At least 84 people were killed when an attacker plowed through a crowd gathered in Nice, France, for Bastille Day festivities.
As the country and world reel in shock, French President François Hollande already claims the purposeful mowing down of dozens to be a likely act of terrorism.
“The terrorist nature of the attack cannot be denied,” Hollande said early Friday. “We must show absolute vigilance and determination. All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorism.”
Three days have been set aside to mourn victims of the horrific act, which happened as crowds assembled along Promenade des Anglais in advance of a fireworks display.
One witness, who said attendees had set off their own small fireworks throughout the day, described the scene prior to the attack as ‘jovial’ and ‘upbeat,’and told the Guardian:
After being there for a little over ten minutes, we heard what sounded like fireworks going off and then heard screaming. All of a sudden, there were hundreds of panic-stricken people running our way and it was clear that if we did not move, we would get trampled. So we started running as fast as we could while having no idea what was going on.
Two Americans from the Austin, Texas, area — father and son Sean and Brodie Copeland — were among the dead, though most victims are believed to be French citizens.
Police ultimately shot the driver of the truck to halt the carnage. In the aftermath, authorities identified the attacker as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a Tunisian who had a French visa and lived in Nice — and a petty criminal and delivery driver.
But something the West has come to expect in the wake of such tragedies — increased Police State-like surveillance, controls, security, and altogether lessened freedoms for everyone — is already taking hold.
A seething undercurrent of bigoted animosity wrests reason from the minds of politicians and large segments of the public, as the need to blame begins to usurp logical, cool-headed debate over how, precisely, to react to a vicious attack like the one in Nice.
Wariness should rule such conversations; but reactionary emotions instead have a penchant for taking precedence.
Indeed, though vigilance must be heightened now — it shouldn’t be aimed solely at the vagaries of a terrorist threat. If freedom teeters on the brink, now would be the tipping point.
And it’s already received a push from Hollande who announced the continuance of France’s hotly-contended state of emergency, first declared after 77 people perished in the November 2015 attacks in Paris.
That state of emergency grants the government broad and sweeping overreach into the private lives of citizens. Though initiated within hours of the November 13 attacks, the state of emergency has been extended several times to the consternation of many — and Bouhlel just provided an excuse to allow Hollande to give it three more months.
Police State opportunism abounds, as politicians race to constrict basic rights in the wake of tragedy; and though Americans have a fondness for deluding themselves into thinking, ‘it couldn’t happen here,’ they would be well-advised to reflect on the conditions the French will have to endure for yet another three months. The Guardian reported in April:
The special emergency measures allow police to conduct house raids and searches without a warrant or judicial oversight, including at night, and give extra powers to officials to place people under house arrest outside the normal judicial process. It also allows for restrictions on large gatherings.
Several things bear scrutiny. Though opinion polls, dubious as they may be, found most people in France have no problem with such constrictions of their rights, protests against the continued state of emergency have been marked with minor violent outbursts as many believe the measures both needless and futile against the terrorism they putatively aim to thwart. Considering a truck driver just plowed through scores of people celebrating Bastille Day without alerting French intelligence ahead of time, those concerns are only marginally up for debate.
French citizens originally welcomed the state of emergency’s illusory protections with open arms under the false pretense it would be lifted after three months’ time — obviously, governmental control clamps down more readily than it eases. Here we are, eight months later, and another three-month extension just got the green light.
Human rights groups, lawyers, and advocates have variously warned “the lack of clarity and precision of several provisions of the state of emergency and surveillance laws” could lead to abuse and that it “seriously impacts public freedoms.”
But, what about the terrorists? Apparently, Nice proves that point moot.
But that’s France … we’re still free here. Are you sure?
Though thousands of miles and a sizable ocean away, the assault on Nice immediately reverberated in telling ways in the United States.
The NYPD deployed its dystopically-monikered, heavily-armed ‘Hercules team’ to patrol the French consulate when news of the attack reached New York. A local NBC affiliate reported increased police presence in heavily-trafficked areas and “Gov. Cuomo directed state law enforcement officials to step-up security at high-profile locations around the state, including airports, bridges, tunnels and mass transit systems.”
Perhaps that’s just a taste of what’s to come, considering the U.S. is still embroiled in contention over the epidemic of police violence — and the subsequent attack on police in Dallas, not to mention the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
In fact, all the violence and nationwide protests spawned an expansion of nobody’s favorite legislation but the government’s: the PATRIOT Act. It wouldn’t be difficult to surmise the U.S. government waits breathlessly for the other shoe to drop in order to slip further surveillance and other security measures past the public when panic makes such legislation an appetizing palliative.
