What was the objective?

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April 16, 2013 there was an attack on communications in the area near San Jose California. Minutes later there was an attack on a electrical power substation.

Stories on the events are here:

The WSJ February 5 version is the most complete. But it requires a subscription. Some of the most insightful information comes from this article, such as:

“This wasn’t an incident where Billy-Bob and Joe decided, after a few brewskis, to come in and shoot up a substation,” Mark Johnson, retired vice president of transmission for PG&E, told the utility security conference, according to a video of his presentation. “This was an event that was well thought out, well planned and they targeted certain components.”

…

Mr. Wellinghoff, then chairman of FERC, said that after he heard about the scope of the attack, he flew to California, bringing with him experts from the U.S. Navy’s Dahlgren Surface Warfare Center in Virginia, which trains Navy SEALs. After walking the site with PG&E officials and FBI agents, Mr. Wellinghoff said, the military experts told him it looked like a professional job.
In addition to fingerprint-free shell casings, they pointed out small piles of rocks, which they said could have been left by an advance scout to tell the attackers where to get the best shots.
“They said it was a targeting package just like they would put together for an attack,” Mr. Wellinghoff said.

Ry stopped by my office today to discuss something else and we talked about it some. Ry has friends “everywhere”. One of his friends works for one of the companies that owned some of the fiber optic cables which were cut. Indications are the perpetrators had inside knowledge about the communication system.

There have been no arrests to date. The entire operation shows good planning, execution, and post operation discipline at keeping their mouths shut.

But, as Ry repeatedly asked me this morning, what was the end goal? They didn’t really accomplish anything. Power was rerouted and there wasn’t a significant power outage. They knocked out the substation for a month but “so what?”

Ubu52 trolls with:

To me, this sounds more like one of these Patriot militias trying to start something than it does anything else. So where are the rest of the people just itching for a civil war?

Yeah. Right. And how would attacking infrastructure used by everyone help their cause? These weren’t stupid people. Next?

Mark Johnson, quoted above in the WSJ is also quoted in Foreign Policy as saying:

My personal view is that this was a dress rehearsal.

I’m skeptical. If it was a dress rehearsal then why wait so long for the main event? And it wasn’t exactly a ‘dry’ run. A successful dry run would have been undetected. This was not intended to be undetected.

The dominate speculation on the gun email list at work is foreign terrorists.

Maybe. But why not follow it up with similar attacks? It’s been nearly a year now. Does it take that long to train and coordinate a dozen teams to take down a multi-state region?

An additional reason I’m skeptical of any hypothesis of it being a dress rehearsal is that I would think they would have “burned the bridge” to their inside knowledge of the security communications with that attack. They would assume that coupon would expire within a month or two after they used it. The hardening of the electrical power substations to attacks is much more difficult than hardening the communications vaults and plugging information leaks. They would have to do the “live show” within a week or two to use the same methods as in this attack.

I proposed the following two hypothesizes to Ry which he didn’t immediately shoot down:

  1. They had something additional planned but the power didn’t go out in the target area like they figured it would so the end goal was not attempted.
  2. Proof of capability for an extortion demand but they very nearly got caught, were spooked, and chickened out on following through.

It is interesting stuff regardless of the objective.

Update: See also the Infogalactic entry.

Mugme Street news

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From KOMO News:

According to the Seattle Police Department, two men were arguing at the Glen Hotel, a Low Income Housing Institute building, at 1413 Third Avenue around 10 a.m. when one shot the other.

Via an IM from Ry who noted that this is just a half block south from where we work.

See also the Seattle Police blog post.

Quote of the day—Leslie

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You definitely have the most interesting hobby of anyone I have ever talked to.

Leslie
Dental hygienist
February 5, 2014
[She was referring to Boomershoot.

It started out with her asking if I was going to the Seahawks parade in downtown Seattle yesterday. “Involuntarily. I work in the building next to the parade route”, I responded, “I’m not participating. They are a football team, right? Do they use the round balls or the funny oblong ones?”

She then ask what my hobbies were since I don’t have an interest in football. “Guns and explosives.”, I replied. I expected her to speech center to freeze up and then get to work on cleaning my teeth but instead she wanted to know my favorite handgun. Okay. We are going to talk instead of getting my teeth cleaned. At least it is something I like to talk about. So I told her, “STI Eagle. I use it in competition.”

She is looking to buy a gun for carry. And another hygienist in the office is a firearms instructor. She thought Boomershoot sounded really cool and suggested she and her husband should come over to watch. I encouraged it and gave her links to Kathy Jackson’s blog, my blog, and Boomershoot.

