“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.
This is why I can't imagine that our .gov can manage a theft of our weapons, roundup of 10's of millions of people, and fight an internal battle. Even TOTUS (Teleprompter Of The USA) is resigning.
ReplyDeleteI'm more concerned about a long financial holiday in the USA. No plastic, no ATM use, no banks for a week or two. The cities will go nuts. Just remember N'Orleans and how those people reacted to a day or two without stuff.
Just have to plan accordingly as has been stated for several years now.
"[Is] the biggest threat Americans face today 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" -- ?
ReplyDeleteThere is only one answer: Both of them. They must be seen as one threat: two villains working hand-in-glove.