describing the rather substantial concrete slab put in place at the oregon national guard armory in milton freewater, oregon i have opined that it might be as much as 10 or 12" thick. this makes it very strong, all by itself.
i noted, however, that i had not been there where the slab was poured, and that i did not know whether or not the slab was reinforced w/ steel reinforcing bar, commonly known as rebar.
well, now i know that it was. an old high school classmate lives in the area, and he witnessed the rebar being put in place over the course of several days, and described it as very substantial, doubled layered, criss crossed, and probably about 3/4's of an inch thick.
here is the updte to the original post on the matter.--
update, concrete & rebar: 10.31.2013. the building movers are just about ready to place the old building over the new concrete slab & foundation. chatting w/ another bystander, a fellow with whom i attended high school many years ago, i learned something of some interest. the concrete slab, as might be expected, has a whole mess of reinforcing steel bar in it, a/k/a rebar, and it was not used sparingly. my "source," who lives in the neighborhood, said that the rebar is double layered, "criss-crossed" as he put it, and that it is about 3/4" of an inch thick steel bar.
the slab is very thick. and, it has a lot of reinforcing bar in it. this gives this particular slab an incredible strength in both compression, and in tension & sheer shear. (think of "tension" as "sheer" "shear" with a lever attached to it.) as my old high school classmate says, "it ain't goin' anywhere." he might have added, without overstatement, " ... anytime soon." end update.
john jay @ 10.31.2013
caption: the shed, moved off its foundation, waits for the construction crew to finish lunch before it gets pulled into place on it's new concrete slab and foundation. the foundation walls are about 12" thick, and the slab is by my estimation around 10 or 12" thick, replete with a double layer of 3/4" rebar. i do not know what is going into that building, but, it is going to be very substantial, and very heavy.
p.s. read the little link below, "waffes ... ." the slab in milton freewater has this curious appearance, and i suspect the technique described in the post was used. maybe. but, it is an interesting post.
update no. 2, 10.31.2013. the building sits at its new situs. in situ.
caption: there the old dear sits, in her new location, looking sort of dowdy in her old rusty galvanized panels, and not at all resplendent over the brand new foundation and pad built for her.
it just gets curiouser and curiouser. i talked w/ some fellows, and they told me that the pad was thick, 7 to 8 inches seemed to be the variable assertion (i think it is much thicker, for all that is worth, and have the pictures to argue the same).
they did say, however, that the slab in the "new building" has a whole lot of rebar in it, over 400 pieces, and they said it was 1/2" thick, and the criss-crossed bars were laid on 12" centers. that, my friends, is a lot of rebar, and it gives that floor incredible strength in sheer shear and in tension. end update.
well, ... , oopsies, ... , color my cheeks a little rosier than normal. i needn't have been so puzzled.
they "mystery" of the little trucks is solved.
the mystery of the "little trucks" is solved, and might never have caused me any confusion, had i been just a wee bit more observant.
caption: this is the shed that the national guard detachment's vehicles have been stored in. you will notice that the corner of same is about 2 feet above its former corner foundation. to cut to the chase, the whole building has been raised off the ground.
caption: again, look at the foundation and the bottom of the building. they are separated.
caption: the red steel beam across the entrance is part of the structure upon which rests the entire building, prepatory to it being moved to another location by emmert construction of portland, oregon, phone number 503-655-7191, as noted by reader ironhead. hat tip. laughing.
and, now is revealed the purpose and manner of function of the little "trucks" with the multiple axles and the substantial tires. the little mechanism in the middle of the axles is an hydraulic jack, and the little bracket at the top is a saddle upon which & within the beams rest. in short, the little saddles carry the load of the building suspended upon the beams.
caption: this truck on the trailer has been towed to milton freewater from portland, oregon for the express purpose of towing the building to its new resting site. it was not driven, because it is so "low geared" that it has a very reduced "road speed," and it is just easier to tow carry/trailer it, to where it will tow the buildings that emmert construction moves.
one mystery solved.
another mystery remains unresolved.
well, the mystery of the little trucks is solved. emmert construction is simply going to move the old storage shed in which the guard's humvees were stored to another location. simple as that.
and, immediately below, you will see just where the shed will be moved.
caption: you will notice the shed in the background. it sits firmly atop its foundation.
