Do you suppose cows have any idea what’s coming as they’re marched down the chute? Or do they stare with bovine indifference at the tail and hind quarters in front of them, until they’re suddenly – and very briefly – startled by the man with the nail gun? 
Perhaps Americans will – likewise too late – ask themselves What Happened in the very near future. Perhaps just after the midnight knock comes and they are taken away into the night.
It is not an exaggeration.
America is now on the cusp of becoming a state that does exactly such things; things exactly like the things done by 20th century horror shows such as NS Germany or Stalin’s USSR. Literally. Not “this is where it might lead” or “the tendency is similar.” Exactly, literally, the same thing. The only difference is that it awaits being done on a mass scale. But the power to do it openly – brazenly – has been asserted.
And is about to be sanctified by law.
The National Defense Authorization Act will make it official. It will confer upon the executive branch and the military (increasingly, the same things) the permanent authority to snatch and grab any person, U.S. citizens included, whom it decrees to be a “terrorist” – as defined or not by the executive or the military – and imprison them, indefinitely, without formal charge, presentation of evidence or judicial proceeding of any kind. These “detainees” will have neither civilian rights in the civil court system, nor – crucially – even the minimal rights to due process and decent treatment conferred upon prisoners of war. (And we are allegedly “at war,” are we not?)
The language of the bill specifically includes American citizens “caught” within the borders of the United States – aka, the “battlefield.” It is claimed by sponsors that only those awful them – you know, the enemies of freedom The Chimp and his successors like to reference as they systematically gut our freedoms – need worry. But read the actual document, and be afraid. The wording is such that any shyster lawyer for the government will be able to draw up a memorandum at some point in the near future equating, say, criticism of the federal government’s policies in the Middle East with “substantially supporting” the enemies of the United States. As defined by the United States.
That is, as defined by the government. 
At its whim. At the personal discretion of whomever happens to be the Maximum Leader, or even one of the ML’s duly appointed minions.
As the always excellent Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone recently observed, what happens when some nutjob who attended a few Tea Party meetings tries to bomb a federal building? Will the Tea Party itself – and anyone who “substantially supports” it be thus transformed into an “enemy combatant”? How about the OWS protestors? How about this web site – and this author – which have on several occasions called bullshit on the federal government’s usurpations and follies? How hard will it be, really, to describe such actions – such thoughts expressed in an article or an interview – as “substantially supporting” whatever the government decides amounts to “terrorism” or the threat thereof against itself?
Surely, the door is now wide open for such an interpretation by some John Woo or Dick Cheney waiting in the wings. Prospective jefe Newtie is practically turgid at the prospect of getting his hands on such power. And there is no longer (or soon won’t be) any legal means available to contest a one-way trip to Treblinka in Topeka – or wherever it is they will send you.
Taibbi writes:
“The really galling thing is that this act specifically envisions American citizens falling under the authority of the bill. One of its supporters, the dependably-unlikeable Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, bragged that the law ‘basically says … for the first time that the homeland is part of the battlefield’ and that people can be jailed without trial, be they ‘American citizen or not.’ New Hampshire Republican Kelly Ayotte reiterated that ‘America is part of the battlefield.’ ”
Graham further stated:
“It is not unfair to make an American citizen account for the fact that they decided to help Al Qaeda to kill us all and hold them as long as it takes to find intelligence about what may be coming next. And when they say, ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them, ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer.’ ”
The key thing being, it is entirely up to the government to decide what constitutes “helping” al Qaeda. It can be nothing more than a vague assertion. Indeed, no evidence of any kind whatsoever is necessary to “hold them as long as it takes” in order to “find intelligence” (not defined, either) by any means it wishes to employ.
As Taibbi notes:
“If these laws are passed, we would be forced to rely upon the discretion of a demonstrably corrupt and consistently idiotic government to not use these awful powers to strike back at legitimate domestic unrest.”
The Fuhrer (oops, President Obama) is about to sign this latter-day Enabling act and when he does, it will mark the moment that America’s coffin is nailed shut. The corpse has been on view since 9/11. But there was always some hope that, perhaps, it might be jolted back into life. Now we know the awful truth. Death is permanent.
And it’s coming for us. 
Throw it in the Woods?
Eric,
As with the TSA’s intrusive behavior at the nation’s airports, the groundwork for the 2012 NDAA was laid long ago. Before the TSA’s antics, DUI checkpoints were decreed okay by the SCOTUS. Prior to the 2012 NDAA allowing American citizens to be hauled away in the middle of the night, you had the VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act. The VAWA opened the door for mandatory arrests; it opened the door for being hauled away on nothing more than an accusation. That’s right; after 1995 (when VAWA was passed), all a woman had to do was point the finger, and you’d be hauled away. Sounds like Nazi Germany or the old USSR, doesn’t it? Just as the TSA didn’t happen overnight, the 2012 NDAA didn’t happen overnight, either. The door for it was opened years ago…
Indeed, Mark – I’ve been ranting about this since the ’90s. I was often told I was “extreme” in my views; that such things would never lead to other things… the things we’re dealing with now.
I may be an extremist. It doesn’t mean I’m wrong!
Let me guess; they accused you of being against women and children?
This piece is over 8 years old, yet it reads like it was written today. Prescient you are, Eric…
Thanks, Mark!
Nunz had a great one today, too – about the way this Hysteria is united the populace, in favor of their own submission.
Dear Eric,
Your articles are highly insightful and enormously valuable.
Highly insightful because they address something far more fundamental than politics — social psychology.
Enormously valuable because political change requires deeper change at the social psychological level, not just the intellectual level.
Therefore raising popular awareness regarding the changes in psychological attitude necessary to restore political freedom is essential.
Until Americans and citizens of other “advanced” nations undergo such radical attitudinal changes when bullied by elements of the Leviathan State, we will continue our already advanced slide toward totalitarianism.
Thanks, Bevin – good to have you with us!
I just remembered a classic cartoon moment from Tom and Jerry, where Tom’s dressed as a dog to get into a yard full of dogs. After he’s revealed as a cat again and again and again, finally Jerry shows the dog a note: “Yes, stupid, it’s a cat” and the dog finally gets it…the reaction is impressive and my hope is we see something like this if the public ever wakes up. Our adversaries have revealed themselves enough times, and folks like Eric, myself and many others have been writing “Yes, stupid, it’s a cat” enough that we might see a tipping point one day before it’s too late.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSLx05HiXwg
Another take on Albert Jay Nock’s concept of the remnant preserving and passing on the knowledge that men can (or should try to) live together on the basis of voluntarism and peaceful cooperation rather than force!
Here is one for you. I suspect there are not many Christians here and I appreciate not being hammered for my comments. Here it is:
God grows pot just like He grows every other living thing. Pot is against man’s laws and they throw you in jail and ruin your life for possesing/using it.
God brings the sperm and egg together inside the woman and a baby is conceived. The baby can be murdered at any time before he is born and that is perfectly OK under man’s law.
“The baby can be murdered at any time before he is born…”
And if the baby is Iraqi or Afghan or Libyan or Serb or Branch Davidian, etc. etc., he can be murdered any time thereafter–under man’s state-enforced lawlessness.
Is this a great country or what?
Fellows, the leaders of this country have caused a great deal of unjust death, physical suffering and mental anguish for millions upon millions of people, both born and unborn, here and abroad. Unfortunately a lot of our fellow countrymen have gone along with and even worse, called for it. Whether you believe in Karma, physics or YHWH’s judgment, Providence keeps track and the ledger will be balanced. What comes around goes around; for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. I know this because I’ve seen it work in my own life as well as those around me. This applies to states and nations as well as individuals. This nation has run up a terrible debt that will be repaid one way or the other in this Universe and it’s fast coming due. We ignore this inevitable truth to our own peril.
Perhaps there are a lot of Atheists here, I don’t know. If there are Atheists here that’s their choice which I strongly defend. And you may rest assured that I do not believe in the god (or gods) that they do not believe in. I’m a Heretic myself. If I lived two thousand years ago and took the spiritual position I do right now I’d die a hideous death at the hands of the church. Much more recently than that the state and the church have displayed a very low tolerance for the truth. Sir Thomas Moore comes to mind. Standing on moral principle is always a risky affair.
“If I lived two thousand years ago and took the spiritual position I do right now I’d die a hideous death at the hands of the church.”
