Are Today's Bombing Attempts Another Example of Stochastic Terrorism Or Something Else? (UPDATED w/ links)
(Just looked and didn't see anything on this, so decided to quickly put something together to see if folks wanted to talk about it. )
My partner texted me this afternoon from midtown Manhattan to see if I'd heard about what appears to be coordinated bomb attempts aimed at high profile Democratic Party members, as well as in the media. I purposely have watched none of the coverage and only did a very bare, cursory scan of Twitter before writing this.
I did immediately think of an essay I had read years ago (possibly at TOP) about something called Stochastic Terrorism (here's the original article, not TOP). Made a lot of sense.
Here's some excerpts:
Stochastic terrorism is the use of mass communications to incite random actors to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable. In short, remote-control murder by lone wolf.
This is what occurs when Bin Laden releases a video that stirs random extremists halfway around the globe to commit a bombing or shooting.
This is also the term for what Beck, O'Reilly, Hannity, and others do. And this is what led directly and predictably to a number of cases of ideologically-motivated murder similar to the Tucson shootings. As of this writing, there is no evidence to link Jared Loughner to a specific source of incitement; but some of the other cases can be clearly linked.
The stochastic terrorist is the person who is responsible for the incitement. For example they go on radio or television and stir up hatred toward a particular person or group.
Then he breaks it down into categories:
The lone wolves:
The term "lone wolf" is used in law enforcement and intel to refer to an individual who is emotionally unstable, who lacks obvious ties to known criminal gangs or terrorist groups, and who pops up seemingly out of nowhere to commit a violent or terrorist act.
The three-letter agencies can keep an eye on organized groups, and do a damn good job at stopping violent actors associated with those groups. At least three intended car bombings were stopped last year by the FBI intercepting the bombers and substituting fake explosives in time to save hundreds of lives and arrest the would-be bombers.
Lone wolves don't have obvious connections through which they can be discovered. They don't communicate much if at all about their intentions. They keep their plans to themselves. And then, apparently at random, they pop up from obscurity and commit murder. They are law enforcement's and intel's worst nightmare, and on the 8th of January one of them became America's nightmare.
The elements are there, the environment created, then it's just sit and wait:
Stirring the pot:
At any given time there are hundreds of thousands of Americans with combinations of personality characteristics (such as emotional instability, a paranoid ideology, and a propensity for violence) that put them at risk of going off the deep end and becoming lone wolves. All it takes is the right push, the right nudge at the right time, to dislodge a few of them and send them on their way to fifteen minutes of fame surrounded by dead bodies.
There's nothing mysterious about this process. It is not much different to other instances where a person is almost ready to make a decision, and the right combination of inputs makes them act. For example you have an old car and it begins to break down more often: now you're thinking about replacing it, and you might be swayed by something in an automobile advertisement. Anyone who is familiar with marketing and advertising knows how this works, and advertisers often target their messages to people who are "ready to buy" and just need a little persuading. Political candidates often target their ads to the undecideds, hoping that a little nudge will win them some votes. This is perfectly normal and hardly insidious.
It becomes insidious when these practices are used in such a manner as to deliberately or negligently stir up lone wolf violence.
So let's take Beck, Hannity, and O'Reilly. There is no question that their emotional rhetoric appeals to people who are emotionally unstable. And, since their audiences are tracked and analyzed in detail, there is no question that they know it.
When they go on TV and shout and sputter, rant and rave, and weep and wail, they are not expecting to persuade liberals or even undecideds to change their votes. They are "playing to their base," that they know includes people who are emotionally unstable. In short they are "stirring the pot." And if you turn up the temperature and keep stirring, you know that the pot will boil. Bubbles will come up from the depths and pop.
He gives a long list of specific examples in the essay. Someone on Twitter today attached an article from Medium.com that had more examples.
I do believe Stochastic Terrorism is a very real thing. It deserves a lot more consideration, especially to the attested power of extreme ideologue propaganda.
Whether it's an ISIS beheading video; or relentless, incendiary Fox News propaganda; or Trump's reckless, bigoted prods. Inflammatory content stirs the pot, for an emotionally unstable and paranoid ideologue(s), who then carries out a violent act in their service. Remote control, in effect.
