MARTIAL LAW - EXPECTED CONSEQUENCES

Submitted by: Lady Byrd

This is possible !! The big cities could be a huge mess !!.. 

Eight things to expect under martial law:

“People, you know, if it continues, we're going to start to see civil unrest in this country. I hate to say that, but I think it's imminently possible.”
James Carville, Democratic Party consultant and campaign manager, at Fox Business 

Supported by a Supreme Court that has unequivocally demonstrated a willingness to ignore or sign off on egregious tramplings of the Constitution, the stage is set for the U.S. government to evolve into something far more dangerous on the domestic front. 
David Galland, Police State Amerika, at Casey Research 

Societal collapse and, as the faux-genteel put it, civil unrest scenarios are sure to include martial law. When the Department of Education places an order for police-style shotguns, when they mount—and botch—armed home invasionsfor what used to be routine process serving, when even the Railroad Retirement Board and the Small Business Administration are carrying, the citizen can be excused for thinking the entirety of government is this close to going Soviet. But don't look for a declaration of martial law, in the US the term for martial law is state of emergency. A state of emergency was declared during Katrina for instance, by the city of New Orleans and by Louisiana with federal assistance from FEMA. It was, in addition to being de facto martial law, a series of pathetic pratfalls which added to the suffering and death.

A "National State of Emergency" is national martial law plain and simple, other than in name. We were in a national state of emergency from 1939 to 1945 for World War II and from 1950 to 1978 for the Cold War. We are now in a national state of emergency and have been since September 2001. It's administered discreetly and with softened edges, but martial law it is. It's been made largely unobtrusive but forbearance is always at their pleasure, not ours. When the federal government declares a national state of emergency the lead agency is the Department of Homeland Security, under the direction of the Commander In Chief. It's why the TSA can grope you and your kids with impunity, it's why local police have been equipped with combat gear and armored vehicles and fill-in-the-blank search warrants, it's why the armed forces train for urban warfare and nation-building rather than to defeat other armies or repel invasion.

As extensive as the DHS's resources are, one component is notably shy about its presence: the military. Occasionally they've made cameo appearances, in New Orleans for instance, where federal troops conducted door-to-door home invasions to disarm the citizenry, a betrayal of their countrymen and of their oath to defend the Constitution* but not the full-on military occupation favored in movies and doomer novels. The Insurrection Act of 1807 really puts the martial in martial law.

The Insurrection Act remains as written two centuries ago, even after some legal waffling in recent years, and it's a show-stopper. Plainly put, it authorizes the President to deploy federal troops within the United States to put down lawlessness, insurrection or rebellion. Should he do so, the Executive Orders are in place and the military leadership is in place under the name The United States Northern Command. Not incidentally, "Northern" means the northern hemisphere, and for the reason the so-called tinfoil hats say it is. NorthCom is authorized to deploy foreign troops on US soil. The mobilization plan is called the Northern National Security Emergency Preparedness Directorate. It's the White House's "nuclear option." Under this plan, units from the armed forces would be deployed and directed by NorthCom, placing our beloved land under the sort of military regimes seen in occupied Europe during the 1939-1945 war.

Here is what to expect under "worst case scenario" martial law:

1. Detention without charges. Expect precautionary arrests, pre-crime prosecution, warrantless no-knock home invasions and mass relocations. Should anybody believe mass relocations is a stretch, recall the forced removal of Japanese Americans from the western coastal states to inland camps. Recall Civil Defense in World War II and the Cold War was about more than blackouts and bomb shelters, it was authorized to relocate populations of whole regions should the order be given. Also expect Bills of Attainder, i.e., laws which designate criminal demographics rather than criminal activities, meaning criminalization of those parts of the citizenry they identify with dissent or opposition.

2. Confiscation of property. This includes wealth in any form: bank accounts, stock portfolios, bonds, retirement funds including 401ks, croplands, the family car, real estate—especially if adjacent to federal facilities or major bridges or power transmission nodes or international borders, or if it has a nice view some Diversity Director really likes, &c. Expect industries or entire sectors of the economy to be nationalized, railroads and power plants for example. Expect private or commercial stocks of rare earths, precious metals, fuels and such to be seized as "strategic materials." Recall confiscation of privately held—i.e., "hoarded"—gold in the 1930s using the Trading With The Enemy Act of 1917. 

