“What we are witnessing is the ongoing self-delegitimization of the US federal government. It is impossible to pretend any longer that there is a rule of law in the USA. It is impossible to pretend any longer that the government is the servant of the people. Like the fire to which George Washington compared it, the dangerous servant has become the fearful master. This is why the American people are arming at a rate that has never been seen before. They are not afraid of crime. They are afraid of their government. On some inarticulate level of consciousness, they are aware of this: an unreasonable, ineloquent master who knows only the use of intimidation and force is bound to resort to the latter when the former fails.” – Vox Popoli blog

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130 COMMENTS

  1. Maybe the reason Americans are arming up is because windbags keep trying to turn us into Europe.

    While there’s a risk of government tyranny , that implies some degree of competence I’ve yet to see.

    • Even the most kill happy genocidal governments weren’t exactly competent. They were just good at that one thing.

      Government does not attract competent people in general.

    • Yeah; Communist Russia and China didn’t depend on efficiency; just owning all the guns and killing anyone that disagreed after disarming the people gave them the edge; why do you think the statists keep focusing on taking our guns away.

      Professor Bill Ayers; a mentor to Obama; (some say ghost writer of the “autobiography” of Obama); As one of the leaders of the Weather Underground; said that once their revolution succeeded; they would need to murder 25 million Americans that could not be “Re-educated”.

      The liberal/progressive belief is based in the same mentality; “the end justifies the means”, and when everyone is simply a part of a “collective good” no one persons life is important to these people; this is why mass slaughter is the norm when they come to power.

      If you can rationalize the mass murder of unborn children and call it a right; you are perfectly capable of rationalizing the mass murder of those that have survived the womb.

      • Whether it’s communists subordinating the Individual to the Collective, or fascists subjugating the Individual to the State, or any other flavor of dictator rationalizing his own tyranny, it’s always the same. The Individual is villified and exterminated at will, all in the propaganda sham name of some mythical greater good.

        It’s time demythologize government, wrest it from its self-appointed perch as all seeing, all knowing, all doing entity, and return power and dignity to the Individual.

        • Which is why we are on this site; and why the statists hate and fear us so. We are saying to those that see as nothing but “useless eaters and breeders”; we are free, our individual lives ARE important; and we will not go quietly into that good night of tyranny and mass slaughter you dream of in your mad vision of a “perfect world” (that you control, of course).

    • In the Stalinist Soviet Union citizens would be picked up, often randomly, and tortured until they would denounce one or more of their neighbors as enemies of the state. If they were lucky they would then be released to spend the rest of their life remembering their betrayals. If unlucky they and their former friends/acquaintances would be shipped to some Gulag in a cattle car.

      The guards in charge of these cars were hard-core criminals recruited by Stalin specifically because of their sadistic tendencies and the junior guards were everyday police and/or soldiers. If at any time during the journey a guard showed even the slightest compassion or sympathy for the plight of the transportees he would be immediately stripped of his weapon and shoved into the compartment with the prisoners he had been guarding.

      Every once in a while some prisoner would be “rehabilitated” and allowed to return home where he would quietly pass on to his closest friends and relatives the exact nature of what he had endured. (Source: The Gulag Archipelago – Alexander Solzhenitsin)

      This is how a tyranny maintains power once it has been achieved.

    • In Europe (and most of the rest of the world) if a government doesd what ours has done, there would be an unscheduled “Vote of No Confidence,” the President (or other party flunkey) would resign, the cabinet would dissolve, and new elections would be held to get a functioning government up and running.

  2. It never dawns on them. At the end of every argument, the grabber throws his hands up and yells “why are you so paranoid!?!” And the gun guy screams “you just spent 30 minutes telling me how you would like the government to throw me in jail or kill me!”

    • cog·ni·tive dis·so·nance

      noun

      1. the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, esp. as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.

      • Cognitive Dissonance (Leon Festinger, 1957) is dissonance between one’s own views and those of your social acquaintances in close proximity to you. People tend to take on the opinions of those with whom they socialize. It isn’t about holding an inconsistent pair of beliefs in your head.

        • May want to re-read the original theory. The examples had to do with groups, but the dissonance was within one’s own head. It effectively describes trying to rationalize an irrational thought/belief when presented with contrary evidence.

