A week ago Friday, I decided to have some new business cards made up at Staples. Dropping off the image, I was told that they would be ready Saturday morning. So, after I left the AGCA gun show early to visit with my daughter Zoe before she returned to college, about mid-day on the way home I stopped by to pick them up.
I observed to the counter guy that it looked like the whole order wasn't there. He told me that someone had asked to see the order earlier representing himself as my "business partner" and had taken a few, saying that I wouldn't mind.
Uh, huh. Of course, I have no business partner and no one knew that I had ordered the cards but me and Staples. The description of the "guy in a suit and sunglasses" was sufficiently vague and I had to get going to see my daughter off so I didn't immediately demand to see the manager and the surveillance tapes. In retrospect, David Codrea, among others, has beat me up about this and he and they are probably right.
In any case, there are a couple of explanations for this latest nudge of the elbow from the secret police, one more innocent than the other. The least threatening one is that some gestapoman either got bored enough (or was told) to "count coup" on me to rattle my cage. The other is that they were looking for "evidence" to plant somewhere later on somebody -- at a crime scene or on a dead criminal for example.
Paranoia comes easy when you have real and powerful enemies, but I learned in the 90s that you can't succumb to it for if you do they have won already. It is in the enemies' interest to make the opposition paranoid. I know, I do it myself back at them. Just ask Ramsey A. Bear. All's fair on the cold war battlefield we play on.
So, the only immediate countermeasure I took was to tell some trusted friends about it. All of them took me to task, especially David, for missed opportunities to turn it around, and I will be exploring some possibilities of that today with Staples and the local police. It was David who insisted last week that I write about it, however, and thus I am doing so now.
I suppose I am guilty of nonchalance with stuff like this. After all, it has been happening to me off and one since the 90s. I no longer watch for multi-car tails -- that sort of thing is so 20th Century -- and always assume everything about me is known to the servants of the Federal Leviathan. That way you just don't have to worry about it and you can have much more fun than they do.
(I actually can't wait for the next administration to get here so I can get a real FOIA document dump on me so I can check my entire multi-agency Stasi file. It should be very instructive.)
However, there is no doubt that this kind of crap has an effect on people unused to being on the receiving end, especially many of my sources and especially the whistleblowers. Folks will call me, and immediately get a ring-back from "Restricted Number" after they hang up, usually with a female voice asking pardon for a wrong number. Black bag jobs on homes and businesses with no alarms going off and video surveillance mysteriously interrupted or missing are commonplace, often with something taken or a familiar object placed in some manner that cannot be accidental, just to let the victim know that they were there.
The Lone Wold Trading Company, for example, according to federal sources familiar with the incident, was broken into and 30 firearms were taken without the alarm being tripped. ATF supervisor Hope MacAllister later told owner Andre Howard, according to those same federal sources, that the ever vigilant ATF video surveillance system didn't recover the images of the intruders because the system was, she claimed, turned off at the end of the business day and restarted every morning. "Howard didn't believe it," said one source, "and he shouldn't. None of the thirty firearms stolen that night have ever been traced in the system." They just . . . disappeared.
The ATF whistleblowers, to a man, are under constant pressure from their supervisors and some, but not all, of their fellow agents. This has effects on their lives, their relationships, their health -- all of which it is designed to do by the Gunwalker plotters. "If they can't kill you," said one federal source, "they'll make you crazy. And if they can't make you crazy, they'll make your life a living hell."
Think of this, too. Y'all think that this has been going on far too long already, with the ten months since the death of Brian Terry and the first report of the whistleblowers. Well, the whistleblowers like John Dodson, had been fighting in that trench for almost a year before YOU ever heard about it. And they are fighting there still, largely alone, isolated, subject to all the fears that you would have about safety, family, economic security, etc.
Keep them in your prayers, folks. And don't forget to write your Congresscritters to demand something better for them while they wait, still twisting in the wind, for them to call the Gunwalker plotters to the bar of justice. For only then can they get on with their lives after having done a great service for their country.
33 comments:
Well Mike, at least you know you're doing something right. I wonder what kind of blowback^H^H^H^H^H^H pleasant greetings those of us who comment on your site will receive...
There can be no doubt that the machine is used by politicians and bureaucrats intimidates/punishes those who dare "act up" by using that pesky First Amendment enumeration called freedom of speech.