And I did get my teeth cleaned.—Joe]

TSCB short

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Posting a couple of The Stars Came Back short stories / installments over at www.TheStarsCameBack.com over the next couple of days.

Wander over there occasionally if you want to follow things.

Only white men get asked…

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…this sort of question.

Ergo it is a disingenuous question, and/or the person asking it is a blithering fool. QED.

Bill Cosby, for example, never gets asked why white people are under-represented in his show, nor should he ever be asked. What a stupid question.

BTW; I had watched Cosby’s shows (including live action – the cartoon came later) on TV since I was a little kid, and I never knew he was black until I heard someone say so. It surprised me, in a way. That happened when I was entering adulthood, so my “ignorance” lasted through quite a few years of watching him. He never made an issue out of it, so I never noticed. The Cosby Kids cartoon showed kids just like us and our friends, doing crazy stuff just like we did. Same with Sanford and Son for the most part. They were a fairly typical father and son, much like the first-generation European immigrants and their kids that I grew up with in my home town.

Now you get crap if you don’t tow someone else’s agenda line or something. So ignore the crap and mind your business– It’s not that difficult, as Seinfeld points out..

Quote of the day—M.E. Thomas

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I understand why sociopaths can be scary — we don’t have any of the emotional barriers. But empaths can be scary too, especially when their emotional sense of right and wrong overwhelms rational barriers.

M.E. Thomas
February 4, 2014
J’Accuse: Twitter justice
[I found this incredibly insightful. She is right. “FOR THE CHILDREN!!!”, is just one example. Gun control is an example. The facts don’t matter. The constitutional limits don’t matter. Natural law and the right to self-defense don’t matter. All that matters is “gun violence.”

Their emotional sense of right and wrong has overwhelmed all rational barriers and they are willing send innocent people to concentration camps because GUNS (H/T to David Hardy):

One could make the argument that a society would be better off with sociopathic public servants who are subject to complete transparency and strictly enforced rules than empathic ones and little accountability.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Matthew

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Always will there be the cry for gun control, the weeping and gnashing of teeth to reduce the capacity of bullets capable of being fired from a gun, yet some of us seem to forget that people murdered each other long before someone thought up the rifle barrel and gun powder.

There is this resounding remark after every atrocity that invariably makes the rounds of “I don’t want to live in a world where principals and teachers have to….”

You already do.

Matthew
January 22, 2014
Securing Your Six: Teacher’s Edition
[I’ve encountered this same sort of response to gun control debates, “I don’t what to live in a world where…”.

My response was, “Utopia isn’t an option. You can either ‘check out’ or you can deal with reality.”

I just don’t get why they cannot comprehend this. Evil people exist. These evil people must be defended against. The police cannot be everywhere at all times. And even the police must, in rare occasions, be defended against. It is up to individuals to defend themselves and other innocent lives. That is a self-evident, fundamental law of human existence. These people who would have us disarmed in the absurd hope of making society safer appear to be delusional. I have no other explanation for it*.—Joe]

* Yes, there exist people who want us disarmed for evil reasons as well as those with the absurd hope of creating a safer society. I’m only referring to those who really believe disarming the potential victims is a viable solution to stopping evil people as apparently delusional.

Diminishing goals

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Two months ago CSGV had a fundraising goal of $10,000.

Last month they had another fundraiser with a goal of $5000:

From: Chelsea White
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2014 12:10 PM
Subject: FW: Visa is Funding the Gun Lobby

I wanted to make sure you saw Josh’s email from Friday and give you a first look at one of the satirical ads we will be running to educate Visa employees about their company’s affiliate (credit) card program with the NRA, which is funding lobbying detrimental to the safety of our communities.
Here’s the first ad:

CSGVVISAAd

Thanks to supporters like you, we have already raised over $1,200 dollars, which is a great start toward our goal of $5,000! Can you make a contribution to help us out?

Click here to donate $20 or whatever you can give right now.

Thank you for backing this important campaign,

Chelsea White
Director of Development
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Josh Horwitz
Date: Fri, Jan 24, 2013 at 3:35PM
Subject: Visa is Funding the Gun Lobby
To: Chelsea White

Dear Chelsea,

4,780 petition signatures and 275 calls to the head of Government Relations later, and VISA is definitely starting to feel the heat.

Everyday people like you have been clear that VISA’s support of NRA lobbying activity through their affiliate card program is irresponsible and offensive.

But while we know they’ve received our message, the people responsible for this decision at VISA are still refusing to budge. That’s why the next step in our campaign is to go bigger and make sure everyone at VISA knows about the embarrassment this program is bringing their company.

