thewakingtimes--2020-08-27--A Shamanic and Spiritual Perspective on Confusion and Truth

A Shamanic and Spiritual Perspective on Confusion and Truth Get the latest Waking Times articles delivered to your inbox .
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Talking with friends , family and people whenever I can recently , I ’ ve noticed a common sentiment .
In fact , it ’ s so common , that nearly everyone I speak to first mentions it in some way when you start up a conversation about the crazy state of the world .
People are confused .
They don ’ t know what to believe , and they don ’ t know who they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know what ’ s real , what ’ s fake , or what ’ s really fake , or what ’ s a deep fake .
Stuff they think is true is being de-bunked by people they thought they could trust , and people they thought they could trust are obviously not telling the truth .
We ’ re lost in the greatest Truth Gap of all time , and the result is widespread confusion .
In a conversation about the nature of the Cosmos , the Buddha was once asked about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : In his reply , the Buddha explains the consequence of confusion : We ’ re in that thicket of views right now , and given that our society has organized itself around media and information , it ’ s rather startling to acknowledge just how much confusion we ’ re swimming in .
The noise is louder than ever now , plus , we ’ re in a state of war , and truth is the first casualty of war .
It ’ s been a spiritual war for a very long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a culture war , then an information war , and is now fully manifesting as a civil war .
Things aren ’ t looking good .
READ : A Traditional African Shaman Explains Why Pills Can Never Cure Depression or PTSD With everything going on today , whether it ’ s masks , or the election , or civil unrest , we have players on all sides contributing to the confusion and asking you to buy their branded story of events .
But , to buy it means to believe in it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your perception of the world .
Belief is the arch enemy of truth .
As human beings we are endowed with the faculties to determine truth , however , doing so requires synergy with the body , and we ’ re all totally stuck in our heads these days , locked down , and trying to process the world with only the mind .
I found a relevant passage in an article that talks about Ghandi ’ s view of confusion .
“ I love what Gandhi had to share about confusion .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ thing as confusion .
Gandhi believed confusion was not feeling which emotion we were feeling in the moment… Breathe deeply and feel what is authentic for you about the situation .
Perhaps your confusion comes from getting too much data from others ?
The reason we “ allow ” ourselves to be influenced by others which can create a gulf between our mind and body , mind and reality , mind and our very heart comes from old imprinted fears , in the form of subtle messages we received long ago .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spoken , while others are merely implied .
For example , you might have been told , “ That doesn ’ t hurt , ” when you were crying over a skinned knee , or , “ You ’ re not hot , ” when you took off your sweater on a warm day .
These seemingly innocuous messages come from parents , teachers , or perhaps the school nurse—people whose authority you do not question before a certain developmental stage .
Outer authority soon overrides inner authority and you become conditioned to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we think of as ‘ confusion . '
” ~Steve Sisgold Confusion is the result of being out of touch with feeling , and without integration of the body and its senses , we tend to defer to outer authority figures .
Which is what we see happening all around us .
Understanding is a sensual process , however , not just a mental process , and it gets clouded when we are not fully present to what we are feeling physically and emotionally , and when we are unaware of how such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mikala talks about the difference between perceiving and understanding , and how the eyes and ears contribute to our picture of reality .
“ The six senses… Who is using all of their six senses ?
You are human , why are you not using all of your six senses ?
That ’ s why you ’ re in trouble .
They only work for us in the present .
That ’ s it .
Not the past , not the future , just the present .
Your eyes .
What do your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you see around you .
All of our senses are really big and each of them has a role to play .
You ears .
What do your ears represent ?
It represents your understanding .
Because there is a difference between listening and understanding .
Listening and understanding are totally different .
The human has eyes and a brain .
We have a third eye , all of us we are born with it .
People spend years trying to learn how to open up their third eye .
There ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how do we get messed up in the mind , then ?
There ’ s two big eyes that mess you up everyday .
Two .
With your eyes and your ears , your eyes will always represent your perceptions , and your ears your understanding .
But whatever it is that the eyes will see does not bring you back to the previous guy here ( points at head/brain ) .
Whatever your ears will let in , your understanding will bring it here ( points to head/brain ) , which makes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what makes the fear go knock on the door .
Now , it can change your life overnight by just starting to change your perception , the way you perceive things , the way you perceive even the world today.
” ~Moughenda Mikala This happens all the time .
For example , when crash investigators look at footage of a crash from many different angles , they perceive the crash in different ways .
In order to understand what really happened , though , they need to speak to the drivers , passengers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asleep , or have a medical condition ?
Was the driver drunk ?
Today , the problem is exacerbated because our perception of the world is so distorted by media .
Television , YouTube , articles , etc , and most of this information flows to us through our eyes .
Even the video content we consume is only a one-way form of communication .
We listen to this content , which is a different process than understanding it .
The digital formats do not help to facilitate deep , visceral understanding , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ body is in a sedative state and the mind in a hypnotic state .
We perceive much , but understand little .
With the body disengaged , the mind seeks support from belief .
The key message here is that we ’ re all being asked , or told , to believe in narratives about what ’ s happening in the world , without having a deep understanding of anything .
Truth is not a feeling , although , confusion and alignment are .
So , are you feeling confused these days , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What is your truth ?
Dylan Charles is the editor of Waking Times and host of Battered Souls : A Podcast About Transformation , both dedicated to ideas of personal transformation , societal awakening , and planetary renewal .
His personal journey is deeply inspired by shamanic plant medicines and the arts of Kung Fu , Qi Gong and Yoga .
After seven years of living in Costa Rica , he now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains , where he practices Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and enjoys spending time with family .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and inspiring millions of people around the world .
This article ( A Shamanic and Spiritual Perspective on Confusion and Truth ) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Dylan Charles and WakingTimes.com .
It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution , author bio , and this copyright statement .

