Tag Archives: Government

Terrorist or Patriot?

Posted by Jacob on

Every American could – literally – be labeled a suspected terrorist under current governmental criteria.

Specifically, the following actions may get a U.S. citizen labeled as a suspected terrorist today:

Holding the following beliefs may also be considered grounds for suspected terrorism:

See Something, Act Like a Snitch in Nazi Germany, Stasi East Germany or Iraq

I initially thought that Paul Joseph Watson was overreacting when he claimed that a Homeland Security video paints the following activities as signs of potential terrorism:

  • Opposing surveillance
  • Talking to police officers
  • Wearing a hoodie
  • Driving a van
  • Writing on a piece of paper

But Watson makes a brilliant point about Homeland Security’s “See Something Say Something”campaign, and how accusations of terrorism actually spread:

As Robert Gellately of Florida State University has highlighted, Germans under Hitler denounced their neighbors and friends not because they genuinely believed them to be a security threat, but because they expected to selfishly benefit from doing so, both financially, socially and psychologically via a pavlovian need to be rewarded by their masters for their obedience.

At the height of its influence around one in seven of the East German population was an informant for the Stasi. As in Nazi Germany, the creation of an informant system was wholly centered around identifying political dissidents and those with grievances against the state, and had little or nothing to do with genuine security concerns. [Indeed, the American government has been using anti-terror laws to crush dissent and to help the too big to fail businesses compete against smaller businesses (and see this. And the Department of Homeland Security has been distracted by activities which have very little to do with terrorism.)]

This is the kind of society the Department of Homeland Security is, whether deliberately or inadvertently, recreating in 21st century America.

Gellately’s website notes:

“I started to read these files about all the victims in just one region of Germany that the Gestapo had processed,” Gellately says. “It would have taken a large force of secret police to collect information on so many people. I needed to know just how many secret police there really were. So I asked an elderly gentleman who would’ve lived through those times, and he replied, ‘They were everywhere!’”

That was the prevailing myth.

“But I had evidence right there in my hands that supported a different story,” Gellately explains. “There were relatively few secret police, and most were just processing the information coming in. I had found a shocking fact. It wasn’t the secret police who were doing this wide-scale surveillance and hiding on every street corner. It was the ordinary German people who were informing on their neighbors.”

***

As he was uncovering who was acting as the Gestapo’s unsolicited agents, he also began to discern what motivated neighbor to inform on neighbor. The surviving myth told the story of informers who were motivated either by a commitment to the Third Reich or by a fear of authority.

But the motives Gellately found were banal—greed, jealousy, and petty differences.

He found cases of partners in business turning in associates to gain full ownership; jealous boyfriends informing on rival suitors; neighbors betraying entire families who chronically left shared bathrooms unclean or who occupied desirable apartments.

And then there were those who informed because for the first time in their lives someone in authority would listen to them and value what they said.

***

Backing Hitler also challenges conventional views on the nature of modern dictatorships. Perhaps as a way for us to believe that “it couldn’t happen here,” we have viewed the Holocaust as an atrocity that was the work of a handful of evil men. Gellately, however, presents persuasive evidence that Hitler and the Third Reich were able to build a consensus for their policies.

“They began with small violations of the rights of Jews and other minorities, and then ratcheted up their racism and persecution only when they saw implied consent from the German people.” Gellately says. “Many Germans disapproved of Hitler’s fascism and brutality, at first. But after the long economic depression following the First World War, the German people allowed the thriving economy and return to law and order under Hitler to mute their concerns. People had jobs and the streets were safe. Hitler was managing a fine balance of consent and coercion.”

The same dynamic played out in Iraq. People turned their neighbors in to the American military pretending they were Al Qaeda, based on petty jealousies or just wanting to get a reward. Specifically, neutral observers say that most of the Iraqis tortured in Iraq were innocent farmers, villagers, or those against whom neighbors held a grudge. Iraqis received a cash reward from the U.S. military for turning people in as “suspected terrorists”. See this movie.

The number two man at the State Department under Colin Powell (Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson), the commander of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and official U.S. military records all confirm that virtually all of the people turned in and subsequently tortured were innocent.

Courtesy of http://www.infowars.com

The Romney Con

Posted by Jacob on

Mitt Romney is a two-faced phony! The man is consistently inconsistent on all political matters. He is a big government Neo-Conservative who receives massive contributions from Wall-Street lobbyist.  There is a candidate who values honesty, morality and consistency. The one, the only, Ron Paul.

Rick Santorum Opposes Limited Government?

