Burning Man, Bugs, and the CIA

Alex Jones’ show InfoWars is one of the most successful alternative media platforms in the world. You can catch it Monday-Friday at 9am-noon PST. They are known for a diligent focus on the truth, being brave enough to make controversial claims that conflict with mainstream media talking points programming, and always making an effort to provide references to their claims. A bit like a certain Burner-related site that I can think of…

I am an Alex Jones fan, and have been since about as long as I’ve been going to Burning Man. So it was pretty exciting for me to see a conspiracy theory that has been kicked around on our Facebook page for a few days get a detailed investigation by his producer Rob Dew, who is a 2-time Burner.

Screenshot 2015-08-24 01.47.06

Screenshot 2015-08-24 01.42.42

Hey Alex and Rob, if you’re reading this, you should have me on the show to talk about Burning Man and how it fits into the globalist plans for a New World Order.  Email me here.

There are enough coincidences and political interest floating around Burning Man this year to lend some weight to potential conspiracy theories. The fact that the bugs themselves are relatively harmless means we can rule out a bio-weapon. It would be more of a nuisance attack, like mailing envelopes of white powder to people and having them freak out that it’s anthrax.

The Bugpocalypse could have been a deliberate infestation, perhaps by someone disgruntled over Chocotacogate, and the corresponding turf wars and position re-shufflings going on around the place. We have a new Sheriff in Pershing County who seems pretty negative towards Burning Man. Gene Siedlitz who usually runs the event for the BLM, was suddenly shifted to a new assignment in the Minerals division. We have the Humboldt General Hospital medical team contract being cancelled abruptly, to be replaced with CrowdRX who don’t have experience in remote locations. We have Special Agent Dan Love, who ran the Bundy Ranch standoff, named and shamed by the Reno Gazette Journal as the force behind ChocoTacoGate. We have Harry Reid coming out of retirement and injury recovery to publicly chastise the BLM and side with Burning Man. A lot of strange, unprecedented changes happening in the event all at once, with political pressures at State, County, and Federal levels. Pershing County is very concerned about the mixture of nudity and children. Last year a local judge called Burning Man’s settlement with Pershing County “absurd, illegal, and mealy mouthed”. BMOrg are also fighting the Nevada State legislature’s 9% Live Entertainment Tax, which they think shouldn’t apply to them because they are an arts festival not a music one. We also have the BLM’s bug teams in the area, quite possibly on site, having just located mosquitos with West Nile Virus in both Washoe and Pershing Counties. Last year West Nile virus was detected in mosquitos in Gerlach, and there were reports of the CDC being sent to the site after an unprecedented flood shut down the event on its opening day.

There is also the whole “tech bros are ruining Burning Man” meme dividing the community right now, which is easy to imagine stirring the rebellious juices of (say) Cacophony Society Merry pranksters. Indeed the whole theme of “Carnival of Mirrors” this year seems designed to facilitate pranking. And let’s not forget about the Synergy Strike Force, the Merry Prankster Burners who hacked the Afghan war, or the Burner who took over a military satellite so he could watch Katrina hit New Orleans from the Playa.

SYNERGY STRIKE FORCE BM LOGO

Voices of Burning Man isn’t doing anything to quash the Bugpocalypse conspiracy theories. If anything, they are deliberating trying to make the situation more confusing. They have now released their FOURTH post on Bugpocalypse in less than a week. The language is so filled with propaganda and misinformation, it makes it impossible to understand what they are saying. Which probably was the idea.

evidently the insects have run their course. At least that is the official story. The billion wood-boring beetles that descended on the Man’s legs at Man Base have evidently been exterminated. Burning Man will not be brought to you by Citronella and DEET  this year. Behind us are the horrific fear-saturated nights of swarming green beetles, clouds of fluttering moths, biting flying ants, stinging noseeums and locusts so thick we had to don Hazmat suits and run in sheer terror from container to container to avoid being eaten alive.  No more do colonies of bats descend from the sky so thick that they obscure the moon and the hordes of kangaroo rats, ravens, crows, scorpions, snakes and coyotes have also moved on

Easy Way To Get Tickets

Panicking because you missed out on STEP and OMG? Keen to go and check out the debut of the new, ultra-loud Dance Music Zone? Looking to hear the crackling of the flames at the Man base without pesky DJs trying to gift you tracks? All those and more could be yours…if only you had a ticket.

Well, Burners, it’s not hard. In fact it’s pretty easy.

Go to http://stubhub.com and type “Burning Man” in the search.

As I write this there are 434 tickets for sale (from $999), and 157 vehicle passes (from $333).

The Burnier-Than-Thous, of course, will tell you that you can’t do this. It’s against the unwritten rules! It’s Un-Burnery. Real Burners would rather not go to Burning Man, than pay $900 for an $800 ticket.

Hey, if you want to be one of those, then by all means go for it. Have fun being a Burner who never goes to Burning Man any more, it’s a fast growing group.

For any other Burner who wants to go to Burning Man, my advice is just go. Buy one of the hundreds of tickets still left on sale. You’re not paying that much more above face value, now that BMOrg have conveniently set face value at $819 plus a vehicle pass, bus ticket, or airport entry tax.

What of the argument that paying more for tickets fuels scalpers?

