Wreckage Of US Navy Submarine Found Off Maryland Coast Tyler Durden Fri, 12/11/2020 – 19:20
According to The Baltimore Sun, the wreckage of an American submarine from World War I was discovered off the coastal waters of Ocean City, Maryland.
Atlantic Wreck Salvage found the remains of USS R-8 using sonar data as well as historical records.
The remains of USS R-8. Source: The Baltimore Sun
“The discovery of any new vessel is exciting,” said Capt. Eric Takakjian, a member of the team who discovered the sunken sub.
“It appears from the sonar images that the site will reveal a very well-preserved example of an R-class submarine in existence anywhere. We are looking forward to conducting additional research and to diving the wreck in 2021,” Takakjian said.
Garry Kozak, a sonar expert who analyzed the data, said the submarine resembles one that would be equivalent to an R-8.
“The sonar data leaves little doubt that the R-8 has been located,” Kozak said. “One set of prominent features of the R-class subs visible in the scan image is the spray rail configuration on the conning tower.”
In World War I, the Navy built 27 R-class submarines. This one, in particular, was built in 1918 and participated in Naval training exercises along the coasts of California and the Gulf of Mexico.
Historical image of the R-8. Source: The Baltimore Sun
In 1930, the submarine became “inactive” at the Naval Reserve Fleet at Philadelphia. By 1936, the sub was used in aerial bombing exercises and sunk to the bottom of the ocean – lost for decades – until now.
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Amazon is using social distancing technology that informs warehouse workers when they are getting too close to each other, a system that could subsequently be rolled out in airports and other venues.
A video posted by an Amazon staffer shows him pointing out how a sensor is tracking the movement of employees via colored circles that form a 6 foot perimeter around each person.
When two people violate ‘social distancing’ the circle turns red and an alarm sounds.
Amazon using new technology to enforce social distancing. Punishment for getting too close? pic.twitter.com/u2PaRzsI2o
“They gonna take a picture and make me get in trouble,” the employee states.
The technology is called “Distance Assistant” and according to the Verge, “Amazon also says it will be open-sourcing the technology, allowing other companies to quickly replicate and deploy these devices in a range of locations.”
As we highlighted back in October, Hitachi has developed similar technology, which includes cartoon fish swimming around inside the bubble. When the person violates social distancing, the fish escape.
The promo video brags that the technology “can even be deployed inside elevators” and Hitachi is “hoping to get the technology commercialized quickly.”
Given that numerous prominent people are insisting that social distancing and other coronavirus restrictions are here to say, it’s perfectly feasible to imagine a near future in which this technology is widely adopted.
China is already linking coronavirus rules to its onerous social credit score system, in addition to using AI to discipline its slave labor workforce, so the idea that people could be publicly shamed or punished for getting too close to others is a very real possibility
CCP has launched a new #SocialControl system called “civilization code,” that combines China’s coronavirus #HealthCode app with the “social credit system” which allows the #CCP to track and trace citizens with a tighter grip.
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Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University, the leading provider of COVID-19 data, announced Wednesday that its founder owned slaves, contrary to the long-time narrative that Hopkins was a wealthy philanthropist and abolitionist.
Researchers Martha S. Jones and Allison Seyler uncovered the new information in government census records as they were on a quest to explore the university’s history. For more than a century, the long-held narrative of Hopkins, an abolitionist, whose father freed the family’s slaves in 1807, has recently come into question.
University President Ronald J. Daniels and other school officials published an open letter Wednesday saying the findings “complicate the understanding we have long had of Johns Hopkins as our founder.”
“We now have government census records that state Mr. Hopkins was the owner of one enslaved person listed in his household in 1840 and four enslaved people listed in 1850,” the letter said. “By the 1860 census, there are no enslaved persons listed in the household.”
“It calls to mind not only the darkest chapters in the history of our country and our city but also the complex history of our institutions since then, and the legacies of racism and inequity we are working together to confront,” the letter continued.