    • It is much better than that.

      Last year in the United States, citizens …
      … were victims of more than one million violent attacks from criminals.
      … were victims of a few dozen unprovoked attacks from armed citizens.

      So, armed citizens are “paranoid” for fearing over one million attacks and unreasonable for wanting to be armed against such attacks. But gun grabbers are “reasonable” for fearing a few dozen attacks and demanding that government forcibly disarm all citizens. Got it.

  3. The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments. – Washington

  4. Can’t help but wonder when they are going to start puting the M-2 and M-240 gun mounts back on these vehicles.

  6. I keep waiting for people to finally be pissed off. The 2014 elections will be very telling if people are finally fed up with the current government.

    • I expected the big pendulum swing toward sanity in 2012, but conservatives just took their ball and went home, instead of showing up to vote; particularly in swing states. We’re not being defeated out there. We’re forfeiting. That’s not the only reason, but it’s surely sufficient all by itself, why you won’t ever see me turn all firebrand and go wolverine on anyone.

      If the sensible people of this country won’t get off their friggin’ butts and use the system peacefully and easily to save the country, a country which has repeatedly been saved in the past only through violence and then given as a gift to the bystanders, then I’m sure as hell never going to go to extremes to save it for them.

      They can suck it, while I take my money, talent, education and experience to some other country to start fresh. There are plenty of countries that would welcome America’s brain drain. They already do, actually, unlike the U.S., which throws out the welcome mat for the least skilled, most corrupt, quickest reproducing miscreants in the world. Law abiding, self-financing, STEM grad degree holders need not apply.

        • “Really NAME SUCH A COUNTRY. ”
          “Jus Bill says: February 12, 2014 at 14:11

          Australia. New Zealand. Korea. Japan. Any EU country.”

          Right. Now name one where you don’t have to abandon your Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

        • Antarctica. The only place in the world except the US where you can go “off the reservation” within its physical confines and have the government legally leave you alone.

    • Pascal,

      With everything you see going on, what makes you think you can actually trust election counts these days? I sure have my doubts.

      Old fashioned paper ballots may not be efficient and we may not get instantaneous election results, but they are next to impossible to rig in any significant numbers.

      • Who make a vast majority of voting machines? Debolt
        Who gives alot of money to Debolt? The GOP/RNC.

        Yeah, I trust the results.

        • You do know who won the 2012 election, right?

          And he didn’t win it by such a wide margin that fraud couldn’t have resulted in a different outcome. So, Debolt is either stupid or incompetent, (or both) if they are an arm of the Republicans. They didn’t use fraud to prevent the re-election of Dear Leader, and you seem to be implying the could have/would have…

        • Voting machine hacking is a K-12 level exercise. Google it.

          But even that’s not necessary. The MSM could easily do the job. I’m suspicious they had a hand in 2012 with Perception Management…

        • While we’re on Google anyway, check out “Diebold.” I think you’ll find they make most of them.

    • As long as the general populace continues to be zombified by NCIS: Bullshit, Dancing with the Tards and whatever idiotic and meaningless Us vs. Them polemic (sponsored by Facebook!) debate that happens to be broadcast by the News-Entertainment channels… we’re more or less doomed to remain on this downward spiral to Idiocracy.

      The best thing you can do is try and peel friends and family away from the BS that is spewed on television and the Internet by “Main Stream Media” and hope that they can at least start asking questions when some talking head on CNN, Fox News or whatever tells them what to think.

      • Other terrible things to awaken your loved ones from:

        – Nancy Grace

        – Dr. Oz

        – Long Island Medium (Can you believe this drivel is on THE LEARNING CHANNEL?)

        – Ghost Adventures (and similar shows)

        – Toddlers & Tiaras (child pagentry in total)

        – Desparate wh0res… oops, I mean housewives

        – Fox, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, Today, Al Jazeera, etc.

        – Video games (I hear debates on this one like “Games like PSN’s Flower are real art!” to which I reply:

        “22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”

        – Cartoons (watch any of your child’s fav shows and see just how much filth, adult undertones, programming, propaganda, and mind control are built into these. Even thoe most wholesome of cartoon contains it)

        – Most modern fiction. Read The Hunger Games and tell me that that’s not programming to accept/expect gov control.

