Operation “Enemies Foreign And Domestic”

First Communiqué: D-Day Minus Seven

Want to join a beat-up old ex-Navy SEAL, ocean sailor and book writer on a real-world covert cyber operation? I knew you did. So here’s the deal.

The idea is a national clandestine psyop, using my first novel as a vehicle. On next Thursday, March 1, Enemies Foreign And Domestic will be put into Amazon Kindle’s free library, for a period of up to five days.

Where EFAD’s free download promotion will be different from those of the thousands of fantasy/romance/vampire novels currently offered on Kindle, is that I’m simultaneously coordinating a mass plan to ensure that Operation EFAD goes hyper-viral on all constitutionally-oriented, freedom-loving, and Second Amendment websites and blogs at the same time.

Or on at least on as many as I can reach, and that is where you come in. There are literally hundreds of patriotic websites and blogs, and I can only reach a few. You can reach them all, every last one. And then some. More about this in the next communiqué on D Minus Six.

Despite its many limitations, Twitter will be useful for rapid tactical coordination. Operation Enemies Foreign And Domestic will be code-named #EFAD, in order to use Twitter as an always-open back channel for project updates and participant feedback. By typing #EFAD into the Twitter search field, you will find every new message related to the operation. I am @MattBracken48 on Twitter, I am Matt Bracken on Facebook, and I can be reached by email at steelcutter48 at gmail.com.

My goal is to make the spike in the number of free Kindle downloads for Enemies Foreign And Domestic so dramatic, that the national media will notice the passionate interest in this “dangerous and seditious” novel among the bitter clingers. But this is just the first step of a jiu-jitsu move. The light thrown on EFAD’s sudden nationwide surge in popularity will then be mirrored back onto the federal government’s most egregious usurpations and abuses, and on the mainstream media itself.

The idea is to force open a long overdue national conversation that the elite MSM very much wants to ignore. In large strokes, it is about our federal government morphing into a socialist tyranny before our eyes, a tyranny that is no longer soft, but getting harder with every passing month. Which is it to be: freedom, or tyranny?

The first step in forcing open this dialogue will be to explore the mainstream media’s active collusion in the cover-up of a scandal that is demonstrably orders of magnitude worse than the worst previous scandals, such as Watergate, which was “a third-rate burglary” where nobody was killed. To date, the DOJ’s Operation Fast And Furious has resulted in hundreds of murdered Mexicans and at least two dead U.S. federal agents. But instead of providing real news coverage, the MSM feeds America the pabulum of celebrity worship and an artificially-contrived debate about artificial birth control.

Imagine for a moment if President Nixon’s men, when called before the congressional committees invistigating the Watergate scandal, had provided nothing but thousands of pages of fully blacked-out paper. In effect, a giant, bored, “F—k you, what are you going to do about it?” to congress. Then imagine if the Washington Post, the New York Times and the television networks never mentioned Watergate or the hearings, except rarely, and then only to call the congressional investigators partisan hacks who were bent on destroying our beloved President Nixon.

Reverse the party polarity, jump forward through the time warp, and you have the current reality, where gangsters rule the federal government from the White House, the Fast And Furious congressional investigators are impotent buffoons, and the MSM is fully in on the cover-up. Nobody died at the Watergate, but recall what the hysterical 24-7 news coverage of the Watergate scandal and hearings accomplished: the end of a presidency, pronto. And an Attorney General in prison.

In the modern case of Operation Fast And Furious, hundreds of Mexicans were murdered as the result of a diabolically evil plot laid with the sole purpose of discrediting the Second Amendment, by deliberately funneling semi-automatic rifles to known drug cartel killers and assassins. Their goal was to bury our Right to Keep and Bear Arms beneath a mountain of Mexican corpses.

Folks, it doesn’t get much more evil than that.

And we know why these socialist dictators-in-waiting want us disarmed.

In 2012, the fictional premise of Enemies Foreign And Domestic, that a small clique of senior BATFE officials might conspire to arrange a mass shooting into a packed football stadium (also with the intention of discrediting our Right to Keep and Bear Arms), suddenly seems much less far-fetched.

So here’s the plan: on Thursday, March 1, we will engineer a stratospheric spike in the number of free Kindle downloads of Enemies Foreign And Domestic, and continue this operation for up to five days, the max allowable under the terms of the free download program. We will watch the MSM explore this sudden and frightening phenomenon erupting among the unwashed gun nuts and wild-eyed Constitution fanatics. When they predictably condemn EFAD for its fictional assassinations of government officials, and the rest of the story that they will pretend to find so abhorrent, we will shine their own spotlight right back on them, and yell Fast And Furious in their faces!

“Really? Enemies Foreign And Domestic is a terrorist manual? Well, I’ll see your fictional stadium massacre, and raise you a real-world conspiracy to murder hundreds of Mexicans. If you would ever cover the story, instead of covering it up!”

And this can all happen by getting a million or so gun owners and other freedom lovers to download EFAD, totally for free, beginning on March 1st. This will be a coordinated “time-on-target” fire mission. Further communiqués will be forthcoming from EFAD HQ. Search keyword #EFAD on Twitter for other operational updates, including links.

