re: #36 ObserverArt

Here is the comment from Dave in Austin.

Comment #330 Previous Thread - Texans Question Military

I’ve noticed an interesting and rather bizarre back narrative in the uproar over this Jade Helm exercise. A lot of the alarmed citizens seem to be unaware that the US military has ever conducted exercises like this in the United States, or that its missiles, tanks, and other equipment have always been stationed, and periodically moved around, in this country. I know it is weird, but what other inference can you draw when people carry on about this being “unprecedented” or various kinds of equipment appearing “suddenly” in locales where it has in fact been visible for years? One conspiraloon spelled it out to me. She threw their standard claim at me that I was only “taking the government’s word for it” when I pointed out that Reese Air Force Base had conducted military training near Lubbock for almost 50 years.

The same propaganda technique, pretending that the familiar and routine is new and sinister, is very much on display in the similar conspiracist uproar over recent ammunition purchases by various federal agencies. Published records show that similar orders have been placed in past years for similar amounts, and this goes back as far as you care to go. Should our 50,000 Coast Guard personnel (who work for DHS) have to buy their own ammunition to maintain the required handgun proficiency? The IRS needs ammunition because some of its field agents are armed and guns are useless without practice. The necessity for this should be obvious to anyone.