3. Restricted travel. Expect a standard universal identification system, curfews, travel permits amounting to internal passports, no-travel lists, security checkpoints and a priority system for users of each mode of travel. Expect "refugees" and "domestic terrorists" being transported to "resettlement centers" to have a high priority. Parts of the interstate highway may be intermittently or permanently closed to civilians. Automobiles built before GPS devices and other self-reporting black boxes may command a premium. Expect indirect travel restrictions. Recall new automobile tires weren't merely rationed in the US during World War II, they were unavailable, although freely sold to anybody in Canada and Mexico, and "anybody" included border state residents and black marketeers.

4. Restricted communications. Expect disinformation, anti-rumor campaigns, on-site advisors for editors and news broadcasters, and protective custody for dissident commentators. Internet access will be throttled back and conditional as will be alternative forms of communications, amateur short wave radio for instance. Some opposition sites will be covertly run by the regime as "honey pot" sting operations. Wikileaks is a likely template. During World War II it was illegal to photograph rail and seaport facilities or the like. Expect photography in formerly public areas to be presumed evidence of domestic terrorism, especially of official interactions with civilians, as will be possession or circulating such photos or videos.

5. Weapons confiscation. Expect revocation of licenses and permits, an expanded list of proscribed weapons—muzzle loaders, bows, knives, even sporting slingshots. Expect the usual confiscation tactics: amnesty collection drives, tracing ownership through registrations and vendor records of accessories purchases, incentives to inform authorities of weapons possession or ammunition trading and the like. Many doomers with buried weapons will be unpleasantly surprised at how public their stash really is. Zero tolerance in the schools foretells the spirit of martial law toward weapons. Zero tolerance originated in occupied Europe where, say, merely handling the rusted remains of a gun found among the rubble meant on-the-spot execution.

6. Centralized allocation of commodities and goods. Expect rationing of all goods, including food, clothing, fuel, water, and electricity. Expect the rationing system to be complex, ever-changing, incentivized and corrupt. Favored persons, activities and businesses will be generously supplied "in the interest of the greater good." Anti-hoarding laws, already in place, will ensure a general improvidence and dependency. They allow citizens to stock provisions for about the same time period as the DHS recommends for emergencies, seven to ten days. Coincidence? 

7. Citizen surveillance. Expect the "See something, Say something" campaign to become a fully developed citizen surveillance system along the lines of Cuba's Rapid Action Brigades with "guidance" on reportable instances using "public service" announcements. The IRS's "whistle blower" program may be a template for structured rewards. Participation in the black market (formerly, free market) is likely to be high on the list, including barter or transactions involving precious metals, even for otherwise legal goods or services. Expect abuse of the citizen surveillance system for personal advantage, extortion or revenge.

8. Price, wage and currency controls. Expect prices and wages to be capped and money transfers to be restricted and closely monitored. Currency is all but untraceable, look for replacement by small denomination scrip and auditable instruments similar to SNAP EBT cards for all else. The $100 bill is the largest circulating denomination precisely because it is inconveniently small for large purchases. Expect ruinous currency controls, a form of confiscation to keep wealth from accompanying its owner, used by totalitarian states to prevent escape or to impoverish dissenters when expelled.

By evading Constitutional limits of power, by perverting its intent, by building new perversions atop past perversions, the states and the central government they created stand largely outside the Constitution, actively oppose it and are menaced mainly by the liberty it was intended to protect. To the extent they place themselves beyond the law they place themselves outside the law and are thereby outlaws within the original meaning of the word. Insofar as they attempt a totalitarian state they invite a maelstrom. In the end they will fail, in the end their names will be written among the hated despots of history's long narrative.

The survivalist understands these things as a survivalist must: as situational awareness. The survivalist is neither a collaborator nor a partisan by choice, he is a builder, a protector and a fixer of broken things. He prevails as civilization prevails, by surviving, so that decency and justice shall also survive.

* Also an undeserved body-blow to the honor, sacrifice and self-respect of veterans everywhere and a forfeiture of good will among the old-school citizenry for no apparent gain.