List of Items that make you say "WTF were you thinking??"

I think that for the most part it's just what they're saying it is, a military exercise.

In my opinion though besides the benefits of training for the military (from what I understand it's the largest exercise of its type in a long time) it's also a way of keeping their finger on the nations pulse and to gauge the reaction to the exercise from the various States, politicians and individual groups of citizens.

Meaning if these politicians-officials-citizens cause trouble and demand answers over an exercise involving hypothetical martial law, think of how much trouble they'd cause if martial law was actually declared. That sort of thing.

Q : Do I think that this administration and the U.S. Military are going to implement martial law using this exercise as a vehicle for disguise?

A : No, I totally don't. However I suspect that while Jade Helm is going on they're collecting information on the reactions to this exercise from Federal, State and Local politicians and officials as well as prominent citizens, political activists and dissidents. That way if they ever had to do it for real they'd know what to expect.

They might not ever use the information, but it'll be there.

Just an opinion though, I'm just sumdood on the interwebz.

Sorry, that's the best I have. At least it involves less tinfoil per hat so you get that savings.

The U.S. Government has always been big on collecting information and having contingency plans even if they don't end up being used.

Personally I think they'll do their exercise, that'll be that and we'll never hear another thing about it.

Politicians will get a little more of their 15 minutes in front of a camera regardless of which side of the aisle they sit on with the Liberals pretending to be patriotic flagwavers and supporting the military and the Republicans playing up to the conservatives and saying we need to be a little bit more cautious and find out what the whole thing's about (while doing nothing but scheduling another interview).

O RLY?!?!'

firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/05/07/congress-argues-cant-investigated-insider-trading/

No, doesn't sit quite right with me either. It doesn't seems like it even matters what information they collect on citizens, look at David Coleman Headly (*Click*) and Elton Simpson (*Click*). All that money, all those surveillance programs and all that effort and it hasn't prevented anything unless it was a sting where federal agents or a CI approached the suspect and lured them into something.

It seems like America is doing the long, slow, slide into a combination of Corporate Plutarchy with some occasional bones being thrown to the mob to appease them (an Ochlocracy) from what was once a Constitutional Republic.

Still many Republic-like features left over in the US (especially when compared to much of the globe), but it seems like it's slowly changing...and not for the better.

A Military running exercises in the nation it's defending shouldn't be that big of a deal, but some people are looking at this as a dry-run for martial law simply because the U.S. Government in general and this administration in particular isn't exactly trusted by many people.

There have been all kinds of rumblings for the past few years about both the DHS and FEMA preparing for an economic collapse or a widespread pandemic. Those two topics seem like they pop up over and over again. Some of what's reported is just like with these exercises, much of it is true back up by legitimate sources, but some of it is likely exaggerated. The reporting could be the signs of something ominous on the horizon or it could be just that the government is preparing to restore order and provide aid to American citizens during a major disaster and/or civil unrest if and whenever it happens and to ready the Military for their role overseas and in the US. All that is on their short list of 'Honey-Do's' since that's what those agencies are actually tasked with doing. The Military is also a part of those efforts. So it's hard to tell sometimes what is a real threat to our freedoms and what is the government actually doing their job. The mainstream media sure doesn't help. :Shrug

(Way longer than I intended, but screw it)

Well, this definitely makes the list: www.cnn.com/2015/07/14/politics/iran-nuclear-deal-congress-obama-block/
Is it too early to post this in the "Man-Made Disasters" sub-forum yet?  

Touché.