Posted by Jacob on

Following Rick Santorum’s confusion regarding war, he also seems undecided regarding his support for limited government and individual rights, or more big government fascism. I think it depends on the day, no maybe the paycheck? Ah, who knows…

Taxed Much?

Posted by Jacob on

Here are a few taxes you pay. Despite these taxes, the government is still short 15 Trillion. You should pay more!

 Accounts Receivable Tax
 Building Permit Tax
Capital Gains Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Court Fines (indirect taxes)
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money)
Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Local Income Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Septic Permit Tax
Service Charge Taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Road Toll Booth Taxes
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
Telephone state and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Toll Bridge Taxes
Toll Tunnel Taxes
Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)
Trailer registration tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

COMMENTS: Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had very, very little national debt, had the largest middle class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.  What happened?


The Truth (Ron Paul vs Herman Cain)

Posted by Jacob on

Confrontation was prominent at the Bloomberg debate. Dr. Paul called out Mr. Herman Cain on the importance of transparency inside the Federal Reserve. The ensuing exchange spoke volumes about the candidates.

Ron Paul Puts America First

Posted by Jacob on

Many, including fellow presidential candidate Rick Santorum, have labeled Ron Paul as part of the ‘blame America first’ crowd in this election cycle. They are angered by his willingness to point out flaws in our country’s foreign policy and smear him as an isolationist who wants America to hide from the rest of the world. Contrary to establishment Republican rhetoric, Paul’s policy is not “blame America first,” but “put America first.”

From the start of the Cold War, America adopted a more interventionist foreign policy. We have been more concerned about the affairs of other nations than ever before, and the result has been more military spending. The United States spends roughly $1 trillion per year on defense, which is more than at any other time in our nation’s history. This spending has become unsustainable, as shown by the debt crisis that loomed this summer.

Opposition to these policies is the only sensible way to keep the deficit under control and to keep the country safe from those who want to do us harm. If we were to bring our troops home from around the world they would be in less danger, we wouldn’t be interfering with sovereignty of other nations and making enemies, and we would save hundreds of billions of dollars every year. These are the same policies that were supported by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams, none of whom were considered isolationists.

If we consider the enormous benefits to this country of discontinuing our role as world’s policeman, we’ll see that they would go a long way towards putting the United States back on the road to fiscal solvency. The United States would do well to stop worrying about the disputes and internal affairs of other nations when we are on the verge of a financial meltdown at home.

There is nothing isolationist about putting the interests of America first rather than funding wars with countries that pose us no threat, propping up dictators who are hated by their people, and sending aid to other nations to buy their friendship. Policies like these create more problems than they solve. Instead of defeating the terrorists, we are giving them more motivation to continue fighting. When we spread ourselves too thin, we make ourselves more vulnerable. And sending foreign aid to other countries generally means taking money from the poor in this country and giving it to the rich dictators of poor countries.

Pointing out these unfortunate truths is a necessary step to fixing our problems, and Ron Paul is the only candidate brave enough to do it. It is mind boggling that while Republicans claim to fight for smaller limited government, they feel that it does not apply to foreign policy. They would do well to listen to their own rhetoric when they talk about the problems and inefficiencies of government, and apply it to our meddling overseas. Maybe then the Republican Party might be able to demonstrate some consistency to the American people instead of talking out of both sides of their mouths.

When Rick Santorum shamelessly exclaims that Ron Paul is blaming America for 9/11, not only is he wrong but he is also being intellectually dishonest. Santorum, like the rest of the Republicans, opposes our current healthcare predicament. If Obama-care destroys our healthcare system in the next ten years, no one would claim that Senator Santorum had “blamed America” for our healthcare problem. Like any other conservative, he is simply blaming a flawed policy.

This is no different than Dr. Paul’s position on 9/11. He does not blame the country for the despicable acts that occurred on that day, but he correctly places some of the blame on our government’s foreign policy. Unfortunately, trying to explain this difference to Rick Santorum is as fruitless as attempting to convince him that his support for Medicare Part D in 2003 was as bad as supporting Obama-care.

It’s ironic that while most establishment Republicans accuse Ron Paul of not supporting the troops, he has gotten more money from active duty troops than all other Republican candidates combined. Maybe the rest of the Republican field should follow the example of our men and women oversees and put America first.

by Colin Murphy at http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/political-pro-con/2011/oct/6/ron-paul-puts-america-first/

Imagine

Posted by Jacob on

Imagine a nation with troops in 130 nations, policing the world while imposing western ideology and blatantly disregarding foreign culture and religion. Imagine doing this while abolishing individual liberties, neglecting a crumbling domestic economy, and disregarding the values which made it the greatest nation on earth. Imagine America.