you will see the concrete slab and foundation in the foreground, which has recently been completed at the site of the oregon national guard detachment in milton freewater, oregon and which has been featured in a whole bunch of recent posts at this website.
this is the destination of the old shed, and it will be moved from the concrete pad upon which it sits, and placed upon the new concrete pad upon which it will sit in the future. i haven't been able to actually measure the distance, but, i would estimate that the new pad is not more than 150 feet or so from the old pad.
the oregon national guard has built a new concrete pad upon which to place the old shed, the process eventually leaving the old concrete pad exposed, with no shed sitting upon it. why? you might ask.
i have not seen the move executed, so i am not absolutely sure that the "new" concrete pad is the same dimension as the "old" concrete pad, nor do i know for certain that the shed's dimensions will remain the same, though i've heard nothing to indicate that the shed will be changed in any way.
this is all very interesting.
the oregon military department purchased three separate lots in milton freewater upon which to erect the new concrete pad. at a cost of around $300,000 which is pretty close to the appraised fair market value of the properties, and then some. i know this, because i went to the umatilla county courthouse in pendleton oregon, and obtained confirming documents from the county assessor and the county recorder of documents. (i have copies of the assessor's plots, and copies of the real estate warranty deeds, confirming the state of oregon as owners of the property.)
it would appear at this juncture that the state of oregon has erected a very sturdy concrete pad upon which to place a building, and in so doing, has will have moved a building to another location gaining no additional square footage/storage area in the process. they will have spent $300,000 approximately in land acquisition expense, to gain absolutely no additional utility from the building.
they do, however, now possess a concrete pad which appears to be substantially thinker and stronger than the previous concrete pad, whose "premises have been vacated/moved."
why?
it would appear that all of this has been done for no purpose other than to place a storage shed upon a concrete pad/floor that will bear considerably more weight than the old building.
so, we are right back to the initial quandary, and the initial inquiry, and that is, just what is the oregon national guard going to put into this building and onto this concrete pad that requires & warrants such a huge weight bearing capability. (see p.s. below.) back in the old days the oregon national guard had heavy tanks upon the premises, and the floors of the shed apparently held up under them.
so, why move the building? and, what goes into the building that requires the move, and that requires the huge concrete slab in it.
this mystery, this inquiry remains open. until it is resolved in some manner, i can only conclude that the oregon national guard, or some other state or county agency, wishes to apply to the department of homeland security, united state government for one or more of those dumb assed mrap's.
and, as we all now know, they will simply fill out a form 1033 asking the gift of a $600,000 armored car in return for a nominal shipping cost assessment.
and, all that entails, as discussed previously.
john jay @ 10.30.3013
update, 10.30.2013. p.s. this "p.s." is further musing/"response" to the rhetorical question asked above, about what the oregon national guard intends to achieve by its expenditure, and just what it intends to house in the building.
at first i thought, well, it is just the usual squandering of money. but, i don't think so, upon further consideration.-- let me put it this way. you have some money. you can build a new garage for your aging cadillac and old toyota, and spend your money that way. or build a new garage for your aging cadillac and old toyota, and have the garage and the same old dilapidated cars. or, you can buy a new cadillac and a new ferrari, for shipping costs.
what are you gonna do?
in short, it makes no sense to me to move a shed at considerable expense, ... , e.g., land acquisition, a new slab, cost of moving the building, ... , and have nothing to show for it except an old rust bucket of a shed in a new location and the same old equipment to put in it.
nah, i don't think so.
someone has a grander vision in mind. i intend to ferret it out. end update.
update no. 2, there she sits. the building has been moved into place over the slab and foundation stems. just pulled into place by the bed red truck via a windlass and cable system. an old galvanized steel shed, sitting on $350,000 (more or less) of recently acquired real estate, and the old slab sits, abandoned for the time being ... who knows the fate that awaits it.
caption: you can see the old slab in the background, between the door on the corner of the steel building and the orange fork lift.
so, there you have it. an old building on a brand new slab & foundation. no gain in storage capacity. for what purpose? whatever it is, the building slab should last for a long time.
after a pretty good start doing honest labor i ended up sort of a scallywag, practicing law for 25 years until ill health drove me from the business. my youngest brother also ended up in a questionable trade, pushing stocks & bonds for merryl lynch, still.