        – ANY opinion-based non-fiction.

        Etc.

        • Its to dumb down the populace and entertain them so the people don’t know whats really going on. Kind of like at the end of the roman empire when the bathhouses and coliseums we built and welfare was initiated to pay off and to entertain the plebes so they would continue to vote back into power the same people.

  7. while there are evil people in the government eg Feinstein, I have met a lot of politicians(my father gives a lot of money to the republicans) most i have met are either have good intentions or are useful idiots who legislate the way their donors want.

  8. So they’re blast proof, but are they fireproof? I mean if you got one really cooking is the interior insulated or would the guys inside come rushing out of their precious mobile fortress? Inquiring minds wanna know!

      • They have a top hatch and an intercom. And anyone who’s driven an armored vehicle buttoned up will tell you you can absolutely drive a vehicle and not be able to see. You have a vehicle commander who is literally telling you how to steer.

        • But that would mean he would have to stick his head out of the hatch and many a Nazi tank commander, if he were still alive, could tell you how hazardous Russian snipers made that job description.

          I think it is important that concepts of how to defeat these vehicles, both individually and in convoy, be considered and shared. We are perhaps illegally denied the arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment which would be most effective against such armored vehicles, but they have not yet denied our First Amendment right to discuss alternatives.

        • “I think it is important that concepts of how to defeat these vehicles, both individually and in convoy, be considered and shared.”

          Stock up on glass bottles and gasoline….

          • Tank traps work well also. Takes a lot of work to get them out of a hole. Really hard to blow up so better obstruct. Drop trees criss cross towards the approaching vehicles. Really hard to clear.

  9. It’s hard to say what o is up to, from the Fema coffins to billions of ammo rounds to armored vehicles. Its maybe a bluff as his sardine cans do not control territory, boots on the ground do. o should know that from overseas. He also needs to worry about more Snowdens, patriots are everywhere.

    • We’ll considering Snowden got good men killed over seas, no we don’t, I am honestly shocked that people where suprised to find out the government spies on the citizens.

      If I ever came face to face with Snowden I’d be liable to kill him

  10. Over the past 25 years or so has there been any charting of the frequency of government oppression news? For my age I remember Reagan and forward and it seems like this is all constant. So I wonder if this has always been going on or if the frequency has increased.

    Are current NSA intrusions that much different from Echelon way back when? Are current reports of government bulk ammo purchases different than ammo purchases thirty years ago? Is the dumping of surplus military equipment onto PD’s different from surplus sales after WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War?

    Maybe I don’t want an answer because either way it’s depressing. Either the US is quickening the pace into some tyrannical plutocracy as the apparent uptick in these reports and stories would indicate or it has always been one.

    • I’ve been told by wise and trusted council that “There’s nothing new under the sun.” I think this current administration is probably stretching the envelope in terms of blatant corruption, but in general this is the way things go. We just hear about it faster thanks to Facebook and YouTube – and those in power do not like the subjects to be informed.

    • Realistically yes, it’s all pretty constant. People have been arguing against the strength of the central government since before it officially existed. Remember, there was significant debate after ratification that the whole damn U.S. Army was unconstitutional.

      I agree with the sentiment that we just hear about it faster, and yet somehow we are still surprised when it happens. Snowden didn’t really do anything amazing. Anyone who didn’t already know, or at least suspect, the NSA was collecting the data they are has had their head in the sand for the last decade.

      The only thing that MAY be new is the number of different agencies that are tooling up with military-grade hardware. Some of them (DHS) didn’t exist under Reagan, others have no business arming their employees.

    • It’s always been this way. Remember the Whiskey Rebellion? The Alien and Sedition Acts? The Maryland Secession vote? Japanese internment camps?

      “The Constitution… has either authorized the government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it” -Lysander Spooner, 1867.

  11. I want an MRAP. That would be so fun for deer hunting. All the guys packed in there, great offroad capabilities, and just cool looking. If they are given cheaply to local police agencies they should be sold to the public in the same manner. Or are public servants somehow more qualified than the public?

    • Off road isn’t that great. You have to watch for soft ground, angle of slope, ditches, roads that won’t hold your weight and a host of other problems.

