created a living faith

and that this faith is very powerful in the minds of men is demonstrated by those who have

suffered and died for it

This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook The Sourcebook is a collection of

public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and

World history

Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright Permission

is granted for electronic copying distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal

use If you do reduplicate the document indicate the source No permission is granted for

commercial use of the Sourcebook

Given that the nineteenth century was the century of Socialism of Liberalism and of

Democracy it does not necessarily follow that the twentieth century must also be a century of

Socialism Liberalism and Democracy political doctrines pass but humanity remains and it may

rather be expected that this will be a century of authoritya century of Fascism For if the

nineteenth century was a century of individualism it may be expected that this will be the century

of collectivism and hence the century of the State

The foundation of Fascism is the conception of the State its character its duty and its aim

Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute in comparison with which all individuals or

groups are relative only to be conceived of in their relation to the State The conception of the

Liberal State is not that of a directing force guiding the play and development both material and

spiritual of a collective body but merely a force limited to the function of recording results on

the other hand the Fascist State is itself conscious and has itself a will and a personality -- thus it

may be called the ethic State

The Fascist State organizes the nation but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the

individual the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom but retains what is

essential the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual but the State alone

For Fascism the growth of empire that is to say the expansion of the nation is an essential

manifestation of vitality and its opposite a sign of decadence Peoples which are rising or rising

again after a period of decadence are always imperialist and renunciation is a sign of decay and

of death Fascism is the doctrine best adapted to represent the tendencies and the aspirations of a

people like the people of Italy who are rising again after many centuries of abasement and

foreign servitude But empire demands discipline the coordination of all forces and a deeply felt

sense of duty and sacrifice this fact explains many aspects of the practical working of the

regime the character of many forces in the State and the necessarily severe measures which

must be taken against those who would oppose this spontaneous and inevitable movement of

Italy in the twentieth century and would oppose it by recalling the outworn ideology of the

nineteenth century - repudiated wheresoever there has been the courage to undertake great

experiments of social and political transformation for never before has the nation stood more in

need of authority of direction and order If every age has its own characteristic doctrine there

are a thousand signs which point to Fascism as the characteristic doctrine of our time For if a

doctrine must be a living thing this is proved by the fact that Fascism has created a living faith

and that this faith is very powerful in the minds of men is demonstrated by those who have

suffered and died for it

This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook The Sourcebook is a collection of

public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and

World history

Unless otherwise indicated the specific electronic form of the document is copyright Permission

is granted for electronic copying distribution in print form for educational purposes and personal

use If you do reduplicate the document indicate the source No permission is granted for

commercial use of the Sourcebook

Obamacare Already Starts Collapsing Into Medical-Industry Feeding Frenzy

Posted on April 3 2013 by WashingtonsBlog Eric Zuesse

Part of the Obama Administrationrsquos promise to the American people regarding Obamacare was

that the enormous waste in Americarsquos medical expenses would be reduced The reversal of that

promise has already begun with the Administrationrsquos announcement on April 1st that is will

increase instead of (as had been promised) decrease taxpayer subsidies to private health

insurance companies

Estimates of this waste already range generally around 40 On 15 May 2007 Reuters headlined

ldquoUS Health Care Expensive Inefficient Reportrdquo and announced ldquoAmericans get the poorest

health care and yet pay the most compared to five other rich countriesrdquo according to a study by

the Commonwealth Fund ldquoThe US health care system ranks last compared with five other

countries on measures of quality access efficiency equity and outcomesrdquo In other words the

US was paying gold for garbage ldquoCanada rates second worst hellip Germany scored highest

followed by Britain Australia and New Zealandrdquo Moreover ldquoPer capita health spending in the

United States in 2004 was $6102 twice that of [top-rated] Germany which spent 3005 Canada

spent $3165 New Zealand $2083 and Australia $2876 while Britain spent $2546 per personrdquo

