Thursday, September 16, 2021

Civil rights during a crackdown? What civil rights?

 

I've had conversations with a number of readers during the past few days.  It started with their being unhappy that I won't acknowledge or go into detail about 9/11 conspiracy theories.  (Turns out that those who believe in such theories - and it is almost a religious belief, because they won't listen to, or read, or investigate, or give even the time of day to fact-based analyses like the exhaustive investigations published by Popular Mechanics - aren't very tolerant of those who don't, particularly when the latter - including me - dismiss such theories as irrelevant.)  From there, the discussion segued into what's going to happen when the Biden administration inevitably overreaches itself, and provokes active resistance.  (Let's be blunt - their perspective is "when it provokes a civil war".  I'm still hoping and praying that can be averted.)

There are many dimensions to that problem, but I'd like to point out that the administration will deploy every force, trick and tactic at its disposal to squash such rebellion the moment it starts.  They'll reason that if they very publicly destroy such resistance, the rest of the country will be cowed into submission.  I think it'll go something like this with the first, or the first few, incidents of rebellion.

  • The resistance will turn violent, possibly lethal, and some government officers and bureaucrats will be prevented from doing their job.  Some may be hurt or killed.
  • The powers that be will flood that location with uniformed police, informants, left-wing fellow travelers (think BLM and Antifa), and anyone else they can use to intimidate those who dare stand against them.  The press - as always, eager allies of the Biden administration - will cover the response in admiring, boot-licking terms.
  • The protections offered by our constitution to individual civil rights will be comprehensively ignored.  Premises will be searched without warrant, drivers will be stopped without probable cause, individuals will be detained for questioning - possibly for days, perhaps even weeks or months - without access to lawyers, etc.  (See the response to the Boston bombing for evidence of that in action.  Civil rights were effectively disregarded - and many citizens actually approved, and went along with it.)
  • These measures will be publicly justified as a response to "right-wing extremism" or "domestic terrorism", and any disagreement with them will be ruthlessly steamrollered.  It's possible that voicing such disquiet may be treated as evidence that you're a terrorist too, and therefore you should be treated as such.
  • Those responsible for the disruption will be given "show trials", with as many charges as possible levied against them, and will be given consecutive prison sentences on each of them, to ensure they stay locked up for a good long time.
  • The area will then be declared "pacified".  The media will wrap up everything in nice, congratulatory ribbons and bows, and the government will assure citizens that it was "justified" in disregarding the Constitution, thanks to the immediate, clear and present danger posed by resistance to its decrees.

If you think something different will happen, I urge you to consider the following evidence to the contrary.

  • Law enforcement agencies and officers are already militarized to an appalling extent, including armored vehicles being essentially given free of charge to agencies that request them.  Give such people toys, and they'll want to play with them - otherwise, what's the point?
  • There's a strong movement on the progressive left to neuter or abolish local law enforcement agencies, and instead federalize the police to form a national force.  Such a force will operate under federal mandates, not local;  and that means local laws and protections for citizens under State constitutions may not be followed.  (See the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005:  I wrote about that very problem in the third and fourth of my after-action reports.)
  • News media coverage of such problems is going to be overwhelmingly pro-progressive-left individuals and talking points, and virulently opposed to anything and anyone else.  (It is already, so why would it be any different in an emergency?  The media would simply be motivated to greater efforts.)
  • Any opposition would be treated as active resistance, and intimidated or punished out of existence.  If in doubt, refer to how members of our armed services who object to forced vaccination are currently being treated, threatened, discouraged or even dismissed.  "Get with the program, or else!"


No, open rebellion will be ruthlessly, even viciously suppressed at first, in an attempt to scare anybody else even thinking about it into "running scared".

However, open rebellion isn't the best way to begin such opposition.  Aesop at Raconteur Report has a nasty sense of humor in his discussion of the possibilities, to which I'll refer you without further comment.  Of course, it goes without saying that his ideas are nothing but rampant speculation, and he isn't suggesting for a moment that you, or I, or anyone should do anything illegal.  Perish the thought!  (Although I did laugh out loud at the suggestion of one of his commenters:  "Be the cork in the asshole of progressivism!")