  12. I have 2 sons and I’m not yet 30. I don’t want to leave them fatherless, but I want even less to leave them a future of slavery and servitude. I buy guns and train for just 1 purpose.

  14. I would not want an SUV that has fuel economy rated in gallons per foot traveled.

    I would posit Randy Weaver was the first victim of government over reach. No one other than the Weavers made waves about that so they have been amping up ever since.

    I am not sure when it will end, but I think it has already started. Be aware.

  15. It would be an interesting poll question. What is your primary motivation for owning firearms?
    1) Because guns are cool and fun to shoot.
    2) Because I use them to put food on my family’s table.
    3) For self-defense against criminals of the non-governmental variety.
    4) For self-defense during a period of civil unrest, i.e., a temporary loss of rule of law.
    5) To oppose tyranny.
    6) All of the above.

    • Anything but #1 grants you an immediate no knock raid, arrest, and detainment without charges in one of the best holes in the ground the government can find.

      #1 gives you 30 days grace to turn them in willingly before proceeding with the above.

    • All of the above, but you should have listed, “Because I have a Natural Right to Self-defense against all attackers foreign and domestic.” as Number 1. The Right exists prior to and independent of the establishment of a formal Government and our agreement to abide with it for our mutual benefit.

      All the other things you listed are logical consequences or extensions of the Right, except #6 which is just part of the multiple choice format. No criticism intended, Jeff, just clarifying why you are correct in your comment.

      • “Because I have a Natural Right to Self-defense against all attackers foreign and domestic.”

        Or perhaps because many of us have at some point sworn an oath “I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;” and still take that oath seriously.

        We can skip the part about “…obey the orders of the President of the United States…” since he has obviously not upheld his own oath of office as to support and defend the Constitution: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

        Either that or the best of his ability is sorely lacking.

  16. That quote from the Vox Popoli blog is one of the best statements I have read in a very, very long time.

  17. Perhaps I’m mistaken, or got the wrong author/columnist, but weren’t you, Dan Zimmerman, in favor of the militarization of LE…??? Spewing out rhetoric about how LE needed these military vehicles and equipment…??? Do you now see the light of day, this isn’t about LE at all, it’s about ramping up LE to combat the inevitable revolution, that is unless things desperately change…Make no mistake, LE are NOT our friends, they do the bidding of the establishment and NOT the people…

  18. If it came to blows NOW….a guestimated 2/3 of the police/federals/military…etc would joins their fellow american citizens and fight back. Another decade or two of common core/liberal media indoctrination and they may be able to hold a solid force together. But as of right now….no way, too many would tear off their uniforms and stand with the citizenry. Me thinks they know this, that’s why they proceed SLOWLY…..SLOWLY.

    • Not in my world..Police love confrontation with the public, It doesnt take much for them to deploy their APC on the public..they do it all the time.. the last time was so they could serve a child support warrant..

      I believe the Military would side with citizens before Police.

      • I think that not just the rank and file soldiers, but the top brass in the military are acutely aware of the difference between the military and civilian police. They’ve been all over the world and they know very well what happens when the military is used against it’s own civilians. The police as a whole do not understand the difference, otherwise they would not be going so far out of their way to emulate the military.

        • Many In LE are fresh out of the Military, I see many young green cops rolling in squad cars..the face of LE has changed.. It’s the same young faces wearing BDU’s only with POLICE on them
          On a side note, our State patrol has lowered the bar for acceptance, No longer will misdemeanors drug use be an automatic disqualifier for candidates, But will be reviewed on a case by case situation. This is because it is getting difficult to fill the ranks.

        • I wouldn’t count on or trust generals/flag ranked officers. They are mostly politicians at that level. While some of them might rebel against the government, I would be fearful of ambitions to be the next Caeser.

        • Wholly concur, Chris. Gen. Petraeus is a prime example. There are others. Each General has to be confirmed by Congress.

      • The military will not be deployed on US soil without an act of congress. And trust me if you think the police are too military and brutal….just wait until you see what the big army is like. They have very well established procedures of not placing soldiers from one state “A” in duty status in state “A” in time of deployment…etc.