If you email me (steelcutter48 at gmail.com), please include #EFAD somewhere in the subject line, so that I will know that you have been briefed to this point and are up to speed. And keep in mind that while you are all my patriotic friends and loyal readers, at various time I may know you by a screen name, a real name, a website name, or an email address name. It gets mighty confusing, so forgive me if I can’t keep all of your various handles straight.

Matt Bracken—Out.

MagicWindow is an old but very cool concept: a series of time-lapse images are converted into a movie and displayed as your desktop background. I already used something similar under MacOS 9. The OS 9 program had a few limited sets with approximately 24 hours in duration versus the MagicWindows “movies” are shorter but more exciting to watch every day. From cityscapes to an airport gate you can find a lot of different variations. My favorites are nature and Las Vegas scenes. The next update of the OS X version will contain one Las Vegas at night scene while you have to purchase all Las Vegas scenes extra for the iPad.

The OS X version is an app that starts so you can always shut it down to save on energy. The iOS version is not very useful as it cannot work in the background but due to the low price it is a cool app to demonstrate with a big-screen TV and a DVI adapter.

I can highly recommend the OS X version and if you like the iOS version for your iPad.

My iPhone 4s ready for roaming/traveling

As usual Google thinks I should use the German version of its services, which I consider f***ing annoying. (Therefore no screen-shot.)

Aside from the big-brother bullshit, Google is still the best cloud-service out there and it helps me to stay synced over various devices and platforms.

Sherlock Holmes: I am not the Commonwealth! Dr. Watson: And, this is as modest as he gets.

It is no secret from all my tweets that I became a huge fan of BBC one’s SHERLOCK. I generally love a lot of TV shows but this one amazes me from episode to episode and from season to season:

I have been reading Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories since I am a kid and never stopped reading them. BBC managed to translate the stories into the 21st century to a perfection it amazes me. Dr. Watson is blogging? Yes, he is and it is not as stupid as one would assume. The cast is beyond awesome: every actor is casted as perfect as possible. From Dr. Watson to Mycroft to Professor Moriarty. But what amazes me most is the visual design of the show: it is very modern but not without losing any appeal of the original stories. I especially like such small details as visual hints displayed, to let the viewer know what one of the characters is seeing in a room, on a phone, or on the clothing. These small details plus in addition to all the fantastic dialogues, a certain wittiness, and the sound track.

My favorite character of all is so far Mycroft Holmes with his “bloody stupid power-complex” and even as a side-character he is well played into every detail.

After Dr. Who another show from BBC that amazes its audience world-wide.

My love for Twitter really started with all the fantastic OS clients. Before the iPhone I was not so really sure about Twitter and even deleted my account in between. Today I use the web-interface, Twitter for Android, Twitterrific for MacOS, and TweetBot on both the iPad and iPhone. TweetBot for iPad made me switch again, though I’ve already spent more money on Twitter iOS clients than just one Cafe Latte. Here is a screenshot of TweetBot for iPad, which became my favorite client of all platforms:

A super-clean interface with many hidden simple/double taps. It is highly intuitive to use on a daily basis.

MacStories has an excellent review of TweetBot. I have been using all major clients in recent years and so far I cannot say anything negative about TweetBot. The iPhone version is second to none and has every feature one could wish for.

I also like the Twitter.com webpage, which grew over years. What amazes me about Twitter is the mesh of additional services interconnecting – not like Facebook or Google+ where everything is developed by one company. I also believe that any attempt by Twitter to “kill” (disallow) competing clients and services will make it unattractive. Tiny Twitter will succeed where the mammoth Facebook will become the next MySpace.

A screenshot of Twitterrific for MacOS, which is also very clean and easy to use. (MagicWindow is responsible for the fantastic time lapse background.)

I manage two Twitter accounts: my own (@BizDevCon) and the one from our boxing club (@BounceVienna). The second one is more passive but I need to check it, as it is integrated with our WordPress content-managent system I am responsible for. On my main account I follow basically all my interests ranging from tactical gear, information warfare, traveling, to breaking global news. To make things more fun, I’ve added as many “comics” (comedians) and celebs I could think of. Lots of companies use Twitter like RSS, so I follow the RSS feed as well. If the volume of Tweets is too high, I switch to the RSS-feed only.

The shortness and clumsiness of Tweets makes it highly attractive: I do not care what categories of music, movies, and TV shows somebody likes (e.g. the profile page on Facebook) but I love to read if someone comments a new movie or show. I do not have time to check tons of photos on Flickr, but I love a good photo here and there from campl.us (Camera+ for iPhone; my favorite app for taking photos) or instagr.am.

Some people really get it how to promote themselves on Twitter. If you are into comics, MMA fighters, or models, they all excel in social media 101. Some of them obviously have a team behind them where others clearly post themselves. Here are some no-nos everybody on Twitter should avoid and I am happy to include my own mistakes:

– Do not post Facebook updates without any description. I do not click Facebook links anymore. Same goes for pay-for-content sites like NY Times.

