What the Hell is Going On On the East Coast?

[Highlord Laan]

Link

CERDAFIED - Following the bread crumb trail of FEMA orders, retired State Senator Sheldon R. Songstad of South Dakota State issued an “Emergency Fema Region 3 Alert!!!,” on August 13th.

Region three is comprised of; Washington DC, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Songstad’s research turned up some very interesting facts. Each item on its own could go unnoticed, but the collective facts may be worthy of your attention and scrutiny. The U.S. government appears to be preparing for a major event. It appears that this event is being staged for approximately Oct. 1st. Let’s look at the numbers and dates.

UN Peacekeepers began training the 4th week of July and will complete their nine week training by October 1st. They are learning English, as well as US weapon systems and Urban Warfare training.

How many troops are training? 386,000 troops!

The Center of Disease Control ordered $11 million worth of antibiotics. Where are they going? FEMA Region lll. When are they due? October 1st. This coupled with the fact that the World Health Organization held an emergency meeting, its second such meeting in its history, to discuss MERS Coronavirus. This is quite unsettling. The WHO determined that a vaccine MUST be in place by October 1st.

Periodic testing of GPS and Communications satellites is normal, but coordinating their testing for the first time, with a testing date of September 29th, is noteworthy.

All DHS agents MUST now qualify with sidearm, shotgun and AR 15’s by September 28th. Less lethal qualifications are not mentioned. Has one eye brow raised? The DHS will receive 2800 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP’s) that must be delivered by October 1st.

All National Guard units will complete their annual two week training in riot control and disaster assistance. All units MUST have their training complete by September 30th. However, the Eastern-based Coast Guard units will not be performing their usual training in the Gulf, this year they will be trained in Virginia and Delaware for 10 days beginning September 26th.

Coincidently, the Emergency Broadcast System will begin daily testing beginning on September 25th thru October 2nd. All of this kind of reminds me of the bomb sniffing dogs being trained at the Boston Marathon for the first time ever.

FEMA purchase orders deserve a little attention too. They ordered over $14.2 million for MREs and heater meals and 22 million pouches of emergency water, to be delivered to Region III by October 1st. An additional order of $13.6 million worth of MRE’s and heater meals will be delivered to Austin by October 1st.

Our U.S. military will not be permitted leave from September 28th thru November 5th. NORCOMM’s yearly training for civil unrest is suspended until September 27th. To be performed in northeast coastal areas. Date for release of QE3 report has been moved to October 16th.

Over 300 school systems will be issued a 3 day emergency kit for each student in September.

The retired Senator’s national preparedness research was sparked by a comment Donald Trump made during a recent appearance on Fox News' “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” Songstad included a video version of his findings with his notice. His video is going viral.

How concerned should we be? Or perhaps the question is….How prepared should we be? Perhaps the answer is……Better prepared than the government.

(Lisa Cerda is a contributor to CityWatch, a community activist, Chair of Tarzana Residents Against Poorly Planned Development, VP of Community Rights Foundation of LA, Tarzana Property Owners Association board member, and former Tarzana Neighborhood Council board member.)

-cw

The fuck?

[Melchior]

That's a pretty obvious conspiracy theory paranoia piece.

[Terralthra]

Are you trying to troll us with conspiracy bullshit, or did you get trolled with conspiracy bullshit?

[Highlord Laan]

Are you trying to troll us with conspiracy bullshit, or did you get trolled with conspiracy bullshit?

The latter is entirely possible.

[Terralthra]

Just for starters...the federal government (and most federal agencies) operate on quarterly budgets. Major purchase orders are always timed with the beginning of a new quarter. The final quarter of 2013 (or, more appropriately, the first quarter of the 2014 budget year) starts on...October 1st.

[PeZook]

Bomb sniffing dogs being trained at the Boston Marathon for the first time ever? Really?

Such concerns surface periodically, last year it was hyperventillation about some bill obligating FEMA to prepare for a "mass casualty event" because of course FEMA shouldn't prepare for anything like that, right? I mean, that's totally not what FEMA is even for!

[Crossroads Inc.]

The part I like best was this:

UN Peacekeepers began training the 4th week of July and will complete their nine week training by October 1st. They are learning English, as well as US weapon systems and Urban Warfare training.

How many troops are training? 386,000 troops!

Because you know, The UN is TOTALLY Going to invade America, am I rite?

[Dr Roberts]

I am pretty sure UN Peacekeepers are meant to know English anyway.

[LaCroix]

Because you know, The UN is TOTALLY Going to invade America, am I rite?

And of course, they would attack Washington DC, because if you cut the head off the snake...