On top of that ldquoUS doctors are the least wired with the lowest percentage using electronic

medical records or receiving electronic updates on recommended treatmentsrdquo The

conservativesrsquo myth that ldquofree marketrdquo healthcare is more efficient or is better or is even more

ldquowiredrdquo than socialized health insurance benefits only the corporate providers within the

system and the stockholders of those corporations [Comment by Washingtons Blog We dont

think capitalism is the problem Indeed we dont even have free market capitalism in America

today Instead we have fascism communist style socialism kleptocracy oligarchy or banana

republic style corruption choose your label Also while Mr Zuesse is passionately

progressive we are trying to follow the Founding Fathers advice to be non-partisan] Everyone

else loses

On 14 March 2012 the Journal of the American Medical Association headlined ldquoEliminating

Waste in US Health Carerdquo and estimated that the waste amounted to somewhere between 21

and 47 of the total US medical expenses mixed public and private

One of the most wasteful parts of the entire system now is Medicare Part D ldquoAdvantagerdquo private

supplemental insurance plans which are heavily subsidized by US taxpayers and yet on

average still are costlier to Medicare recipients than is the government-run Part B program On

25 July 2008 the Los Angeles Times bannered ldquoMedicare Part D a Boon for Drug Companies

House Report Says Taxpayers pay up to 30 more for prescriptions under the privately

administered programrdquo than under the publicly administered one and Nicole Gaouette reported

that ldquoUS drug manufacturers are reaping a windfall from taxpayers because Medicarersquos

privately administered prescription drug benefit program pays more than other government

programs for the same medicines hellip In the two years Medicare Part D has been in effect drug

manufacturers have taken in $37 billion more than they would have through prices under the

Medicaid programrdquo For example ldquoBristol-Myers made an additional $400 million from higher

prices for a single drug the stroke medication Plavixrdquo

Part D including ldquoAdvantagerdquo was sold by President George W Bush to Congress on the basis

of the Presidentrsquos estimate that it would add ldquoonlyrdquo $395 billion to the deficit during its first ten

years Douglas Holtz-Eakin who had previously been the head of Bushrsquos Council of Economic

Advisors was now the head of the Congressional Budget Office and on 20 November 2003

right before the crucial House vote he wrote to Congress ldquoCBO estimates that enacting the

legislation would result in direct spending outlays totaling $395 billionrdquo This figure was crucial

because opponents had already said that any such legislation which would cost more than $400

billion (these were ten-year estimates 2004-2013) would be unacceptable Two months after the

legislation was passed the White House Budget Director revised that cost-estimate upward to the

range of $534-$551 billion Then on 11 March 2004 Tony Pugh of Knight Ridder Newspapers

headlined ldquoBush Administration Ordered Medicare Plan Cost Estimates Withheldrdquo and he

opened ldquoThe governmentrsquos top expert on Medicare costs [Richard S Foster] was warned that he

would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that

could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-

drug planrdquo On 2 April 2004 the Los Angeles Times headlined ldquoMedicare Secrecy Inquiry Is

Silenced House Republicans stop Democrats from delving further into why the prescription drug

billrsquos true cost estimates were kept from Congressrdquo On 9 February 2005 the White House re-

estimated what this legislation would cost the federal Government over ten years $720 billion

Thatrsquos $320 billion more than congressmen had been promised when they voted to pass the

legislation (Almost no Democrats voted to pass it but Republicans needed this cover from the

Administration ndash ldquoonly $395 billionrdquo ndash so that they could justify this program when speaking

about it to their constituents)

So now with a Democratic President on a 15 February 2013 Friday night news dump the

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a 23 reduction in subsidies to

insurers who provide plans under Part D This was supposed to be part of the cost-efficiencies in

Obamacare and an important part of the projected reductions in the growth of the federal debt

But then after lots of lobbying by those insurers CMS reversed itself on April 1st and said that

instead those subsidies would increase 33 Reuters headlined on April 2nd ldquoIn Reversal US

to Raise Medicare Advantage Payment Raterdquo and announced ldquoIn a reversal that followed

intense lobbying from the health insurance industryrdquo the CMS ldquosaid on Monday it will increase

the rate by 33 percent in 2014 reversing a 23 percent cut announced in Februaryrdquo The many

ldquofree marketrdquo fans of increasing this Republican federal subsidy to big businesses were

applauding At foolcom Sean Williams bannered ldquoThe Insurance Industry Shows Obamacare

