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     Over the years, CNN.com has become a mainstream news website that many people turn to for top-notch reporting. Every day it is visited by millions of people, all of whom rely on “The Worldwide Leader in News;” the slogan for the most crucial up-to-date information on current events. So, you may ask, why was this morning’s top story, a spot usually given to the most important foreign or domestic news of the day, headlined “Miley Cyrus Did What???” and accompanied by the subhead “Twerks, stuns at VMAs”?
     It is a good question, and the answer is rather simple. It was an attempt to get you to click on CNN.com so that they could drive up their web traffic, which in turn would allow them to increase their advertising revenue.
     There was nothing, and I mean nothing, about that story that related to the important news of the day, the chronicling of significant human events, or the idea that journalism itself can be a force for positive change in the world. For Christ’s sake, there was an accompanying story with the headline “Miley’s Shocking Moves.” In fact, putting that story front and center was actually doing, if anything, a disservice to the public. Come to think of it; this was probably a disservice to the hundreds of thousands of people dying in Syria, those suffering from the current unrest in Egypt, or, hell, even people who just wanted to read about the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech.
     Boy oh boy did it get them some web traffic. Which is why Meredith Artley, managing editor of CNN.com, put the story in the top spot. Those that were watching on Google Analytics saw the number of homepage visits skyrocket the second that salacious image of Miley Cyrus dancing half nude on the VMA stage was put up. Here’s where it gets great though: They don’t just do a top story on the VMA performance and call it a day. No, no, they also throw in a slideshow called “Evolution of Miley,” which, for those of you who don’t know, is just a way for you to mindlessly click through 13 more photos of Miley Cyrus. If they got 500,000 of you to do that, well, 500,000 multiplied by 13 means they can get 6.5 million page views on that slideshow alone. Throw in another slideshow titled “6 ‘don’t miss’ VMA moments,” and it’s starting to look like a pretty goddamned good Monday, numbers-wise. Also, there are two videos, one of the event and then some bullshit two-minute clip featuring their “entertainment experts” talking about the performance.
     Side note: Advertisers, along with you idiots, love videos. Another side note: The Miley Cyrus story was in the same top spot they used for our 9/11 coverage.
     Now, let's get back to why they put the story in the most coveted spot on their website, thereby saying, essentially, that Miley Cyrus’ suggestive dancing is the most important thing going on in the world right now. If you clicked on the story, and all the slideshows, and all the other VMA coverage, that means you were probably on CNN.com for more than seven minutes, which lowers their overall bounce rate. Do you know what that is? Sorry for getting a little technical here. The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a particular website who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. If they can keep that bounce rate low, and show companies that people don’t just go to CNN.com but stay there, then they0 can go to Ford or McDonald’s or Samsonite or whatever big company you can think of and ask for the big bucks.
     So, as managing editor of CNN.com, Merideth wanted readers to know this: All you are, and all you will ever be, are eyeballs. The more eyeballs on their content, the more cash they can ask for, period. If they are able to get more eyeballs, that means Merideth has done her job, which gets her congratulations from her bosses, which encourages her to put up even more stupid bullshit on the homepage.
     I don’t hesitate to call it stupid bullshit because we all know it’s stupid bullshit. I know it and you know it. We also know that you are probably dumb enough, or bored enough, or both, to click on the stupid bullshit anyway, and that you will continue to do so as long as they keep putting it in front of your big, idiot faces. You want to know how many more page views the Miley Cyrus thing got than their article on the wildfires ravaging Yosemite? Like 6 gazillion more. That’s on you, not them.
     To be sure, It could have been argued that Miley Cyrus’ performance merited the top spot on their website because it was significant in terms of what’s happening in the world of pop culture; or that her over-the-top theatrics are worth covering because they are somehow representative of the lengths to which performers must go to stand out in the current entertainment landscape. Who the fuck am I kidding? Truth be told, anything at last night’s VMAs short of Lady Gaga beheading Will Smith with a broadsword belongs tucked away in the entertainment section, far from the homepage, far from the top spot, and far from the eyes of anyone who logged on to their site this morning to see what was happening in the world. Then not nearly as many people would have seen it, which wouldn’t get them the page views they want, which wouldn’t get them the money they want, which wouldn’t get the them congratulations.
     So you see, there’s no stopping this, and what is this, you ask? Modern-day journalism, and what is modern-day journalism? Getting you to click on their link.