But then part of me wondered if this couldn't be an inside plot just before the midterm elections to engender votes for an aimless, floundering Dem Party, who refuse to budge from their pathetic no-position-at-all of, "We're Not Trump." Upon seeing that the targeted people were almost all very high profile Democrats and the media and the top names brandished by RW extremists hooked on RW media, it just seemed in the realm of possibility, given the histories of the FBI or CIA, that they could have hatched a plot to help the Democrats by focusing on the ones most known to the average Fox News viewer.
This is how fucked up things are in this Upside Down epoch. And, the FBI seems to have been transparently helping the Dems lately. Reminding us again that, relative to the Duopoly, the Parties are to the Intelligence arms one and the same in terms of the consolidated power of the 1%. And for the insiders charged with keeping this status quo in place it's all about keeping their personal gravy train's going.
What troubles me most about this outrageously specific and obviously coordinated plot (targets include the last two sitting Dem prez's, and then a veritable punching bag of RW media paranoia, from Maxine Waters to George Soros) is that legitimate concerns about increased RW extremism, no doubt ratcheted up by the Pure Scumbag In Chief, could be sidelined if this comes to light. Because there is some seriously bigoted and racist shit disconcertedly coming to the fore much more freely these days.
If this sounds like far-fetched conspiracy stuff, then just contemplate Operation Northwood. Or what the FBI and Chicago PD did to Fred Hampton, and the full scale disruption and framing of the Black Panthers, and also the anti-Vietnam War movement. Or the Red Scare illegally deporting dissidents without due process. Or McCarthyism to crush Leftist dissent. Or what the US gov't did to Sacco & Vanzetti.
If the CIA can come to a sitting President (JFK) and lay out various plots they could engage in, which included "possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities," in order to set the grounds for an official attack on communist Cuba, then what would prevent high ranking officials inside government from plotting something similar? (note: surprised to see that the Wikipedia quote above is intact there)
Two NYPD officers were killed just after the Black Lives Matter movement exploded in NYC. Protesters were so widespread and diverse, and so savvy at shutting down many arteries all over the city, that the current Commissioner admitted grudgingly that the cops, even with the latest, highest tech surveillance apparatus, were frequently outflanked and flustered. It's not crazy to think the pair of murdered cops, which included a Chinese-American, were sacrificial lambs in order to stem the massive tide of popular discontent after the Eric Garner non-conviction. Wall to wall coverage of the ostentatious funeral, complete with back-turning cops as disrespect to the Mayor who simply uttered some innocuous truths about the protesters' cause, and the Police Union threatening a work slowdown (and incessant whining about how nobody likes them) effectively throttled the whole movement, or dramatically slowed it down.
Human life is totally expendable to these psychopathic bastards. Power and money blinds them to commit the worst atrocities. From the RW Hate Machine propagandists who spew their bile all day everyday over the vast airwaves they cover, to the real Power Elite who can mask and provide cover for any act to be interpreted as something other than just another power play to achieve the result whatever it is they deem necessary at the moment.
I hesitated even publishing this. Maybe I'm just too tired and beleaguered by how pathetic politics, its coverage and the players have become.
But I've read enough about the real history of America and how the ruling class have operated since the beginning.
UPDATE:
(just a couple of links)
Taibbi takes the unpopular (in a 24/7 news culture that demands IMMEDIATE ANSWERS, which incidentally is the same sort of mindset that leads to the police panic that illegally frames innocent, young black boys, dubbed the Central Park 5, to be falsely convicted of crimes they never committed) but reasoned approach. He's been writing really great stuff lately (you must read his series about media manipulation called, The Fairway.)
Taibbi: Is It Fair to Blame Trumpism for These Latest Explosive Devices?
I have no love for Trump, his disgraceful rhetoric, or the blatantly anti-Semitic attacks against the likes of Soros. And no sane person can have anything but contempt for the kind of incitement of violence that has become routine online (witness Bill McKibben’s story about anti-environmentalists calling for someone to dig up his address and bring “civil disobedience” to his home). Even without these bomb incidents, this should all be denounced in the strongest terms.
But if there’s one thing history tells us about terrorism, it’s that these stories often end up having very different narratives than what is first suspected in the heat of the moment. Facts that later emerge often leave us in a completely different place than we’d have expected.
Because of the 24-hour news cycle and our addiction to second-to-second updates from reporters, celebrities and politicians alike on social media, it’s almost impossible not to speculate and point fingers right after we hear scary news. This is a form of journalistic malpractice that has gone sideways on more than a few of us in the business over the years.
