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The Middle Class Disappears, Rise of the Praetorian Class


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This entry was posted on December 18, 2012 at 12:14 pm and is filed under 2012, America, EDUCATION, False Flag, International News, Iran, Propaganda, Uncategorized, United Nations, US Politics, WORLD NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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The Pentagon Rules America: Militarism and the Crisis of the Civilian Economy

By Sherwood Ross

Global Research, July 30, 2011

30 July 2011

===========================

“Have we as a nation gone mad, waging war in the Persian Gulf while society crumbles?” Seymour Melman asked rhetorically when I interviewed him for The Progressive 19 years ago.

Even though Melman, a professor emeritus at Columbia University’s school of industrial engineering, departed this life in 2004, his question still haunts our society, as the American War Machine since then has only gained in momentum, immensity, universality and cruelty.

To answer Melman: “Yes, we have gone mad.” That’s because presidents and Pentagon chiefs start new wars even before they finish fighting the old ones! Who can recall a time in our history when the U.S. initiated aggressive wars against five nations(Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen)?

Between 1947 and 1989, Melman said, the U.S. spent $8.2 trillion (in 1982 dollars) on the military. When I said I couldn’t grasp a figure that large, Melman replied, “Think of it this way: In 1982, the total money value of all America’s manufacturing, industry and its infrastructure amounted to $7.3 trillion. You could have replicated the largest part of everything made by people in this country with what the military got.” (Everything made by everybody? All the houses? All the highways? All the schools? All the hospitals? A new America? Everything?)

Melman went on to say, “Half of every dollar you pay in Federal taxes goes into the military account. Pentagon contractors are awash in billions while the infrastructure that underpins our economy collapse around us and human misery spreads everywhere.”

Fast-forward: Today, the Pentagon still gets roughly half of every tax dollar. The War Resisters League estimates 54% of the pie goes to the military compared with 30% for all human resources, 11 percent for general government and 5% for physical resources..

Defense contractors are awash in profits while lines lengthen at soup kitchens, foreclosed families sleep in shelters, 20 million are jobless or underemployed, food stamp use sets records, summer jobs for teens have vanished, and President Obama appears willing to rat out the elderly on Social Security and Medicare as too costly while he authorizes new CIA drone attacks on Pakistan.

The Pentagon budget does more than absorb tax dollars. It punishes the civilian sector in many ways. For instance, it has siphoned off so much scientific talent the U.S. has long since fallen behind Japan and Germany in innovative technologies. “We’re paying the price for building colossal military power,” Melman said. “It’s set in motion a process of technical, industrial and human deterioration. We’re losing millions of productive jobs because U.S. firms with U.S. factories can’t even hold our home markets against foreign competition.”

“While the Pentagon turns out B-2 bombers at $865 million a copy, foreign creators are flooding our markets with cars, bikes, tape recorders, shoes, machine tools, movie cameras, calculators, TV sets, and integrated microcircuits.” Melman said that 19 years ago and it holds true today.

One reason the U.S. fell behind, Melman explained, is that “about 30 percent of the nation’s engineers, scientists and technicians work directly or indirectly for the military. The loss to the civilian economy is incalculable.” Consumer electronics, he said, “declined dramatically while the Government employs thousands of electronic engineers in its military labs.”

That was true when Melman spoke and it is true today. We have an army of death scientists toiling away in germ warfare labs ($50 billion wasted on this nauseating research alone since 9/11), in space warfare labs, in nuclear warfare labs, in electronic warfare labs, as well as in labs specializing in conventional ways to kill people.

Melman said one reason for the continuing dominance of the MIC is that the U.S. “is now a military form of state capitalism in which top managers of the military forces and their economy have dominant power—economic, political and military.” Translation: the Pentagon rules!

Today, Melman might add the Pentagon spends more for war than all 50 states spend for all peaceful purposes; that the Pentagon’s armed forces are bigger than the next dozen countries combined; that the Pentagon leads the world in arms sales; and that the Pentagon operates 800 overseas bases for “defense” when, in fact, they are used, like Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, for aggression.