but, my two older brothers followed honorable employment their whole lives in the heavy construction trades, operating heavy equipment and tugging on wrenches for local 701, operating engineers, out of portland, oregon. the oldest worked on the terminus of the alaska pipeline, and did field mechanic's stuff in the aleutian islands.
he is used to big equipment, and the use of cranes and heavy stuff to move big equipment around, having operated his fair share of each.
caption: this is a trailer full of stuff. what the "stuff" is, i am not too sure, but, whatever it is, it is going to end up hauling something very heavy. that much i know, but, as to the rest of it, i am, quite frankly, just a bit curious.
on the trailer, there are four sets of "trucks," (for lack of a better term.) each truck consists of two axles, with each axle having two very squat and very substantial tires on the end. the axles are joined by a very heavy duty round beam, which you can see most clearly on the front truck, the front set of axle of which tilts down off of the platform on which is it riding.
this morning i showed the above picture to my heavy construction worker brother, now retired, and asked him what the whole mess above was, and what was it for?
i said, "what the heck is that."
he said, "beats me, i never saw anything like that, but, whatever it is, it sure looks like it was built to haul something very heavy around. i expect they team all those axles up, and that they are steerable somehow, ... ." but, other than that, he had nothing definitive to say about it.
now, this brother worked for years for peter kiewit construction company, doing field repair on heavy machinery all over the west coast of the united states. he worked summer just about everywhere, and the winters he spent at kiewit's shops in portland, oregon refurbishing and repairing all sorts of heavy machinery. he's taken more than one diesel engine out of a heavy chassis, repaired & rebuilt it, and put it back in.
he was an instructor at the union's school, teaching machine operation and things that mechanics do.
he had no idea what the machinery pictured above is all about.
all he said was,"whatever those things are, they are gonna haul something heavy."
we'll just have to see.
john jay @ 10.30.2013
p.s. if anyone knows what these gizmo's are for, and how they go together, please don't be bashful, and come forward and inform the rest of us. it has got me bambozzled. plain and simple.
you, too, may ask the federal government for your very own "mine resistant armored personnel" carrier. (it seems to me somewhat discouraging from an end users perspective, and i now regard myself as a potential end user, ... , hey, one acquires things in the strangest of ways, does one not?, ... , that they are not described as "mine proof." something, for everyone, to keep in mind.
this, from an article at wikipedia.--
United States Department of Homeland Security Rapid Response Teams have used MRAPs while assisting people affected by natural disasters such as hurricanes.[96][97] The Department of Homeland Security has also used MRAP-style vehicles while fighting illegal narcotics smuggling.[98] The Federal Bureau of Investigation used an MRAP-type vehicle in a kidnapping and hostage case in Midland, Alabama.[99]
Police departments inside the United States are acquiring MRAP vehicle through the 1033 program, which allows the Defense Department to redistribute equipment it no longer needs to state and municipal agencies. Rather than buying a new vehicle, which would cost $535,000-$600,000 to produce, some police departments like the Ohio State University Police Department have picked up surplus MRAPs from the Pentagon for free. By October 2013, nearly dozen departments in several states had acquired the armored vehicles. Domestic agencies plan to use them in disaster relief roles, as they can go through flooded areas unlike normal police armored vehicles, and to respond to terrorist threats, like playing a role in guarding sports stadiums. MRAPs used by police forces have the machine gun turret removed and are repainted from their original flat desert tan to black. Organizations have become critical about police use of military vehicles and worried about police militarization. Proponents of the domestic acquisitions say MRAPs fill the roles as standard police Lenco BearCat armored vehicles, but they cost $200,000 while MRAPs can be received for free.[100]
i am thinking about getting one, to park out in from of my little house in milton freewater. i really don't think any civilian ought to be outgunned by his local police force. you know what i mean?
i think i will paint mine in british racing green. i've always been partial to the color.
or maybe a nice camo pattern. you know, something tasteful.
the olympic peninsula on washington's coast is the northwestern-most part of "the lower 48" states. though only relatively few miles from the seattle-tacoma metropolitan area is is remote and isolated because the geographical feature of washington's puget sound, and the rugged geographical feature of the olympic mountains, prevents ready car traffic to the area, ... , there is not, for instance, a single highway that travels right alongside the coast line to cape flattery, the most western point in the lower 48.
