Martial law here in US

Scary, and very eye-opening as to what CAN and WILL happen on American soil if the circumstances are right. Here's a few tibits of what I experienced first hand in Gulfport, MS after the storm

Phones - My house phone worked after Katrina! I called my boss (who was in lockdown at the hospital) to see if all was OK there. But within a few hours, when the authorities started flooding in, my phone didn't work any more, and didn't again for weeks. When my phone DID work, if I tried telling anybody some of the stuff below, my phone suddenly went dead for the rest of the day.

Restricted areas - Walked down to the beach right after the storm. Most everything gone, and any debris wasn't worth stealing. So why did they string barbed wire for miles down our beach for our "safety"? Something they didn't want us to see, I presume.

Resources - We started getting told on the radio that there was no gas or food, and to stay home and off the roads. The media and military could get all the gas and food they wanted - but they guarded it with guns to keep the citizens from having it. They managed to get generators for hotels and restaurants that were exclusively for the use of "important" people - no citizens allowed. The same soldiers drove up and down my street all day and all night (between the court house and the fire house) at twice the legal limit and nearly ran me down if I didn't get out of their way.

Curfew - Both my kid and I worked at 2nd shift "deemed necessary" jobs - me at hospital, her at Walmart (although her store was heavily guarded against the citizens, who were told it was too damaged to reopen, she was working and the store was open for important folks like media and local officials). We had to have our work badges with us at all times or we weren't allowed to go anywhere. We were stopped every single night at check points coming home from work. If we forgot something in our car and went to leave the house and get it, a soldier offered to shoot us if we left our porch.

Our only news and instructions came via battery powered radios or those in vehicles (when we were allowed to go to work), and most of that was lies to keep us home and quiet. These are just a few of the things I experienced. At the time I was horrified, and I realized that the majority of us have NO CLUE what can and will happen right here in the USA.

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Sept.18: Congressional Leaders told US Economy Had Been Hours Away from Collapse

A stunning video has surfaced of Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) describing Thursday September 18 when Bernanke and Paulson starkly informed Congressional leaders how close the economy had come to collapsing that day.

After $550 billion had been electronically drawn out of money market accounts and $105 billion had been poured back into the system with no effect, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury made the decision to shut down the money market accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account.

Rep. Kanjorski:

If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o'clock that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed.

It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it. [via Magnifico at Daily Kos]

Again via Magnifico, The Motley Fool adds some background as well as a possible connection to martial law in The One Jaw Dropping Video that Every Fool Must See. Both Sen. Inhofe, R-Okla., and Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif claim that Paulson brought up the possibility of a declaration of martial law.

The same article also revealed that a November 2008 Army War College Report discusses the possible use of the US military in the event of a domestic economic collapse.

Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security. Deliberate employment of weapons of mass destruction or other catastrophic capabilities, unforeseen economic collapse... are all paths to disruptive domestic shock. [p.32]

Support for Kanjorski's claims can be found in archives from that time period:

Congressional Leaders Stunned by Warnings, NY Times, Sept. 19, 2008.

...as the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, laid out the potentially devastating ramifications of the financial crisis before congressional leaders on Thursday night, there was a stunned silence at first. Mr. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had made an urgent and unusual evening visit to Capitol Hill...

Rushing to save money-market funds, CNN Money, Sept. 19, 2008

By Friday, federal officials worried that the strain on money-market funds had become too great and threatened the world's financial system.

As an aside, if all of this happened on Thursday, Sept. 18, why in the world did McCain wait until the last minute on the 24th to cancel his interview with David Letterman?

Sept.18: Congressional Leaders told US Economy Had Been Hours Away from Collapse

Rep. Kanjorski:

If they had not done that their estimation was that by two o'clock that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the United States, would have collapsed the entire economy of the United States, and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed.

It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it. [via Magnifico at Daily Kos]

The same article also revealed that a November 2008 Army War College Report discusses the possible use of the US military in the event of a domestic economic collapse.

Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security. Deliberate employment of weapons of mass destruction or other catastrophic capabilities, unforeseen economic collapse... are all paths to disruptive domestic shock. [p.32]

Support for Kanjorski's claims can be found in archives from that time period:

Congressional Leaders Stunned by Warnings, NY Times, Sept. 19, 2008.

...as the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, laid out the potentially devastating ramifications of the financial crisis before congressional leaders on Thursday night, there was a stunned silence at first. Mr. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had made an urgent and unusual evening visit to Capitol Hill...

Rushing to save money-market funds, CNN Money, Sept. 19, 2008

By Friday, federal officials worried that the strain on money-market funds had become too great and threatened the world's financial system.

As an aside, if all of this happened on Thursday, Sept. 18, why in the world did McCain wait until the last minute on the 24th to cancel his interview with David Letterman?

1. When the troops moved in, they took over and started ordering us around like cattle. Offered to shoot us for even trying to ask 'em a question. Rude and mean to everyone. The skies were full of helicopters - felt like living in a MASH rerun. Jeeps raced up and down my street at double the speed limit, nearly running me over if I stuck a toe in the road. Nobody lifted a finger to help me clear the debris in my yard - in fact they were irritated that I dared set foot outside at all.

2. They commandeered any resource that was left, for the powers that be. They took over every airport, every gas station, every Walmart still standing, every hotel or restaurant that had a generator, jammed all the phone lines (and yes, folks, MINE STILL WORKED until the troops arrived, then suddenly it did not). All that stuff was appropriated for whoever they deemed important - the county officials, the media, rubbernecking senators they flew in. Woe unto you if you tried to get a drop of gas, a cold drink, or speak to anyone about why you could not - a gun gets stuck in your face.

3. Curfew makes you feel like a little kid when its given by your parents. It makes you feel like a criminal when its set by your government. Yeah, they offered to shoot me because I forgot something in my car and tried to leave my house to go get it. They had roadblocks on every corner. I worked at a hospital nights and daily had to show my ID just to get to work and back. People that didn't have a good reason to be out and about got turned back and threatened. They roadblocked all the highway exits to our town and turned away anybody that came offering help - saying it wasn't needed. Actually, they just weren't organized enough to accept donations or direct would-be heros where they could help - so they just turned them away, rudely. If you wanted to leave town after Katrina, forget it - they had taken all the gas away and didn't want us on the roads.

4. They sectioned off parts of our town with barbed wire and told us it was unsafe. Sorry, I walked through it right after the storm and knew it was no worse than the rest of the town. They threw residents that had survived the storm off their property and wouldn't let them come back without an armed escort and government permission. Sometimes they bulldozed their houses flat before letting them come back into the protected zone. All in the name of protecting them.

5. The majority of the soliders raced around acting important. Never saw any lift a finger to help anyone in any type of distress. I guess their orders were to stand around and wait for more orders, while intimidating us (obviously that's what the confused, scared, and needful survivors required from their government?). They also took over our local radio and had them tell us to just sit isolated in our houses and wait for help, and discouraged us from helping one another or traveling across town to help a friend. Nobody ever knocked on our door and asked us if we needed anything - so if I'd obeyed orders and believed help was coming I would have waited until I died. I suppose they wanted us to just sit there and die, so we'd be less hassle.

6. The only help we received were from average citizens brave enough to argue their way through the military road blocks. Not the government. Their function was to take over, snatch whatever comforts still existed, and isolate and scare us.

I was shocked I could be treated the way I was on American soil, and I realized it can happen anywhere to anyone, if and when the powers that be decide to take over an area for whatever reason they deem necessary. I suddenly realized this happens all over the world in wartime, when our troops move in to occupy their country - and I realized I felt like those people must have felt at the sight of the soldiers. Most people just don't think it can happen here - well trust me, it can and it does. Maybe next time, in your neighborhood.