Original post by the Onion News, edited by Sean Crystal

     The line between police officer and soldier are becoming increasingly blurry, and have been since the 1960s when responses to perceived threats from local law enforcement at the state level began to reflect military tactical training (MTT).
     Corporations such as Solutions Group International offer local police departments training in MTT to “law enforcement, military, government, and private sector organizations.”
      Local departments have developed the mind-set that their community is a battlefield; and the advent and use of military-grade weaponry by police officers exacerbates the situation. Armed with M-16 rifles, armored vehicles and SWAT team gear on a daily basis, police officers are posing a measurable threat to American liberties.
     Special weapons and tactics or SWAT is specialized training that police officers can potentially partake in to learn the tactics used by the Special Forces in the military. This training includes how to:

Break into residences with battering rams; Use flash-bang grenades, designed to blind and deafen targets; “Clear” a building; and Subdue residents as quickly as possible

     Over 40 years ago, SWAT teams became employed in Los Angeles and by 1975; there were an estimated 500 teams in local police departments across the nation. In 2012, the numbers were in the thousands. Even the Department of Education, NASA, and the Consumer Protection Agency has them.
     In 2012, Louis F. Quijas, Assistant Secretary of the Office for State and Local Law Enforcement (OSLLE), for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained the purpose of the OSLLE as a front “office that provided coordination and partnership with state, local, and tribal law enforcement.”
     The OSLLE was recommended by the 9/11 Commission. It was created to “lead the coordination of DHS-wide policies relating to state, local, and tribal law enforcement’s role in preventing acts of terrorism and to serve as the primary liaison between non-Federal law enforcement agencies across the country and the Department.”
     Intelligence is disseminated through OSLLE to local police departments or “non-Federal law enforcement partners” to keep information flowing through initiatives such as If You See Something; Say Something, the Blue Campaign, the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI), and the Department’s efforts in Countering Violent Extremism.
       OSLLE consistently works with local departments on education, actionable information, operations and intelligence for the purpose of their part in the operations of the DHS with regard to keeping “our homeland safe. “
     OSLLE also works as a liaison between local police departments to maintain DHS leadership and considerations of “issues, concerns, and requirements of state, local, and tribal law enforcement during budget, grant, and policy development processes.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides funding to local police departments to send their officers to FLETC (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center), to receive militarized education in tactical operations.
     FLETC has locations in Georgia, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Washington DC. This federal militarization of local police extends to international policing agencies, which “develops, coordinates, manages, and delivers international training and technical assistance that promotes the rule of law and supports U.S. foreign policy.”
     The 2011 document entitled “Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States” outlines how a “comprehensive strategy” to counter the influence of al-Qaeda is being championed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with digital information sharing and coordinating intelligence with local law enforcement to thwart terrorist plots and “save many American lives.”
     The document names plots devised by neo-Nazis, anti-Semitic hate groups, racial supremacists, and international & domestic terrorists inspired by al-Qaeda as a threat to the US. The federal government is utilizing local police departments to build a “local level…resilience against violent extremism.”
     Using propaganda, under the guise of “local partners in their grassroots efforts to prevent violent extremism” the federal government is building a network with local law enforcement against the threat of radicalization online and in the real world.
     Over the last few years, the DHS have been indoctrinating local police departments into “non-Federal law enforcement agencies,” as outlined in their directive from the Office for State and Local Law Enforcement. DHS is successful in their relationship with local police departments all across the nation because they are contracted private security firms, a.k.a. hired armed guards, which are placed in a city or town to secure the population and generate revenue for the local government.
     In 2009, President Obama said that: “We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