A Shamanic and Spiritual Perspective on Confusion and Truth
Dylan Charles, Editor
Waking Times
Talking with friends, family and people whenever I can recently, I’ve noticed a common sentiment. In fact, it’s so common, that nearly everyone I speak to first mentions it in some way when you start up a conversation about the crazy state of the world.
People are confused. They don’t know what to believe, and they don’t know who they can trust. They don’t know what’s real, what’s fake, or what’s really fake, or what’s a deep fake. Stuff they think is true is being de-bunked by people they thought they could trust, and people they thought they could trust are obviously not telling the truth.
We’re lost in the greatest Truth Gap of all time, and the result is widespread confusion.
In a conversation about the nature of the Cosmos, the Buddha was once asked about the paradox of trying to understand the eternal:
“How is it, Master Gotama, when Master Gotama is asked if the monk reappears… does not reappear… both does and does not reappear… neither does nor does not reappear, he says, ‘…doesn’t apply’ in each case. At this point, Master Gotama, I am befuddled; at this point, confused.” ~Aggi Vacchagotta Sutta
In his reply, the Buddha explains the consequence of confusion:
“…a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. It is accompanied by suffering, distress, despair, and fever, and it does not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation’ to calm, direct knowledge, full Awakening, Unbinding.” ~ Aggi Vacchagotta Sutta
We’re in that thicket of views right now, and given that our society has organized itself around media and information, it’s rather startling to acknowledge just how much confusion we’re swimming in. The noise is louder than ever now, plus, we’re in a state of war, and truth is the first casualty of war. It’s been a spiritual war for a very long time, which then began to materialize as a culture war, then an information war, and is now fully manifesting as a civil war. Things aren’t looking good.
With everything going on today, whether it’s masks, or the election, or civil unrest, we have players on all sides contributing to the confusion and asking you to buy their branded story of events. But, to buy it means to believe in it, to allow their perception to shape your perception of the world. Belief is the arch enemy of truth.
As human beings we are endowed with the faculties to determine truth, however, doing so requires synergy with the body, and we’re all totally stuck in our heads these days, locked down, and trying to process the world with only the mind.
I found a relevant passage in an article that talks about Ghandi’s view of confusion.
“I love what Gandhi had to share about confusion. He said that there is no such thing as confusion. Gandhi believed confusion was not feeling which emotion we were feeling in the moment… Breathe deeply and feel what is authentic for you about the situation. Perhaps your confusion comes from getting too much data from others? The reason we “allow” ourselves to be influenced by others which can create a gulf between our mind and body, mind and reality, mind and our very heart comes from old imprinted fears, in the form of subtle messages we received long ago. We all receive these programs. Some are spoken, while others are merely implied. For example, you might have been told, “That doesn’t hurt,” when you were crying over a skinned knee, or, “You’re not hot,” when you took off your sweater on a warm day. These seemingly innocuous messages come from parents, teachers, or perhaps the school nurse—people whose authority you do not question before a certain developmental stage. Outer authority soon overrides inner authority and you become conditioned to doubt what your body knows or what we think of as ‘confusion.'” ~Steve Sisgold
Confusion is the result of being out of touch with feeling, and without integration of the body and its senses, we tend to defer to outer authority figures. Which is what we see happening all around us.
Understanding is a sensual process, however, not just a mental process, and it gets clouded when we are not fully present to what we are feeling physically and emotionally, and when we are unaware of how such feelings affect perception.
Bwiti Shaman Moughenda Mikala talks about the difference between perceiving and understanding, and how the eyes and ears contribute to our picture of reality.
“The six senses… Who is using all of their six senses? You are human, why are you not using all of your six senses? That’s why you’re in trouble. They only work for us in the present. That’s it. Not the past, not the future, just the present. Your eyes. What do your eyes represent? They represent perception… whatever you see around you. All of our senses are really big and each of them has a role to play. You ears. What do your ears represent? It represents your understanding. Because there is a difference between listening and understanding. Listening and understanding are totally different. The human has eyes and a brain. We have a third eye, all of us we are born with it. People spend years trying to learn how to open up their third eye. There’s no eyes in the brain, so how do we get messed up in the mind, then? There’s two big eyes that mess you up everyday. Two. With your eyes and your ears, your eyes will always represent your perceptions, and your ears your understanding. But whatever it is that the eyes will see does not bring you back to the previous guy here (points at head/brain). Whatever your ears will let in, your understanding will bring it here (points to head/brain), which makes your reality. And that’s what makes the fear go knock on the door. Now, it can change your life overnight by just starting to change your perception, the way you perceive things, the way you perceive even the world today.” ~Moughenda Mikala
This happens all the time. For example, when crash investigators look at footage of a crash from many different angles, they perceive the crash in different ways. In order to understand what really happened, though, they need to speak to the drivers, passengers, and witnesses. Did someone fall asleep, or have a medical condition? Was the driver drunk?
Today, the problem is exacerbated because our perception of the world is so distorted by media. Television, YouTube, articles, etc, and most of this information flows to us through our eyes. Even the video content we consume is only a one-way form of communication. We listen to this content, which is a different process than understanding it.
The digital formats do not help to facilitate deep, visceral understanding, and consuming media mostly happens when the body is in a sedative state and the mind in a hypnotic state. We perceive much, but understand little. With the body disengaged, the mind seeks support from belief.
The key message here is that we’re all being asked, or told, to believe in narratives about what’s happening in the world, without having a deep understanding of anything.
Truth is not a feeling, although, confusion and alignment are. So, are you feeling confused these days, or are you you feeling aligned? What is your truth?
Read more articles by Dylan Charles.
About the Author
Dylan Charles is the editor of Waking Times and host of Battered Souls: A Podcast About Transformation, both dedicated to ideas of personal transformation, societal awakening, and planetary renewal. His personal journey is deeply inspired by shamanic plant medicines and the arts of Kung Fu, Qi Gong and Yoga. After seven years of living in Costa Rica, he now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where he practices Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and enjoys spending time with family. He has written hundreds of articles, reaching and inspiring millions of people around the world.
This article (A Shamanic and Spiritual Perspective on Confusion and Truth) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Dylan Charles and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.


thewakingtimes--2020-08-27--After Hundreds of Thousands Rally Against Pandemic Measures, Berlin Bans Covid Protests

After Hundreds of Thousands Rally Against Pandemic Measures , Berlin Bans Covid Protests Get the latest Waking Times articles delivered to your inbox .
Sign up here .
Earlier this we reported on a major protest in Berlin against Covid-19 mandates , which many feel are infringing upon basic civil rights .
Mainstream media reports had the number of participants pegged at around 20,000 , while independent sources said the number was easily over one million , potentially up to 1.3 million .
Furthermore , the mainstream media news coverage of the event went out of the way to demonize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as ‘ far-right ’ extremists and such , effectively demonizing them .
Photos and first-hand accounts of the event show people from all walks of life , however , all coming together to end the lockdown , the Draconian mandates , and get back to work .
READ : Covering Up the Awakening – Massive Lockdown Protest in Berlin Downplayed and Demonized by MSM Several more protests have been planned , however , Berlin just decided to ban protests and events which speak out against the CV-19 measures .
“ In further developments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concert with Bryan Adams in Duesseldorf on Sept. 4 , while in Berlin authorities banned several protests planned for the weekend against coronavirus pandemic measures .
Officials said that those protesting would likely have breached rules on social distancing designed to stop the spread of the virus .
Germany has seen an upswing in new confirmed cases in recent weeks , and the government is considering whether to impose fresh restrictions again .
Authorities in the capital cited a rally against COVID-19 restrictions on Aug. 1 during which participants ignored mask-wearing and distancing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protest.
” [ Source ] Andreas Geisel , the Berlin interior senator commented on the banning of such protests , and is quoted by Reuters : About 20,000 people , including libertarians , constitutional loyalists , far-right supporters and anti-vaccination activists , marched in Berlin on Aug. 1 .
Geisel said the organisers of that protest had deliberately broken rules they had previously agreed with police , including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing .
“ Such behaviour is not acceptable .
The state can not be given the runaround , ” he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Berlin to be a stage for conspiracy theorists and right-wing extremists.
” [ Source ] Again , a leading politician suggests that being opposed to lockdowns and severe Covid measures is not only a political issue , but one only championed by ‘ extremists.
’ Such rhetoric is incredibly dangerous in a world that is sliding faster than ever into global tyranny .
Isaac Davis is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com .
He is an outspoken advocate of liberty and of a voluntary society .
He is an avid reader of history and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the control matrix .
Follow him on Facebook , here .
This article ( After Hundreds of Thousands Rally Against Pandemic Measures , Berlin Bans Covid Protests ) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Isaac Davis and WakingTimes.com .
It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution , author bio , and this copyright statement .
Like Waking Times on Facebook .
Follow Waking Times on Twitter .