we stayed at kalaloch, just south of the hoh national forest, and part of the olympic national park which lies within the quinault indian reservation. kalaloch has a small lodge, and a few cabins sprinkled on a bluff overlooking the pacific, right where the kalaloch river spills to teh sea.
no cell phone coverage. no television. just the ocean, several very nice rock strewn beaches, and the roar of the surf from below the bluff. a good place to read, sleep, eat and think, among other things. quite peaceful, and walking along the beach watching the gulls and the cormorants and shore birds in the cool autumn breezes is just, well, blissful.
i read "the elegance of the hedgehog" by the french author murial barbery, and was quite taken with the intelligence of the narrative, and the musings of the author's characters. i would suggest it as a quite wonderful read, at the ocean, at your leisure, when you have time to think about what is transpiring on the pages, and in your mind.
naturally, the whole scene and the book put me into a contemplative mood.
much to my chagrin, i spent considerable time thinking of mine resistant armored personnel carriers, and especially the one that milton freewater's national guard is to be graced with, ... , soon, it would appear.
i find the prospect repugnant. and, thoroughly ridiculous.
now, the given rationale of the whole thing, ... , to the limited extent that deploying a mine resistance vehicle in a small north eastern oregon community, not a hot spot of rebellion, resistance and "terrorism," at least to this juncture, can be said to have a "rationale" of any logical sort, ... , seems to be that the oregon state police can use it for drug interdiction and "raids."
i doubt very damned seriously whether this ridiculous pig could interdict anything. they are just not very stealthy, these "m-raps."
and, in the five years that i've been back in my home town i remain unaware that any "swat" team has used a vehicle in a drug raid, or the apprehension of any sort of criminal. nor am i aware of any situation in which the presence of a giant armored truck would have been of any use whatsoever, let alone to have protected police personnel.
the whole thing is ludicrous. sorry to use the word again, but nothing else does the entire notion of using an "m-rap" for domestic policing in northeastern oregon justice. (some irony in the word, eh?)
i view the possibility that this big dumb-assed vehicle to which we will become "recipient" is of very much use to anyone, ever, for any purpose whatsoever, having to do with either genuine policing functions, nor, for any sort of "real life" suppression of political liberty or tyranny.
let me put it this way. it will not be used for drug raids. if trotted out to suppress "local" "riot and rebellion," it will be trotted out once, and immediately rendered a smoking hulk. they are just not fit for prolonged human habitation, of any healthy or living nature.
this much is clear to me.
so, just what purpose do they serve?
well, there is the matter of buying off and bribing local officialdom. toys for tots, as it were. never underestimate the lure of loot.
but, from a more sophisticated view, it seems to me that the function of bringing a heavyweight armored vehicle to a remote area like this does have some utility for a person with the malevolent and malignant nature of president obama.
and, that is, having a "m-rap" in the bucolic locale of a milton freewater serves to deploy it rather conveniently in relation to urban centers such as spokane, washington as well as for portland, oregon in case it might be "needed" there for the little wanne be tyrant. both cities lies about 150 miles plus from milton freewater, both are freeway accessible, and both are populated by urban types who really don't understand the limitations a glorified truck has as an "armored vehicle."
they tend to panic when attacked by 40mm rifle grenades, instead of reaching for the elk rifle and shooting gunners who are sticking up out of the top of port holes.
so, to me, there does exist a rationale for the deployment of an armored vehicle in a bucolic little setting, and that is it can be driven to places not-so-bucolic for use, and except for a couple small towns along the way, the paths to bigger and better and more plentiful targets in spokane and portland are not frequently interrupted. (but, you know, upon further reflection, 200 miles of "path" does offer a few places for ambush and interception, doesn't it. it will be interesting to see how they get there, if ever "called out.")
now, i suspect that as i delve into this a bit more deeply, i am going to find that the oregon state police emerge as the titular owners of this armored truck, the largess of homeland security. but, i will bet you dimes to donuts, that somewhere in the documents conferring "ownership and use" to the oregon state police there is a little "reservation of right & title clause" in there somewhere, delivering possession, use and ownership back to the black booted thugs of homeland security in times of insurrection and rebellion.