We want to launch a Facebook ad campaign targeting VISA employees that will educate everyone in the company about the tremendous harm being done by the NRA VISA card.

Will you make a contribution today to help us fund Facebook ads exposing Visa’s toxic relationship with the NRA?

Our ads will target all VISA employees across the country—from the administrative assistants all the way to the CEO. You can imagine the water cooler talk that will result when the ads start showing up on their computer screens:
“Can you believe we are funding NRA lobbying against background checks?!”

“Who’s in charge of this program anyway?”
Visa won’t be able to hide its dirty little secret anymore.

We want to raise $5,000 for this campaign. Can you pitch in $20 today?
A Fortune 500 company should not be promoting and paying for an extreme, pro-gun agenda that is causing untold suffering in neighborhoods across America. Thank you for working with us to put an end to the NRA VISA card.

Sincerely,
Josh Horwitz
Executive Director
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

I already addressed their pathetic VISA campaign here. But the bigger point is that they are hoping to collect just $5000 compared to $10000 in the previous fundraiser. That’s like the equivalent of 20 entries to Boomershoot or a very poor outcome for a Friends of the NRA event. Boomershoot usually gets 65 to 70 entries. And furthermore, assuming they continue decreasing their goal by a factor of two every month, they should be down to collecting money for a dinner for two by the end of this summer.

Hydraulic ram pump

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A friend tried to describe it to me a year or so back, but his description didn’t make sense to me. When I saw the “hydraulic ram pump” for sale in the Lehman’s catalog it got my attention.

I’d call it a “reverberatory ram pump” but regardless; it is fascinating. You can google it yourself, or look it up on youtube. In short; it uses a larger flow volume by setting up a resonance to create pressure spikes that lift a smaller flow volume– No power input required beyond that of the kinetic & potential energy in flowing/falling water.

The design and construction is so simple that it could have been done in ancient Roman times. Though I have yet to look up its history, I’m guessing it’s development is much more recent than that.

There are other ways to skin that particular cat depending on the circumstances, but this one wins in the cool factor. What I also find interesting is the small scale on which some of these run. One of them on youtube shows a system running on little more than a trickle.

Quote of the day—MauryCompson

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There is a new winner in the World’s Tiniest Penis Contest.

MauryCompson
July 24, 2013
Comment to “Fuck All You Libtards,” Pennsylvania Police Chief Announces
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!—Joe]

700 Club

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Wow. Just hit the second milestone number for The Stars Came Back, where I’m sure I’ve just recovered my upfront costs of editing, cover art, etc. Still hanging in the charts, bobbling around unsteadily but consistently between the low 20s and the high 30s on the Space Opera and Military Sci Fi charts at Amazon. The charts are recalculated ever hour or so, based on some sort of recent sales formula. So if I never sell another copy, at least I haven’t lost money. [UPDATE: check the whole chart if it’s not there. It wobbled into the #19 spot just now.]

It went live on the 13th of January. It’s now the 2nd of February. Three weeks to hit 700 net copies sold (and a couple dozen borrowed). Guess I must have done something right. *sigh* Time to work on reformatting for getting it in paperback, I suppose.

Another seven million copies and I can retire.

Quote of the day—Daniel Vitalis

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Banning “Assault Rifles” is the fundamental violation of the 2nd Amendment. These are the very weapons that We The People must possess to equalize power throughout the Republic. The mainstream media continues to ask the question of “why would anyone need an ‘assault rifle?” since they are not designed for hunting. The answer, though obvious, continues to be left out of the conversation- and since many gun owners do not feel sufficiently protected by the First Amendment anymore they are hesitant to openly discuss that “assault weapons” are the last equalizer of power throughout the republic.

Daniel Vitalis
January 31, 2013
On Gun Control
[Vitalis is correct. A certain judge is going to have to be told by the higher courts about the fundamental violation of the 2nd Amendment that he is allowing to continue.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Italian Rose

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If we have enough information on gun owners to start a confiscation effort, lets get started what are we waiting for?

Italian Rose
January 21, 2014
Comment to Knowledge is Power: How the NSA bulk data seizure program is like gun registration
[H/T to Sebastian for the link to the blog post.

To answer Italian Rose’s question:

  1. It is unconstitutional.
  2. There are over 300 million guns in this country and probably 10 billion rounds of ammunition in the hands of private citizens.
  3. The majority of those guns will only be willingly given up after the owner runs out of ammo.
  4. No one wants to take point on the confiscation project.