[PeZook]

The entire claim is of course completely unsourced. Naturally. 386 thousand soldiers are apparently holding the biggest training excercise ever and uh...

[Crossroads Inc.]

I personally find it amusing how the right has this idea that "The UN" is some sort of unified shadow government intent on World Domination.
Saying the UN Wants to "conquer" America, is like saying The US House of representatives is going to "conquer" California.

[Eleas]

I personally find it amusing how the right has this idea that "The UN" is some sort of unified shadow government intent on World Domination.
Saying the UN Wants to "conquer" America, is like saying The US House of representatives is going to "conquer" California.

Yep. If makes sense if you view it as a classic case of projection.

[LaCroix]

Especially since UN has headquarters in three countries. Two of them are neutral states, the other one, on the other hand, has recently gained bad reputation for waging wars of agression...

[Wing Commander MAD]

Because you know, The UN is TOTALLY Going to invade America, am I rite?

And of course, they would attack Washington DC, because if you cut the head off the snake...

I'm not really sure if anyone would care. Every time something like this comes up I'm reminded of this scene from Mars Attacks!. I and I'm guessing many others would agree with the old lady in the retirement home, heck given our current Congress such an act might be a net positive for the country. Really, my greatest concern would be for the architecture and any historic items/documents.

The retired Senator’s national preparedness research was sparked by a comment Donald Trump made during a recent appearance on Fox News' “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.” Songstad included a video version of his findings with his notice. His video is going viral.

This bolded bit right here should be all that is needed to cast doubt on the article, granted that's at the end of it.

[Broomstick]

UN Peacekeepers began training the 4th week of July and will complete their nine week training by October 1st. They are learning English, as well as US weapon systems and Urban Warfare training.

Right, they couldn't possibly be learning English because it's one of, if not the most, common second language in the world. I mean, you wouldn't want them to be able to communicate, right?

US weapons systems? Aren't US weapons pretty common in the world? I seem to recall we make an awful lot of weapons for sale to other people.

Urban warfare? Aren't urban places a common sort of place for UN troops to be stationed?

How many troops are training? 386,000 troops!

Really? Because a 5 minute Google reports that the UN peacekeepers have only 110,000-120,000 personnel total, and not all of those are "troops".

The Center of Disease Control ordered $11 million worth of antibiotics. Where are they going? FEMA Region lll. When are they due? October 1st.

Consistent with quarterly ordering patterns in the US government.

This coupled with the fact that the World Health Organization held an emergency meeting, its second such meeting in its history, to discuss MERS Coronavirus. This is quite unsettling.

Actually, I find it reassuring that WHO is meeting over the outbreak of a virus with a 50% fatality rate BEFORE it gets to be an actual pandemic. Given that 80+ of the 100+ cases have been in Saudia Arabia, and the Haj is scheduled for mid-October, this actually makes perfect sense. Nothing like a world-wide pilgrimage with people squashed together in close contact for several days, followed by trips all over the globe in little aluminum tubes for hours at a time breathing recirculated air with lots of other people traveling all over the world for getting a world-wide outbreak started!

The WHO determined that a vaccine MUST be in place by October 1st.

The WHO might like to schedule this, but unless someone already has a vaccine and is cranking it out by the bucket it ain't gonna happen. Although I, for one, would like there to be a vaccine in place.

Periodic testing of GPS and Communications satellites is normal, but coordinating their testing for the first time, with a testing date of September 29th, is noteworthy.

And this is sinister because...?

All DHS agents MUST now qualify with sidearm, shotgun and AR 15’s by September 28th. Less lethal qualifications are not mentioned. Has one eye brow raised? The DHS will receive 2800 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAP’s) that must be delivered by October 1st.

I'd like a source for that. Was it the same one that said the UN was training 300,000+ troops when the UN only has about 100,000 total?

All National Guard units will complete their annual two week training in riot control and disaster assistance.

Good!

All units MUST have their training complete by September 30th. However, the Eastern-based Coast Guard units will not be performing their usual training in the Gulf, this year they will be trained in Virginia and Delaware for 10 days beginning September 26th.

My first guess would be that the budget-cutting sequester reduced travel funds so they're training in their home turf instead of traveling to the Gulf.

Coincidently, the Emergency Broadcast System will begin daily testing beginning on September 25th thru October 2nd. All of this kind of reminds me of the bomb sniffing dogs being trained at the Boston Marathon for the first time ever.

Er... I'm pretty sure we trained bombed sniffing dogs before the recent Boston Marathon. In fact, I'm pretty sure we've been training those dogs for decades. At best, this is badly written.

