We Are on the Path to Martial Law

Shôn Ellerton, July 21, 2020
If we do not wake up to rationality and logic and put an end to this nonsense, we will continue down the path to martial law.

There is not a single day that passes without the daily news reporting some form of madness, lunacy, or basic stupidity. Or most likely a combination of all three.

In Australia, we have a marked increase of coronavirus cases in Melbourne resulting in the state government to issue a decree making it mandatory to wear face masks. It was also in Melbourne that draconian measures were taken to lock down four high-rise apartment blocks effectively keeping anyone within the building held as prisoners under strict quarantine. And yet, the BLM movement are forging plans to demonstrate again in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. Thankfully, the NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller has vowed he will go to the Supreme Court to block the protest; however, whether he succeeds or not is uncertain. The news has penetrated most of the mainstream media with, of course, the ABC being the most tolerant to the planned protest mentioning that the protest’s organiser, Paddy Gibson, said that the protest will be conducted safely, and face masks will be handed out to demonstrators. He also added that there is no conclusive evidence that the virus has been spread through previous protests, as if he can be trusted to be an advisor in this field.

In Portland, Oregon, more than fifty consecutive days of riots had taken place outside two federal buildings in the downtown area. Laughingly, a BBC article mentioned that these ‘violent’ (they put in quotes) protests were quelled by the Homeland Security without any consideration of constitutional rights. Yet, all one must do is look up in YouTube or Twitter and search for live coverage of Portland protests. These are not peaceful protests, well certainly, not during the late hours of the night and the wee hours of the morning. Incendiary devices, pellet guns, slingshots, and fireworks at close quarters were used every night, not to forget about that annoying green laser. These are downright dangerous and anything but peaceful protests. Thrown in of course, are the whackos like that of the memorable footage of the naked woman cross-legged sitting on the ground displaying all her glory in front of a line of police officers. She may not have looked out of place at Woodstock but sitting amidst a cloud of tear gas and violent clashes between protestors and police, this paints a very surreal landscape. To quote the mayor of Seattle, Jenny Durkin, this is not quite ‘the summer of love’ when she was asked by the press what she would do about the CHAZ protest-occupied zone in its early days. Portland obviously did not learn any lessons from that debacle of an episode.

Then of course, the mainstream press makes out that the intervention by the federal Homeland Security forces to disperse and arrest protestors is an invasion of their civil liberties. What most of the press do not divulge is this. First, the mayor of Portland, Ted Wheeler, had refused to do anything about quashing the riots. Second, he is also the police commissioner. Let me repeat that again. He is the mayor and the police commissioner. Further up the chain, the governor of Oregon, Kate Brown does not do anything either and simply states that Federal Officers are only ‘adding gasoline to a fire.’ Now this is where I get torn into thinking that either these two people are incredibly stupid or that I am somehow not getting a better picture of why this is happening. To put it in the most basic of analogies, it’s like having your kid’s friends come over and start wrecking the garden because they’re not getting any more ice cream while you just sit there as an adult thinking, do we give them more ice cream or shall we let them continue to wreck the garden?

Now this is where it gets remarkably interesting because the Federal Officers move in. Trump, whether one likes him or not, does have the vision to, at least, protect federal property from riotous behaviour. If I were in Trump’s position, I would be likely to take the decision in protecting Federal property. Isn’t that part of the job? Therefore, he exercises S.1315 of the Law enforcement authority of Secretary of Homeland Security for protection of public property, which basically states that the Federal government reserves the right to protect the building, grounds and property that are owned, occupied, or secured by the Federal Government. Moreover, it also states that arrests may take place without a warrant for any offence. Somehow or another, have the mayor and governor forgotten about this act? Were they simply ‘testing the waters’ to see how far they can go without rattling the pit of vipers? Furthermore, why are the protestors focussing on attacking only the federal buildings? Is the movement bent on eliciting a counter response to gain public support for the cause and to spread the news to mainstream media that federal officers are dismantling constitutional freedom? These last few months before the election could get interesting because I have little doubt that Trump will accelerate his use of these extraordinary powers, which are, frankly, quite scary. This is the perfect breeding ground in enacting a state of martial law, and that, is something very few of us would ever want to experience. It is a time of reduced freedom, being watched, stripped of various constitutional rights and a time where people can simply ‘disappear’. I am afraid that this is an outcome that Trump might just play if we continue down this line of stupidity. I would also add that Australia can play a, somewhat, similar card with its Biosecurity Act which gives the federal government special emergency powers if required.

