Tag: security

Daily Life, Government, woke

I Think It’s Over

Yesterday was a good day. The temperature approached 70 degrees. We got a bunch of yard work done. Multiple trips to the dump. I took a nap. We went out to dinner and watched the sunset over the lake. Just before bed, I rescued my garbage can from a marauding bear. We’re very blessed to live where we do and to be as fortunate as we are. It’s easy in my little corner of the world to feel like everything is hunky dory.

Meanwhile, there’s a literal invasion crossing our southern border. 10,000 people a day from countries across the globe. Folks who have limited job skills, can’t speak the language, no money, and carry scabies, lice, and TB. And our government facilitates it. We bus them to cities across the country. We give them cell phones. They receive court dates 4-5 years in the future. The majority of the migrants are single, fighting-age males. Your government is doing everything possible to hide this.

They are not leaving. No politician has the political will to take any meaningful action. We have conceded the southern border to the cartels. The cartels have clearly taken over the southern border states. They are now the primary gang in most major cities. Given our nationwide push to defund police and elect liberal district attorneys… how long do you think it will be before major parts the US look like cartel-run Mexico?

Mobs of violent criminals operate with impunity in major cities. They loot and steal without fear. Major brand name stores are pulling out of big cities at a record pace due to crime. If you’re stupid enough to try and defend yourself or others, you will lose everything. You will be prosecuted and vilified by the media. Antifa operates at will in most big cities and are never targeted by police or the FBI. Yet if you protest drag queens targeting children, you’ll be guaranteed to have federal agents busting down your door. Hate crime!

Our current national debt is $31.7 trillion. Our debt service alone is equal to our defense budget. The republicans have passed a bill raising another $1.5 trillion in borrowing, and the democrats immediately accused them of trying to starve grandma. These are not serious people. Debt, inflation, war, and a banking crisis don’t bode well for a long-term stable economy.

The average person in this country probably rarely hears any of this. CNN won’t cover it. They’re too busy trying to generate new Trump outrage for ratings.

So, what happens next? It’s the decline of the Roman Empire, 2.0. In my opinion, we’ve crossed the tipping point. There is no going back. It’s been a slow decline, but now it’s beginning to accelerate. I don’t think the collapse happens in my lifetime… but I also didn’t think society would crumble as fast as it has.

I fear two scenarios. The first is large portions of the country finally deciding they’ve had enough. Vigilante mobs form. Private “security” groups organize to patrol and protect neighborhoods. Violent encounters ensue with criminals and clashes with government forces trying to stop citizens taking matters into their own hands. The wild-wild west on steroids. The cartels will thrive in this environment.

The second scenario is the rise of a hugely influential politician. One who pushes an extreme nationalism as an excuse to massively expand the security and military industrial complex. Someone capable of convincing the masses to give up just a little bit of freedom in exchange for security. As a nation of sheep, we would happily follow a charismatic leader down a dark road. A real-life handmaiden’s tale.

In the face of my Sunday morning dystopian view, what can we do? Not much. Long-term, I think it’s going to happen no matter what. Do everything possible to get yourself out of bigger cities and go to a small town and put down roots. Be ready for food insecurity. Read and watch news sources other than mainstream media. Be a contrarian and reject the status quo. Learn to be realistic about what’s looming around the corner and realize that nobody’s coming to save you.

But then again, maybe the future will be amazing! Flying electric cars and helpful home assistant robots in every home. A borderless society with people living in peace, love, and harmony. A gluten-free and tofu driven nirvana.

Maybe. Meanwhile, enjoy life. Go do something fun today. Tomorrow is not a guarantee.

Government

They Know Everything

Way back in my tech heyday, I felt like I was pretty savvy. I had a good handle on most things tech. When I changed careers, I started losing touch with the latest and greatest goings on in the tech world. Now, I barely pay attention. So when I had to sign this years tax return electronically, I was taken aback at the verification questions I was asked. How do they know that? Clearly everything in your life is now online and available.

If you haven’t experienced this yet, the IRS and DocuSign use something called Knowledge Based Authentication to validate who you are. You’re asked a series of questions about your life. For me it was things like a car, an address, and a corporation. But not just simple associations… a question like, “have you ever been associated with one of these addresses?” Here’s the kicker – it was a former address of a family member in another state. It also asked me “Have you ever owned one of the following vehicles?” One of them was a car I owned in 1996.