As of Jan. 1 of this year, the National Priorities Project of Northampton, Mass., says, the Pentagon has spent $445 billion to wage war in Afghanistan and $815 billion for Iraq, for a total of $1.26 trillion. This at a time when the American Society of Civil Engineers reckons $2.2 trillion is needed to restore our infrastructure. Example: 33% of all roads are in poor or mediocre condition. Does the Pentagon need to spend $19.3-billion on atomic energy when the same sum could pay 295,000 elementary school teachers?

Cutting the Pentagon down to size and converting to civilian economy will require “a new coalition of working people, professionals, trade associations, mayors—all suffering from the prosperity of the military-industrial complex, all needing a turn away from militarism.” “What we need,” Melman concluded, “is a political opposition that would take down the entire military system.”

We saw the faintest stirrings of hope for change in June when the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution to spend at home the $125 billion the Pentagon is wasting this year waging wars in the Middle East. In depressed Detroit, the unemployment level is 38% and Rep. John Conyers(D-Mich.) blames the White House’s lack of leadership for the lack of job creation. Given our infrastructure needs alone, why isn’t there a job or job-training for every person who is willing to work?

To support President Obama’s medieval war-making is what Professor Melman would rightly have called “mad.” It fits the dictionary definition of insanity as “utterly senseless” and “irrational.” It also fits the view of insanity which observes that the insane repeat their mistakes over and over. That’s today’s war machine, bigger and deadlier than ever. Welcome to the United Loony Bin of America.#

Sherwood Ross runs a public relations firm for good causes and contributes articles regularly from his Anti-War News Service. Reach him at sherwoodross10@gmail.com

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From Kindergarten to University: Homeland Security Culture in America

by Sancho Jones

In early March of 2009, The Department of Homeland Security, held it’s annual National Fusion Center Conference [1]. The conference highlighted the necessity for Fusion Centers to achieve Baseline Capabilities in the sharing of information and intelligence with the federal government and each other.

At the end of the same month the DHS gave a press release [2] to announce their selection of Purdue, and Rutgers Universities to co-lead the newest Center of Excellence (COE).

Centers of Excellence were created through the Homeland Security Act of 2002; the first centers began operation in 2004. With the addition of the newest one above, there are a total of 12 Centers across the country. The total number of these centers is skewed; as each center is in collaboration with multiple universities; as well as being partners with local, state, federal, and international entities. These COE’s also work with national laboratories, and corporate partners such as the RAND corporation to offer viable real world applications. In the end, there aren’t 12 centers, but a web of several hundred, and possibly thousands of centers.

The official list[3] of 12 centers are overseen by the Orwellian “Office of University Programs” [4]. The “Strategic Objectives” of this office are quoted as follows:

  • Foster a homeland security culture within the academic community through research and educational programs.
  • Strengthen U.S. scientific leadership in homeland security research.
  • Generate and disseminate knowledge and technical advances to advance the homeland security mission.
  • Integrate homeland security activities across agencies engaged in relevant academic research.
  • Create and leverage intellectual capital and nurture a homeland security science and engineering workforce.

Notice, their admitted overall goal is not only to ‘disseminate knowledge’ and technical advances for the homeland security ‘mission’, but also to create a Homeland Security Culture within the educational system; [5], 6].

Each COE website[3] has an education link; not all sites have their educational portion up for viewing. The ones who do have the educational curricula visible, show programs offered for K-12 and college curricula, into graduate school education. From Purdue University’s COE website [7],

“This program is designed to support undergraduate and graduate students in developing the skills to become preeminent scientists in the homeland security specific and technical community.”

The Orwellian Office of University Programs, is not only creating “Obama’s Youth”, but also creating “scientists” who are studied in Department of Homeland Security disciplines!

Two Centers of Excellence stood out from the rest. The first, is Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism [8], or START which is based at the University of Maryland.

Amongst other activities, they do as the name suggests; they create studies. Hidden amongst the Islamic Jihad studies[9] were the reports of the real terrorists; you, and I!

Two reports stuck out more than the rest. The first was a study conducted from 2007 to 2008, and finished with the creation of the U.S. Extremist Criminal Terror database[10]. The study, and now database focus on far-right extremists; the data base of U.S. Extremist Crime, comprises 1990 to 2005.