The stunt by New York City mayor, Bill De Blasio, was just as crazy, arrogant, bigoted and downright wrong in which he allowed a BLM protest to take place despite the ban of a gathering of more than twenty-five people due to the pandemic. Not long after, a black woman praising that Jesus Matters started to splatter black paint over the yellow BLM lettering which De Blasio helped paint with the protestors outside the Trump Tower. She was eventually remanded by the police, but it was clear that they were being reluctant to do so as the woman was shouting at the top of her voice ‘Fund the Police!’, ‘Fund the Police!’, ‘You don’t care about black lives!’ [to the protestors] ‘None of you care about black lives!’ which must have seemed quite logical as far as the police were concerned, but orders are orders. Incidentally, this sort of news is conveniently omitted from most mainstream media. Some may take this as offence, but those who watch only the BBC, CNN, ABC Australia and other left-of-centre news outlets are far more ignorant on what is going on in the world than those who watch from a wide variety of sources ranging from left to centre to right and those who research the topic in more detail. The converse is also true, of course. Only following right-of-centre media outlets like Fox and Sky News Australia will provide a distorted lens of the news as well.

It is difficult not to get emotional while reading what is going on in, but can people really be this stupid? What is worse, is that these demonstrations have been allowed to take place at all during a pandemic. And yet, when one mentions ‘selfish’ belligerent crowds on a beach, or fans congregating at a football game, or those enjoying a night out at the local bar or nightclub, the social media posts run amok with critical comments about the ‘covidiots’ who are knowingly spreading the virus. But as soon as the word, protest, is thrown in. It is crickets and silence, except by the bold few. I cannot make it out for one or two reasons. The fear of ostracising the BLM movement or genuinely believing that they have a right to exercise their civil rights. I hope it is the for the former reason.

I genuinely believe the BLM movement is dangerous, not so much for the core values of the movement itself, but for what the BLM movement has done to infect easily malleable minds to transform them into narrow-minded ‘social justice’ woke warriors. Those at the top of the movement are, most likely, well-read, well-connected, and very well-positioned in terms of personal gain in terms of power and money. Many will be familiar with heavyweight thinkers covering a wide spectrum of philosophies from Foucault to Rand. They are also smart insofar in knowing how to play the game of protest to its maximum effect. Only a few hours ago before this was published, the organisers brought in, what appeared to be, thousands of mums and dads to express solidarity by getting them to convene next to the federal establishments holding out their mobile phones high above their heads as if they were candles during a vigil. They were also asked to sing songs as well, as if this was all about doing the right thing and to express to the world how ‘peaceful’ and ‘beautiful’ the protest is. Mainstream media, of course, lapped it up. What happens at the very top circles are known only to a few I suspect. Those at the bottom of this pyramid of power are the gullible crowds of the cult having been led ‘down the garden path’ of what they are fighting for is the right thing to do. Many at the lower tier are not well-read and have little knowledge of philosophy or great works of literature. For many, their news is social media and meme-driven relying on short sound bites to overcome very short attention spans.

There is no recourse for questioning the behaviour exhibited by those who are brainwashed by the propaganda promulgated by the movement either. Many videos on social media show raw footage of black people in the streets challenging the protests only to be shouted at or physically attacked by a, usually white, BLM ‘foaming-at-the-mouth’ protestor. This is dangerous stuff and it reminds me of some of the stories my German grandfather told me when I was a child of his experiences during WWII. However, as soon as you draw these sort of parallels, the ‘cancel culture’ will attempt to shut you down decrying you as a white supremacist, a term which many of the newly woke-indoctrinated do not understand the true meaning of. If we do not wake up soon and bring rationality and logic to these events, we may have to contend with, not only the radical woke left but the extreme right and the real white supremacists. And that is where the real possibility that martial law could be put in place. A very scary thought indeed.