After all, the attacks of September 11th gave rise to mass surveillance, quickened the militarization of police, and birthed indefinite detention, all of which have been impossible to rein in or reform in any meaningful way — much less reverse in full.
Though former House Speaker Newt Gingrich might himself be a moot point, the politician didn’t hesitate after the Nice incident to call for an impossibly oppressive and outright bigoted policy targeting Muslim Americans.
“Western civilization is in a war,” Gingrich declared to Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “We should frankly test everyone here who is of a Muslim background and if they believe in sharia they should be deported.”
Even corporate media giant the Washington Post flatly derided Gingrich’s flagrant distortion of what would be allowed by the Constitution, pointing out such a policy would directly violate both the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
But to imagine such scaremongering wouldn’t have the desired effect of manipulating a nervous people into undesirable and irreversible policy would be naive.
Just ask the French.
Now is not the time to willingly fork over what few freedoms remain in the name of a murky threat. Now is the time, however, to train our gaze on our impossibly opportunistic legislators.
Claire Bernish writes for TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared.
Another sponsored top down mkultra – one trick pony rides again.
France must not be playing Nice.
Nope, I’ve just read that France wants the Burkas GONE or there will be civil war over the new dress code.
Another attack by Islamic terrorists/murderers. More attacks on Syria and Northern Africa will only result in more attacks in France, Germany, United States and elsewhere. NATO, France, Israel need to get out of the Middle East. Get out. Then, send those new immigrants with an Agenda of imposing Sharia Law and destroying Western Culture back to their Islamic homelands. All of the interference in Islamic culture and countries has been a disaster save for the efforts to build schools and hospitals and provide clean water! When we offer true humanitarian aid, we make friends, not enemies.
Does anyone else see the ‘silver lining’? Gag me to say this but this MASS KILLING shows it doesn’t take GUNS, AUTOMATIC GUNS, BOMBS, POISON…just go for a drive. There should have been a DESIGNATED PROTECTOR or two or three for this event. Just HEARING a highly revved vehicle in an area where there shouldn’t be a highly revved vehicle would have alerted a DESIGNATED PROTECTOR to act, far sooner than what ended up happening. With our population of humans there is no way these CRAZY, SICK acts of crazy, sick people WON’T be happening. ‘Terrorism’ is so LAME. Knock, knock people…these killings are not ‘terrorists’, these killings are by tormented, screwed up, suicidal people…NOT THE FAULT OF TERRORISTS OR GUNS…’Terrorist’ a newbie word to get us all against each other, culture versus culture, color of skin versus another color of skin so that we are ignorant of our true enemies…our common enemies. The ‘terrorists’ like ISIS and Al Quaeda and and….are created and supported by our true enemies so they can be the scapegoats. Obama, Bush, Hillary and hubby are all complicit in the creation of the media’s darlings of Terrorism. They are given money, weapons, ammunition, food and TRAINING. In exchange the ‘terrorists’ get to take credit for all killings go to ‘paradise’ and screw a bunch of virgins and a whole bunch of scared, desperate, illiterate boy-men have a ‘job’ that is endorsed by the crazies of their community/religion. Funny that virgins in heaven are praised, held in high esteem, yet virgins and women and sisters who are demonstrated to be vile here on earth can be justifiably murdered by brothers, fathers…family members. Why can’t people (especially the ‘terrorists’) see this dichotomy?
Have you people watched Trey Gowdy? Want to watch someone who can bring these liars, thieves, big shots DOWN? Truly a great man to watch, wish he was dumb enough to run for president…!
“The terrorist nature of the attack cannot be denied,” Hollande said early Friday. “We must show absolute vigilance and determination. All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorism.”
What BS is this? The eF’ing liar, always finding a false flag or scapegoat . Tunisia was a French colony. Upon its release from the jaws of a jackbooted French empire, it’s citizens have been free to come to France to live as citizens if they wish. And they have come to France in droves over the past 50 or more years, and they hate the French and everyone else with an undying passion. A crazed Tunisian is nothing new.
The F’ing French ought to take care of their own idiocy, but that wouldn’t be the French way, would it? Label everything that happens in France and Europe as terrorism and walk away.
