There is so much about the governments in this country from local to state to federal that concerns me. Unfortunately I am becoming more and more concerned about cops. Used to be you could count on "peace officers" . Frankly I am afraid of the local, state and federal gestapos. And that is without the TSA fuckers getting involved. The whole country is becoming a fucking military-style police state right before our eyes. Just take a look at the jack-booted thugs keeping the asshats among the Occupiers in line. Some cities have their own armored personnel carriers.
Because the military cannot patrol our country, and if they could I believe they would do it, they rely on an ever increasing local military presence. Small towns with SWAT teams. TSA teaming up with local law enforcement. What the fuck is all this about? Do you feel safer? I bet this guy who got his head kicked in by these NM shithead cops doesn't:
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Two Albuquerque police officers were fired Wednesday following the release of unedited video that showed them apparently doing a celebratory belly bump after one officer kicked a suspect in the head more than a dozen times.
Officers John Doyle and Robert Woolever both were issued termination letters, a police department statement said.
Is this the kind of "peace officers" we want serving our communities? NM did the right thing and terminated them from the force. But would they have even been caught if not for parking lot surveillance cameras?
Apparently the "Justice" Department (you know, the one with an AG that is either a liar under oath or that is completely incompetent) is sorting through "20 officer-involved shootings and other questionable behavior among officers" in Albuquerque. Unbelievable.
Unfortunately for cops is that people are waking up to their abuses and are taping the interactions. Many cops don't like to be taped and will try to confiscate the camera or arrest a citizen taping a police officer doing his job. Folks you can most certainly tape anyone in a public area doing public business. You can't interfere but you can definitely record the event. The cops do.
I can tell you if I am ever stopped by the cops for even a simple traffic infraction I won't pull over until my phone is recording sights and sounds. I won't overtly hold up the phone and record the interaction but I will lay the phone in the middle of the console with the camera and microphone facing up...just in case. I simply do not trust the cops anymore.
Look, I realize the vast majority of cops perform their job honorably and some even believe in the service they provide. But look around you. The police are becoming more militarized. Why? The drug war? Terrorism? Ultimately to keep the herd in line? It seems a little too "1984" to me. Too ominous.
I have spent the last year or so consumed with thoughts of leaving this country. To somewhere that is not broke. To somewhere that is not building a worldwide empire. To somewhere that believes in the individual and not collectivism. But to where? Europe is a mess, socialist and militarized. Canada? Too friendly with the buffoons to their South. Singapore? Expensive. Southeast Asia? Not sure I am in an adventurous mood with a family. South America? Uruguay, Paraguay, Ecuador have potential. The bottom line is my family, friends and church. All things that I care about and have problems disrupting or leaving. But there will be a tipping point.
Anyway, the direction this country is headed is disgusting. A Republican president will not make much of a difference. We will still have the fucking Patriot Act lording over our lives. The Socialists, Marxists and communists still want to fundamentally change America. The takers will still overwhelm the makers. Big business and big government will continue to jerk each other off.
I'm just not sure there are enough people willing to give up their "lives, fortunes and sacred honor" for the glory of this once great nation. Men and women of character once defeated tyranny in this country. Today the people of this country seem more willing to embrace and accept tyranny than fight it. The collectivists of NYC, LA, Chicago and other cities are overwhelming the individualists of the heartland.
My friend,
ReplyDeleteI left in 1987 and have never regretted it once.
I chose Europe, and yes, it's a mess and socialist in its politics, but you learn to live off the political grid fairly quickly. The country I chose hasn't had a government in almost a year and a half (a world record), and you know what? Life goes on fine without one.
I enjoy my trips back to the states to visit family and friends. The fact that I've been away actually makes that time even more special. And Skype video calls keep us all connected. Church isn't a problem, they're everywhere.
I was raised in a military family. My dad fought in WWII (pacific) and Korea. Love of country was the number one value instilled on me and my brothers. So the first time the thought hit me as I was boarding a plane back to Europe after an extended stay in the states, that I was returning to a free(er) society, I cried. Literally.
I could smoke pretty much anywhere (that's changed), drink all night in a bar if I chose to, not have to sweat the local home owners association, and actually enter an airport without being groped.
Go. You'll miss it, but what you'll miss is not what it is, but what it once was.
sadly,
Ted
"...A Republican president will not make much of a difference. We will still have the fucking Patriot Act lording over our lives...."
ReplyDeletePerhaps you meant the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill? Because last I checked it was GW's signature on the bottom of the USA PATRIOT Act.
Ever read Anthony Burgess? You remind me of his take on a certain faction of the police, as expressed in A Clockwork Orange.
