-Misdirection-Travis O Deans 'Overthrown'

One of the things we all know is that most people will always believe the worst about you, Even if there is no proof and whatever is being said is nothing more than a rumor. That is especially true if the person either speaking or listening doesn't like you to begin with. There is just something inside most of us that wants to believe the worst in other people. Maybe because that makes us feel better about ourselves. I mean , 'Hey look at him. At least I'm not that bad'. Or maybe it helps to beat down the person we don't like. 'I TOLD you he was no good'. Whatever the reason, this is something that most if not all of us have in our makeup. Believe it or not, that can be used to your advantage. What do I mean? Simple, when you are accused of something, don't claim you are innocent. Most people are just going to think you are trying to cover up something. Try to make the evidence point to a lesser offense. For example, the government types show up on your doorstep asking questions about firearms. With them is that guy I talked about before. The one who has never handled a weapon in his life and you refused to either lend or give him one.

Neighbor: "I'm telling you officer, this guy has a bunch of guns in his house. You just go in there and look."

You: "You're wrong. Yeah I used to have a few, but when I saw that they were going to be banned, I sold them. How else do you think I managed to buy the food I have when it started to get so expensive?"

Officer: "Sir, you do realize that according to government order you were supposed to turn in excess food stuffs when the weather got bad and farmers couldn't raise the necessary crops to feed everyone. It was for the benefit of the country that you were supposed to do that."

You: "Yeah I know, but I still have to feed my family. Why didn't everybody else do that when they had the chance?"

Officer: "I can't answer that question. But since you admit to having excess food we are going to have to confiscate it. And because of the complaint filed against you we are still going to have to search your home for illegal weapons."

You: "Well you won't find any guns. How much of my food are you going to take?"

Officer: "As much as we need to. You are not supposed to have more than a three day supply. Anything over that we are going to take to turn in to the central distribution center."

You: "Well, I guess I don't have any choice. Come in, I'll show you what we have."

Neighbor: "So when do I get my share for letting you know about him?"

Officer: "You don't get a share. You're complaint was about illegal weapons, not hoarded food. And if we don't find any weapons, you can be charged with filing a false report, so don't push it."

So they come in and take your food stockpile, search your home for weapons and finding none, because they are stored somewhere else or you have a really good hiding place for them, they leave with a warning to you not to hoard food again and maybe fine you. Now your neighbor has some explaining to do to the unfriendly people and you have planted a seed of doubt in his mind as well as the unfriendly types. And he is also going to be some fast talking trying to keep those same officials from coming to his house thinking that he fed them a line to throw them off the track about what he is doing. He will be spending too much time trying to prove his innocence to be much of a problem to you. An old toast used by military men in days gone by comes to mind. "Confusion to the enemy".

Suppose you are returning home with a box of canned food after meeting with your local black market dealer. (You know as well as I do in any survival situation there are going to be profiteers taking advantage of it.) That box was expensive. You traded your wedding ring just to get what little you could, but now you have to run the gauntlet of hungry people on the street who are going to be wondering if you have food in that box and how can they get it from you. Take some old clothes with you when you go to the dealer. Use them to pad the cans, bottles or whatever so they don't give off any tell tale sounds. (Remember I said sound was important.) But importantly leave the sleeve of a shirt, or a pants leg sticking out of the box. Now you are just bringing home clothes for the family. No sense in trying to mug you over something like that. The point is if you don't want anyone to even guess that you really are up to something, even something like doing black market deals to feed the family, make it look like you are really doing something else that is totally innocent. Don't give a single hint as to your true actions. Make it look like something else that everybody is doing.

Jul 28, 2019