Also, make it your business to keep a record of every progressive sympathizer, activist, legislator, bureaucrat, business owner or manager, etc. in your area.  Note their names, and anything and everything else about them that might be relevant one day.  They're spreading poison, and sooner or later we're going to have to lance that poisonous boil, squeeze out the corruption, and bring healing to the infection it's caused in our body politic.  Whether that's done peacefully or not, it will have to be done - so, in the words of the Four Rules of firearms safety promulgated by the late, great Jeff Cooper, "be sure of your target and what is beyond it":  in this case, the latter includes the network of supporters and sympathizers who propagate the leftist gospel.  Even if you don't actively assist with that, those undertaking the work will be able to use your information.

We are currently governed by progressive leftists who are doing their very best to ignore or snuff out all of our constitutional protections, all of our civil rights, and all of our liberties that conflict with their totalitarian vision.  We're going to have to fight them and their vision - but let's not do it on their terms, where our actions play into their hands and give them the pretext(s) they need to crush opposition.  Work smarter, not harder!

That includes being extraordinarily careful with one's activism.  Some potential options:

  • Keep one set of devices for "everyday", and a second (and/or third, and/or more) set for confidential use.  Never, ever allow one to be used in the other context.  The second set should never be powered up and/or used at home, or even be allowed to contact the Internet, in case location tracking should link them to you in some way (including their proximity to your "everyday" devices).
  • Work through a phone or phones not registered to you, in locations where you're not usually present.  Don't even put in the batteries or turn the phones on until you're in those areas.
  • Never take your own vehicles to and from such areas, and never carry your "everyday" cellphone or other electronics on such occasions, to prevent one cellphone being linked to another by location.
  • When not in use, "secure" devices should be stored in Faraday cages (which can be bags or boxes), if possible with their batteries removed.  If they can't be activated or "pinged", they can't be used against you.
  • When you talk about anything even remotely confidential, make sure all electronic devices - and I do mean ALL - are outside the room, where remote activation of their microphones can't overhear your conversation or allow it to be recorded.
  • Use encryption on communications, and also for e-mail through completely separate, anonymous accounts that again are not linked to you at all.  (However, don't trust encryption alone - what one human can encrypt or encode, another, particularly with computer assistance, can decrypt or decode.)  Change such accounts frequently, and also any devices such as cellphones.  Throw away a burner phone after a few uses and replace it.  Don't buy the replacement yourself - use "cut-outs" who can't identify you as the user.  (One agency used to have one person buy a few burner phones, then hand them over to a courier who took them to another city and delivered them to a third person.  He/she activated the phones in several locations, using different numbers, then gave them to another courier for delivery to more than one distant location.  Someone there would receive them, then distribute them to those who would use them.  Complex and expensive?  Yes, but also pretty secure.)
  • Use Virtual Private Networks (VPN's) for secure internet communications.  They're not foolproof - court orders can be obtained to force VPN's to monitor, record and hand over your traffic - but they prevent casual eavesdropping.  I know some people use two VPN's, layering one over the other, making interception even more difficult.

Everything I've said above is currently legal.  There are other techniques and methods as well - anyone who's had "fieldcraft" training in TLA's (see one US list here) or the military will know what I mean - but I won't go into those here.

As we've said many, many times before in these pages:  "Be the gray man".  Subtlety is better than in-your-face violence . . . until the time comes that the latter may be inevitable.  Sadly, sometimes it is.

Peter


25 comments:

Jack Ward said...

I like using metal ammo boxes, not plastic. Should stop any signal, and waterproof. Used for cpu backups, and other devices, spare batteries, anything that can be killed with an emp. I have metal ammo boxes so large [50 cal machine gun rounds] that I almost cannot lift them. That my country could have gotten here is treason at all levels. I no longer trust ANY government or judicial entity. Or, most uniformed persons. This is so sad.
Your blog is one of several I visit each day, often several times each day. Keep up the scare.
Looking to your latest books. Got the money waiting on the words.

