Are people batshit crazy

[MichaelWeston]

Is it getting worse or is this how its always been and people are just louder? I just spent 15 minutes of my life watching literally insane videos about how Sandy Hook is a conspiracy by Obama to take away everyone's guns so he can be president forever. These people are crazy. I know there are some reasonable conservatives out there but why is this crazy voice so loud?

[BengalBacker]

Maybe, maybe not.

 

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/030513-646857-dhs-buys-special-armored-fighting-vehicles.htm

 

http://internetjail.com/index.php/2-uncategorised/67-dhs-purchases-now-a-total-of-1-6-billion-rounds-of-ammunition-signs-of-us-collapse

 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/holder-yep-obama-could-kill-americans-u-soil-213059085--politics.html

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/researchers-report-dramatic-rise-in-patriot-groups-after-school-shooting-sparks-gun-debate/2013/03/05/afa72978-85b6-11e2-a80b-3edc779b676f_story.html

[|Numbers|]

Did you see anything about Homeland Security buying tanks, drones, etc... in addition to a metric buttload of ammunition ?  Kind of hard for the theorists to not have some sort of theory on this.  I don't believe the conspiracy theories that are out there but have to admit something does not add up.

[|Numbers|]

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/03/homeland-security-has-purchased-2700.html

 

Homeland Security Has Purchased 2,700 Light-Armored Tanks

 

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57572207-38/dhs-built-domestic-surveillance-tech-into-predator-drones/

 

DHS built domestic surveillance tech into Predator drones

 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has customized its Predator drones, originally built for overseas military operations, to carry out at-home surveillance tasks that have civil libertarians worried: identifying civilians carrying guns and tracking their cell phones, government documents show.

 

CBP's specifications say that signals interception and direction-finding technology must work from 30MHz to 3GHz in the radio spectrum. That sweeps in the GSM and CDMA frequencies used by mobile phones, which are in the 300MHz to 2.7GHz range, as well as many two-way radios.

 

The specifications say: "The system shall provide automatic and manual DF of multiple signals simultaneously. Automatic DF should be able to separate out individual communication links." Automated direction-finding for cell phones has become an off-the-shelf technology: one company sells a unit that its literature says is "capable of taking the bearing of every mobile phone active in a channel."

[|Numbers|]

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/feds-electronic-snooping-americans-sharply-says-aclu-6170914

 

Feds' electronic snooping of Americans up sharply, says ACLU

 

The ACLU said that between 2009 and 2011, "the combined number of original orders for pen registers and trap-and-trace devices used to spy on phones increased by 60 percent, from 23,535 in 2009 to 37,616 in 2011."

Even more startling was the "increase in the number of pen register and trap and trace orders targeting email and network communications data," the ACLU said. "While this type of Internet surveillance tool remains relatively rare, its use is increasing exponentially. The number of authorizations the Justice Department received to use these devices on individuals’ email and network data increased 361 percent between 2009 and 2011."

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, told NBC News in an email that "as criminals increasingly use new and more sophisticated technologies, the use of orders issued by a judge and explicitly authorized by Congress to obtain non-content information is essential for federal law enforcement officials to carry out their duty to protect the public and investigate violations of federal laws."

 

He also said the ACLU's statement that "federal law enforcement agencies are increasingly monitoring Americans’ electronic communications, and doing so without warrants" is not true.

"In every single instance cited by the ACLU in its report, a federal judge authorized the law enforcement activity," he said.

 

I believe this form of surveillance is capable of being authorized without a warrant under FISA.  However, it is supposed to be only on foreign not domestic.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy

 

 "there is no substantial likelihood that the surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party". 50 U.S.C. §1802(a)(1)

 

In other words, if these domestic drones are flying overhead monitoring cell phone communications, the drones electronic reception equipment will intercept cell phones held by US citizens.  The system would likely not have the ability to be that discriminatory and decide which one you want.

[|kennethmw|]

Did you see anything about Homeland Security buying tanks, drones, etc... in addition to a metric buttload of ammunition ?  Kind of hard for the theorists to not have some sort of theory on this.  I don't believe the conspiracy theories that are out there but have to admit something does not add up.

 

Maybe because of this?

 

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/splc-report-return-of-the-militias

 

or this?

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/05/southern-poverty-law-center-militias-gun-control/1964411/

 

how about this?

 

http://modernmilitiamovement.com/

 

So, to answer your question, Weston, a resounding YES!!

[|Numbers|]

Maybe because of this?

 

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/splc-report-return-of-the-militias

 

or this?

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/05/southern-poverty-law-center-militias-gun-control/1964411/

 

how about this?