Whoa, Boothe: lighten up. 2k years ago, the Church was in its swaddling-clothes infancy, lacking maturity, definition, resolve and power to deal harshly with “heretics” or anyone else, for that matter. Peter and Paul were fighting one another. With fish that big to fry, I doubt either one would have paid much attention to the likes of you or I. And most of those dying “a hideous death” were of the Church–not challenging Her.
Here endeth the informal history lesson. No disrespect intended. Honestly.
Yep!
And, point of order: The early pagan Romans were actually pretty tolerant as far as religious belief (or lack) was concerned. So long as you didn’t challenge the Authoritay of caesar, it was acceptable to believe whatever you liked.
Do I detect a spark of controversy here? Most excellent I say! Since we can no longer count on or tolerate the banal ruminations of our clovers for agitation, I thought a bit of drama was in order.
We have come to narrowly associate the word “heresy” with openly challenging the dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. I used the term it in its broader sense of raising unorthodox or controversial views and opinions against any established religious, political or scientific organizations. My point was this: To point out the sins of the Pharisees, lawyers and scribes of the Sanhedrin was asking for death. Even the simple act of adultery saw the adulteress punished with stoning. The powers that be can always come up with bogus capital charges against people that disagree with them. Ever been hit with a rock? I’d say that would be an unpleasant way to go. If you took payment to betray someone close to you, then attempted to throw the money back in the authorities’ faces, you might feel so bad about it that you’d just hang yourself and also disembowel yourself while you were at it; like Judas. Of course we’re too civilized to “do in” those who disagree with us and call it suicide. Ask Vince Foster.
The Romans had no problem hanging people from a post that openly disagreed with them until they died of dehydration. You Eric, in your own libertarian right are a modern day heretic, as are most of us here. Many of the things you and I both have written would have amounted to inciting a slave revolt two thousand years ago. If any one of us here had stood up in a Roman occupied town square and spoken similarly, you think they’d have put us on a couch and had a pretty young slave girl feed us grapes? No we’d have been hanging off a pole with Crows pecking our eyes out.
If you don’t think The Chimp, Princess Hillary, B.O. and whole host of others in D.C. would gladly see any one of us that tells the truth about what they are doing put to death, think again. Only the vestiges of our constitutional protections have prevented an outright purge up to this point. With the passage of the NDAA it may only be a matter of time. We so easily forget that the millions of people in the twentieth century murdered for their open (and often not so open) disagreement with “the system”, weren’t the first by a long shot. We also forget that many early Christians were fed to wild animals in the arena for sport; or that the Romans had degenerated to the point that they had slaughtered every animal for miles around. The stench of the arena was reported to be almost intolerable, but the masses showed up anyway. They’d show up today to watch us being mauled by bears and lions; don’t kid yourself.
It goes back to what Ron White said in jest about having the right to remain silent, but not the ability. From what I’ve read here, with the exception of the clovers, we all seem to have heresy ingrained in us on all fronts and refuse to be silent about it. To me, the label Heretic is a compliment, not a pejorative.
And point of clarification, Eric, anent Boothe’s reply to you: We definitely need to distinguish here between church and state as we discuss how power establishments persecute their subjects. Whether burning them at the stake or, say, blaming big fires on them.
Jay, history shows us that often enough church and state are indistiguishable from one another since controlling the masses is the name of the game.
As you will recall, the Temple with its power structure of Sadducees, Pharisees and the Sanhedrin continued to function at the pleasure of the Roman occupiers, not in spite of them. Religion was a useful tool for social control and the Romans were pragmatic in that regard.
What one can’t get done politically, one can usually do through religion. Combine the two and you have a situation so perilous to Liberty that it makes a strong case for the First Amendment:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
It is indeed telling that state sanctioned or controlled religion was very first on the list of things the government was prohibited from doing in an effort to preserve Liberty for the framers’ progeny. That would be us. From allowing the IRS to bestow “tax exempt” status to churches, to “faith based initiatives” for more bureaucratic control of charity (to name just two major encroahments) we’ve done a poor job of hanging on to that legacy.
North Korean Clovers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSWN6Qj98Iw&feature=g-all-u&context=G21cdec6FAAAAAAAAAAA
@ Boothe’s “history shows us that often enough church and state are indistiguishable from one another”
There being no direct reply link, I must respond to Boothe’s point by adding a reply to Eric’s sub-thread.
Good point, Boothe, although we might not agree on how often it is true. In any case, this is why such phrases as “faith-based (i.e. government co-opted) initiatives” and “public/private partnerships”–whether the “private” partners are secular or religious–make the hair on the back of my neck stand up and my skin crawl.
My only question is did organized religion get taken over by criminals and become government or did organized religion start as a scam by criminals to form government?
Note: By organized religion I am referring to a top down system where leaders manipulate people and/or tell people what to do and often con people out of their wealth or just take it. I refer entirely to the political/power side of religion, not faith which to me is something entirely different.
Brent, that’s a really good question. I think our tribal ancestors probably got hooked into some form of organized religion (as opposed to Faith) when some “wise man” or “shaman” learnd he could “predict the future” with the quaternal cycle of equinoxes and solstices. This of course gave him “power” and the boneheaded primitive clovers bowed down to him out of fear. Of course as soon as someone came along smart enough to figure out natural cycles and called him out, they were branded “evil” and banished or killed.
If he was realy smart he also learned herbal remedies and some rudimentary form of medical treatment which made him even more valuable to the tribe. Thus he undoubtedly happened onto some herbs and fungi that would give you a really “religious” experience when ingested (in some cases it was your final experience). Who could doubt him after he made the rocks breathe and you heard colors on your spirit quest?
On the governmental side, it would have been the biggest and strongest or more likely the shrewdest warrior that took the lead position (as you know, often big and strong can usually be taken down by quick, skillful and ruthless). This would be in keeping with government being nothing more than a monopoly on the use of force in a given geographic region.
I suppose the two developed together; religion and medicine on one hand working with brute force on the other forming a primitive fascism. After tribes grew large enough that there were more than enough hunters and gathers, the opportunity opened up for the physically weaker and less spiritual members to become scribes, clerks and finally administrators.
Fast forward: now we’re technologically advanced and civilized. Our high priests solicit donations on TV and admonish us to “support our troops”. Our troops wander all over the globe spreading “freedom” and “democracy” with Predator drones and .50 caliber sniper rifles. The lawyers run things and with their bankster cronies have stripped all the value out of our money. Corporate medicine and pharmaceutical companies control the drugs we may consume and how long we live. Many of us are now reverting to raising small stock and “Victory Gardens” just to make ends meet. Nothing really changes, does it?
Eric: “A “war” they know is based on hypocrisy, bullshit and lies… is as asinine and absurd as saying that because some legal drug users (alcohol) beat their wives or assault others, etc., anyone who possesses or uses alcohol should be treated as if they, too, beat their wives, ran people over with their cars in an alcoholic haze…”
Once when I was living and working in Washington, I fell into conversation with a garbage collector. (Yeah, Baby, I got around.) He told me that the Dumpsters behind the House and Senate Dining Rooms were filled to overflowing with liquor empties, every single day.
Yup!
And the sick/sad irony is that pot smokers are rarely, if ever, violent. Pot makes you sleepy, hungry or horny. It rarely, if ever, makes you want to beat someone up or smash things, as alcohol often does.
I know a guy who likes his beer; he’s a nice guy – has two young kids. His enjoyment of adult beverages is done responsibly and he (to my knowledge) has never harmed anyone. He supports the “war” on (other) drugs. I asked him what’s the difference between a cop drawing a gun on him, throwing him to the ground, arresting him and taking him to jail because, in the course of a routine traffic stop, the cop discovered a case of beer in the trunk of the car… and exactly the same scenario, only instead of a case of beer, a bag of pot was discovered? Blank Stare followed by mumbling about how “it’s different.” How so, I pressed? “It just is,” he said.
And there you have it.
The sliding ad in your sidebar makes it so I can’t read any of the comments 🙁 Great article though.
If you are browsing in Firefox, try adjusting the font size by using the -+ keys in the toolbar.
Thanks, Christian – and, welcome to our group!
I’ll take a look at the slider thing you mentioned…
Yeah, this has happened a few times before. Normally caused when we delete a cloverish comment that was already posted it breaks the layout. Seems to look okay still in firefox, but like crap in IE. I’ll see what I can do. Thanks!
How long do you think before they start collecting inmates for the camps?
