Texans brace for Jade Helm 15, massive federal military exercise

In the sense that so many voluntary states with adaptable boundaries which are not tied to specific geographies will quickly out-compete the fixed array of previously existing ones, making their borders less enforceable and less relevant. Older forms of captive-audience government have been dependent upon being the only game in the area.

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our military has gone into many countries where people own large numbers of guns. guns aren’t enough though. it takes training, well-organized militias, and so on. people could make occupation painful – a low level insurgency – but really, the us is so isolated geographically, there’s little to worry about from outside.

in that respect, texas might have some basis to fear the military. in recent history that’s been unlikely because the military has drawn from all walks of life and from all regions in the country. that’s been changing, and a christianized military would be something to worry about down the road a bit.

currently, the biggest internal threat is right wing terrorism. and, something tells me they are the folks most interested in possessing absurd numbers of guns. these groups also happen to draw from conservative bastions like texas. so, when their crazy governor starts talking about the fearing military, they’re actually fanning the “be more scared” “buy more guns” flames.

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Providing actual examples at this point of such “voluntary states” that have any such revolutionary viability will help to make you seem somewhat sane. If that even interests you…

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cascadia now! cascadia forever! :evergreen_tree: :wink:

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Meh. They clearly lack enough firepower. :smirk:

No, there does not seem to be any reason for it to become about me. The point of different forms of government seems to have nothing to do with how an individual is perceived as a person.

You’ve become boringly predictable. I knew you would refuse descent to the realm of the tangible and concrete. :sleeping:

It was your choice to pursue a line of enquiry which you did not expect to be profitable.

I said within about fifteen years. If I meant now, I would have said now.

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As I said:

Providing actual examples at this point of such “voluntary states” that have any such revolutionary viability will help to make you seem somewhat sane. If that even interests you…

Pfft, all the conservatives getting worked up thinking it’s going to be some kind of fascist occupation. Like they’ve never considered the fact that we could simulate a full-scale conventional war out in their thousands upon thousands of square miles of empty barren desert wasteland and nobody’d be inconvenienced, or likely even notice, except the odd lizard and coyote.

There’s a reason we did our nuclear testing in that vast litterbox, and it wasn’t because it has easy access to resources or commerce.

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That the practical benefit of examples would be to affect how I am perceived already indicates an unproductive conversation.

OTOH you could always try to sell me on why you think it might be sane to keep running huge fake governments which claim to “just happen” to be able to represent the interests of a few hundred million different people, and maybe I’ll change my mind. But if you find playing “point the finger” more interesting, knock yourself out.

Texas is already a fascist occupation. What’s the difference?

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It’s not about showing Democrats anything. It’s about showing each other how macho they can be. It’s super simple tribalistic head-banging and chest-beating. Like fraternity chants and chugging beers and crushing the cup on your head. It’s at that level, perhaps a few levels below it.

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I’m thinking that if a Republican was sitting in the White House there wouldn’t be all this fuss and they’d be just fine with it. But since we have a Kenyan socialist Muslim president the people are getting a little edgy.

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I am shocked that I’m the only one in this forum that is expressing serious concern over the fact that the military shouldn’t be given this level of leeway.

No, nothing nefarious is afoot. Yes, they should keep their exercises to the bases where we let them play with toys of war.

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At first the headline scanned to me as Jade Helms, 15 - like a girls name. Which led me to think there was an illegitimate daughter of some sort being covered. Which seems more likely than this being a massive federal gun gathering conspiracy.

Maybe they’re married? I feel like Texas is a loudmouth husband with a decent enough job not to leave him.

Look at that- huh!
I found some numbers here that seem to indicate that’s a relatively recent change (as of 2012 they were still pulling more than they gave…) but point taken none the less.

Mexico…We want our money back
Or we’ll trade you Texas for Baha
We’ll throw in San Diego if you really want to be a bitch about it.

Nonetheless, if the US military wants some degree of verisimilitude in their training exercises, they need to do some of them in cities.

I hear Greece is hard up. Maybe they’d rent us a few of theirs.

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That’s what the Bush administration said about Sunni militias.

In reality, occupying territory means deploying infantry (a bunch of schmucks with rifles), and that’s expensive, difficult, and dangerous when a lot of the locals are armed.