After Hundreds of Thousands Rally Against Pandemic Measures, Berlin Bans Covid Protests
Isaac Davis, Staff Writer
Waking Times
Earlier this we reported on a major protest in Berlin against Covid-19 mandates, which many feel are infringing upon basic civil rights. Mainstream media reports had the number of participants pegged at around 20,000, while independent sources said the number was easily over one million, potentially up to 1.3 million.
Furthermore, the mainstream media news coverage of the event went out of the way to demonize and pigeon hole all of the participants as ‘far-right’ extremists and such, effectively demonizing them. Photos and first-hand accounts of the event show people from all walks of life, however, all coming together to end the lockdown, the Draconian mandates, and get back to work.
Several more protests have been planned, however, Berlin just decided to ban protests and events which speak out against the CV-19 measures.
“In further developments, organizers canceled plans for a large concert with Bryan Adams in Duesseldorf on Sept. 4, while in Berlin authorities banned several protests planned for the weekend against coronavirus pandemic measures. Officials said that those protesting would likely have breached rules on social distancing designed to stop the spread of the virus. Germany has seen an upswing in new confirmed cases in recent weeks, and the government is considering whether to impose fresh restrictions again. Authorities in the capital cited a rally against COVID-19 restrictions on Aug. 1 during which participants ignored mask-wearing and distancing rules and other conditions imposed on the protest.” [Source]
Andreas Geisel, the Berlin interior senator commented on the banning of such protests, and is quoted by Reuters:
About 20,000 people, including libertarians, constitutional loyalists, far-right supporters and anti-vaccination activists, marched in Berlin on Aug. 1.
Geisel said the organisers of that protest had deliberately broken rules they had previously agreed with police, including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.
“Such behaviour is not acceptable. The state cannot be given the runaround,” he said, adding he did not want Berlin to be a stage for conspiracy theorists and right-wing extremists.” [Source]
Again, a leading politician suggests that being opposed to lockdowns and severe Covid measures is not only a political issue, but one only championed by ‘extremists.’ Such rhetoric is incredibly dangerous in a world that is sliding faster than ever into global tyranny.
Read more articles from Isaac Davis .
About the Author
Isaac Davis is a staff writer for WakingTimes.com. He is an outspoken advocate of liberty and of a voluntary society. He is an avid reader of history and passionate about becoming self-sufficient to break free of the control matrix. Follow him on Facebook, here.
This article (After Hundreds of Thousands Rally Against Pandemic Measures, Berlin Bans Covid Protests ) was originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Isaac Davis and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.
Like Waking Times on Facebook. Follow Waking Times on Twitter.


thewakingtimes--2020-08-27--How Nations Collapse: Disunity

How Nations Collapse: Disunity

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They may just opt out of the whole insane charade and stop paying the mountains of debt and stop trying to prop up the deranging pretense of middle-class snobbery .
Though many blame Donald Trump for dividing the nation , the nation was already disunited .
Trump ’ s election simply added day-glo paint to the lines that had long been hardening between disunited , disaffected camps .
As I ’ ve explained over the years , disunity is the systemic source of collapse— not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enterprises and families .
In other words , disunity is scale invariant : it breaks down marriages , family fortunes , partnerships , corporations , nations and empires with the same dynamics .
When challenges arise–and challenges always arise–the unified family , enterprise , nation or empire can make the shared sacrifices necessary to meet the crisis head-on , and not just survive , but as befits an anti-fragile system ( as per Nassim Taleb ’ s definition of anti-fragility ) , become stronger as a result of adapting to the crisis .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ empire fragmented by profound disunity is incapable of not just shared sacrifices but of a shared consensus on how to proceed against challenges such as famine , pandemic and economic depression .
It is the nature of human existence that shared sacrifice is the glue that binds disparate individuals and groups into a unified and thus powerful entity .
In the early days of the Roman Republic and Empire , the wealthiest citizens were taxed heavily to raise the money needed to defend Rome or prosecute wars of conquest .
The patrician class @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and it was their duty to serve in the front lines , and in some cases ( such as the horrendous defeat at Cannae ) suffer higher combat death rates that common soldiers .
Profound disunity is characterized by the recognition that favored elites make no sacrifices , and this injustice consumes the binds of civil unity .
The elites benefit the most from the system , piling up enormous fortunes and great political power , while the disempowered masses make the sacrifices on the battlefield and pay the taxes .
This disunity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social , economic and cultural as the elites ’ wealth soars in direct correlation to their unwillingness to make any sacrifices for the common good .
Grasping for power via philanthro-capitalist foundations is not a sacrifice ; it ’ s just a PR spin on the same old elitist accumulation of self-serving influence .
Though the mechanics are obscured by the financial games of central banks and financiers , the commoners understand that the nation ’ s elites are parasitic and predatory , rigging the financial and political systems to benefit themselves at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ citizenry .
Though it ’ s convenient to divide America into two camps , anti-Trump and pro-Trump , these camps are each fragmented into disparate interests .
There is no middle ground in the nation and none within the various warring camps .
As the Federal Reserve gooses the stock market to new heights , America ’ s billionaires add hundreds of billions in additional wealth to their already obscene piles–piles largely untouched by taxes .
In America , sacrifice has long been something demanded of the commoners : they fight the wars @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do the work and they sacrifice their health in jobs that only further enrich the few who reap all the gains while sacrificing nothing .
While America ’ s spoiled , parasitic elites indulge in financial and sexual debauchery , fraud and embezzlement , the commoners grow weary of the widening divide in wealth , income , power , health and ethics .
America ’ s spoiled , parasitic elites are not just self-serving , greedy , and predatory ; they ’ re overconfident and hubris-soaked .
As for the commoners–they ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , fighting over social mores , political theater and all the frustrations of the powerless : embittered by the erosion of security and fairness and the indignities of slaving away for corporations that enrich the few while impoverishing the many , exhausted by the insecurities of chronic under-employment and the exploitations of the gig economy , the commoners may eventually find common cause in overthrowing their exploitive elites .
Or they may just opt out of the whole insane charade and stop paying the mountains of debt and stop trying to prop up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ favor of an honest , low-cost mode of living that dispenses with servitude to self-serving , greedy elites and their corporate-plantation technocrat overlords .
Asking this is like asking , could the Western Roman Empire fall ?
Yes , it could , yes it did .
Based on the nation ’ s multiple sources of profound disunity , collapse is only a matter of when , not if .
Charles Hugh Smith is a contributing editor to PeakProsperity.com and the proprietor of the popular blog OfTwoMinds.com .
He is the author of numerous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Apart : An Unconventional Guide To Investing In Troubled Times .
AxisOfEasy Salon # 18 : The Endgame of Financialization Resembles a Philip K. Dick Novel ( 58 min ) Audiobook edition now available : Will You Be Richer or Poorer ?
: Profit , Power , and AI in a Traumatized World ( $ 13 ) ( Kindle $ 6.95 , print $ 11.95 ) Read the first section for free ( PDF ) .
Pathfinding our Destiny : Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ( $ 6.95 ( Kindle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , $ 13.08 ( audiobook ) : Read the first section for free ( PDF ) .
The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher : The Disappearance of Drake $ 1.29 ( Kindle ) , $ 8.95 ( print ) ; read the first chapters for free ( PDF ) Money and Work Unchained $ 6.95 ( Kindle ) , $ 15 ( print ) Read the first section for free ( PDF ) .
If you found value in this content , please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $ 1/month @ @ @ @ @ @ @