Whorsquos Bossrdquo and exulted ldquoThe insurance industry effectively dictated itself a raiserdquo He pointed

out that Humana Universal American UnitedHealth and Health Net ldquogenerate 635 75

25 and 25 respectively of their revenue from Medicare Advantagerdquo He didnrsquot note

however that this ldquorevenuerdquo comes from enormous subsidies that are paid by US taxpayers to

those companies CNN headlined on April 2nd ldquoHealth Insurance Stocks Surge on Medicare

Rate Hikerdquo and reported that all insurers jumped at least 4 and ldquoHumana which has the

greatest exposure to Medicare Advantage jumped nearly 10rdquo

This is how Americarsquos ldquofree marketrdquo works But it is also how Americans spend twice as much

per person and receive inferior health care as compared to other industrialized countries And

now with Obamacare it is how these subsidies will be increased not reduced and the federal

governmentrsquos debt will rise even higher than is being projected while the largest corporations

will thrive

So President Obama is working as he has since he first became President with Republicans in

Congress to cut Social Security Medicare and Medicaid After all Humana UnitedHealth and

other health insurance companies ndash and the mega-banks on Wall Street ndash all need that money

ldquoEntitlementrdquo recipients shouldnrsquot be so ldquogreedyrdquo They need to share more of it with the mega-

banks and the corporations in the DJI and SampP

Every mass shooting over last 20 years has one thing in common and its not guns

Tuesday April 02 2013

by Mike Adams

The following is a republishing of an important article written by Dan Roberts from

AmmoLandcom It reveals the real truth about mass shootings that bureaucrats and lawmakers

are choosing to sweep under the rug psychiatric drugs If you want to know the real reason

why mass shootings are taking place this is the inconvenient truth the media wont cover

insurers who provide plans under Part D This was supposed to be part of the cost-efficiencies in

Obamacare and an important part of the projected reductions in the growth of the federal debt

But then after lots of lobbying by those insurers CMS reversed itself on April 1st and said that

instead those subsidies would increase 33 Reuters headlined on April 2nd ldquoIn Reversal US

to Raise Medicare Advantage Payment Raterdquo and announced ldquoIn a reversal that followed

intense lobbying from the health insurance industryrdquo the CMS ldquosaid on Monday it will increase

the rate by 33 percent in 2014 reversing a 23 percent cut announced in Februaryrdquo The many

ldquofree marketrdquo fans of increasing this Republican federal subsidy to big businesses were

applauding At foolcom Sean Williams bannered ldquoThe Insurance Industry Shows Obamacare

Whorsquos Bossrdquo and exulted ldquoThe insurance industry effectively dictated itself a raiserdquo He pointed

out that Humana Universal American UnitedHealth and Health Net ldquogenerate 635 75

25 and 25 respectively of their revenue from Medicare Advantagerdquo He didnrsquot note

however that this ldquorevenuerdquo comes from enormous subsidies that are paid by US taxpayers to

those companies CNN headlined on April 2nd ldquoHealth Insurance Stocks Surge on Medicare

Rate Hikerdquo and reported that all insurers jumped at least 4 and ldquoHumana which has the

greatest exposure to Medicare Advantage jumped nearly 10rdquo

This is how Americarsquos ldquofree marketrdquo works But it is also how Americans spend twice as much

per person and receive inferior health care as compared to other industrialized countries And

now with Obamacare it is how these subsidies will be increased not reduced and the federal

governmentrsquos debt will rise even higher than is being projected while the largest corporations

will thrive

So President Obama is working as he has since he first became President with Republicans in

Congress to cut Social Security Medicare and Medicaid After all Humana UnitedHealth and

other health insurance companies ndash and the mega-banks on Wall Street ndash all need that money

ldquoEntitlementrdquo recipients shouldnrsquot be so ldquogreedyrdquo They need to share more of it with the mega-

banks and the corporations in the DJI and SampP

Every mass shooting over last 20 years has one thing in common and its not guns

Tuesday April 02 2013

by Mike Adams

The following is a republishing of an important article written by Dan Roberts from

