Back in the ’50s, there was something called the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Senator named Joe McCarthy. We could have used such a committee – and such a man – in the 1980s, when one of the most un-American activities shy of the income tax became part of American life. That’s actually much too passive. When it was imposed on Americans.
I mean what are styled “sobriety checkpoints.”
In the first place, a “checkpoint” is about as un-American as it gets. A “checkpoint” was once a characteristic feature of authoritarian countries, the old Soviet Union as a for-instance. Americans used to watch movies depicting life in the old Soviet Union, which routinely featured “checkpoints.” At which people – the poor people! – were compelled to produce their “papers” and given a once-over by ominous government agents. Americans never imagined (once upon a time) that America would become a land of “checkpoints” also. They are now so habituated to them that they consider them perfectly normal. Just as those poor people in the movies did. Except they really didn’t. It was always evident in those movies that the people forced to endure the “checkpoints” were being degraded and resented it.
Do Americans?
Some do, of course. But many others do not. They support these “checkpoints,” because they have been made Soviet – in their attitude toward them. They believe these “checkpoints” are justified – necessary – because there drunk drivers out on the road and no one wants to be hit by a drunk driver. This is perfectly understandable. It is entirely reasonable. The problem is this understandable worry and reasonable wanting to get drunk drivers off the road has been exploited by the government (and its useful idiots) to impose a regime that assumes every driver on the road is a “drunk” – and must prove that he isn’t, at a “checkpoint.”
This obviously negates the presumption of innocence, which was (once) a very American concept. It is no longer. Not only is ever driver who happens to be out driving – and rolls up on a “checkpoint” – presumed to be drunk; if he does not agree to provide evidence against himself – such as performing various roadside gymnastics (which many sober people have trouble performing because not all of us have the balance and coordination of an athlete) and submitting to a breath/blood test – he is punished for not willingly providing evidence against himself. The punishment – loss of license and “privilege” to drive (which has replaced the formerly American understanding of freedom to travel on the public right-of-way) – is applied even if the evidence obtained under duress establishes innocence; i.e., the tests show the person had no alcohol in their system.
Refusal to willingly take the test is itself a “crime” nowadays. Marvel at that. Innocence is no defense. The accused cannot win – except by submitting. And the “accused” is anyone who just happens to be driving on the road and rolls up on a “checkpoint.” In other words, these “checkpoints” dispense entirely with the idea of probable cause. Before there were “checkpoints,” a cop needed to be able to testify that he witnessed erratic driving or something along those lines that gave him reason to suspect impairment; i.e., probable cause. Only then was it lawful for him to pull that driver over to investigate further. That has been dispensed with. At these “checkpoints,” every driver gets pulled over, without even the pretense that any driver is impaired.
It is difficult to conceive of anything more un-American.
Americans no longer have the peace-of-mind that they once had when they knew that if they had not done anything illegal – more finely, had not given a cop any reason to suspect them of having done anything illegal – they were safe from being treated as if they had done something illegal. You can get a glimpse of what this America was like by watching old black and white movies from the 1930s. A common refrain was, “you got nothing on me, copper” – and the cop would respect that.
That’s all been reversed. Americans are no longer citizens whose rights the government is expected to respect. They are expected to respect the authority of the government to do whatever it likes to them, as justified by some Higher Purpose such as catching drunk drivers by catching everyone who happens to be out driving on a road where a “checkpoint” has been set up.
Is it any wonder we now have similar “checkpoints” at airports – at the entrances to sports arenas and even high school football games? In short order, we are likely to have some iteration of the social credit regime that already exists in China and is in the process of being imposed in Britain – justified in the same of catching various categories of supposed malefactors.
As the “red legs” cavalry officer put it in The Outlaw Josey Wales: Doin’ right ain’t got no end.
. . .
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Every year, we take a road trip into a small town in Arkansas for a family reunion. We’ve been doing it for several decades now. A few years ago, on our way into this small town, lo and behold, a sobriety checkpoint. Mind you, this was at the tail end of the trip, so I was tired and cranky.