        No the local cop who lives in, works in and has family in and knows the community members in a town….that’s the guy who is most likely to say FU to the govt when oppression type orders come. A heavy hand in enforcement current laws is one thing….tyranny is another..maybe you need to actually see it before you can yell the difference.

      • That’s when they face an isolated individual, not when they face determined, organized and numerous resistance. Many departments would be effectively wiped out in a single 10 man ambush with any survivors immediately resigning when they realize that uniforms and marked cars are targets.

        Larger forces are generally limited to operating in the metro areas, which are a total write off in an insurrection anyway.

        I seriously doubt there would be anything like an organized police presence that was not acquiesced to by the insurgents left anywhere more than 10 miles from a major city, or in other words 9/10ths of the country.

    • You may be right, but it’s unwise to count them (now) as on our side. Until they actually strip off the uniform, they are agents of the state and they follow orders.

  19. The increasing armament of LEA’s appears to me to be a symptom of the mindset of the persons ordering/authorizing this activity. Basically, those persons are Progressive, Elitist Statists, who see nothing wrong with applying brute, lethal force to the ordinary Citizen “for the good and safety of society” (which these same persons have defined to suit themselves). Like other Tyrants, these people are willing to order violence against their peers (given that we still hold “all men (people) are created equal [under the law]”) because they have re-defined themselves as “better” than their “subjects”. However, they are too cowardly to actually, personally perpetrate that violence.

    They also class the individuals they are employing as “mindless goons” who will “obey orders without question”, I keep thinking the flaw in their plan to oppress us is that those LEO and Military people the “rulers” think they are grooming to commit their atrocities for them are not “mindless goons” in the majority because they are American born, raised and educated. Certainly, there are “exceptions” to that statement, but by and large, I refuse to believe the majority of LEO and Military people will engage in wholesale acts of violence against their peers. It may turn-out many regard their Militarization as preparing for a time when the Statist rulers go too far and will turn that training and those weapons against the Tyrants in defense of their peer, freedom-loving, fellow Americans.

    Yeah, maybe this is completely naive of me, but in our basic character Americans think more alike than we often advert to here in the TTAG discussions. We hold the same values and core beliefs, and, I think, the same “tipping point” of tolerance for tyranny by the Government. You don’t throw your Country into open Civil Violence just because you don’t like what the Government is doing, but I think every American has a good sense of when it will have gone too far. We are closer to the “tipping point” now than any other time in my life, but there are the 2014 elections and a chance to change Federal and State Governments for the better.

    • “The increasing armament of LEA’s appears to me to be a symptom of the mindset of the persons ordering/authorizing this activity. Basically, those persons are Progressive, Elitist Statists, who see nothing wrong with applying brute, lethal force to the ordinary Citizen”

      It would be easy to agree with that Derry, If I didnt live in a conservative part of the country ( Redoubt ) Our conservative leaders are just as thirsty for military hardware as the liberals are..

      As recent as this week, our SWAT team got repairs done to their APC to the tune of 5k… the police chief was videoed clapping his hands together like a giddy schoolgirl…. Its not Just liberals who have crosshairs on citizens..

    • “I refuse to believe the majority of LEO and Military people will engage in wholesale acts of violence against their peers.”

      Um, why don’t you strap a rifle on your back and walk down a nice street anywhere in California, New York, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hawaii, Texas, or Washington D.C. (or any military base for that matter) and see how many “nice” police officers smile and wave as they drive by — versus how many shoot you if you refuse to stop an be arrested.

      • Um, I would expect exactly the result you describe, so that’s why I would decline your invitation to engage in that particular experiment.

        • DerryM,

          Apparently you missed my point. Law enforcement officers in those states will not hesitate to use deadly force on anyone who commits the “crime” of being armed in public simply because the State says that being armed in public is illegal — never mind that such laws are in direct conflict with the Supreme Law of the Land (our United States Constitution and specifically the Second Amendment) or that the armed citizen has harmed no one and has no intention to harm anyone.

          On the other hand, strap a rifle over your shoulder and walk down a nice street in Arizona, Missouri, or Michigan and most cops will not try to arrest you … and any cops that do try to arrest you risk going to prison themselves. Same country. Same United States Constitution. But different laws according to the State. And the law enforcement officers blindly follow any and every law that the State decrees.

