Dave Hodges
Activist Post
When does an individual reach their tipping point against tyrannical abuse? For that matter, when does a nation collectively reach its tipping point against governmental abuse?
I avoid flying as much as I can because I really don’t relish having a pot-bellied pervert in a blue uniform from the TSA put their grotesque hands on my body. And for the most part I have been able to avoid dealing with the abuses of the TSA by not flying. However, the abuses of the TSA are spreading to many other domains in our lives. Not only is the government violating our rights and conditioning us to accept dehumanization, so are many of our corporate entities.
There are main four points to this article: (1) This article will examine the expansive nature of the TSA/DHS as well as various corporate entities who believe that they have an inherent right to abuse our citizens; (2) This article will also take a look at people’s typical reaction to the type of TSA invasive policies being put into place by other institutions such as the National Football League; (3) This piece will examine the comments and attitudes of the American sheep that think these East German Stasi-style tactics are permissible; and, (4) Suggestions will be offered as to what we can do to both corporate institutions as well as the government, who believe that they can do what they will with the general public.
Government Abuse Is Literally Everywhere
Americans are not even fazed by the admission that the NSA has broken the law tens of thousands of times to spy on its own citizens. This is what the Stasi did in East Germany. But you have nothing to hide, right?
In Santa Fe, New Mexico, the TSA conducted invasive and intrusive security searches at a local high school prom in 2011. The TSA has randomly shown up at shopping malls in order to conduct their intrusive and illegal searches.
The TSA and the Department of Homeland Security have conducted a multitude of Fourth Amendment roadside searches of drivers and vehicles on the nations highways, train stations and bus depots without warrant or the presence of emergency conditions.
The TSA has randomly shown up at various public events (concerts, mall events, etc.) and engaged in their thuggish enhanced security measures. Soon, the American storm troopers will be everywhere demanding to touch you in places that you and I would get five years in prison for doing to another human being.
Of course, when I publicly express these views, some sheep will undoubtedly ask me “Don’t we know that the government loves us and this is why they have to violate our rights. If you don’t have anything to hide, then why do you care?” This has become the justification of the establishment of these goon type of Stasi/Gestapo/KGB practices. Remember, they love us and want to protect us.
NSA director, Keith Alexander, must love us a lot as he justified illegal spying from his agency by saying that “We have to spy on Americans to keep them safe.” I recall what one of the founding fathers would have said about Alexander’s philosophy as Ben Franklin commented on this approach to tyrannical government.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. — Benjamin Franklin, Memoirs of the life & writings of Benjamin Franklin
The NFL Is the New TSA
In November, as I have done so many times before, I was planning to drive my family from Arizona to San Diego to watch my favorite sports team, the Denver Broncos, play the San Diego Chargers. We were also going to turn the event into a mini-vacation.
These plans have now been modified. The Hodges family will still travel to San Diego, but we will not be attending the football game. In fact, I have attended my last NFL game under the new Sovietization of the National Football League.
The National Football League has instituted new security rules at all stadiums which bans certain items,“Prohibited items include, but are not limited to: purses larger than a clutch bag, coolers, briefcases, backpacks, fanny packs, cinch bags, seat cushions, luggage of any kind, computer bags and camera bags or any bag larger than the permissible size.” And, they have granted themselves the “right” to touch you anywhere, in their enhanced pat downs from the ankles and above. Welcome to Police State America, NFL style.
The People React
In an Arizona Republic newspaper article (8/18/2013, B1, B6), people weighed in on the new NFL policies.
Sue Kish, 48,while attending an Arizona Cardinals game, found that she and her two daughters were told that their clear plastic container, designed to replace her banned purse, was too large and she would have to return her belongings to her car. Kish proceeded back to her car with her two daughters in tow. All three expressed frustration including her daughter, Natalie, as she asked if she had to “…put our tampons in a clear plastic bag? (Az Republic, B1).” Natalie gets it. Some people get it, but most Americans don’t, as they continue to tolerate the increasing level of tyranny in this country as evidenced by the following quote made by Heather Gunderson, an Arizona Cardinals season-ticket holder, who was quoted in the Arizona Republic about her response to the new invasive NFL security rules.
It is kind of a nuisance…but I do understand the rule. It’s a whole new world, and you’ve got to follow the rules and regulations and be safe.
Obviously, Ms. Gunderson never grasped the teachings of Ben Franklin and the folly of trading liberty for security in her high school history class. Henderson is correct about one thing: it is a whole new world, as in the new world order. The Gunderson quote is typical of our citizens and represents why I believe we are losing our country.We have largely lost the ability to think for ourselves. Most of our people fail to appreciate where America is heading. Clearly, our national tyranny meters are turned off. Oh, I know, we have to worry about the terrorists. Since the first casualty on the war on terror has been the Constitution, I think we have pretty much lost that war.
The people that acquiesce to this tyranny would likely tell you that America is the best nation in the world. If you are a sheep, you probably believe the old Bush propaganda when he said “they” hate us because of our freedoms. Really?