and, somewhere in all of this, there will be legislation or executive directive that the homeland security department will assume and assert command and control of local national guard troops to drive and man the vehicles. no, i don't believe it is entirely by accident that the vehicle will be housed on property immediately adjacent to the national guard armory.
i will be looking for that, as well. "that," of course, being the legal and bureaucratic structure which retains in homeland security the ownership and use of their armed and armored personnel carriers, for when "the shit hits the fan." (that is usually abbreviated as "shtf," but, i find that artless, and devoid of the emotive impact of the phrase as it should be spoken and written. why rob the language of its beauty?)
more to come.
john jay @ 10.27.2013
p.s. anyone wanna bet me on my little assumptions, set out above? i would love to hear your views.
i would especially love to hear from the reporter at the st. cloud, minnesota paper who reported on the $600,000.00 armored truck/personnel carrier given to st. cloud in exchange for a mere $3,000.00 "shipping fee."
trust me, there are other costs hidden in the deal.
a very interesting and well thought out essay by herschel smith at the captain's journal, entitled "who would jesus shoot", 21 oct 2013. http://www.captainsjournal.com/2013/10/21/who-would-jesus-shoot/.
go there, if you will, and please enjoy the read.
i won't recapitulate the argument, but it uses frequent citation to scripture to remind us that the fact that we are god's creation has in itself ethical commands, and one of those commands is to defend what god has wrought. and, that to passively allow god's creation to be destroyed by evil is in itself evil.
if follows that we must defend what god has wrought, in the person of other persons.
go there. it is a very well crafted and very well thought out discussion of the issues involved.
update, 10.22.2013. this is just how it works. the homeland security department ladles out slop.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/22/local-cops-really-excited-about-their-terrifying-new-tank/ . hat tip, mike d. go ducks!!
the local cop shop gets a new toy. everybody is beholden. st. cloud paid $3,000 shipping for a $400,000 truck, called a tank by a credulous reporter. now, when homeland security calls for a favor, don't you think that the st. cloud cops "owe them a $400,000 favor. you can bet homeland security thinks about it that way.
please note: this tank has a grill. for a radiator. and, note as well, it has the gun mount affixed to the top, complete w/ screens to try and protect the "gunner." that means it also has a hole in the top, through which the gunner must pass.
end update.
update no. 2, 10.27.2013. from "stars and stripes," an article about the culpepper county, virginia sheriff whose department has been "gifted" an armored truck for "police functions." http://www.stripes.com/news/us/va-county-police-get-armored-vehicle-to-secure-their-safety-1.249031 .
i shall contact both authors of the above articles, and try to see if they have looked at the paper work conferring "title" on the subject vehicles."
the government just slops the swills onto gloriously happy recipients of the same, who have no regard for the "costs" involved, in my estimation.
p.s. culpepper country also got $200,000 worth of night vision goggles from the same grant. interesting, eh?
end update no. 2.
now, i am going to show you a picture of something which should chill you to the bone. it will not. as a matter of fact, it may not seem to be of much significance to you at all, upon first blush, and perhaps even upon second blush. or, even after you have lent the matter your considered thought and analysis.
but, the picture below scares me shitless, you should pardon the expression.
the picture. ---
caption: in the foreground, gravel being spread in preparation for pouring a concrete parking lot. in the middle ground, a concrete foundation and slab for a "mystery" building, which everyone thought was part of the milton freewater, oregon national guard detachment, but, which probably is not. and, in the background, right behind the orange forklift, a rather nondescript metal shed which for years served as a garage for the national guard unit's vehicles.
what is scary about that picture?
well, it is not the concrete foundation/slab in the middle ground. we know, more or less convincingly, that it will be a garage facility, and probably repair shop, for some sort of fairly heavy armored vehicle(s), most probably the mrap's acquired by homeland security from the u.s. army. (the fact is, that in military service, they proved less than stellar, and the military probably quite rightly wanted rid of them.)
no, i will tell you what is scary in the picture above.
it is that the parking area being prepped for a concrete pad and likely paving, runs from the front of the armored car shed to the front of humvee shed, and is contiguous and continuous.
in short, the facilities are to have a shared use, and a shared access. that is the truly chilling thing.
oh, mr. jay, but you do go on. whatever is the burr under your saddle?
well, i will tell you.