I don’t know why this caught me off guard. We’re so used to the electronic world we don’t think about the ramifications anymore. It feels anonymous when we’re online. But in reality, the state knows everything about you. Everything you’ve ever purchased, searched for, and people you’ve interacted with. They’re using marketing data, credit reports, and transaction histories to create a profile of you. As the old saying goes, if you’re not paying for a product or service, then YOU are the product. Facebook, Instagram, Google, etc…

But who cares? If they want to gather info to create better advertising, fine by me. I’d rather see ads for mountain bikes than feminine hygiene products, right? (yes, I know women ride mountain bikes) If only it was that innocent. Time to get your tinfoil hats on folks…

If it was that simple to figure out something I’d purchased way back in 1996, what else could be done with that information? Here’s a (true) scenario – this past summer in the little town next door (population 517), there was a horrific murder. A motel guest snapped after being asked by the owner of the motel to stop doing something. The guest grabbed a gun, marched into the front office and shot the owner and his wife.

Now imagine if the government or a big tech company offered hotels a program that used Knowledge Based Authentication to make an instant evaluation when someone is checking in. Spent some time in a psychiatric facility? Sorry, not going to be able to rent you a room today. Seems like it would be in everyone’s best interest, right? Who wouldn’t want to be able to keep a potential nutjob from checking in? It’s for your own good.

Now sprinkle in a little of this newfangled AI that’s making news… and this fancy new program may decide a meme you posted in ’21 a little offensive. No hotel for you. You went to a strip club during your bachelor party in 1998? Sorry, we can’t approve this home loan. You drove over 12,000 miles in one year? Unfortunately, you no longer qualify to purchase a gasoline vehicle – only electric vehicles for you.

You think that’s silly? PayPal’s current terms of service agreement says they can fine you $2,500 if you violate their “acceptable use” policy. Shopify, Chase Bank, and Facebook shut down a popular YouTuber’s account overnight, destroying his business, because he was deemed to be putting out “prepper” content (he wasn’t). The Twitter files revealed that all the government intelligence services have a direct, online portal to every major social media platform. Credit card companies are now categorizing gun and ammo purchases separately (previously they were lumped in under “sporting goods”), allowing the government (or anyone who purchases that information) to know exactly who’s buying what.

The social credit system is a freight train barreling down the tracks at us… and we have no idea it’s coming. Just like the Patriot Act, AI/Knowledge Based Authentication will be forced on us “for our own safety”. It’s all good – until the system decides YOU did something that goes against the rules. Every single thing you’ve ever written, posted, or purchased will be analyzed. Every picture you’ve taken (posted or not), every single store you’ve visited, every trip you’ve made – all fair game. That fitness tracker that’s recording your blood pressure and heart rate? So sorry, your health profile doesn’t allow you to order from Mcdonalds. It’s for your own good.

Welcome to the new world. There’s no way to erase your past.

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”

– Benjamin Franklin

Daily Life, Government

A Proxy For The Future

If you haven’t been paying attention, the Kyle Rittenhouse trial appears to be going very badly for the prosecution. I’m not a lawyer and have little faith in our judicial system, so the outcome is anything but clear. But… as a casual observer it’s hard not to see what happened as anything other than a textbook case of self-defense. That is not my topic today. Instead, I’m interested in the point that several talking heads have made. What drove Kyle Rittenhouse to be there in the first place?

As someone with decades of life experience, and a whole lot to lose, would I have gone there? Hell no. I bet Mr. Rittenhouse wishes he’d made a better decision that day as well. But what drove him to insert himself in a scenario that had massive probabilities of going south in a hurry? His town was burning. Rocked by days of looting, rioting, vandalism, and sheer lawlessness. And the police did nothing. The mayor, governor, nobody charged with protecting the peace did anything to stop it. So a passionate young kid got fed up and decided he was going to go try to help out.

Young kids, especially males, can get very worked up over stuff. Remember WWI and WWII? I don’t – I’m old, but not that old. But I have read history. Tens of thousands of teenaged boys volunteered to go do their duty. 16 year olds lied about their age so they wouldn’t get left behind. We were going to go teach those dirty Germans a thing or two before they came to our shores. And off they went to war. Babes who had no idea what was actually facing them. No concept of the impacts those events would have on their lives. But they were fired up, passionate, and ready to go.

Such has been the nature of man from time beginning. So what’s my point? Probably the number one thing people crave is safety and security. That has also been true for all of human existence. And when our perceived safety disappears… people will do just about anything to bring it back. And for much of the US, that’s where if feels we’re headed.

Defund the police. Police reform. The media is complicit in whipping up an anti-police sentiment, further fueled by 24×7 chants of racism, racism, racism. The facts surrounding police shootings don’t matter. The only thing that matters is that the police are violent. Oh, and racist. If you’re not familiar with the term “The Ferguson Effect”, it’s a very real thing. After the Michael Brown shooting in 2014, officers were afraid to do much in the way of policing for fear of being charged. Since then it’s only gotten worse. Police departments and local politicians have refused to back their officers. The end result is that officers, especially in bigger cities, tend not to respond to calls other than to back up other officers. Why would they? Even the slightest whiff of being “too aggressive” and your career and life savings will be gone in an instant. It’s not worth it.

