When The S*** Hits the Fan

Archives for April 5, 2016

The #TSA Spent $1.4 Million on an #App That Only Cost This Guy $10 to Reproduce

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Clarice Palmer
April 5, 2016

(ANTIMEDIA) The International Business Machines Corporation, commonly known as IBM, has been named in a series of reports tied to the TSA’s “randomizer” app. Though many news sources have focused on the cost of the app, few have looked deeper into the relationship between Washington D.C. and IBM’s powerful lobbyists.

Geek.com reported the Department of Homeland Security’s TSA awarded IBM with a $336,413.59 contract for the production of an app that randomly chooses a left or a right arrow. The function is used in U.S. airports, and its goal is to make lines more efficient by randomly choosing which travelers get to skip the extensive security checks.

The information was made available promptly after web developer Kevin Burke filed a Freedom of Information Act request. As a result of the query, Burke received a copy of the contract between IBM and the TSA, which shows the app cost taxpayers at least $336,000 (in a Twitter reply to Burke, Time Magazine’s Partheek Rebala advised that a summary of the total cost tied to the app could be also found online.)

That summary shows that between September of 2014 and August of 2015, IBM was awarded at least seven contracts, all of which were tied to software development. All services and products add up to $1,444,315. According to Geek.com, “It could be IBM supplied all the iPads and training as well as the app itself.” But even then, “the cost of the project is crazy.” After all, the product is just “an app that is [sic] just randomly selects left or right.”

To Chris Pacia, a Bitcoin expert and lead backend developer for OpenBazaar, the cost the TSA paid for the app made no sense. After all, how expensive could an app that acts like a digital a coin flip actually be?

To demonstrate how easy — and cheap — it is for anybody to come up with an app just like TSA’s randomizer, Pacia posted a video on YouTube demonstrating the entire process. Pacia’s app took him less than 10 minutes to develop, according to his video’s description. It cost about $10 worth of labor to build.

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Though Pacia demonstrated the TSA’s inefficient budgeting, the underlying cause of these indulgent expenditures can be understood through the agency’s relationship with IBM.

While important details regarding the contracts between the Department of Homeland Security and the company are not listed on the government’s accounting website, the tech giant is no stranger to the establishment’s favoritism game.

According to the Center for Responsible Politics, IBM Corp. spent over $9 million on lobbying efforts between 2014 and 2015 alone. Defense and information technology, the group claims, are some of IBM’s top issues. In many cases, IBM also lobbied for anti-privacy measures.

One of the bills IBM lobbied to pass was H.R. 1731, also known as the National Cybersecurity Protection Advancement Act of 2015. The law places the information gathered via both the federal government and the private sector in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security. IBM also lobbied for the Cybersecurity Disclosure Act of 2015, a bill turned into law that “trump[s] possibly forthcoming federal regulatory efforts and state privacy laws” and that broadens “powers of network operators to monitor and disclose” online information.

Considering IBM’s apparent lack of respect for privacy — and its efforts to influence government policy, it is unsurprising the multinational corporation is working so closely with the Department of Homeland Security.

This article (The TSA Spent $1.4 Million on an App That Only Cost This Guy $10 to Reproduce) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Clarice Palmer and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article at edits@theantimedia.org.

 

From theantimedia.org Team

50 Ways to Eat from Your #Pantry When You Have No Money for #Groceries

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April 5, 2016

When things go wrong and we have more month than money, it can be difficult to keep the family fed, the bills paid, and a roof over your heads. However, if you have built a well-stocked prepper’s pantry, you have one less thing to worry about when you have no money for groceries.

Some Practical Reasons Why You Might Need a Food Supply

The best investments in these questionable times are those which are tangible. Having a food supply, purchased at a good price during good times, can be invaluable if things become more difficult. And by “more difficult” I’m not necessarily talking about a massive, national economic collapse or an epic natural disaster.

Anyone can have a difficult week (or month or year).  Maybe an unexpected expense arose, like a trip to the emergency room or a car repair. Perhaps a job was lost or hours were cut at work. It’s possible that something happened that made the primary breadwinner for the family unable to work for a time.  Whatever the case, having some supplies put back can really help you through a rough spot. While some folks have room in their budgets for these shortfalls or added expenses, a growing number of Americans are one paycheck away from disaster.

The key is this: when times are good, you should focus on loading up your pantry for when times are not so good. It’s not a new idea. It’s how our ancestors did it because they never knew when a fluke cold snap would kill their crops, when a predator might get the animal they were depending on for food or when a drought would occur.

What You Should Have in Your Pantry

Much has been written about the specific items to stock in your pantry, so this is just a general list.