on 05.23.2011 the "oregon military department" issued a press release announcing that the milton freewater, oregon national guard amory was in for renovation and repair, improvements to include upgrading the heating and cooling systems, and improving and bringing up to current code other utilities. http://www.oregon.gov/omd/pages/pressrelease/2011/05-23-11press.aspx
if you will look to the text of that press release you will kindly note that no mention at all was made for the construction of a garage for the housing of armored vehicles, to include armored personnel carriers and the like. no mention was made of the acquisition of weapons for such weapons systems and/or allied vehicles. nor was any mention made that the national guard unit would take on operational control of such vehicles and weapons systems. http://wintersoldier2008.typepad.com/summer_patriot_winter_sol/2013/10/press-release-from-oregon-national-guard-announcing-remodel-of-the-milton-freewater-armory-no-mentio.html .
i thought, and think, this highly anonymous anomalous. especially given the fact, that the concrete foundation and slab pictured above is adjacent to the to the oregon national guard's equipment shed, and that it is immediately adjacent to the armory, which is under renovation right next door.
that got me to thinking. what if this heavy duty equipment garage does not in fact belong to the oregon national guard? who might it belong to?
update no. 3, 10.28.2013. i came across this a moment or two ago. one of the first pictures of a dhs armored car to hit the blogs. dhs still denied them, at that time. http://www.examiner.com/article/dhs-deploying-homeland-with-weapons-of-war . this mrap is being driven around, in the open, with department of homeland security on its flanks, along with a small american flag.
captions: one of the first of the mraps owned by the department of homeland security, getting fuel at a public station, in el paso, texas. the fellow with the arm patch is identified as the blog post above as being a homeland security investigator.
i know from my experience doing accident investigations, that people really want to confide in you, when you pull up in a vehicle like that, ... , it just creates an atmosphere of trust, when you drive up in an armored vehicle. oh, yeah.
end update no. 3.
immediately suspect in my mind, for obvious reason, was the homeland security department of the united states federal government. so, i googled "homeland security" and "milton freewater armory," on the same inquiry, and i got a hit.
i have not substantiated it entirely, not just yet, but i think that the answer lies in some budgetary documents, in pdf form, published by the state of oregon. (hidden in these very lengthy pdf's, somewhere, http://www.lanecounty.org/departments/sheriff/documents/2013%20oregon_hidta_threat_assessment_final_062112.pdf (my post, regarding the documents, and here, http://www.ous.edu/sites/default/files/dept/budget/files/2013-15_ARB.pdf)
(my post on same, here, http://wintersoldier2008.typepad.com/summer_patriot_winter_sol/2013/10/homeland-security-oregon-state-police-milton-freewater-national-guard-armory-240000-american-.html.)
these documents, or at least the google entries to the same, suggest very strongly that the oregon state government, acting by and through several of its agencies, principally the oregon state police department, has secured money from the homeland security department to construct the "super garage" on property adjacent to the armory. and, to put things, in it.
given any reasonable and cogent analysis of the physical facts and context of the matter, that the "super garage" is going to house and service heavy armored vehicles, the leading candidate being the mrap armored personnel carrier heavy trucks which homeland security has acquired from the united states army as surplus items.
well, o.k.
so what?
the "so what" lies in the proximity of all the facilities. physically, legally, institutionally, and in terms of real world use. this unholy alliance between homeland security shoveling out the gifts and state institutions using them blurs the distinctions between governments, and makes the states unduly subservient to the interests of the federal government.
this proximity implies shared access to any facility, and any vehicles and weapons and ammo stored within that facility. it suggests that the national guard, for instance, might have access to the homeland security/state patrol vehicle if it needs it "in a pinch."
that is disturbing enough.
what is very troubling, however, is that the state patrol/homeland security types who probably have nominal ownership in the vehicle(s) and its/their stores, also has potential ready access to the national guard personnel who "reside" right next door to their facility and the toys therein.
so, if the state police and the county sheriff fire up one of these fancy mobile coffins to go do a drug raid or interdiction, there exist in that situation a powerful impetus to "borrow" some national guard types to lend support. and, what if the local police agencies decide that it would be a smart move to hire some of the local national guard types as reserve deputies at the local county or municipal jails, and/or to make such personnel part of their reserve police officer cadres.