The other study of interest was,Homegrown Radicalization and the Role of Social Networks and Social Inclusiveness in the United States”[11]. There is no finished report of this study. The last update was, July 31, 2008. It seems this study is the one requested through The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (H.R. 1955/S. 1959)[12] “The act would establish a national commission and a university-based “Center for Excellence” to study and propose legislation to prevent the threat of “radicalization” of Americans.” Interestingly enough, just a few months after the final START study update on July 31, 2008, the DHS released, The “Domestic Extremism Lexicon”[13]. This Lexicon was a “newly unclassified Department of Homeland Security report warns against the possibility of violence by unnamed “right-wing extremists” concerned about illegal immigration, increasing federal power, restrictions on firearms, abortion and the loss of U.S. sovereignty and singles out returning war veterans as particular threats.”[14] All this came from the START Center of Excellence!

Most interesting of all these Centers of Excellence, is the newest one; which was awarded to Purdue, and Rutger Universities. It’s the Center of Excellence in Command, Control and Interoperability (C2L). There are direct links to both the Rutgers, and part of the Purdue websites from the DHS official list[3]. The link for Purdue goes to PURVAC; which is the Purdue University Regional Visualization, and Analytics Center[15]. It is labeled at the bottom as a Center of Excellence, but not the C2L website.

After a little hunting around, and *no* direct links from PURVAC, I was able to come across the official Command, Control, and Interoperability(C2L) website.

VACCINE: Visual Analytics for Command, Control, and Interoperability Environments, is the C2L Center of Excellence[16]. The stated goal is,

“To help the 2.3 million DHS personal by turning massive data into actionable knowledge through innovative visual analytic techniques is vital to the mission of the Command, Control, and Interoperability (CCI) Division of The Department of Homeland Security, as well as all of the mission areas of DHS.”

They’ve got some catchy informational research projects, such as Jigsaw, Panviz, and a host of others; which all culminate to what appears as the solution sought by the DHS Fusion Center Conference in March[1]. It seems like VACCINE is the answer to culminating all the Centers of Excellence, and the Fusion Centers into the next generation; a cure for the 21st century American. Focused on culminating, and disseminating information through all phases of life, and government; from childhood to adulthood. YOU will comply.

In learning about the 12 Centers of Excellence; there seems to be a jaded, and deliberately hidden nature about them. The problem with this is that continually when reading through all the COE websites, there were two aspects that really stuck out.

The first was a concentration on education beginning at Kindergarten, and the overall presentation of what is to be taught, is of a hidden nature. Secondly, is the fact that even though the information is hidden for our benefit; so as to keep it a secret from “We The Terrorists”, I noticed that in every single COE website, the partners included foreign countries, and multi national corporations. It’s okay for foreign countries, global corporations, and agents there of, to know what is being taught to the 21th century American, but not okay for “We The People” to know.

This investigation yielded massive amounts of information; which had no ends. The information shows the US Government, dancing around it’s true intentions with “powder puffing” a monster. These 12 Centers of Excellence headed by the DHS Office of University Programs, is not all there are. The rabbit hole opens to another 106 universities[17], and the accompanying affiliations with multiple universities, foreign countries, stake holders, and private corporation partners; sponsored by a joint program between the National Security Agency/Central Security Service, and the Department of Homeland Security. These are not just DHS centers of excellence, but are as follows:

“The National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education (CAEIAE) and the CAE-Research (CAE-R) are outreach programs designed and operated initially by the National Security Agency (NSA) in the spirit of Presidential Decision Directive 63, National Policy on Critical Infrastructure Protection, May 1998. The NSA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in support of the President’s National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, February 2003, now jointly sponsor the program. The goal of the program is to reduce vulnerability in our national information infrastructure by promoting higher education in information assurance (IA), and producing a growing number of professionals with IA expertise in various disciplines. ”[18]

Simply they are the same as the COE’s, but with more agencies involved, and just another way to cover government outcome based education through ‘spookier’ means. They are to create more homeland security molded, subservient 21st century citizens. Interestingly enough both the CAEIAE schools[19], and the COE schools have to meet requirements set forth by private foundations. Another point of interest regarding these CAEIAE schools is they are usually located so as to permit easy access to DoD installations, federal research centers, and other agency facilities.

These universities, and their disseminated information are not just a national problem for Americans, but the entire world. They are creating educational programs from kindergarten, and they are partnered with several foreign countries. It’s seemingly more, and more a 1984 Orwellian hell of reality, that Americans are being made into a “new breed”; now with the words of Patrick Henry:

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

Forbid it, Almighty God!