(If you’re new to prepping and stockpiling you can learn more about building a pantry in this book or in this article.)

The best case scenario is to store what you already eat. If you generally eat meals with a lot of meat and little plant protein, you’re going to feel deprived if you suddenly switch from steak to beans. If you tend to eat lots of protein and vegetables, you’re not going to feel your best if you suddenly switch to a diet loaded with starches and high in carbohydrates.

One really good way to see what you’re already eating is to write down everything your family consumes for a couple of weeks. You can probably remember most of what you had the past week to give yourself a guideline.

Now, while everything is normal, take a long hard look at your consumption. Are these foods that you can stock up on or do you focus on things that require a couple of trips to the store per week for freshness. If the latter is the case, you might want to make some simple adjustments so that it will be easier to maintain your diet in difficult times.

How to Eat from the Pantry When There’s No Money for Groceries

When people hear the question, “How long could you survive on the food you have on hand?” they tend to think of the math. “I have 472 servings of grain divided by 4 people and…”

Stop.

You need to think in terms of meals. Those who think in individual components like this are the ones who will end up near the end of the pantry stretch eating canned peaches, stale saltines, and pureed pumpkin for dinner. Not the most enticing combo, right?

One really great way to stock up and have familiar food on hand is to think about 7 meals that your family enjoys. Then, purchase for your pantry the ingredients for 4 of each of those meals. Here are a few quick tips.

  • Look for non-perishable options, like freeze dried mushrooms and bell peppers for your spaghetti sauce.
  • Repackage meat carefully for your freezer in meal-sized servings.
  • Learn how to make baked goods from scratch and stock up on the ingredients you need for them.
  • Keep fruit and veggies on hand in frozen, dehydrated, and canned form.
  • Have some quick meals on hand so that you don’t end up breaking the budget on takeout food on a super busy day. (I can entire meals for this very reason. Click here for some of my recipes, or check out my book, The Organic Canner.)
  • Use emergency food to extend a small amount of leftovers to feed the whole family.

Pantry Friendly Adaptations

Lots of folks say things like “I only buy fresh XXX at the store – everything else came from the pantry.” That’s awesome – truly – but if you were in a situation in which you couldn’t buy fresh XXX, you probably wouldn’t want to go without it right?  Here are some things to stockpile so that you can make adaptations to fresh XXX

  • Milk: Powdered milk (I use this hormone-free milk powder – it’s delicious and creamy and much better quality than the other dry milk on the market.  Organic dry milk is also available, but it’s a bit of out my personal budget. )
  • Bread: Stock up on the ingredients to make it yourself. Store-bought bread is usually loaded with additives so learning to bake your own is a worthy skill regardless of whether you intend to survive from your pantry. It couldn’t be easier – check out this 5-minute recipe for artisan bread.
  • Fresh fruit: Frozen fruit is pretty yummy. In fact, my (slightly odd) kids enjoy gnawing on it right out of the freezer. You can also use it in smoothies, thaw and top yogurt or pancakes with it, or bake with it. We are huge applesauce fans, so I can a few dozen jars of this each fall. I also can peach and pear slices in honey for a sweet treat, and loads of homemade jam which can be used in a multitude of ways that do not include toast.
  • Salad: If you have a sunny windowsill you can grow salad greens all year long to sate your craving for fresh greens. There are lots of delicious microgreen kits on the market, and even some kits that are soil-free. Other alternatives are home-canned coleslaw or lightly cooked veggie salads made from freezer vegetables.
  • Vegetables: You really don’t have to have fresh asparagus in February, contrary to what the grocery stores portray. While I do can some vegetables, canned veggies are really NOT my favorite. I prefer fresh cooked al dente. The closest I can get to that with my food storage is frozen veggies, lightly steamed. I also keep dehydrated veggies on hand for cooking with: mushrooms, bell pepper, onion, etc.  If you have a root cellar, lots of good veggies can be stored there.

Sample Menus from Our Food Storage Pantry

After a big move, lots of fencing, shelters for animals, etc., etc, etc., I’m deliberately sticking to a month of food from the pantry in order to catch up. A normal grocery bill can be anywhere between 75-200 per week around here, depending on what’s on sale, whether I’m stocking up on a bargain, or if it’s garden season.  Here are some of the meals I’m creating from my pantry and freezer.

Breakfasts

We have an unlimited supply of eggs with 10 hens laying enthusiastically, so most breakfasts center around them.