 

http://modernmilitiamovement.com/

 

So, to answer your question, Weston, a resounding YES!!

 

SPLC is also fanning the flames.  The article your reference is claiming that the racial hatred is a motivator behind some of these militia groups because a black man is president.  Newsflash to SPLC, these groups don't need a black president to hate blacks.

 

These people who call themselves Oath Keepers are probably a more worrisome outfit than the others.  Made up of current law enforcement. ex-law enforcement, ex-military, DHS, ex-FBI, etc...  holding rallies in Lexington, etc...

 

I've seen a lot of yahoos in my time at various machine gun shoots.  However, I've never seen the law enforcement element existing in such a large part with any of them. 

 

In other words, these movements appear to have gone into the middle of the road and a lot of people who just a few years ago would have never considered joining a radical group are coming out in large numbers.

 

Is it worse than at any other time in history ?  Don't know.  There were some pretty radical groups that existed back in the day.

 

The Weather Underground keeps coming up for reasons which are obvious;  It is debatable on how much damage they actually did or how many people were actually harmed by their actions.  Many of them never served any real time due to suspected wiretappings and mail openings by the government (pre-FISA days).  WU has a legacy which exists to this day.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground

 

The Weather Underground Organization (WUO), commonly known as the Weather Underground, was an American radical left organization founded on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Originally called Weatherman, the group became known colloquially as the Weathermen. Weatherman first organized in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)[2] composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their supporters. Their goal was to create a clandestine revolutionary party for the overthrow of the US government.[3]

 

With revolutionary positions characterized by Black liberation rhetoric,[2] the group conducted a campaign of bombings through the mid-1970s, including aiding the jailbreak and escape of Timothy Leary. The "Days of Rage", their first public demonstration on October 8, 1969, was a riot in Chicago timed to coincide with the trial of the Chicago Seven. In 1970 the group issued a "Declaration of a State of War" against the United States government, under the name "Weather Underground Organization" (WUO).[4]

 

The bombing attacks mostly targeted government buildings, along with several banks. Most were preceded by evacuation warnings, along with communiqués identifying the particular matter that the attack was intended to protest. No persons were killed in any of their acts of property destruction, although three members of the group were killed in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion. For the bombing of the United States Capitol on March 1, 1971, they issued a communiqué saying it was "in protest of the U.S. invasion of Laos". For the bombing of the Pentagon on May 19, 1972, they stated it was "in retaliation for the U.S. bombing raid in Hanoi". For the January 29, 1975 bombing of the United States Department of State building, they stated it was "in response to escalation in Vietnam".[4]

 

The Weathermen grew out of the Revolutionary Youth Movement (RYM) faction of SDS. It took its name from the lyric "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows", from the Bob Dylan song "Subterranean Homesick Blues". You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows was the title of a position paper they distributed at an SDS convention in Chicago on June 18, 1969. This founding document called for a "white fighting force" to be allied with the "Black Liberation Movement" and other radical movements[5] to achieve "the destruction of US imperialism and achieve a classless world: world communism"

 

The Weathermen disintegrated after the United States reached a peace accord in Vietnam in 1973, after which the New Left declined.

 

Widely known members of the Weather Underground include Kathy Boudin, Mark Rudd, Terry Robbins, Ted Gold, Naomi Jaffe, Cathy Wilkerson, Jeff Jones, Eleanor Raskin, David Gilbert, Susan Stern, Bob Tomashevsky, Sam Karp, Russell Neufeld, Matthew Landy Steen, Joe Kelly, Brian Flanagan, Laura Whitehorn and the still-married couple Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. Most former Weathermen have successfully re-integrated into mainstream society, without necessarily repudiating their original intent.

 

A faction of the Weather Underground continues today as the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee. Their official site reads:

 

We oppose oppression in all its forms including racism, sexism, homophobia, classism and imperialism. We demand liberation and justice for all peoples. We recognize that we live in a capitalist system that favors a select few and oppresses the majority. This system cannot be reformed or voted out of office because reforms and elections do not challenge the fundamental causes of injustice.[145]

 

The site further supports armed violence:

We also respect the right of people to take up armed struggle against colonialism for the liberation of oppressed peoples[146]

[Khatmandude]

I think you're bat shit crazy if you believe the official version of things. 

[T-Dub]

How is the SPLC "fanning the flames"?  They track militia groups.

[Jamie_B]

Yes

[|kennethmw|]

How is the SPLC "fanning the flames"?  They track militia groups.

Because they said this massive increase might have a "racial component because we have a black president.". In America? Seriously? I don't remember anything that would make people think Americans might make decisions based on race.