The following article has been generously contributed by Simon Black The Sovereign Man.
Military tacticians and historians often make use of the term ‘tip of the spear.’ It refers to a combat force that is used to puncture the enemy’s initial lines of defense, to be quickly followed by concentrated forces which destroy any remaining threat.
Tactically, the tip of the spear is a bit of a blitzkrieg– an unexpected onslaught of firepower and destruction that takes the enemy by surprise, scatters his resources, and fractures his morale.
I’m convinced that what we’re seeing right now from the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the tip of the spear in the government’s battle for increased control of the public.
The groundwork has been laid for years– legislation empowering the TSA has gradually eroded civil liberties to the point that airports in the United States have now become ‘no rights’ zones. “Please remove your shoes†has now become “Take out your prosthetic breast so I can check it for explosives.â€
Passengers who show up to an airport in the United States are now given two options: (a) go through the radiation bath [don’t worry, the government says it’s safe…] and let the TSA see you naked, or (b) let the TSA thugs grope you and fondle your children’s genitals.
This is not enhanced security protocol, this is a systematic desensitization to government intrusion. The idea is to get people used to new procedures, then continue to add more layers of government control.
Certainly, people will complain. They will be outraged… YouTube videos will abound of TSA agents stroking women’s breasts and disrobing 5-year old boys. The government will hold firm, though, responding that the tactics are necessary and that they will ‘look into’ egregious violations.
To be clear, some of the tactics are designed to be scaled back as concessions. It’s like turning up the volume from 0 to 10… everyone starts screaming that it’s too loud, so the government turns it down to 8. People think, “ah, that’s not as bad…†and eventually become accustomed to the noise.
In time, the government turns it up from 8 to 20. People pour into the streets again, protesting until the government turns it down from 20 to 15. People once again become accustomed to the noise as the new normal. This cycle escalates until no one can remember the sound of silence any longer.
It’s fairly easy to do– there will always be politicians and bureaucrats who can invent stories about innocuous white powders and men in caves that scare the daylights out of people.
Similarly, there will always be long lists of sociopaths, perverts, and pedophiles who are attracted to a job description that authorizes them to grope, fondle, humiliate, and intimidate others.
And of course, there will always be spineless nincompoops who stand by without protest as their wives and children get violated by government agents… and then rationalize their inaction as a necessary sacrifice for safety.
When I was in Bali the other day, I was flipping through channels on the TV and saw Mike Huckabee interviewing Whoopi Goldberg on FoxNews. “Now there’s a couple of intellectual luminaries,†I thought to myself. Whoopi wasted no time in summing up her intellect when she had this to say of the TSA’s tactics:
“… if it’s going to keep me from getting blown out of the sky, you can check anything you want; and if you feel something you like and squeeze it… what am I going to do? [acknowledging laughter from Huckabee]â€
The fact is that body scanners are as ineffective at threat detection as metal detectors. Furthermore, the government has ruled out the idea of scanning air or seaborne cargo… because, clearly, cargo would never be a target. The little old lady with the prosthetic hip? Definitely. Cargo? No chance.
These tactics are not about security… they’re about submission, obedience, and cultivating the slave mentality– that people should be afraid of their government and happily yield to authority without question or hesitation.
To be fair, it’s not just in the US; I woke up this morning to a front page photo in the Wall Street Journal of a machine gun toting policeman in Germany cruising a passenger train because of some hackneyed terror threat. Much of the world is living in a similar state.
This is the tip of the spear, and what comes next can only be worse. I don’t say this to stir emotion or create a sense of panic, but rather to appeal to reason:
The threat is very clear– we need not fear men in caves or silly powders, but rather the malignant intentions of our governments and the perverse men who are attracted to its works. If these aren’t the clearest signs of a police state, I don’t know what else could be.
I’m really interested to hear from you about this– what have you experienced during recent travels? Are these offenses -finally- enough to make you consider leaving? If not, where is the limit?