          This is a huge problem. We need peace officers whose mission is to administer justice versus law enforcement officers who enforce any and every law that government passes by legislative fiat or worse executive order.

          • I understand your point. I am saying that it does not follow that all of those same Officers lack the moral sensibility to recognize when the Government they serve has crossed over to pure tyranny, and/or lack the loyalty and courage to support their peer Citizens and defy those orders. When (if) the proverbial SHTF many LEO’s will have a difficult choice to make…support tyranny, or support the principles and ideals upon which this Constitutional Republic was founded. I assert most will choose the latter.

            We all obey laws we do not approve of. When we buy a gun we obey several laws we regard as unconstitutional. In so doing are we choosing to approve of tyranny? Or are we merely submitting to tyranny to gain a pragmatist end? In a lifetime there are very few “good days to die”, but we know them when we encounter them.

            I submit that those occupying Political and Bureaucratic Offices are becoming more tyrannical in imposing their version of utopia on the rest of us. The LEO’s charged with enforcing unconstitutional laws do so for the same pragmatic reasons we obey unconstitutional laws that infringe our Second Amendment Rights, but when the situation becomes too egregious the majority of them will choose to oppose the tyrants…then, perhaps, they can become “… peace officers whose mission is to administer justice versus law enforcement officers who enforce any and every law that government passes by legislative fiat or worse executive order.” as you so rightly suggest.

      • A single man walking armed in the street shows a rebellious nature and he will almost always be dealt with on that level, often excessively, but it does NOT denote an open rebellion for cause, with wide community support.

        We can surmise that a significant percentage of LEOs who will deal harshly with an individual threat might carefully consider which side of the argument they come down on if the tyranny becomes so blatant that the community as a whole rises in opposition.

  20. I think the American public is having a bit of an awakening more than a self-delegitimization of the US federal government. That presumes that the government has changed. It has been untrustworthy for a very long time. I also think it spreads beyond the government to the media and our educational system. People are starting to understand that we have a ruling class and a country class and more and more of us are beginning to understand that we are the ruled not the rulers.

    • “History does not repeat, but it does rhyme.” Mark Twain

      Even a casual study of the history of tyrannical regimes will show that the most effective tactic is not gun control/registration/confiscation, it has almost universally been the indoctrination of the children from an early age and their eventual use by the state to turn violently against their parents in support of the tyranny.

      Bolshevik revolution – Nazi Germany – pre-WW II Japan – Red China – the list is long and frightening.

      • I totally agree, but I’d add that K-12 isn’t half as bad as our university system. School teachers have always tended to be bleeding hear liberals, but professors are at the head of the line with their palms out when it comes to taking taxpayer money. They’ve watered down the quality of their diplomas and pumped up the cost so much I think they are poised for a collapse. We’re close to becoming a society where your liberal arts degree will get you a lifetime in poverty while skipping college and becoming a plumber will make you moderately wealthy. The universities are far too worried about keeping the big government bacon coming and far too unconcerned about the welfare of their future alumni.

    • If Americans saw the character of what has been done IN THEIR NAME throughout the past century, and by whom, they would be horrified. There is a class of semi brain dead arrogant assholes, largely sourced from Ivy League Universities via the “Skull and Bones” secret society, who truly believe they own the world and everyone in it.

      These are the people who have designed your security apparatus, and who have offices within the CIA and Pentagon.

      They have committed atrocities of every stripe, which would normally land the perpetrator in the Hague on charges of crimes against humanity. In fact, the most brazen African warlord would quail at their crimes.

      You wonder why there is widespread hatred for the USA everywhere in the world? These people are to blame. They are largely untouchable, as the only people tasked with keeping them in line are their fellow classmates at Groton and similar institutions.

      Who knows how this happens? One theory is America has never really admitted it has an empire, with the result that Americans on overseas postings never become part of the landscape, and never learn anything fundamental about the places they go. They only serve terms of a few years, so there is no institutional knowledge.

      Your entire government needs overhauling to reel in these masters of the universe, who, like their colleagues on Wall Street, wield disproportionate power and create untold havoc on the lives of people around the world.