He then lays out a handful of examples. After which he returns to the media's reckless rush, in a climate of chronic fear-mongering, to make hay out of very little to go on.
A huge problem with terror stories is that journalists are rushed for scoops and often take short cuts they otherwise wouldn’t. An infamous case involved Channel 4 in England, which relied on one source to identify the culprit in the Westminster terror attack. The man turned out to be in prison at the time of the incident.
Worse, a lot of TV programs have national security consultants who are paid specifically to speculate before facts are in, in cases just like this. Same with analysts from think tanks, whose job at least partly is to sit at desks, waiting to supply calling reporters with quotes. This is how you’ll get wildly divergent guesses about how terror incidents have “fingerprints” that “point to” this or that group, even before there’s a suspect or any kind of evidence.
Just as bad is the penchant for non-press actors these days to engage in phony terror attacks in order to get eyeballs and clicks. We’ve seen a YouTuber pretend to throw acid at people in England, trying to surf on real fears about a real rise in acid attacks in Britain. There’s a whole genre of staged “terror” attacks online.
Truthdig disappointingly opts for a perfunctory, mainstream take on it.
I like the general view that the author at Medium.com piece took, which was linked in the body of the essay.
Something is motivating white men to murder immigrants, women and people of color. The rise of violence on the right, especially the loose bundle of white supremacists, revanchist losers, and neo-fascists known as the “alt-right” has been well documented. Donald Trump’s demagogic tendencies on his way up, and the open admiration for fascists among his inner circle, has raised the spectre of a right-wing SA-style paramilitary that would grease the skids for American fascism. That’s not what we’ve seen, however. By and large the right-wing talks a big game, but when the rubber meets the road, they’re cowards. They flee their own rallies under police escort or pen themselves in in gazebos. It doesn’t help that they can only summon a scant few dozen or couple hundred at most, while left-wing counterprotests regularly number in the tens of thousands.
This makes sense. Despite the heavy focus on the white working class, and of course the ugly classism of coastal liberals, the fascist base of the alt-right comes from the comfortable suburban middle-class. These petit-bourgeoisie would always form the base of any fascist movement in America, hungry to defend their little slice of prosperity from usurping outsiders, yet eager to lick the boots of the truly wealthy and powerful. Fascism forms around a core of conformity and subservience, and fascists are always looking for a Strong Daddy to serve. The militias that show up to menace left-wing protesters are kitted out in “tactical” gear they bought online at exorbitant markups; they’re cosplayers in expensive costumes, not domestic-terrorists-in-waiting.
What right-wing killings all have in common is the perpetrators. They tend to be loners, losers, washups, the addicted, the ill, the antisocial, the crazy. This excellent story by GQ profiles Roof’s life before his attack on the church. He was a high-school dropout with a history of social withdrawal, substance abuse and mental health problems. Adam Purinton scraped by doing odd jobs, but his drinking had spiraled out of control following the death of his father. Jeremy Christian had a history of violent behavior and confrontations with law enforcement, who was in and out of jail due to his allergy to any kind of authority at all. James Alex Fields, Jr. was a loner who had failed out of boot camp and assaulted his mother when she tried to get him to cut down on video games. These men were, frankly, fuckups, and they were fuckups before they started drinking right-wing poison from internet sewers like Reddit, 4chan, and Stormfront.
...But these men are vulnerable to radicalization because the material conditions of their lives are falling apart and the community safety nets that might once have caught them have been shredded. Mental health care, substance abuse programs, and direct outreach to these groups can turn young men lured into stochastic terrorism away from that path. Presenting them with an alternative reduces the chances that they channel their frustrations into murder. Racism and xenophobia are at the core of the alt-right’s resurgence, and we must combat those through education and exposure, ensuring that racist speakers and writers are denied a platform to spread their poison. At the very least, keeping tabs on them may help defuse some of these threats before they happen, like the man recently caught by the FBI attempting to blow up a bank.
De-radicalizing the young is a long, difficult job, but it’s essential if we are to curb violence in the future. A generation’s futures have been stolen from them, and they’re pissed as hell about it. We can set to work dismantling the predatory architecture that has done this, ensuring health care and economic security for the many, and acting to curb the spread of racism in communities through direct engagement and education. Or we can double down on the failed police state and live with the human cost of stochastic terrorism.
