Posted on 08/29/2009 3:54:17 PM PDT by oldfart
One of the nice things about internet bulletin boards is the anonymity of each poster. Of course it isn’t perfect since the board owner has enough information to positively identify everyone and TPTB can (and probably will) demand that data whenever they choose. In the meantime there is one way our paranoia can be used against us.
We all swear that our “line in the sand” is the confiscation of our guns. We say that if and when it happens we will get the word out on the internet and thus mobilize thousands of patriots.
Good idea. But what if there is no internet? What if the President decides to use his power to turn off private access to the net before the confiscation begins? How will we notify others of what is happening?
One thing this administration has taught me is to never assume they’re doing anything abstractly… they always have a good reason for what they do and when they do it. After years in the Illinois legislature furthering gun control Obama has spent eight months in the Presidency without even so much as trying to push a gun control bill. But in the last week we’ve heard that at least one Federal judge (from Chicago, I believe)believes gun registration is Constitutional and now we see a bill introduced to give the President new powers to control the internet in the event of some ill-defined “cyber emergency.” Where other Presidents have – when once elected – generally ignored the organizations that helped them get elected, this President is advertising for “recruits” to continue working for the “change” he espoused.
I wonder what color their shirts will be, brown?
So suppose TPTB discover (or manufacture) some sort of ‘cyber emergency,’ shut down servers all over the country and then begin kicking in doors. How do we get the word out? We’ll still have computers but they’ll be severely handicapped. We used to be able to simply call up the other guy’s computer and converse back and forth. But we had the “other guy’s” phone number then too – and his name! Now, in our paranoia, we’ve hidden behind screen names that usually don’t even describe us very well. One name that I see on several boards is “LYCAN.” How would I contact him without the internet? What if he were the first one to be raided? How would any of us know in time to be ready for our own “knock on the door?”
We need some sort of phone tree where each of us has two or more numbers to contact if the balloon goes up. Perhaps there’s some way we could utilize those cheap throwaway phones I see at the supermarket checkout line. Comments?
Bump
Jeez, I’d almost forgotten about this thread.
The pigeon thing works just fine except the pigeons have to be going home to their roost. So someone has to physically cary them away from home to whatever place you need to send a message from.
Hand signals can be pretty efficient, especially if you are able to use semaphore code.
Last night my wife read something about possible EMP attack. She asked me what we could do about it. I told her that all we could do is roll with the punch and keep a battery-powered am-fm radio on hand. Unless the pulse originates very close by, most unconnected electronics will survive quite well. Anything that is plugged into a wall socket and thus to the array of powerlines between the generating facility and you will be fried. There will be a few radio facilities that survive an EMP attack. They will be the primary source of information. They will also be heavily controlled by the government, so it’s up to the individual to sort out real news from propaganda.
Nice setup.. I have both a genny and solar power for backup. Runs my ham rigs perfectly for days on end.. no gas required for the solar stuff.
My IC-718 can be switched over to solar power with the flick of a switch as well as the 2 other dual band 2 meter 440 rigs.
Equipment that’s not powered up SHOULD survive an EMP. But anything that’s not TEMPEST-certified and shielded is toast.
Bttt.
Bump
Many years ago (damn, I seem to start a lot of posts that way) I worked for the Stste of California. The State furnished radios for us to communicate with but in those days the used massive numbers of “D” cells for power and then didn’t do a very good job of cutting through the electronic noise around us.
We had a guy come to work who had been a signalman in the navy. He had used semaphore for several years before his retirement and undertook to teach us too. As surveyors, we had powerful telescopes to see each other at long distances and with them and a couple of flags we were able to “talk” to each other quite well.
I believe semaphore is still covered in the Boy Scouts Manual.
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