Just to ply devil’s advocate, what makes you think they haven’t started collecting inmates for the camps? If they started with marginal people who wouldn’t be missed to use as guinea pigs to see if the camps’ functions were working as designed you likely wouldn’t know.
I’m not suggesting trying to prove a negative, but given the overwhelming evidence that they’re able to detain bazillions of people, shouldn’t we be working to stop their plans without waiting until there’s proof?
Dom, the U.S. prison population is the largest in the world at 2.3 million. Many of the inmates are there for possession of a plant that grows wild all over the Midwest. Many are also “employees” of UNICOR (a.k.a. Federal Prison Industries or FPI) for something like 50 cents an hour. Of course we also have Gitmo and who knows how many “black” facilities in third world shitholes around the globe one can be whisked off to without due process. Didn’t the Nazis locate a lot of their camps in foreign countries? Does that answer your question…..
Personal anecdote:
Back in the mid-1980s, when I was a young kid and just beginning college, I grew some pot plants in my dorm room. Yes, stupid. I was 19. Of course I got caught. Luckily for me, at the time, pot was still in a lesser category of drug (as arbitrarily defined) and so I ended up with what amounted to a misdemeanor ticket that “went away” after a couple of years.
If I did the same thing today, or rather, got caught doing the same thing, I’d be facing a felony trial and prison time. My life would be ruined. I’d have no chance of finding other than menial employment. No writing columns or books; no becoming a “productive member of society.” All my potential, all my goals and ambitions – all the good I might have done in the world – flushed. Because I got caught growing some plants.
I “got away.”
Unfortunately, millions of other people do not – and have had their lives destroyed. Over nothing. Or rather, over nothing other than trumped-up arbitrary judgments involving actions that have no victim.
Now, here’s the thing. I “grew up,” finished my education, worked at my profession – and never harmed anyone. So did all my friends, who also smoked a little pot (and grew some) when we were young. Just as virtually everyone who was born after the mid-1960s did. I know virtually no one in my age group – or people 10 years younger or ten years older – who hasn’t dabbled. And if they haven’t themselves, they certainly have friends who have – and know these friends did not become psychotic or turn into Wolfman as a result. None of them have ever (to my knowledge) committed a crime of violence. They know, from firsthand experience, that smoking pot, as such, is no more harmful in terms of turning a person into a violent criminal than is having a few beers while watching the game. Yet some of these very people became cops. Or judges. Or politicians. And in what I regard as one of the most disgusting, cynical – and yes, evil – acts imaginable, defend (and enforce) the “war” on (some) drugs. A “war” they know is based on hypocrisy, bullshit and lies. They will endorse locking people up – people exactly like themselves, only not because they got caught – in prison, for years… for nothing. Or rather, nothing that they didn’t also do themselves and which they know causes no harm, as such, to others.
The idea that that because some arbitrarily illegal drug users engage in violence all arbitrarily defined illegal drug users must be treated as violent criminals is as asinine and absurd as saying that because some legal drug users (alcohol) beat their wives or assault others, etc., everyone who merelypossesses or uses alcohol should be treated as if they, too, beat their wives, run people over with their cars in an alcoholic haze – and so on. They know this. Yet they will defend confiscating people’s cars – or homes or land – if they’re caught with some proscribed substance in it or on it. Kicking down people’s doors in the dead of night and assaulting them with black clad Ninjas. Killing them, if they make “one false move.”
Despicable.
Well put sir. Your last three sentences beg the eternal question in cases of this kind: Cui bono? As always, ’tis the state parasites.
Eric, it is my belief that the entire political, governmental, regulatory, and legal systems are based on hypocrisy. Who you are, who you know, how others perceive you and so forth. It is a social system based on feelings and arbitrary judgements.
I won’t go near drugs or anyone who uses them. Not because I think they are bad people or that I make some judgment of them but as a self protective measure. Since I was a child I’ve been someone who gets selected for enforcement repeatedly.
If I describe what I was wrongly accused of and nearly kicked out of the dorms in college for you’d laugh. Essentially I made dryers that someone had busted into in a failed attempt to get the quarters function so my friends and I could get our clothes dry. In their clover minds this made me the person who busted into them because I could figure out how they worked.
When I describe the dangers of some new law I am called “paranoid”. Because so called “normal” people I guess believe that the social structure will protect them. Nobody is going to enforce it on them, so let it happen. Cops need tools to go after bad people they say. So we get prisons full of people who aren’t the “right” people.
This means 18yr old Johnny gets pulled over for swerving into oncoming traffic and the cops plainly see smoldering joints in the ashtray but his uncle is a state Representative and his dad is an executive at a local corporation so johnny doesn’t get arrested or if he does the result is a slap on the wrist. Johnny grows up and becomes a US senator.
Meanwhile 18yr old Tyrone from other side of the tracks gets pulled over for not squaring his turn and a rather long search of his car turns up a few pot seeds from a previous owner that got up under the carpet and he gets to spend time in jail/prison for it under some sort of ‘zero tolerance’ law ruining his life.
That’s life in America folks, just the way the clovers like it.
JR: “As Churchill noted about this in his time, “Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly…”
Yes! Another Winnie one has always been on my A-list of quotes: “Never give in–never, never, never, never.”
The full quote is: “Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” I’ve heard a recording of him saying these words, and it sends chills.
Amen!
Have you seen The Crucible with Daniel Day Lewis? It’s about the Salem Witch Trials and there’s a great scene in which a man is being smothered with stones in order to compel his false testimony. His response to his tormenters when they demand he answer?
More weight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDrCHiwpT4M&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLA38F0F824ABE2FBB
No, I haven’t, though I have heard that anecdote.
Eric, I think you meant bolt gun, not nail gun.
Yes, you are correct sir!
I wrote my two senators about this legislation and was assured by one that they had incorporated language specifically to protect us.
Baloney.
However, as far as crossing the Rubicon, I thought we had passed that way back when the Branch Dividians were burned down and we all sat home and watched it on TV. Texas Dept of Public Safety ran interference for the feds, kept what was still left of the people’s media at bay. That whole episode was the warning shot across our bow. Behave, or this will happen to you.
Then Sonny Bono had Janet Reno on the carpet and ends up dead in a skiing accident. Coincidence?
I wish Jesus would come back before I have to live though what is coming, but there ain’t nothin special about me to get me outta here in time.
It is going to get real exciting pretty soon, I think we all agree on that. I read that ‘None dare call it conspiracy’ maybe 30 years go. It did seem to get here real quick, didn’t it?
I got the same BS. I should have sent the harsher draft where I explained that they would likely be targets of this law when they opposed the executive. 🙂
The key thing to understand is that while it does not require that American citizens be so treated, there is nothing in the way of a formal legal prohibition that American citizens not be treated this way, if the Decider so deeecides.
In other words, due process no longer exists – or exists at the discretion of the Decider.
Yep. It’s a typical “bad people” law. The government is only going to apply it to “bad people” just like civil asset forfiture, speeding, various drug laws, and much much more. “Good people” who obey the state where it counts won’t have any problems. Ask just about anyone in the checkpoint line at the airports.
Where are The Americans?
Where are the Patriots?
I may just be a little backwoods Canadian. But, from where I stand, it seems that your country is being destroyed moment by moment. And very few people are saying anything about it. Except where do I get a ticket out?
A very few of your representatives are trying vainly to promote legislation to stop the process, the rest of the lawmakers are laughing not so subtly at their naiveté.
Given the recent legislation there is nothing standing between Free Americans and concentration camps, except the very slim hope of a Presidential veto. Even with a Presidential veto, there is nothing to prevent implementation of the plan except the living body of that president. Where is the scream of outrage for the wholesale destruction of two hundred years of Liberty? There is little point in waiting for an election, because as Senator Bernie Sanders just pointed out in his political suicide speech, ‘given the Citizens United decision, there will be no future relevant votes in the legislative bodies’, money will decide the votes.
The Fema camps have space for 20 million inmates and are currently being provisioned and upgraded. If you can be rounded up piecemeal, that should nicely accommodate all the current dissidents. Legislation has been approved for the indefinite imprisonment of anyone who opposes the government.
YOU, are not exempt! No matter what you do, or how hard you try, the only thing they want from you, is your Humanity! When you will betray your friends and your spouses, and kill your firstborn son on the altar of obedience, then you will be acceptable.
If you can’t do those things, you better find fellow Americans to stand with, in opposition to this monstrosity. You may want to scale back Christmas. “D” Day is January 5, 2012.