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I would like to hear from the IT people that wire up these scatter x-ray machines. Is Face/body recognition being recorded somewhere else on-site or off.Â
I was recently returning from SF to Phx and was stopped by the TSA for a 2″ long multi-tool that I had in my luggage. Â The agent said since it had a blade, I would have to surrender it. Â I asked why a 2″ blade was not allowed. Â He said blades were not allowed.
He then told me that scissors up to 4″ ARE allowed. Â I asked him if he understood that scissors were two blades that move against each other to perform cutting tasks. Â He said yes, and that he didn’t make the rules, but that he had to enforce the rules as they are written. Â He was a young guy, maybe 20-25, pretty friendly.
I simply can’t understand though, why a 2″ blade on a multi-tool is not allowed, but 4″ scissors ARE, and I’ve seen several people with 8-12″ long knitting needles go through too.
Amazing level of stupidity on TSA’s behalf… but I agree with Simon, this isn’t about safety, it’s about moving the Overton Window slowly but surely toward tolerance of what’s effectively becoming a semi-police state. Â Where will it end? Â How much will people ultimately take before they snap?
Cargo’s not being checked because Cargo would sue if she were fondled and groped…
Most Americans don’t believe they’ll be living in a police state. They are more than happy to surrender their freedom for a false sense of security. The problem with a police state is that eventually EVERYBODY becomes a criminal. A police state MUST have criminals to justify its existance. Think about it.
Why dont YOU wake up? Understand your Enemy, and that is us. Our motivation is NOT fear for our security.  Our motivators are ease, apathy and laziness.Â
It is NOT safety we fear losing but our convenience and comfort.
Standing up to all these offenses would require sacrifice, discipline, effort, committment and WORK.Â
That is the real reason we are in the state we are in. Not fear. We want our MTV, a six pack and freedom from the obligations and duties of adulthood. If you allow us our indulgences? Civil liberties be damned.
Its fear of our numbing entitlements being blown away, not any suicide bomber, that rules this peoples’ hearts and minds.Â
The sooner you address the real causes, the better. But the real causes are much more difficult and overwhelming than cliches about ‘fear’. How to confront a nation’s embrace of the spiritual abyss?
“…Are these offenses -finally- enough to make you consider leaving? If not, where is the limit?…”
The author’s analysis on the elite’s agenda and use of TSA to condition the populace to further erode our rights and liberties is a bulls eye. Ben Franklin said they gave us a Republic, if we could hold it. What has made us a great Nation has been our diversity melding into a shared allegiance, culture and language with our moral and political principals. That’s being changed. The notion of a Nation and being an American, a US citizen (instead of the PC term “resident” which is inclusive of millions of illegal aliens) is becoming passé or even dangerous as in TSA’s designation of “domestic extremist” because we question being radiated or groped. .
We are definitely at a tipping point. Government and corporate elites raiding our treasuries and out sourcing our lively hoods; vote seeking political parties and special interest advocates flaunting our sovereignty and laws by obliterating our southern border for votes and cheap labor; false flag operations resulting in continuous military deployments on several fronts – all contribute to the possibility we may be too late.
Some of us Americans have been awake for a very long time. Others are slowly awakening while others continue to sleep. I take heart in only a third of the populous was in support of the American Revolution. I haven’t flown since 9/11. Just like I made a choice to be a prepper these last twenty something years, with the sacrifices and adjustments that takes, I’ve done the same with my travel needs, including outfitting a van with the amenities for both recreational and SHTF situations. How one preps and travels are choices. I choose not to let TSA radiate and grope me as I will about chipping or related issues by having contingency plans.
America, love it or leave it. I’m not leaving. It would be dishonoring those having battled and fought for the civil liberties, freedoms and rights we still have. Yes, the Republic is being high jacked, but it is not yet lost and I’m not ready to jump ship. The global agenda is just that – world wide and global.  I’d rather engage the future on my home turf.Â
After the airlines are down to four and controlled, will the trains be next? No, they already own them. Have for years! What happens when the sheep are over populated? Create a war and make the people pay for it.
