by Nathan Barton

Good morning: thoughts on the situation in Missouri.  During and before the War between the States, 150 years ago, the State of Missouri had its own civil war (together with and spilling over into Bleeding Kansas).  In many ways, even more than Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, the events in Missouri led directly to the all-out conflict which ripped apart the States.  Today, just as many see the events in Ukraine as eerily similar to those in the Balkans which triggered the Great War 100 years ago, we can see signs that the tiny conflagration in Ferguson may be lighting the fuse of a vast wave of rebellion and repression in our modern police state that is too similar to events of 150 years ago.

Thus, my thoughts on this situation, commenting on some of the many news items coming from and about Ferguson, Missouri and its 21,000 souls.

America is despised and rejected by most of the rest of the world, or so we are told.  We are evil cowboys with a hideous popular culture who want to rule the world and gut it.  This is constantly thrown into our face by the Tranzis and other leftists right here in the Fifty States.  So the many enemies of America are quick to seize on anything that they can present as negative.  But at the same time as they do that, they reveal how high their opinion, and expectations, of America are. An Iranian ayatollah says that Ferguson highlights the U.S. human rights problem, clearly expecting the Fifty States to be far more moral and ethical considering liberty and freedom than Iran is itself able or willing to practice.  It is alright for Iranian security forces to arrest and hold without trial, to kill and wound and beat people for the least infraction of the law and especially for protests (even peaceful ones) but in their eyes, America stands condemned for doing so, and they expect the Fifty States to hold to a higher standard than they and their allies (such as the Caliphate) are.

Not that what is going on in Missouri demands anything BUT condemnation.

Personal Liberty webpage has this article or commentary: Documenting The Arrests Of Journalists In Ferguson “On Aug. 13, police in Ferguson, Missouri, assaulted and arrested two journalists for allegedly failing to exit a McDonald’s quickly enough while on a break from covering the protests. Since then, police actions against journalists in Ferguson have escalated in severity and frequency. Many have been tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets, and at least nine more have been arrested. It should go without saying that these arrests are a gross violation of the reporters’ 1st Amendment rights, and attempts to prevent journalists from lawfully doing their job on the streets of Ferguson are downright illegal. Freedom of the Press Foundation documented each journalist arrest and is filing public records requests for the arrest records of the journalists who have been assaulted, detained and arrested in Ferguson.”

I know that folks like Mama Liberty and I with this webzine and commentaries are NOT considered journalists, and I have both a deep distrust and disgust with most journalists, including almost all who are the “mainstream media” but freedom of speech and our liberty demands a free press: and the “right” to be stupid and make mistakes.  It appears that the occupiers of Ferguson (certainly paramilitary local and state police, and now actual military: the Missouri Army National Guard) are abusing journalists as well as many others).  If this is not stopped and punished, it will happen again and again, getting worse each time, until that freedom, too, is destroyed by the growth of the police state.

That preeminent minion of the Fuehrer, Eric Holder, is headed to Ferguson on Wednesday to meet with investigators and get the FedGov to meddling even more in a local issue and affair which has already been made more horrible by needless, illegal, and immoral federal involvement going back decades.  The Fuehrer announced the attorney general’s planned trip during remarks Tuesday, a sign of an increasing federal role in the unrest: making matters even worse.  Frankly, I see Holder’s trip as nothing but eyewash: pious mutterings about civil rights and police discriminating against poor innocent black children while continuing to fund and support the military actions of the occupation forces (the police departments).

At the same time, belatedly and with no evidence that anything will really be done, some in Congress are looking at the military surplus program that let the last ten days be so horrible: providing military weapons and equipment from the battlefields of Southwest Asia to the police departments and sheriff’s offices of the Fifty States.  This largess and the requirements for its use have directly lead to the massive increase in use of SWAT and the militarization of town, city, and county cops across the nation.  It needs to stop, but I don’t think there is evidence that Congress is really going to do anything about it.  Not that the Fuehrer would necessarily pay the least attention.