Amnesty International rated America 21st in political freedoms. We are also 20th in per capita income, have the 51st longest lifespan in the world. We spend more on war than the next 26 nations combined and they are supposedly our allies. The U.S. has 25% of the world’s prison population despite only having 5% of the world’s population. The U.S. has lost 86% of its former manufacturing base courtesy of the free trade agreements so that its super elite can become even more wealthy. We have the most expensive health care in the world. We have the most expensive college education in the world. We lead the industrialized world in “death by doctor.” Fifty percent of Americans pay the taxes for the elite 1%, and 50% of the new underclass who do not work, do not pay tax right along with the elite. Through the NDAA, Executive Order 13603 and the Patriot Acts, we have eviscerated our Constitution and we are no longer a nation of laws but instead are ruled by autocratic, unelected elite who rule by whim. Five corporations control 98% of the media and I have to go to European news websites to get any semblance of the news that we cannot get here. The U.S. is among the leaders in the world in child sex-slave trafficking. Corporations such as DynCorp and the Second Mile Foundation have been found to have trafficked in children and nobody goes to jail. The U.S. is involved in every civil war on the planet. We conduct false flag operations against our own people for political gain. Unlike most nations in the world, America maims, tortures and kills people it disagrees with.
America used to make things, we were innovative, we had a moral character and we stood for something. America is a hollow shell of the country that I grew up in. They hate us for our freedoms? That ship sailed a long time ago.
We have sponsored State-run terrorism. On one hand, we say we are prosecuting a war on terror and then in the next moment we are arming our so-called enemies. The truth remains is that we have created this bogeyman as a means to destroy the Constitution and strip people of their rights as a prelude to total enslavement.
Somebody should enlighten the sheep of America that the United States originally funded the Mujahedeen and Osama Bin Laden in their Afghan war against Soviet occupation. According to our government, al-Qaeda did 9/11. Yet, we now know that our government has provided arms for al-Qaeda on at least two different occasions. The first time was in Libya in order to help the al-Qaeda led rebels overthrow the Libyan government. because the Libyans would not sacrifice their sovereignty and join the central banking community. The second time is in Syria in which, again, the rebels (e.g. al-Qaeda) are being armed by the CIA to overthrow Assad. Now we are subjecting our people to State-sponsored molestation and illegal and unconstitutional searches in our public venues because the government can’t decide, on any day of the week, which side al-Qaeda is on.
As an aside, did you know that last fall the NFL agreed to allow DHS to use its stadium facilities for emergencies and large-scale detentions? Simon Properties, the largest owners of malls and shopping centers in North America agreed to the same thing. In light of this, does the term “FEMA camps” sound so outlandish?
America, the best nation in the world? It depends on your perspective. If you are the elite 1% or the 50% of the country on some type of public welfare supported by people like me, America is a great place to be. For everybody else we are in rapid moral and economic decline.
Line In The Sand
I have decided to draw some very distinct lines in the sand against these invasive and highly illegal policies. I would encourage all of you to draw a line in the sand.
I am no longer submitting to any unconstitutional actions by our government or by any private institution which is mimicking our government’s constitutional violations of our personal liberties.
If the TSA is going to be conducting enhanced body searches at the local high school prom, our children should not attend and we should find another venue and provide the same entertainment opportunities.
If the TSA is searching people going into malls, do not go into that mall. Go home, call the mall ownership and the stores you were going to shop at and let them know why you are not patronizing them. Watch the merchants scream at the government. Bring the allies of these tyrannical entities to their economic knees.
Stop flying except in extreme emergency (i.e. bereavement). If we bring the airlines to their knees, there will be a change in policy because our system has become a shining example of corporatism.
Stop attending concerts, football games, basketball games, baseball games and other events which impose these illegal and intrusive searches. If the stadiums become half full, watch how fast the policy changes.
When we are stopped by goons at a DHS roadblock so they can illegally search any one of us and our cars, we need to refuse to submit. If enough of us engage in these types of nonviolent civil disobedience acts, we can paralyze the court system as they will surely try and prosecute us. Subsequently, we can someday reach a counter critical mass which will destroy the intended net effect of these tyrannical actions.
America, we have a choice. We have a choice about whether or not we are going to make our government and all other institutions follow the Constitution. As for my family, we have written an email to the NFL offices telling them why we will no longer be attending any NFL games. For my family, the abbreviation NFL now means Not For Long.
I encourage all of you to target any government agency and at least one business entity who is engaged in these types of illegal activities and write to them and tell them why you will no longer support them. If they lose enough money, change will follow. And finally, we must realize that we are at war and it is a war that will likely continue to be waged as long as you have breath because evil never takes a holiday. This war pits good vs. evil.
I have reached my tipping point against tyranny, when will you reach yours?
Dave is an award winning psychology, statistics and research professor, a college basketball coach, a mental health counselor, a political activist and writer who has published dozens of editorials and articles in several publications such as Freedoms Phoenix, News With Views and The Arizona Republic.
The Common Sense Show features a wide variety of important topics that range from the loss of constitutional liberties, to the subsequent implementation of a police state under world governance, to exploring the limits of human potential. The primary purpose of The Common Sense Show is to provide Americans with the tools necessary to reclaim both our individual and national sovereignty.
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