I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Notes

[1]

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1236792314990.shtm

[2] http://dimacs.rutgers.edu/pressreleaseD … -31-09.pdf

[3] http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/editorial_0498.shtm

[4] http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/editorial_0555.shtm

[5] http://www.robodoon.com/reece.htm

[6] http://www.crossroad.to/text/articles/tnmfobe1196.html

[7] http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/vac … career.php

[8] http://www.start.umd.edu/start/

[9] http://www.start.umd.edu/start/research … ndex.asp#1

[10] http://www.start.umd.edu/start/research … .asp?id=36

[11] http://www.start.umd.edu/start/research … .asp?id=45

[12] http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stor … ntion-act/

[13] http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=96916

[14] http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=94803

[15] https://engineering.purdue.edu/PURVAC/

[16] http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/vaccine/

[17] http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/press_ro … ters.shtml

[18] http://www.esu.edu/compusec/NSA&CAE.html

[19] http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=National … 5bf9d43a8f

Final note: the study by START, and published by the DHS has been amended to reflect Islamic Extremism, but with the overall same title: New Report on Homegrown Terrorism in the US, and UK.http://hsdl.hsdl.org/hslog/?q=node/4837

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The Militarization of American Life

March 27, 2013

Source: Justin Raimondo, Antiwar

As the American Empire transforms itself from a constitutional republic into a social democratic monstrosity – where everyone is "equal," and no one is free – egalitarianism is the fuel that runs the engine of imperialism. A perfect example is the recent announcement that the US military is getting with the times and allowing women in combat. What’s pretty disheartening is that not even the woman’s-place-is-in-the-home Neanderthals of the "traditionalist" camp even bothered to oppose this: for them, a more efficient war machine is much more important than any attachment to such "archaic" ideas as the men do the fighting while the women wait at home.

This innovation was followed up pretty quickly by a new proposal: that as long as we allow gays in the military we ought to allow transsexuals in, too. After all, the usual objections to women in combat don’t apply to them: they have the genetic makeup of men, and the sexual equipment of women (or as close as surgical science can conjure) – so why not?

In America, everyone has the "equal right" to kill, torture, maim, and otherwise abuse those who dare defy the wishes of our wise and benevolent rulers. This is what happens when egalitarianism displaces liberty at the core of the American psyche.

Women, gays, transsexuals, and presumably dwarves afflicted with Tourette’s Syndrome – all have an "equal right" to commit mass murder. Did the leftists who brought this Political Correctness down on our heads ever dream of the uses to which it would be put? And now that they’ve "grown up" and made their peace with the Empire, do they even care? Of course they don’t. All they care about is the great god Equality, on whose altar every value they every pretended to hold is being slaughtered.

It isn’t just them, however: militarism is a disease that spreads without effort, once it’s implanted in the body politic. It quite naturally infects the sciences, what with the diversion of scientific and technical talent that might have gone into productive civilian projects, and I’m not just talking about the hard sciences. Witness the co-opting of the "soft" science of anthropology by the same people who brought us the war in Afghanistan and the "COIN" strategy that was supposed to give us victory. These folks have created the so-called Human Terrain System, which seeks to utilize anthropology as a weapon in counterinsurgency warfare. Billions are being poured into "scientific research" on how best to subdue recalcitrant natives out in the colonies: when you’re talking about the military-industrial complex, it isn’t just Lockheed-Martin and Boeing.

The marriage of science and militarism is nothing new, but there are some resistors. As Inside Higher Education reports:

"The eminent University of Chicago anthropologist Marshall Sahlins resigned from the National Academy of Sciences on Friday, citing his objections to its military partnerships and to its electing as a member Napoleon Chagnon, a long-controversial anthropologist who is back in the news thanks to the publication of his new book, Noble Savages." [Hat tip: Jordan Bloom at The American Conservative]

You don’t have to be an anthropologist to get in on the action: yes, you too can access via live webcast the April 3 Pentagon/NAS "workshop," "New Directions in Assessing Individuals and Groups,"and hear the keynote address by Frederick Vollrath, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness and Force Management. I’ll bet those anthropologists are making out like bandits!