During the 2010 election cycle, A guy named Alexi was running for office and claimed to be a "former banker" in a Letter to the Editor. Can you say Broadway Bank? This man was, at the time, Treasurer of Illinois.....yet he was a "former banker". Sheesh. I responded with an LTE calling him out on that foolish hypocrisy (kinda like I did with Barry when I lit the ShoreBank fire) and a huge coincidence happened just a few days later. Got served, did I, to appear in court over a looooooong disputed medical bill.
I've been pulled over in the mail box, compelled to turn over my insurance carrier and policy number on a vehicle I no longer even owned, complete with that license registration being suspended even after I did bow down and comply. Luckily, I saw that one coming and had already made the decision to purchase new plates for the replacement vehicle for my wife.
When I first place a 4 inch by 5 foot One Big A$$ Mistake Mistake sticker on my truck, Po Po followed me again and again. Right at the time of Janet's memo about "bumper stickers" I was pulled over and asked straight away if I was armed (as the first question asked of me). Interestingly, I had a Second Amendment advocacy Letter to the Editor printed that very day. What coincidence, huh.
Mike, you are right about having to set aside what "they" do and just go about yer business. Worrying about it serves their purpose and not worrying about it serves your own.
As for the business cards, you have Staples by the proverbial balls. I hope you pursue that to the fullest, complete with icing the cards you had printed, never to be used and staples printing you up totally new ones post haste - after of course coming off surveillance tapes and offering a written apology for doing what they did.
This comment is not directed to Mike V, but the Stasi goons who dissect his blog and others like it in the fusion centers. You might have forgotten your oaths to defend the Constitution, but we have not. You might consider raising your right hand and swearing a solemn oath to be a joke, some little hurdle on the way to employment with the federal governemt, but let me assure you, millions of us take it much more seriously than that. The same data-mining programs you use to try to knit together evidence of...something, will someday be used to prosecute those of you you violate the law every day, under the color of law. Count on it. Plan on it. And act accordingly. Nothing is ever really lost, nothing is erased, nothing will be forgotten.
Including your actions.
"....The other is that they were looking for "evidence" to plant somewhere later on somebody -- at a crime scene or on a dead criminal for example."
That could be the only purpose. They can be ID'ed to the same lot.
Special Agent Dodson (and all whistle blowers in this case),
I pray you remain safe and healthy through the discovery process and eventual prosecution of the perpetrators (all of them) of Fast and Furious.
My grandparents used to say, "If you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas."
Call me jaded. You act surprised. Through the fog and on the back of the breeze I hear from down the holler, "Yeah, but... now it is happening to ME!"
"If they can't kill you," said one federal source, "they'll make you crazy. And if they can't make you crazy, they'll make your life a living hell."
Sometimes they would much rather make you crazy or miserable. There's a certain kind of person who is drawn to positions of authority by the power to make others suffer and a dead victim is forever beyond their reach.
There's a particulary haunting scene in a particularly haunting novel: Bernard Malamud's "The Fixer". In this scene a Jewish handyman who has been imprisoned and tormented in a way completely out of proportion to any crime he may have committed notices that his cell door is slightly ajar. Was it left open by a negligent guard or is he being tricked into further punishment? He debates whether he dares to try and leave but eventually wanders down the cell block only to find another door that is ajar. Inside that cell he finds the body of a nobleman, who has been trying to get him released, hung by the neck and slowly twisting on the rope. The Fixer quietly goes back to his own cell and locks the door.
Their goal is not to kill you Dutchman6. Their goal is to "live rent free" in your head, like you live in theirs.
Don't let this sit too long. Security tapes have a way of disappearing especially now that you've tipped your hand about your interest. If Staples is non-cooperative about allowing you to see the tape and you believe it is worth pursuing considering hiring an attorney. Someone is going around representing himself as a business partner. This is fraud. There should be some way to subpoena Staples or to obtain a court order to get the tape if it hasn't already disappeared.
Whistleblowers are principled ... a rare character trait these days ... that's why they're my heros.
Let the strength and confidence of your soul surface.
So Mike, are you saying that if Eric Holder's cold, dead, body turns up at a rest area in Virginia with your business cards scattered around him, you didn't do it?
Check their security cameras. Today nobody doesn't have security cameras rolling.
Interesting... VERY interesting... and not really a surprise either. Concur on the video, it's there.
I'm sure you are going to make some small change on the new cards so they are different than the ones that were unlawfully taking.
It's hard to do a "black bag job" if you have a couple of Aiedale Terriers in your home to "greet" uninvited guests...
"None of the thirty firearms stolen that night have ever been traced in the system." They just . . . disappeared."
Perhaps the post-coverup continuation of Gunwalker? After all, if the meme is simply to "prove" that Mexican crime guns come from US commercial sources, who says those guns have to be purchased or papered to a buyer?