You can thank Nancy Reagan. The militarization of the police is a direct consequence of the drug war. You cannot enforce laws against dealing unless you use entrapment, surveillance and no-knock searches. Why? Because unlike robbery and other crimes with a victim, there is no one to call the police when the crime has been committed. In other words, the term "victimless crime" has operational significance.
ReplyDeleteNo-knock searches require militarized police.
Conversely, back when Britain was fighting wars to keep the recreational drug trade open, Britain took away the guns from the police. There is correlation here.
So embrace the police state or end the drug war. Take your pick.
Yeap, the sheeple are softened up and ready for Big Brother. As far as the militarizing of the police, shit that's been going on for quite some time. The days of this once great nation are over.
ReplyDeleteCheck out Gerald Clemente from trendsresearch.com. He just got caught up in that MF Global mugging and he is wound up.
Celente rather...
ReplyDelete@Ted - I'm still looking. If it was just me I would have pulled up the stakes and hit the road. But other considerations are more important than just me.
ReplyDelete@Aaron - Bush is a statist. His policies ushered in the military state we live in now. He gave us the unconstitutional Patriot Act.
@Carl - The war on drugs and terrorism is destroying this country. They use the Patriot Act as an excuse to wage the drug war. It's a mess.
@Donk - yea Celente got screwed with the margin call and gold futures. All his money got tied up in MF when the call came. Would've thought he would know better...
@Klik - I have no problem with capitalism. I have zero problem with someone getting rich. If big government would stay out of picking winners (and losers) and allow free markets to work then economic cronyism would cease to exist. If government was honest, which it isn't, then big business would not be favored on Capital Hill and the White House.
ReplyDeleteThe government is the biggest thief of all but none of the Occupiers want to bother checking them. No, they want to vilify those they envy. Why are the Occupiers not asking questions about Congressional insider trading. Plenty of rich fat cat Senators and Representatives.
I have no problem with the Koch brothers. I'm sure they have employed plenty of people and paid truckloads of taxes to the feds. The Tea Party I participated in was funded by no one. I was paid nothing and I paid nothing. I took time out of my job to attend a two hour rally (note: not 2 months) as well as a couple vacation days to drive to DC to protest for a couple of hours on the mall. We stood with other people who want limited government, constitutional adherence and tax reduction. Then we cleaned up our mess and went home.
The more I watched the Occupiers the more I detested their collectivist anger. They are the antithesis of what I believe. I do not want to live in a Socialist country. I do not want to be a communist. I will never be a Marxist.
Where that leaves me is fighting for liberty and freedom as best I can against those that wish to take that away. No matter how fanciful it may seem. I can support those entities that want limited government.
Over the next year, perhaps summer, there will quite possibly be a civil war in this country. The Occupiers will be back, if they leave at all. And they will be bigger, I have no doubt. But so will the Tea Party. The nation will be further divided. Those that want collectivism and those that individualism. Those that want to take from the makers so they can do less.
Hayek - not sure what you read but he is certainly a champion of the free markets.
I agree with limited government, free markets and constitutional adherence.
@klik: I find it hilarious how liberals are now villifying the Koch brothers as some kind of sinister secret conspiracy exposed. Hello? If you run for Vice President of the United States of America you aren't exactly hiding out in the shadows. I was just a hair too young to vote Koch at the time.
ReplyDeleteI have my disagreements with the Koch brothers these days (I favor carbon taxes and some safety net), but I still admire them. They funded libertarian organizations way before they were cool. It is also amusing to read some of the old rants by Murray Rothbard on how the Kochtopus had made too many concessions to modern liberals. Regarding the Cold War the Koch brothers were to the left of Carter back in the day.
Alas, Splork, your posts reveal the utter confusion and contradictions of the Tea Party. Government is corrupted by Wall St., but it's also Wall St. that contributes to that corruption. To turn what you said around, if big business were honest and didn't invest so much in lobbyists and getting politicians elected, perhaps government wouldn't favor big business. You blame the government for being corrupt, yet have no problem with the Koch brothers who help corrupt it. It takes two to make a baby. Don't forget the makers are willing players in crony capitalism.
ReplyDelete@Jeff - I believe I have noted on this fucking blog that big business and big government are complicit in fucking up the country. I'll say again, the Tea Party wants limited government. How in the fuck is that a contradiction and confusing? The problem is that the leftist fucktards want the fucking government even larger! Good grief that is so stupid as to not even to be believed. Only in a country spiraling into a socialist dream. At least the makers are fucking productive. We've seen a grand example over the last three months how useless the useful idiots are.
ReplyDelete