The tip of the spear militarily may have been the first Iraq war. We’ve long since been penetrated by the entire spear.
On the financial front, it was probably the savings and loan fiasco. Expose the fraud, see how the people deal with. Apparently we showed ourselves ready for the shaft of the spear by prosecuting and putting in jail a few underlings without even consideration of changing the system that allowed the fraud we now see.
The TSA battle is the S&L crises for civil liberties. Problem is, the battle only exists in the corporation and has nothing to do with the Constitution or the Republic. In order to attack the problem, you have to first submit to the corporation and give up your sovereign standing in the Republic. It is the equivalent of having to give your guns to the enemy before attacking them.
There is only one way to get back your individual rights. That is to take them back for yourself, as an individual, and stand upon them no matter what. They are protected in the Law, but only if YOU enforce it.  If your neighbor wants their rights, they will have to do the same thing. You can’t secure rights for someone else if you don’t have them yourself. But once you get them for yourself, you can show others how to do it.
How does one do that? It’s tough. The first step is to quit using a Social Security Number for ANY reason. That means you can’t work for any corporation, created by the Corporation, that illegally requires one. Not many have what it takes to do that.
The next step is to secure your self against intrusions. You have to have a drivers license to keep yourself out of jail when the Pigs start doing their “job”.  But it doesn’t need to tell them where you sleep.
(Pigs, is as referred to in the Pink Floyd album Animals.   It has three main songs and is all about the Corporation. Pigs refers to the government. The other two songs are Dogs, which are the corporations, and of course, Sheep, meaning you. )
If you ever have to sign a government document, even a traffic ticket, do like the corporation and act as representative under limited liability. How? Sign it and put the word “representative” or “rep” after the signature. Doing that makes you no more liable for the signature that any other government official, who are all PRESUMED to be acting in a representative capacity.Â
Your signature is the most valuable thing you have. Never give it to the corporation. ALL money is created by debt, and all debt is created by signature. The debt currency you receive from your signature is worthless, but the promissory notes YOU SIGN have value in the commercial world.
You will NEVER stop the Corporation fighting it on its terms, in its courts, and against its own privately funded (FRN) police force. It presents no real enemy to defeat. It is a legal fiction that employs representatives who answer only to it, not you.
Avoid it, leave it if at all possible. Those who are waiting for the Corporation/government to secure/protect their rights will die rightless slaves with a pocket full of paper to show for their lives.
Your only chance to vote against the Corporation is non participation in it. You have only one vote to cast, so cast it for you. Vote yourself out of the Corporate office of “person” and into the sovereign office of freedom.
Even then, when you enter the Corporation it will always be under it’s rules. The people of the sovereign Republics have been declared enemies of the United States (Corporation). See the Trading With the Enemies Act. In the Corporation, you have the same influence as a Chinese worker.
The choice is really yours.  Just because your friends and neighbors choose to believe slaves doesn’t mean you have to continue being one.
Just heard they will eventually scan/pat down at subway, train stations. Â The terrorists have won; this country is trashed (also see Yahoo finance) big time. Â The gov will push rfid chips next on dumb sheeple (the ignorant masses). Â Politically, nothing more can be done since the politicians are also controlled sheeple/ NWO grid. Â We lost the Korean and VN wars and are losing in mid east wars now.
Comments….. Laura M said: The gov will push rfid chips next on dumb sheeple (the ignorant masses). Â Politically, nothing more can be done since the politicians are also controlled sheeple/ NWO grid. Â We lost the Korean and VN wars and are losing in mid east wars now.
————————
The RFID chips are already here Laura. WalMart is using them now in their clothing – underwear, shorts, pants (google RFID WalMart). I predict that every baby born will be chipped within the next 5 years. Then every American will be chipped. If you refuse, you will not be allowed to buy food or anything without your hand being scanned for the chip. You won’t get any welfare entitlements either–watch the sheeple gladly line up. Oh and you won’t be going to work either if you refuse. It will all be done for national security, and to find out who is a legal citizen versus an illegal.