Watch: University President Ronald J. Daniels Addresses The Life of Johns Hopkins
Hopkins died in 1873 at age 78. As an entrepreneur and investor, he accumulated a massive amount of wealth that was used to establish a hospital, orphanage, and the university.
Officials said the researchers would continue to dig deeper to get a better picture of the founder’s past.
As more and more schools begin to confront their connection with slavery, such as Princeton and Georgetown, in the last couple of years, they also may consider how to make amends in a world overrun by social justice warriors.
It’s only a matter of time before social justice warriors target a monument to Johns Hopkins at the university.
All Hopkins needs to do at this point is to launch a new scholarship program for slave descendants for everyone to forget about the founder’s history.
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The Supreme Court on Friday tossed a last-minute bid by the state of Texas to overturn the 2020 election by challenging the results of four battleground states.
Citing a lack of standing, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that the state “has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections,” adding “All other pending motions are dismissed as moot.”
There’s never been a better argument for national school choice – and freeing low-income children trapped in substandard big-city public education systems – than that idiotic tweet by the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union.
“The push to reopen schools is rooted in sexism, racism and misogyny,” read the CTU tweet, posted Sunday at 1:03 p.m.
It was later deleted. CTU bosses might have realized that those racist, sexist misogynists trying to reopen the Chicago schools during the pandemic – the mayor and the school superintendent – just happen to be Black women. And, that plenty of parents who want their kids back in school happen to be Black and Latino.
There is nothing as delicious as watching those angry hard-left CTU bosses load up their identity politics bazooka only to blow off their own (rhetorical) feet.
Why don’t we make this a “teaching moment” for parents who want real choice?
And for the great public schoolteachers who might be intimidated by those union leaders who are fighting to keep schools closed?
Some of those teachers send their kids to private schools in Chicago where teachers are in the classroom. They would rather stay quiet. I don’t blame them.
The science does not support closed schools. Dr. Anthony Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield say that kids should be in school with proper precautions.
Most teachers want to teach in person. They’ve dedicated their lives to being educators. And they know, perhaps more than most of us, how closing schools hurts young people emotionally, socially and academically.
And many parents also want their children in school, not falling behind, trying to learn on a laptop. Chicago’s mayor and other Democratic elected officials know this, but they’re intimidated by the power of the CTU leadership.
Before I go any further, please remember I’m not anti-teacher. My wife is a teacher. One of our sons is a teacher. Don’t twist my words to suggest otherwise. Teachers perform the most important job in the country.
Yet many good teachers are, as I said, intimidated by union bosses. And the political actors tremble because teachers union bosses are their political bosses now.
I decided to reach out to a man who knows how this works and invited him to be a guest on “The Chicago Way” podcast: Paul Vallas, the former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. He has been putting pressure on the union and the politicians to open up the schools.
Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, shown Feb. 18, 2019, in Chicago. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune)
Paul, what about that stupid yet revealing CTU tweet?
“If they want to talk about racism, there’s nothing more racist than closing schools (for the pandemic) and providing substandard education to the poorest children in the community who are disproportionately Black and Latino,” he said.
“And there’s nothing more sexist than closing schools, and hurting families, the majority of whom are led by single mothers.
“So, you want to talk racism and sexism and misogyny?” Vallas asked.
“The union leadership’s posturing and forcing the schools to be closed is all those things. Because what they’re really doing is committing educational malpractice.”
It’s disastrous for the teenagers who get lost. Some get lost on the streets of Chicago and die. And the little ones, the elementary school students?
“The youngest children are at risk,” Vallas said. “Their brains are developing at an accelerated rate.”
What’s being done to them, he said, is “permanent damage.”
Cops, firefighters and paramedics go to work every day. Cashiers at the supermarkets are at work every day. We thank them all as we sweat out this pandemic lockdown.
But if cashiers aren’t at work, they don’t get paid. Yet teachers don’t have to be in the classroom, and they get paid.
