security – The Burning Platform

If You Want Security, Pursue Liberty

Guest Post by Ron Paul

Judging by his prime-time speech last week, the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency will be marked by increased militarism abroad and authoritarianism at home. The centerpiece of the president’s speech was his demand for a new law forbidding anyone on the federal government’s terrorist watch list from purchasing a firearm. There has never been a mass shooter who was on the terrorist watch list, so this proposal will not increase security. However, it will decrease liberty.

Federal officials can have an American citizen placed on the terrorist watch list based solely on their suspicions that the individual might be involved in terrorist activity. Individuals placed on the list are not informed that they have been labeled as suspected terrorists, much less given an opportunity to challenge that designation, until a Transportation Security Administration agent stops them from boarding a plane.

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FOURTH TURNING – OUR RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY

In Part 1 of this article I discussed the catalyst spark which ignited this Fourth Turning and the seemingly delayed regeneracy. In Part 2 I pondered possible Grey Champion prophet generation leaders who could arise during the regeneracy. In Part 3 I focused on the economic channel of distress which is likely to be the primary driving force in the next phase of this Crisis. In Part 4 I assessed the social and cultural channels of distress dividing the nation. In Part 5 I examined the technological, ecological, political, military channels of distress likely to burst forth with the molten ingredients of this Fourth Turning, and finally in this final part, our rendezvous with destiny, with potential climaxes to this Winter of our discontent.

We are now in the seventh year of this Fourth Turning. A famous quote from the seventh year of the last Fourth Turning portended the desperate, bloody and ultimately heroic trials and tribulations which awaited generations of our ancestors. What will be our rendezvous with destiny?

“There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt – June 27, 1936 – Philadelphia, PA

Our Rendezvous With Destiny

“The seasons of time offer no guarantees. For modern societies, no less than for all forms of life, transformative change is discontinuous. For what seems an eternity, history goes nowhere – and then it suddenly flings us forward across some vast chaos that defies any mortal effort to plan our way there. The Fourth Turning will try our souls – and the saecular rhythm tells us that much will depend on how we face up to that trial. The saeculum does not reveal whether the story will have a happy ending, but it does tell us how and when our choices will make a difference.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

The people have been permitting a small cadre of elitists, billionaire financiers, corporate chiefs, propagandist media moguls, and crooked politicians to make the choices dictating the path of our country since the 2008 dawn of this Fourth Turning. The choices they have made and continue to make have imperiled the world and guaranteed a far more calamitous outcome as we attempt to navigate through the trials and tribulations ahead. Their strategy to “save the country” by saving bankers, while selling the plan to the public as beneficial to all and essential to saving our economic system, has proven to be nothing more than the greatest wealth transfer scheme in human history. The ruling class is deliberately blind to their own venality and capacity for evil.

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FOURTH TURNING – POLITICIANS DRIVING THE WORLD TOWARDS WAR

In Part 1 of this article I discussed the catalyst spark which ignited this Fourth Turning and the seemingly delayed regeneracy. In Part 2 I pondered possible Grey Champion prophet generation leaders who could arise during the regeneracy. In Part 3 I focused on the economic channel of distress which is likely to be the primary driving force in the next phase of this Crisis. In Part 4 I assessed the social and cultural channels of distress dividing the nation. In Part 5 I’ll examine the technological, ecological, political, and military channels of distress likely to burst forth with the molten ingredients of this Fourth Turning, and finally in Part 6 our rendezvous with destiny, with potential climaxes to this Winter of our discontent.

Technological & Ecological Distress

“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” – Aldous Huxley – Ends and Means

The level of distress being produced by technology was probably underestimated by Strauss & Howe when they wrote their book in 1997. The internet, cell phones and e-commerce were still in their infancy, while cyber security was an unknown concept. Huxley would be shocked by how backwards we have “progressed” through the efficient distribution of iGadgets, creating millions of distracted, non-thinking, passive, easily pliable, willfully ignorant sheep who adore their technological servitude.

A vast swath of the populace never reads a book and can’t go more than a few minutes without checking their iGadget to view the latest funny cat video, the latest update on Kim Kardashian’s ass, Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner’s courage, or Lamar Odom’s latest whorehouse escapade. Our country is drowning in a sea of irrelevance as our infinite craving for diversions and triviality overwhelms any thoughts of confronting our oppressors. The adoration of technology has degraded our ability to think and allowed the Deep State to control the masses by amusing them to death.

The totalitarian Orwellian utilization of technology was exposed by a millennial with courage, intelligence, and love of his country – Edward Snowden. His revelations were very distressful to the felonious government apparatchiks who blatantly flaunt their disregard for the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. The criminals at the NSA, fully supported by Obama and Congress, have made Big Brother look like an amateur, as they siphon up every phone call, text, email, and facebook entry made by each person in this country and for good measure the political leaders of our allies and enemies.