  • Omelettes with leftover veggies from the night before and a bit of cheese sauce to make our cheese go further
  • Eggs with sausage or bacon (we recently bought half a hog, so we have plenty of that)
  • Homemade pancakes topped with fruit syrup made from home-canned jam
  • Homemade granola or granola cookies
  • Eggs and roasted veggies (One of our weird favorite breakfasts)
  • Oatmeal topped with warmed jam
  • Homemade bread (or cornbread) and jam
  • Smoothies

Lunches

In our house, lunch is often leftovers from the night before. I usually try to cook enough for this very purpose.  We do have some other standbys, though.

  • Homemade chicken strips from the freezer with oven fries
  • Beef patty with oven-baked carrot “fries”
  • Roasted veggies topped with parmesan cheese
  • Soup (all kinds: chicken, beef and vegetable, creamy cauliflower)
  • Refried beans and rice topped with home-canned salsaTop a frozen gluten-free pizza crust with home-canned pizza sauce, toppings that are leftovers, and
  • Top a frozen gluten-free pizza crust with home-canned pizza sauce, toppings that are leftovers, and cheese from the freezer
  • Yogurt topped with fruit from the freezer and homemade granola

Dinners

The crock pot gets a whole lot of use in my house. I love the fact that the meal is almost completely hands off while I’m busy doing other things. Of course, not all of our recipes are crock pot ones! Here are some of the dinners we have had over the past couple of weeks.

  • Roast beef and vegetables (crock pot)
  • Carnitas (pork roast slow cooked with green tomato salsa, lime juice, and cilantro)
  • Spaghetti and meatballs
  • NuManna Pasta Primavera with some broccoli from the freezer
  • Stir fries from the freezer
  • Pork chops and roasted vegetables sprinkled with parmesan
  • Beef BBQ (slow cooker) and home-canned sweet and sour cole slaw
  • NuManna rice pilaf and brown rice (from the Defender’s Bucket) cooked, then stir-fried with a small amount of leftover meat and egg to make a tasty bowl of fried rice
  • Roasted chicken and vegetables
  • Baked beans with gluten free mac and cheese
  • Beef and vegetable stew
  • Pot Pie made with leftover roast duck and NuManna potato casserole
  • Homemade chili (crock pot)
  • Split pea soup made with home canned ham broth
  • Roast duck (raised here) with potatoes, onions, and carrots
  • Potato soup (it’s a family favorite and super-thrifty!)
  • And of course, no list of frugal meals would be complete without breakfast for dinner

Looking for more inspiration for pantry-based recipes? Check out The Prepper’s Cookbook by Tess Pennington.  It’s absolutely loaded with ideas for delicious and nutritious meals from your preps. For even more ideas, check out my Instagram page to see exactly what we’re eating. :)

What Are Your Favorite Pantry Meals?

Now, this list is just one of ideas from my own kitchen. How can you adapt your own family favorites to be pantry-friendly? Do you have some pantry standbys for rough times? How would you fare if there was no money for extra groceries for a month or longer? Share your ideas and inspiration in the comments below.

How an #Attack on #America Would Probably Begin: Possible Courses Of Action By Foreign Military Powers

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russiachina0

We’re going to take a look at a potential attack scenario against the United States.  We’re going to analyze it strictly from a military-economic perspective and weigh possible courses of action by a foreign power or powers in an attack.

Firstly, it is my belief that there will be foreign powers involved, yet one will initiate the entire thing: North Korea.  Let’s start up the scenario.

1. North Korea launches an EMP attack, via ICBM or satellite.

This will be the “kickoff,” and enable the game to begin.  As of right now, the Chinese and Russians are already positioning themselves.  The Chinese are moving naval assets into the South China Sea and also into the Pacific.  The Russians are prepping their naval assets in the Med, the Atlantic, the Pacific, and in the Arctic region.

The EMP attack will effectively shut down the entire U.S. economy and infrastructure.  Many non-hardened elements of the United States armed forces will suffer loss, and the response time for a conventional incursion will be drastically reduced.

2. Command and Control Areas of the Government, the Military, and the Economy will be nuked.

The most probable cities that will be taken out will be as follows:

(East Coast) – Washington, D.C., New York, NY, Baltimore, MD, Norfolk, VA, Philadelphia, PA, Dover, DE, and Sarasota, FL.  This will effectively cripple 90% of all command and control by government and the economic hubs of the country.  The latter city is home to Special Operations Command, SouthCom.  Additional targets will be Ft. Meade, MD (home to the NSA), Ft. Bragg, NC (home to the 82nd Airborne Division, and Special Operations Command), Camp Lejeune, NC and Virginia Beach (home to Seal Team 2).

(West Coast) – Seattle, WA, Portland, OR, San Francisco, CA, San Diego, CA.  Strikes will also be conducted on Ft. Lewis, WA because of the Ranger and Special Forces unit & group there.  The weapons will be airburst of fairly low-yield in the attempt to not irradiate with the prevailing westerly winds.