Why aren’t they at work, inside school buildings? If it’s not the science, it’s the politics. It’s a demonstration of control.
Politicians get paid too. But they’ve allowed the teachers unions to dictate education policy to the detriment of the students and their families.
The kids need teachers in schools, especially special-needs kids. A child with autism needs in-person instruction. And all children need their teachers. All kids need to be in school, at least for part of the time.
Most big-city school systems like Chicago serve a majority of low-income families. And as Vallas points out, many of the families are led by single mothers.
They have to work. And by work, I don’t mean working on Zoom, like a news columnist.
But who watches the children to make sure that they’re not playing “Call of Duty” on the Xbox?
Vallas sees those kids — from the city and suburbs in lockdown states across the country — as a lost generation, as casualties of a political war.
“All those children impacted by these school closings, by excessive remote learning, the children who have dropped out because schools have been closed for such an extensive period of time, these children are going to be permanently scarred.
“They’re like casualties of war. And the war is the teachers union maintaining or enhancing their benefits while minimizing their workload and placing their employees where there is no risk at all.”
There’s no risk for the union leaders, who sit in their home office, intimidating Democratic politicians like Lori Lightfoot because they can influence voters to come out when needed.
But what about the forgotten?
The children falling behind. Their parents wondering how they’ll be free of a system that treats them this way.
They’re the ones who should matter. But they don’t.
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Real Vision managing editor Ed Harrison welcomes senior editor Ash Bennington to discuss water futures, “bubblicious” market froth, and potential anti-competitive behavior by Big Tech. After Ed and Ash give their brief review of political news, Ed shares his analysis of the recent IPOs of DoorDash and Airbnb with Ash noting parallels between current market conditions and those that preceded the Dot-com bubble. Ed and Ash then explore the significance of the recent addition of water futures to the CME exchange. In the intro, Jack Farley and Weston Nakamura embark on a chart-filled journey on the Nikkei 225, the Japanese Yen, and currency pairs. For greater details and more charts from Weston and Jack, check out their conversation in the Real Vision Exchange: https://exchange.realvision.com/post/follow-up-to-my-daily-briefing-int….
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“They’re Sweeping It Under The Rug”: FBI Accused Of Covering Up Rampant Sexual Misconduct Among Top Ranks Tyler Durden Fri, 12/11/2020 – 18:00
As if you didn’t have any doubts before, it appears that everything may not be as buttoned-down as it appears a the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
In fact, a stunning new investigation has revealed “at least six sexual misconduct allegations involving senior FBI officials” over the last 5 years, inclusive of two new claims that have been lodged this week alone. The investigation, conducted by the Associated Press, found that each of the accused perpetrators of sexual misconduct “appears to have avoided discipline.” Others were “transferred or retired”, but were still allowed to keep their full pensions and benefits.
The latest claims come from a 17th woman who joined a federal lawsuit that alleges systemic sexual harassment at the FBI’s training academy in Quantico, Virginia. The lawsuit claims that FBI instructors made “sexually charged” comments about women needing to “take their birth control to control their moods.”
In some cases, internal probes against the accused substantiated the claims made against them. The accused are then allowed anonymity, enabling them to “land on their feet” in the private sector after leaving the agency. One woman claimed that a special agent who retired without discipline in 2016 was able to open his own law firm after he “imprisoned, tortured, harassed, blackmailed, stalked and manipulated” her into having several “non-consensual sexual encounters”.
The woman’s attorney commented: “It is the policy and practice of the FBI and its OIG to allow senior executives accused of sexual assault to quietly retire with full benefits without prosecution.”
Other cases AP reviewed included “an assistant director and special agents in charge of entire field offices” and allegations that ran the gamut from “unwanted touching” to “sexual advances and coercion”.
A former FBI analyst who said her supervisor “licked her face” and “groped her” at a farewell party in 2017 said: “They’re sweeping it under the rug. As the premier law enforcement organization that the FBI holds itself out to be, it’s very disheartening when they allow people they know are criminals to retire and pursue careers in law enforcement-related fields.”