I believe people will realise that their governments are doing nothing to protect them, and will gather together and with force people will go from town to town and kick this invading race out of their country. And when people move in mass to take back their country, there will be no stopping them. You wonder if this mad man had already been programed to do such an evil deed.
Ian, that is a NICE attitude but I used to be where other people are now, just trying to make ends meet or get that 3rd…or 5th car garage. Us humans have limits on the amount of stimulus, new ideas, new environments we are able to manage in our heads. You’ve got great ideas but it will take a humongous calamity to get everyone on board. Something has to happen that threatens everyone’s comfort before we all get together, sadly!!
What do you mean by ‘invading race’?? I am hoping you see these world events perpetuated by the filthy rich leaders behind the curtain, yes? There is no such thing as RACE. Unless blondes are one race, redheads another, Japanese are another, black skin, yellow skin? None of that creates a RACE.
Yes, Stormy
thanks for the reply
Despite my
understanding we all have to survive therefore we play a part of a system but
be mindful of what we serve and try to find a solution, some people work for
the globalists companies, these huge companies without our support, would collapse,
we are trapped millions caught up in this merry go round of work survive and if
we are lucky we might be able to free ourselves to some extent.
The world is
insane, and I am sure if there are good aliens observing this planet, they must
be looking down in sorrow, thinking her is a planet not woke up, then they have
the power, the technology to power their beam ships through the universes,
there for it would be easy for them to stop those who mean harm to us, but we
are told we have free will,???????????
We are told
they cannot hold our hands and must make our own way, and cannot act unless the
word came from Good. maybe there is some truth in this, but because we are
limited we can’t see it.
Religion is
being set against religion who care what belief one has because all religions
are wrong and very much a distortion of the truth which was set up to keep
humanity trapped. If only this
understanding could be made available to those who
want to kill the rest of us in the name of their God if only the understood
that God is love it is the force that keeps the universes in order and it is
not a God of war or death only a fake god the Devil has that desire.
What do we
do we are faced with utter madness and we need to be very aware if we are
concerned about a race of people who mean us harm then they should not be
allowed into a country where I live there are so many who have been allowed in
and breed to outnumber us, they have said they will take over and kill us and
the governments are gutless to do anything.
My response to them is ok if you do not wish to live in our country aft
all that we have done for you, then leave.
They do blame the west for the wars but not every western person can be
held responsible as many protested about the IRAQ war yet the governments went
ahead because they answer to their masters not the people. People are getting
very vocal now and feel they are being invaded, their country no longer feels
it belongs to them and I can understand this because where I live in a dumbed
down country which cowers to China has allowed jobs and land to be taken over
by them this is an invasion and you only have to look at what is happening in
the South China sea to know that soon, there may be a war and that will be the
end of the Chinese economy Trade is fine when it is fair and not one sided
People protest
and are shut down called racist because the express what is wrong
As far as I am
concerned no one should be allowed to stay in any country unless they ae making
a worthy contribution to the economy if they are sucking the life force out of
the country then they should not be allowed to stay.
There are wonderful
and clever people in this world great histories and are singer’s music all the
beautiful things that humanity can create.
France is one of the many beautiful countries and why should the people
suffer in fear.
Ian, because life is not fair. No one gets any protection or get out of jail free card. The tougher life is well, the tougher and more mature it makes a person. If they can handle being outside the box.
‘Contributing to society’, now that is a large definition. Like getting a puppy to fulfill a job position to protect. It is impossible for us puny humans to see much farther than a few days if that. I feel we have been ‘invaded’ decades and decades ago. By our own ‘beloved’ employees!
The ‘good’ people have done is only felt and seen by humans, not the rest of life. And that is a problem, thinking we are so amazing when we just are not.
This is escalating because; one our population has far outstripped the ‘optimum’ of numbers of humans within an environment…homosexuality, aggression, unhappiness, hopelessness are a normal result for any animal population. Two: there are those that have been orchestrating things to rule the entire world, for centuries.
Who would be the judge of someone that isn’t ‘contributing’? How should people be tossed out of the country? Do you think a WALL between borders is a smart idea? To encourage this I – THEM mentality??
The Nice truck incident is basically “Charlie Hebdo, the Sequel”.
I watched this again. I just DO NOT get bored listening to this guy!! This is a lawyer lawyer that has a conscience and brains. Just watching and listening to his videos makes me have hope for America. I do worry that TPTB will eliminate him…assassinate. He is too smart, too experienced, too moral, too POWERFUL to keep around. My goodness!! Truly, whenever anyone gets overwhelmed with the bullshit, go watch Trey Gowdy. He will make sense with whatever he is attacking!! He is like a white knight of incredible skill. Why others don’t emulate this guy or at least seem as ‘with it’ as Mr. Gowdy makes him a RARE GEM.
