On July 30, I went to the Apple Store on Boylston Street in Boston because the touchpad on the keyboard of my MacBook had stopped working. I was given an appointment with Michael, at the Genius Bar on the third floor, who attached a mouse to the USB port and was able to maneuver around my computer using it. The top-case had been cracked when I first bought the laptop in December (their records incorrectly say I bought it more than a year later), and it continued to deteriorate at an alarming rate in the 4-1/2 years since then (at one point, I began to suspect it was merely made of fondant). Michael said they could replace the top-case, but that they didnt have it in stock just then and he would have to order it. He told me I would then need to leave the laptop for approximately 3 days for the repair, and when I asked him if that was absolutely necessary, it told me it was. As I was considering purchasing an iPad, I asked to buy a mouse because I didnt want to put more money into the computer if I wasnt going to even have it for much longer, whereupon Michael lied to me and told me that the repair I needed wouldnt cost anything.incredulous, I just asked to purchase the mouse and was on my way.
Approximately three weeks later, the entire keyboard failed, and back to the Apple Store I went on August 16. I had received a call from Apple letting me know my part had come in, but I was still undecided about whether or not I wanted to spend the money to repair the laptop (because I hadnt believed Michael when he told me the repair was free; I assumed that because it was a busy Saturday and he was helping two other people at the same time he was trying to help me that he was too busy to look up the cost of the repair), or whether or not I could part with my computer for the better part of a week while it was being fixed. I was given an appointment with Will, who told me he was actually a member of the repair team but had been assigned to the Genius Bar that day because it was short-staffed. Lucky for me, right?
I explained to Will what had happened that the entire keyboard no longer worked and my reluctance to leave my computer (both because I have been the victim of identity theft and all of my passwords to various investment, banking and email accounts, as well as my Linkedin and facebook passwords, etc. Were stored on my computer and because Ive been swamped with work which I need my computer to do). He said he understood my hesitancy to leave the computer and explained that they would test my laptop after it was repaired using an alternate hard drive they attached using a USB port, thus, they would not require my password, nor access to my hard drive. That seemed completely nutty to me, but I felt a little bit better about my security concerns, so I asked if there wasnt some sort of premium I could pay to have the laptop repaired right then and there. Will assured me there was not and then offered to call down to the repair department and speak with his colleagues to see if they could fit in my top-case replacement since they were his buddies. How could I refuse such serendipitous assistance? Then Will even went the extra mile to tell me he would remove my hard drive so I could keep it with me while the repair was being made what a generous offer, right? But there was one catch: he would have to remove the hard drive in a static-free environment, and place it in a static protection bag which could not be opened until the hard drive was replaced again, in this static-free environment. And lucky for me, Will just happened to have such a static-free environment set up just behind the Genius Bar storage room door, behind which I was, of course, not allowed. I felt like such a moron, sitting there, being handled like well, a moron. I told him I was still reluctant to let my hard drive out of my sight because how did I know who he was that if the people who had already hacked my computers email with a man-in-the-middle attack and other technologies wanted my work so badly, whos to say he or anyone else couldnt be incentivized to hand it over to them? But he had already called the repair department to have them bring a static protection bag from the basement and taken the battery out of the back of my computer, making it awkward to gather up and stuff into my backpack.
Will reassured me, over and over, that it would take simply seconds to remove the hard drive that he would be just behind the door to the stock room doing it and asked my permission, while he was holding the laptop under his arm, to remove the laptop. As soon as I acquiesced, I regretted it, but off he went, for a good, solid five minutes. Then the real shenanigans began.
After five minutes, Will reappeared with my laptop, claiming the static protection bag he had gotten from Kevin in the repair department was too small for my hard drive (it looked exactly the same size, as though they were made just to fit the hard drive) and he would need to call downstairs again and have them bring up another, larger static protection bag. The bracket that holds the hard drive in place, I noticed, had already been unscrewed and removed, naturally, and a hard drive was inside the computer; Will made sure to show me. As I had no idea what the serial number on my hard drive was, and couldnt see the serial number on the hard drive he was showing me, I had no way of knowing if he had already removed my hard drive and replaced it with another, and my hard drive was being copied behind the magic door, or whether my hard drive was being adulterated with eavesdropping software, or what. One thing was certain: this was pure theatre that Michael, Will, Kevin (and later) Jared were engaged in.
Kevin from repair brought up the desired static protection bag and Will was off with my computer, its hard drive and the bag in a flash and, just as quickly, was back with the sealed bag and, presumably, my hard drive. Kevin left with the laptop and I took a seat to wait the designated 45 minutes.