Another incident involved an assistant director driving a female subordinate home after a happy hour, where he allegedly wrapped his arm around her waist and “moved his hand down onto her bottom” once they arrived at her apartment building. “Assistant directors should not be putting themselves in these situations,” the accused admitted, while still disputing the woman’s account. He retired in 2018 after an internal investigation substantiated the woman’s claims.
The AP investigation noted that its count of “at least six” does not include a “growing number” of FBI supervisors that have “failed to report romantic relationships with subordinates in recent years”.
Now, congress is calling for whistleblower protections. U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat, said: “They need a #MeToo moment. It’s repugnant, and it underscores the fact that the FBI and many of our institutions are still good ol’-boy networks. It doesn’t surprise me that, in terms of sexual assault and sexual harassment, they are still in the Dark Ages.”
The FBI responded by saying it “maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward sexual harassment” and by saying that claims against supervisors have resulted in them being removed from positions while the cases were adjudicated internally. The agency said it looks at “the credibility of the allegations, the severity of the conduct, and the rank and position of the individuals involved.”
“Earlier this year, the Inspector General found that the special agent in charge of the Albany, New York, office, James N. Hendricks, sexually harassed eight subordinates at the FBI,” the report continued.
Yet the last time the OIG did an “extensive probe” on the agency, it found 343 sexual misconduct offenses from 2009 to 2012, including three instances of “videotaping undressed women without consent.”
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Start with the headline: Supporting the 2020 U.S. Election. YouTube in its company blog can’t even say, “Banning Election Conspiracy Theories.” They have to employ the Orwellian language of politicians — Healthy Forests, Clear Skies, “Supported” Elections — because Google and YouTube are now political actors, who can’t speak plainly any more than a drunk can walk in a straight line.
The company wrote Wednesday:
Yesterday was the safe-harbor deadline for the U.S. Presidential election and enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect. Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today (or anytime after) that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election… For example, we will remove videos claiming that a Presidential candidate won the election due to widespread software glitches or counting errors.
This announcement came down at roughly the same time Hunter Biden was announcing that his “tax affairs” were under investigation by the U.S. Attorney in Delaware. Part of that investigation concerned whether or not he had violated tax and money laundering laws in, as CNN put it, “foreign countries, principally China.” Information suggestive of money-laundering and tax issues in China and other countries was in the cache of emails reported in the New York Post story blocked by Twitter and Facebook.
That news was denounced as Russian disinformation by virtually everyone in “reputable” media, who often dismissed the story with an aristocratic snort, a la Christiane Amanpour:
That tale was not Russian disinformation, however, and Biden’s announcement this week strongly suggests Twitter and Facebook suppressed a real story of legitimate public interest just before a presidential election.
How important was that Hunter Biden story? That’s debatable, but the fact that tech companies blocked it, and professional journalists gleefully lied about it, has a direct bearing on YouTube’s decision now to bar Trumpist freakouts over the election results.
Oracle Moves To Texas As Silicon Valley Exodus Accelerates Tyler Durden Fri, 12/11/2020 – 17:11
The California Exodus continues, as Oracle has become the latest tech company to leave the Golden State for Texas.
The company noted the move at the very bottom of their latest 10-Q, the tech company founded 43 years ago in Santa Clara, California announced that they would be “implementing a more flexible employee work location policy and has changed its Corporate Headquarters from Redwood City, California to Austin, Texas,” where the company opened a massive 40-acre riverfront campus in 2018 with the capacity for up to 10,000 employees.
The company says the move will “best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work.” Most Oracle employees will be able to choose their office location, or continue to work from home part time or full time, the company told CNBC.
“In addition, we will continue to support major hubs for Oracle around the world, including those in the United States such as Redwood City, Austin, Santa Monica, Seattle, Denver, Orlando and Burlington, among others, and we expect to add other locations over time,” the company added. “By implementing a more modern approach to work, we expect to further improve our employees’ quality of life and quality of output.”
