Achtung, baby!
Posted on 12/20/2011 9:54:55 AM PST by crosshairs
12/19/11 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 National Socialist 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, US citizens included, whom they decree to be a “terrorist” — as defined or not by the executive or the military — and imprison him 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 newsletter or website — and this author — which have on several occasions called b******* 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.
“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 newsletter or website — and this author — which have on several occasions called b******* 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?”
How about a Communist President and his administration?
Prisons are not built to stand empty. See Montana and Illinois.
The inability to close Gitmo could just as easily be turned on it head with the DNC/Soros/0bama/Pelosi/Holder logic of “OK. We won’t close Gitmo. We’ll just put YOU there instead and perhaps right alongside the most dangerous guys there. Oh. Be sure to write home...but don’t count on what you write being delivered. In fact, don’t count on anyone knowing where you went, ever.”
Even a blind pig finds the occasional acorn.
It’s even worse than stated. They don’t even have to define the Tea Party as being terrorist because they don’t have to answer to anyone. All they have to do is arrest you because they want to, and if anyone objects, say that you were plotting to blow something up. They don’t have to tell the world anything more than that. And they only have to do that if someone is able to make a public issue out of your disappearance. They don’t have to produce any evidence whatsoever. All they have to do is say that you were planning to do it. Period.
Say hello to your new tropical home, hope you can stand mosquitoes. Myself, I'm allergic.
Insane. It's difficult to believe they could find any support for that.
There is a need for special tactics if a US citizen is planning and/or directing terrorist activities against the US from a foreign country. But there is no need for that if the citizen is breaking the law within US borders since the lawbreaker would be subject to all the law enforcement and investigative agencies of of the applicable local, state and federal jurisdictions.
For all of their mechanisms, they sorely underestimate or set at nuaght tow things.
One: American by the tens of miullions are still armed (160 million armed with 6 billion weapons and many tens of billions of rounds of ammo). We will not give them up.
Two: As Patrick henry said, "There is a just God in Heaven who presides over the affairs of nations." That was true then, and it is true now.
The goldelss tyrants will meet the same fate as others before them. but it will be ugly and long, if we allow them to push it that far. We may have 2012 to force a big turn around, doubling down on 2010. Even then, if we succeed, turning it around and removing the nipple of the public largess from the mouths of the people who feel they are entitled to the dole will not be easy.
Obama continues to double down on his own misbegotten decisions the entire time.
Mandatory reading: The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia by Orlando Figes. They declared war on “kulaks,” an invented, ill-defined, free-floating enemy of the state. Sound familiar? Great ideas never go out of fashion.
Shades of Minority Report.
We really are cattle; there's no learning from history at all. The only stupid response you get from people is a variation on the theme: "It can't happen here. This is America!"
Even on FR we're still playing the game of "more conservative than thou" when the entire culture is going down the $#!+hole.
Achtung, baby!
Counting all the steak knives?
Obama has already made it clear that China is the model. If he follows in Mao’s footsteps, about 60 million deaths by execution/starvation can be expected. The question is will that be enough?
Nope, with the 160 million firearms owners, that’s one estimate I read. ]
Heck, I know I have half of that average myself and I know a lot of people who have a whole lot more than I do.
There are plenty of firearms owners who have in excess of 80 weapons...a lot of them actually.
Realistically, if you haverage at even 10 weapons each (which is going to be low), that’s still 1.6 billion wepaons.
“Counting all the steak knives?”
And possibly rotating discombobulation devices such as brush chippers and ... “blenders”.
Merry Christmas!
It is a timely topic. I do not call 68 post as being discussed at length.
I have see threads that had hundreds of responses . Continually being brought forward from a slightly different slant.
Many are the threads we miss, if we do not come everyday to Free Republic and spend a good bit of time here. MO
I missed the one (thread) to which you referred.
A common number I’ve seen is “250 million”, but that’s been around for at least a decade and sales seem to have been running on the order of 10 million per year for a few years ... my own guess would be closer to 350 million.
Which is still more than enough for one for everyone in the country.
Keep in mind that a lot of the 160 million only have one or two.
Yeah, and every stupid bed-wetting idiot Rep/Sen that voted “Yes” - OMG!
“Let’s quick build huge FEMA camps to put everyone in before they put us in prison for our corrupt activities.” If anyone needs proof of who’s ruling over you, S1867 is your sign, and it’s screaming OBEY! Regards, Km
“At length” is a relative term. ;-)
Many threads are indeed missed by many people - that’s why I posted the reference to the original.
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