     On February 16, 1962, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy signed several Executive Orders that allegedly would give certain dictatorial powers to the appointed bureaucrats in the event that the president was to declare a "National Emergency." These EOs apply to whichever president is sitting in office at the designated time. At the president's discretion "in any time of increased international tension or economic or financial crisis," the Executive Orders could theoretically be enacted.
     These EOs signed by Kennedy would give authority to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to control communications, energy, food, fuel, farms, transportation, highways, railroads, inland waterways, seaports, health, education and welfare. FEMA would also be given authority to draft citizens into work forces under government supervision, designate areas to be abandoned & designated as “unsafe,” relocate communities, and controls all public storage facilities.
     On February 27, 1962 Kennedy signed EO 11051 designating FEMA as the authorized agency to implement the above orders, and which authority can be re-designated by the original authority. President Nixon  later signed EO 11490 combining all the above to be enacted in one fell swoop; on July 20, 1979 Carter added a few minor amendments; and, in June, 1994 President Bill (William) Clinton signed EO 12919 which appears to encompass all of the EOs.
     To my knowledge, there are no Executive Orders that nullify any of these preparations for martial law; there is however some superseding, and revocation due to updates in the Executive Order, for which a new Order was issued. They question the rule of law and where the line is drawn. Given that there is no Constitutional authority for any president to declare a "National Emergency,” the question is raised as to how the orchestrators’ of this plan expected to successfully execute the E's.
     The plan for total control of every aspect of our lives has been under construction for a long time. As you read these executive orders, bear in mind that they mean nothing by themselves. They are not law, nor can they become law by and of themselves. However, under legislation that is currently pending in most, and potentially all states, they could take on significant meaning.
     The Emergency Health Powers legislation, pending in state capitols all across America, if passed, would give the governor the power to declare a state of health emergency by executive order. He then would be able to hand the reins of power to whomever he chooses; including the state's emergency management agency, which could essentially act as an arm of FEMA. Apart from, and occasionally combined with these Emergency Health Powers Acts are varying forms of "anti-terror" bills that are virtually redefining the words "terror," "terrorism," and "terrorist."
     States are busy right now creating their own versions of the federal Office of Homeland Security. These state offices will oversee the process and details of the implementation of these orders. That is why it is so critical to get the legislation stopped in the states. After you are finished reading these executive orders, you might wish to print them out and take them to your state legislators, to emphasize to them the importance of defeating the bills that are currently pending, that would be the final piece needed to implement the elitist agenda.

Here are the original Executive Orders:

Executive Order 10995: Established the position of Director of Telecommunications Management, February 16, 1962, John F. Kennedy

Executive Order 10997: Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the secretary of the interior, February 16, 1962, John F. Kennedy*

Executive Order 10998: Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the secretary of agriculture, February 16, 1962, John F. Kennedy*

Executive Order 11000: Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the secretary of labor, February 16, 1962, John F. Kennedy*

Executive Order 11001: Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the secretary of health, education, and welfare, February 16, 1962, John F. Kennedy

Executive Order 11002: Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the postmaster general, February 16, 1962, John F. Kennedy*

Executive Order 11003: Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the administrator of the federal aviation agency, February 16, 1962, John F. Kennedy*

Executive Order 11004: Assigning certain emergency preparedness functions to the housing and home finance administrator, February 16, 1962, John F. Kennedy*

Executive Order 11005: Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the interstate commerce commission, February 16, 1962, John F. Kennedy*

Executive Order 11310: Assigning emergency preparedness functions to the Attorney General, October 11, 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson

*Revoked but revised strongly by:

Executive Order 11490: Assigning emergency preparedness functions to Federal departments and agencies, October 28, 1969, Richard Nixon

Executive Order 12919: Signed June 3, 1994, by President Clinton, encompasses all the above executive orders.

     Since the mid-1990s just five biotech giants; Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow and DuPont, have bought up more than 200 other companies between them in an attempt to dominate our access to seeds, especially organic and heirloom.
     Philip Howard from Michigan State University produced a unique visual to illustrate this growing concentration of power in the hands of a few companies. Howard also says that the takeover of the seed market has been 'dramatic' and that it is growingg harder for farmers to find alternatives. 
     In the US for example, where 90 per cent of the soybeans grown are genetically-modified varieties, many conventional farmers have had difficulty obtaining non-genetically modified seeds to plant. 
     Howard says the increasing power of seed companies is 'incompatible' with renewable agricultural practices such as saving and replanting seeds. He says one solution to restricting their control would be through banning the practice of granting patents on seeds, plants and genes.
     A patent gives a company exclusive rights to sell and develop a new invention. In the case of patents on plants and genes it grants them temporary monopolies and bans farmers from saving seeds, forcing them to buy new seeds from the company each year or pay a license to use patented seeds they have saved.
     Howard and others argue that 'excessive seed patenting' by the biotech giants is allowing them to control a large number of seeds and leading to an increase in seed prices and a decrease of seed choices for farmers.
     The groundbreaking IAASTD report in 2008 conducted by 400 scientists from around the world, criticized patents for driving up costs and restricting experimentation by farmers in developing countries.
     A report, 'Future of seeds and food', published last year by a coalition of campaign groups, including Greenpeace, called for an end to patents on seeds to halt the domination of biotech giants like Syngenta. It says only bigger seed companies can afford to apply and enforce a patent.
     'Patents exacerbate genetic erosion as they promote monoculture by hindering the development of new seed varieties. In sum, the possible, long term consequences of patents are control of the whole food chain by a few companies,' said the report.
     'What is needed most is a clear legal ruling that exempts seeds and farm animals from patent protection.