Police are quitting in droves. Those that remain won’t respond to anything other than critical events. And the predictable result? Crime is skyrocketing. In New York, thugs are now roaming the streets and randomly attacking strangers. There’s videos of it nearly every day now. Antifa operates with impunity and causes billions of dollars in damage. Brazen daytime robberies of restaurant patrons is now happening in affluent areas of Los Angeles. In San Francisco shoplifters happily walk out of stores with bags of stuff. Yesterday there was video of people who wheeled carts of grocery items out and calmly loaded it up in mini-vans. Why? Nobody’s going to stop them. Even if the police tried, the prosecutors probably wouldn’t charge them. This is not going to get better.

As an insulated, privileged society with narratives of non-stop racism driven by CNN, MSNBC, and Facebook, the progressive left wants you to believe that somehow crime and violence can somehow be solved with kind words, outreach programs, and roving teams of mental health experts. That is not how the world works, as much as the latte sipping crowd would like to believe. The reality of the street is not Hollywood.

Even in my hospital world that’s not reality. We have social workers and psychiatrists on the floor. When someone is having a mental health crisis we don’t call them. Why? Because folks in that scenario are violent and dangerous. We call security. And more often than not, it takes six security dudes and several nurses to wrestle the patient to the bed and get restraints placed. Even then the odds of someone getting hit, kicked, spit on, or bitten are high. I’m positive if family members saw that they’d be horrified. But you know what? I’m under no obligation to get hurt. I also don’t have four hours available to talk gently and pass them pudding in hopes they’ll see the error of their thinking. The real world doesn’t work that way.

Magnify that 100x on the street with actual criminals. And a single officer responding to that same potentially violent person. I know it’s shocking, but asking “pretty please with sugar on top” doesn’t work. But, we don’t want to see that. So our society has swung 180 degrees and we don’t want our police to actually, you know, do policing. It’s mean spirited. So the police have stopped. The results have been predictable to anyone who doesn’t have a liberal arts degree and a three thousand dollar espresso machine in their kitchen.

So what was my point? Somewhere down the road, people are going to get fed up. And that my friends, is when bad things happen. Vigilante groups form. Actual extremist groups form, not the pretend QAnon, Jan 6th insurrection groups… but people willing to commit real violence in the name of protecting the homeland. This is the inflection point where the population elects a real fascist in the name of safety and security. We don’t want to go down that road people.

I seriously fear for our country. We’re speeding down a road that ends in a bad place. The woke, 24×7 racist, progressive push the media hammers into our brains day in and day out is going to result in people taking matters into their own hands. We want safety and security. Without it we have Kyle Rittenhouse. A young kid heading into the fray because he felt like nobody else was. He was armed. He was attacked by a viscous mob out for blood and no police to be found. The outcome was predictable.

I’m not sure what the answer is. Maybe there isn’t one. We need a strong, charismatic, and benevolent leader who can use the bully pulpit to turn down the temperature. Get this ship turned around. I don’t see that happening. I suspect the political divides are too great at this point. Unfortunately, leaders who wield that level of power and charisma tend not to be benevolent if history holds to be true.

Oh great, now I’ve gone and depressed myself. Time to turn off social media and head outdoors for some recreation to clear my head. Amazing how well that works.

Daily Life, Government, Health

Crime Of The Century
  • This is hard for me to write. The emotions are still a bit too raw to think clearly about what happened. The feeling of being violated has shaken me to my core. An event happened a few days ago that has just left me speechless. Someone stole my garbage can. Keep in mind it wasn’t a fancy or special garbage can, it was the plain ‘ole black plastic, city issued garbage bin. Why? What sort of monster steals a garbage can? Reviewing my security camera footage, the can is clearly there on the curb at 11:33am, waiting for collection. At 12:08pm a car I don’t recognize comes up the driveway, then turns around and exits. The next view of the street is at 3:50pm and the garbage can is gone. All video footage has been turned over to the local police and FBI. I’m positive no expense will be spared to track down this menace to society. In all seriousness, what the hell is wrong with people? How does someone do something like that and then happily go to sleep at night? I shoplifted a candy bar once on a dare from friends when I was in sixth grade. I was so wracked with worry and guilt I didn’t even eat it. I gave it to one of the friends and then never went back to the store. And yet this fiend takes my garbage without a care in the world. Hmmm, wait. I don’t know if the can had been emptied yet. I have said some insurrectionist things here the last few months. Maybe it wasn’t a thief? Perhaps the government wanted to look for any top secret QAnon briefing materials I may have casually tossed out? I may have to revisit my operational security practices.
  • The lady at the waste disposal company who answered my call about the missing can was less than helpful. She said perhaps I can go around to all my neighbors and look for the can. I told her we don’t have any nearby neighbors and I have looked all around for the can. Silence. So… can I get another can? Long exasperated sigh. Fine, we’ll deliver another can next Monday. Trash bags are now piling up in the garage. I wonder if I’ll get charged for the new bin?
  • On a more serious note, my security cameras weren’t super effective. We have lots of large trees and every time the wind blows it triggers a motion alert. To combat that we turn down the sensitivity, which means the cameras no longer capture anything unless it’s right in front them. I’m going to have find better locations and settings for the cameras. They didn’t capture anything useful other than a snippet of a strange car in the driveway. Time to step up my security game.
  • The gods are clearly unhappy with me for my two straight months of whining about the cold, wet, and windy spring. We finally have a beautiful stretch of warm weather and I have a week off. I have plans for bike rides, golf, trail running, and a motorcycle ride. Aaaandd… I somehow managed to hurt my back. I have no idea what I did, but it hurts like a [BLEEEP]. Sigh. I guess when I said months ago that I needed to start strengthening my core, I should have listened to myself.
  • California is issuing power alerts due to the current heat wave. They’re asking people to be energy aware and to not use high demand devices during peak hours, such as… charging electric vehicles. This make me giggle.