      People with less education and more common sense, and more importantly, an active conscience, would serve you far better. Otherwise you will continue to be seen throughout the world as a drunken teenager with a machine gun, rather than the elder statesman your place in the world should demand.

      • “Who knows how this happens?”

        I do. Groupthink and primordial fear being exploited by those who lust for power. So stop giving them power. Freedom terrifies the power-mongers, because it makes the future unpredictable, and they hate unpredictablity – that’d be *GASP* CHAOS!!!!!

        But life is chaotic. Stasis is death.

        • Rich,
          Martin is an idiot and obviously a victim of a modern education. First judge not the past with modern moral standards. What was ok in the past is not acceptable now
          Also, there is not a country/nation/society in existence that at some point in their past did things not acceptable.
          Martin prove me wrong.

  21. My cop buddy told me you only depend on 50percent of cops(or guvment) to disobey their masters. Including himself

  22. Okay, I’ll ask… When the ‘government’ turns on it’s citizens and we have Kristallnacht 2.0 who are they going to go after? When answering please define who is the government and who is the threat. Is it the Republican government going after Democratic voters? Is it the Democratic government going after gun owner? Is it the NeoCon going after the Liberal, the Educated, the Actor and the Artist? The Religious Right going after nonmemeber of the Religious Right? What will Kristallnacht 2.0 be?

    • NeoCons are educated liberals who love war.

      But it will be the government, republicans and democrats working together, against anyone who sticks out, up. They will be attacking the hippies just as much as the rednecks.

    • Well, the current administration is applying some of the same rhetoric to “the 1%” that Hitler applied to the Jews.

      A lot of the Nazi propaganda about the Jews was related to their economic success, involvement in finance, etc.

    • “When the ‘government’ turns on it’s citizens and we have Kristallnacht 2.0 who are they going to go after?”

      The “government” we need to fear is not a partisan organization, but an amalgam of all the fears our Founders attempted to prevent by the creation of our Constitution. We cannot point to a single party or faction as the enemy to be feared, but rather to a concept of statism and belief in the power and authority of Big Government to rule over its people rather than serve them. True conservatives (not RINOs) would probably not be included, if you can actually find any of them in office.

      Who would be the new targets of a tyrannical pogrom? It seems obvious that no specific political, ethnic or social group is the likely target, rather the supposed 1% that can be used to divide the nation based on blatant class warfare concepts and the other portion of the people who are gun owners and have voiced support of the original Constitutional theories and dissatisfaction with the current regime.

      There is little doubt historically that utopian dreams/fantasies MUST be controlled by authoritarian regimes and will devolve into fascist tactics as their only means of preserving the unworkable society they have constructed. While some far-right extremists or religious groups may fall prey to this mind-set their are not usually compatible to the extent they can form any significant alliances and so they remain a minority with little political or other power.

      Since historically utopian fantasies and fascist regimes of all flavors have been leftist Big Government/statist concepts the only answer to your question must be that any person perceived or suspected of opposing the regime will be on the Kristalnacht list.

      A more important and legitimate question may well be to determine who will play the role of the Brown-shirts? No such organization exists in the U.S. at this time, although some like to point to the SEIU as a likely source of manpower, but a careful watch for the rise of such an enforcement arm of the government will be a clear barometer of government intentions.

      Giving law enforcement agencies the tools of militarization does not guarantee they will use those tools as a tyrannical government might desire.

      • “A more important and legitimate question may well be to determine who will play the role of the Brown-shirts?”

        The TSA/DHS!

  23. While eloquent, the quotation is, I think, premature. People are not buying firearms because they fear the government; rather they are buying them because they fear that guns are a commodity of diminishing availability–get yours now before they are gone!–i.e., rank consumerism. Further, these buying sprees are a reflection of the opinion of a sizeable percentage of the population that gun bans are misguided, in those jurisdictions in which gun control regulations are becoming increasingly oppressive. For example, the AR craze was due to a fear that the guns would no longer be available, the ammo craze due in large measure for the same reasons and because of good old fashioned capitalism that has artificially limited supply.

    I myself am an example of this mind set. I bought an 80% lower, not because I want an AR (and may never finish the build), but because Senator Deleon wants to ban them for stupid reasons that have no basis in reality.