—Joe]

Metatdata, meet chilling effect

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A massive crowd of demonstrators gather to protest government actions, hoping for the anonymity of the crowd to help shield them from official retaliation. A while later they receive a text message:

“Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”

Anyone that tells you mass collection of cell phone metadata is benign is a fool, a useful idiot, dumb as a stump, or a government agent planning on using it. Or all of the above.

Coming soon to a protest near you… if it isn’t there already.

h/t to Paul

Quote of the day—Jeannie Darneille

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I am not a person who handles guns. I don’t own guns. I don’t…they shock me, quite frankly. We’re an open carry state and when I see people open carrying their guns, while it may be perfectly legal, it creates a visceral, personal, physical reaction in me as it does in other people…

Jeannie Darneille
January 29, 2014
Washington State Senator  (D-27th District)
In Senate, less circus, more circumspection, no media, one ‘shock’
[This is precisely what Anonymous Conservative says happens in the brains of liberals. The rabbit brain cannot handle the concept of stress. To others guns are tools to protect innocent life when threatened with immediate danger—a stressful situation.

She is compelled to reduce the thought of stress by demanding you become a rabbit or at least masquerade as a rabbit.—Joe]

Cold Call

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It happens over and over, and over again. Note to sales people in all fields; you might want to learn at least something about a business, or at least take a cursory glance at their web site before you call them and offer your services.

Today I got a call from a company that makes enhanced web site features for the visually impaired. I asked him if he (who offers web services) looked at our web site, “…because I don’t think you have.”
He says “Well, that’s something we would do…”

We sell gun stuff.

I’ve gotten several calls from advertisers asking for our address (?) asking what kind of business we’re in (?) what kind of corporation we are, etc., all of which is public information and most of which is blatantly and repeatedly displayed on our web site. I get several calls a month from various “yellow pages” companies (people still use those?) asking what business we’re in.

Sorry, but if you’re that unobservant I don’t want to do business with you even if you’re offering something I might want. It’s an extremely simple and highly relevant filter. Same goes when someone wants my vote or other political support. It usually only takes a few seconds to know who’s done their homework and who is just playing a game they don’t really understand.

Then there was the guy who called me last week, openly and for no practical reason telling me he was willfully breaking the gun laws in California and wanted my participation in the form of selling him stuff to help him break the law. When I explained it to him in just that way, and said I’m not doing business with him for that reason, and apologized to him saying none of this made any sense, I understand, and it makes neighbor suspicious of neighbor but unfortunately there it is, he asked me what I was talking about. “I’m not going to argue about it. Bye” and that was that.

I may really like your spirit, but… geeze.

Waxman to retire

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Relentlessly anti-gun idiot House Representative from California Henry Waxman announced that he’s retiring, after 20 terms trying to take your rights away, in a temper tantrum over not being more successful at punishing working folks, buying off the poor, not being able to control his hatred for those wanting less government, his inability to work with people less liberal than a RINO, and because freedom is still found in some corners of the nation. While I have no doubt that his district will elect someone else just as liberal as he is, and maybe even dumber and more poorly educated, they will not have the same political connections or seniority, so it’s a Good Thing ™.

To demonstrate just how bizarrely disconnected from reality he is (or how far our of the mainstream his values are), the final line from the news article reads:

“I’m proud of the Affordable Care Act,” he said. “I think it’s a terrific piece of legislation.”

Quote of the day—JPFO

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Why would a rational person believe, just because Hitler used gun registration lists to identify, disarm and then murder millions, that anyone in America would ever do the same thing? That’s crazy talk. No one here hates the Jews. Or blacks. Or Latinos. Or Christians.

We have very little hate here. We love each other. The FBI, ATF, NSA, IRS, SS, TSA, CIA… they’re on our side. You have nothing to worry about. Trust us. Lay down your arms. Or you will be forced to.

JPFO
January 2014
Gun Control in the Third Reich
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Straw purchases legal?

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Well, ain’t that just shiny. Seems the ATF decided on it’s own, without any supporting law, that straw purchases were illegal, and added that question to the 4473 back in ’95. There is now a case before the supremes about it, Bruce J. Abramski v. United States. The potential for an epic spanking of the BAFTE is in the offing. If we needed any more evidence of their lawlessness, we’d have it here.

Quote of the day—the snarkster

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Guns are the gateway drug to rightwingerism.

They were for me.

the snarkster
January 25, 2014
Comment to The Washington Post’s Readers Are Already Freaking Out At Having to See the Volokh Conspiracy in Their Little Cocooned Cult
[There is more than a little truth to this. With gun ownership many realize they can handle responsibility and have the ability to take care of themselves and their family. I’m not certain I agree this is called “right wing” but it’s opposed to “left wing” which many on the left label “right wing”.—Joe]