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Dear Americans, We Are Surrounded
Occasionally in the past, I have received emails from readers asking me if it was time to leave America because of some new infringement on our rights.
In the past, I always responded to these emails by saying that it really depended on who the reader was. Anyone, I usually replied, who was in the securities-brokerage industry or the medical profession should start looking, because of how regulated those industries are. If on the other hand, a surfer dude just living for the next wave, would have little reason to be concerned.
Things have changed so dramatically in the last 6 to 12 months that I now believe you are being irresponsible ,no matter who you are, if you do not have a bagged packed and are ready to move at a moments notice.
It is not as though there is some new country, or land where the breeze blows lightly 365 days a year, and where there is no government intrusion into your life, but things could get so bad in the United States that many places may start to look like happy alternatives.
The United States is a very rich country with only minor government harassment at this time. For the most part, we all have smart phones, internet connections, wear fashionable clothes and eat decent food. I now believe this situation could change at anytime. Please note: I am not saying it will change but that it could, very quickly.
Folks, we are surrounded. It's no longer the TSA harassing us at airports. It is the TSA showing up announced at a social security office. It is the TSA and unknown black clad government agents showing up at subway and train stations.
Approximately a year ago, while flying out of a west coast airport a man stepped next to me and flashed a badge. He asked if he could talk to me. Totally off guard, I said "Yes." As he directed me to the side, I noticed another agent at about a 90 degree angle to me. The first agent said they were doing random stops. He asked me where I was flying to and where I stayed in during my trip. He asked what I was doing in the city.He asked some very strange questions. He asked me who had paid for my hotel room. I did and told him so. He asked to see my airline ticket. Then he asked to see my ID. The partner called in my ID. He asked to look in my briefcase. We were obviously way over the line in my mind of "reasonable search." I had a pair of jeans on a button down shirt and a blue blazer. But, I wondered what would have happened if I had said no to the briefcase search. Would they have held me on other grounds, since the Constitution didn't seem like it meant anything to these two. I had nothing to hide, so I let them look. I had a flight to catch.
Then at that point it got even weirder, they didn't say "thank you" or "you can go now", after looking through my briefcase. They just stood there. I took this as a technique to see if people volunteer anything. I took the opportunity to take my driver's license back and "thank" them and proceed to leave, but as I left I pulled a Colombo on them and asked them a question. I asked them, if this was something they were doing a lot. They told me they were a unit that traveled to airports, bus stations, train stations, and get this, hotel lobbies.
It was a very odd experience that I still remember as clear as day, but in the end I chalked it up to minor harassment. It still did not increase my alarm level about the United States.
But, now, in addition to these minor harassments, we have the NDAA, which allows the military on the President's order to grab any American off the street, who is deemed to be "aiding terrorists" and hold that American until the end of the "War on Terror", without trial or jury.
And now, the DHS wants funding for more Visible Intermodal Prevention & Respons (VIPR) teams. What will these teams do? According to LaTi:
As many as 25 VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention & Response) teams began patrolling train stations nationwide last summer conducting an estimated 9,300 “suspicionless” spot searches of travelers.
The agency has said the presence of officers with explosive detection dogs, radiation monitors and other devices will act as a deterrent in the nation’s busiest travel hubs…A video shot in a train station in Savanahh, Georgia, in February apparently showed TSA agents screening passengers as they stepped off a train — as opposed to the more common pre-boarding screening procedures..The TSA is planning to add an additional 12 VIPR teams across the country in 2012.
As I said, we are surrounded, and still that doesn't mean much in and of itself, other than the minor harassment, but here's how things could get bad very fast.
Serious price inflation could be only months away. It is very possible that this could result in the President putting price controls in effect at some point. Every person , who knows the first thing about price controls, knows they don't work and only result in shortages, still presidents reach for them.
President Richard Nixon put on price controls-light when he was in power. He didn't have DHS teams available to enforce the laws, there were no VIPR teams. There was a quite toothless Price Administration Office. But still, the nation ended up with long lines for gasoline and gasoline purchases were only allowed every other day.
I fear price controls in a period when we are surrounded with all sorts of enforcement personnel tired of playing enforcement and looking for real enforcement. Unlike, during Nixon's price controls when there were no enforcement patrols, the enforcement teams are already in place.
More HERE
