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Memories of Waco Siege Continue to Fuel Far-Right Groups
NY Times ^ | JULY 12, 2015 | CLYDE HABERMAN

Posted on 07/20/2015 10:32:14 AM PDT by Second Amendment First

On Wednesday, the Army is scheduled to begin two months of training exercises across the American Southwest. If the past is a reasonable guide, some on the outer reaches of the far right are bound to recycle warnings that martial law is at hand. Conspiracy theorists were singularly imaginative after these war games, code-named Jade Helm 15, were announced.

Among the dire predictions: Citizens’ guns will be confiscated. Political opponents of President Obama will be rounded up and herded into detention centers. Mr. Obama will suspend the Constitution and cling to office indefinitely. All this is part of a plan to establish a “new world order.”

While not endorsing those prophecies, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas did little to tamp them down when he ordered the Texas State Guard to “continuously monitor” Jade Helm to reassure Texans that “their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed.”

As the conspiracy theories bubbled, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter was asked point blank at a news conference in May if a military takeover of Texas was in the works. “No,” Mr. Carter replied. Laughter accompanied both the question and the response, underscoring how frivolous the very idea seemed to those in the room.

Still, that such an exchange even took place was testament to the deep mistrust of government harbored by some Americans, more than a few of whom come to any dispute heavily armed. Hostility toward the federal government is hardly new. It can be traced at least as far back as the anti-tax Whiskey Rebellion of the 1790s. But its modern roots may be summed up in a single word: Waco.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist
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1 posted on 07/20/2015 10:32:14 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First
CORRECTION:

Memories of Waco Siege Continue to Fuel Far-Right Groups MIDDLE OF THE ROAD CONSERVATIVES WITH COMMON SENSE

2 posted on 07/20/2015 10:36:55 AM PDT by PATRIOT1876
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To: Second Amendment First

These guys are reaching way back to conjure up new discussions, as distractions.


3 posted on 07/20/2015 10:37:33 AM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: Second Amendment First
I went to the New York Times and read the article.

Very poorly written; hastily put together; heavy on biased sources; totally lacking in investigation; and silly in published version.

But that is okay. It is typical for normalcy bias to persist even when the roof timbers are shattering and falling in flames around your ears.
4 posted on 07/20/2015 10:38:07 AM PDT by Robert Teesdale (III% | 4GW)
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To: PATRIOT1876

Roger that. Nothing like a little “rights” trampling to PO a few folks. Far right? They’re already cranked up. :>}


5 posted on 07/20/2015 10:38:50 AM PDT by rktman (Served in the Navy to protect the rights of those that want to take some of mine away. Odd, eh?)
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To: Vendome
Just plain lies:

All that did was impel the group to dig in. Finally, on April 19, the F.B.I. mounted a full assault, pumping in large quantities of military-grade tear gas. Fires, which independent investigators later deemed to have been set by the Davidians, engulfed the compound. Shooting could be heard inside. When it was all over, 75 people were dead, a third of them children. Some, including Mr. Koresh, had been shot by fellow sect members. There were few survivors.

6 posted on 07/20/2015 10:39:54 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Robert Teesdale
Latest reply on the site:

Lies upon lies in this video; must have been from the leftist dreams of Mark Potok.

1. No - not one, zero, zip, nada - illegal weapon was found in the Davidian complex.

2. The fire was started by special ops that first drenched the building with flammable tear gas and then sent it ablaze.

3. Not one claim against David Koresh was ever proven.

4. It is a well known tactic for many in the Federal Government to first deamonize their target and then eliminate him.

7 posted on 07/20/2015 10:44:03 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Second Amendment First
Just plain lies:

Wow, I wasn't there, but the video taped evidence (including IR images), and the non-government witnesses paint a different story.

I suppose the 'victors' get to write the history books, but the Truth is known by at least One, and you don't want to be caught in a lie at His Judgment throne.

8 posted on 07/20/2015 10:44:36 AM PDT by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: Vendome

Or they’re laying the groundwork for the re-introduction of an old, trusty narrative.


9 posted on 07/20/2015 10:46:08 AM PDT by WhistlingPastTheGraveyard (The greatest trick the Soviets ever pulled was convincing the world they didn't exist.)
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To: Second Amendment First

Methinks those points are not necessarily lies, having seen evidence to that effect.

Nonetheless, such is the natural consequence of facing people down with their worst nightmare writ large. The occupants feared onset of the Apocalypse in the form of violent government assault, which the feds perpetrated for near two straight months; when feds moved in relentlessly, threatening what amounted to “surrender or die” while acting as evil incarnate, the occupants decided what many throughout history have done (even on 9/11) - death by one’s own hand, or by the hand of one’s tribe, is better than death inflicted by enemy evil.


10 posted on 07/20/2015 10:49:58 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (The world map will be quite different come 20 January 2017.)
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To: Second Amendment First

For me, the bottom line is that the raid was unnecessary. There were more than threescore Americans, including young children, who were shot, gassed, crushed and burnt to death.

The siege and killing of the Davidians was a grotesque massacre.


11 posted on 07/20/2015 10:50:34 AM PDT by Robert Teesdale (III% | 4GW)
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To: Second Amendment First
Clyde Haberman should write about something he knows about...

Maybe a nice piece on how Watergate still influences extreme bias toward Republican by senior editors and ‘journalism schools’... Or how protesters in 1968 haunt newsrooms to the point editors can't see liberal AstroTurf movements - even when proof is screaming in their faces...

Now that would be interesting.

Or even how bias and the appearance of bias has destroyed the news business...

12 posted on 07/20/2015 10:54:07 AM PDT by GOPJ (They are not undocumented and they are not immigrants. They are illegal aliens. Lurkinnamloomin)
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To: Robert Teesdale

IIRC, Koresh would go into town, alone and unarmed, quite regularly.

The Feds had plenty of opportunities to pick him up.

That they failed or refused to do so, is clearly malfeasance on their part.


13 posted on 07/20/2015 10:58:10 AM PDT by SZonian (Throwing our allegiances to political parties in the long run gave away our liberty.)
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To: SZonian
That they failed or refused to do so, is clearly malfeasance on their part.

Shrug. They wanted optics.

They got Waco, and then Oklahoma City, and now they have the Oathkeepers nestled within their vilii.
14 posted on 07/20/2015 11:01:57 AM PDT by Robert Teesdale (III% | 4GW)
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To: SZonian

You are correct. The feds were looking for a shootout and got it.


15 posted on 07/20/2015 11:06:06 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
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To: Robert Teesdale; Second Amendment First

I suspect III%’ers are in their sights as well...


16 posted on 07/20/2015 11:08:56 AM PDT by SZonian (Throwing our allegiances to political parties in the long run gave away our liberty.)
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To: SZonian
I suspect III%’ers are in their sights as well...

Who'd have thought it?
17 posted on 07/20/2015 11:13:30 AM PDT by Robert Teesdale (III% | 4GW)
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To: Robert Teesdale

;)


18 posted on 07/20/2015 11:15:20 AM PDT by SZonian (Throwing our allegiances to political parties in the long run gave away our liberty.)
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To: Vendome

No kidding. Reaching WAY, WAY back to try and manufacture false narratives.


19 posted on 07/20/2015 11:18:33 AM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: KC_Conspirator

It is all to help Hillary.
I predict Janet Reno will pass away before the election.


20 posted on 07/20/2015 11:20:39 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
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