Quite honestly, I'm still trying to figure the scandal here. The NSA is collecting info on all electronic communications in America? How is this news? I assumed they were doing this all along. I don't like the idea of anybody listening to my phone communications, but everybody knows anytime you go over an electronic medium, that is the risk one takes. Everybody knows that an email is about as secure as a postcard - anyone can read it. For this reason I always shy away from discussing topics that include tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) - Hell, I feel edgy just discussing my gun purchases.
OK, OK - I'm with y'all; this overreach of government power portends is scary as all get out. This, coupled with the IRS abuse of power, is absolutely Orwellian. What's even more unnerving is now that the whole thing is known and out in the open, there is no indication that any of this snooping on US citizens will come to an end. In other words, for all we know, the NSA is still doing what it does. For that matter, so is the IRS.
What I want to know is, with all this monitoring and data mining of our electronic communcations; how the Hell did the Boston Bombers not get apprehended? The Chechen brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev and their evil mother were transmitting jihad on all frequencies between here and Durka-Durkastan; an international intelligence agency no less formidible than the FIS - modern day incarnation of the KGB - informed our people TWICE that these dirtbags were radioactive and STILL THE GOVERNMENT DID NOTHING???
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
This begs the question, of course; if such a robust surveillance program isn't shutting down dirtbags like the Tsarnaev brothers, then what the hell IS it being used for?
During the course of a busy week, this information emerged: Obama, like all Democratic presidents, would love to have power after he leaves office, to be a kingmaker. In the Era of Electronic Information, a database can do that. The capability is out there, programs exist, that when people make or receive phone calls, phone numbers can be looked up instantly. Information such as like individuals' names, addresses, the value of their homes, marital status, approximate income, approximate assets, cards they have registered to the address they live at, whether they're in foreclosure, Facebook profiles, LinkedIn profiles, Twitter profiles associated with that number. The advent of mobile phones has created a situation where a phone number equals a person, so the phone number's a much better index for getting everything you know about a person than something that's less easy and less public like a Social Security number. And so my company sells that information to companies so that they can know who is calling and route that call better and offer appropriate products or not.
DARK SCENARIO:
All this kerfuffle about data and surveillance, the IRS, Benghazi, any of the improper actions of DC, it ultimately doesn’t mean a thing. It is just dancing, waving the cape to distract the bull. We are very likely undergoing the process of a coup d'etat. It will not be a bloody coup - I've seen my share of those up close and personal - but there is also a phenomenon known as a bloodless coup. In a society as complex as the United States, this coup will be conducted not by soldiers and tanks rolling through the streets of the capital city, but rather by a series of policies, laws and regulations designed to constrain our freedom. Our behavior is coerced by the tax code, gun control measures, environmental policies that tell us what we can and cannot do with our own property, and ultimately Obamacare, which tells us what we can and cannot do with our own bodies.
When they want to implement the coup, first we’ll lose satellites - the Global Positioning Satellite constellation has the capability to be encrypted at the touch of a button. Only the government and military will have commo. Second we will lose electricity. Easy enough to do; the national grid is computer/satellite controlled. The masses will be in the dark literally and figuratively. Riots will ensue and effective resistance to Government control measures will be mitigated. The Powers That Be, all they have to do is sit back and wait, the populace will take itself down; after a period of time the Department of Homeland Security - think TSA, think ATF; think New Orleans after Katrina, think Waco - can walk into areas, restore order, eliminate any rebel opposition and turn the lights back on.
They can also accomplish most of this by collapsing the dollar.
Am I missing something?
Special thanks to Chas, Master of Disaster for contributing to this post
-STORMBRINGER SENDS
Indirect control can be implemented by controlling essential consumer goods. Artificial scarcity, false market values, controls and regulations.
ReplyDeleteThink: *oil, gasoline, heating fuel;
*ammunition;
*food;
*medical access;
It wouldn't take much for "straw men" with vague funding - money is no object whatsoever - to buy and store ammo, diesel fuel, milk, whatever. Prices driven up, citizens stockpiling, empty shelves.
Back in the day my Uncle taught me that prisoners are always more manageable when they are hungry, cold, tired, lonely, angry. Get the picture?
I agree. We are involved in a global war and the other side doesn't wave a flag and charge the beaches. It's despicable but it is what it is.
ReplyDeleteI assume some form of snooping has been going on for a long time. Anyone who has swipped a store card at the supermarket has all of his or her purchases recorded. Anyone who has a Facebook page and thought it was private is an idiot. I have started to say "Hello NSA" on all of my calls.
Yes, Hawk, this post is like a wakeup call for all of us. We expect to see tanks in the streets but the dirty sneaky work is already being done while we sleep.
ReplyDeleteBy the time we see the tanks it will be all over. Anonymous above is drawing a hard line but it hasn't happened yet. Nobody wants to be the first to storm the barricades so we crouch in our foxholes and wait. And wait. Memories of Waco I guess.
Big is picture right, but of the 2/3 of a million hams in America, I guess fully half of them are prepared for grid down communications. So strike that only the .mil has comms. No way to guess how many of that 300,000 are prepared for long term, real off-grid living, but hams pride themselves on being ready when everything else is down. It won't be a bloodless coup.
ReplyDeleteWe have a little policy here in the comments section of Blog STORMBRINGER - words of sedition are NOT AUTHORIZED.
ReplyDeleteThe comment by Anonymous has been deleted. If you want to start a movement, get your own blog.
Thank You, The Management
As for sedition?
ReplyDeleteWe're still nowhere near the injustices suffered that precipitated the American revolution outlined in the declaration and there are still many means available to redress them, but they only work if men are moral. If men aren't moral - then I'm not interested in any new government put together by immoral men either.
As for a war? This isn't a war of technology or politics or systems - it is a war of values.
If Americans even kept just the 10 commandments, Obama wouldn't be able to hide and the NSA and IRS corruption would be outed tomorrow because moral honesty and integrity wouldn't allow them to hide anywhere.
So if we want God to bless America to stop these things, we start in our homes and we start on our knees and we start with ourselves.
Otherwise, there's no difference between the two sides and the conflict is just one of that: conflict for the sake of conflict - and I wouldn't have faith in either side to govern any society I would want to live in.
So before men start talking taking up the sword, I would rather see that they demonstrate the requisite judgement and discernment and moral discipline in their own lives, as well as the ability to articulate them and reach out to others before calling for a bloodbath.
Good entry Sean. Very well done as always, and always enjoyable.