Its OK to stand up and scream, really!
Because, when you can’t give up your humanity, you will die anyway.
Your guns and your gold will not help you. Only your fellow Americans can save you.
Look for whom most and the media calls kooks and other names. From those one will find the patriots.
Any time americans band together to live outside the government goes on the offensive and the masses cheer the elimination and/or imprisonment of a bunch of kooks.
It’s pretty clear our fellow americans are not going to stand with those who oppose the taking of liberty. If they were just affraid I could accept it, but it’s not fear, they believe in the state and do seem to have genuine dislike for those who favor liberty. To them liberty is a horror that cannot be allowed.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-20ep4pdpTZU/TrRpa5hi1TI/AAAAAAAAA9E/LJQm3EsUe6c/s1600/New%2BImage.JPG
Your salvation is at hand!
“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.” ― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn
or in a more American vestige:
“arm yourselves”
Both excellent quotes!
Not quotes. Blatant plagiarism from men more lettered than myself.
There has never been a time more critical that the American people must arm themselves.
What is especially galling is that the honorable senator Graham believes he is immune from the effects of this law. What is to stop any president or presidentially appointed person from declaring a congressman, or senator or supreme court justice a supporter of terrorism and whisking them away to some detention center. This law gives the president too much power to terrorize the american people.
I like this… the idea of turning the Inquisition on the inquisitors… yes, indeed. Gruppenfuher Graham is certainly “with them” and arguably an “enemy of freedom.” I urge his immediate arrest and detention.
On a serious note: I enjoyed it very much when Jesse Ventura asked to be permitted to waterboard chickenhawks like the aptly named Dick Cheney. The Chimp too. Much as I loathe Obama, it was The Chimp that laid all the groundwork for this. He will go down in history – I hope – as the embalmer of the American Dream.
it was The Chimp that laid all the groundwork for this.
But it was Obama who removed any semblance of opposition to the Chimp’s power grabs. Bush put the coffin lid on and Obama nailed it down.
Agree.
Precedent becomes practice. The Chimp was the one who rolled out the police state and when the masses cheered, the die was cast. Obama and his successors will seal the deal.
This is an important article, at a critical moment. We have a kind of really scary atmosphere a brewing. Every day, the brazen steps that Congress, UN, EU, whomever, take toward total domination seems to coincide with the likes of Ron Paul gaining popularity and credibility. While it certainly steers more and more towards our causes, it certainly escalates the likelihood of something very sinister being perpetrated by the powers that be(again) and I for one am beginning to feel really eerie about it all.
I mean, just today, there were 2 huge auto-related movements by the government about sinking/taking over the industry… with the automakers on board for the worst aspects of the federal push(blackboxes) and I doubt they’ll oppose the CARB proposal for 1.4 million ‘ZEVs’ per year.
That’s just the start. Within last week, it’s 10’s of billions to some agency for more “enforcement” tools and personnel, drones and tanks. There’s all the financial institutions engaging in every kind of mischief imaginable. And then, all the war news, overtly poking WWIII with a stick.
Of course, the very next headline is always a spiteful, malicious attack on Ron Paul or libertarians and Austrian economists, sometimes even bordering on violent. I’ve been pretty alert in the past, but recently it never seems to subside.
Great – and important – article, Eric. As you very perspicaciously pointed out (and I wrote to you), we are indeed in times reminiscent of those in the months before the Battle of Midway, or the Battle of Britain. WWII could, except for the interposition of Providence and those few who had courage and vision – like you – been lost. So please keep up the good work!
Things indeed to hang in the balance, and it may well be that we return to a new Dark Ages of oppression. As Churchill noted about this in his time, “Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” And so we are here today. We all wish it wasn’t so, and just as Frodo told Gandalf, I, too, “Wish this need not have happened in my time.” But as Gandalf replied, “ All who live to see such times (feel the same way). But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
I live here in the heart of darkness, the People’s Thugocracy of Illinois, so the battle is right in front of me (e.g., hear anyone complain about the “white guy” winning over two minorities in the last Chicago mayoral election, where Dead Fish Emmanuel won? Nary a word!). I will continue to write and speak out, as you are doing (e.g., one article found at http://www.offthegridnews.com/2010/12/09/lessons-we-must-learn-from-nazi-germany/, entitled Lessons We Must Learn from Nazi Germany), as the battle now is via education and information dissemination.
Thanks for the kind words, JR – and, good to have you with us here!
Churchill was a great rhetorician. Too bad he also supported the gassing of Afghans who resisted Britain’s takeover after WWI. Not to mention spoke in the most condescending and contemptuous terms about Gandhi.
Iraqis, not Afghans, and it wasn’t an outright British takeover but a puppet government (like today).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleged_British_use_of_gas_in_Mesopotamia_in_1920
Looks like he was an “equal opportunity” proponent of gassing anyone he didn’t like.
And, Chinese Clovers:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/15/christian-bale-in-china-chen-guangcheng_n_1152624.htm
Thanks, Eric. Very well put.
POS-good to see you posting for the Herald yourself; the more the merrier at this point as we rally to oppose those who would crush us, non-violently, with the power of being in the right on our side!
Damned typos, PS, I say, PS!
Good one, Eric, and timely, but it needs to be updated: last night the House passed this coffin nail by a strong majority of 283 to 136.
I’m looking for a simpler to read record of precisely who voted for it as I had in my piece ‘Mission Creepiness’ that was published in the American Daily Herald on Monday. The link I used is at the end of my article and as I said it should be remembered exactly which Senators…and now which Congresscritters…so enthusiastically thinks of you, me and everyone who isn’t in their little club of the Elite as potential terrorists deserving of the worst treatment a bloodthirsty State can dish out. Lord help us.
http://www.americandailyherald.com/glenn-horowitz/mission-creepiness
Thanks, Glenn!
One thing I’m encouraged by is the almost organic growth of these little networks of opposition. It reminds me of the Committees of Correspondence I read about as a kid. We are making progress. More people than I can ever recall in my lifetime are talking about things that were rarely, if ever, discussed by “normal people” 20 years ago. We may still be a minority, but it is always the minority that makes the difference – for good or ill. The bulk of humanity is just along for the ride…
Speaking of networks of opposition, on kind of a parallel topic I’ve been promoting a great little book I was introduced to on The Mental Militia, over 40 years old but it’s as timely today as it was when it was published over FORTY YEARS AGO.
It’s ‘None Dare Call It Conspiracy’ by Gary Allen, dealing with many shady acts but a bunch about the formation of the monstrous Federal Reserve. I’d never heard so much as a whisper about it and I suspect it was put hrough the ‘soft suppression’ by academics and those who had something to lose if people caught on to the shenanigans it details. I zipped through its 93 pages quickly and quite enjoyed the read. Highly recommended, big kudos to Scribd.com for making it available:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2297676/conspiracy-Gary-Allen-None-Dare-Call-it-Conspiracy-english-rarereactor
I’m thinking of doing an article soon on some of the fact and fiction books that have had a strong, positive influence on my life, and this will definitely be included!
Just an afterthought, the physical copy is certainly available online through a number of sellers including Amazon, but I like the Scribd books for the convenience of a no fuss, no muss e-book you can enjoy in its entirety right away.
The Congress forgot a very important fact. This law will apply to them somewhere down the road. That means no more voting against important legislation for them. They too may disappear in the middle of the night!
It is only one step away from execution. That step is a German type gas chamber.
What makes anyone think that the same people are not capable of killing the people they make disappear. It is certainly more economical than feeding them in a jail cell on a military base.
Oh yes, the military . . . what makes you think that you are not next? Somewhere down the road, you know too much about what is going on and someone will blow the whistle. It is much easier to make sure you are on the front lines somewhere that someone can eliminate this minor threat of letting people know what is going on.
I cannot believe how stupid fat wealthy people in the Congress might be . . .
The problem is US. It is a deadly two-edged sword and that sword can cut in any direction somewhere, sometime, down the road.
You smug idiots in the Congress that voted for something like this are likely to be the next target. Right after they take us away.
I don’t really think Leave America or Stay Put IS an over simplification. Certainly there are some areas in the US which are better than others but they don’t compare with the Freedoms found in other Countries (at least the Countries in which I live). I understand leaving a place where you have lived all your life is difficult. The cultural differences, language barriers, etc. were not easy to adjust to but these Countries afford me protection by law from Government and Private Industry intrusions people in the United States think is normal.
Germany……..well “maybe.”