     The shocking minutes relating to President Putin’s meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry reveal the Russian leaders “extreme outrage” over the Obama regimes continued protection of global seed and plant bio-genetic giants Syngenta and Monsanto in the face of a growing “bee apocalypse” that the Kremlin warns “will most certainly” lead to world war.
     According to the minutes, released in the Kremlin by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation (MNRE), Putin was so incensed over the Obama regimes refusal to discuss the grave matter that he refused for three hours to even meet with Kerry. Kerry had traveled to Moscow on a scheduled diplomatic mission, but then relented in order to prevent an even greater rift between these two nations.
     At the center of this dispute between Russia and the US, this MNRE report says, is the “undisputed evidence” that a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically related to nicotine, known as neonicotinoids, are destroying our planets bee population. If left unchecked this could destroy our world’s ability to grow enough food to sustain our population.
     This situation has become so grave, the MNRE reports, the full European Commission (EC) this past week instituted a two-year precautionary ban on these “bee killing” pesticides that is set to begin in December of 2013. The EC has followed the lead of Switzerland, France, Italy, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine, all of whom had previously banned the most dangerous of genetically altered organisms from being used on the continent.
     Two of the most feared neonicotinoids being banned are Actara and Cruiser made by the Swiss global bio-tech seed and pesticide giant Syngenta Ag which employs over 26,000 people in over 90 countries and ranks third in total global sales in the commercial agricultural seeds market.
     Important to note, this report says, is that Syngenta, along with bio-tech giants Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and DuPont, now control almost 100% of the global market for genetically modified pesticides, plants, and seeds.
     Another note about Syngenta is that in 2012 it was criminally charged in Germany for concealing the fact that its genetically modified corn killed cattle. Syngenta also settled a class-action lawsuit in the US for $105 million after it was discovered they had contaminated the drinking supply of some 52 million Americans in more than 2,000 water districts with its “gender-bending” herbicide Atrazine.

     A report issued this past March by the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) warned that our whole planet is in danger, and reads in part:
“As part of a study on impacts from the world’s most widely used class of insecticides, nicotine-like chemicals called neonicotinoids, American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has called for a ban on their use as seed treatments and for the suspension of all applications pending an independent review of the products’ effects on birds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.

“It is clear that these chemicals have the potential to affect entire food chains. The environmental persistence of the neonicotinoids, their propensity for runoff and for groundwater infiltration, and their cumulative and largely irreversible mode of action in invertebrates raise significant environmental concerns,” said Cynthia Palmer, co-author of the report and Pesticides Program Manager for ABC, one of the nation’s leading bird conservation organizations.

ABC commissioned world renowned environmental toxicologist Dr. Pierre Mineau to conduct the research. The 100-page report, “The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds,” reviews 200 studies on neonicotinoids including industry research obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act. The report evaluates the toxicological risk to birds and aquatic systems and includes extensive comparisons with the older pesticides that the neonicotinoids have replaced. The assessment concludes that the neonicotinoids are lethal to birds and to the aquatic systems on which they depend.

“A single corn kernel coated with a neonicotinoid can kill a songbird,” Palmer said. “Even a tiny grain of wheat or canola treated with the oldest neonicotinoid — called imidacloprid — can fatally poison a bird. And as little as 1/10th of a neonicotinoid-coated corn seed per day during egg-laying season is all that is needed to affect reproduction.”

The new report concludes that neonicotinoid contamination levels in both surface- and ground water in the United States and around the world are already beyond the threshold found to kill many aquatic invertebrates.”