Anyhow, the EMS gets tested regularly anyhow. And September is Emergency Preparedness Month so maybe, just maybe, some of this is connected to that. After all, it would be pretty odd of the government to have an Emergency Preparedness Month and not play along, right?

FEMA purchase orders deserve a little attention too. They ordered over $14.2 million for MREs and heater meals and 22 million pouches of emergency water, to be delivered to Region III by October 1st. An additional order of $13.6 million worth of MRE’s and heater meals will be delivered to Austin by October 1st.

Again, consistent with quarterly purchasing patterns in the government. Also, I see nothing sinister in the Federal Emergency Management Administration stockpiling emergency supplies in various regions of a large country. Isn't that something they're supposed to be doing?

Our U.S. military will not be permitted leave from September 28th thru November 5th. NORCOMM’s yearly training for civil unrest is suspended until September 27th. To be performed in northeast coastal areas. Date for release of QE3 report has been moved to October 16th.

Right... because nothing bad ever happens to the northeast coastal areas, right? Oh, wait - Hurricane Sandy.

Over 300 school systems will be issued a 3 day emergency kit for each student in September.

And this is a problem because....?

A number of years ago a big blizzard in Buffalo left my niece and nephew snowed in at their schools overnight, as travel home would have been too hazardous, if possible at all. These things happen. I'd rather a school system have emergency food and water for such an event than the kids, already bedding down on floors, perhaps without power, have to go hungry and thirsty, too. (Although if I recall the kids largely thought it was a great adventure).

Heck, given how often schools are used as emergency shelters I have to question why it's only for the students, shouldn't they have supplies for the local communities as well?

How concerned should we be? Or perhaps the question is….How prepared should we be? Perhaps the answer is……Better prepared than the government.

The fuck?

Usual right wing paranoia combined with a libertarian/Rove attitude of extreme individualism. Individuals should be prepared with their Apocalpse Bunkers because either the government isn't prepared or, if it is, those preparations will be used against the citizens rather than, say, in response to natural disasters.

[Broomstick]

Because you know, The UN is TOTALLY Going to invade America, am I rite?

And of course, they would attack Washington DC, because if you cut the head off the snake...

I'm not really sure if anyone would care.

Anyone who cuts the head off the snake by attacking DC is going to discover the US is a 50-headed hydra. Oh, and you're going to face 300+ million really pissed off people, many already armed, who have a bad habit of invading and trashing countries for small-scale attacks much less a direct hit on their capital. If you take out the Federal government (which hitting DC isn't going to do - sure, you'll kill a lot of them but the US has had contingency plans for losing DC for at least 60 years if not more) that still leaves the 50 states with intact governments and their own militaries (the National Guard) armed with modern weapons.

Yeah... good luck with that...

Yo, Canadians - that knocking you hear on your door? That might be me and the spouse and three small parrots looking to hide out until the booms and bangs settle down to the south. Um... are crossbows legal in Canada? I just need to know if I can take it or if I should leave it at home. Yeah, I'm a chickenshit coward.

[Raw Shark]

Link

The Center of Disease Control ordered $11 million worth of antibiotics. Where are they going? FEMA Region lll. When are they due? October 1st. This coupled with the fact that the World Health Organization held an emergency meeting, its second such meeting in its history, to discuss MERS Coronavirus. This is quite unsettling. The WHO determined that a vaccine MUST be in place by October 1st.

This is my favorite part: "FEMA wants antibiotics! FEMA is concerned about a virus! Clearly there is a connection - Antibiotics have everything to do with viral outbreaks!"

I get the feeling the foilhat who wrote this thinks the game plan is:

1) Give MERS Coronavirus to the public (preferably schoolchildren via a vaccine program for maximum horror value, because as we all know vaccines are just awful in every way, cause autism, mental retardation, etc)

2) Protect the right people (ie: 386,000 UN-flagged foreign invaders, plus the governmentally-imbedded stewards of the liberal agenda) from the virus using their recently-acquired store of antibiotics (bear with me here, this makes total sense if you don't know what antibiotics do) while all right-thinking American patriots are disabled by the satanic microbial assault.

3) FEMA declares a state of emergency and martial law. Blue-helmetted paratroopers descend on DC, fan out to surrounding regions, and take all the gunz.

4) No More Gunz = Slavery Forever. Under this yoke of servitude to unspeakable Euro-values, you will be forced to wear a Speed-o, get healthcare for free, marry a member of your own sex and abort any offspring produced by this union, and whatever other blasphemy you can imagine, unless you FIGHT NOW!

[PeZook]

Right, they couldn't possibly be learning English because it's one of, if not the most, common second language in the world. I mean, you wouldn't want them to be able to communicate, right?