But MEXICO…….? As many problems as America has……and it has Really Bad Problems…..I’ll take America, Even California, over Mexico.
Frankly, New Zealand is the only other country that tempts me. Although it is headed down the same slippery socialist slope as Great Britain, it is sparsely populated, and geographically remote. And beautiful.
I assume you’re speaking of the drug problems – which have been vastly overblown by the American Press. Sure, Mexico has its problems – one is the poor breed like rabbits but nobody was particularly concerned (except for the effect on tourism) when 24 dead bodies were found in the back of a delivery truck last week here in Guadalajara. This was just the struggle between Drug Cartels trying to protect their interests in supplying the demand in the United States. Besides, that’s 24 less scumbags stealing rear-view mirrors and trying to clean windshields at traffic lights. The general feeling was this was a sort-of Public Service. And everyone expects this stupid war-on-drugs to ease once the current President leaves next year anyway.
Infrastructure and bureaucracy are other problems but they are improving. What I like is the freedoms and privacy protections here which the US has either taken away or never provided its Citizens to begin with.
Our property taxes here are about capped at about 0,1% compared to the approximately 1,80% my Mother pays for her house in Las Vegas.
If property taxes are not paid, it generally takes 10 years for the Government to seize the property.
The Government has no personal information about your bank or investment accounts. The institution pays whatever the tax is on investments out of a person’s account but the Government has no idea from whom the money is coming.
There is a 16% Sales Tax so no one gets a free ride regarding medical care, schools, etc.
There is no National Identification Number to which companies and Government agencies have access.
Prostitution is illegal but accepted if practiced in certain areas.
Abortion is legal in Mexico City as is Gay Marriage. Abortion is practiced throughout the Country and accepted like prostitution.
Only traffic police (Vial) can give traffic tickets. All other police cannot. The Federalis can give tickets only on highways – and they do not set-up speed traps. 120Km/h is quite common on roads under posted at 80. Fines are limited to 10 times the minimum daily wage (about $6 US). And there is a 50% discount if it is paid within 10 days.
Insurance companies are not allowed to access your driving records nor are they allowed to raise your rates if you tell them you have had traffic tickets.
An interesting side note. A few years ago, a Federali caught me on radar on an Autopista South of Hermosillo. I was clocked at 160Km/h in a 100Km/h zone (ca. 100MPH in a 61MPH zone). After pulling me over, he shook my hand and apologized for stopping me. He said, the Federalis give 20Km over the limit but 60 was a bit much. I gave him my German Driving License which he couldn’t figure out so he asked if he could write the ticket using my Wife’s License. After writing my Wife the ticket, he explained how the payment worked. When I told him the highway was under posted by at least 40Km/h and I just could not drive as slowly as 120, he told me it was OK. I would not see any more radar until I reached the State of Sinaloa.
How do you think that situation would play-out in the United States?
How are the jobs there? Can you get away with just speaking English?
“Can you get away with just speaking English?”
Heck, you can’t get away with that even in Amerika anymore!
I have relatives in Mexico (Aunt and cousins) and have been there myself so can attest that what you say is accurate. Americans are heavily and effectively propagandized and among the most ignorant people on earth about other countries (among other things).
If I were in my 20s and just starting out, a major move would be more palatable. But having spent 20 years working my ass off to get what I’ve got – and liking what I’ve got – I’m more inclined to defend it than abandon it and start all over. And more, there’s the principle of the thing. Why should I – and other non-Clovers – just give up and let the Clovers take over?
I’m with you. I’ve already built up one pretty decent estate just to see it wiped out in divorce court. Having had to start over and do it all again, I’m not willing to dump everything I’ve acquired at a discount and move somewhere that I may not be welcome at 52 years old.
The odds were against the revolution succeeding in 1776. But that didn’t stop a tireless minority from prevailing and they didn’t have the Internet. The one thing that could stop us now would be the belief that we cannot succeed in restoring Liberty.
Enjoy Every Sandwich: “If you haven’t done anything wrong and have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”
Of all the Cloverthink utterances, I detest this one the most. The moment anyone living a well-intentioned life in a free society is forced to think in these terms, his freedom is compromised.
This one, much better:
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” — T. Jefferson
I’ve always admired Tom Paine, one of the lesser-known founding fathers who was among the most fervent in defense of liberty and in his denunciations of Cloverism:
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
And also Voltaire:
“Beware of the words ‘security’- it is the eternal cry of the oppressor.”
Wow! That’s a great Paine quote, one I’d missed before. We should all strive for that level of eloquence in denouncing tyranny.
Ditto that. I feel your Paine!
Paine’s known mostly for “Common Sense” but wrote just as eloquently in “Rights of Man” and “Age of Reason,” for which he was pilloried and abused, incidentally. The guy was one of the best expositors of the rationalist, Libertarian worldview, long before the term was even invented. Paine and Jefferson are two of my heroes.
I have skimmed an extensive spate of police-bashing in this thread. I noticed no new points being made. Don’t get me wrong: I dispute virtually none of the sentiments expressed.
That said, I have the good fortune to live in an Ohio township that still has its own small, but very effective police department. The population of the township is also quite small. One could argue–on purely economic grounds–that seeking annexation into the local megalopolis, or merging our police protection with that of adjacent township(s), or disbanding our police and relying on the county sheriff would save us money. No argument there.
The question is: What are we willing to pay for? Among other things, the answer is: well-regulated, regular patrols and a maximum 10-minute response time to calls. Contrast that to, typically, a wait of 45 minutes or more in the adjacent large city.
Thus, the perennial township sentiment is to keep our constables on the job. The strongest argument: They are totally funded by a dedicated levy. If we don’t like the job they do, we can starve them out financially. Furthermore, a citizens’ committee vetted candidates the last time a new chief was hired. As a member of that committee, I look back on it as a wholesome–perhaps retro–example of local politics that works for the people.
I could go into much more detail, but suffice it to say that my township has about the best policing system possible in today’s Amerika. If that damns it with faint praise, so be it. Meanwhile, I will continue my civic participation to keep our local police supported, for as long as they deserve our support. As for keeping them “independent”: well, I aim to see that they remain just about entirely dependent upon our local voters. Which is how things should be.
yes, there are ways to keep police departments under control, however they have mostly been disbanded thanks to a majority who want some one else to handle things for them. Those someone else’s eventually became or were replaced by crooks.
So long as there is at least a good minority that takes on the work things go fine. The problem is that this society has another significant minority of complainers who want to put forth no effort themselves. Good people trying to do their best for no significant compensation eventually grow tired of this minority and just don’t want to put up with it anymore. A crook will however compensate himself. Throw on top of this the way the boobus is easily conned in elections and well it’s a recipe for what we face now.
Excellent points Jay. Regaining control of local government is essential to waging a successful campaign to restore Liberty at the state and federal levels. FedGov has essentially taken the reins of our local and state police with stolen money and used military hardware. One key way we can regain control is through small organizations, such as your citizens’ committee, intervening to disconnect local government from this illegitimate federal largesse. The power of the public purse is tantamount to political control. Hence that power being granted exclusively to congress in our Constitution; and the ongoing struggle ever since to circumvent and usurp that power.
Getting involved at the local level by writing to the editor of your paper, calling in to talk radio and attending (and speaking up at) city council and county board meetings are also effective ways of changing the subject and direction of political discussion. Ron Paul has done this very effectively at the national level; it takes time, effort and persistence. Any one of us can do this to some degree locally. Become knowledgeable in how your local government works and who the players are. Be the “go to” guy or gal in your community when someone has a problem with the local bureaucracy and help them smooth things out. This gives you the opportunity to share the concepts of Liberty and limited government to someone who is now much more willing to listen because you helped them. It’s a simple free market concept; we get we want through our service to others.
If your local police are doing what you want, within the constraints of the budget you allow them, you are winning. Keep up the good work!
“Keep up the good work!”
Thanks for the encouragement, Boothe. That “eternal vigilance” thing can’t stay buried in one’s copy of Bartlett’s. We all gotta practice it.
The FedGov’s usurpation of local police will end quite quickly when the checks are worthless–coming soon.
The Fed’s at a complete impasse with the dollar; no central bank has deflated at this juncture, and the Fed will not, either. It is print, print, print from here on out, and their checks to your local police won’t buy a round of .45 ACP in a few years.
We have an elected sheriff in this (rural) county and that imposes some accountability. Or at least, more than an appointed police department.