Song of the day: Dr. Dre ft. Snoop Dogg – Nuthin’ But A G Thang

Cool, Government

I Got The Funk
  • I got the funk, man. No not a Lenny Kravitz Always on the run funk, but a weird head to toe body funk. Headache, body ache, joint ache, plugged up sinuses, brain fog. I had a trifecta of circumstances that came together at the same time. I managed to hurt my back somehow a week or so ago, so that’s ached since then. I got my second China virus vaccine a week ago and that really put me down. At the same time Mrs Troutdog has had a pretty wicked cold, which I clearly caught. I rarely get sick. I don’t do well just sitting around, so throw in feeling crappy and, well, I’m grumpy. I think we’re on the upswing though. Just a headache today. Fingers crossed we’re back in business tomorrow.
  • Watch this short clip and tell me that Biden is not a confused, 80 year old grandpa. Love him or hate him, there was never any doubt that Trump was in charge and running the show (often to his detriment). On the other side of the coin, you cannot convince me that Biden is the conductor of this oncoming train. Once you get past 70, it’s the infrequent exception you still have the mental horsepower you once had. Trust me, I work with the elderly day in and day out. There are very few folks in that age bracket I’d want making a difficult decision for me, especially after multiple days of long hours. So my honest question is, who’s really running the show behind the scenes? Somebody is setting the daily agenda, deciding what the policy focus will be, etc… Who is it? Is it his chief of staff, Ron Klain? Is it Kamala? Her chief of staff, Tina Flournoy? There’s rumors former Clinton advisor Minyon Moore has been a gatekeeper for the Biden transition. Is it her? Is it Jaime Harrison, the new head of the DNC? Will anyone in the media ask, or is that verboten for fear of being deplatformed?
  • A green zone has been erected in Washington DC to protect our ruling class. It’s pretty startling to see the images. What I can’t find in my extensive 30 seconds of searching, is who ordered all this? Was it the secret service? I don’t think they have the power to call up the national guard. The mayor? Did Trump order all this? Will it be permanent as some rumors suggest? Will the media go through great lengths to hide it in their inauguration coverage, or will they highlight it as necessary to protect against crazed, Viking hat wearing, Trump insurrectionists? It’s all pretty pointless because, as we all know, walls don’t really work.
  • I’ve made it to season two of Mr Robot. Really good. I’m not much of a prepper, but we’re prepared for a small amount of time. What we don’t have is cash. I never carry cash. Ever. The show reminded me that it wouldn’t take much for the electronic banking system to be interrupted. When that happens, I’m screwed when I need my Pirate Booty fix and all I have is plastic.
  • A friend of mine is really into cowboy action shooting. It’s like modern three-gun competitions, but old-west era guns. And cowboy outfits. Anyway, I joined him the other day to watch. The club we were at starts their match by turning to the flagpole, removing hats, and reciting the pledge of allegiance. It was nice. But here’s the odd thing. It made me feel like a rebel. Like folks would probably ridicule it if they saw it. If I told someone on the street I went to an event where we cited the pledge of allegiance, I’d immediately be tagged as a right-wing Trump supporter. Think about it. That’s where we’ve gotten to in this country.
  • I wasn’t feeling good last night, couldn’t sleep, so spent way too long going down a musical memory lane. I stumbled upon some of the original MTV segments (I had a crush on Martha Quinn), but while I liked watching MTV, most of what they played wasn’t really my genre. Like my politics, my musical taste is… complicated. This lead me down a rabbit hole of old school massive concerts. I wonder if we’ll ever have big shows again? Unless it’s a rave, the kids and music today don’t seem to lend themselves to the concert scene. Unfortunate. There’s just something about the energy of a live show.

Song of the day: Veruca Salt – Seether (Glastonbury ’95)