Aesop said...

Like the 9/11 hijackers, TPTB get away with "flooding the zone" to suppress rebellion exactly once.
By even the fourth 9/11 hijacking, the Samson Option is deployed, and it's game over for terrorists, even government stooge terrorists.

They send more LEOs? Kill All They Send.
They send BLM/Antifa? Target-rich environment. "The range is now hot in both directions. Commence fire at will.

Unfavorable News Enemedia coverage? A Press Pass becomes a ticket to Hell, and a shortened life expectancy, in 0.2 seconds.

This will be war. I repeat WAR. Not a "police action". The po-po will find out in about an Unforgiving Minute how totally in over their heads and totally unprepared they are to fight in a war, rather than enforce laws. Ain't nobody gonna be looking for their "civil rights". Nobody gonna be "arrested", and asking for a lawyer, anymore than they did in Hue in 1968.

People are going to be killed, and prisoners will be executed on the spot. That will include, most particularly, anyone wearing a badge, uniform, or carrying government ID, or expressing governmental sympathies. Anyone shocked about that should retire to their fainting couches with a case of smelling salts. The police, who like to think of their anemic powers, as an occupying army, are going to run crying for an actual occupying army, in about a minute.
Think North Hollywood Bank Robbery, except with anything more than 2 shooters. The PD has AR-15s now. But most officers couldn't hit a bull in the pants at anything over 50 yards, if they can remember which way the magazine is inserted.

And faced by people who've been using same since their formative years, with long-trained skill and dexterity, they're going to run out of ammo, ideas, and days on the planet, in minutes. They're going to find out that when they need back-up in seconds, it'll only be minutes away.

And at that point, they're going to become not a fighting force, but a Resupply Point. It's going to be a bitter pill to swallow, but they're going to be fed that diet with a Plumber's Helper.

And after about two such incidents, the overwhelming response will be mass resignations, and outright refusal to respond.

And then, The Man finds out how thin his blue line of defense really is.

Having done everything in their power to turn the dotMil rank-and-file against them, the idea of the Notional Guard, or even the active-duty military, responding coherently, let alone vigorously, is a risible concept.

80% of them stand down, and 20% actively switch sides, and then it's Moscow when the Soviet military tried to stage a coup on Gorbachev.

And then consolidation begins: the round-up of TPTB.
Officials, bureaucrats, the courts and organs of enforcement, the media, and anyone carrying their water.

Government's go-to is always "fall back, organize, and then "The Empire Strikes Back".

But they have no plan for Systemic Shock, or what to do when the dominoes start falling faster than they can fall back, and they're faced with five, twenty, and then 400 republics, all rapidly consolidating.

When going against a couple of nutjobs, government has a tool kit.

When going against thousands to millions of people pissed as hell, and tired of not being left alone, government has a seizure, and dies. The transition will be awkward, and shocking in its rapidity.

Then it gets ugly in more ways than most people would care to contemplate.

The snake isn't going to have its head cut off.

It's going to be hacked into pepperoni slices, with extreme prejudice, and the desertion rate, at that point, by people who thought they were going to be the overlords, would be something Saddam's Republican Guards and the French Army look upon with envy.

And the harder the dying government flails at being strangled to death, the tighter the garrote to its neck will be yanked.

Eaton Rapids Joe said...

https://www.breitbart.com/news/german-police-probe-balloon-that-caused-mass-blackout/

Accidents happen.

Accidents happen more often to some people than others.

Glypto Dropem said...

Words of encouragement from Aesop.

My visual comes from the Hunger Games movie where the rebels blow up The Capitol's hydroelectric dam. Rebels running to the dam carrying cases of explosives are machine gunned down, and those from behind pickup the cases and continue running into the gunfire. They make it to the dam, overwhelm the guards, kill them, steal their weapons, successfully plant the bombs and blow the dam. Push the free citizens hard enough and THAT is the kind of response they will get.