    • “People are not buying firearms because they fear the government; rather they are buying them because they fear that guns are a commodity of diminishing availability…”

      Sorry, Mark, but you refuted your own argument. People are buying firearms because they fear that unconstitutional government policies will create an artificial diminishing availability of guns.

      Any manufactured product in such high demand as firearms will continue to fill the marketplace so long as economic conditions make the continued manufacture and sale profitable. Only government intervention/prohibition OR a diminishing availability of resources can change that equation, and only government is actively interfering (or attempting to) at this point.

  24. If you are interested in the NSA datamining/”intel” brooming subject, then search for info on FirstNet as you haven’t seen anything yet.

    Received a state briefing on FirstNet recently for First Responders, the (theoretical) beneficiaries thru making for more efficient operations. Being driven at State level by the cops (big surprise) and run by the State Patrol.

    2012 Congress passed leg. and appropriated $7billion to start up. Establishing a new nationwide broadband/radio network with intent of 99% territory coverage thru fixed towers, satellites, and mobile towers. Operates 700mhz frequency which uses the part of the spectrum formerly used by TV (before the digital conversion).

    This communications system is intended to gather/transport all “public safety” communications with instant access to the data/info from any point. Foe example, Traffic cams, weather cams, license plate scanners, install multiple cams in cop cars. etc etc etc more. Will have HD continuous feed from these sources thru this network to FirstNet. Will then integrate all existing “public safety” DB for efficient use by local public safety agencies. (Think about the recent incident of the Florida CCW carrier driving thru Maryland)

    FirstNet bing a Fed owned controlled operated system that is managed locally by State surrogates.

    Feds have and are shaking down the cell companies in order to reduce the cost of rollout (use their existing towers for new antenna). Plan to use all manner of public (govt owned) property for additional antenna (will pay siginificant $ for antenna placement but less than cost of building new towers). That is will purchase/co-opt cash strappec local gov while shutting out greedy private business.

    HUGE sell job, Many local FD/Ambulance/cops extensively use cell phones which is obvious problems of out of service in mass incident. “Don’t have to join but you’ll be left out” For the Children – Think about a “active shooter” incident at a school. blah blah blah

    Audience was rather quite. The looney dem types fixed on “where is the money going to come from at local level”? The conservative types (Fire Depts) had little so say at the briefingto but the big bo/NSA impact did not sell.

    Iowa is apparently a bit out in front on this on beta test of hardware but it is in the works in your state.

  26. It has already happened people. Sometimes I think about what I would have done if I lived in Watertown, Massachusetts during the search for Dzhokar Tsarnaev. I open my door and I’m told to put my hands over my head and forced out of my house while it’s searched… all at gunpoint and without a warrant. It would be quite a choice … Comply? Be arrested? Be shot?

  27. Welcome to the rest of the world, America. Your CIA, NSA and State Department have turned half of the world into repressive dictatorships, because they are easier for US interests to dominate and exploit. Your School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia, has trained torturers, assassins and mass murderers around the world. Many of the courses use techniques borrowed from the Nazis during their world domination effort.

    What, you didn’t know? No wonder, many of these operations are under little or no Congressional oversight, and most Americans have little or no interest in anything that happens outside their own county or parish.

    The balance of power in America is delicately poised. There is often less than a 1% margin in final ballot counts. A less than scrupulous American leader, particularly if challeged by environmental or climatic disaster, may take emergency measures to rule by fiat, enforcing this rule by the existing state and federal agencies at his command. The infrastructure is already here. Do you think Eisenhower built the highways so they could make travel by car more convenient? Just like Hitler did in the thirties, he built the network of highways so that troops could be transported more efficiently to whereever they were needed.

    The example of the internment of Japanese Americans was a test run for the seclusion of dissenters, so instructions just need to be revived. However Americans value their freedoms, most of these will cease to exist in this event.

    This situation is only a snowstorm or earthquake away. Feel better?

    • “…many of these operations are under little or no Congressional oversight”

      Absolutely correct. To this day DoD is completely unable to balance its books. Completely unable. Congress has asked for this for decades. The result: An educated guess. About trillions. That’s just DoD; Congress is not inclined to ask about the other Federal agencies. You’d be amazed about what’s buried in, say, the Interior Department’s budget.

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