AmmoLandcom It reveals the real truth about mass shootings that bureaucrats and lawmakers

are choosing to sweep under the rug psychiatric drugs If you want to know the real reason

why mass shootings are taking place this is the inconvenient truth the media wont cover

As part of a collective grassroots effort to defend the Bill of Rights against usurpers and tyrants

Natural News is republishing this article without asking for permission first When it comes to

fighting tyrants and defending liberty the unstated agreement across the entire liberty-loving

grassroots community is Use our articles help spread the word Every article I write here on

Natural News for example may be reprinted with credit and a link back to the original source

article on NaturalNewscom

Heres the full article by Dan Roberts

(Ammolandcom) Nearly every mass shooting incident in the last twenty years and multiple

other instances of suicide and isolated shootings all share one thing in common and its not the

weapons used

The overwhelming evidence points to the signal largest common factor in all of these incidents is

the fact that all of the perpetrators were either actively taking powerful psychotropic drugs or had

been at some point in the immediate past before they committed their crimes

Multiple credible scientific studies going back more then a decade as well as internal documents

from certain pharmaceutical companies that suppressed the information show that SSRI drugs (

Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors ) have well known but unreported side effects

including but not limited to suicide and other violent behavior One need only Google relevant

key words or phrases to see for themselves wwwssristoriescom is one popular site that has

documented over 4500 Mainstream Media reported cases from around the World of aberrant

or violent behavior by those taking these powerful drugs

The following list of mass shooting perpetrators and the drugs they were taking or had been

taking shortly before their horrific actions was compiled and published to Facebook by John

Noveske founder and owner of Noveske Rifleworks just days before he was mysteriously killed

in a single car accident Is there a link between Noveskes death and his outting of information

numerous disparate parties would prefer to suppress for a variety of reasons

I leave that to the individual readers to decide But there is most certainly a documented history

of people who knew too much or were considered a threat dying under extraordinarily

suspicious circumstances

From Katherine Smith a Tennessee DMV worker who was somehow involved with several 911

hijackers obtaining Tennessee Drivers Licenses and was later found burned to death in her car

to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Gary Webb who exposed a CIA Operation in the 80s that

resulted in the flooding of LA Streets with crack cocaine and was later found dead from two

gunshot wounds to the head but was officially ruled as a suicide to Frank Olson a senior

research micro biologist who was working on the CIAs mind control research program

MKULTRA

After Olson expressed his desire to leave the program he was with a CIA agent in a New York

hotel room and is alleged to have committed suicide by throwing himself off the tenth floor

balcony In 1994 Olsons sons were successful in their efforts to have their fathers body

exhumed and re examined in a second autopsy by James Starrs Professor of Law and Forensic

science at the National Law Center at George Washington University Starrs team concluded

that the blunt force trauma to the head and injury to the chest had not occurred during the fall but

most likely in the room before the fall The evidence was called rankly and starkly suggestive of

homicide Based on his findings in 1996 the Manhattan District Attorney opened a homicide

investigation into Olsons death but was unable to find enough evidence to bring charges

As I said I leave it to the individual readers to make up their own minds if Noveske suffered a

similar fate On to the list of mass shooters and the stark link to psychotropic drugs

bull Eric Harris age 17 (first on Zoloft then Luvox) and Dylan Klebold aged 18 (Columbine school

shooting in Littleton Colorado) killed 12 students and 1 teacher and wounded 23 others before

killing themselves Klebolds medical records have never been made available to the public

bull Jeff Weise age 16 had been prescribed 60 mgday of Prozac (three times the average starting

dose for adults) when he shot his grandfather his grandfathers girlfriend and many fellow

students at Red Lake Minnesota He then shot himself 10 dead 12 wounded

bull Cory Baadsgaard age 16 Wahluke (Washington state) High School was on Paxil (which

caused him to have hallucinations) when he took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates

hostage He has no memory of the event

bull Chris Fetters age 13 killed his favorite aunt while taking Prozac

bull Christopher Pittman age 12 murdered both his grandparents while taking Zoloft

bull Mathew Miller age 13 hung himself in his bedroom closet after taking Zoloft for 6 days

bull Kip Kinkel age 15 (on Prozac and Ritalin) shot his parents while they slept then went to

school and opened fire killing 2 classmates and injuring 22 shortly after beginning Prozac

treatment

bull Luke Woodham age 16 (Prozac) killed his mother and then killed two students wounding six

others

bull A boy in Pocatello ID (Zoloft) in 1998 had a Zoloft-induced seizure that caused an armed

stand off at his school

bull Michael Carneal (Ritalin) age 14 opened fire on students at a high school prayer meeting in

West Paducah Kentucky Three teenagers were killed five others were wounded

bull A young man in Huntsville Alabama (Ritalin) went psychotic chopping up his parents with an

ax and also killing one sibling and almost murdering another

bull Andrew Golden age 11 (Ritalin) and Mitchell Johnson aged 14 (Ritalin) shot 15 people

killing four students one teacher and wounding 10 others

bull TJ Solomon age 15 (Ritalin) high school student in Conyers Georgia opened fire on and

wounded six of his class mates

bull Rod Mathews age 14 (Ritalin) beat a classmate to death with a bat

bull James Wilson age 19 (various psychiatric drugs) from Breenwood South Carolina took a 22

caliber revolver into an elementary school killing two young girls and wounding seven other

children and two teachers

bull Elizabeth Bush age 13 (Paxil) was responsible for a school shooting in Pennsylvania

bull Jason Hoffman (Effexor and Celexa) ndash school shooting in El Cajon California

bull Jarred Viktor age 15 (Paxil) after five days on Paxil he stabbed his grandmother 61 times

bull Chris Shanahan age 15 (Paxil) in Rigby ID who out of the blue killed a woman

bull Jeff Franklin (Prozac and Ritalin) Huntsville AL killed his parents as they came home from

work using a sledge hammer hatchet butcher knife and mechanics file then attacked his

younger brothers and sister

bull Neal Furrow (Prozac) in LA Jewish school shooting reported to have been court-ordered to be

on Prozac along with several other medications

bull Kevin Rider age 14 was withdrawing from Prozac when he died from a gunshot wound to his

head Initially it was ruled a suicide but two years later the investigation into his death was

opened as a possible homicide The prime suspect also age 14 had been taking Zoloft and other

SSRI antidepressants

bull Alex Kim age 13 hung himself shortly after his Lexapro prescription had been doubled

bull Diane Routhier was prescribed Welbutrin for gallstone problems Six days later after suffering

many adverse effects of the drug she shot herself

bull Billy Willkomm an accomplished wrestler and a University of Florida student was prescribed

Prozac at the age of 17 His family found him dead of suicide ndash hanging from a tall ladder at the

familys Gulf Shore Boulevard home in July 2002

bull Kara Jaye Anne Fuller-Otter age 12 was on Paxil when she hung herself from a hook in her

closet Karas parents said the damn doctor wouldnt take her off it and I asked him to when

we went in on the second visit I told him I thought she was having some sort of reaction to

Paxil)

bull Gareth Christian Vancouver age 18 was on Paxil when he committed suicide in 2002

(Gareths father could not accept his sons death and killed himself)

bull Julie Woodward age 17 was on Zoloft when she hung herself in her familys detached garage

bull Matthew Miller was 13 when he saw a psychiatrist because he was having difficulty at school