Just as Will had said (finally!), 45 minutes later Jared appeared with my repaired MacBook and the repair paperwork an invoice that had been originally issued with a quote of $0 on July 30, and then reissued that day when I first met with Will again for a quote of $0. To say he was grinning like a monkey in a cage would be an understatement of gargantuan proportions. He could hardly contain his giggles while he showed the repaired laptop to me and watched me power it up and try the keyboard. At no time did he ask me to see Will, or anyone else, to pay for the repair, and at no time did he offer to ring me up himself; in fact, when I asked if I should check out with Will, he said, Oh, no. Wills helping someone else. Just as I powered the laptop down, he took it out of my lap and slipped the paperwork into it, then set it down on the bench next to me on which I had set the invoice Will had given me, which he casually picked up, saying he needed it, before fishing out his business card and offering it to me amiably. I told him I was concerned about how dirty the white MacBook was prone to get and asked him what he recommended for a cleaner, and he suggested going downstairs to the second floor and purchasing iClean. I said I would, and proceeded downstairs.
A sales clerk directed me to the display of cleaning products, and after I found the recommended item, she graciously offered to ring me up, right there in front of the display, because there was a line at the cash register. Then she pulled out a device that looked just like an iPhone but which had a bank-card scanner built into the back. She proceeded to complete my purchase and even email a copy of the receipt to my email account from the phone. Nifty! I was delighted to be out of there so quickly, since the entire experience upstairs had left me with an unsettled feeling of being a dupe. Sure enough, I found proof of the Apple Store geniuses duplicity when I got home, opened my laptop and found a new invoice for $85 for the repair, for which, of course, I had not paid.
This is a classic MK-Ultra operation where I, the target, have been made both a thief and a liar: I walked out of the store without paying for the repair done to my computer, and I have discredited myself by relating to complaint readers the lies told me by Michael, Will and Jared, who, of course, as trained Apple Geniuses, would know how much it cost to replace a top-case, whether or not I could have the repair made while I waited for a premium, what that premium is, and how long it would actually take, not to mention, whether or not a hard drive required removal in a static-free environment. And why go to all this trouble to target a person in this way?
Our military developed these tactics in the programs, MK-Ultra and COINTELPRO to socially exterminate its targets, which is how it deals with the true dissidents of its policies, such as the development and deployment of the various AIDS bioweapons known as non-HIV/AIDS, secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, etc., of which I am one dissident. When members of my community are told I am a thief and/or a liar, they disavow me and their relationships with me; who wants to be friends with a thief and a liar? Even if such gossip is difficult for people who know me to believe, they will find the disequilibrium created by the alternate portrayal of me too difficult too reconcile with their experience of me (which of necessity is less than intimate) and decide a relationship with me isnt worth the effort that where theres smoke there must be fire. Whats lost are potential allies in what I know is crucial work which must be undertaken to wrest America from the grip of the fascists who now most certainly control it. There isnt a day that goes by in which some type of discrediting operation is undertaken against me and many, many millions of other American dissidents (www.thehiddenevil.com). The military continues to use engage in these programs, as we see from testimony such as Susie Day and Laura Whitehorns, Human Rights in the United States: The Unfinished Story of Political Prisoners and COINTELPRO, given to Congress in 2000 (New Political Science, Vol. 23, Number 2).
What is important to understand is that, while many average Americans are doing this work of military intelligence willingly (just as the SA and Hitler Youth did in Nazi Germany) because it gives them a sense of purpose and community they otherwise lack, and because it allows the sociopaths among them a socially acceptable way for them to act out their hatred for others not like them, plenty of them are the victims of brain washing by our military told that theyre patriotic Americans for helping contain the enemy within (which George W. Bush designated us as when he told the nation, If youre not with us, youre with the enemy). What is even more disturbing and should concern every single person who considers him or herself an American is that there is a direct chain of command now from the Pentagon to every local law enforcement agencies across the nation that recruit and employ the gangs who do this work: baristas at Starbucks, Geniuses at Apple stores, counter clerks at the post office, librarians the list of recruits is endless. Welcome to Amerikkka.
Businesses in America, such as Apple, better start acknowledging these fascist business practices and condemning them not because it will alleviate my torment and the torment of others like me, but simply because it's the patriotic thing to do and not doing it will ensure that someday, when the stalking turns into assault, and then armed assault, these assaults won't be visited in like kind upon the good people at Apple HQ. That is what Apple is creating by not addressing this problem head-on a culture in which no one is safe: www.dontfearyourfreedom. Blogspot.com
0 comments