We have covered this time and time again. First of all, scalpers aren’t even a significant problem. That’s not just Burners.Me telling you that, it’s Larry Harvey:

Source: Larry Harvey, Voices of Burning Man, December 2012

Source: Larry Harvey, Voices of Burning Man, December 2012

I have kept an eye on the ticket prices on Stubhub during the year. After the OMG sale, the number of passes and tickets available went up, and so did the prices. Vehicle passes briefly hit a peak of $520, but have now started to plummet.

Screenshot 2015-08-10 11.31.39

If scalpers DID get some of those OMG tickets, then if you buy them, you are ensuring that a real Burner goes, instead of some safari tourist bucket-lister Broner schmuck.

Otherwise, the increase in tickets available for sale must only be from Burners finding out at the last minute they can’t go. STEP is closed, so how else are they supposed to sell their tickets? Especially if they live a long way from Black Rock City. These Burners need our support, and it’s our duty to help ensure those tickets go to other good Burners. Buy their ticket, help yourself, help a Burner.

And what about the rules? Well, statements from BMOrg over the last 12 months seem to show that they’ve significantly softened their tone about the secondary market. Even they realize that it’s basically the only way that most Burners can ensure they get tickets.

Screenshot 2015-08-10 11.51.09

Source: Voices of Burning Man, Feb 2015

They’ve gone from “it’s against our community’s ethos so don’t do it”, to “it’s the reality of supply and demand and technically legal and many do it and we’re certain it’s not scalpers“. How can they be so certain? Perhaps they have some inkling of who is actually selling these tickets. To the rest of us, the whole ticketing and queueing system is a mysterious black box.

From the Jackrabbit Speaks:

  • For 2014, the total allotment was 35,000 vehicle passes. We never sold out. Just over 34,000 were purchased in all of our sales combined. Just before the event there were lots of passes on the secondary market, and in the end, only about 27,000 vehicle passes were actually used.
  • Since Black Rock City will be roughly the same size in 2015 as it was in 2014, this year we’re limiting the total allotment to 27,000

Following the “reality of supply and demand”, releasing fewer Vehicle Passes for 2015 has naturally led to vehicle passes being much higher on the secondary market all year.

I predict the Early Bird sale sells out quickly next year, and I’m sure cracking the 1 G mark has crossed the minds of the non-profit ticket pricers.

As the above graph shows, thanks to StubHub there have been hundreds of tickets available all year long. There are other sites too.

eBay has plenty of tickets and vehicle passes. Tickets seem to be around $600-$800 and vehicle passes are in the $250-$450 range.

Vivid Seats have tickets from $892 and vehicle passes from $338. Tickpick have tickets from $899 and vehicle passes from $344.

Please note: there are plenty of Burnier-Than-Thou narcs out there trying to tell on ticket sellers to BMOrg. Why they do this is beyond me, but Burners.Me is not responsible for anybody scamming anybody else in ticket sales. Caveat emptor, and caveat venditor too.

Someone is making a lot of money from these sales on the secondary market. But is it professional scalping crews, gaming the system? Burning Man are certain that it isn’t. How can they be so sure? Is there some way that insiders can get their hands on more than 1 ticket? Volunteers, staffers, Directed Group Sale beneificiaries? They get to keep a ticket for themselves, and sell one to pay for their trip…if someone had 4 tickets and vehicle passes, they could clear more than $5000.

The two tier price structure of $800 and $400 for the same ticket seems tailor made to boost prices on the secondary market. The staggered timing of the ticket releases also seems geared to fuel it. And watching what BMOrg have done over the years since they introduced the ticket lottery, every single move seems to have had the effect of bumping secondary market prices higher for longer. This is one area where BMOrg seems to really have excelled in the effectiveness of their decision making.

At any time, to really stop scalping, they could just link tickets to IDs. Of course, that would completely destroy the model I just outlined. It would be great for Burners, but much harder for anyone who got tickets via one of the various internal handouts to make money on the side. So we’re told we can’t have it, and some weak excuse is made up for why. Actions speak louder than words, in this case the actions seem to be about secondary market prices. We haven’t seen any evidence of money from the Vehicle Pass sales going to improve road safety, but they certainly have been a re-seller’s wet dream, fetching up to 1000% returns.

2015 Which Famous Assholes Are Going To Burning Man?

Last year Joe Kokura over at BrokeAssStuart published an amusing list of potential celebrity Burners. Well, he’s updated it with a 2015 version:

 

BMassholes

WHICH FAMOUS A**HOLES ARE GOING TO BURNING MAN THIS YEAR?

Who are the rich and famous a**holes you’ll see turnt up at the turnkey camps of Burning Man 2015?  Based on their public comments, social media posts and history of going to Burning Man every year because they can afford to, we’ve updated last year’s Which Famous Assholes are Going to Burning Man list to determine which famous assholes will be arriving in private jets to plug-and-play at the the Burning Man 2015 festival.

Realize there is no way to say definitively say whether a person is going to Burning Man almost four weeks out from the event. Health issues, spontaneous weddings or unplanned life events can come at you fast and alter your calendar no matter your socioeconomic status. Perfectly good Burners have to cancel their Burning Man plans every year, and this is even truer for wealthy asshole Burners.. But from what can we can tell from public remarks and social media shit-talking, these are the richest, most famous assholes going to Burning Man 2015.

Click here to read the list.