G’Fox: Â yes, I know they are here, Â used in farm animals, Â pets, clothing, cars, etc. Â Since I’m retired now, I can say to certain age groups that we have lived the best times in this country’s history. Â If they force the implanted chips on people, I hope I’m dead by then as life won’t be worth living. Some preachers and other “experts” predicted it would have happened in the past, or real soon. Â The church masses will be told they will be raptured, then turn against their churches/preachers for lying. Â The few true churches know the truth and will have to be self sufficient and forgo SS and retirement checks, bank accts., even Dr’s and hospitals. Â Hell on earth..I pity the younger ones.
Comments…..Watch Damon Vrabel on YOU TUBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ing8xH3Qj-k&feature=player_embedded#!
Make it VIRAL
Comments….. I hope I’m dead as well and I agree, we have lived the best times but certain we will see the worst of times as well.Â
“The church masses will be told they will be raptured, then turn against their churches/preachers for lying. ”
LOL! That’s like drinking the koolaid and complain it didn’t taste good. People who sit in the pews and drink the koolaid, have no one to blame but themselves. Study the Millerite movement of 1844–people sold their farms and everything they owned and went to the mountain top and waited for Jesus’ return. Oooops! LOL! They drank the koolaid!
Every single day we get into our vehicles and tear off down the freeway doing 75 mph while texting, eating cheeseburgers, fighting with our kids, talking on the phone, etc with not a care in the world; heck we do this multiple times per day. My point is we carelessly roll the statistical dice every time we drive, yet we worry senselessly about being blown out of the sky the one time a year we fly. This author is 100% spot on here………this has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with control. It will get worse; just look at the sheeple who will submit their sovereignty to any “authority” just to go see Granny for the Holidays. Yeah, don’t make a fuss, go with the flow……..all the way to the effing gas chamber………………
Critics,
You are right and wrong. Yes, the average American is indolent; plain and simple. Over the past 40+ years I have been a soldier, state employee, corporate employee, union employee and self-employed.
The most indolent were government employees and union workers by far. This included US Army soldiers. In each group there were exceptions, but it is a numbers game.
You are wrong about the fear factor. The average citizen that matters believes the drivel trotted out by the government and what the MSM shills blather about. I state “matters” because they vote.
Throughout my broad employment experience, I ran into the same nonsense over and over again.
Don’t draw attention to yourself.
Don’t make waves.
Keep a low profile.
Respect authority (oddly enough, the term authority was open-ended in definition)
Biggy, biggy, biggy … They are the experts. (says who? Their peers!)
It’s not worth the effort aka pick your battles.
This is a democracy, therefore you’re outnumbered so shut up.
You’re mean spirited, because everybody deserves …
They are enlightened and you are ignorant.
Are you denying that we don’t have enemies out to destroy our way of life?
I have and will continue to stand up. So far I have always stood alone. Oh yah, afterward a few patted me on the back, but I STOOD ALONE.
Excuses given:
You were doing a fine job on your own.
I don’t need enemies.
I have a business.
I don’t know enough to add a good comment.
You’re right but we all have to get along.
I contend that the average citizen is a sheep. So fearful that it will accept any shepherd. Willing to be fleeced every year. Sad but accepts that the surplus offspring will be sent to the slaughteryard. Stays with the herd even if the herd is corraled in a stockyard with poor feed. Afraid that the shepherd will sick the dog on them.
If this isn’t fear, what is?
In the spring once the snows have retreated from the mountain valleys, the shepherd moves the flock to the summer pasture. Higher up there are the wild sheep. They survive and on occaision thrive without a shepherd. Their death might come unexpectedly, but all sheep die sooner or later.
The average citizen is afraid to live life toe-to-toe. To do so demands accepting personal responsibility for failure. In this age of nanny-state garbage, it’s all about avoiding the blame.