As for Napoleon Chagnon – could a novelist have gotten away with such a name? – he is an extremely dubious character who apparently believes violence is not only genetically encoded in humans, but that there is an evolutionary bias in favor of homicidal homo sapiens. Instead of an atavistic trait surviving from pre-civilized man, wars of aggression – according to the Chagnonite version of biological determinism – are the mark of high civilization. It is a Bizarro World perspective on the nature of human progress, one that owes much to that great anthropologist, the Marquis de Sade.

Chagnon dismisses his critics as "left-wing anthropologists" and "anti-Darwinian romantics": he and his claque present themselves as true "scientists," and treat the study of anthropology – that is, of human nature – as if it were one of the "hard" sciences, like chemistry. Armed with "scientific" certitude, their one-dimensional view of life – "impoverished," as one critic remarked – is the perfect instrument of the modern Warfare State: bloodless, dogmatic, and cruel. Chagnon’s elevation to the NAS – which used to be a prestigious organization – is an absolute disgrace, and Prof. Sahlins was right to render his resignation in protest.

Citing his own objections to Chagnon’s research methods – see here – Sahlins went on to explain the core reason for his resignation. Because of "the toll" that military action overseas "has taken on the blood, treasure, and happiness of American people, and the suffering it has imposed on other peoples,” Sahlins said, “the NAS, if it involves itself at all in related research, should be studying how to promote peace, not how to make war."

In this age of Empire, militarism pervades American culture like a poisonous fog, hypnotizing a complacent population with narratives that valorize and justify a foreign policy of perpetual war. It reaches into every corner of everyday life, from the war propaganda spewed forth by the "mainstream" media to the movies we watch and what we learn in "science" class. Once this kind of cultural rot sets in, it is hard to root out: this is the true meaning of decadence, of a society suffering the latter stages of a fatal hubris.

Yet root it out we must. The battle for peace must be waged on the cultural and scientific front, as well as in the day to day world of the pundits and the Washington policy wonks. Indeed, victory on the battlefield of the culture necessarily precedes success on the political front, as we should have learned back in the 1960s.

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Secret Military Training Blurs Line Between Police and Soldiers
January 24, 2014

Source: The New American

faa73d94436786dcf2b162860286159d_M.jpg

As the military transitions into a tech-heavy force, increasingly reliant on robots and drones, local police forces are looking less like law enforcement and more like heavily armored combat units. Now, it seems they are starting to train like them, as well.

A story published by The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, reported on recent secret joint training missions between U.S. Army special forces and the Richland County (South Carolina) Sheriff’s Department.

The article describes training exercises being conducted by “unidentified units” from Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Ft. Bragg is the home of the elite U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) and the super-secret, super-deadly Delta Force.

A spokesman for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department refused to identify who was participating in the exercise or why it was being carried out. The department did, however, issue a press release, warning that the war games could get loud. "Citizens may see military and departmental vehicles traveling in and around rural and metropolitan areas and may hear ordnance being set off or fired which will be simulated/blanks and controlled by trained personnel," it declared.

As for why such combat simulations were necessary, the statement explained that they were a result of “Sheriff Leon Lott's longstanding commitment to making sure that deputies are trained and prepared for every event and potential threat and his desire to assist the military to ensure their preparations.”

This synthesis of police and military is a threat to both civil liberty and a clear distinction between the purposes of the two organizations. The integration has progressed so far, though, that even the mainstream press is taking notice.

In an essay published in the Wall Street Journal last August, Radley Balko, author of the Rise of the Warrior Cop, presented chilling and convincing evidence of the blurring of the line between cop and soldier:

Driven by martial rhetoric and the availability of military-style equipment — from bayonets and M-16 rifles to armored personnel carriers — American police forces have often adopted a mind-set previously reserved for the battlefield. The war on drugs and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop — armed to the teeth, ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing threat to familiar American liberties.

Balko rightly connects the menace of the martial police with the decline in liberty and a disintegration of legal boundaries between sheriffs and generals:

Americans have long been wary of using the military for domestic policing. Concerns about potential abuse date back to the creation of the Constitution, when the founders worried about standing armies and the intimidation of the people at large by an overzealous executive, who might choose to follow the unhappy precedents set by Europe's emperors and monarchs.

Given the critical role played by sheriffs in the protection of constitutionally guaranteed liberty, it is dismaying to read story after story describing the anxious acceptance — and occasionally the full-time petitioning — of military materiel by county lawmen.

