If Adam Kokesh is a government plant, then they need to fire their marketing agency.

Recently, famed internet rabble rouser Adam Kokesh was arrested by US Park Police at a pro-marijuana legalization rally in Philadelphia, along side Philly area weed activist/comedian N.A. Poe. Within minutes, the internet was abuzz in conspiracy theories about the arrest, as well as about Kokesh himself. The most popular of the theories, still gaining traction even after his unconditional release from federal lockup, is that Kokesh is in fact not a hard-core libertarian gun-rights and marijuana legalization activist, but is in fact a paid government "plant".

It would appear that this rumor is being fueled by two major pieces of so called "evidence", the first being his plans to stage an armed open-carry gun rights march into the heart of Washington D.C. on July 4th. 

Proponents of this theory claim this is a setup plot by the "powers that be" to cause all out carnage and destruction, in order to further the push to ban all guns and assault rifles. Apparently the government's master plan is to use a shootout as proof that gun owners are unbalanced, and will impose outright martial law and go door to door confiscating all guns. 

The other "gotcha"  that seems to "prove" this theory is that on Kokesh's Facebook page he lists his occupation as a "Revolution Czar" at Obama For America, the president's campaigning organization. Apparently this obvious attempt at a joke is being interpreted by people who have never bothered to watch any of Kokesh's numerous videos, and has no grasp on his sense of  humor.

The problem with all of this, is that it assumes that the spooky men behind the curtain have absolutely no idea what they are doing, and are completely bumbling idiots on par with Barney Fife.

Lets start with the obvious, shall we? If someone is a deep cover disinformation agent operating on behest of the United States government via whichever three lettered acronym agency you wish, wouldn't listing your occupation as such on your public facebook profile, with over 5,000 friends and viewable  by anyone with an internet connection, be the most absolutely idiotic thing you could ever do? Did whoever train Kokesh suddenly forget the first part of the manual, possibly on loan from the CIA, that says "Hey, no matter what you do, don't ever tell people who you really work for, cool?". Are we to believe that the same government which trains agents in how to carry out secret assassinations, infiltrate governments, and topple entire regimes, would just conveniently skip reviewing the public facebook page of a high profile "agent"? I mean, I realize that in a lot of ways our government is pretty damn incompetent sometimes, "Bay Of Pigs" seems to come to mind, but come on. Really?

So how about this armed march? It seems the working theory is that "they" are planning on either somebody in the crowd to "shoot first", or the government security forces will fire the first shot, but either way it will devolve into a bloody mess with lots of dead bodies. 

There seems to be a little problem with this, and it's a little plucky organization called the National Rifle Association. The NRA is perhaps one of the strongest lobbies in the history of our nation. And the fact is, they have completely distanced themselves from this march. In fact, most mainstream gun owners have. The general consensus is that this is an absolutely bad idea. And with that in mind, if there was an incident, you would have every single gun rights organization in the country distancing themselves from the events of that day.

If there is anything large lobbying groups are good at, it is spinning the narrative in their favor. The NRA has 2.2 million likes on their facebook page. Kokesh has about 50,000. This hypothetical "blood bath" would be viewed as just what it is, a tragic yet isolated incident of violence by a small group of "troublemakers".

So far, it looks like the marketing experts who are pulling the puppet strings of Kokesh are striking out. Unfortunately for them, it gets worse.

The "Smokedown Prohibition" event of May 18th was the 5th of it's kind. On previous occasions, the police came, watched a bunch of pot heads smoke up, and then watched as they all went home. This time, the situation was different. 

On the day of the event, barriers were setup around the demonstration area, and signs quoting the federal statute were taped up everywhere. Also noticeable was an increased police presence. In fact, some say the police presence was unprecedented.

Kokesh and Poe were both arrested on charges of resisting arrest, and assault on a US Park Services officer. However, there is video from multiple angles illustrating that this simply was not the case. It is also apparent from the video, that this was a targeted arrest of two high profile advocates of marijuana legalization. Based on courtroom testimony during Kokesh's and Poe's federal detention hearing, it is also made clear that the authorities were well aware of Kokesh, and what he had planned on July 4th. All signs point to this being an orchestrated take down

The problem is this. The arrest of Kokesh and Poe illustrated a very poignant fact. By targeting Kokesh & Poe, the government is showing that it is willing to meet peaceful, non-violent protesters with violence. A bunch of weed smokers in a park is not a threat to anyone. But an organized confrontation and trumped up charges sends a clear message to everyone. And it speaks volumes about how our government treats dissent.

These arrests also have had another unintended consequence. Millions of people have seen the videos. Millions have been able to infer that our government is running on an empty tank when it comes to marijuana policy. The legalization effort has potentially just increased in support exponentially.

However, let me channel my inner Billy Mays and say: "But wait, there's more!". Out of those millions of new eyes on this subject, it is conceivable that a percentage of them may be motivated to pick up the flag and start championing their own causes. Sometimes all it takes is a great injustice to stir people into action. By arresting Poe and Kokesh, the government has possibly created another thousand Poe & Kokesh's. These arrests have only served to increase their public profiles. And as history has taught us over and over, high profile leaders help create more high profile leaders.

So really, if you look at all of this from a higher level and side step the paranoid conspiracy theories, this seems not so much like a grand conspiracy, but a grand screw up. And as history also teaches us, if there's one thing the government actually is good at, it's screwing up.

As "Hanlons Razor" states, "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence". The simple fact is that Kokesh is probably not a government plant. He's simply a man with strong convictions, and controversial opinions. And by trying to silence him, our out of control government has only helped to further his cause. No tin foil hat needed...