How Nations Collapse: Disunity
Charles Hugh Smith, OfTwoMinds.com
Waking Times
They may just opt out of the whole insane charade and stop paying the mountains of debt and stop trying to prop up the deranging pretense of middle-class snobbery.
Though many blame Donald Trump for dividing the nation, the nation was already disunited. Trump’s election simply added day-glo paint to the lines that had long been hardening between disunited, disaffected camps.
As I’ve explained over the years, disunity is the systemic source of collapse— not just of nations and empires but of enterprises and families. In other words, disunity is scale invariant: it breaks down marriages, family fortunes, partnerships, corporations, nations and empires with the same dynamics.
When challenges arise–and challenges always arise–the unified family, enterprise, nation or empire can make the shared sacrifices necessary to meet the crisis head-on, and not just survive, but as befits an anti-fragile system (as per Nassim Taleb’s definition of anti-fragility), become stronger as a result of adapting to the crisis.
The family, enterprise, nation or empire fragmented by profound disunity is incapable of not just shared sacrifices but of a shared consensus on how to proceed against challenges such as famine, pandemic and economic depression.
It is the nature of human existence that shared sacrifice is the glue that binds disparate individuals and groups into a unified and thus powerful entity. In the early days of the Roman Republic and Empire, the wealthiest citizens were taxed heavily to raise the money needed to defend Rome or prosecute wars of conquest.
The patrician class served as officers in the army, and it was their duty to serve in the front lines, and in some cases (such as the horrendous defeat at Cannae) suffer higher combat death rates that common soldiers.
Profound disunity is characterized by the recognition that favored elites make no sacrifices, and this injustice consumes the binds of civil unity. The elites benefit the most from the system, piling up enormous fortunes and great political power, while the disempowered masses make the sacrifices on the battlefield and pay the taxes.
This disunity is not only political; it is social, economic and cultural as the elites’ wealth soars in direct correlation to their unwillingness to make any sacrifices for the common good.
Grasping for power via philanthro-capitalist foundations is not a sacrifice; it’s just a PR spin on the same old elitist accumulation of self-serving influence.
Though the mechanics are obscured by the financial games of central banks and financiers, the commoners understand that the nation’s elites are parasitic and predatory, rigging the financial and political systems to benefit themselves at the expense of the nation and its citizenry.
Though it’s convenient to divide America into two camps, anti-Trump and pro-Trump, these camps are each fragmented into disparate interests. There is no middle ground in the nation and none within the various warring camps.
As the Federal Reserve gooses the stock market to new heights, America’s billionaires add hundreds of billions in additional wealth to their already obscene piles–piles largely untouched by taxes. In America, sacrifice has long been something demanded of the commoners: they fight the wars, they pay the taxes, they do the work and they sacrifice their health in jobs that only further enrich the few who reap all the gains while sacrificing nothing.
While America’s spoiled, parasitic elites indulge in financial and sexual debauchery, fraud and embezzlement, the commoners grow weary of the widening divide in wealth, income, power, health and ethics. America’s spoiled, parasitic elites are not just self-serving, greedy, and predatory; they’re overconfident and hubris-soaked.
As for the commoners–they’ve been fragmented for decades into warring camps, fighting over social mores, political theater and all the frustrations of the powerless: embittered by the erosion of security and fairness and the indignities of slaving away for corporations that enrich the few while impoverishing the many, exhausted by the insecurities of chronic under-employment and the exploitations of the gig economy, the commoners may eventually find common cause in overthrowing their exploitive elites.
Or they may just opt out of the whole insane charade and stop paying the mountains of debt and stop trying to prop up the deranging pretense of middle-class snobbery in favor of an honest, low-cost mode of living that dispenses with servitude to self-serving, greedy elites and their corporate-plantation technocrat overlords.
Could America Have a French-Style Revolution? (July 14, 2020)
Asking this is like asking, could the Western Roman Empire fall? Yes, it could, yes it did. Based on the nation’s multiple sources of profound disunity, collapse is only a matter of when, not if.
About the Author
Charles Hugh Smith is a contributing editor to PeakProsperity.com and the proprietor of the popular blog OfTwoMinds.com. He is the author of numerous books, including Why Everything Is Falling Apart: An Unconventional Guide To Investing In Troubled Times.
Recent Podcasts:
AxisOfEasy Salon #18: The Endgame of Financialization Resembles a Philip K. Dick Novel (58 min)
My COVID-19 Pandemic Posts
My recent books:
Audiobook edition now available:
Will You Be Richer or Poorer?: Profit, Power, and AI in a Traumatized World ($13)
(Kindle $6.95, print $11.95) Read the first section for free (PDF).
Pathfinding our Destiny: Preventing the Final Fall of Our Democratic Republic ($6.95 (Kindle), $12 (print), $13.08 ( audiobook): Read the first section for free (PDF).
The Adventures of the Consulting Philosopher: The Disappearance of Drake $1.29 (Kindle), $8.95 (print); read the first chapters for free (PDF)
Money and Work Unchained $6.95 (Kindle), $15 (print) Read the first section for free (PDF).
If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com.


thewakingtimes--2020-08-27--Attack Of The Tomato Killers: The Police State’s War On Weed And Backyard Gardens