Sam said...

(See the response to the Boston bombing for evidence of that in action. Civil rights were effectively disregarded - and many citizens actually approved, and went along with it.)

That's because most people fear the Timothy McVeigh-like 911 Truthers and those treatening policemen and civil infrastructure more than they fear government overreach. And I will admit, I sometimes wonder if the loudest voices calling for violent insurrection might be government agents of some sort. They're definatly not grey men.

John in Indy said...

Distinguish between those warning of the consequences of this level of .gov overreach and those a-holes Fedposting for an attack right fkn now.
It is clear that the sh*t is coming, and that we no longer live in America, but consider that "resistance" could start with simple refusal, to strikes and Irish democracy, escalating to active monkeywrenching and infrastructure attacks.
Note the faces of totalitarianism and then look for their controllers and financiers in the corporate and NGO worlds.
Note that one employee, pushing the wrong button at a power load distribution control center near Indianapolis shut down the East coast grid for three days.
Note also that when that Russian fascinated idiot shot two Connecticut State cops, and ran into the woods, that it took over 1,000 cops a week to find him, and he did no counter-ambushes.
If the wheels come off, it is likely that infrastructure and supply chain attacks outside of major cities will absorb most of the .gov forces to control the food riots, leaving them with only enough force to pick a remote zone and hammer it, then leave.
If you choose to fight on equal terms, you lose. Be wise.
John in Indy

Tsgt Joe said...

The gentleman who posted above "Sam", says it well. Too much of the public is predisposed to believe "right wing extremism" is a very serious danger to the republic. Look at how easily and well a protest in January was reframed as an "insurrection", an existential threat to the very existence of our republic if you will! Combine that with the law abiding inclination of most folks and you are going to have a difficult time getting large numbers of folks to actively fight the government when you will be labelled a criminal.

Beans said...

BigCountryExpat over at The Intrepid Reporter, who has the ability to do armed resistance, suggests instead we do what the Poles did. Solidarity. Just slow-roll the powers-that-be when they take over an area. Quiet resistance, nothing that can be perceived easily by the overlords as actual resistance.

We see already how low staffing levels and periodic shutdowns at ports have totally hosed us and the rest of the world for at least a year. Sick-outs, showing up and not doing the work fast (or totally correctly, needing constant fixing) and other soft attacks are the way to go.

Same when the new Gestapo stops you. Oh, sure, comply... slowly. Not too slowly, just enough to start a jam in the system. Once a jam is in place, it will slow the whole process for everyone else down and ferment more soft rebellion.

Yes, there may be time for direct action. But indirect action is often more effective.

The warehouse worker who misplaces a common transformer when someone else accidentally hits a power pole with a vehicle... That type of coordination, carefully done, can slow or stop The Evil Empire more than a box of roofing nails or gunfire.

Stay safe out there in the coming storm.

boron said...

'pears that it's rapidly approaching 1155 hrs

Blufield said...

I foresee a lot of dead media.....

Aesop said...

Yes, there may be time for direct action. But indirect action is often more effective.

Only if one defines "effective" as "waiting 50 years to get your country back."
Ask the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw how well patience worked out for them.

Maybe consult Solzhenitsyn's "O, how we burned..." passage, to see if he was happy about trying the patient approach, in hindsight.

If there's any full Progtard actual crackdown, TPTB will be lucky to be given 50 minutes. 50 seconds is more likely.

The people seeing government agents under ever bed are going to be the first ones loaded into the boxcars by those same agents, come the day. Rabbits and chickens are always easier to catch than foxes and wolves.

There's a lesson in that.

No one was ever nibbled to death by rabbits, or pecked to death by chickens.

Learn to bite.

Xoph said...

Asymmetric warfare. If resistance starts in 1 spot, say Atlanta and the powers that be flood the area, then those resource came from somewhere and the somewhere is left unprotected. Now Nashville erupts but Atlanta is not solved, more resources to Nashville. And it snowballs.