It's also spoken by people who provide a lot, if not most, of the logistical support for various UN operations. Plus fire support. Plus intelligence.

Yeah, no need to speak English there!

US weapons systems? Aren't US weapons pretty common in the world? I seem to recall we make an awful lot of weapons for sale to other people.

It's basically standard fare for joint excercises to include familiarizing yourself with weapons of the guys you're training with. It's also kind of a tradition and macho bullshit rite to try to outdo the other guys on the range with their own guns, which I guess right wing nuts should be familiar with?

Unless they think all blue helmets are actually gay effeminate euroweenies, that is

Urban warfare? Aren't urban places a common sort of place for UN troops to be stationed?

NO! All the bad places are desolate desert wastelands with, at best, mud huts!

Really? Because a 5 minute Google reports that the UN peacekeepers have only 110,000-120,000 personnel total, and not all of those are "troops".

Take note that these guys also rotate all the time, with member states contributing troops and removing them due to various stuff.

Consistent with quarterly ordering patterns in the US government.

BUT BROOMSTICK WHAT POSSIBLE USE COULD THE CDC HAVE WITH STOCKPILES OF ANTIBIOTICS?!

I'd like a source for that. Was it the same one that said the UN was training 300,000+ troops when the UN only has about 100,000 total?

The best lies are actually half-truths. That's what all the smartest conspiracy kooks do: use something that's half-true yet change it slightly, adding a couple details which make it look sinister.

Er... I'm pretty sure we trained bombed sniffing dogs before the recent Boston Marathon. In fact, I'm pretty sure we've been training those dogs for decades. At best, this is badly written.

Decades? Hah! Try "since WW2".

Again, consistent with quarterly purchasing patterns in the government. Also, I see nothing sinister in the Federal Emergency Management Administration stockpiling emergency supplies in various regions of a large country. Isn't that something they're supposed to be doing?

If anything, they're not stockpiling enough. Having a deep stockpile of emergency rations, supplies, fuel, vehicles and equipment is basically the cheapest way to reduce casualties in case of a disaster, because all of those are either extremely cheap or non-perishable items. MREs have a shelf life of what, five years? And they contain basically everything a person needs to stay fed and healthy for a day, in an easy to distribute package. As a bonus, the less malnourished people there are in a disaster zone, the easier it becomes to run other operations (less looting, less crime, less violence, less disease).

And this is a problem because....?

Because reasons. Everything that has to do with the government and children is sinister, obviously! OBVIOUSLY!

Usual right wing paranoia combined with a libertarian/Rove attitude of extreme individualism. Individuals should be prepared with their Apocalpse Bunkers because either the government isn't prepared or, if it is, those preparations will be used against the citizens rather than, say, in response to natural disasters.

And in the meantime, the government easily scaremongers these sorts of people into giving it more and more actual power in areas that matter. Isn't it awesome how the gun-obsessed anti-government survivalist militia military-worshipping type is actually the most suspectible vector for the spread of actual-factual, genuine fascism?

As for the idea of invading the US...yeah, no. Come on. Even with total cooperation of the federal government, 386 thousand troops wouldn't be enough to do anything. The idea of an outside power being able to invade CONUS is absurdly preposterous.

[Broomstick]

Again, consistent with quarterly purchasing patterns in the government. Also, I see nothing sinister in the Federal Emergency Management Administration stockpiling emergency supplies in various regions of a large country. Isn't that something they're supposed to be doing?

If anything, they're not stockpiling enough. Having a deep stockpile of emergency rations, supplies, fuel, vehicles and equipment is basically the cheapest way to reduce casualties in case of a disaster, because all of those are either extremely cheap or non-perishable items. MREs have a shelf life of what, five years? And they contain basically everything a person needs to stay fed and healthy for a day, in an easy to distribute package. As a bonus, the less malnourished people there are in a disaster zone, the easier it becomes to run other operations (less looting, less crime, less violence, less disease).

Well, US citizens have been asked (totally voluntary, really just asked) to have 3-7 days stockpiled themselves. Yep, we are into self-reliance. Also, the government has pretty much stated that they can't guarantee assistance for up to three days in an emergency. Sure, the government (be that FEMA, the National Guard, whatever) will TRY to get there sooner, but the CONUS is a big place. Given the prevalence of weather emergencies, the most likely problem to arise, most folks really do have something stashed away.

Should the government do more? Yes, I think so, but under the current circumstances I'd like to have a stash for myself.

