Tag Archives: conspiracy

That Facebook thing

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It’s one of those things that maybe-its-true-maybe-it-isn’t. What are we talking about? Facebook’s latest foray into the social credit and pre-crime fields – if you’re “too prepared” you might be an extremist.

Some linkage of varying pedigree……

I know, I know….we’re all on a list already, whats one more, right? But, if there’s any truth to this then it’s the classic ‘marginalize a group so you can persecute them freely’ ploy.

You’re preparing for [martial law/hurricanes/Xenu/blizzards/Rapture/blackouts]? Then you’re showing a lack of faith in .gov’s ability to protect and that means you are, de facto, ‘anti government’. Or something like that. The logic, such as it is, will be pretty convoluted.

But, regardless, you’ll be marginalized…anything you say will always be discounted by other people because “Oh, he’s one of those…”. And at some point, that whole ‘if you see something, say something’ nonsense will include guys like you and me walking out of Sportsmans Warehouse with too many Magpuls or too many gas cans.

And just like that, Facebook made everyone’s grandmother into a terrorist……….

Interesting times

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I don’t remember ordering up a burgeoning race war.

I’m not going to say that I’m not a conspiracy guy, but I don’t think I’m a tinfoil hat wearer either. But, when someone says “oh, thats just crazy talk…you know how those people are” I get curious and want to examine things for myself. :::shrug::: I’m a very inquisitive person.

The prevailing conspiracy theories out there are that, since this is an election year, there needs to be a significant amount of sturm and drang to sink any hope of the President getting re-elected. Does that mean that I think ‘They’ created a virus and released it to sink an election? Does that mean I think they got a buncha cops to kill a black guy on camera? No, I don’t. But what I do think is that there are factions that “don’t let a crisis go to waste” and, perhaps, exploit these events more than they normally would have if someone else were President.

I’ll bet this is the sort of thing that comes in threes…. there’s some other crisis out there, I’m sure, just waiting to get tagged as We Warned You That He Would Cause This. China? Earthquake? Mass Shooting? Your guess is as good as mine. We shall see.

Article – What happens when the Internet goes out? This Arizona town found out

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Computers, cellphones and landlines in Arizona were knocked out of service for hours, ATMs stopped working, 911 systems were disrupted and businesses were unable to process credit card transactions — all because a vandal apparently sliced through a fiber-optic Internet cable buried under the desert.

The Internet outage did more than underscore just how dependent modern society has become on high technology. It raised questions about the vulnerability of the nation’s Internet infrastructure.

As a great Scottish engineer once opined, “”The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain.” Preparedness is largely about compensating for failures of a particular system…infrastructure, mechanical, biological, etc….in short, it’s about being able to operate safely (if not normally) when something goes wrong with the usual system.

he internet, Crom love it, is the most awesome thing humanity has access to on a day-by-day basis. So, of course, we wind up being dependent on it. Two guys with a shovel, hacksaw, and probably some old cartome.org info, managed to pull the plug on a region’s ecommerce, phone communications, and other services. Without internet access, ATM’s dont pass out money and your local retailer won’t take your debit card…so you need cash, which the ATM just denied you.

This is why its a good idea to keep a bit of cash tucked away, have alternatives for communication, and other ways to entertain yourself.

What’s really interesting about this is that it seems similar to that episode a few years back where someone attacked an electric substation in the desert and wound up inflicting a similar amount of out-of-proportion mischief. All it takes to really screw things up is a small(!) amount of dedicated individuals. Two brothers shut down all of Boston a few years ago, costing millions of dollars and throwing a monkeywrench into a lot of peoples lives. Imagine a coordinated effort by a dozen people in six different states. You won’t overthrow a country like that, but you will sure make life miserable for it. So, as always, be prepared for alternatives when someone crashes the internet..or the local utilities…or the pipeline that brings natural gas to your county….etc, etc.

Fridays NCIC…’anomaly’….

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Various outlets (Saw this at a few other places but this was the first one I linked to) are reporting that Black Friday Friday Of Color saw a tremendous surge in gun sales…so much so that the NCIC ‘instant background check’ system became a good bit less than instant. I was doing a check for a customer Friday and the drone on the end of the phone was completely flustered that her system wasnt responding. In fact, it was so chaotic that the ‘examiner’ deviated from their oh-so-carefully scripted interaction several times with exclamations of frustration.

Now, I’m not really a conspiracy guy, but I am a guy who is open to exploring all possibilities in the interest of being prepared. If transactions from a dealer require a background check, and that system is ‘down’ for some reason (or it is claimed to be down), then you effectively shut down new gun sales for at least the three-day wait. Of course, in states where having something like a carry permit preclude the need for the NCIC check you’ll still be able to purchase your new thundertoy, and, of course, private transactions will still be exactly that.

