One of the “perks” of this job is that we end up on lots of right-wing email lists and then our email addresses are sold to others who use those lists to pitch all sorts of fringe ideas and products, which means that our inboxes get cluttered with rambling, over-the-top messages like this one recently sent out through Townhall:
This briefing is a critical, time-sensitive warning. Please read what I am about to say carefully, because your very life may depend on it.
A whole lot of already shell-shocked people are going to learn the hard way that the veneer of “civilization” is far thinner than most realize.
U.S. Preparing a Military Response to Coming Social Chaos
As the shocking confidential information contained in this briefing shows, the threat of social meltdown and chaos is so large a domestic law-enforcement arm of the U.S. military (referred to by The Army Times as the "Consequence Management Response Force") has been created to deal with what U.S. officials believe to be a coming, unprecedented wave of massive social chaos.
Later I'll show you why many Washington insiders (including officials directly involved in homeland security) are personally making emergency preparations for social chaos. In addition, outgoing Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson told Sen. James Inhofe and Rep. Brad Sherman that so much financial mayhem lies ahead U.S. troops may have to impose martial law to deal with social unrest.
Yes, U.S. Officials Are Quietly Preparing for BIG Trouble Ahead
A new report by the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute states flatly the U.S. military must prepare for "a violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States" that could be provoked by "unforeseen economic collapse" or "loss of functioning political and legal order."
Late last year, The Washington Post noted the incoming Obama Administration is going to "earmark" at least 20,000 troops returning from Iraq to deal with "domestic emergencies." Since then, the Army Times has broken the story that the domestic emergency army unit has been increased to 80,000 troops, who are being trained right now in Georgia.
In short, U.S. officials expect big trouble ahead — but they are not warning the general public about the danger (much less urge the unsuspecting masses to make basic preparations).
A rare critic of the government's keep-the-public-in-the-dark mentality is former head of the U.S. Commission on National Security, Stephen Flynn. He noted in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial: "Too many officials believe telling the truth to Americans about the risk would set off a nationwide panic. Thus, they keep us sheep in the dark for our own good."
Boiled down, you need a real plan to deal with massive social dislocations that are headed our way. And you need to get started right now, because the government isn't going to give you a heads-up.
My name is Lee Bellinger, publisher of the monthly financial, health, and taxation intelligence advisory Independent Living. In my two decades of publishing discreet information about threats to your liberty, health and prosperity, never before have we produced as important a document as my best-selling Social Chaos Survival Guide: Smart, Savvy Precautions To Make You Self-Reliant in These Dangerous Times.
This is literally the first one-tenth of the email, which goes on for another fourteen pages and five thousand words. It’s not even worth trying to debunk this nonsense because it is a) so obviously insane and b) too easy … like merely pointing out that quote attributed to Flynn comes from a five year old op-ed he co-wrote with Warren Rudman, Leslie Gelb, and Gary Hart urging Congress to stop playing politics with the Department of Homeland Security and its spending priorities.
But on and on it goes about how society is about to “come completely unglued,” food, gas, and medicine are going to disappear, and that the government will be forced to unveil a “draconian response to social chaos … when all hell breaks loose.”
But of course, there is hope in the form of Bellinger’s “Social Chaos Survival Guide” which tells you how to stockpile food and water, plan your escape route, and live off the land … all for the low price of $79.
And here’s where it gets really odd:
Enter your risk-free trial subscription to Independent Living for two full years for a mere $79 (24 information-packed issues at an inflation-busting rate) and I will rush you the 2009 edition of my Social Chaos Survival Guide. And as always, this offer comes with my full guarantee of your total and complete satisfaction.
So society as we know it is about to disintegrate, but Bellinger can offer me a “risk-free” subscription of his insights? And a two year one at that? When the world crumbles, how exactly is Bellinger still going to be able to not only produce his books, newsletters, and DVDs, but also get them delivered to me? To where, the cave I’m living in?
Anyway, the most entertaining aspect of this screed is just who Bellinger seems to think his target audience is, considering that while we received it via Townhall, it has also been sent out to Newsmax and GOP USA readers as well.