     Quickly following this damning report, the MRNE says, a large group of group of American beekeepers and environmentalists sued the Obama regime over the continued use of these neonicotinoids stating: “we are taking the EPA to court for its failure to protect bees from pesticides. Despite our efforts to warn the agency about the problems posed by neonicotinoids, the EPA continued to ignore the clear warning signs of an agricultural system in trouble.”

     Just how bad the world’s agricultural system has really become due to these genetically modified plants, pesticides, and seeds can be seen by the EC’s recent proposal following their ban on neonicotinoids, in which they plan to criminalize nearly all seeds and plants not registered with the European Union, in part this proposal reads:
“Europe is rushing towards the good ol days circa 1939, 40… A new law proposed by the European Commission would make it illegal to “grow, reproduce or trade” any vegetable seeds that have not been “tested, approved and accepted” by a new EU bureaucracy named the “EU Plant Variety Agency.”

     It is called the Plant Reproductive Material Law, and it attempts to put the government in charge of virtually all plants and seeds. Home gardeners who grow their own plants from non-regulated seeds would be considered criminals under this law.
     The MRNE report points out that even though this EC action may appear draconian, it is nevertheless necessary in order to purge the continent from continued contamination of these genetically bred “seed monstrosities.”

      Most perplexing in all of this, the MRNE says, and which led to Putin’s anger at the US, has been the Obama regimes efforts to protect pesticide-producer profits over the catastrophic damaging being done to the environment. As the Guardian News Service detailed in their May 2nd article titled “US rejects EU claim of insecticide as prime reason for bee colony collaps” and which, in part, reads:
“The European Union voted this week for a two-year ban on a class of pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, that has been associated with the bees’ collapse. The US government report, in contrast, found multiple causes for the collapse of the honeybees.”

     To the “truer” reason for the Obama regimes protection of these bio-tech giants destroying our world, the MRNE says, can be viewed in the report titled “How did Barack Obama Become Monsanto’s man in Washington?” and which, in part, reads:
“After his victory in the 2008 election, Obama filled key posts with Monsanto people, in federal agencies that wield tremendous force in food issues, the USDA and the FDA: At the USDA, as the director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto Danforth Center. As deputy commissioner of the FDA, the new food-safety-issues czar, the infamous Michael Taylor, former vice-president for public policy for Monsanto. Taylor had been instrumental in getting approval for Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone.”

     After Russia suspended the import and use of a Monsanto genetically modified corn following a study suggesting a link to breast cancer and organ damage this past September, the Russia Today News Service reported on the Obama regimes response:
The US House of Representatives quietly passed a last-minute addition to the Agricultural Appropriations Bill for 2013 last week – including a provision protecting genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks. 

     The rider, which is officially known as the Farmer Assurance Provision, has been derided by opponents of biotech lobbying as the “Monsanto Protection Act,” as it would strip federal courts of the authority to immediately halt the planting and sale of genetically modified (GMO) seed crop regardless of any consumer health concerns.
     The provision, also decried as a “biotech rider,” should have gone through the Agricultural or Judiciary Committees for review. Instead, no hearings were held, and the piece was evidently unknown to most Democrats (who hold the majority in the Senate) prior to its approval as part of HR 993, the short-term funding bill that was approved to avoid a federal government shutdown.”
     On March 26th, Obama quietly signed this “Monsanto Protection Act” into law thus ensuring the American people have no recourse against this bio-tech giant as they fall ill by the tens of millions, and many millions will surely end up dying in what is called the greatest agricultural apocalypse in human history. Over 90% of feral (wild) bee population in the US has already died out, and up to 80% of domestic bees have died out too.

     North Korean armed forces are reported to be awaiting a "final order" from the country's supreme leader Kim Jong-un before launching a campaign against South Korea.
     Ahead of a ten-day joint computer-simulated drill to be conducted by the United States and South Korea on March 11. North Korea’s most widely circulated mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun said, "Our front-line military groups, the army, the navy, and the air force, the anti-aircraft units and the strategic rocket units, who have entered the final all-out war stage, are awaiting the final order to strike."
     The mouthpiece said the North's nuclear weapons are also in full readiness.
     "Puppet regimes in the United States and South Korea will be turned into a sea of fire in the blink of an eye," said the daily, raising tensions further in the Korean peninsula.
     South Korea and the United States have been conducting a joint field training exercise codenamed Foal Eagle since March 1, and this is likely to go on until the end of April.
     Nearly 10,000 South Korean troops and around 3,500 American forces, along with fighter planes, are involved in the maneuvers.
     South Korea says the exercises are intended to secure its territories, but Pyongyang charges that they are aimed at the North.
     The North has also announced that it will conduct a two-day nationwide military exercise in response to the US-South Korea drill.
     Local reports suggest that Kim has also been visiting strategically important military installations in the country in the wake of the volatile situation.
     A military source in Seoul has told the Yonhap news agency that Pyongyang is likely to fire short-range missiles or resort to other forms of attack during the drill. The source vowed to retaliate with greater force if South Korean sovereignty is violated.