Â
You want some evidence? Look what happened to the concept of “contributory negligence” in civil suits. The deeper the pocket, the greater the negligence.
Â
The people are afraid of everything, including their own shadow. It is called, “Pavlovian response.” And just who trains our youth?
Comments…..Lady Hawk said it best. I think she is right on track with every word.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XhnZlmLGK8&feature=player_embedded
From my point of view, it’s not the Tip of the Spear entering, it’s already fully penetrated and twisting, welcomed and embraced by those infected with Stockholm Syndrome.
Long ago, “these offenses” and the departure from the rule of law and the Constitution were enough to make me consider leaving, but to where?
“Much of the world is living in a similar state.”
Or headed that way?
Right? Or am I mistaken?
If I did manage to determine a destination and go, it would cost all of my savings, I would have to give up most of my possessions, my hard to obtain self-defense tools (likely never to be replaced and sold at a loss in tandem with the 30% cut the PM dealer requires?) along with the many bulky items we’ve worked so hard to save up for.
To leave means giving away our food supplies, and the biggest advantage I have, knowing the local customs and the lay of the land, something that might not ever be replaced while in a far away place.
And once at that destination, the question of would I be able to earn a living looms huge. The idea that we would wind up penniless and destitute – facing deportation for lack of earning ability – is a tough image to shake. Being an unwelcome outsider, being treated like some people in the U.S. treat legal And illegal immigrants, is not a happy condition. Such an option only seems workable for the rich, or those who telecommute.
Not that things would wind up being any different from staying put.
I only travel locally, passing the cars pulled over for speeding, going by the road blocks, a.k.a. Checkpoint Charlies, I can only be thankful it’s not me having to pay, this time. I imagine that sooner or later they’ll make some new law that is difficult to obey, lower the threshold of compliance, or simply accuse and convict me for something I didn’t do. Life in the U.S. becomes as it was on “the other side” of The Berlin Wall in old East Germany, or worse?
They want to take everything, and I might lose everything if I leave. It seems as if I’m in between a rock and a hard place with those around me cheering it all on while saying, “We do not think, we feel, and we are so afraid of being attacked by nuclear equipped Islamic nations and only consider those threats we’ve been told to fear. We pledge allegiance to the TSA, And to the regime for which it stands. One hand down our pants, the other around our throats, With scanners and taxes for all… learn to like it, we do.”
I don’t, and I never will.
The heartless perverted torture-loving warmongering people of the world, are many.
I suspect the, “limit” is the point after they manage to take and or tax everything from us. But at that point, we won’t have the ability to leave, only the desire… they’ll probably manage to take that somehow too, ala Clockwork Orange.
Maybe I should’ve just posted this instead?:
“The America of my youth is gone forever, together with youth itself, and while this latter cannot be prevented, the loss of the former is a reversible tragedy – although it seems much less reversible than ever, sad to say. …”
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/11/25/libertarians-against-the-regime/
I don’t believe that this is some tip of the spear to get us accustomed to submission, I think it’s just a way to make more money, e.g: porno scanners for dual citizen Chertoff, expanded bueaucracy, perks, paychecks and pensions.
Much like the DEA, they love the fact that drugs are illegal, it gives them lots of benefits, comfy pensions & the ability get their jollies by legally kicking  in peoples’ doors at night to terrorize them at our expense.
In fact, I would bet that the DEA would fight harder to keep the “war on drugs” in place than the Mexican, head separating scumbags south of the border.
Comments…..
Someone on a blog said the best way to win is get them with their own game—harassment…print every address of every TSA employee–from small, piddling agent to supervisors…public information, by the way–in every newspaper, every city employing a scanner and abusive pat-ups!!
@Clark and Everyone Else
It maybe true that Americans are stupid, but we ain’t dumb. If given away out, we will seize the moment. Don’t give up Clark, they can’t win. It’s impossible. Let me tell you why. We are Americans.