What they don‘t mention is that California also has some of the highest taxes in the nation, an outrageous cost of living, an explosion in homelessness, crumbling infrastructure and seasonal wildfires which continue to make living in ‘paradise’ a living hell. Last December, Oracle ditched San Francisco as the longstanding venue for its OpenWorld conference, citing expensive hotel rooms and ‘poor street conditions’ – depriving the city of an estimated $64 million per year after the company moved the event to Las Vegas.
Indeed, the exodus out of California is real and ongoing. Oracle’s move follows that of Hewlett Packard, which announced earlier this month that it would be relocating its headquarters from San Jose, California to Houston, Texas. Meanwhile, Palantir Technologies moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Denver, Colorado earlier this year. Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and comedian Joe Rogan left the Golden State for Texas.
“They do tend to get a little complacent, a little entitled, and then they don’t win the championship any more,” said Musk, comparing California to a sports team, adding that the state “has been winning for a long time, and I think they’re taking [firms] for granted a little bit.”
Data from moving company moveBuddha.com (via Market Crumbs) shows Texas is by far the most popular destination for those leaving the San Francisco Bay area. So far this year, 16% of outbound Bay Area residents moved to the state. That’s more than the combined total going to next two most popular states—Washington and New York, which accounted for 7.9% and 6.5% of the outbound total, respectively.
Austin is attracting the bulk of the new Texas residents as 7% of outbound Bay Area residents are moving to the city. Two additional Texas cities made the list of the top 15 most popular destinations as Dallas and Houston ranked 8th and 12th, respectively.
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If you’ve been waiting for a sign that things are really bad economically in the United States, here it is. Americans who never would have contemplated shoplifting before are stealing food to survive.
One of the things that we often say in preparedness circles as we watch chaotic Black Friday scenes or fiery riots unfold is, “You think it’s bad now? Just wait until people are hungry!”
Well, guess what?
People are hungry.
Food insecurity and hunger
I wrote the other day about how the response to the pandemic has destroyed the personal finances of American families. An area that deserves more attention is food insecurity. Food insecurity is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life at a household level.
Hunger, on the other hand, is a personal, physiological condition that results from food insecurity.
The word “hunger,” the panel stated in its final report, “…should refer to a potential consequence of food insecurity that, because of prolonged, involuntary lack of food, results in discomfort, illness, weakness, or pain that goes beyond the usual uneasy sensation.” (source)
Meanwhile, an estimated 54 million Americans will struggle with hunger this year, a 45 percent increase from 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. With food aid programs like SNAP and WIC being reduced, and other federal assistance on the brink of expiration, food banks and pantries are being inundated, reporting hours-long waits and lines that stretch into the thousands. (source)
There are a number of reasons this is occurring at such large numbers.
Massive numbers of job losses
The increasing price of food
Children who used to get breakfast and lunch at school are now eating all three meals at home
Many families who can’t afford their bills and groceries still make too much money to qualify for federal food assistance
This is a topic that a lot of people are judgmental about because they’ve never experienced it and consider it a sign of a character flaw.
I spent several years living with food insecurity and poverty when my children were younger, and I can tell you for a fact, it’s a terrifying feeling when you have no idea what you’re going to feed those precious little humans for dinner. I skipped many meals so my kids could eat and I was working full time. Food insecurity is not just something that happens to lazy bums. It could be happening to that nice family next door to you and you’d never know it.
Having been in this horrible position, I want to urge you, if you are able to afford it, to please donate to food banks, soup kitchens, or directly to families in need. Non-perishable foods, treats for the kids, peanut butter, things that don’t require a lot of cooking (families in need may not have the utilities available to cook beans and rice from scratch), and hygiene products are all very welcome. When you’re broke, fresh produce is always the first to go, so if you’re donating directly and can swing it, consider adding some fresh fruits and vegetables.
Elected officials are busy playing games.