It’s not just the conversion from cop to “warfighter” that is changing the landscape of law enforcement in America, however.

As The New American has chronicled, the Department of Homeland Security has their hooks in the precinct and sheriff’s department, as well.

Even the Richland County Sheriff’s Department’s own website helps explain to citizens its “critical role” in preventing terrorist attacks:

As we are often reminded by events across America and around the world, disaster can strike at any time. Terrorism in its many forms, weather and other natural disasters, and accidental emergencies are regularly highlighted in the news. Public safety and emergency response agencies on the local, state, and federal levels are working to prevent and prepare for all types of catastrophes, but there is more that can be done.

Citizens have a critical role in partnering with public officials to help families, neighborhoods, and entire communities be better prepared.

There is little debate that the “Knowledge is power” adage is true. Also, we know that panic is caused primarily by fear. If citizens remain informed and educated about the dangers we face in today’s world, this knowledge can translate into a powerful means of reducing panic in the face of tragedy.

The tragedy, it seems, is not the threat of a terrorist attack, but the nearly constant assault by police on the fundamental rights of citizens, an attack made more deadly by the use of military-grade weapons, vehicles, and tactics.

Maybe all the money and materiel flowing from the feds to local police is to prepare the latter to quell popular uprisings that result from the continued eradication by the former of freedom and individual liberty. One expert thinks that may be the case.

Jim Fitzgerald worked for eight years as a vice and narcotics squad detective in Newark, New Jersey, before joining the staff of The John Birch Society. He is point man for the conservative organization’s “Support Your Local Police” initiative.

In an interview with The New American, Fitzgerald said there is “virtually no use” for the military-grade equipment being bought by local law enforcement with DHS grant money. “The only reason to have this equipment is to use it,” he said, and it is likely it would be used against local citizens who have risen up and created some sort of civil disorder.

DHS, Fitzgerald believes, may be anticipating these riots and looks to them as a justification for the militarization of the police. “They [DHS grants] are not good, not healthy, and not constitutional,” Fitzgerald added.

Balko agrees. In his Wall Street Journal piece he reports:

In my own research, I have collected over 50 examples in which innocent people were killed in raids to enforce warrants for crimes that are either nonviolent or consensual (that is, crimes such as drug use or gambling, in which all parties participate voluntarily). These victims were bystanders, or the police later found no evidence of the crime for which the victim was being investigated. They include Katherine Johnston, a 92-year-old woman killed by an Atlanta narcotics team acting on a bad tip from an informant in 2006; Alberto Sepulveda, an 11-year-old accidentally shot by a California SWAT officer during a 2000 drug raid; and Eurie Stamps, killed in a 2011 raid on his home in Framingham, Mass., when an officer says his gun mistakenly discharged. Mr. Stamps wasn't a suspect in the investigation.

What would it take to dial back such excessive police measures? The obvious place to start would be ending the federal grants that encourage police forces to acquire gear that is more appropriate for the battlefield. Beyond that, it is crucial to change the culture of militarization in American law enforcement.

One organization is working to bring about that change and to help local law enforcement return to their traditional role as guardians of constitutional liberty.

The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) recognizes the invaluable role of sheriffs in preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution in the counties. Their mission statement establishes the group's noble goals:

This is our plan, our goal and our quest. We are forming the Constitutional Peace Officers Association which will unite all public servants and sheriffs, to keep their word to uphold, defend, protect, preserve, and obey the Constitutions of the United States of America. We already have hundreds of police, sheriffs, and other officials who have expressed a desire to be a part of this Holy Cause of Liberty.

We are going to train and vet them all, state by state, to understand and enforce the constitutionally protected Rights of the people they serve, with an emphasis on State Sovereignty and local autonomy. Then these local governments will issue our new Declaration to the Federal Government regarding the abuses that we will no longer tolerate or accept. Said declaration will be enforced by our Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers. In short, the CSPOA will be the army to set our nation free. This will guarantee this movement remains both peaceful and effective.

If the military and law enforcement continue conducting secret (no media were allowed to participate in or observe the training in Richland County) combat simulations in towns and counties, if police and sheriffs continue devoting time and resources in requesting millions of dollars in grants from the DHS, then the separation between the roles of these organizations will disappear and so will constitutionally protected liberty.