[Patroklos]

Just for starters...the federal government (and most federal agencies) operate on quarterly budgets. Major purchase orders are always timed with the beginning of a new quarter. The final quarter of 2013 (or, more appropriately, the first quarter of the 2014 budget year) starts on...October 1st.

More importantly Federal agencies need to dump whatever is in their current FY budget before it closes or they risk 1.) losing that money as you can't make new obligations on last FY's money and 2.) getting less money in the next FY due to them having shown they didn't need all their money from the current FY.

Additionally, since CRAs are the new norm and you can't expect money on 01OCT agencies save money through the current fiscal year so they can bulk up at the end of it so they have stocks to carry them through the first month or two of the next FY when there is no money to operate.

[Tanasinn]

Link

The Center of Disease Control ordered $11 million worth of antibiotics. Where are they going? FEMA Region lll. When are they due? October 1st. This coupled with the fact that the World Health Organization held an emergency meeting, its second such meeting in its history, to discuss MERS Coronavirus. This is quite unsettling. The WHO determined that a vaccine MUST be in place by October 1st.

This is my favorite part: "FEMA wants antibiotics! FEMA is concerned about a virus! Clearly there is a connection - Antibiotics have everything to do with viral outbreaks!"

I get the feeling the foilhat who wrote this thinks the game plan is:

1) Give MERS Coronavirus to the public (preferably schoolchildren via a vaccine program for maximum horror value, because as we all know vaccines are just awful in every way, cause autism, mental retardation, etc)

2) Protect the right people (ie: 386,000 UN-flagged foreign invaders, plus the governmentally-imbedded stewards of the liberal agenda) from the virus using their recently-acquired store of antibiotics (bear with me here, this makes total sense if you don't know what antibiotics do) while all right-thinking American patriots are disabled by the satanic microbial assault.

3) FEMA declares a state of emergency and martial law. Blue-helmetted paratroopers descend on DC, fan out to surrounding regions, and take all the gunz.

4) No More Gunz = Slavery Forever. Under this yoke of servitude to unspeakable Euro-values, you will be forced to wear a Speed-o, get healthcare for free, marry a member of your own sex and abort any offspring produced by this union, and whatever other blasphemy you can imagine, unless you FIGHT NOW!

I'm pretty sure this was the plot to the first Deux Ex game, too.

[Thanas]

And in the meantime, the government easily scaremongers these sorts of people into giving it more and more actual power in areas that matter. Isn't it awesome how the gun-obsessed anti-government survivalist militia military-worshipping type is actually the most suspectible vector for the spread of actual-factual, genuine fascism?

Are you implying that OUR BOYS IN UNIFORM who are JUST LIKE REAL AMERICANS and whose main job it is to DEFEND LIBERTY BY FREEDOMIZING CHILDREN would ever do anything wrong? This is not the Soviet Union, comrade, this is 'MURICA.

[Simon_Jester]

I get the feeling the foilhat who wrote this thinks the game plan is:

1) Give MERS Coronavirus to the public (preferably schoolchildren via a vaccine program for maximum horror value, because as we all know vaccines are just awful in every way, cause autism, mental retardation, etc)

2) Protect the right people (ie: 386,000 UN-flagged foreign invaders, plus the governmentally-imbedded stewards of the liberal agenda) from the virus using their recently-acquired store of antibiotics (bear with me here, this makes total sense if you don't know what antibiotics do) while all right-thinking American patriots are disabled by the satanic microbial assault.

3) FEMA declares a state of emergency and martial law. Blue-helmetted paratroopers descend on DC, fan out to surrounding regions, and take all the gunz.

4) No More Gunz = Slavery Forever. Under this yoke of servitude to unspeakable Euro-values, you will be forced to wear a Speed-o, get healthcare for free, marry a member of your own sex and abort any offspring produced by this union, and whatever other blasphemy you can imagine, unless you FIGHT NOW!

I'm pretty sure this was the plot to the first Deux Ex game, too.

Deus Ex had that lovely '90s conspiracy-theory charm, if you ask me. Conspiracy theories were fun and seemed harmless... only we are now finding that the black helicopter crowd have become the nucleus of the birther crowd, and provide a solid core of people who will continue to vote Know-Nothing regardless of all external stimuli. Oi.

That said, in Deus Ex no serious attempt was made to disarm the citizenry as far as I can recall. Everything else... yeah.

Of course, the reason it was presented in that game as the plot is because it was a stock plot for conspiracy theories, because it plays on both the fear of foreigners and the fear of contamination by impure chemicals and diseases.

[Dr Roberts]

I can conclude only one rational thing. WWZ is about to happen!

[Wicked Pilot]

And we would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for that pesky internet...