The left is not nearly so in control as everyone thinks. Most people are smart enough not to want a Civil war and are keeping their heads down hoping to avoid it. However, big cities are intensely vulnerable to infrastructure attach for electricity, water and food. TPTB are showing they only know how to dictate compliance, not work for cooperation. Whomever is pulling the Xiden's strings wants things to go kinetic, at least that is how it feels to me.

lemmiwinks said...

If you're curious as to what will happen, just look at Australia! A woman was arrested in her own home for simply suggesting that perhaps people should gather to protest the lockdown. Another vocal opponent had his home searched (no warrant required).

The intelligence gathering is immense, doubtless there's already sizeable portfolios on almost everyone here. Either that, or they'll be generated with the click of a button, the algorithms are very efficient.

Skyler the Weird said...

Inflation is rapidly beginning to Gallop. That local mom and pop hardware store I was talking about in a previous comment that had raised the price on the Dog Pens in their lot from $199 to $269 earlier this summer raised the price yesterday to $305. That's a 100% increase in a few months. Small business is impacted soon by price and supply shocks than big box stores.

Stefan said...

Revelation 13:4 KJVS
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?


The battle is first won in the temple....

Sam said...

Some people want what they don't know anything about.

A Co 1/508 Infantry 82nd Airborne Vietnam 1968-69

Aesop said...

Not particularly shocking, since the last serving president with any actual wartime military service was Captain Ronald Reagan, USAAF.

The Lab Manager said...

Those who believe the government's story on 911 are half wits at best. I don't pretend to have the answers on who or what, but 911 was clearly facilitated by a group in power. The scarp was hauled off before it could be properly analyzed or investigated like after a plane crash. And who can forget that passport being found in all that rumble except those boxes from the two planes.

Popular Mechanics was a leftist rag some years ago along with Scientific American. It's a garbage magazine beyond some of the the new tech gizmos it shows.

I guess all those engineers from the Architects for Truth site don't have a viable theory why those buildings went down?

Skyler the Weird said...

George H.W. Bush was a Navy Pilot who was shot down over Chichi Jima in 1944. He was fortunate to be rescued by a nearby submarine as the Commander of the Japanese garrison had killed eight captured American pilots and had eaten four.

It's amazing to think how history might have evolved if 41 had ended up on the menu.

Bush 41 was after Reagan.

matism said...

And Shrub I was Reagan's VP at the insistence of the Koch-sucking Rove Republican swill, who were as bad then as they are now!

Aesop said...

Skyler, I stand corrected.

I'd actually completely forgotten about him.
Unfortunately, much like McCain, the best part of him was left behind in a cockpit in his early years, and never seen since.

At any rate, that makes 39 uninterrupted years without a wartime consigliere in the Oval Office.

And by God, it shows.

XTphreak said...

@Skyler the Weird

$199 to $305 is a 65.25% increase
$199 to $398 is a 100% increase

Point taken though
Just sayin'

all y'all have yourselves a good day now

Stefan said...

Just had the thought this may be a honeytrap.

Veritas said...

The USG ran scenario's envisionaging a full scale civil war. The results showed the government loss of most areas of the country within six weeks with a total collapse within six months.

What makes the author believe LE or the military will obey Biden/Lefturd regime? Remember the Brady Ranch. We came close to a Lexington moment there till some government employee realized his paycheck didn't cover his ventilated hide.

If a few hundred Antifa/BLM can run riot, imagine what a few dozen trained veterans can do with propane canisters.

Veritas said...

I am amazed at the idiots who believe the State's intelligence is godlike. Consider how effective they are on the war on drugs; income tax cheats; everyday crime; ask yourself if surveillance is so good how much is lost to shoplifting an employee theft.

When has the CIA got one right? The FBI? Five dedicated men who can keep quiet and are well trained can disrupt the economy of a region for weeks.

If they turn to wet work they can empty an building in weeks. You never confront an enemy directly. But when his home, wife and children are at risk you can bet he will reconsider his loyalties.