As food becomes more difficult to acquire, people are becoming desperate. Hunger in the United States has reached a level that hasn’t been seen in decades. Much of the additional aid from the government expired months ago and our elected officials are too busy playing games to pass a bill that will actually assist the people who are suffering without lining the pockets of big businesses.
More than 20 million Americans are on some form of unemployment assistance, and 12 million will run out of benefits the day after Christmas unless new relief materializes. Though lawmakers have made progress this week on a $908 billion bill, details are still being worked out, congressional aides said…
…Several federal food programs that have provided billions of dollars in fresh produce, dairy and meat to U.S. food banks also are set to expire at the end of the year. The largest among them, the Farmers to Families Food Box, has provided more than 120 million food boxes during the pandemic and is already running out of funding in many parts of the country. (source)
The government – you know – the ones who have caused this crisis by destroying millions of jobs and hundreds of thousands of businesses – aren’t doing a whole lot to help. While it isn’t the government’s job to take care of everybody, does that change when they’re the ones who screwed everybody in the first place and created a situation in which people couldn’t take care of themselves?
The result is a growing subset of Americans who are stealing food to survive.
Shoplifting is up markedly since the pandemic began in the spring and at higher levels than in past economic downturns, according to interviews with more than a dozen retailers, security experts and police departments across the country. But what’s distinctive about this trend, experts say, is what’s being taken — more staples like bread, pasta and baby formula.
“We’re seeing an increase in low-impact crimes,” said Jeff Zisner, chief executive of workplace security firm Aegis. “It’s not a whole lot of people going in, grabbing TVs and running out the front door. It’s a very different kind of crime — it’s people stealing consumables and items associated with children and babies.” (source)
I’m sure we can all agree that stealing is wrong. But I’m also sure we can all agree that being unable to feed our children could compel us to do things we’d otherwise never do.
The Washington Post article shows the human side of those who are shoplifting.
So who is actually doing the stealing? It’s a mixed bag. There are some people who are literally stealing to survive while others are stealing items to continue to maintain their lifestyle or “spice up” their inexpensive meals.
Jean is a single mom who was working full time and going to college when the pandemic hit, causing her son’s preschool to close, which in turn, meant she had to quit her job to care for him, which in turn meant she wasn’t eligible for unemployment.
Jean said she was out of options. So she began sneaking food into her son’s stroller at the local Walmart. She said she’d take things like ground beef, rice or potatoes but always pay for something small, like a packet of M&M’s. Each time, she’d tell herself that God would understand.
“I used to think, if I get in trouble, I’d say, ‘Look, I’m sorry, I wasn’t stealing a television. I just didn’t know what else to do. It wasn’t malicious. We were hungry,’ ” said Jean, 21, who asked to be identified by her middle name to discuss her situation freely. “It’s not something I’m proud of, but it’s what I had to do.” (source)
While Jean feels terrible about it and has focused on necessities, there’s another side to the shoplifting – those who don’t seem to feel badly about it at all and who shoplift things that aren’t exactly keeping them alive.
Sloane lost her job in the initial wave of layoffs and her partner quit because he didn’t feel safe working in retail during the pandemic. She focuses on large chains instead of smaller businesses because they can afford the loss.
In Virginia, Sloane, 28, says she has been dropping avocados, mushrooms and other fresh produce into her bag without paying for them since September. She worries constantly about getting caught and takes only a couple of items at a time. “But when you’re eating cheap meals every day, sometimes it’s nice to have an avocado to spice things up for one night,” she said. (source)
And Alex graduated with a master’s degree in May when absolutely nobody was hiring. She steals from Whole Foods and doesn’t feel guilty.
She’d spent most of her $1,200 stimulus check on rent, and used what little she had left to buy groceries. Everything else — vitamins, moisturizer, body wash — she said she shoplifted from a Whole Foods Market a few miles from her apartment in Chicago.