==========================

Joe A. Wolverton, II, J.D. is a correspondent for The New American and travels frequently nationwide speaking on topics of nullification, the NDAA, the Second Amendment, and the surveillance state. He is the co-founder of Liberty Rising, an educational endeavor aimed at promoting and preserving the Constitution. Follow him on Twitter @TNAJoeWolverton and he can be reached at jwolverton@thenewamerican.com.

Edited by Steven Gaal
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Is The Military Training For American Martial Law ??

Is the Military Training for American Martial Law?
Read more at http://lastresistance.com/4769/military-training-american-martial-law/#Lwr3GI61kbhamH3h.99

There’s a 300-acre city in Virginia now that wasn’t there about six years ago. It has public transportation, a sports stadium, offices, and parking lots. It’s a ghost town though. No one lives here.

It is a military training city that cost $96 million. Perhaps to make us all feel a little more comfortable, the military included a mosque in this fake city, but in every other way, it appears to be a mock version of pretty much any city in America. The street signs are in English, and the subway cars have the same logo on them as the cars in Washington, DC.

What could the military possibly need this city for? What could they be training for that would require a full-scale mock American city? Hmmmm. I wonder. Martial law, perhaps? When every department of “homeland security” is stockpiling ammo, it makes one wonder whether the civil government is actively preparing to make war on its own citizens.

Perhaps the economy finally collapses and they can’t deliver what they’ve promised. Or maybe the President doesn’t want to leave after two terms, and he deploys the military and declares a state of emergency and martial law. Perhaps a county or a state secedes again. I don’t know. But the existence of this training city troubles me.

The military defends the city’s existence by claiming that it provides a unique training environment for their recently created “Asymmetric Warfare Group”—a group designed to combat terrorism.

And that’s what worries me. What does it take to be a domestic terrorist? Writing a blog? Owning gold? Criticizing the current administration? It won’t be long now. If there is a significant enough natural or financial crisis, I imagine people won’t be all that interested in paying taxes anymore. And when that time comes, I imagine the civil government will send in the AWG.


Read more at http://lastresistance.com/4769/military-training-american-martial-law/#Lwr3GI61kbhamH3h.99
Edited by Steven Gaal
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How The US Military Is Paying NFL Teams Millions To "Honor the Troops" At Sporting Events

Published: May 12, 2015

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http://www.blacklistednews.com/How_The_US_Military_Is_Paying_NFL_Teams_Millions_To_%22Honor_the_Troops%22_At_Sporting_Events/43898/0/38/38/Y/M.html

When the Jets paused to honor soldiers of the New Jersey Army National Guard at home games during the past four years, it was more than a heartfelt salute to the military — it was also worth a good stack of taxpayer money, records show.

The Department of Defense and the Jersey Guard paid the Jets a total of $377,000 from 2011 to 2014 for the salutes and other advertising, according to federal contracts. Overall, the Defense Department has paid 14 NFL teams $5.4 million during that time, of which $5.3 million was paid by the National Guard to 11 teams under similar contracts.

The agreement includes the Hometown Hero segment, in which the Jets feature a soldier or two on the big screen, announce their names and ask the crowd to thank them for their service. The soldiers and three friends also get seats in the Coaches Club for the game.

– From the New Jersey Star Ledger article: Jets’ Salutes Honor N.J. National Guard but Cost Taxpayer

Like everything else in America, faux patriotism is also for sale.

I’ve written previously about how uncomfortable the superficial “honor the troops” displays at sporting events makes me feel. In the post, “Stop Thanking Me for My Service” – Former U.S. Army Ranger Blasts American Foreign Policy and The Corporate State, I noted:

I have to admit, whenever I find myself in the midst of a large public gathering (which fortunately isn’t that often), and the token veteran or two is called out in front of the masses to “honor” I immediately begin to cringe as a result of a massive internal conflict. On the one hand, I recognize that the veteran(s) being honored is most likely a decent human being. Either poor or extraordinarily brainwashed, the man or woman paraded in front of the crowd is nothing more than a pawn. Even if their spouse hasn’t left them; even if whatever conflict they were involved in didn’t result in a permanent disability or post traumatic stress disorder, this person has been used and abused, and thirty seconds of cheering in between ravenous bites out of a footlong hotdog from a drunk and apathetic crowd isn’t going to change that. I don’t harbor negative sentiments toward the veteran.