PS: Have you noticed how many cops wear military rank insignia? Major generals and Colonels, even. Aren’t police supposed to be civilian authorities?
Eric, as I’ve posted before: the constabulary is the de facto occupying force. If we are intellectually honest with ourselves and knowledgeable about U.S. history, then we realize that the so-called “Civil War” was nothing of the sort, any pretenses of “freeing the slaves” notwithstanding. It was very clearly Lincoln’s effort, supporting New England’s business and banking elitist interests, to wrest sovereignty from the states and establish federal supremacy. Once that was done, military occupation was required to maintain “order” (i.e. political and social control). I have been unable to locate any federal document, executive, judicial or legislative, declaring reconstruction officially and totally over. If someone can please prove me wrong on this point I would really appreciate it. Hence, this country is still occupied by the federal victors and they use our own police to do it!
If we are awake there are more than ample signs that “Reconstruction” metastasized into our current system of administrative law and public policy. Police as we know them, Gendarme if you prefer, are essential for the very wealthy and powerful to avoid the wrath of peasants with torches and pitchforks at their gates. The elitists have laws passed offering employment preference to former military in the ranks of civilian law enforcement. Then they sequester the police officers’ retirement funds in their banks. Next they encourage their sycophants in government to provide the police with militaria, weapons, insignia of grade and special privileges concerning the use of force. This not only placates the police, but redirects their loyalty to their perceived FedGov benefactors rather than the people. This is why when OWS protestors confronted police with “Why are you doing this? You are just like us!” they received smirks and pepper spray.
On a more fatalistic note, insignia of grade also establishes a military “pecking order” in the minds of the L.E.O.s, which will be instrumental in the event of insurrection or rebellion. Regular military and activated reserve officers will be able to walk right in and say “You sergeant, go there” and “You corporal, block that intersection” and they will do as they are told by a superior officer in most cases. And because they have been conditioned to believe that they are the “Thin Blue Line” between civilization and savage chaos, they are now somehow morally superior to the rest of us. In an SHTF scenario, contempt of cop will become fatal. This is why it is essential to regain local civilian control over our L.E.O.s and rein them in. Otherwise, when those who publicly exposed the deeds of evil men are being dragged from their beds in the middle of the night for “national security” reasons, the Clovers will draw their blinds and turn up the TV to drown out their neighbors’ screams; just as they’ve always done.
No gov’t run police force will ever be the answer. Anything the gov’t does is inefficient, wasteful, corrupted and takes resources away from other more productive endeavors. Any township can simply form its own private “police force” or whatever they want to call it and pay for service.
It sounds like what you’ve done is in that direction.
I also don’t believe a police force needs to be a full-time job.
Personal in-home security, neighborhood security, I believe, is the reponsibility of the homeowners in that neighborhood. It’s unrealistic and dangerous to expect a cop will be patrolling your neighborhood by your house at the exact moment a criminal is breaking in. You want fast response times? Your neighbors can get there faster than 10 minutes.
Good observations, Don. I will add, to my previous narrative, that our part of the township has a dedicated, independent and effective citizen block watch. We maintain and cultivate it as our first line of defense against neighborhood crime. That our constables will show up no more than 10 minutes after we have first observed, responded to and called in any trouble beats all heck out of living in the “big city”–and waiting till Hell freezes over for uniformed officers to show up and maybe take a report on a cold crime scene whose perps are now miles away.
“Your neighbors can get there faster than 10 minutes.”
You are right: True security–like charity–begins at home.
“Leave America or stay put” is an oversimplification. There are certain regions in this country that are going to be much better than others. Surely, the worst places would include Cali, Illinois, and the whole northeastern seaboard. Idaho, Wyoming, eastern Oregon and Utah will probably be less subject to fedgov predation, and many other coming crises too.
I understand the first part. The United States is a good place to make money – probably the best but the second part – standing your ground? That is futile. People in the US don’t give a shit. They are too concerned with basketball scores, the price of gasoline and the next winner of Dancing With The Stars. Unless you’re an executive with a Fortune 500 Company or a Politician (or related to one), your opinions and actions will do as much to change the downward spiral of the United States of America than covering a Glory Hole in a park restroom will stop extramarital sex.
Where to flee?
I live in Germany for 5 months each year because I love cars and driving. Germany, however, has strict Privacy Laws and a Libertarian attitude regarding an individual’s personal freedom and rights so I feel pretty safe there.
The other 7 months I live in Mexico. Mexico has a laissez faire attitude toward laws and regulations which probably stems from a long running distrust of Government. There are also privacy laws similar to European Countries which protect an individual. Also, like Germany, there is no National Identification Number (Social Security Number) which is shared between Government and Private Industry to regulate and investigate Citizens.
I don’t disagree.
That said, and knowing it is probably a futile effort, I will stand my ground nonetheless. I am not a particularly brave person, nor do I want a confrontation. What I want is to be left in peace to do my thing and let others do theirs. But, dammit, I am not going to just tuck my tail betwixt my legs and submit. And I am not going to pull up stakes, probably sacrificing two-thirds of everything I have worked my ass off for over the past 20-plus years and schlepp what’s left to some other corner of the world and hope I can slide under the radar.
If enough of us just say, “thus far and no farther” – there is still hope!
I agree Eric. Doug I hear you; it’s still possible for the sheeple to watch Dancing with the Stars and stick their fingers in their ears chanting “La la la la la la I can’t hear you”…but not for much longer.
I’m astonished at how many people are waking up. My workmates who used to look at me like I was crazy four years ago when I brought some silver coins to work and said “Start buying these” are now calling and emailing to find out where to get them. Several have acquired weapons. They don’t roll their eyes “there he goes again” when I talk about the NDAA and send them a link to “They Thought They Were Free”–they read it and comment.
Freakin’ grocery store clerks at Whole Foods know about all the farm raids, and they’re connecting the dots to other police state actions. They’re getting it.
There is hope. This is a global phenomenon, but America is the NWO’s greatest prize–they MUST destroy her and her people first, to shatter hope elsewhere. If we don’t stand it’s lost everywhere.
Doug I hear you on the temporary freedoms in Germany and Mexico; some expat friends of mine sing Mexico’s praises too. But do you really think the NWO will tolerate “their” slaves running about doing their thing there, after they’ve taken down America?
I hear you. They used to refer to me as “one of those”, but now I refer to them as “one of those”. One of those that’s still connected to the matrix, refusing to accept reality. Being “one of those” has become mainstream!
I used to think that way Eric but then I realized, standing my ground WAS submitting. In 2003, I came to the conclusion I didn’t have enough years left to continue living in a Country with a diminishing Quality of Life. Since the Government pretty-much was either taxing me on or telling me what I could do with the stuff I had accumulated anyway, selling didn’t it seem like such a big deal.
Unfortunately, most US Citizens buy that “Free-est Country in The World” bullshit. Even if you got 500.000 people to protest and say, “Thus far and no farther”, what do you think that will get you? Most likely, confiscation of some of that stuff you have worked so hard for and possibly married to a cellmate named Bubba.
We took a third way.
In 2004, we moved away from the city, bought a place in the very rural countryside of SW Virginia (closest “urban” area is the small city of Roanoke, about 40 miles away). We now live on a decent-sized piece of land (16 acres) adjacent to several hundred acres of forest. We live among people who are – in general – more liberty minded and self-sufficient than the Clovers we were among in the DC suburbs. We have the ability to be almost completely self-sufficient if need be, for periods of several months at a time.
It is far from perfect, but it is better, in my view, than being in or near a major urban area. Or even moving to another country. Because there are no countries anymore that respect property rights or individual rights. We either stand our ground here – and succeed. Or we fail regardless.
Yeah, Alea Iacta Est.
One of the typical Clover responses is to sarcastically ask (ala John Ashcroft) “…so what freedoms have you lost? You’re not in jail for criticizing the government. If you haven’t done anything wrong and have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear!”
Heh. I always point out to them that if the FBI has sent a National Security Letter to the Clover’s library, ISP, etc. he wouldn’t know it since those entities are prohibited from informing the target.
Worse than that is the plain fact that just because you “aren’t doing anything wrong” today, the government could easily–and secretly–decide tomorrow that what you already did was wrong. That’s the nature of arbitrary power: the axe is poised over your neck all the time. If you haven’t been chopped it’s only because the PTB hasn’t taken notice of you yet.
“…so what freedoms have you lost? You’re not in jail for criticizing the government”
Clover once said exactly that!