Attack Of The Tomato Killers : The Police State ’ s War On Weed And Backyard Gardens Get the latest Waking Times articles delivered to your inbox .
Sign up here .
Backyard gardeners , beware : tomato plants have become collateral damage in the government ’ s war on drugs , especially marijuana .
In fact , merely growing a vegetable garden on your own property , or in a greenhouse on your property , or shopping at a gardening store for gardening supplies—incredibly enough—could set you up for a drug raid sanctioned by the courts .
After shopping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ store , a Kansas family found themselves subjected to a SWAT team raid as part of a multi-state , annual campaign dubbed “ Operation Constant Gardener , ” in which police collected the license plates of hundreds of customers at the gardening store and then investigated them for possible marijuana possession .
By “ investigated , ” I mean that police searched through the family ’ s trash .
( You can thank the Supreme Court and their 1978 ruling in California v. Greenwood for allowing police to invade your trash can .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the garbage , the cops somehow managed to convince themselves—and a judge—that it was marijuana .
In fact , it was loose-leaf tea , but those pesky details don ’ t usually bother the cops when they ’ re conducting field tests .
Indeed , field tests routinely read positive for illegal drugs even when no drugs are present .
According to investigative journalist Radley Balko , “ it ’ s almost as if these tests come up positive whenever the police need them to .
A partial list of substances that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would include sage , chocolate chip cookies , motor oil , spearmint , soap , tortilla dough , deodorant , billiard ’ s chalk , patchouli , flour , eucalyptus , breath mints , Jolly Ranchers and vitamins.
” There ’ s a long list of innocent ingredients that could be mistaken for drugs and get you subjected to a raid , because that ’ s all it takes—just the barest whiff of a suspicion by police that you might be engaged in criminal activity—to start the ball rolling .
From there , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ usual script : judge issues a warrant for a SWAT raid based on botched data , cops raid the home and terrorize the family at gunpoint , cops find no drugs , family sues over a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights , and then the courts protect the cops and their botched raid on the basis of qualified immunity .
It happens all the time .
Surely , you might think , the government has enough on its hands right now—policing a novel coronavirus pandemic , instituting nationwide lockdowns , quelling civil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t need to waste time and resources ferreting out pot farmers .
This is a government that excels at make-work projects in which it assigns at-times unnecessary jobs to government agents to keep them busy or employed .
In this case , however , the make-work principle ( translation : making work to keep the police state busy at taxpayer expense ) is being used to justify sending police and expensive military helicopters likely equipped with sophisticated surveillance and thermal imaging devices on exploratory sorties every summer—again at taxpayer expense—in order to uncover @ @ @ @ @ @ @ however , what these air and ground searches end up targeting are backyard gardeners growing tomato plants .
Just recently , in fact , eyewitnesses in Virginia reported low-flying black helicopters buzzing over rural and suburban neighborhoods as part of a multi-agency operation to search for marijuana growers .
Oftentimes these joint operations involve local police , state police and the Army National Guard .
Back in 2013 , an aerial surveillance mission spotted what police thought might be marijuana plants .
Two days later , dozens of city officials , SWAT team @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and numerous official vehicles including dozens of police cars and several specialized vehicular equipment , including helicopters and unmanned flying drones , descended on The Garden of Eden , a 3.5-acre farm in Arlington , Texas , for a 10-hour raid in search of marijuana that turned up nothing more than tomato , blackberry and okra plants .
These aerial and ground sweeps have become regular occurrences across the country , part of the government ’ s multi-million dollar Domestic Cannabis Eradication Program .
Local cops refer to the annual military maneuvers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1979 as a way to fund local efforts to crack down on marijuana growers in California and Hawaii , the Eradication Program went national in 1985 , right around the time the Reagan Administration enabled the armed forces to get more involved in the domestic “ war on drugs.
” Writing for The Washington Post , Radley Balko describes how these raids started off , with the National Guard , spy planes and helicopters : The project was called the Campaign Against Marijuana Production , or CAMP… In all , thirteen California counties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them blaring Wagner ’ s “ Ride of the Valkyries ” as they dropped Guardsmen and law enforcement officers armed with automatic weapons , sandviks , and machetes into the fields of California … In CAMP ’ s first year , the program conducted 524 raids , arrested 128 people , and seized about 65,000 marijuana plants .
Operating costs ran at a little over $ 1.5 million .
The next year , 24 more sheriffs signed up for the program , for a total of 37 .
CAMP conducted 398 raids , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 218 arrests at a cost to taxpayers of $ 2.3 million .
The area ’ s larger growers had been put out of business ( or , probably more accurately , had set up shop somewhere else ) , so by the start of the second campaign in 1984 , CAMP officials were already targeting increasingly smaller growers .
By the end of that 1984 campaign , the helicopters had to fly at lower and lower altitudes to spot smaller batches of plants .
The noise , wind , and vibration from the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up dust clouds , and scare livestock .
The officials running the operation made no bones about the paramilitary tactics they were using .
They considered the areas they were raiding to be war zones .
In the interest of “ officer safety , ” they gave themselves permission to search any structures relatively close to a marijuana supply , without a warrant .
Anyone coming anywhere near a raid operation was subject to detainment , usually at gunpoint .
Right around the same time , in the mid-1980s , the federal government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ departments to assist with their local boots-on-the-ground “ war on drugs.
” These grants ( through the Byrne Grant program and COPS program , both of which started to be phased out under George W. Bush , only to be re-upped by Barack Obama ) could be used to pay for additional police personnel , equipment , training , technical assistance and information systems .
However , studies show that while these federal grants did not improve police effectiveness or drug deterrence , they did incentivize SWAT team raids .
But how do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drugs ” to SWAT-style raids on vegetable gardens ?
Connect the dots , starting with the government ’ s war on marijuana , the emergence of SWAT teams , the militarization of local police forces through the federal 1033 Program , which allows the Pentagon to transfer “ vast amounts of military equipment—machine guns and ammunition , helicopters , night-vision gear , armored cars—to local police departments , ” and the transformation of American communities into battlefields : as always , it comes back to the make work principle , which starts with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use of military equipment and federal funding .
Each year , the government spends between $ 14 and $ 18 million funding helicopter sweeps and police overtime to help the states track down illegal marijuana plants .
These sweeps are even being carried out in states where it ’ s now legal to grow marijuana .
The sweeps work like this : Local police , working with multiple state agencies including the National Guard , carry out ground and air searches of different sectors .
Air spotters flying overhead in helicopters relay their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who then carry out a search-and-destroy mission .
Mark my words : the use of police drones will make these kinds of aerial missions even more common .
There have been a few notable exceptions .
In 2015 , the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that surveillance from a low-flying helicopter conducting an aerial search for marijuana by state police and the national guard was illegal under the U.S. Constitution .
The court reasoned that “ when low-flying aerial activity leads to more than just observation and actually causes an unreasonable intrusion on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of wind , dust , broken objects , noise , and sheer panic—then at some point courts are c and require a warrant before law enforcement engages in such activity .
The Fourth Amendment and its prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures demands no less.
” In Philip Cobbs ’ case , helicopter spotters claimed to have seen two lone marijuana plants growing in the wreckage of a fallen oak tree on the Virginia native ’ s 39-acre family farm .
Cobbs noticed the black helicopter circling overhead while spraying the blueberry bushes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ helicopter for several moments , Cobbs went inside to check on his blind , deaf 90-year-old mother .
By the time he returned outside , several unmarked police SUVs had driven onto his property , and police ( ten in all ) in flak jackets , carrying semi-automatic weapons and shouting unintelligibly , had exited the vehicles and were moving toward him .
Of course , it was never about the two pot plants .
What the cops were really after was an excuse to search Cobbs ’ little greenhouse , which he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plants , cantaloupes , and watermelons , as well as asters and hollyhocks , which he planned to sell at a roadside stand near his home .
The search of the greenhouse turned up nothing more than used tomato seedling containers .
Nevertheless , police charged Cobbs with misdemeanor possession of marijuana for the two plants they claimed to have found .
Eventually , the charges were dismissed but not before The Rutherford Institute took up Cobbs ’ case , which revealed that police hadn ’ t even bothered to secure a warrant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ property—a raid that had to cost taxpayers upwards of $ 25,000 , at the very least—part of their routine sweep of the countryside in search of pot-growing operations .
Two plants or two hundred or no plants at all : it doesn ’ t matter .
A SWAT team targeted one South Carolina man for selling $ 50 worth of pot on two different occasions .
The Washington Post reports : The SWAT team “ broke down Betton ’ s door with a battering ram , then fired at least 57 bullets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He lost portions of his gallbladder , colon , bowel and rectum , and is paralyzed from the waist down .
He also suffered damage to his liver , lung , small intestine and pancreas .
Two of his vertebrae were damaged , and another was partially destroyed .
Another bullet shattered his leg.
” After security footage showed that most of what police said about the raid was a lie , the cops settled the case for $ 2.75 million .
Monetary awards like that are the exception , however .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ get away with murder and mayhem .
Literally .
Bottom line : no amount of marijuana is too insignificant if it allows police to qualify for federal grants and equipment and lay claim to seized assets ( there ’ s the profit motive ) under the guise of fighting the War on Drugs .
SWAT teams carry out more than 80,000 no-knock raids every year .
The vast majority of these raids are to serve routine drug warrants , many times for crimes no more serious than possession of marijuana .
Although growing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use and 9 out of 10 Americans favor the legalization of either medical or recreational/adult-use marijuana , the government ’ s profit-driven “ War on Drugs ” —waged with state and local police officers dressed in SWAT gear , armed to the hilt , and trained to act like soldiers on a battlefield , all thanks to funding provided by the U.S. government , particularly the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security ( DHS ) —has not abated .
Since the formation of the DHS post-9/11 , hundreds of billions of dollars in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for SWAT teams , giving rise to a “ police industrial complex ” that routinely devastates communities , terrorizes families , and destroys innocent lives .
No longer reserved exclusively for deadly situations , SWAT teams are now increasingly being deployed for relatively routine police matters , with some SWAT teams being sent out as much as five times a day .
Nationwide , SWAT teams have been employed to address an astonishingly trivial array of criminal activity or mere community nuisances : angry dogs , domestic disputes , improper paperwork filed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possession , to give a brief sampling .
Unfortunately , general incompetence , collateral damage ( fatalities , property damage , etc . )
and botched raids tend to go hand in hand with an overuse of paramilitary forces .
In some cases , officers misread the address on the warrant .
In others , they simply barge into the wrong house or even the wrong building .
In another subset of cases , police conduct a search of a building where the suspect no longer resides .
SWAT teams have even on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wrong addresses or executed search warrants despite the fact that the suspect is already in police custody .
Police have also raided homes on the basis of mistaking the presence or scent of legal substances for drugs .
Incredibly , these substances have included tomatoes , sunflowers , fish , elderberry bushes , kenaf plants , hibiscus , and ragweed .
All too often , the shock-and-awe tactics utilized by many SWAT teams only increases the likelihood that someone will get hurt with little consequences for law enforcement , even when the raids @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have resulted in the loss of countless lives , including children and the elderly .
Usually , however , the first to be shot are the family dogs .
SWAT raids are usually carried out late at night or shortly before dawn .
Unfortunately , to the unsuspecting homeowner—especially in cases involving mistaken identities or wrong addresses—a raid can appear to be nothing less than a violent home invasion , with armed intruders crashing through their door .
That ’ s exactly what happened to Jose Guerena , the young ex-Marine who was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the door of his Arizona home during a drug raid and opened fire .
According to news reports , Guerena , 26 years old and the father of two young children , grabbed a gun in response to the forced invasion but never fired .
In fact , the safety was still on his gun when he was killed .
Police officers were not as restrained .
The young Iraqi war veteran was allegedly fired upon 71 times .
Guerena had no prior criminal record , and the police found nothing illegal in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these situations are further compounded by the fact that SWAT teams are granted “ no-knock ” warrants at high rates such that the warrants themselves are rendered practically meaningless .
This sorry state of affairs is made even worse by U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have essentially done away with the need for a “ no-knock ” warrant altogether , giving the police authority to disregard the protections afforded American citizens by the Fourth Amendment .
Clearly , as I make clear in my book Battlefield America : The War on the American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ When the war on drugs—a.k.a .
the war on the American people—becomes little more than a thinly veiled attempt to keep SWAT teams employed and special interests appeased , it ’ s time to revisit our drug policies and laws .
“ Our family will never be the same , ” said Addie Harte , recalling the two-hour raid that had police invading their suburban home with a battering ram and AR-15 rifles .
As The Washington Post reports : It didn ’ t matter that no drugs were found—nothing but a hydroponic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The search and SWAT raid were reasonable , according to the courts .
There ’ s a lesson here for the rest of us .
As Bob Harte concluded : “ If this can happen to us , everybody in the country needs to be afraid.
” Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute , where this article ( Attack Of The Tomato Killers : The Police State ’ s War On Weed And Backyard Gardens ) was originally published .
He is the author @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Emerging American Police State and The Change Manifesto .