send the national guard types off to the state police training academies, get them certified as civilian police officers, and take advantage of the skills they have acquired in military service. i know of nothing that would prevent an active national guard soldier from acquiring such training and certification, and being so employed.
hey, it's a free country? right?
those types of scenarios are disquieting enough. their is an incestuous aspect about all that, at the "personnel level," which raises very serious issues.
but, it is at the higher levels of government, as being agencies of the federal government and the state government, that the issues raised by all of this become terribly troubling, and raise serious issues about the ability of democratic systems to resist & withstand attempts to unified control over all levels of government, in our still yet federal system. (does anybody ever think about what that term means, historically & politically?)
homeland security simply has become, in my estimation, a very thinly veiled attempt for the federal government to achieve over-weaning influence over state police and military functions, e.g., the state police & the state national guard units, in a way that defeats all of the political and social controls we have had in place to prevent, ... , well, dictatorship.
this business of homeland security dispensing money, toys, equipment, largess and status like a runaway santa with an unlimited budget, means that those legal and institutional barriers to tyranny are disappearing very quickly under the relentless tide of spoils gushing forth from the federal weal. grown up boys do like their toys, and become rather slavish to them, and the givers of same.
i have serious misgivings, for instance, that any person running the oregon national guard or the oregon state police could resist a call from obama, wanting a little favor here, or a little favor there, given the money, largess and status which is being dispensed by obama and minions. who could resist the fear of loosing a spot on the gravy train?
and, i fear that our rights and liberties simply will be crushed under the weight of money, greed and influence that throwing these sums, this equipment, and the conferral of "power" this level of bureaucratic "interface" represents. remember, another term for "interface" is "intercourse," and it is a useful metaphor to keep in mind.
i live in milton freewater, oregon. just about off the end of the beaten track.
yet, my little town has a stimulus garage going up for a stimulus armored personnel carrier, right next door to a stimulus renovated national guard armory. (the town to the north, walla walla, washington has a police force that has received fully automatic rifles, m-16s, given to them by homeland security to carry in their patrol cars? well, who's your daddy? who's santa at christmas? who do you serve, the public that doesn't treat you so well, or the federal bureaucrat that treats you so swell? who's your daddy, indeed?)
what if i get a stimulus knock on the door, say 3.30 this morning, with a stimulus billy club wielded by an oregon state trooper, accompanied by a reserve deputy member of the local national guard, w/ a stimulus mrap parked out in my front yard, driven by a stimulated national guard fellow in uniform, covered by a stimulus & stimulated national guard detachment providing infantry support.
far fetched?
as far fetched as a super garage going up next to an armory under renovation, all cheek to jowl.
and, the front doors to all the facilities, connected by one common parking lot. all built and complete, before anyone had the slightest idea what was going on.
but, wait.
the above rhetorical flourish brings on last thing up. and, it is equally disquieting.
all the local authorities, including the local cop shops, the oregon state patrol, the county sheriffs, and the national guard types have known about this for several years now. there has not been boo! peep! or squeak! out of any of them, and they supposedly live "in" our community. their quiet suggests to me, that perhaps they view themselves as not living "in" our community, but "above" it, and thoroughly in "control" of it.
so, when and if they come to my door, there is only one response that can be given with a love of liberty and right. just one.
do we have neighbors anymore, who just happen to be cops or national guard members? or, do we live among goons and thugs paid for by dirty money? it is a question that must be asked.
can any person wearing a uniform of any stripe be trusted, or, like every sheriff under the employ of nottingham, are they to be considered the enemy?
May 21, 2012 - Milton-Freewater Armory, to be unscheduled ..... State Police to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the amount of $240,000 for the.
Sep 7, 2012 - 2013-2015 Biennial Budget – Agency Request Budget. Certification .....acquire the necessary permits, and provide actual construction costs. ..... for theMilton-Freewater Armory, with the understanding that the ... State Police to the U.S.Department of Homeland Security in the amount of $240,000 for the.
i think the answer is in these pdf documents, but, i've got a headache, and i just don't feel like going through them right now. they are quite lengthy.
but, i think we've narrowed the source of the funding for the concrete extravaganza at the milton freewater, oregon national guard armory.
it those lovely boys and girls at obama's homeland security department.