Conspiracy Theories

Jesse Walker and Chris Hayes Discuss Jade Helm 15

On MSNBC's All In

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Last night I appeared on Chris Hayes' show on MSNBC to talk about the Jade Helm 15 training exercise and the conspiracy theories that have cropped up around it. (My part of the segment starts at the 8:42 mark.)

For more from me on Jade Helm, go here and here.

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Books Editor Jesse Walker is the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

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  1. AlmightyJB

    I am prettt sure if you click that, the Illuminati is notified.

  2. I do find it odd, among other odd features of Jade Helm, that the FBI and the DEA are specifically called out as “agency partners.”

    Now, if this really is supposed to be training for overseas ops, what the heck are the FBI and DEA doing in the mix?

    There’s a lot about this that is odd. It may just be (probably is) an unholy concatenation of agency overreach, but frankly I think that’s the best possible explanation. And if so, it deserves to be viewed with intense scrutiny, at the very least.

    1. Crusty Juggler

      The FBI is too busy being overwhelmed by homegrown terrorists, so it is logical that they would assist Special Operations in simulated overseas training exercise.

    2. C. S. P. Schofield

      Hey, maybe the professionalism of the military will rub off some on the stogies of the FBI and DEA.

      Awfully hard to be an arrogant “you can’t teach me anything” prick when the instructor is carrying full battle rattle?..

      Frankly, I suspect that the FBI and DEA are being put in close proximity to the military in an effort to smoke out cases of rampant wrongthink. You know, soldiers who think Obama is a putz, or that the War On Drugs is a colossal waste of time and resources.

  3. Lady Bertrum

    Weird – Hayes’ attitude I mean.

    The left usually has a healthy suspicion of the military, but here he’s completely contemptuous of the same feelings because it comes from the right.

    Another opportunity to point his finger and laugh at paranoid wingnuts, I guess. If the military was planning exercises in an urban environment like, say, St. Louis or Cleveland and the locals voiced suspicion or opposition I’m sure he’d be sympathetic.

    And this is why it’s so difficult to take the progressive left seriously. Even when they’re mostly right on an issue, their obvious double standards and classism makes them intellectually dishonest.

    1. PapayaSF

      I think a big part of this is Obama. If this were happening under a Republican, the left would be having the conspiracy theories.

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  4. jdgalt

    Whether the specifics of this conspiracy theory are true or not, that part of the country has had recent experiences that really do justify it, such as the National Guard wrongfully seizing people’s guns in New Orleans after Katrina. I have no issue with any community making sure that can’t happen again.

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