Attack Of The Tomato Killers: The Police State’s War On Weed And Backyard Gardens
John W. Whitehead, Rutherford
Waking Times
“They came again this morning at about 8:00 o’clock. A large cargo-type helicopter flew low over the cabin, shaking it on its very foundations. It shook all of us inside, too. I feel frightened … I see how helpless and tormented I am becoming with disgust and disillusionment with the government which has turned this beautiful country into a police state … I feel like I am in the middle of a war zone.”—Journal entry from a California resident describing the government’s aerial searches for marijuana plants
Backyard gardeners, beware: tomato plants have become collateral damage in the government’s war on drugs, especially marijuana.
In fact, merely growing a vegetable garden on your own property, or in a greenhouse on your property, or shopping at a gardening store for gardening supplies—incredibly enough—could set you up for a drug raid sanctioned by the courts.
It’s happened before.
After shopping for hydroponic tomatoes at their local gardening store, a Kansas family found themselves subjected to a SWAT team raid as part of a multi-state, annual campaign dubbed “Operation Constant Gardener,” in which police collected the license plates of hundreds of customers at the gardening store and then investigated them for possible marijuana possession.
By “investigated,” I mean that police searched through the family’s trash. (You can thank the Supreme Court and their 1978 ruling in California v. Greenwood for allowing police to invade your trash can.) Finding “wet glob vegetation” in the garbage, the cops somehow managed to convince themselves—and a judge—that it was marijuana.
In fact, it was loose-leaf tea, but those pesky details don’t usually bother the cops when they’re conducting field tests.
Indeed, field tests routinely read positive for illegal drugs even when no drugs are present. According to investigative journalist Radley Balko, “it’s almost as if these tests come up positive whenever the police need them to. A partial list of substances that the tests have mistaken for illegal drugs would include sage, chocolate chip cookies, motor oil, spearmint, soap, tortilla dough, deodorant, billiard’s chalk, patchouli, flour, eucalyptus, breath mints, Jolly Ranchers and vitamins.”
There’s a long list of innocent ingredients that could be mistaken for drugs and get you subjected to a raid, because that’s all it takes—just the barest whiff of a suspicion by police that you might be engaged in criminal activity—to start the ball rolling.
From there, these so-called “investigations” follow the usual script: judge issues a warrant for a SWAT raid based on botched data, cops raid the home and terrorize the family at gunpoint, cops find no drugs, family sues over a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights, and then the courts protect the cops and their botched raid on the basis of qualified immunity.
It happens all the time.
As Balko reports, “Police have broken down doors, screamed obscenities, and held innocent people at gunpoint only to discover that what they thought were marijuana plants were really sunflowers, hibiscus, ragweed, tomatoes, or elderberry bushes. (It’s happened with all five.)”
Surely, you might think, the government has enough on its hands right now—policing a novel coronavirus pandemic, instituting nationwide lockdowns, quelling civil unrests over police brutality—that it doesn’t need to waste time and resources ferreting out pot farmers.
You’d be wrong.
This is a government that excels at make-work projects in which it assigns at-times unnecessary jobs to government agents to keep them busy or employed.
In this case, however, the make-work principle (translation: making work to keep the police state busy at taxpayer expense) is being used to justify sending police and expensive military helicopters likely equipped with sophisticated surveillance and thermal imaging devices on exploratory sorties every summer—again at taxpayer expense—in order to uncover illegal marijuana growing operations.
Often, however, what these air and ground searches end up targeting are backyard gardeners growing tomato plants.
Just recently, in fact, eyewitnesses in Virginia reported low-flying black helicopters buzzing over rural and suburban neighborhoods as part of a multi-agency operation to search for marijuana growers. Oftentimes these joint operations involve local police, state police and the Army National Guard.
One woman reported having her “tomato plants complimented by the 7 cops that pulled up in my yard in unmarked SUVs, after a helicopter hovered over our house for 20 minutes this morning.” Another man reported a similar experience from a few years ago when police “showed up in unmarked SUV’s with guns pulled. Then the cops on the ground argued with the helicopter because the heat signature in the ‘copter didn’t match what was growing.”
Back in 2013, an aerial surveillance mission spotted what police thought might be marijuana plants. Two days later, dozens of city officials, SWAT team, police officers and code compliance employees, and numerous official vehicles including dozens of police cars and several specialized vehicular equipment, including helicopters and unmanned flying drones, descended on The Garden of Eden, a 3.5-acre farm in Arlington, Texas, for a 10-hour raid in search of marijuana that turned up nothing more than tomato, blackberry and okra plants.
These aerial and ground sweeps have become regular occurrences across the country, part of the government’s multi-million dollar Domestic Cannabis Eradication Program. Local cops refer to the annual military maneuvers as “Eradication Day.”
Started in 1979 as a way to fund local efforts to crack down on marijuana growers in California and Hawaii, the Eradication Program went national in 1985, right around the time the Reagan Administration enabled the armed forces to get more involved in the domestic “war on drugs.”
Writing for The Washington Post, Radley Balko describes how these raids started off, with the National Guard, spy planes and helicopters:
The project was called the Campaign Against Marijuana Production, or CAMP… In all, thirteen California counties were invaded by choppers, some of them blaring Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” as they dropped Guardsmen and law enforcement officers armed with automatic weapons, sandviks, and machetes into the fields of California … In CAMP’s first year, the program conducted 524 raids, arrested 128 people, and seized about 65,000 marijuana plants. Operating costs ran at a little over $1.5 million. The next year, 24 more sheriffs signed up for the program, for a total of 37. CAMP conducted 398 raids, seized nearly 160,000 plants, and made 218 arrests at a cost to taxpayers of $2.3 million. The area’s larger growers had been put out of business (or, probably more accurately, had set up shop somewhere else), so by the start of the second campaign in 1984, CAMP officials were already targeting increasingly smaller growers. By the end of that 1984 campaign, the helicopters had to fly at lower and lower altitudes to spot smaller batches of plants. The noise, wind, and vibration from the choppers could knock out windows, kick up dust clouds, and scare livestock. The officials running the operation made no bones about the paramilitary tactics they were using. They considered the areas they were raiding to be war zones. In the interest of “officer safety,” they gave themselves permission to search any structures relatively close to a marijuana supply, without a warrant. Anyone coming anywhere near a raid operation was subject to detainment, usually at gunpoint.
Right around the same time, in the mid-1980s, the federal government started handing out grants to local police departments to assist with their local boots-on-the-ground “war on drugs.” These grants (through the Byrne Grant program and COPS program, both of which started to be phased out under George W. Bush, only to be re-upped by Barack Obama) could be used to pay for additional police personnel, equipment, training, technical assistance and information systems. However, studies show that while these federal grants did not improve police effectiveness or drug deterrence, they did incentivize SWAT team raids.
But how do you go from a “war on drugs” to SWAT-style raids on vegetable gardens?
Connect the dots, starting with the government’s war on marijuana, the emergence of SWAT teams, the militarization of local police forces through the federal 1033 Program, which allows the Pentagon to transfer “vast amounts of military equipment—machine guns and ammunition, helicopters, night-vision gear, armored cars—to local police departments,” and the transformation of American communities into battlefields: as always, it comes back to the make work principle, which starts with local police finding ways to justify the use of military equipment and federal funding.
Each year, the government spends between $14 and $18 million funding helicopter sweeps and police overtime to help the states track down illegal marijuana plants. These sweeps are even being carried out in states where it’s now legal to grow marijuana.
The sweeps work like this: Local police, working with multiple state agencies including the National Guard, carry out ground and air searches of different sectors. Air spotters flying overhead in helicopters relay their findings to police on the ground, who then carry out a search-and-destroy mission.
Mark my words: the use of police drones will make these kinds of aerial missions even more common.