The psychiatrist gave him samples of Zoloft Seven days later his mother found him dead

hanging by a belt from a laundry hook in his closet

bull Kurt Danysh age 18 and on Prozac killed his father with a shotgun He is now behind prison

bars and writes letters trying to warn the world that SSRI drugs can kill

bull Woody __ age 37 committed suicide while in his 5th week of taking Zoloft Shortly before his

death his physician suggested doubling the dose of the drug He had seen his physician only for

insomnia He had never been depressed nor did he have any history of any mental illness

symptoms

bull A boy from Houston age 10 shot and killed his father after his Prozac dosage was increased

bull Hammad Memon age 15 shot and killed a fellow middle school student He had been

diagnosed with ADHD and depression and was taking Zoloft and other drugs for the

conditions

bull Matti Saari a 22-year-old culinary student shot and killed 9 students and a teacher and

wounded another student before killing himself Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine

bull Steven Kazmierczak age 27 shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing

himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium According to his girlfriend he had recently

been taking Prozac Xanax and Ambien Toxicology results showed that he still had trace

amounts of Xanax in his system

bull Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen age 18 had been taking antidepressants before he killed

eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School ndash then he committed suicide

bull Asa Coon from Cleveland age 14 shot and wounded four before taking his own life Court

records show Coon was on Trazodone

bull Jon Romano age 16 on medication for depression fired a shotgun at a teacher in his New

York high school

Missing from list 3 of 4 known to have taken these same meds

bull What drugs was Jared Lee Loughner on age 21 killed 6 people and injuring 14 others in

Tuscon Az

bull What drugs was James Eagan Holmes on age 24 killed 12 people and injuring 59 others in

Aurora Colorado

bull What drugs was Jacob Tyler Roberts on age 22 killed 2 injured 1 Clackamas Or

bull What drugs was Adam Peter Lanza on age 20 Killed 26 and wounded 2 in Newtown Ct

Those focusing on further firearms bans or magazine restrictions are clearly focusing on the

wrong issue and asking the wrong questions either as a deliberate attempt to hide these links or

out of complete and utter ignorance

Dont let them Force our elected representatives and the media to cast a harsh spotlight on this

issue Dont stop hounding them until they do

Learn more

httpwwwnaturalnewscom039752_mass_shootings_psychiatric_drugs_antidepressantshtmli

xzz2Pd4ntwp5

bull A young man in Huntsville Alabama (Ritalin) went psychotic chopping up his parents with an

ax and also killing one sibling and almost murdering another

bull Andrew Golden age 11 (Ritalin) and Mitchell Johnson aged 14 (Ritalin) shot 15 people

killing four students one teacher and wounding 10 others

bull TJ Solomon age 15 (Ritalin) high school student in Conyers Georgia opened fire on and

wounded six of his class mates

bull Rod Mathews age 14 (Ritalin) beat a classmate to death with a bat

bull James Wilson age 19 (various psychiatric drugs) from Breenwood South Carolina took a 22

caliber revolver into an elementary school killing two young girls and wounding seven other

children and two teachers

bull Elizabeth Bush age 13 (Paxil) was responsible for a school shooting in Pennsylvania

bull Jason Hoffman (Effexor and Celexa) ndash school shooting in El Cajon California

bull Jarred Viktor age 15 (Paxil) after five days on Paxil he stabbed his grandmother 61 times

bull Chris Shanahan age 15 (Paxil) in Rigby ID who out of the blue killed a woman

bull Jeff Franklin (Prozac and Ritalin) Huntsville AL killed his parents as they came home from

work using a sledge hammer hatchet butcher knife and mechanics file then attacked his

younger brothers and sister

bull Neal Furrow (Prozac) in LA Jewish school shooting reported to have been court-ordered to be

on Prozac along with several other medications

bull Kevin Rider age 14 was withdrawing from Prozac when he died from a gunshot wound to his

head Initially it was ruled a suicide but two years later the investigation into his death was

opened as a possible homicide The prime suspect also age 14 had been taking Zoloft and other

SSRI antidepressants

bull Alex Kim age 13 hung himself shortly after his Lexapro prescription had been doubled

bull Diane Routhier was prescribed Welbutrin for gallstone problems Six days later after suffering

many adverse effects of the drug she shot herself

bull Billy Willkomm an accomplished wrestler and a University of Florida student was prescribed

Prozac at the age of 17 His family found him dead of suicide ndash hanging from a tall ladder at the

familys Gulf Shore Boulevard home in July 2002

bull Kara Jaye Anne Fuller-Otter age 12 was on Paxil when she hung herself from a hook in her

closet Karas parents said the damn doctor wouldnt take her off it and I asked him to when

we went in on the second visit I told him I thought she was having some sort of reaction to