Comments
Things are getting dicey.
Nice work, Mark. Who knows what will happen next?
I'm still mulling this over, and have mixed feelings.
I didn't want to delve into mainstream coverage much, without running it by the trusted community here for myself first.
The theory of Stochastic Terrorism appears sound to me.
Whether it's an ISIS beheading video, or relentless, incendiary Fox News coverage, or Trump's reckless, bigoted prods. Inflammatory content stirs the pot, for an emotionally unstable and paranoid ideologue, who then carries out a violent act in their service.
Remote control, in effect.
This is all to say, the amount of clandestine double-dealing, befriending of enemies, backfired schemes, wild-eyed accusations, highly orchestrated distractions, etc lately has got a feller confused.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Thanks for defining this term
Stochastic Terrorism
I’ve read it before but never followed up to understand what it means. I still had to look up the definition of stochastic to grasp it.
randomly determined; having a random probability distribution or pattern that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely.
So if I’m understanding this theory correctly, it’s saying that people like Sean Hannity etc. actually want to incite violent acts. Or is it rather that they know, statistically, that some small percentage of people hearing their words will commit violence, but don’t care because it’s all about ratings, and a few random attacks are just a cost of doing business?
The second scenario seems more likely to me.
So then, are they different than, say, Ford Motor Company deciding to keep selling the deadly Ford Pinto and many other models for years knowing full well they would end up burning some people to death, due to a ridiculous design of putting the gas tank directly under the back seat with no firewall, but figuring it would cost less to pay off the occasional accident victims’ families than to fix the problem?
In other words, they probably know some random ‘lone wolves’ will go off the edge and act out violently, but that’s accepted because they make huge profits doing what they do. And most of their audience doesn’t act violently.
Then you have to get to free speech and free expression, the understanding that a speaker or writer (game designer, musician etc.) is not responsible for the actions of the listener/reader/player. This theory sounds dangerously close to video games cause violence and rock music incites immorality... where does this end? Outlawing certain speech or expression as a form or cause of terrorism seems like a bad idea to me. And it’s hard to see what other conclusion it would come to.
By the way, as a resident of Tucson I was close enough to the “Tucson shooting” (Gabby Giffords and several others in a Safeway parking lot at a meet & greet event, for anyone who doesn’t remember it) to follow that story for a long time and read the local, followup reporting as time went on and the mass media attention died away. It turned out that Jared Loughner was seriously mentally ill, and he had a personal vendetta against Giffords that he nursed for several years, stemming from an earlier public event where he asked her some “off the wall” question and she blew him off and ignored him. This made him furious and he developed a serious grudge. There was never any indication at all that he was incited to shoot her by any political ideology or rhetoric. Despite many people jumping to that conclusion. He was incited by serious paranoid delusions.
Anyway, I haven’t any clue about these bombs today. Let’s just say I’m extremely skeptical of any story that comes out. It’s entirely possible that Trump’s rhetoric tripped some nut or group of nuts to act out. And it’s equally possible the whole thing was a show, a setup to make people think trump is that dangerous. GOTV is in overdrive right now, and I would put nothing past them. I’m not following news about it, mainly because I assume it’s all speculation at this point, and even when they “catch the culprit(s)” or announce a resolution who could know if anything they say is true? It’s either a set up, or the would-be bomber(s) were surprisingly inept, it seems to me.
I've heard that when Trump said he is a nationalist
it was the trigger for people to send the bombs. I guess like people who think that he walks on water and thinks that the country belongs to white peoples only heard something in that word that told them that the time for the war was upon them. Or something. It's hard to understand that line of thinking. But this was done by his supporters to send a message to the people who they don't think belong here.
Or it's the PTB trying to start the new civil war that they are hoping for so that they can impose martial law and let their goon squads play with their new toys. Like that device that can cook people's skin off. Or the LRAD that ruptures ear drums. Or that ..
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
OR maybe ....
The Dems concocted the whole thing to generate pre-election sympathy?? LOL! Actually nothing would surprise me anymore when it comes to our noble political parties.
"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin
For sure DWS is not a darling of many progressive Dems
and Demexiters?
