[Quincy Lehr]

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/09/jade...ear-mongering/

[Julie Steiner]

Like the author of this L.A. Times opinion piece back in May, I'm a little less hasty to entirely dismiss concerns about Jade Helm 15. I liked this paragraph of said opinion piece:

One Bastrop [Texas] man opposed to Jade Helm told the Austin American-Statesman he was worried that people would get used to “the appearance of uniformed troops and the militarization of the police.” He went on to offer some more dubious arguments, but that first comment contained a valid point.

We live at a time when the Pentagon distributes surplus military equipment to small-town police forces; when cops present themselves to the public as soldiers fighting a war; when officials respond to unrest in Ferguson and Baltimore with curfews and other illiberal, heavy-handed tactics. It's not crazy to complain about militarization. The conspiratorial version of the complaint literalizes it: A genuine shift in how people are policed becomes a plot to impose martial rule.

(Bolding mine)

So, yeah, like all conspiracy theories, the Jade Helm one takes a disturbing reality and blows it up into a terrifying fantasy. But the underlying reality is still disturbing, and shouldn't get laughed off with the other ridiculousness.

[W.F. Lantry]

Darn. And here I was, hoping for a nice federal takeover! I was looking forward to those death domes!





.

You gotta admit, they look kind of cool. And they come in two colors!

Best,

Bill

[Andrew Frisardi]

Looks like Obama's Kenyan Muslim Socialist Gulag-in-Texas Army is out of work.

[Michael Cantor]

Julie, the conspiracy morons who carry on about Jade Helm are by and large the same ones who get tumescent with joy at the sight of their local police force bristling with military gear. The ones who are terrified by the militarization of the police are not concerned about the army's military training. There is no "underlying reality". Just jerks.

[Julie Steiner]

Well, what do you expect, Michael--I live in an Insurgent Pocket on the Jade Helm 15 map.

Seriously, though, I think you are overlooking the rural/urban dynamic, which often aligns closely with racial demographics. The Jade Helm conspiracists may be fine with the militarization of inner-city police forces, to help keep Drug Dealers and Other Criminals (i.e., black and brown stereotypes) under control. But believe me, they're not so keen on their own local (i.e., suburban and rural) police being able to outgun Hardworking, Decent Americans (i.e., white folks like themselves, and the black and brown people they know personally).

Which, I admit, doesn't exactly demolish your argument that they're just jerks.