Paxil)

bull Gareth Christian Vancouver age 18 was on Paxil when he committed suicide in 2002

(Gareths father could not accept his sons death and killed himself)

bull Julie Woodward age 17 was on Zoloft when she hung herself in her familys detached garage

bull Matthew Miller was 13 when he saw a psychiatrist because he was having difficulty at school

The psychiatrist gave him samples of Zoloft Seven days later his mother found him dead

hanging by a belt from a laundry hook in his closet

bull Kurt Danysh age 18 and on Prozac killed his father with a shotgun He is now behind prison

bars and writes letters trying to warn the world that SSRI drugs can kill

bull Woody __ age 37 committed suicide while in his 5th week of taking Zoloft Shortly before his

death his physician suggested doubling the dose of the drug He had seen his physician only for

insomnia He had never been depressed nor did he have any history of any mental illness

symptoms

bull A boy from Houston age 10 shot and killed his father after his Prozac dosage was increased

bull Hammad Memon age 15 shot and killed a fellow middle school student He had been

diagnosed with ADHD and depression and was taking Zoloft and other drugs for the

conditions

bull Matti Saari a 22-year-old culinary student shot and killed 9 students and a teacher and

wounded another student before killing himself Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine

bull Steven Kazmierczak age 27 shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing

himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium According to his girlfriend he had recently

been taking Prozac Xanax and Ambien Toxicology results showed that he still had trace

amounts of Xanax in his system

bull Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen age 18 had been taking antidepressants before he killed

eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School ndash then he committed suicide

bull Asa Coon from Cleveland age 14 shot and wounded four before taking his own life Court

records show Coon was on Trazodone

bull Jon Romano age 16 on medication for depression fired a shotgun at a teacher in his New

York high school

Missing from list 3 of 4 known to have taken these same meds

bull What drugs was Jared Lee Loughner on age 21 killed 6 people and injuring 14 others in

Tuscon Az

bull What drugs was James Eagan Holmes on age 24 killed 12 people and injuring 59 others in

Aurora Colorado

bull What drugs was Jacob Tyler Roberts on age 22 killed 2 injured 1 Clackamas Or

bull What drugs was Adam Peter Lanza on age 20 Killed 26 and wounded 2 in Newtown Ct

Those focusing on further firearms bans or magazine restrictions are clearly focusing on the

wrong issue and asking the wrong questions either as a deliberate attempt to hide these links or

out of complete and utter ignorance

Dont let them Force our elected representatives and the media to cast a harsh spotlight on this

issue Dont stop hounding them until they do

Learn more

httpwwwnaturalnewscom039752_mass_shootings_psychiatric_drugs_antidepressantshtmli

xzz2Pd4ntwp5

familys Gulf Shore Boulevard home in July 2002

bull Kara Jaye Anne Fuller-Otter age 12 was on Paxil when she hung herself from a hook in her

closet Karas parents said the damn doctor wouldnt take her off it and I asked him to when

we went in on the second visit I told him I thought she was having some sort of reaction to

Paxil)

bull Gareth Christian Vancouver age 18 was on Paxil when he committed suicide in 2002

(Gareths father could not accept his sons death and killed himself)

bull Julie Woodward age 17 was on Zoloft when she hung herself in her familys detached garage

bull Matthew Miller was 13 when he saw a psychiatrist because he was having difficulty at school

The psychiatrist gave him samples of Zoloft Seven days later his mother found him dead

hanging by a belt from a laundry hook in his closet

bull Kurt Danysh age 18 and on Prozac killed his father with a shotgun He is now behind prison

bars and writes letters trying to warn the world that SSRI drugs can kill

bull Woody __ age 37 committed suicide while in his 5th week of taking Zoloft Shortly before his

death his physician suggested doubling the dose of the drug He had seen his physician only for

insomnia He had never been depressed nor did he have any history of any mental illness

symptoms

bull A boy from Houston age 10 shot and killed his father after his Prozac dosage was increased