“It was like, I could spend $10 and get a couple of vegetables or I could spend $10 on just a box of tampons,” said Alex, 27, who asked to be identified by her middle name to speak candidly…
…She says she moves through the store mostly unnoticed. Usually, she said, she picks up a few bulky vegetables — a bunch of kale, maybe, or a few avocados — to disguise the pricier items she slips into her bag at the self checkout.
“I don’t feel much guilt about it,” she said. “It’s been very frustrating to be part of a class of people who is losing so much right now. And then to have another class who is profiting from the pandemic — well, let’s just say I don’t feel too bad about taking $15 or $20 of stuff from Whole Foods when Jeff Bezos is the richest man on Earth.” (Bezos is the founder and chief executive of Amazon, which owns Whole Foods. He also owns The Washington Post.) (source)
This is just a small glimpse into the mindset of people whose circumstances have changed.
You may read these stories and focus on the last two. If you did that, I think you’d be overlooking the bigger picture. Those who are stealing to survive are not out there talking to the Washington Post about it. They’re ashamed to be in the position in which they have to steal. And the statistics support this theory. To be clear, more of the things being stolen are far from luxury items like body wash and avocados. Items being stolen the most frequently are diapers, formula, ground beef, rice, pasta, bread, milk, and winter clothing.
They may not be getting away with as much as they think they are.
The people who are stealing smaller items and focusing on big companies that “can absorb the losses” may think that they’ll get in less trouble because the value of the items is so low. But they could be in for a terrible surprise.
An employee of Target who spoke to me on the condition of anonymity warned that many of the larger stores like Target and Walmart have facial recognition software and they keep records of what a person is stealing. He explained how it works:
Stores like Target and Walmart have facial recognition software and they will put you into a database even if you’ve only stolen one small thing and will wait until you’ve stolen a cumulative amount of 600-1000 dollars worth of merchandise so they can charge you with something bigger.
So for example, if you walked into a Target in Richmond and stole a pair of panties, and then went to a different city, say, Charlotte, as soon as you walk into the store, it pulls up your face and gives security the option to open the file and like see all the other tapes with your face on them.
You know all those cameras that are everywhere at the large discount stores now, including at the self-checkout counter and over the doors as you walk in? Yeah, those are the ones putting you in a database.
So what happens next?
While it feels like our nation’s economic disaster has been going on for a very long time, we’re still in the early stages. We still have a regular rule of law in most places. We have police officers, a court system, and some forms of government aid. But as things worsen – and they will – so too will the level of desperation.
Shoplifting of food and necessities has increased dramatically since last March. Retail theft in Philadelphia is up 60% over last year’s numbers. This kind of theft always increases after a major disaster, but according to Read Hayes, a criminologist at the University of Florida and the director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, “the current trend line is skewing even higher” than normal post-disaster.
The fact that retail theft has continued to increase so dramatically is an incredibly important warning sign for us to heed. While some people seem to be stealing out of a sense of entitlement, others are stealing in order to survive. No longer are people able to put together meals from food banks, government assistance, their jobs – they are stealing in order to feed their families.
If you look at economic collapses, historically the thefts start small. You see the things we’re seeing now. A mom trying to feed her toddler. A broke young couple trying to replace the things they can no longer afford to buy. But don’t expect things to stay at the current level.
When all the stores are out of food? When all the farms have been plundered? Where do those hungry people go next?
It’s not a stretch of the imagination to think they might show up at your front door. It would probably start with the folks who know you. Friends, extended family, neighbors who all think you might be able to spare a meal or a loaf of bread. You should consider now how you plan to answer that question, which will, of course, vary from person to person.
I hope that you’ve practiced careful OpSec all these years we’ve been talking about it. Because we are approaching a time when that your insistence on privacy won’t seem silly to the people who thought you were cute but maybe a little paranoid or a little kooky.
If things continue to decline and it becomes well known that you have a supply of food, you’d better hope that you have a vigorous defensive plan and the means to enact it. Because you’re going to have a Black Friday mob at your gate. And they’re going to be after the means to stay alive, not just sale-priced bathroom linens.
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