The officer walks up to my vehicle and asks if I’ve been drinking. Son of a bitch.
I told him we’ve made this trip every year for the past (however many) years and this is the first time we’ve been subjected to this kind of treatment. I told him it was an odd way to treat people who come to spend money in this town.
He motioned me to move on and we’ve never experienced it again in that town.
Just read your story about tech for tech’s sake and this reminded that there is an excellent piece of tech that actually serves us: The Waze app. People input where cops are, whether it’s parked by the road, hiding under a bridge or set up in a checkpoint and users can adjust their route and/or driving accordingly. We used it on a recent trip to Pensacola and it was pretty cool. We avoided tickets.
If I remember correctly, when this app was offered, police officer groups were bitching up a storm about it. They can use tech on us, you see, but we don’t get to use it on them.
I love your site and am a regular follower / reader, however I have to make a rather obvious comment regarding your column on “Un-American Activities”. Particularly your, forgive my wording, ignorance regarding the history of such. You make the bold assertion that the “House” committee on Un-American Activities was chaired by Senator J. McCarthy….catch that little error. How can a House committee be chaired by a Senator? It was in fact chaired by Rep. Martin Dies of Texas.
If you have any misconceptions regarding J. McCarthy I would highly recommend Ann Coulter’s book. It might change your view of his actions and accusations.
Roger that, Ken – thanks for the catch! Mea culpa. Just fixed!
The first time I ever saw a check point was in South Korea. From the north down to Seoul every couple of miles. Usually a ROK army commando with a bad ass Daewoo machine gun would walk down the isle, checking slicky passes. I hear from someone who went there recently that its roundabouts all over the place now, few checks. Las Vegas had regular DUI checkpoints in the nineties. It was a bad idea to mess with Metro in those days, Don’t really remember seeing many checkpoints in Az. Weed is now de facto legal here. That gives them a lot less reason to roust people.
“Something in the eyes of the ones at the roadblock, where they searched the car, and tried to get us to confess to whatever.” Bruce Cockburn, Dancing In Paradise
“You can get a glimpse of what this America was like by watching old black and white movies from the 1930s. A common refrain was, “you got nothing on me, copper” – and the cop would respect that.”
I have my doubts. That’s the Hollywood version, not real life. My understanding is that cops used to be incredibly corrupt bribe-takers who could “tune you up” with impunity and sometimes outright frame you and get away with it.
Of course they had to be somewhat judicious about it to avoid political blowback — they didn’t want to beat the fuck out of the mayor’s kid, for instance. But if you were a “nobody,” a bum, a vagrant, a black or a “suspected” criminal, they could and would fuck you up pretty good.
White bluesman Lonnie Mack wrote a song about his experience getting shot and thrown in jail by a Cincinnati cop who took umbrage at the fact that Mack got pissed off when the cop almost ran him over:
“In 1977, Mack was shot during an altercation with an off-duty police officer. The experience inspired Mack’s tune, “Cincinnati Jail”, a rowdy, guitar-and-vocal rock number that he favored in live performances later in his career.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonnie_Mack
Teddy Roosevelt made it his policy to try to clean up corruption in the NYPD in the 1890s, but they were still corrupt when they tried to get their own Frank Serpico killed in the 1970s.
Cops have been corrupt goons for a LONG time.
Speaking on un-Amerikan activities, how about the “cult of secrecy” about “comet” 3i/Atlas? For two months the astronomy world sat on the edge of their seats for the Mar’s flyby, when this comet was going to be only 19 million miles from Mars (which is close in space distances). This was going to give the Mar’s orbiter telescope called HiRise an unprecedented view – detailed images like we haven’t seen yet.
But then NASA shutdowns, not one image from any telescope, none from the European Space agency or China. NASA is shut down indefinitely. Not one photo of this object has been released. Here is the NASA webpage:
https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/3i-atlas/
This video explains the telescopes that are viewing this comet and what they can do:
3I/ATLAS: First Mars Images Reveal Unexpected Data!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl150KEByIg
The video seems to indicate that ESA has access to NASA data. So where are the images, ESA is NOT shutdown.