He just… doesn’t… get it. Or care.
He is apparently incapable of understanding if any person is subject to arbitrary power, then he is also subject to arbitrary power. It is just a question of when and how he will be made subject.
Which is why an intelligent person objects, out of self-interest as much as human decency, to the exercise of arbitrary power.
But all Clover can think of – or feel – is that he’s “safe.”
Jewish Citizens of Germany had the opportunity to flee their Country in the early 30’s and those who did not suffered the consequences. I suggest, those of you who can now afford to get out, do it now. Those of you who cannot: save and invest all you can. Don’t waste any funds on anything which will not better secure your financial future when you are able to get out.
If you are not heeding the warnings, then you may as well pull down your pants, bend over and learn to enjoy sex with Uncle Sam.
I should have said, “Jewish Citizens of Germany with the financial means had the opportunity…..”
And there’s the rub.
Worse – where to flee? In the 1930s, there was America. Not perfect, but infinitely more free than NS Germany (or Soviet Russia). But where are we to flee to today? Where is the free (or even semi-free) refuge? There are Third World countries that are more day-to-day free by dint of the fact that they lack the organization and technology (and efficient bureaucracy) to impose the sort of petty and major tyranny we suffer under here. But they’re also places that have less-than-great respect for individual rights, property rights – and the rule of law.
So, I think we are stuck. Our backs are against the wall. We’ll either have to turn and fight. Or Submit and Obey.
All my expat friends are in Singapore, Hong-Kong, Costa Rica, and Bermuda.
I would also recommend eastern Europe, especially Romania. I lived there for 4.5 years. There are all kinds of laws like here, but even the little guy like you and I can take care of ANY problem with a little bit of money. Been there, done that!
When a cop earns $200/month it ain’t hard to get out of trouble with $10! Just another cost of doing business. Just an economic mafia like here only more affordable.
I guess it’s an option. But on a purely practical level I – like many others – am tied down by “stuff” (house/land) and the need to earn an income. The other thing is, maybe there comes a time when you have to stand your ground, even in the face of long odds and possibly severe consequences. Many of men I admire throughout history did that and I’d like to follow their example. Why should we just give up our country to these cretins? And if we do – and retreat somewhere else – they’ll just get to us later.
No, I’m going to stay and stand my ground. If enough of us do, we have a decent chance, too.
Don, the “cost of doing business” you describe goes on right here. Back in the 80’s we were in a bar in Richmond right near VCU called the Newgate Prison. It was packed and this kid walked in with his face beaten up pretty bad. He asked the bartender to call the cops because some bikers had beat him up right there on the sidewalk of Grace St. The cops arrived and informed him that if they arrested the guys that did it (who were still brazenly standing outside the bar) they’d be out in 30 minutes and probably looking to kill him. Then the bigger cop slapped the palm of his hand with his baton and said “But for fifty dollars they’ll go down hard” and grinned. I wonder how that would have played out if it had been a state senator’s kid, equal protecion under the law being such as it is……
Here’s what I don’t understand about people who expatriate to places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Europe….
These have been common battlegrounds throughout the modern era. In a time where there is a credible threat of a REAL war, not a “police action” between a superpower and basic agrarian peoples, I just can’t see why you would flee to places like these that are major strategic strongpoints and control global trade.
Do you think Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan wouldn’t be contested in a war between China and the US? I’d just rather stay put and take my chances where I have contacts and know my options.
There’s an excellent article by Mike Adams aka “The Health Ranger” on his site regarding expatriation–highly recommended:
Should you leave the USA before the collapse? Words of wisdom from someone who tried.
As Alex Jones warns, the New World Order is a global phenomenon.
I was super-intent on expatriating as recently as two months ago, but the more I talk to friends/acquaintances who’ve done it, and the more I read about what’s coming elsewhere, I realize: you’re going to fight the NWO no matter where you are eventually. Tactically, it will be easier for me where I know the language and culture, where I can (still) own effective weapons, and where my family and friends will stand with me.
Perhaps Galt’s Gulches like Doug Casey’s Estancia Cafayate will be safe…but I don’t have the cash. If you do, kudos, and I’ll welcome you back when we’re ready to rebuild.
We’re not fighting simple tyranny; we’re fighting pure evil. The people behind this worldwide neo-feudalist prison are the same sadistic psychopaths who’ve planned global enslavement for hundreds of years. They hate humanity in all its unbridled diversity, creativity, and beauty. Look at their art–Piss Christ, the Denver airport; it’s degrading and ugly. Look at their actions–endless wars, inhuman atrocities, soul-destroying human degradation, eugenics, sterilizing vaccinations, mass drugging, psy-op propaganda.
We don’t just support freedom; we support freedom because freedom allows the human spirit to prosper and flourish, bringing forth creation, life, and love. They don’t understand it; it’s literally beyond their grasp as sociopaths to comprehend WHY we love, laugh, and live happily…and they HATE it.
I’m not religious. I call myself an atheist. But I wonder, sometimes, at how spiritual this coming war seems to be.
See Ron Paul’s latest comments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Z6pnSHyOG-Y
There’s lots that can be done and the if the Internet Service Providers really had any balls and really cared about their customers they would all tell the gov’t to collectively piss off!
Businesses are the problem. Just as when the IRS wants to garnish your wages. Your employer and your banks should tell the IRS to piss off and if they have an issue with you then they need to take it up with you personally.
But they don’t. All businesses are complicit little stooges of the gov’t giving in to absolutely everything they are ever told to do. They are the biggest sheep of all. Even the ones that aren’t in bed with the gov’t.
How easy would it be to take this country back? We outnumber them 1000:1. We just have to come together and in concert say: piss off!
Don, the problem is that most businesses now are corporations of one sort or another. By offering liability limits and other perks to business men in exchange for converting their private enterprises into artifical legal entities, these businesses were enticed into becoming *creatures of the state*. So basically the natural man that is sovereign and superior to the state (since the state itself is the creature of man) gives up the rights to his property (the business he built) in exchange for a little security (limited legal liability and tax advantages).
Then the state which is now the creator, tells it’s creature the corporation, to take part of its employee’s money and hand it over, put scrubbers on their smokestacks, install safety gates at the top of every ladder, make everyone wear flame retardent clothing and on and on and on. Then the consumer ends up footing the bill for all this, because every regulation, tax, penalty and distortion in the market that government levies, passes and causes are passed directly on to us. And we get to pay for it all with money that’s had the living crap taxed out of it before we even see it. The whole effing mess is one gargantuan Ponzi scheme and it’s going down; that is inevitable.
The banksters and other corporate interests that have benefited from this fraud want “order” maintained and the sadists in government are all too happy to oblige. So we see the lines being drawn, the legions are forming up outside the walls of Rome, the catapults are cocked and the firepots are being lit. The problem is most Romans are still having one big credit card driven drunken Toga party. By the time they realize they need to do something and that they outnumber the legions, they’ll already be in chains.
Here’s a riddle:
Q: What does Congress want even more than NDAA?
A: To killswitch the Internet.
I’ve long felt that thee most important job for the people is to safeguard the Internet. The adrenaline shot that Mithrandir speaks of is multiplied 100 times in me when I think of the PTB getting their hands on the ‘Net. Think how much easier their agenda would be if the citizenry didn’t insist on educating themselves and interacting through social networking and all the rest. Child’s play!
And all of a piece with everything else that is happening and has happened since the Patriot Act was passed. Cut off communications…
The legislation is, in the House, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and in the Senate, PRO-IP (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act), being acted upon this week, though I don’t know if that includes a formal vote. Supposedly the bills are to address copyright infringement, but let’s get real, mkay?
The trouble is, I don’t know what the people can do to stop it. (This is a function of my own ignorance regarding Internet technology.) I don’t know if there is anything that *can* be done. Obviously writing Congress has become laughably pointless.
The vote on NDAA is frightening: 93-7. 93-7!!! It’s USA Patriot Act all over again, when we were asked to believe that Congress “only had 15 minutes to read the bill”. Translation: Better to look too stupid to read this MAJOR LEGISLATION before we vote on it than to let the people get hold of it before it’s law. With NDAA there was some debate, even some corrective amendments offered, so the Senate doesn’t even have that excuse this time. Only one explanation, and that’s the one in this column of Eric’s.
Are the feds even giving lip service to the “national security” bullshit anymore?
