Tinfoil Hats and FEMA Camps

“These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” – Thomas Paine, 1776

I vacillate between believing whether the biggest threat Americans face today is the internal threat posed by the politically correct Obama administration and their gargantuan, overreaching, oppressive Federal bureaucracy, coupled with a burgeoning Federal debt OR the external threats posed by Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, the Islamic State, International criminal syndicates and other non-state actors coupled with an ineffectual Southern Border, as we reduce our military.  

Or maybe it is the way the Obama administration ignores the external threats, all while cozying up to Iran and Cuba, as he alienates our allies and reduces the military.  

  

But every cloud has to have a silver lining right?  The only reason I don’t wear my tinfoil hat all the time is because I’m convinced the politically correct Obama administration and their gargantuan, overreaching, oppressive Federal bureaucracy is also completely inept.  It would be funny if it weren’t so darn imprudent and expensive.  

Just this week, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) officials announced the results of the interagency forensics investigation into a recent cyber incident involving federal background investigation data.  The utter magnitude of the ineptitude makes the VA medical system look like the Mayo Clinic or Johns Hopkins.   Here is what DoD informed present and former members:

 “In late May, as a result of ongoing efforts to secure its systems, OPM discovered an incident affecting background investigation records of current, former and prospective federal employees and contractors…  The forensics investigation determined that the types of information in these records include identification details such as Social Security numbers; residency and educational history; employment history; information about immediate family and other personal and business acquaintances; health, criminal and financial history; and other details.” 

Oh great.  Not just personal information, but the family’s too.  “Some records also include findings from interviews conducted by background investigators and fingerprints. Usernames and passwords that background investigation applicants used to fill out their background investigation forms also were stolen.”  But wait, there’s more, “Since learning of the incident affecting background investigation records, OPM and the interagency incident response team concluded that sensitive information, including the Social Security numbers of 21.5 million individuals, was stolen from the background investigation databases. This includes 19.7 million people who applied for a background investigation, and 1.8 million non-applicants, predominantly spouses or cohabitants of applicants, officials said.” 

 

OPM’s silver lining, “While background investigation records do contain some information regarding mental health and financial history provided by those that have applied for a security clearance and by individuals contacted during the background investigation, there is no evidence that separate systems that store information regarding the health, financial, payroll and retirement records of federal personnel were impacted by this incident."  

In order to prove their incompetence was not just a onetime fluke, they offered this encouraging tidbit: “This incident is separate, but related to, a previous incident discovered in April… affecting personnel data for 4.2 million individuals.”

And just who got all this information?  According to senior American officials, Chinese hackers broke into the computer networks.   Not to worry though, “For the 21.5 million background investigation applicants, spouses or cohabitants with sensitive information stolen from OPM databases, OPM and the Defense Department will work with a private-sector firm specializing in credit and identity theft monitoring to provide services tailored to address potential risks created by this particular incident for at least three years, at no charge.”  No charge to anyone except the US taxpayer. 

The failure to secure our personal information needs to be seen in light of the abysmal failure to secure our physical borders and sovereignty of our country.  The most recent illegal alien related tragedies have spawned a new term -- “criminal illegal.”    Orwell would be proud.  In what might also be called criminal, these folks have found refuge in our liberal-led “sanctuary cities.”

Between the Obama administration’s ATF, DHS, DOJ, EPA, GSA, INS, ICE, IRS, OPM, NSA, SSA, TSA, VA and the SCOTUS’s incompetence and the external threats, it’s hard to be sure what constitutes the greatest threat to America.  The only silver lining or source of solace for the soul:  if (or when) Obama does declare Martial Law – our inept Federal Government won’t even be able to operate the FEMA camps correctly.