Or did they just run out of pocket change?
I would go back to the store and take a deposition of the clerks statement, and add to that the manager if the incident was not available on the security video.
Even a poor quality phone video which has a time/date stamp would cover you.
My biz cards have the company name and a P.O. Box - Additional contact info I hand write on the card to suit who its going to - including using unique email addresses which are just for that person.
As a prior FFL holder and NFA stamp collector I know I'm in the system, what surprises me is when the black hats try to spook your friends and business associates but leave you completely alone.
Stay safe.
I wonder what they would do if you placed a dozen similar orders all over town? That might keep them busy, huh?
If you use a pay phone, would they monitor that as well? If so, using every pay phone you find would keep them busy as well.
How busy would they be if Mike's phone ended up on every solicitor's call list in the nation? Not that I'd recommended doing that, just saying you could find ways to drive them crazy as well. No one is forcing them to monitor you, but since they are why should they have an easy job of it?
1. @ Thor's Hammer - That would just mean that Holder was meeting with Mikey to turn against his masters & it would play out to advantage of the III. Win / win
2. MIKE - Any of us who spent any years in the pro-life movement already know every tactic, dirty trick and harassment maneuver employed by the goons beginning with the Clintons. Like that old saying - they may know where WE live but that is a two way street.
BTW - there WAS a deputy Cornelius Flowers who was fired from Peach County Georgia after working for years on their drug task force; he was guilty of ( at least ) selling stolen lawn tractors. Just FYI, may be different guy. The moles are still digging around in the garden.
I imagine this will get me on a watch list also as an enemy of the state.
So be it.I will be in good company.
You men and women violating Mr. Mikes Liberty are a disgrace to this country. You should well be ashamed of the breaches of law you are perpetrating. Not to mention the lack of moral compass you posses.
It is without a doubt you are no different than the criminals and enemies of the United States you have taken a solemn vow to protect and defend against.
An oath you have soiled and violated in the worst manner possible.
Shame on you.
There are two very important things you best begin to understand. When the tyranny you are enabling with your violations of the rule of law fulfills its purpose, you will be one of the many thousands of Americans who are killed, killed by the very elites you are taking orders from. Because you are a direct threat to their power. Make no mistake about it. As the ruling class grows ever more obnoxious and tyrannical, killing political adversaries, potential or otherwise, will become an ever increasing solution to retaining power. The second and no less worse involves the tainting of honorable members of the law enforcement community by association because of your lawless actions.
To say what you are and represent is disgusting does not begin to exemplify the nature of the evil you represent.
God will judge you and your deeds one day, if not before that time your fellow American's will.
This is to the oathbreaking folks that harass mike. I've got a homework assignment for you. Search the katyn forest massacre. Then ask yourself if you might be like one of the members of the nkvd complaining that the pistols used to execute 22000 people hurts your hand. Maybe you will be on the receiving end when your masters find you haven't done your best.
First off, Mike, I would have refused the cards outright. Wouldn't have taken receipt of them at all. I then would have had my lawyer call the store, and demand the video and the manager, who allowed someone else to take your cards, to do some explaining, in writing.
Although not in the same league as some of you, I have been singled out and harassed and ticketed for stickers on my truck, and have been told outright by at least 2 cops that it would be prudent if I removed them from my vehicle. I refused.
I might suggest that you refuse to take delivery of this batch of cards and get it in writing that you did refuse and then make a new batch of cards with one obvious thing different. Then take the refusal note and the new order, seal them up into an envelope and mail them to somebody you trust with orders not to open it. A lawyer would be best. (But then I used to be one.)
Paranoid? Absolutely. You've earned it.
Mike, I completely understand the paranoia. Obviously. I didn't even feel comfortable hitting your paypal button or sending a money order to support your efforts. I promise I wasn't stalking you... I was already planning on being at the gun show. In person seemed a better option.
As for the paranoia, let me give an example. I was sending an email (from aohell) the other day. As is normal, the "Drafts" folder showed one message while I was composing the email. Less than a minute after I mentioned the Oathkeepers to my friend, there were two draft messages. Tin foil hat time.
I'm not even close to as brave as you are but the outrages perpetrated on the conservatives in the country are forcing me to re-evaluate my position.
I have not and do not plan to do anything illegal. I should not worry about voicing my opinion.
(hope my re-education camp has good gruel)
Ima
Would have been best to leave the order there, rejecting it.