(Interior) – Denver, CO, and Ft. Carson, CO [the latter emphasized for Cheyenne Mountain, recently reactivated, as well as 10th Special Forces Group (Abn) and 4th Infantry Division].

This may seem to be “light,” in terms of targets, and there is a reason for this: they want to take the land and resources, not irradiate them into uselessness.

3. The invasion begins with Special Forces, followed by airborne units and then conventional forces.

The Special Forces units of the invading nations will have already been inserted weeks earlier by drops, by sea, or allowed to reach their destinations in a clandestine fashion disguised as civilians and traveling from different locations, separately.  Those special units that will be utilized on the initial invasion (for strike missions against targets of varying degrees of importance, such as generators and hydroelectric plants) will be held at the line of departure on a leash until the attack begins.

When the EMP renders a “lights out scenario” it will probably occur at night, and immediately afterward will come drops of airborne troops and Special Forces assets.  These will be shock troops to secure areas assigned until the main bodies come ashore.

4. Areas of Responsibility:

The Chinese will take the entire West Coast, the Russians will take Alaska and drive southward, securing the coastline for their naval assets and taking control of the pipeline (which neither side will bomb or irradiate).  The Russians will either halt at the southeastern corner of Alaska, or they will drive downward through Canada until they can perch themselves just across the border on the state lines of Washington, Idaho, and Montana.  The Russians will also mount an invasion on the East Coast, bypassing “hot spots” of irradiated cities previously mentioned in the initial nuclear strikes.

Later the two nations will coordinate for their drives into the interior.  Meanwhile the armies of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Cuba will make their way into the unguarded underbelly of the United States into Texas and the Border States via Mexico.  Their objective will be to seize the cities of the Gulf of Mexico.  Airborne and Special Forces units of their respective countries, along with the Chinese and Russians, will aid them: all of these will be inserted into the interior.

Their targets to seize and occupy will include Indianapolis, IN (the central railway “hub” of the entire U.S.), and New Orleans, LA (the critical port city where the Mississippi river empties into the Gulf of Mexico; critical for shipping and transport).

5. The Russians will amass submarine assets in the Atlantic with secondary nuclear targets if needed.

At this point, it is worth mentioning that all U.S. naval assets abroad, such as carrier groups, will be nuked.  The attackers have the advantage of no nuclear reprisals being the policy of the Obama administration when the EMP is initially delivered.  There are several reasons for the limited nature of the nuclear strikes.

Firstly, the West Coast would be subdued without damaging the Imperial Valley, the breadbasket of the U.S. that produces almost 1/5 of the fresh, domestic produce in America.  In addition, these nations do not want to irradiate the Midwest due to the corn and wheat, as well as the cattle industry and other segments of domestic food production.

With the EMP, there will be a 24 – 48 hour window of almost stultifying confusion that will lead to semi-paralysis.  There are many cities (especially the ports) that will be kept intact due to the desire of these nations to take our resources and ship them by rail to the ports and then back to their home countries, minus a percentage to upkeep the foreign troops.  This follows Sun Tzu’s principle of resupplying your troops with the enemy’s supplies and provisions.

In the next article, we will cover what areas of the U.S. hold what particular interests for invaders, and outline what the U.S. responses and courses of action will be, from both a military (active duty and national guard) and civilian perspective.

[Click here to be alerted when this analysis is available]

Jeremiah Johnson is the Nom de plume of a retired Green Beret of the United States Army Special Forces (Airborne).  Mr. Johnson is also a Gunsmith, a Certified Master Herbalist, a Montana Master Food Preserver, and a graduate of the U.S. Army’s SERE school (Survival Evasion Resistance Escape).  He lives in a cabin in the mountains of Western Montana with his wife and three cats. You can follow Jeremiah’s regular writings at SHTFplan.com.

This article may be republished or excerpted with proper attribution to the author and a link to www.SHTFplan.com.

Also Read:

Obama Pushes For Widespread Surveillance State: “At This Rate We’ll All Be In Cages… Either Electronic Or Literal”

How To Survive Occupied America: “Red Dawn Just Started… And You’re In It”

Collision Course: As Obama Weakens America, The Russians And Chinese Prepare

Forced Economic Free Fall the Precursor to Collapse: “The World Is About To Enter A Global Depression Unlike Anything Seen Before”

The Trigger: If This Ever Happens You Know You’re Days Away From Nuclear War

Jeremiah Johnson’s Green Beret Survival Guides

SHTFplan and Mac Slavo www.shtfplan.com