{"id":15969,"date":"2016-01-04T20:42:17","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T01:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=15969"},"modified":"2016-01-04T20:42:17","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T01:42:17","slug":"playing-the-governments-game-when-it-comes-to-violence-we-all-lose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=15969","title":{"rendered":"Playing the Government\u2019s Game: When It Comes to Violence, We All Lose"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playing the Government\u2019s Game: When It Comes to Violence, We All Lose<\/a><\/h3>\n
By John Whitehead, constitutional and civil rights attorney, the\u00a0Rutherford Institute<\/a>.<\/em><\/div>\n
\n

\u201cWhen it gets down to having to use violence, then\u00a0you are playing the system\u2019s game<\/a>. The establishment will irritate you \u2013 pull your beard, flick your face \u2013 to make you fight. Because once they\u2019ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don\u2019t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.\u201d\u2014John Lennon<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, the\u00a0government is corrupt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yes, the system is broken. By broken, I mean it\u2019s \u201cdysfunctional, gridlocked<\/a>, and, in general, incapable of doing what needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, the government is\u00a0out of control and overreaching<\/a>\u00a0on almost every front.<\/p>\n

Yes, the government\u2019s excesses\u2014pork barrel spending<\/a>, endless wars, etc.\u2014are pushing the nation to a breaking point.<\/p>\n

Yes, many Americans are afraid. Who wouldn\u2019t be\u00a0afraid of an increasingly violent and oppressive federal government<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Yes, the citizenry has little protection against standing armies (domestic and military), invasive surveillance, marauding SWAT teams, an overwhelming government arsenal of assault vehicles and firepower, and a barrage of laws that criminalize everything from vegetable gardens to lemonade stands.<\/p>\n

Yes, in the eyes of the American surveillance state, \u201cwe the people\u201d are little more than suspects and criminals to be monitored, policed, prosecuted and imprisoned. As former law professor John Baker, who has studied the growing problem of overcriminalization, noted, \u201cThere is\u00a0no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime<\/a>.\u201d
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, the United States of America is not the democracy that is purports to be, but rather\u00a0an oligarchy ruled by a wealthy corporate elite<\/a>.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Playing the Government\u2019s Game: When It Comes to Violence, We All Lose By John Whitehead, constitutional and civil rights attorney, the\u00a0Rutherford Institute. \u201cWhen it gets down to having to use violence, then\u00a0you are playing the system\u2019s game. The establishment will irritate you \u2013 pull your beard, flick your face \u2013 to make you fight. Because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11439,1769,204,6420,1092,11440,5723,4622,827,854,862],"class_list":["post-15969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-corporate-elite","tag-corruption","tag-democracy","tag-john-whitehead","tag-oligarchy","tag-overreach","tag-rutherford-institute","tag-surveillance-state","tag-united-states","tag-violence","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15970,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15969\/revisions\/15970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}