     World Economic Forum is the latest annual ranking of 144 countries on a wide range of factors related to global economic competitiveness.
     On each of their many rankings, #1 represents the best nation, and #144 represents the worst nation.

     Gross Domestic Product is the only factor where the U.S. ranks as #1, which we do both on "GDP” and on “GDP as a Share of World GDP.” Health Care has the U.S. ranking #34 on “Life Expectancy,” and #41 on “Infant Mortality.”
     Education in the U.S. is also mediocre. On “Quality of Primary Education,” we are #38. On “Primary Education Enrollment Rate,” we are #58. On “Quality of the Educational System,” we are #28. On “Quality of Math and Science Education,” we are #47. On “Quality of Scientific Research Institutions,” we are #6. On “PCT [Patent Cooperation Treaty] Patent Applications [per-capita],” we are #12. On “Firm-Level Technology Absorption” (which is an indicator of business-acceptance of inventions), we are #14.
     Trust is likewise only moderately high in the U.S. We rank #10 on “Willingness to Delegate Authority,” #42 on “Cooperation in Labor-Management Relations,” and #18 in “Degree of Customer Orientation” of firms.
     Corruption is apparently a rather pervasive problem in the U.S. On “Diversion of Public Funds (due to corruption), the U.S. ranks #34. On “Public Trust in Politicians,” we are #54. On “Irregular Payments and Bribes,” we are #42. On “Judicial Independence,” we are #38. On “Favoritism in Decisions of Government Officials” (otherwise known as governmental cronyism), we are #59.
     On “Organized Crime,” we are #87. On “Ethical Behavior of Firms,” we are #29. On “Reliability of Police Services,” we are #30. On “Transparency of Governmental Policymaking,” we are #56. On “Efficiency of Legal Framework in Challenging Regulations,” we are #37. On “Efficiency of Legal Framework in Settling Disputes,” we are #35. On “Burden of Government Regulation,” we are #76. On “Wastefulness of Government Spending,” we are also #76. On “Property Rights” protection (the basic law-and-order measure), we are #42.
     Investors find somewhat shaky ground in the U.S. On “Strength of Investor Protection,” we are #5. On “Protection of Minority Shareholders’ Interests,” we are #33. On “Efficacy of Corporate Boards,” we are #23. On “Reliance on Professional Management,” we are #19. On “Strength of Auditing and Reporting Standards,” we are #37. On “Venture Capital Availability,” we are #10. On “Intellectual Property Protection,” we are #29. On “Soundness of Banks,” we are #80. On “Regulation of Securities Exchanges,” we are #39. On “Country Credit Rating,” we are #11. On “Government Debt (as a % of GDP),” we are #136. On “Effectiveness of Anti-Monopoly Policy,” we are #17. On “Extent of Market Dominance,” we are #9.
     Technology is moderate in America. The U.S. ranks #14 on “Availability of Latest Technologies,” #24 on “Internet Access in Schools,” #20 on “Internet Users (%),” #33 on “Internet Bandwidth (per user),” and #8 on “Mobile Broadband Subscriptions (%).”
     Infrastructure is fair in the U.S. We rank #25 on “Quality of Overall Infrastructure,” #33 on “Quality of Electricity Supply,” #30 on “Quality of Air Transport Infrastructure,” #19 on “Quality of Port Infrastructure,” and #20 on “Quality of Roads.”
     Taxes definitely don’t qualify as being good in the U.S. We rank #69 on “Extent and Effect of Taxation,” in which the “Effect” that’s considered is reducing the “incentives to work or invest.” We are #103 on “Total Tax Rate,” #47 on “Number of Procedures Required to Start a Business” (which is an indirect tax), and #50 on “Prevalence of Trade Barriers” (both tariff and non-tariff).
     The U.S, overall, is very far from being #1; not really in contention, at all, for the top spot. The rankings suggest instead that this nation is sinking toward the Third World. The nations that stand high on most of these lists are Finland, Switzerland, Singapore, New Zealand, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Canada, Qatar, Netherlands, Iceland, Ireland, and Hong Kong. The nations that generally rank in the bottom half of these rankings are the ones that are typically cited as being “Third World,” or poor.