As a reminder, during COVID jab mania and under the Biden regime, there were efforts to implement digital vaccine passports, which could well have led to “vaccine checkpoints” to determine whether people going to a particular public or private place had their “latest COVID booster jab”. Had that gone through, and had we gotten a Harris-Walz regime a few years later, there would likely have been efforts to do the same for other mRNA “vaccines” Big Pharma concocted.
Public health zealots (eg, people who DEMANDED EVERYONE get vaxxed) likely CHEERED what was going on in those dark days, but it was an authoritarian nightmare as well as a violation of informed consent laws, as NOBODY was told what the potential risks were of getting vaxxed; instead, corporate media, public health bureaucracies, & government POUNDED the narrative “Safe and Effective!”, which ultimately turned out to be TOTAL BS.
Oops, that above comment somehow got posted twice.
As a reminder, during COVID jab mania and under the Biden regime, there were efforts to implement digital vaccine passports, which could well have led to “vaccine checkpoints” to determine whether people going to a particular public or private place had their “latest COVID booster jab”. Had that gone through, and had we gotten a Harris-Walz regime a few years later, there would likely have been efforts to do the same for other mRNA “vaccines” Big Pharma concocted.
Public health zealots (eg, people who DEMANDED EVERYONE get vaxxed) likely CHEERED what was going on in those dark days, but it was an authoritarian nightmare as well as a violation of informed consent laws, as NOBODY was told what the potential risks were of getting vaxxed; instead, corporate media, public health bureaucracies, & government POUNDED the narrative “Safe and Effective!”, which ultimately turned out to be TOTAL BS.
‘A common refrain was, “you got nothing on me, copper.” — eric
How quaint — local law enforcement! Officer Mike, was it?
Traitor Trump is federalizing law enforcement. He is taking over state National Guard units and deploying them against their own states, despite howls of protest from governors who thought they were in charge of those troops.
First time I ever saw federalized troops deployed in the US was in La Guardia Airport, a few months after 9/11. They were in the terminal lobby, wearing camo and carrying rifles. How was this supposed to be effective? It was positively Third World. Reminded me of arriving at Guadalajara airport, a few years earlier.
It is unnerving, running into military checkpoints. I came across one, out in the jungle in Malaysia. The English-speaking troops were polite and professional. It probably helped that we were foreign tourists.
In his book Investment Biker (2003), Jim Rogers describes motorcycle touring through Africa and Asia with his girlfriend, and getting stopped at dozens of checkpoints. Invariably these were shakedowns. He became adept at insinuating, ‘Surely there is some fee we could pay to resolve this little infraction.’
This doesn’t work in the USSA. It’s weird how Americans are superficially honest at the street level, disdaining bribes. Yet at the commanding heights of government, it’s corrupt to the core, and largely sold out to foreign/alien interests — e.g. Trump’s Gaza peace plan, developed by an incestuous little group of Israeli and dual citizens, ‘Witkoff,’ ‘Kushner’ and ‘Dermer,’ without even any actual Americans present to represent our country’s interests. 🙁
Most supermarkets have tip toe turned multiple access points into a single “checkpoint” since 2000. Observe and learn.
Its right here in our face
I would reckon most voters never see a checkpoint. The times I’ve seen one were when I was doing night work. The Eagle County sheriff would set one up on US 6 between Avon and Gypsum, knowing that many of the restaurant and bar workers up in Vail were headed to their “affordable housing” in Gypsum. I’d see it from I-70, knowing to never take rt 6 just because it was time I didn’t want to waste. I’ll bet they nabbed more people driving without a license than they got drunks, but probably a fair number of both. If you work a normal 8:00-5:00 work schedule, don’t party all night and stick to the interstates you probably won’t ever see anything like a checkpoint because the LEOs know not to hassle voters.