On the other hand, the entire spectacle makes me sick. I refuse to participate in the superficial charade for many reasons, but the primary one is that I don’t want to play any part in the crowd’s insatiable imbecility. It’s the stupidity and ignorance of the masses that the corporate-state preys upon, and that’s precisely what’s on full display at these tired and phony imperialist celebrations.

Of course, it’s not just me that finds these scenes hard to stomach. Many troops have come forward and expressed the exact same sentiment. For example, as Rory Fanning, who served in Afghanistan with the 2nd Army Ranger Battalion noted:

These two ceremonies seemed to catch a particular mood (reflected in so many similar, if more up-to-date versions of the same). They might have benefited from a little “awareness raising” when it came to what the American military has actually been doing these last years, not to say decades, beyond our borders. They certainly summed up much of the frustration I was feeling with the Concert for Valor. Plenty of thank yous, for sure, but no history when it came to what the thanks were being offered for in, say, Iraq or Afghanistan, no statistics on taxpayer dollars spent or where they went, or on innocent lives lost and why.

Will the “Concert for Valor” mention the trillions of dollars rung up terrorizing Muslim countries for oil, the ratcheting up of the police and surveillance state in this country since 9/11, the hundreds of thousands of lives lost thanks to the wars of George W. Bush and Barack Obama? Is anyone going to dedicate a song to Chelsea Manning, or John Kiriakou, or Edward Snowden – two of them languishing in prison and one in exile — for their service to the American people? Will the Concert for Valor raise anyone’s awareness when it comes to the fact that, to this day, veterans lack proper medical attention, particularly for mental health issues, or that there is a veteran suicide every 80 minutes in this country? Let’s hope they find time in between drum solos, but myself, I’m not counting on it.

We use the term hero in part because it makes us feel good and in part because it shuts soldiers up (which, believe me, makes the rest of us feel better). Labeled as a hero, it’s also hard to think twice about putting your weapons down. Thank yous to heroes discourage dissent, which is one reason military bureaucrats feed off the term.

Very well said, and now we learn that these spectacles are often even more phony than originally suspected. NFL teams are being paid millions of dollars to host them. From the New Jersey Star Ledger:

TRENTON — When the Jets paused to honor soldiers of the New Jersey Army National Guard at home games during the past four years, it was more than a heartfelt salute to the military — it was also worth a good stack of taxpayer money, records show.

The Department of Defense and the Jersey Guard paid the Jets a total of $377,000 from 2011 to 2014 for the salutes and other advertising, according to federal contracts. Overall, the Defense Department has paid 14 NFL teams $5.4 million during that time, of which $5.3 million was paid by the National Guard to 11 teams under similar contracts.

The agreement includes the Hometown Hero segment, in which the Jets feature a soldier or two on the big screen, announce their names and ask the crowd to thank them for their service. The soldiers and three friends also get seats in the Coaches Club for the game.

Aside from the Hometown Heroes segment, the agreements also included advertising and marketing services, including a kickoff video message from the Guard, digital advertising on stadium screens, online advertising and meeting space for a meeting or events.

Flake said there was nothing wrong with the Guard using football games to recruit soldiers. The problem, he said, was spending taxpayer money on a program that, on its face, appeared to be a generous gesture by a football team.

The Daily News also covered this story, with a choice line from one of the most authoritarian members of Congress, Peter King. A man so completely insane, he makes neocons blush. He defended the spending of taxpayer money on superficial, faux patriotism:

Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) also said “it’s money well spent.”

“People watching the NFL are generally inclined to be pro-military,” King told The News. “As far as the Jets, in addition to whatever money they’ve gotten from the (Department of Defense), I do know they are very actively engaged with veterans. The Jets do far more on balance than they get paid for.”

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American Cops Are More Heavily Armed than Front Line U.S. Combat Soldiers In Active War Zones

Published: May 12, 2015

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http://www.blacklistednews.com/American_Cops_Are_More_Heavily_Armed_than_Front_Line_U.S._Combat_Soldiers_In_Active_War_Zones/43905/0/38/38/Y/M.html

Edited by Steven Gaal
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