Two Sides to Every Coin: When “Security Measures” Become Imprisonment

The most recent article I covered was a piece last week on the illegal alien situation and the president’s handling of it. This is a problem that has plagued the U.S. for decades, and as I wrote before, I agree completely with the way the president has been handling it. Let’s put the president “aside” in this article, however, because no matter how well-intentioned he is, there are forces at work in the U.S. that hold more power than he does.

Subtleties are present that are usually either overlooked or intentionally downplayed so as not to “jar” the consciousness of those who see them. Yes, we need increased border security on the Mexican border, and we need to stem the tide (the “tsunami” is more appropriate) flooding this country with illegal aliens.

Just as with cattle, however, the fence around their pasture keeps things out…and simultaneously keeps the cattle in: the fence works in both directions.

A piece just surfaced from The Hill entitled “Thousands of Americans Stand to be Denied Passports Due to Unpaid Taxes,” written by John Bowden on 7/6/18.  While this may come as no surprise to most, it parallels other restrictions such as not permitting those with child support in arrears or bankruptcy proceedings to not be able to depart the country. The law the article refers to was made in 2015 requiring the IRS and State Department to deny U.S. citizens a passport if they owe more than $51,000 in tax debt. The article pointed out that approximately 362,000 Americans fall into that category.

It does not stop there. Our rights as enumerated under the U.S. Constitution are being eroded on a daily basis. The Jennings v. Rodriguez is a Supreme Court decision that affects illegal aliens as well as U.S. citizens. The decision upholds the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) provisions for indefinite detention both for American citizens and/or illegal aliens. The decision also leaves the president with the right to order such a detention…of anyone, for whatever reason…at his discretion.

Major metropolitan airports such as in Atlanta and Chicago are taking biometric information…requiring it of all airline passengers…to pass “under the yoke” of facial recognition software and stored for (yes, you guessed it) “security reasons.”

The government and their “partners” in the form of multinational corporations are not undertaking these actions for no reason.

The bad (and sadly ironic) part is that we the taxpayers are the source of funding for these unconstitutional measures: our taxes pay for the cages being constructed around us and before our very eyes. The masses are unaware and/or they do not care. A shift is being fostered: a “need” for more security [translation: more surveillance] and more accountability [translation: more control] are forced upon us.

The public is being shaped and manipulated: having lost conscience, its consciousness is now being molded and made to feel as if there is a need for security, safety, and being led. By appealing to the hierarchy of needs, the powers that be are fostering a climate of fear and creating a need for increased government intervention and control in the interests of security.

With 9-11, the opponents were “created” out of the Arab world and a policy of “we’re all in it together and under the gun…besieged America” was pursued with the following objectives:

1. Re-prime the MIC (Military Industrial Complex) with fresh wars, new “threats” (Iraq, and bin Laden) and taxpayer-funded government contracts to build up the war machine,
2. “Justification” for military expansion to further force projection and encroach in other spheres of influence,
3. The “crafting” of a war-footing…continuous, with the “battlefield” redefined under the NDAA and the Patriot Act as being not only worldwide, but also within the United States, and
4. The beginning of the creation of a complete surveillance state via TIA (Total Information Awareness) as revealed to the American public by Edward Snowden a few years ago.

Now the threat has not been “abandoned,” just changed in form and expanded.

The “foreign threats” of attack have not abated, but their focal points are changed from the Arab enemy to the Russians and Chinese. The largest changes have taken place domestically, that is to say within the continental United States.

The shootings at schools and public places, and the bombings (such as in Austin, TX) have been used to structure more police presence, more surveillance, and an increased “feeling” by citizens of being unsafe. The CCTV cameras keep sprouting up, the technology increases to monitor, record, photograph, eavesdrop, and control the lives and movements of the average citizen.

The branches of government craft laws (Congress) and selectively interpret the laws (Supreme Court) that abrogate our rights while exempting themselves from the provisions they inflict upon us. A president can go either direction, and whichever way is chosen, the tide of movement is not halted. The paradigm shift toward totalitarianism continues either incrementally, in leaps and bounds, or at full force/unrelenting (as in the Obama years).

The walled fortress in the name of security becomes the fully enclosed prison. Only the direction of the top tier of barbed wire…inward or outwardly pointing…reveals the nature. We the taxpayers pay for the cage, a prison that expands by the day. There will no longer be a need to keep everything outside of the pasture. The cattle will be kept in, and the wolves are already inside as well.

Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne).  Mr. Johnson is also a Gunsmith, a Certified Master Herbalist, a Montana Master Food Preserver, and a graduate of the U.S. Army’s SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape).  He lives in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with his wife and three cats. You can follow Jeremiah’s regular writings at SHTFplan.com or contact him here.

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