My goodness, Ian. I am honored you took the time to discuss this INSANE world we are just now understanding, seeing. Thank you. You’ve done some major work and thinking!! I have a few responses, however. I am pretty sure I am far older than you (like that makes my opinion better? No it doesn’t, perhaps different perspectives. I actually took notes!
OK, let me see if I can read my own writing…TIME. Now that is an interesting subject. I feel time feels shorter as we age. We know more, see more. We aren’t obliged to be on anyone else’s time schedule. And of course we can see our ticket to life is fast ending…arghhhh! I do know how time can dilate, slow WAY DOWN when we find ourselves in an accident, coming off a horse for instance. Plenty of time to scope out a good place to tuck and roll. Worked well for me except twice where I couldn’t see the landing spot. And when one rides one has to expect emergency dismounting, and that would possibly be at least hundreds of times. I don’t own nags. Time is vastly interesting. I love the thinking that the farther we get from Earth the SLOWER time becomes. If one is in space for 5 years, say and gets back to Earth, their progeny, friends will be dead and gone. I tried to remember the math but the idea is correct. There is no way us humans will get to other solar systems until we learn to FOLD time, worm holes…etc. If we last, we might just be able to pull it off. Otherwise we are a species that is doomed in the future as our sun dies.
I have had enough time since retiring to think and check on other’s thinking and I have found that most humans ARE PUNY. Too needy of their creature comforts. Too specialized to understand much less appreciate others needs and opinions.
Us humans have some very bad ‘traits’…one is rationalization. Justifying ANYTHING one wants to be true after the fact. And having personally experienced living in a self-made fantasy for decades I am sure that others do the same. Part of our brain decides whether or not our consciousness can handle truths that will change everything we know…and one day we wake up. Always happened when I was on this funky, spunky riding lawnmower doing Mr. Toad’s wild ride on this beautiful and contoured property. And for some reason I’ve been deemed competent enough to know the truth and all the pictures I knew yet ignored their meaning would come flashing before my eyes. Quite amazing. Perhaps I was far more immature than most others? Needed more time to mature to be able to handle the truth? Otherwise, I know I’d be in prison today for murder. Grins!! Seriously!!
I have met some amazing, brilliant people on the internet. Not an awful lot but enough to make me feel like I am doing something right. Quite a few are young adults in their late teens, early twenties. Most of those are HOME SCHOOLED. Wonderful humans.
Gosh, what was it Para Gordon said (she’s on these sites) that was simply beautiful…something like, “strength of character is forged in the crucible of mistakes, pain, angst”…close anyhoo. Then I definitely have ‘strength of character’…I should have written that down (sorry Para).
You need to get Dr. Joy Brown’s ‘Dating for Dummies’…She is the best shrink!! Used to have a radio talk show early 2000’s. A piece of her advice? Do not date anyone outside your zip code! Long distance relationships are pure fantasy and doomed to failure. Another good one, do not date ROMANTICALLY, seriously after a breakup that one put an awful lot of energy into and got hurt big time…FOR A YEAR, MINIMUM. Not house arrest but stay objective, have fun and learn to love being alone.
Homosexuality is NATURE’S way to reduce populations OF ANY ANIMAL SPECIES that has outgrown their environment with their numbers. Nothing whatsoever to do with abuse, copying other gays! If that doesn’t work to reduce our population then get ready for a virus or plague to take us down to below optimum population levels. This is akin to people putting poison out to kill rats/mice. When they do that Nature steps in and increases the size of the litters!! Us humans are so funny that we think we know better than nature who is an awful lot older than us arrogant idiots. Ants, cockroaches will outlast us for sure.
Race…NO SUCH THING! Whites have black genes, hispanic genes, asian genes, as well as caucasian genes. Black skinned people are less than 40% African genes (I’ve seen the DNA report of a very very black friend of mine)! We are all Heintz 57’s!! What a joke. That is like saying blondes are a race, redheads are a race, people with freckled skin are a race! It is not a scientific word at all. That word is meant to divide us. Really, us minorities (black skinned people, women, asians…) HAVE made huge inroads for dispelling color, gender, sexual discrimination. Why people insist on POINTING out differences only makes us focus on ourselves and not the true enemy!