The video is gone. Go look for it, to be sure, but my money is that the day file in that system is either corrupt or missing. They might even say that they have no one on the video, and fall back on a wrong date or time in the system. Those are notorious errors every day, and just peachy convenient for this type of case.
The cards won't end up anywhere, though. If there was a plan to use them, they would only need one, and you wouldn't have noticed it.
Let me join the chorus saying "get the vid (if possible) and order new cards!
That said, if you don't think The Enemy is capable of faking a business card from Staples, well... You're not NEARLY paranoid* enough!
Even so, I'd return every one and demand new ones - following the "minimal printed info/handwrite other stuff as appropriate" advice!
Anon
PS: It's not paranoia if they really ARE out to get you - and just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they AREN'T!
Your habit of noting extra information by hand on the card is a good one. I would suggest that you initial or put an identifying mark on every card you hand out. That would identify any cards that didn't come through your hands.
You know these SOBs do this stuff but it's always a shock when you come face to face with it.
Your habit of noting extra information by hand on the card is a good one. I would suggest that you initial or put an identifying mark on every card you hand out. That would identify any cards that didn't come through your hands.
You know these SOBs do this stuff but it's always a shock when you come face to face with it.
Oh, and Mike...thank you.
I guestion how anybody knew you had an order in. Only you can figure that one out. Good ideas posted here. Can jack bad guys up real good with this. Fun times. Fun times.
I thought 'Enemy of the State' was just a movie.
Apparently, it is SOP for a criminal government.
For Anonymous at 2:25 PM
My bet is that Mr. V is using a computer running Microsoft Windows. Our German friends "Law Enforcement" have already admitted using illegal software that can snoop a Windows computer, and also surreptitiously plant files thereon:
http://www.dailytech.com/German+Govt+Admits+to+Using+Possibly+Illegal+Trojan+to+Spy+on+Citizens/article22991.htm
Do you for one minute doubt that FedPig has that, or something at least as good? Or do you REALLY believe that DOJ gave up on the Microsoft unfair trade practices lawsuit after winning because the judge's proposed remedies were too severe? Not like they have been trumpeting the breakup of Ma Bell as their best triumph ever or anything like that. No way that Dear Old Bill could have given them a backdoor into his software...
Besides, Mr. V already knows they're wiretapping his phone and intercepting his mail. Who in their right mind would not realize they are doing FAR MORE than that as well?
Mike, in my opinion, you should return ALL of the new cards without handing out ANY of them. Demand that Staples count the returned ones and give you a receipt for that number returned along with a letter of admission stating that their employee allowed an unauthorized person to gain possession of whatever number (or an undetermined number...) was missing.
You should also demand that Staples replace those cards at no cost with a DIFFERENT design card of your choosing.
If you have already given out some of your new cards, try to get those back and return them, too. If that is not possible, try to get the recipients of those cards to sign a letter stating they received them. The point is to make sure every card is accounted for.
That will help assure that if one of those cards shows up somewhere incriminating, it can reasonably be assumed that it is one which was allowed to get away by Staples' negligence.
Good luck and God bless. Our prayers are with you every step you take.
You should get a custom pre-inked
stamp, and a lot of card blanks.
Then customize your card, maybe with
some invisible in, serial numbers
and so forth. Whatever image you give
a shop to print can be copied by
others.
You also should consider changing
your OS. It's long overdue. Yes, I
realize it's a chore and the transition is trying.
For Anonymous at 10:21 AM:
Changing it CAN be worthwhile, but only if the final system has NO Microsoft products on it. For a Mere Citizen, the latest Windows version adds no protection against the bad guys beyond what was in Windows XP. If one chooses to go to Linux, for example Ubuntu which has seemed to be stable and simple to install for quite some time, THEN one should be reasonably safe. Although the bad guys can STILL get your Internet traffic unless you encrypt it.
Some folks have applications they need to use which will only run under Windows, and having a dual-boot system leaves you with NO real protection unless you run your Linux boot totally encrypted. Note that even though Windows will not let you read "ext" partitions, there is aftermarket software that runs on Windows which can readily do so. When you DO boot to Windows with a dual-boot system, you should assume that the bad guys are able to read anything they want off your Linux partition that is not encrypted. And if you have typed something there in clear text, there is a good chance it will still be sitting in cache.
Bottom line is that a computer running Microsoft software may let you have some fun with the bad guys, but if there is ANYTHING you really don't want them to know, only work that from a Linux only or similar system, and insure everything you send out is heavily encrypted. Even stuff you DON'T care about, because that drives their costs to decrypt. And eventually even the bad guys run out of money...
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