“Join the Revolution”
We can’t talk or wait this one out.
Read “Common Sense 3.1†at ( http://www.revolution2.osixs.org )
Â
FIGHT THE CAUSE – NOT THE SYMPTOM
Comments…..I challenge each of you on an impossible quest…go read a wonderful book….
“It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Louis…He wrote it in about 1935 and its been out of print for decades..still…It will help you to understand the historical as well as current events and how people have viewed them..it is a must read…
We could quibble over whether the metaphor should be “tip of the spear” or “yet more clicks on the ratchet of an ever-tightening noose,” but the article’s main point is spot on: we are being conditioned for more intrusive and wide-ranging control. The sheeple take their attitudes from the MSM, and the MSM are aghast that ANYONE would get upset by a gubmint clerk digging through our genitals “IF IT KEEPS US SAFE.” In all the coverage and discussion, I have yet to hear anyone ask, or any grope supporter answer, the question “where to you draw the line? Is a digital rectal exam ok?” This is no mere rhetorical exercise — al quaeda has already used a rectum bomb in an attempted hit on a Saudi official. The blue rubber finger is coming, and the line at the checkpoint won’t slow down just because they run out of lube.
Comments…..As a population, we are absolutely being ‘conditioned” to accept authority for “saftey sake’. it’s for our own good, they would like us to believe. I can only hope that more and more people will get tired of this ‘crying wolf” charade that the government is doing, and demand a stop to this ridiculous illegal searches and seizures.
     I find it ironic that the average citizen doesn’t have a clue that they have constitutional rights against this kind of actions, and that what the TSA is doing is blatantly against the law of the land. Where are the constitutional rights groups with the lawsuits??? it is truly sickening that as a nation, we have lined up for the slaughter, begging to be sheared, and told we should feel priviledged to be slaughtered for our own safety. This is a dark time for all of us, and soon, we will pay the price for mediocrity. Getting one last”I told you so” , isn’t going to be much solace, as we watch friends and neighbors begging the government to take care of them, falling right into line, as that was the plan all along.
     it’s all about control, always was, always will be. i think as preppers, the best thing we can do, is to seperate ourselves from the system as much as possible. Each must fight his own battles in his own way. If you don’t participate, they have a more difficult time controlling you. At least the readers of these blogs have an idea of what’s going on. The ignorant bliss of the masses is truly sad. I still cringe when I hear, “Oh that can’t happpen”. Just look at history—it’s already happened many times before.
    You know what to do–keep prepping. Soon, you’ll get to watch as it all comes apart, and the struggle to put together what you’ve done will all become very real, very apparant. Then, the knocks on your door will start, and the real sad part of this whole mess will start. Who will you turn away, and who will you let in???
The tip of the spear, indeed. This program is intended to rape the self-respect of Americans. This program is intended to break down our will to resist. Even the TSA agents hate the program, and say publicly that it is ineffective and no safer than before any type of scanners were used years ago.Â
The declaration today that antagonists of the TSA scanner program are officially “Domestic Extremists” is perfect proof that this government, and maybe the next one, is determined to break the spine of real Americans.
Of course, I confess. No waterboarding needed for me. I am for sure a domestic extremist. And my parents and children are proud of me. Anything less does not deserve to breathe the air of freedom.
http://www.freedom-won.net/pittsburgh-tsa-scanner-agent-says-these-pat-downs-are-worthless-immoral-and-embarrassing/
Exit interview from Europe to US:
Kindly gentleman (with deceptively good English):
So, what were you doing in Europe?
Genealogy Research in slovakia and Hungary.
Hmmm. Interesting. You are a Geneticist ??? With which institution?
No. Not a geneticist. Genealogy. I was researching my ancestors.
Oh. I see. And so you met with these people in Hungary and Russia?
At which institution?
No, They’re my ancestors, so they’re all DEAD. I did research on my family history at a few archives in Slovakia and Hungary.
Oh. My. Well. OK. Then have a nice trip !!