For the most part, aerial surveillance is legal. As Arthur Holland Michel writes for The Atlantic: “When it comes to law enforcement, police are likewise free to use aerial surveillance without a warrant or special permission. Under current privacy law, these operations are just as legal as policing practices whereby an officer spots unlawful activity while walking or driving through a neighborhood.”
There have been a few notable exceptions.
In 2015, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that surveillance from a low-flying helicopter conducting an aerial search for marijuana by state police and the national guard was illegal under the U.S. Constitution. The court reasoned that “when low-flying aerial activity leads to more than just observation and actually causes an unreasonable intrusion on the ground—most commonly from an unreasonable amount of wind, dust, broken objects, noise, and sheer panic—then at some point courts are c and require a warrant before law enforcement engages in such activity. The Fourth Amendment and its prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures demands no less.”
In Philip Cobbs’ case, helicopter spotters claimed to have seen two lone marijuana plants growing in the wreckage of a fallen oak tree on the Virginia native’s 39-acre family farm.
Cobbs noticed the black helicopter circling overhead while spraying the blueberry bushes near his house. After watching the helicopter for several moments, Cobbs went inside to check on his blind, deaf 90-year-old mother. By the time he returned outside, several unmarked police SUVs had driven onto his property, and police (ten in all) in flak jackets, carrying semi-automatic weapons and shouting unintelligibly, had exited the vehicles and were moving toward him.
Of course, it was never about the two pot plants.
What the cops were really after was an excuse to search Cobbs’ little greenhouse, which he had used that spring to start tomato plants, cantaloupes, and watermelons, as well as asters and hollyhocks, which he planned to sell at a roadside stand near his home. The search of the greenhouse turned up nothing more than used tomato seedling containers.
Nevertheless, police charged Cobbs with misdemeanor possession of marijuana for the two plants they claimed to have found. Eventually, the charges were dismissed but not before The Rutherford Institute took up Cobbs’ case, which revealed that police hadn’t even bothered to secure a warrant before embarking on their raid of Cobbs’ property—a raid that had to cost taxpayers upwards of $25,000, at the very least—part of their routine sweep of the countryside in search of pot-growing operations.
Two plants or two hundred or no plants at all: it doesn’t matter.
A SWAT team targeted one South Carolina man for selling $50 worth of pot on two different occasions. The Washington Post reports: The SWAT team “broke down Betton’s door with a battering ram, then fired at least 57 bullets at him, hitting him nine times. He lost portions of his gallbladder, colon, bowel and rectum, and is paralyzed from the waist down. He also suffered damage to his liver, lung, small intestine and pancreas. Two of his vertebrae were damaged, and another was partially destroyed. Another bullet shattered his leg.” After security footage showed that most of what police said about the raid was a lie, the cops settled the case for $2.75 million.
Monetary awards like that are the exception, however.
Most of the time, the cops get away with murder and mayhem. Literally.
Bottom line: no amount of marijuana is too insignificant if it allows police to qualify for federal grants and equipment and lay claim to seized assets (there’s the profit motive) under the guise of fighting the War on Drugs.
SWAT teams carry out more than 80,000 no-knock raids every year. The vast majority of these raids are to serve routine drug warrants, many times for crimes no more serious than possession of marijuana.
Although growing numbers of states continue to decriminalize marijuana use and 9 out of 10 Americans favor the legalization of either medical or recreational/adult-use marijuana, the government’s profit-driven “War on Drugs”—waged with state and local police officers dressed in SWAT gear, armed to the hilt, and trained to act like soldiers on a battlefield, all thanks to funding provided by the U.S. government, particularly the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—has not abated.
Since the formation of the DHS post-9/11, hundreds of billions of dollars in grants have flowed to local police departments for SWAT teams, giving rise to a “police industrial complex” that routinely devastates communities, terrorizes families, and destroys innocent lives.
No longer reserved exclusively for deadly situations, SWAT teams are now increasingly being deployed for relatively routine police matters, with some SWAT teams being sent out as much as five times a day. Nationwide, SWAT teams have been employed to address an astonishingly trivial array of criminal activity or mere community nuisances: angry dogs, domestic disputes, improper paperwork filed by an orchid farmer, and misdemeanor marijuana possession, to give a brief sampling.
Unfortunately, general incompetence, collateral damage (fatalities, property damage, etc.) and botched raids tend to go hand in hand with an overuse of paramilitary forces.
In some cases, officers misread the address on the warrant. In others, they simply barge into the wrong house or even the wrong building. In another subset of cases, police conduct a search of a building where the suspect no longer resides.
SWAT teams have even on occasion conducted multiple, sequential raids on wrong addresses or executed search warrants despite the fact that the suspect is already in police custody. Police have also raided homes on the basis of mistaking the presence or scent of legal substances for drugs. Incredibly, these substances have included tomatoes, sunflowers, fish, elderberry bushes, kenaf plants, hibiscus, and ragweed.
All too often, the shock-and-awe tactics utilized by many SWAT teams only increases the likelihood that someone will get hurt with little consequences for law enforcement, even when the raids are botched.
Botched SWAT team raids have resulted in the loss of countless lives, including children and the elderly. Usually, however, the first to be shot are the family dogs.
SWAT raids are usually carried out late at night or shortly before dawn. Unfortunately, to the unsuspecting homeowner—especially in cases involving mistaken identities or wrong addresses—a raid can appear to be nothing less than a violent home invasion, with armed intruders crashing through their door.
That’s exactly what happened to Jose Guerena, the young ex-Marine who was killed after a SWAT team kicked open the door of his Arizona home during a drug raid and opened fire. According to news reports, Guerena, 26 years old and the father of two young children, grabbed a gun in response to the forced invasion but never fired. In fact, the safety was still on his gun when he was killed. Police officers were not as restrained. The young Iraqi war veteran was allegedly fired upon 71 times. Guerena had no prior criminal record, and the police found nothing illegal in his home.
The problems inherent in these situations are further compounded by the fact that SWAT teams are granted “no-knock” warrants at high rates such that the warrants themselves are rendered practically meaningless.
This sorry state of affairs is made even worse by U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have essentially done away with the need for a “no-knock” warrant altogether, giving the police authority to disregard the protections afforded American citizens by the Fourth Amendment.
Clearly, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, something must be done.
When the war on drugs—a.k.a. the war on the American people—becomes little more than a thinly veiled attempt to keep SWAT teams employed and special interests appeased, it’s time to revisit our drug policies and laws.
“You take the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, all the rights you expect to have—when they come in like that, the only right you have is not to get shot if you cooperate. They open that door, your life is on the line,” concluded Bob Harte, whose home was raided by a SWAT team simply because the family was seen shopping at a garden store, cops found loose tea in the family’s trash and mistook it for marijuana.
“Our family will never be the same,” said Addie Harte, recalling the two-hour raid that had police invading their suburban home with a battering ram and AR-15 rifles. As The Washington Post reports:
Bob found himself flat on floor, hands behind his head, his eyes locked on the boots of the officer standing over him with an AR-15 assault rifle. “Are there kids?” the officers were yelling. “Where are the kids?” “And I’m laying there staring at this guy’s boots fearing for my kids’ lives, trying to tell them where my children are,” Harte recalled later in a deposition on July 9, 2015. “They are sending these guys with their guns drawn running upstairs to bust into my children’s house, bedroom, wake them out of bed.”
It didn’t matter that no drugs were found—nothing but a hydroponic tomato garden and loose tea leaves. The search and SWAT raid were reasonable, according to the courts.
There’s a lesson here for the rest of us. As Bob Harte concluded: “If this can happen to us, everybody in the country needs to be afraid.”
About the Author
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute, where this article (Attack Of The Tomato Killers: The Police State’s War On Weed And Backyard Gardens) was originally published. He is the author of A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State and The Change Manifesto.