     “I am a witness to history.” “I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.”
     If you remember the plot of the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family escaped over the Alps rather than submit to the Nazis. Kitty wasn’t so lucky. Her family chose to stay in her native Austria. She was 10 years old, but bright and aware. And she was watching.
     “We elected him by a landslide – 98 percent of the vote,” she recalls. She wasn’t old enough to vote in 1938, approaching her 11th birthday, but she remembers.
     “Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.” Not so, Hitler was welcomed to Austria.
     “In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25 percent inflation and 25 percent bank loan interest rates. Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs.”
     “My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people; about 30 daily.”
     “We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.” she recalls. “We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living.”
     “Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group, Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone in Germany was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back.”
     “Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.”
     “We were overjoyed,” remembers Kitty, “and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and everyone was fed.”
     “After the election, German officials were appointed, and, like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.”
     “Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.”
     “Then we lost religious education for kids. Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang ‘Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,’ and had physical education.”
     “Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.”
     Then things got worse. “The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free.”
     “We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had. My mother was very unhappy,” remembers Kitty. “When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun, no sports, and no political indoctrination.”
     “I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing.”
     “Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time, unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.”
     “It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.”
     “In 1939, the war started, and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and, if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death.”
     “Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.”
     “Soon after this, the draft was implemented. It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps,” remembers Kitty. “During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys.”
     “They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines.”
     “When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat.”
     “Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.”
     “When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.”
     “You could take your children ages four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, seven days a week, under the total care of the government.”
     “The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.”
     “Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna. After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything.”
     “When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full.”
     “If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.”
     “As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80 percent of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families.”
     “All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.”
     “We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables.”
     “Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands.”
     “Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.”
“We had consumer protection, too. We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the livestock, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.”
     “In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps. The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated.”
     “So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work. I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van.”
     “I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months.”
     “They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness. As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.”
     “Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law-abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long afterwards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.”
     “No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.”
     “Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.”
“This is my eyewitness account. It’s true. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity. America is truly is the greatest country in the world. Don’t let freedom slip away. After America, there is no place to go.”

Kitty Werthmann

Did you know?
     A 1997 high school shooting in Pearl, Miss., was halted by the school's vice principal after he retrieved the Colt .45 he kept in his truck.
     A 1998 middle school shooting ended when a man living next door heard gunfire and apprehended the shooter with his shotgun.
     A 2002 terrorist attack at an Israeli school was quickly stopped by an armed teacher and a school guard.
     A 2002 law school shooting in Grundy, Va., came to an abrupt conclusion when students carrying firearms confronted the shooter.
     A 2007 mall shooting in Ogden, Utah, ended when an armed off-duty police officer intervened.
     A 2009 workplace shooting in Houston, Texas, was halted by two coworkers who carried concealed handguns.
     A 2012 church shooting in Aurora, Colo., was stopped by a member of the congregation carrying a gun.
     At the recent mall shooting in Portland, Ore., the gunman took his own life minutes after being confronted by a shopper carrying a concealed weapon.
     2500 times last year alone legal gun owners stopped violent crime when confronted with it long before any police assistance 

     Of course, you probably didn't know any of this because mainstream media doesn't find it worth reporting. It's not sensational enough and doesn't fit with their agenda. What's insane is people who think removing rights from responsible people will somehow keep them safe. The fact is that their agenda is to instill that gun control is necessary by creating a situation that causes you to voluntarily handover firearms. Hitler disarmed Germany, and now our government is trying to disarm us. Stand up for gun rights. If we do not act as our founding fathers did in 1776, we shall not be remembered.

     Gun control only prevents non-violent otherwise law abiding citizens from obtaining guns and being able to protect themselves. Violent criminals will still find away to obtain guns and commit these crimes.