The thing about checkpoints and their justification, the express consent laws, is that they are pretty much a blatant violation of the 4th and 5th amendments. Except that they’re all state laws not federal. That’s the key as to why they exist. The Congress never passed any laws about drunk driving, it was the states. Then when AAMVA gets the states together to “harmonize” laws, it has the effect of turning the state highways into McDonalds, where even though every state (restaurant) is run by a different franchise, they all are in lock step with each other because most Americans desire consistency over quality. And if you’re a politician you’re going to defer to the LEOs and DMV bureaucracy, and of course the vocal minority voters who make driving laws their “issue.”
“Americans never imagined (once upon a time) that America would become a land of “checkpoints” also. They are now so habituated to them that they consider them perfectly normal.”
Wrong.
It’s only considered normal by those that people that willingly choose to live in states that have legalized these checkpoints see it as normal and tolerate it.
Change the law or move.
Hi BID,
I’m not sure why you’re being so argumentative. I don’t know how old you are, but I assure you there was a time before “checkpoints” existed anywhere in this country – just as there was a time when there were no “buckle up” laws anywhere, either. I am old enough to remember it. It was not that long ago, either (about 40 years ago). In that long-ago time, the idea of “checkpoints” was a Soviet kind of idea. Un-American. But America changed.
Your stock answer is always – move to another state that does not do “x.” That’s fine – as far as it goes. The problem is wherever you go, there will be some other obnoxious un-American law. Because this is not America anymore.
So what are we to do?
Keep playing the victim and bitching?
Or do we have agency over our own lives and seek to maximize the limited freedom that is available to us?
Hi BID,
I don’t see it as “bitching” to point out to people the history of things as this provides context. Imagine being 25 today. You would have no memory of being able to fly without being treated as a presumptive “terrorist.” Certainly no memory of attractive stewardesses (rather than male/gay “flight attendants”). Our hypothetical 25 year old would also have no memory of not being told he must “buckle up” and wear a helmet. Remembering the past is not bitching, as I see it. It is a way to explain our current predicament and perhaps thereby change it.
BID must be a 12 year old.
There are NO perfect states. They ALL suck in one or more ways. The idea of packing up and moving every time there’s an issue is (mostly) bullshit, at least here in the United States.
Notice he never offers any actual solution? Seems he’s the one “bitching.”
States that DISALLOW sobriety checkpoints:
Alaska
Idaho
Iowa
Michigan
Minnesota
Montana
Oregon
Rhode Island
Texas
Washington
Wisconsin
Wyoming
OK, fine.
So have those residents avoided gulag entrapment?
None of those 12 States have made illegal checkpoints at airports and sports arenas or issuance of speeding tickets as a hook to justify a “contact” with police.
And half of them tip the scales of “blue states” on many other issues. Would living in Washington, Michigan or Oregon to avoid DUI checkpoints be worth it?
There’s maybe 3 States where the Venn diagrams overlap on enough other things such as medical freedom, tax burden or zoning codes along with correct DUI checkpoint situation to justify living in them.
How long before they succumb?
Exactly, Cruze!
It’s a bit much to expect people to move – sell your house, get a new job (probably), separate from old friends and familiar things – to avoid one tyranny and be faced with others. What then? Move again?
Many of those that founded this country boarded ships and crossed oceans not knowing whether they would even survive the journey.
And yes, they left friends, family, and jobs behind to seek freedom where none was guaranteed.
We are absolutely living in a police/surveillance state.
Add to the list NSA tracking entire internet, can’t move more than $9,999 in cash at the bank without being tattled on, random license plate reading.
Eventually there will probably be ID checks at random points. Surely it will be to prevent terrorism or something.
If you think about, the orange Trojan Horse is the most un-Amerikan of all time, Trump is selling us out to the Jews and Israel. Trump himself is the illegal, the illegal occupier of the White House. Trump is guilty of treason, he should resign or be arrested and courts martialled, then executed for acting as a foreign agent.
I actually got this published on Unz today, I explain in tiresome detail why all this hell is happening:
https://www.unz.com/cjohnstone/the-trumpanyahu-peace-plan-and-other-notes/#comment-7331659
“None of precepts that animate Israel are true – thus any argument to advance Jewish rights to take some “holy land” that “god gave them” are false claims on the face of it. Israeli aggression is not based on law, it is only based on wishful thinking caused by belief – in thoroughly discredited holy books. None of what Israel is doing is sane, legal, moral, or justified in any way shape or form. The horror show in Gaza is caused by one thing, and one thing only – belief and faith in a holy book.”