Right on Gail. Based on the recent federal court ruling against blogger Crystal L. Cox denying her status as a journalist and protection under Oregon’s shield law, a kill switch per se may not be needed. It’s obvious the establishment is scared of the free flow of unfiltered information and ideas. I think even Baroness Hillary lamented that the Internet needed “gate keepers” just like the MSM has. One thing we can do, is keep a list of the actual IP addresses for the sites we frequent. That way we will be able to access them directly if for some reason DNS servers were to go down (that would be an easy way to shut down most net communications for the majority of sheeple since they don’t understand that epautos.com is really 216.227.216.90). There will still probably be point to point IP address access available for a while. Of course, government is brute force, so they may take King Lincoln’s approach with the newpapers and just shut down ISP’s at the point of a bayonet.
The net is particularly resistant to attack. Shutting off DNS’s in the USA isn’t going to be much more than a temporary problem. The first step will be overseas DNS servers that list the blocked sites. It’s a relatively easy to set up one’s computer to query a 2nd or even 3rd DNS. That would be the one IP address we would need to know to access all the DNS blocked sites.
Brent is right so far as current technology goes. But who knows what they’ll come up with in the future.
I worry that in the next couple decades as my little boy grows up I’ll be sitting him on my knee telling him stories of the “Golden Age of the Internet” where you could buy things on Amazon without having to pay sales tax and looking up “freedom” on Google returned something other than “no results.”
If I’m not mistaken (I’m a programmer but not an Internet expert), the numeric address won’t work after government goons shut down the server. However, when the site relocates to some place outside Prison USA, DNS lookup will properly redirect traffic to the new numeric address.
As an aside, I’m a big supporter of copyright but a huge opponent of the way the U.S. wants to control the world in alleged support of copyright.
Agreed. When I was growing up in the seventies, the evils were the USSR and other communists and socialists right? And America was this shining beacon of hope and opportunity. Now, so many of the people that I grew up with are blatant, unabashedly, proud socialists! And they admit it. Talk about not learning from history.
They don’t hesitate to say things like: “we all have to sacrifice for the good of the whole.” WOW! That’s some Marxist, Borg-like, collectivist shit right there. Many of them are public school teachers and they will tell you that the science is in on man-made global warming and the gov’t has to control the environment and we all have to pay “our fair share” for that.
I mean just amazing how 30 years of political correctness has succeeded in slowly boiling the frog. It’s like talking to zombies or robots. No need for critical thought anymore. No need for reason or common sense. Whatever the gov’t says is right, that’s what’s right.
Puke!
Don, it’s so bad that my wife freaks out if I discuss politics or what the government’s doing on the phone with my mother. She told me last night I probably shouldn’t even write on this site (and her fear’s are hardly unfounded). And as was the case in Argentina, the USSR and NS Germany what I’ve come to fear is that they might even come after my family to silence me. I never would have believed I’d feel like this when I was in my 20’s. This is why it’s so important for everyone to understand that it’s invariably the state that is is the real problem. It doesn’t matter when or where we are, government always gets big, hungry, evil and dangerous. We really don’t learn from history, ever. Land of the free my ass!
precisely boothe why i said the whole population must die, and then start anew. because as long as there is a fragment that remembers, history will repeat itself. it really does not take a whole lot to figure out this conclusion. you practically said it yourself…
Neon, my take is that there should be a mechanism in place to identify evil people and keep them out of public office. Complete depopulation is about as likely to happen as totally honest government. If you are genuinely concerned about overpopulation, don’t worry it will take care of itself soon enough. The Club of Rome asserted this in their report “Limits to Growth” (of course their predictions and time lines have pretty much been wrong, but so is the weather man a lot of the time). Between the EPA, the FDA and the DOD, our government is doing its part to kill us off. As I recall, the elitist goal of cutting “the cancer” out of Mother Earth (that is “man”) is a “sustainable” 500 million target. After all the Gore, Bush, Rockefeller and Koch families, et al will still need servants. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the likes of Leonardo De Caprio and JayLo are the thinking elite that will repopulate the planet, because they had enough money to make it through the storm? Depopulation, if it comes, will be a nasty affair, it will not be complete and the majority of those that survive will not like the outcome. Be careful what you ask for.
“the whole population must die”
Not everyone is evil (or even bad) much less deserving of a mass die-off, Neon. To advocate such is also to invite a question you may not like the answer to. I’m sure you can guess what the question is.
I’ve noticed, even in myself, the fact that we all live in fear every day in this country. Not a fear of being mugged, or car-jacked, or anything like that but fear of the police and the gov’t.
Most still connected to the collective don’t feel it because it’s considered normal to them, but I feel it.
When a cop pulls up behind me on the road, my first thoughts are not to protecting and serving but rather – following a shot of adrenaline – what could he possibly pull me over for? Are “my papers” in order? Is he going to arrest me for something?
There are so many abusive laws on the books nowadays that certainly everyone at any moment is breaking one or more of them by just going about their daily business.
Ever notice how scared people are all the time. Ever notice how much people say “sorry” in America? We’ve been marinated to believe that just about everything we do is wrong and so we need to apologize for it. If I walk down an aisle in a grocery store and somebody is just standing there, not in my way, they’ll look at me and jump back and say “sorry”. Sorry? For what? Why do you feel you’ve done something wrong? In fact I’m the one who should excuse himself as I pass in front of your view.
It’s pathetic. We already live in a police state. Our country is occupied by that police state, and, similarly as in the foreign countries the U.S. military occupies, we are being abused and imprisoned at the whims of the gov’t.
When a cop pulls up behind me on the road, my first thoughts are not to protecting and serving but rather – following a shot of adrenaline – what could he possibly pull me over for? Are “my papers” in order? Is he going to arrest me for something?
Usually this is my first thought. I usually try not to do anything stupid and find a way to let them pass me. It is nerve wracking when they are behind me.
Usually interactions with LEOs cost me money that can be put to better use. If most people’s dealings with LEOs are of them having to pay money out (regardless of reason), then most people will tend to avoid LEOs and look to their wallet when LEOs are around them.
I think most of us feel exactly the same way!
The next time a cop gets so close to my rear bumper that I can’t see his front bumper, I’m gonna slam on my breaks. Then when he rearends me, I’m going to write him a citation for following too close, reckless driving, reckless endangerment and anything else I can think of. Then I’m going to tell him I heard something snap in my neck when he hit me and I can’t move. Then I’m going to sue the police department.
I saw three cops the other night at around midnight, parked side-by-side completely blocking the left turn lane on an unlit, two-lane country road. Their lights were off and they were all three just sitting there.
That is a deadly accident waiting to happen. What the hell could that have been all about? No excuse for that kind of irresponsible behaviour on the road.
reminds me of something I saw once. Cop A is following Cop B driving too close as is typical for most cops. Cop A brakes and Cop B narrowly avoids rear ending Cop A only because cop A let off the brakes.
Wasn’t even hard braking…. It would have only been funnier if there had been an actual crash between the two cops.
I just saw an item on the news about a cop in Florida (I think) who literally ran his car up a high-tension wire as a result of groping for a pen (he says) and not watching the road. I’ll bet anyone who’s interested no “reckless driving” charges will be filed against the cop. But had you or I done exactly the same thing….
They do that stuff on purpose. That is a mouse trap!
Yep, those are my feelings as well. I’ve lived where I could hear daily gunfire from nearby (see it from my window) housing projects but I feel a cop to be a greater threat than I ever felt living so close to gang bangers that shot at each other practically every day. Why? Those gang members had -zero- interest in me, the cops often see me as prey.
I went to college in a pretty crime infested area. I took my time there too (longer than four years). Not once did I have an issue with the element! Shit was stolen left and right if you left it out, but that was it. The element is understandable. Their, our, and most other groups learned to co-exist, somewhat. Cops are grown-up hall monitors.
Eric, when you combine this latest flagrant legislative power grab with all of the other encroachments on our privacy, liberty and civil rights the synergy is truly frightening. We must be aware that our local and state “militarized” police will be the key functionaries in “herding us into the chute”. From armored personnel carriers (some with hard mounted M-2 .50 cal. HMG’s) to miniature surveillance drones, our “publice servants” are asserting themselves as our masters more each day. They also want to make sure they have the element of surprise when they execute that midnight knock or “no knock”. Even the lap-dog media won’t get a pass to listen in in many cases: http://www.usatoday.com/uscp/pni/news/2011-11-24-bcusencrypted-police-communications_st_u.htm So much for transparency.