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John W. Whitehead is an attorney and author who has written, debated and practiced widely in the area of constitutional law and human rights. Whitehead's aggressive, pioneering approach to civil liberties has earned him numerous accolades and accomplishments, including the Hungarian Medal of Freedom. His concern for the persecuted and oppressed led him, in 1982, to establish The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties and human rights organization in Charlottesville, Va. Whitehead serves as the Institute's president and spokesperson. His thought-provoking commentaries call people to action and address a wide range of contemporary issues from faith to politics and television to constitutional rights. He is also a frequent commentator on a variety of issues in the national media, as well as the editor of the award-winning pop culture magazine, Gadfly. Whitehead's book A Government of Wolves will be published in June 2013. Please visit On Target to view Whitehead's weekly video commentaries. He also blogs daily about the emerging police state at http://agovernmentofwolves.com/
SHARE Monday, November 25, 2019 Don't Just Give Thanks. Pay Your Blessings Forward
Fixing what's wrong with this country is not going to happen overnight, but in the short term, there are things we can all do right now to make this world (or at least our small corners of it) a little bit kinder, a lot less hostile and more just. On a larger scale, we need to stop being silent bystanders to our nation's downfall. It's never too late to start making things right in the world.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, November 19, 2019 Impeach the Government: Rogue Agencies Have Been Abusing Their Powers for Decades
Don't fall for the partisan shell game that sets Donald Trump up as the fall guy for the Deep State's high crimes and misdemeanors. Set your sights higher: impeach the government for overstepping its authority, abusing its power, and disregarding the rule of law.
(2 comments) SHARE Wednesday, November 13, 2019 Casualties of War: Military Veterans Have Become America's Walking Wounded
Many of those who have served in the military are among America's walking wounded. Despite the fact that the U.S. boasts more than 20 million veterans who have served in World War II through the present day, the plight of veterans today has become America's badge of shame.
SHARE Tuesday, November 5, 2019 A New Kind of Tyranny: The Global State's War on Those Who Speak Truth to Power
In an age of prosecutions for thought crimes, pre-crime-deterrence programs, and government agencies that operate like organized crime syndicates, there is a new kind of tyranny being imposed on those who dare to expose the crimes of the Deep State, whose reach has gone global. The Deep State has embarked on a ruthless, take-no-prisoners, all-out assault on truth-tellers, activists, journalists and whistleblowers.
(20 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 29, 2019 They Live, We Sleep: Beware the Growing Evil in Our Midst
We're living in two worlds, you and I. There's the world we see (or are made to see) and then there's the one we sense (and occasionally catch a glimpse of), the latter of which is a far cry from the propaganda-driven reality manufactured by the government and its corporate sponsors, including the media. Indeed, what most Americans perceive as life in America-privileged, progressive and free-is a far cry from reality.
(1 comments) SHARE Tuesday, October 22, 2019 The Pathocracy of the Deep State: Tyranny at the Hands of a Psychopathic Government
Electing a psychopath to public office is tantamount to national hara-kiri, the ritualized act of self-annihilation, self-destruction and suicide. It signals the demise of democratic government and lays the groundwork for a totalitarian regime that is legalistic, militaristic, inflexible, intolerant and inhuman.
(2 comments) SHARE Tuesday, September 24, 2019 Welfare Checks Turn Deadly: You Might Want to Think Twice Before Calling the Cops
Think twice before you call the cops to carry out a welfare check on a loved one. Especially if that person is autistic, hearing impaired, mentally ill, elderly, suffering from dementia, disabled or might have a condition that hinders their ability to understand, communicate or immediately comply with an order. Particularly if you value that person's life. Disabled individuals make up a third to half of those killed by police.
SHARE Tuesday, September 10, 2019 The Bill of Rights Turns 230, and What Do We Have to Show for It? Nothing Good
It's been 230 years since James Madison drafted the Bill of Rights--the first ten amendments to the Constitution--as a means of protecting the people against government tyranny, and what do we have to show for it? Nothing good. In America today, the government does whatever it wants, freedom be damned.
(5 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 29, 2019 The American Gulag: Brick by Brick, Our Prison Walls Get More Oppressive by the Day
We in the American Police State may enjoy the illusion of freedom, but that is all it is: an elaborate deception, rooted in denial and delusion, that hides the grasping, greedy, power-hungry, megalomaniacal force that lurks beneath the surface. Brick by brick, the prison walls being erected around us by the government and its corporate partners-in-crime grow more oppressive and more pervasive by the day.
(5 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 21, 2019 American Apocalypse: The Government's Plot to Destabilize the Nation Is Working
The U.S. government is working hard to destabilize the nation. No, this is not another conspiracy theory. Observe for yourself what is happening right before our eyes. Domestic terrorism fueled by government entrapment schemes. Civil unrest stoked to dangerous levels by polarizing political rhetoric. A growing intolerance for dissent. The seeds of chaos are being sown, and it's the U.S. government that will reap the harvest.
(3 comments) SHARE Monday, August 12, 2019 Who Inflicts the Most Gun Violence in America? The U.S. Government and Its Police Forces
Yes, gun violence is a problem in America. Yes, mass shootings are a problem in America. Yes, mentally ill individuals embarking on mass shooting sprees are a problem in America. However, tighter gun control laws and so-called "intelligent" background checks fail to protect the public from the most egregious perpetrator of gun violence in America: the U.S. government.
(4 comments) SHARE Thursday, August 8, 2019 We're All Enemies of the State: Draconian Laws, Precrime & the Surveillance State
If the government is consistent about any one thing, it is this: it has an unnerving tendency to exploit crises and use them as opportunities for power grabs under the guise of national security. Cue the Emergency State, the government's Machiavellian version of crisis management that justifies all manner of government tyranny in the so-called name of national security.
(17 comments) SHARE Wednesday, August 7, 2019 We're All Enemies of the State: Draconian Laws, Precrime & the Surveillance State
Trump promised to give the FBI "whatever they need" to investigate and disrupt hate crimes and domestic terrorism. With that promise, flippantly delivered without any apparent thought for the Constitution's prohibitions on such overreach, the president has given the FBI the green light to violate Americans' civil liberties in every which way.
(9 comments) SHARE Wednesday, July 31, 2019 The Rise of the American Gestapo: Has It Already Happened Here?
Despite the finger-pointing and outcries of dismay from those who are watching the government discard the rule of law at every turn, the question is not whether Donald Trump is the new Adolf Hitler but whether the American Police State is the new Third Reich. Yet the warning signs are unmistakable: the Deep State's love affair with totalitarianism began long ago.