That looks like Roy Cohn behind McCarthy in the opening graphic.
Trump mentored under Roy Cohn:
https://therealmichaelcohen.substack.com/p/power-without-remorse-the-roy-cohn
Martin Armstrong: Trump Taking Us Into World War III
If Trump is taking us into WW3, what actions would the state take to make sure we don’t get out of hand? Everything you see Trump doing right now.
Trump said this week he wants Israel to stop bombing Gaza, Bibi just keeps on bombing. I believe Trump is lying, posturing for peace, when he damn well knows Israel will keep bombing.
If Trump wants the bombing to stop then cut funds to Israel. But you see Trump will not do that, because Trump is fine with the bombing and the genocide – so that means Trump is a very dangerous lying psychopath.
Trump could also assassinate Netanyahu. One way to get what he wants to do what the Israelis do to us – assassinate the leader you find to be a problem.
The bottom line is that Trump is the most pro-Israel POTUS ever and that makes him the most dangerous president ever.
Stew Peters weighs in on Trumpenstein’s fake peace deal:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/ji6YNd9vWZ8A
Eric, at the 29:00 mark, the presenter talks about how Trump has made a partnership with Albert Bourla of Pfizer.
Morning, Jack!
Yup. Bourla is a “great businessman,” which is true. He bought and sold the president.
Trump is tripling down on his vaxx endorsement. Trump has betrayed his campaign promises and is a menace to our free society.
Who the hell is going to vote Republican come midterms? All the Demonrats have to do is run moderates and they will win by a landslide.
In fact, I might vote the first time in my life, for opposition to this insane Trump regime which is taking us into a Zionist hell.
There is no way Trump could be re-elected now that we know what a lying traitor he really is.
Thus another argument for WW3 before the midterms so Trump can consolidate his Zionist regime power with martial law or something worse.
Mike Adams postulates Trump could form a dictatorship in 6 months during a world war. He says they will outlaw free speech during wartime.
Makes sense to me, the internet has gone viral against Jewry, and they will have to stomp that out.
Based Report explains Trump’s fake 21 point peace deal:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Xn489viyeYwr
The peace deal is a pretext to finish off Gaza, of course Hamas will not agree, that is the point of it. When Hamas does not agree to Jared Kushner’s plan, Israel will then have the excuse to finish the rest of them off.
The irony of the checkpoints, I don’t think they get many drunks. They end up writing tickets and such for other “violations”. It’s a revenue grab more than anything. If it was for taking drunks off the roads, why do they get to write all the other things? They shouldn’t.
It’s not hard to find drunk drivers so it’s not even neccesary to trample our rights to get them.
You are correct, Richb. Go to the head of the class [Walter E. Williams]
Back when I worked in the news media I would get press releases from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department about their “targeted” enforcement “operations” (don’t ya’ just looove the military style talk?). They were always billed as going after drunks. The funny part was they’d list the various offences that were ticketed or charged. In doing so you’d see there were a couple hundred “violations” and only 2 or three would be for actual drunk driving. Even the “open container” charges would be in the single digits.
When they say it’s not about the money…it’s about the money.
“Last call Cop” used to park across street from the bar my uncle tended at around 1:30 am. Tipsy stumblers stopped before driving stoopid.
Thats how its done.
Were all Kulacks now it seems. So what country still has rights?
In other news: “Ukraine Promotes Neo-Nazi Founder Of Azov Regiment To Brigadier General”, gee maybe the Russians had a point……
Checkpoints are an extension of the saaaaaafety cult, have to get those drunk drivers off the road to keep us all saaaaafe. It’s just serendipity that it gives a great opportunity for AGW’s to “smell marijuana” or have their dog “alert” so they can plant some drugs in your car and rake in tons of revenue from the poor schmucks they stop.
And to top it offf you see the checkpoint and turn around or whatever they come chase you down for avoiding it.