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To France from a Post-9/11 America: Lessons We Learned Too Late

Guest Post by John W. Whitehead

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” ― Benjamin Franklin

“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”—Hermann Goering, German military commander and Hitler’s designated successor

For those who remember when the first towers fell on 9/11, there is an unnerving feeling of déjà vu about the Paris attacks.

Once again, there is that same sense of shock. The same shocking images of carnage and grief dominating the news. The same disbelief that anyone could be so hateful, so monstrous, so evil as to do this to another human being. The same outpourings of support and unity from around the world. The same shared fear that this could easily have happened to us or our loved ones.

Now the drums of war are sounding. French fighter jets have carried out a series of “symbolic” air strikes on Syrian targets. France’s borders have been closed, Paris has been locked down and military personnel are patrolling its streets.

What remains to be seen is whether France, standing where the United States did 14 years ago, will follow in America’s footsteps as she grapples with the best way to shore up her defenses, where to draw the delicate line in balancing security with liberty, and what it means to secure justice for those whose lives were taken.

Here are some of the lessons we in the United States learned too late about allowing our freedoms to be eviscerated in exchange for the phantom promise of security.

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THE NSA IS PROTECTING YOU – BELIEVE – CONSUME – DON’T THINK

Almost four times as many sheep in America trust the NSA than the citizens of Russia. Sacrificing liberty and freedom for safety, security, iGadgets, 24/7 reality TV, entitlement goodies, subprime loans, and $20,000 credit card limits at 19% interest never felt so good.

You will find more statistics at Statista

JET SKI TERRORIST

Our government is a joke. Our politicians are a joke. DHS is a joke. All the security measures that have cost trillions since 9/11 are a joke. Are you safer today than you were on September 10, 2001? Was it worth the cost in dollars, liberty, and freedom to have the appearance of safety and security? Despite all of the technology and corporate fascist government solutions, an idiot on a jet ski can breach a $100 million security system without even knowing he was doing it. Pitiful.

Jet ski intruder evades multi-million dollar JFK Airport security system

Undated aerial view of John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, N.Y. showing surrounding Jamaica Bay. Daniel Casillo, a stranded jet skier swam ashore, and succeeding in entering the facility without being detected.

Daniel Casillo, an intruder, managed to evade a $100 million security system at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport when he became stranded 3-miles offshore on the eastern edge of Jamaica Bay, after his jet ski became disabled.

The 31-year-old resident of Queens, N.Y. abandoned his watercraft, and swam towards distant lights, climbing over an 8-foot tall perimeter security fence, and crossing active runway 4L and intersecting runway 31L, the longest at the airport.

He was finally taken into custody and arrested for criminal trespass after asking a Delta Air Lines ramp worker for help near Gate 10 of Terminal 3, as reported on Monday, August 13, 2012 by WXIA-TV, The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News, the New Jersey Herald, and other global news agencies.

The airport intrusion took place last Friday, August 10, 2012 at about 7:45 p.m. EDT, just before sunset.

The exhausted man, who was wearing only swim trunks and a bright yellow life jacket, went undetected through several layers of high-tech security devices installed by Raytheon Company of Waltham, Mass., a major U.S. defense contractor. The sophisticated and costly system included motion detectors and closed-circuit cameras comprising the airport’s Perimeter Intrusion Detection System (PIDS).

Casillo was arrested and charged with trespassing by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) police. His attorney defended his actions, saying that his client “had a rough time of it, and was just glad to be alive.” His girlfriend, Deanna Cowan, was more critical, saying to the New York Post, “They were trying to see who had the fastest jet skis, like idiots.” Apparently Casillo lost that race, and became separated from his friends, but managed to save his life.

Even more alarmed was Charles Schumer, the senior United States Senator from New York, who told ABC-TV, “We’re dealing with safety here. God forbid a terrorist should get onto a runway of an airport.”

Those were also the thoughts of police officials, who echoed public sentiment that the airport authority had wasted millions of tax dollars on failed technology.

Among those faulting the electronic sensors was Robert Egbert, a spokesman for Port Authority’s Police Benevolent Association. He called for a full probe of the whole system, saying “The union is demanding an inspector’s general investigation into the failed Perimeter Intrusion Detection System, the cost over-runs and the relationship between the Port Authority and Raytheon, the vendor.”

Raytheon probably has the most to lose in this embarrassing incident. A spokesperson for the company said that they are cooperating with the Port Authority.

Others see Casillo as something of a whistle blower who shattered a false sense of security by easily defeating a detection apparatus that was considered fail-safe. It’s a modern version of “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” a Danish folktale about an invisible garment that everyone but a child were afraid to admit didn’t exist.

As Nicholas Casale, a retired detective with the NYPD, and former deputy security director for counter terrorism for the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority put it, “I think he should be given dinner and a bottle of champagne for showing us our faults.”

Before that happens, Casillo has to appear in court to settle the criminal charges filed against him.

This case recalls a previous one on March 6, 2006 at JFK Airport, in which an elderly man drove his car onto a runway through two security gates. He made it to an active runway where an Air France aircraft was preparing to land. The intruder drove around for approximately 23 minutes before being stopped.