bull Hammad Memon age 15 shot and killed a fellow middle school student He had been

diagnosed with ADHD and depression and was taking Zoloft and other drugs for the

conditions

bull Matti Saari a 22-year-old culinary student shot and killed 9 students and a teacher and

wounded another student before killing himself Saari was taking an SSRI and a benzodiazapine

bull Steven Kazmierczak age 27 shot and killed five people and wounded 21 others before killing

himself in a Northern Illinois University auditorium According to his girlfriend he had recently

been taking Prozac Xanax and Ambien Toxicology results showed that he still had trace

amounts of Xanax in his system

bull Finnish gunman Pekka-Eric Auvinen age 18 had been taking antidepressants before he killed

eight people and wounded a dozen more at Jokela High School ndash then he committed suicide

bull Asa Coon from Cleveland age 14 shot and wounded four before taking his own life Court

records show Coon was on Trazodone

bull Jon Romano age 16 on medication for depression fired a shotgun at a teacher in his New

York high school

Missing from list 3 of 4 known to have taken these same meds

bull What drugs was Jared Lee Loughner on age 21 killed 6 people and injuring 14 others in

Tuscon Az

bull What drugs was James Eagan Holmes on age 24 killed 12 people and injuring 59 others in

Aurora Colorado

bull What drugs was Jacob Tyler Roberts on age 22 killed 2 injured 1 Clackamas Or

bull What drugs was Adam Peter Lanza on age 20 Killed 26 and wounded 2 in Newtown Ct

Those focusing on further firearms bans or magazine restrictions are clearly focusing on the

wrong issue and asking the wrong questions either as a deliberate attempt to hide these links or

out of complete and utter ignorance

Dont let them Force our elected representatives and the media to cast a harsh spotlight on this

issue Dont stop hounding them until they do

Learn more

httpwwwnaturalnewscom039752_mass_shootings_psychiatric_drugs_antidepressantshtmli

xzz2Pd4ntwp5

bull Jon Romano age 16 on medication for depression fired a shotgun at a teacher in his New

York high school

Missing from list 3 of 4 known to have taken these same meds

bull What drugs was Jared Lee Loughner on age 21 killed 6 people and injuring 14 others in

Tuscon Az

bull What drugs was James Eagan Holmes on age 24 killed 12 people and injuring 59 others in

Aurora Colorado

bull What drugs was Jacob Tyler Roberts on age 22 killed 2 injured 1 Clackamas Or

bull What drugs was Adam Peter Lanza on age 20 Killed 26 and wounded 2 in Newtown Ct

Those focusing on further firearms bans or magazine restrictions are clearly focusing on the

wrong issue and asking the wrong questions either as a deliberate attempt to hide these links or

out of complete and utter ignorance

Dont let them Force our elected representatives and the media to cast a harsh spotlight on this

issue Dont stop hounding them until they do

Learn more

httpwwwnaturalnewscom039752_mass_shootings_psychiatric_drugs_antidepressantshtmli

xzz2Pd4ntwp5

Craig B Hulet was both speech writer and Special Assistant for Special Projects to Congressman

Jack Metcalf (Retired) he has been a consultant to federal law enforcement DEA ATFampE of

JusticeHomeland Security for over 25 years he has written four books on international relations

and philosophy his latest is The Hydra of Carnage Bushrsquos Imperial War-making and the Rule of

Law - An Analysis of the Objectives and Delusions of Empire He has appeared on over 12000

hours of TV and Radio The History Channel ldquoDe-Codedrdquo He is a regular on Coast to Coast

AM w George Noory and Coffee Talk KBKW CNN C-Span European Television American

Dream and The Arsenio Hall Show he has written for Soldier of Fortune Magazine

International Combat Arms Financial Security Digest etc Hulet served in Vietnam 1969-70

101st Airborne C Troop 217th Air Cav and graduated 3rd in his class at Aberdeen Proving

Grounds Ordnance School MOS 45J20 Weapons He remains a paid analyst and consultant in

various areas of geopolitical business and security issues terrorism and military affairs Hulet

lives in the ancient old growth Quinault Rain Forest