Now this is disturbing...

[Stobey]

This is a disturbing wrinkle in the continuing effort to snoop on average Americans- as well as another swipe at those who have served or who currently are serving in the U.S. military. From the article:

One of the factors contributing to the potential for terroristic activity is a person who “has received military-type training.”

Given the red flagging of veterans who’ve sought help for PTSD and other mental distress brought on by being unconstitutionally deployed in one senseless combat mission after another, the insult to veterans is compounded by viewing their military training as a potential qualifier for being branded a “terrorist.”


DHS to Tell States How to Implement REAL ID Requirements
by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D. Wednesday, 27 November 2019

https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnew...d-requirements


Despite all the not-so-happy-horse-manure in the above article, a very Happy Thanksgiving to all QPs, and all who have served our country honorably!

[TWITCHY]

It also doesn’t help that CT “experts” like Bruce Hoffman are pushing the narrative of far-right extremist combat veterans returning from overseas. I just read one of his articles a couple of days ago, which espouses this theory. I will see if I can find it and will post it here. Interestingly, he and the co-author cited the mass shootings from the past few years, which with the exception of 1 or 2, were not committed by military veterans. I questioned their thesis, but of course, received no reply.

Edit: Here is the link to the story I referenced-

https://warontherocks.com/2019/11/ar...ght-terrorism/

[miclo18d]

Originally Posted by TWITCHY

CT “experts” like Bruce Hoffman

To add to your point...

Reading his Wikipedia entry, I failed to find any instance where he put on a uniform and actually killed a terrorist. Lots of speeches and policy writing...none of which actually puts boots on the ground and kills our nations enemies...pay no attention to this “expert”

Expert in name only.


The only expertise this guy has is manipulating government to put money in his pocket.

[TWITCHY]

You know, it’s funny you say that, because his textbooks are some of the primary ones used for Homeland Security/CT courses. My Master’s work is how I know about him. Reading him on Twitter, I’m seeing his viewpoints are slanted Left (big surprise).

I challenged him on this last article and received no reply, again, big surprise. In addition to the “veteran terrorist threat”, he and many others are also developing a theory based on the “Incel terror threat”. It’s bullshit.

[miclo18d]

“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” - Ronaldus Magnus

This is a simplified saying of a deeper conversation on the concept of Just War Theories and Machiavellian Theory of “ends justifies the means”.

So, were the founding fathers terrorists or freedom fighter?

[Badger52]

There are people still embedded in the government - or influenced by 'experts' - who were there when Napolitano's DHS specifically included veterans in general, and especially those terrifying things that have been trained and gone to war & returned.

Those people didn't leave just because she went off to some university. The mindset is still there, as is the predilection for "everything you do is our business." 11 Sep 2001 has been a terrific excuse for lots of things.

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by miclo18d

So, were the founding fathers terrorists or freedom fighter?

As a man responsible for the continuation and preservation of the thoughts and ideals of the founders.... Freedom Fighters.

For others it would depend upon if they sit in a position of power a position of subservience or are a victim or tyranny.

I'm on a roll this morning after doing some light reading on the Electoral College. We as a country continue to stray so far...

The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts

George Washington
Farewell Address
1796

[TOMAHAWK9521]

Funny how you never hear politicians or activists quote Washington's farewell address. The address they love to selectively quote is Ike's concerning " the military industrial complex", and yet they always fail to include the other equally important part about "the scientific-technological complex".

"Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the federal government.

Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by federal employment, project allocations and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite."

[miclo18d]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

As a man responsible for the continuation and preservation of the thoughts and ideals of the founders.... Freedom Fighters.

Sorry, the question was rhetorical. I wasn’t impugning the founding fathers, just showing that some ’expert’ can’t make claims of who is or isn’t a ’terrorst’. He is basically calling most of this board terrorists because we served in the military.

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by miclo18d

Sorry, the question was rhetorical. I wasn’t impugning the founding fathers, just showing that some ’expert’ can’t make claims of who is or isn’t a ’terrorst’. He is basically calling most of this board terrorists because we served in the military.

Understood. I took it that way but used it as an example to throw out a perspective.

Thanks miclo

[Ret10Echo]

Originally Posted by Stobey

[COLOR="Yellow"]One of the factors contributing to the potential for terroristic activity is a person who “has received military-type training.”

Yet how many vets voluntarily register their veteran status with the State with either a designation on their driver's license (v) or with veteran license plates on their vehicle.

[Trapper John]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

As a man responsible for the continuation and preservation of the thoughts and ideals of the founders.... Freedom Fighters.

For others it would depend upon if they sit in a position of power a position of subservience or are a victim or tyranny.

I'm on a roll this morning after doing some light reading on the Electoral College. We as a country continue to stray so far...

As we become unwound from the institutions that have bound us together as one nation under God it is good to be reminded from time to time. Thank you Brother!

[Golf1echo]

Originally Posted by TOMAHAWK9521

Funny how you never hear politicians or activists quote Washington's farewell address. The address they love to selectively quote is Ike's concerning " the military industrial complex", and yet they always fail to include the other equally important part about "the scientific-technological complex"

Here is Ike’s chance for peace speech, circa 1953:

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.“

A man who was tasked on several occasions to lead his country in different capacities. Not surprising that politicians and activists would take his words out of context to push a different agenda. It is important to retain the context and meaning. The world was facing a new threat from the Soviet Union, the recovery and transition of industry from a massive build up during the war years where many industries had been transitioned into war production. A man who covered ground between the two parties to stand for a better future for the people of the United States of America... and not at the expense of a strong military.

[Badger52]

[QUOTE=Golf1echo;654247]

Originally Posted by TOMAHAWK9521

Here is Ike’s chance for peace speech, circa 1953:

Prescient beyond words, that one.

[PSM]

Originally Posted by Ret10Echo

Yet how many vets voluntarily register their veteran status with the State with either a designation on their driver's license (v) or with veteran license plates on their vehicle.

Damn, you got me. I just got my new Real ID DL a couple of weeks ago and provided my DD214 for the vet status. I kept getting asked for discounts. I had been using my AL membership card but figured my DL would be easier. (I only accept discounts on big-ticket items, not fast food. They usually see my gray hair and give me the old guy discount anyway.)