thewakingtimes--2020-08-27--Ancient 2,000-Year-Old Redwoods Feared Destroyed In California Wildfires Have Survived

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When terrifying wildfires ripped through Big Basin Redwoods State Park , one of California ’ s oldest and most cherished nature reserves , it wasn ’ t the campgrounds , nature center and other structures that people were mourning .
Instead , wildlife lovers and conservationists were heartbroken and devastated that old-growth redwoods , some as old as 2,000 years old , had been destroyed .
However , it turns out that even the thousands of lightning strikes and staggeringly massive forest fires that laid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unable to destroy some of the oldest and tallest living things on Earth .
“ We are devastated to report that Big Basin , as we have known it , loved it , and cherished it for generations , is gone , ” the redwood conservationists at Sempervirens Fund said in a painful statement on Thursday .
“ Early reports are that the wildfire has consumed much of the park ’ s historic facilities .
We do not yet know the fate of the park ’ s grandest old trees.
” However , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discover that most of the ancient redwoods feared to have been annihilated by the blaze have been scorched but are still standing tall – including the towering redwood named “ Mother of the Forest ” which once stood at 329 feet high prior to a recent storm and has a mighty circumference of 70 feet on the ground .
Forest fires are a natural and regularly-occuring feature of redwood forests , and the bark of redwood trees is extremely fire-resistant – but the tragic announcements that the park had been wiped off the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turned out to be misleading .
California ’ s venerable Big Basin state park , “ home to the largest continuous stand of ancient coast redwoods south of San Francisco , ” was founded in 1902 and receives a quarter of a million visitors each year .
And while the 18,000-acre park is surely reeling after sustaining massive damage from the raging inferno that tore through it , the park ’ s infrastructure can certainly be rebuilt .
Indeed , redwood trees are extremely durable – which is why many of them have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ founding of the Roman Empire .
And Big Basin ’ s redwoods bear the scars of wildfires , windstorm , and lightning strikes of centuries past .
It ’ s part of the majestic redwood forest ’ s natural process : when trees are seemingly destroyed , new trunks simply sprout up in place of the old growth .
Meanwhile , fallen trees become nurse trees upon which new redwoods grow , while banana slugs and insects crucial to the ancient forest ’ s ecological balance are sustained under the logs .
Following @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Steller ’ s jays and woodpeckers returned to the park to scour the forest for insects .
The park had been closed during the COVID-19 lockdown and had only recently reopened following the state ’ s relaxation of the quarantine .
However , the park is now facing indefinite closure , with fallen trees blocking roads , and buildings including the nature museum , ranger ’ s office , campground bathrooms , and historic park headquarters being utterly wiped out .
Several large trees are still burning .
But once the campgrounds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and damaged oaks , firs and madrones are rehabilitated , the park will likely flourish in due time .

Ancient 2,000-Year-Old Redwoods Feared Destroyed In California Wildfires Have Survived
Elias Marat, The Mind Unleashed
Waking Times
When terrifying wildfires ripped through Big Basin Redwoods State Park, one of California’s oldest and most cherished nature reserves, it wasn’t the campgrounds, nature center and other structures that people were mourning.
Instead, wildlife lovers and conservationists were heartbroken and devastated that old-growth redwoods, some as old as 2,000 years old, had been destroyed.
However, it turns out that even the thousands of lightning strikes and staggeringly massive forest fires that laid waste to the Santa Cruz Mountains were unable to destroy some of the oldest and tallest living things on Earth.
“We are devastated to report that Big Basin, as we have known it, loved it, and cherished it for generations, is gone,” the redwood conservationists at Sempervirens Fund said in a painful statement on Thursday. “Early reports are that the wildfire has consumed much of the park’s historic facilities. We do not yet know the fate of the park’s grandest old trees.”
We are devastated to report that Big Basin State Park, as we have known it, loved it, and cherished it for generations, is gone. Here’s what we know right now –https://t.co/EY1jBw78wj #CZULightningComplex #CaliforniaFire #BigBasin #BigBasinMemories — Sempervirens Fund (@SempervirensFnd) August 20, 2020
However, an Associated Press reporter was happy to discover that most of the ancient redwoods feared to have been annihilated by the blaze have been scorched but are still standing tall – including the towering redwood named “Mother of the Forest” which once stood at 329 feet high prior to a recent storm and has a mighty circumference of 70 feet on the ground.
“That is such good news, I can’t tell you how much that gives me peace of mind,” Sempervirens conservation director Laura McLendon told AP.
Forest fires are a natural and regularly-occuring feature of redwood forests, and the bark of redwood trees is extremely fire-resistant – but the tragic announcements that the park had been wiped off the face of the Earth by the fires turned out to be misleading.
California’s venerable Big Basin state park, “home to the largest continuous stand of ancient coast redwoods south of San Francisco,” was founded in 1902 and receives a quarter of a million visitors each year. And while the 18,000-acre park is surely reeling after sustaining massive damage from the raging inferno that tore through it, the park’s infrastructure can certainly be rebuilt.
Some of the scenes from Big Basin State Park. The parks headquarters and visitors center was burned to the ground during the recent blazes that have ravaged the region. #CZULightningComplexFire #BigBasin @mercnews https://t.co/AjS8nRFSXi pic.twitter.com/uY930A0mDI — Randy Vazquez (@RandyVMedia) August 21, 2020
“But the forest is not gone … it will regrow,” McLendon said.
Indeed, redwood trees are extremely durable – which is why many of them have histories that date back to before the founding of the Roman Empire. And Big Basin’s redwoods bear the scars of wildfires, windstorm, and lightning strikes of centuries past.
“Every old growth redwood I’ve ever seen, in Big Basin and other parks, has fire scars on them,” McLendon said. “They’ve been through multiple fires, possibly worse than this.”
It’s part of the majestic redwood forest’s natural process: when trees are seemingly destroyed, new trunks simply sprout up in place of the old growth. Meanwhile, fallen trees become nurse trees upon which new redwoods grow, while banana slugs and insects crucial to the ancient forest’s ecological balance are sustained under the logs.
A lot of trees seemed to have endured the blaze and are still standing near the parks headquarters#BigBasin #CZULightningComplexFire pic.twitter.com/hTo9YfJQMh — Randy Vazquez (@RandyVMedia) August 21, 2020
“The reason those trees are so old is because they are really resilient,” said State Parks District Superintendent Chris Spohrer.
Following the fire that ripped through the park, Steller’s jays and woodpeckers returned to the park to scour the forest for insects.
The park had been closed during the COVID-19 lockdown and had only recently reopened following the state’s relaxation of the quarantine. However, the park is now facing indefinite closure, with fallen trees blocking roads, and buildings including the nature museum, ranger’s office, campground bathrooms, and historic park headquarters being utterly wiped out. Several large trees are still burning.
A cabin off Little Basin Road and 236 is engulfed by flames.#CZULightningComplexFire #wildfires pic.twitter.com/X68phMyD2S — Randy Vazquez (@RandyVMedia) August 21, 2020
“The historic structures in California’s first state park are almost completely destroyed. It’s awful,” said Sam Hodder, the president of Save the Redwoods League, an environmentalist organization based in San Francisco that was founded in 1918. “We are grateful that everybody got out and everybody is safe. That’s the most important thing,” Hodder said. “To have lost something that has been transforming people’s lives for more than 110 years, such an iconic place, such a terrific example of what parks mean to communities, it’s heartbreaking.”
But once the campgrounds are rebuilt, trails are cleared, and damaged oaks, firs and madrones are rehabilitated, the park will likely flourish in due time.
“The forest, in some ways, is resetting,” McLendon said.
By Elias Marat | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com