– Do not spam your feed with foursquare or Yelp updates. Less is more. Actually I read foursquare/Yelp posts if they contain good comments like “Best Sushi in town.” One never knows where the next trip is to…

– Find a balance in the right amount of tweets if your are promoting a company, product, or yourself: some post tons of tweets per day and other post one tweet per month. If you think that Twitter is the successor of RSS, than do us a favor and find a good consultant to optimize your CMS.

– Old-style re-tweets (RT @xyz yadda yadda) versus new-style re-tweets. Keep em coming but realize that some people (like me) do not allow any new-style re-tweet. I turn simply them off.

– Ignore your followers or manage them. At one point I had over 200 follows. Neat? Well, over 50% were fake profiles and advertising free iPads, Viagra, or porn-sites. Live with it or take your account private and manage all your followers.

I hope this post helps you to understand the power of Twitter a little bit and you will enjoy it as much as I do.

I am not using Facebook because I don’t like the company. I love Twitter and I like Google in general, though they might be as evil as Facebook. The Twitter experience for example is a lovely patchwork of services competing for attention starting from bit.ly to various image services like mobypicture.com or twitvid.com. You can’t be mad at Twitter for not deleting images because it is a growing eco-system that nobody can really control. Facebook, Google+, and Path are all closed eco-systems and/or controlled by one company. (You can’t delete images on Facebook either because it has to do with locking up tables in huge relational database.) To proof my logic: you can access someone’s videos without registration on twitvid.com but you have to register for Facebook to access any multimedia content. Another thing I hate about Facebook is that it analyses your browsing behavior even if you are logged out. So, is Facebook and Google accessing personal data? Of course: Google+ plugs into your address book as well – but you know it. You are not forced into this and you can always opt-out. For example, I do not use Google+ and simply deleted my profile.

Path tricked users into using its service and there is a difference between using an online address book in the cloud you know the risks and downloading your complete address book from your mobile phone. The second one is called: STEALING! Path is a company that should be forced out of business for violating its users’ trust. Simple as that!

When companies brag – not Path to their excuse – that they have downloaded interesting private, phone numbers I see red. My contacts are my intellectual property and I also have some contacts that belong more into the “Charlie Harper” category. So, my address book is not for some programmers who are too lazy to protect their computer infrastructure. Email accounts or celeb’s phones get never hacked, right? Right, f*** you Path and I hope you see a lot of users deleting their accounts or stop using your app…

Oh, the irony:

Marco of Instapaper wrote this pretty good post.

Today I read the Twelve South blog entry on “GUESS WHO’S WORKING WITH A COMPASS? THE WHITE HOUSE!” and was reminded again that I too own but seldom use one…

Well after a short panic-like search of my approximately seven bags currently in use, I finally found mine and decided to use it more at my desk. Maybe it will help me to write better emails, so someone can read them from a teleprompter.

If you like high-end humor please enjoy.

[Sharks at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. I still prefer them in my soup.]

The facts:

Over 12 meetings at SHOT 2012. The additional ones I can’t even remember. Basically it felt like I spent 3,5 days in one of our meeting rooms. It was an honor to work the booth with my co-workers and we properly have the best sales-support in industry. Great time!

Average sleep: 5 hours per night. (Back at the PH around midnight and getting up around 6am.)

Consumed food-groups: American, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, and Southern. Best restaurants: Diablo’s Cantina at Monte Carlo, Ferraro’s, and Max Brenner. Lunches: zero – I skip lunches in the USA. Venti extra-hot Chai Lattes: too many to count. (I am getting rid of my too-many-coffees habit to counter balance my teeth-whitening.) Dr. Peppers: only four so far because I am switching to root-beer. Marlboro Menthol’s smoked: five so far. Miles walked: I assume about 4 miles per day. Easily!

The usual assumptions: zero hotel rooms destroyed, no tattoos or broken teeth, and no tigers kidnapped. Unfortunately, Bryce from AZ not only made me gamble ($3 in total!) but also while munching down Tacos I discovered what tattoo I might want… Seriously, I already had one if I knew!

Things I brought and needed: iPod Nano and iPad 2. Really? Well, there is an average of 30 minutes walking from where I stayed (PH) to where I met with my friends. The iPad proved again to be the perfect travel companion but also sales-support in meetings. The Jawbone JAMBOX I brought along was cool (as usual) but I used it for 2 hours max.

Things that suck in Las Vegas – again and again: free WiFi, expensive Internet, and T-Fucking-Mobile.

Friends met? Well, that is another chapter:

Sebastian plus his wife and the Doc are properly one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Dedicated to supporting the finest of LE & military wherever possible and avoiding the posers and scum.

John, Wade, Carol and her Team 3 guys: great people to hang out with! But for the future, I will go ahead and reserve the extra dining-room in advance!

A shoot-out to my AZ gang: Thanks to Bob and Dan. Bob, I still owe you a dinner. Bryce & Lauren – thanks for everything!

KC: you will never be forgotten. (In this particular case let me point out what fantastic cameras iPhones have. Sweet! But, I am not into “accidental” theft of juicy photos. I leave that to celebs and Vivid.)

Time to pack the bags and getting ready for Home, Sweet Home. (And, lots of follow-ups.)