Aliens won’t be sad, they’ll be very entertained!! Humans, I sure hope we make it. Dinosaurs did not and they beat us in every category! Huggs, Ian!!
Yes,
Stormy I am also honoured to write to an intelligent human who also can see
what is happening on this world, it has taken me a huge part of my life to
piece history together, and with the help of some wonderful humans who have
done amazing research it has enabled me to put it together.
And
the more I learn the more there is to know, I was always a thinker and I can
remember as far back as 6 years old I had a very active mind I was always
interested in history the planet and the universe being involved in the past
with astronomy building an 8-inch reflector telescope al that
I
did a lot of reading and had travelled to places on this world of which now
that I have a bit more knowledge I would understand these places a lot better.
Knowledge
is power it is humanities God given right and to deny people a chance to better
themselves or get an education so that they can make a useful contribution in
this world is in my opinion a monumental crime.
However,
if you don’t have the money you can still research in a library or now the
internet is very useful. I was born a
few decades ago which gives me an edge on how the world has changed I was born
in a time before mobile phone towers and phones and in a time when TV was not a
flat screen but used The Cathode ray tube to fire
electrons on a screen in turn creating the image the knowledge that has come
about in the last few decades is amazing and many people feel overwhelmed
I
was born in 1950 in England I remember passing bombed buildings thinking how
insane it was, as this was only a few years after the 2nd world war.
Yes,
time is an illusion our brains decode it into some kind of reality some years
ago they did an experiment I think it was in the US they set an atomic clock to
a given time and the same time on a similar clock on an aircraft, the aircraft
flew west around the world and when it landed and the time was measured, there
was a difference.
Time
is governed by to planets rotation around its star I think what is happening
with us is even though there are the same hours in a day it is our concept of
time that is effected, like the old saying a thousand years can pass in the
twinkling of an eye
It
is a fascinating subject and a huge subject because it is where dimensions come
in to into the equation. I do believe
once we know it will be possible to move into the past or future, be great then
I could put a lot in my life right and be in a better life.
You
will find even children notice time moving faster.
Our
world will not end it will change for the better we are living in very
interesting times and huge amounts of information is now coming our way. Time
and space we know the distance are huge and from our point of understanding
light travelling at a given speed takes a given time to reach us, so in a sense
we see things as they were some time ago, however they now know light does not
have a fixed speed and it depends on what medium the photon is passing through
and also the dimension, this opens up another load of questions about ae we
looking at a distant star as it was thousands of years ago or is that light
reaching us many times faster than 186, 000 miles a second or 300,000 klm a
second. Great telescopes are just extensions of our senses like hearing or
seeing I do believe dimensional devices will be developed which will enable
much more images, thought moves much faster than light
I do believe humans will be able to travel to
distant stars in no time at all moving at fantastic speeds it would be a problem
leaving from a planet at such a speed because it would cause a ripple in space
which would be enough to pull a planet out of its orbit so what they would do
is travel into space at a lower speed, once outside the solar system they would
be able to engage full power and beam themselves to a star of their choice once
in close speed would need to be reduced.
Our
sun will last a lot longer yet and by that time humanity would have long moved
to other worlds in the universes
Yes,
we are in a pattern of work retire I have to keep working if I am going to fill
my dreams maintaining health is essential. creature comforts are fine and I
think most are caught up in the day to day living that there is little time for
reflections, to appreciate others needs and opinions. Our DNA was altered long
ago and what we are has been limited to a 5 sense reality.
We
need to open our minds in this way we can understand all possible events if we
allow ourselves to be limited by what those with power over us dictate we will
never move forward.
People
are fantastic and the internet has made it possible to communicate with anyone
around the world yes education is very limited unless you have the money and
opportunity the way
Because
of the poor education system around the world many find it better to educate at
home education is an ongoing thing because we are always learning I once worked
in a university for a few years and was surprised at how many shallow minds
there were so called teacher. Or professor might have a PhD in a narrow field
of thinking but to understand anything outside their field, they need to
consult someone in that area. Yes, as
you mentioned what Para said “strength of character is forged in the
crucible of mistakes, pain, angst”…that is true we learn many hard
lessons We all develop at our own speed sometimes diverted or held back
Yes,
and race colour religion are all used against us and why we are running around
in panic and fear the so called overlords are pulling the strings and we can’t
see the real enemy. The human story is
huge and we are now in a time when we get back everything that was take from us.
Best wishes Ian