American Government's Enemy? It's you!

Do you remember back in the 1980’s and 1990’s the talk of black helicopters with no markings? People that claimed they existed were thought to be paranoid conspiracy theorists. They were considered on a par with those that said they’d been taken by aliens and probed then returned home with no memory. There was even a movie about this paranoia called “Conspiracy Theory” where Mel Gibson played the part of someone that seemed to be off center mentally and had to buy the book “The Catcher in the Rye” each time he saw it.

For years, if you said anything about what the government might be doing, it was usually said to be 1984 coming true or if you were really adamant about it, you were a nut job or right wing extremist.

Along comes Ed Snowden. Snowden leaks documents showing that the American government is spying on allies and worst of all, Americans! The National Security Agency (NSA) naturally denies that they are spying on Americans. So it appears if we think the NSA is spying on us we’re part of the black helicopter conspiracy theorists.

Congressman Mike Rogers (R) from Michigan, and former FBI agent, immediately comes to the defense of the NSA and says they are not spying on American citizens. He still says it as recently as March 2014 on Meet the Press. However, the NSA finally admitted that they are indeed spying on Americans and they admitted it during 2013.

We now know that phone companies, such as AT&T, Verizon were forced to give phone records of Americans to the NSA. Internet companies such as Google, yahoo and facebook were required to give the NSA information and access to Americans. Some of those companies willingly, some through legal means.

Today, it’s reported that the navy, through the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is collecting information on parking tickets of Americans. Over 500 million and counting.

Let’s look at some recent events. Remember Fast and Furious? Guns were given to drug cartels in Mexico. One was used to kill a border agent. Our government, who gave the guns to the cartels, can’t find them. Didn’t track them. Drug cartels are a serious threat to Americans. Some Americans along the border of Mexico have been killed. Their homes invaded. The government is charged Constitutionally with protecting our borders and Americans. Yet our government agencies charged with protecting us aren’t protecting the borders and can’t find guns that they gave to cartels with the purpose of tracking them spend their time reading transcripts of women sharing their apple pie recipe’s.

Remember Benghazi? Four American’s were killed. An ambassador and three military men in Benghazi. Our government told us that it was due to a video that nobody had seen. They sent out officials (Susan Rice) to say that it wasn’t a terrorist attack  but due to a video. Our government, who can spy on our allies and spy on Americans can’t tell the truth about an attack on our Embassy in Libya and don’t protect our citizens, our officials, and our soldiers in our Embassy, but spend their time listening to teenagers talking about their latest boyfriend/girlfriend at school.

Remember the IRS scandal where they were not allowing status to tea party organizers while approving liberal political organizers? Our government is taking sides politically against American citizens and for other citizens based on political ideology but they can listen in to conversations of Americans who are suggesting a restaurant to a friend of theirs on the phone or in E-mail or IM’s.

Remember the TSA making us go through body scanners at the airport and told that while I our genitals are able to be viewed by the screener and only the screener, those images wouldn’t be saved and not seen by anyone else. Then we find out that they are not just keeping those images but hanging them on the walls for viewing by the rest of the staff. It went so far as to have a TSA employee have his own image put out there for other co-workers to see and he was teased about it and then attacked a fellow employee over comments made about his genitalia…or lack of. I wonder how many terrorists these body scanners have caught.

Now we have parking tickets being gathered and monitored. Well, here’s a weird scenario for you. I go once a month to the county court and pay my child support. Because I have a snarky ex wife, I end up going to court about twice a year. I have to feed the parking meter each time. I spend five to ten minutes going into the courthouse, going through the metal detector and the wand and raising my pant legs up so they can see the tops of my shoes or boots. I have to remove my coat and send it through an X-Ray machine. I have to remove my wallet and send it through the X-Ray machine. Are they afraid that before someone attacks a court employee they are going to view pictures of their kids? Or maybe the technology is now out there that you can build a gun using a master card or visa.

A technical school student in Ohio is doing as he should. He’s working hard at his education. He’s decided he wants to be in the military and when he gets out he wants to be either in law enforcement or a firefighter. He’s involved in all sorts of organizations and classes to achieve his goals. He works as an EMT and needs a knife for things such as cutting a seatbelt away in traffic accidents. But because of a zero tolerance policy at school, he’s arrested and thrown in jail for thirteen days because of a knife in his vest, in his EMT kit locked in his trunk. He’s kicked out of school. He’s in very serious danger of not being accepted by the Army and not permitted to be part of law enforcement nor firefighting due to this event.

Where is the zero tolerance policy of the American government when it comes to illegal immigration? Border security to protect our borders from terrorists slipping into this country amidst the illegal aliens? Where is the zero tolerance policy in attacking our Embassies?

America is being protected from Americans but Russians can move a ship to Cuba. America can listen in to conversations between grandmother and grandson but Iran can develop a nuclear weapon and take their own naval ships to outskirts of our waters off of our own coasts.

States first pass laws allowing medical marijuana and say it’s not a way to expand it to recreational use legally, and are now passing laws to legalize marijuana for all, which has more carcinogens than cigarettes, yet if you smoke cigarettes, you’re a pariah despite cigarettes having always been legal.

Does our government really need to be told that the real threat is from terrorists and terrorist countries and our common enemies? Or do they really think that Billy Bob walking to school along dirt country roads is the real danger?

Our government is more concerned with forcing us to buy into their useless health care than they are about taking care of our borders as is their requirement. They are more concerned that some Americans may not like them so they’ll prevent us from showing ID before we vote, but they’ll inspect grandmothers in wheelchairs, grandfathers with colostomy bags, and young children before they can get on an airplane.

Our elected officials will write laws telling us what our kids can be taught, that we have to pay for others people’s deviancy despite our own beliefs, how to live, what to eat, what doctors to see, and then decide if we’re worthy enough to be kept alive if we get too sick but they don’t stop attacks on our country.  

When election time rolls around, will we get rid of the politicians that are trying to run our lives and replace them with those that believe in the common sense of the people of this country, or will we keep our heads in the sand and tell ourselves that we like our guy so we’ll leave him/her in there?

It’s not big brother that is watching us. It’s our government that is monitoring more and more details of our private lives.

There used to be line that was used a lot which was “I love my country, but I fear my government.” Don’t you wish other countries feared us enough to not attempt to attack us?

The American government apparently believes that their biggest enemy is you and I. 

Your comments are welcome. 

Brett