I’ll help you out. Reread one of my earlier posts. It’s the one with an actual FEMA link and it clearly outlines its creation and consolidation of delegated powers that tomndebb is asking you to address.
Do you care?
Considering the sheer number of factual errors in your original post, you embody that lack of knowledge that you decry.
- Buy guns.
- Build bunker.
- Profit!
Really? I never got that impression. I’ve always thought that the “the government is coming to kill us allll” crowd was if anything these days more of a right wing phenomenon.
You posted a false premise in order to measure how much of a rise you could get out of people?
Y’see, in my mind this just collapses. The saying may go “you have to spend money to make money,” but there is no procedure described or even suggested explaining how spending money and time on guns and a bunker can make you money. Sure, a person with imagination can fill in the blank between 2 and 3 many ways, but a person with imagination would not need a step-by-step procedure like that.
In short, unless you can expand on it I will not suggest that my unimaginative friends subscribe to your newsletter.
Simple rhetoric over beers at the bar last night.
Yeap!
Yeah, but your statements regarding those facts are by and large non-factual. Your question is not subversive, merely ignorant and stupid.
Considering the ignorance displayed so far, that last point is unfortunate.
Very daring stance you’re taking here, posting on an anonymous message board. Fight the Power!
I agree. The anti-FEMA conspiracies began on the left in the eighties. FEMA started out as a pretty non-controversial agency when it was founded by the Carter administration - basically a single agency to co-ordinate federal response to natural disasters.
Under the Reagan administration, FEMA got a new mission; preparing for the aftermath of a nuclear war. Okay, this was during the Cold War and a nuclear war was a real possibility. And the aftermath of a nuclear war would be comparable to a major natural disaster. So this was reasonable (although there was some grumbling that FEMA was devoted too many resources to nuclear war preparation and not enough to the more common traditional natural disasters).
But the conspiracy theories arose out of some of FEMA’s preparations. FEMA went beyond merely planning for coping with the physical aspects of a war. They were also planning for how to deal with the political aspects. They were doing things like making plans to set up a new government if Washington was destroyed, declaring martial law to prevent rioting and looting, building camps to relocate refugees, and writing up legal documents on how the country would be run on an emergency basis if Congress and the court system were unable to function. And they had a lot of these plans classified as secret because they figured if the Soviet Union knew about them, it would target the recovery program as part of an attack on America.
What then happened was people found out that the Reagan administration had all these secret plans to essentially replace the American government with martial law and a quasi-dictatorship. And that camps were being build to round up and hold hundreds of thousands of people. To a lot of people it looked like the Reagan administration might be preparing to stage a right-wing coup d’etat.
Thanks Duckster, I know he was wanting me to produce evidence like Executive Order Number 12148 that created the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
Executive Order Number 12656 which appointed the National Security Council as the principal body that “should” consider emergency powers, EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990, EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995, EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997, EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998, EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000, EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001,EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002, EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003, EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004, EXECUTIVE ORDER 11005, EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051, EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310, EXECUTIVE ORDER 11049, EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921.
I am but a layman with a limited vocabulary and even less skills as a writer; therefore my views are subject to scrutiny and conjecture as to its validity.
You are a moderator, now that is just great! I was warned not to name call in the forum. That obviously does not apply to you!
I am 57 years old and in all that time I have never called anyone “ignorant and stupid”!
People may be misinformed, not knowledgeable of a subject, they may even have a lack of understanding, but to call someone ignorant and stupid is degrading and uncalled for in any conversation.
Oh, there are plenty of conversations where it’d fit right in.
Listing a number of EOs which you obviously did not read, does not advance your cause. If you look closely these EOs, starting with EO 10990 (issued by Kennedy) through 11921 (issued by Carter) they clarify and consolidate delegated authorities of various Executive Departments and agencies as they relate, generally speaking, to the safety and welfare of the American People, and the continuation of government, in the event of a national emergency.
For the record, I did not read all of the posted EOs. But for the half dozen I read, the pattern is quite clear. I say this with full disclosure as being a fed and involved in the communications process for COOP for the agency that employs me. It’s not a primary duty of mine; just an “other duty as assigned,” more so out of personal interest and related experience. In other words, people (I work with and more importantly, work for) are not stepping up to the plate to work on preparedness planning, that IMHO, we are ripe for major breakdowns across the board during a natural disaster, or worse, another 9/11 terrorist attack.
You are most welcome to advance any conspiracy theories you may choose as a result. We’re used to the wingnut attitude around here. Your government has a duty to protect the country, and since 2001, it has taken off (some that have more bark than bite). Granted, a number of wingnuts in Congress add fuel to the conspiracy fires you seem to be stoking yourself. I can tell you firsthand that on the federal civilian level that concerted attempts to subjugate civil liberties on a massive scale are just not going to happen. Too many federal civilian “authorities” in my view are incompetent in basic communication and management during simple emergencies. I’ve experienced bosses several pay grades above me during exercises quiver like bowls of jello because they have to make life/death decisions. And that’s only with natural disaster scenarios or major accident exercises (e.g., a tanker full of gasoline explodes in a major downtown area). Hell, after one exercise a few years back, one exec told us during an after action review he would seriously consider saying, “Fuck all this. If this had been real my family is more important than this crap.” He’s now some SES bigwig in DC.
That said, do you really think coordination with state/local authorities would be sufficient? Unless a sitting president orders the US military to directly fight the citizenry, shitty communications, ego games, and general inter-agency squabbles will dilute any effectiveness at taking over the country. And keep in mind the oath taken is to the Constitution, and not politicians. Last Resort may be an ABC tv show but the sentiment is not without some truth to it. Am I saying that [ some | many ] federal civilian authorities would consider (questionable) orders coming from higher up in the chain of command to be unlawful and defy them? Yes, I would.
You are posting to the SDMB. That means you already have access to the greatest library ever created. Yet you appear to be in lockstep with the ignorant rants of the wingnuts by posting claptrap conspiracy garbage, when you have full access to do your own research and read firsthand from credible sources for yourself. You baited other Dopers who see through the ignorance and called you out as Dopers do. As a newbie here, not a good start.
Wouldn’t someone who was really in the military laugh at the idea of FEMA as a threat?
How many tank divisions does FEMA have again?
I am not posting here as a moderator, but as a poster. If I were posting as a moderator, I would precede my post with [Moderator Note] or [Moderating] or a similar announcement, and sign it as a Moderator. If I do not do these things, you can assume I am not moderating.
You might wish to read the rules and FAQs of this site, and you probably should have lurked a bit to get some sense of how this place operates before posting.
You must be a saint indeed. 
I did not call you ignorant and stupid, I called your question ignorant and stupid (which it was). The rule in this forum is that you may insult the post, but not the poster. Again, if you had lurked for a while before posting you would have found this out.
Your posts are misinformed, not knowledgeable on the subject, and betray a lack of understanding. Is that better?
The comment on ignorance attacks the argument.
The comment on being a voter is a bit more personal than we need in this forum.
[ /Moderating ]
I’m curious whether you were as concerned about the real civil rights and human rights abuses of the US government in response to the 9/11 attacks as you are about these bar stories about FEMA. These include detaining people in Guantanamo Bay without trial, extraordinary rendition (sending people to other countries to be tortured on behalf of the US), spying on phone calls of Americans, etc.
Ooh…mod on mod! Modderdome! Modderdome!