Additionally, ignoring the conspiracy angle, record-breaking gun purchases, even on a day known for heavy discounts, should still tell you something: the natives are restless. I always view gun sales as a highly cynical form of ‘consumer confidence’ and ‘leading economic indicator’. Right or wrong, when folks are feeling threatened..by their government, by the economy, by their neighbors…they want a gun. Record purchases, to me, mean record levels of uncertainty about the future. I’m sure that I’m reading too much into it, but when folks were relatively pleased with the government, gun bans weren’t whispering in the breeze, and the economy wasnt sucking wind, you didnt see near the amount of weapons stockpiling.

Not that there’s anything wrong with stockpiling, mind you. It’s just that this is a horrible, horrible time to be doing it….it shoulda been done years ago.

Those “I have a friend…” warnings

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

He said “let me give you a tip, and take this seriously. Do not go anywhere far from home between now and November. You will not be able to get back home if you do.”. That’s all he could tell me, as I tried to get more detailed information from him by asking questions. He rushed me off the phone as if he was telling me something he shouldn’t be. I was pretty stunned at what I just was told. This gentleman has never acted like this before and is far from a so called “conspiracy nut-job”.

If you do any frequent traveling around the preparedness blogosphere, you eventually come across this sort of nonsense from time to time. (Yes, nonsense. Im being judgemental.) Almost always these things follow a format that looks like this:

“I have a [friend/buddy/relative/coworker/sex partner] who works in the [military/police/FBI/Homeland Security/UN/banking industry/FEMA], and they told me that [soon/before the election/after the election/during the holiday] there will be [civil disorder/martial law/invasion/economic collapse/currency exchange/declaration of war/terrorist act/postponed elections] and that all concerned patriots should [stay home/gear up/stock up/get in their bunkers]. I’ve known this person for years and they would never say anything about this unless it was 100% true! You have been warned!”

All that is missing is “if you really want to save America you’ll email this to all your friends and Like it on Facebook. And Microsoft will give everyone $5!”

Now, let’s look at this critically for a minute. Let’s say you really do know that, for example, on New Years Eve the .gov is going to declare martial law because they have inside information that Al Anon Al Roker Al Qaeda is going to pop a nuke in NYC. You know it with 100% certainty…you saw the plans, you saw the warnings, you even saw the guys planting the nuke under Madison Square Garden. It’s a done deal, guaranteed to happen.

So, why would you tell people and remove anything that could give you a shred of credibility? I mean, if you really believe in what is about to happen, and you really want to warn people, wouldnt you say “Hey! I’m Col. Joe Schmoe of NORAD, and we know there’s gong to be a nuclear war tomorrow! Here’s a link to classified intel proving it. Heres a link to the foreign news media thats slowly uncovering the plan. Heres a link to a real major media outlet covering the mysterious departure of everyone in Washington. Heres a picture of me standing in front of the Big Board holding a sign that reads ‘GET IN YOUR BUNKERS NOW!’.” and not care about losing your job or being jailed since, if you really were correct, we’re all going to be living in Mad Max world in the next 48 hours?

Succinctly: if you really do have info about crap like this, why do you care if people know who you are for broadcasting it? Are you saying that the lives of millions of people aren’t more important than you keeping your job?

Listen, if I knew that the Chinese were gonna nuke our military, invade California, and sweep eastward in Red Dawn fashion and telling you this was gonna cost me my job guess what….I’d tell everyone who would listen, back it up as best I could and take the unemployment checks.

When someone makes one of these statements and actually puts their name, career and credentials on the line along with even some fairly credible evidence then I’ll give it some weight. Otherwise it’s nothing more than the preparedness version of “I am Dr. Mugato Timbawawa of the Burkino Faso. A client of mine has left me $20,000,000 of money to my self. If you will help me move it from my country I will give you half……”

MH and that non-existent ‘big government contract’

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

You guys remember about a year or so ago the folks at Mountain House told their small time dealers to go pound salt because MH was dedicating it’s output of #10 cans to other, larger vendors? The rumour at the time was that MH had a gigantic .gov contract that made MH put everyone else on the backburner (which would explain MH’s multi-million dollar capital improvements in manufacturing capacity) but denied that there was a big .gov contract that caused all this drama.

I, of course, didnt believe the denials.

And then I read this:

Many things were discussed, such as the void in the marketplace they left early last year when they slowed production of Mountain House to fulfill other private brand orders, including the military. They have since changed their focus and philosophy on order fulfillment, with the consumer Mountain House brand taking priority over all other orders.

So, yeah, there was a large .gov order alright. I knew it.

Look, in business you go where the money is. Guy wants to spend a couple hundred million bucks with you on one sale, well, the guys as Steve’s Camping Store might get their order pushed to the bottom of the list….but MH really froze their small dealers out with virtually no apologies or explanations. MH makes some great stuff, and I’ll continue to buy it as I need, but I’n, spreading my net further to other brands.

But, it’s nice to know I was right.