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Well this has knocked the immigrant
Caravan fiasco, the revelations of what really went on with the Steele Dossier, Papadapolous telling how he was trolled by the Clinton minions and other helpers like Downer from Australia, the Kavanaugh mess, Hillbillary’s problems problems with the #metoo movement, Keith Ellison’s loss of support, the negative stories of the ‘blue wave’, right out of the news.
I want them to tell us if any of these devices were functional AND how it is that they could head them all off at the pass so conveniently.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Maybe so, maybe not. Caravan may be back in.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
It will be something different after the photos start appearing
I don't think the photos of the US military vs hundreds of destitute people, who've just walked well over a thousand miles in heat and other adversities to escape the drug wars in their own countries, will go over the way some propagandists think it will. It might compound the feeling many have about the kidnapped children they're holding in cages.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Have you watched
the video of the people?
Virtually all of them appear to be healthy, well fed, and well dressed. A lot of them even appear to have the same back packs. Most of them appear to be young men.
I guess the migrants took all of the food/supplies from all of the poor, weak people left behind while they were in Hond so they could fatten and strengthen up for the trip.
dfarrah
Can't remember the source of the video I saw
It showed people getting sick and a not at all young men. Maybe you were watching Trump propaganda.
Beware the bullshit factories.
This whole thing is starting to feel like it's going down
the Memory Hole, just like the massive Las Vegas massacre.
That was a deeply shocking event to me. But followup coverage seemed to evaporate almost right away.
Could only find a couple of pieces from months later, both seemingly RW takes on how insane it was that the authorities could purposely let it falter and then claim they couldn't find conclusive evidence about the killer's motives.
Key Forensic Evidence in Las Vegas Shooting Sidestepped; FBI Brass Applauded Ignorance While Loved Ones Buried Their Dead
SHOCK: Las Vegas Shooter 'Case Closed' And Police Claim There Was No Clear Motive
A morally deficient mainstream media, paralyzed when there's a possibility that evidence could force them to veer from the very narrow narratives that are sanctioned by the higher-ups at whatever consolidated media lapdog for whom they work, just drop stories like this (and the one we're talking about) when they no longer serve their partisan narrative.
And because the entire business is so cash-strapped, and the only ones that can pay do so for the express purpose of silencing any and all investigative journalism that runs counter to their unwritten but obvious mission statement, these stories get buried alive.
Don't we see it all the time, in either the unanimity of the reporting or the fierce ideological partisanship of the coverage?
I often imagine when a big story is breaking, guys like Les Moonves (disgraced, sexual predator, former head of CBS who was negotiating his step down for $100mil or something) calling Phil Griffin at NBC and Rupert Murdoch at Fox, because they not only all know each other in the Big Club but they're friends, and agreeing on which angle to take to most keep the public both at each other's throats and ensuring the longest possible running time for the story to last.
It's really that simple.
They cover the asses of their own in the 1% (until in the rare instance in which public pressure is so great they have to take a "vacation" and "resign." And the other thins is that we're still so conditioned into thinking the news media is there to "inform" us. They're NOT. They're there to make money for their stockholders. And the anchors and pundits get paid very handsomely to ensure that happens.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
I was thinking about the Las Vegas
shooter the other day. One of the worst home-grown terrorists we’ve ever had and no idea what made him do what he did. No hint of what drove him to slaughter a lot of people. No indication of what or who he was ‘angry’ about. Nothing at all. Just the story of a maniac who decided to go out in a blaze of infamy.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Just like the health insurance industry
The health insurance industry is not there to make us better. We have major needs to be truthfully informed and to not have to worry about our health that are being subverted by corruption.
Beware the bullshit factories.
Stochastic Terrorism was a concept first elucidated
by dPOS contributor G2Geek. I'm pretty sure he discussed at TOP before he created that blogspot site and posted the fully developed thesis there.
It's a beautiful idea -- one of those ideas that, once someone has expressed it, radiates an aura of such pure obviousness that it immediately places the burden of proof, not on its adherents, but on its opponents (other examples: Natural Selection, Anthropogenic Climate Change).
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
I was going to reply to this
comment this morning, but I was at work.
What about this 'incendiary' language at Fox news? Have you ever even watched Fox news? I can unequivocally say that none of the powerhouses at Fox (Carlson, Hannity, Ingraham) condone violence, and indeed decry it on both sides.
When a Bernie supporter shot that congressman, they did not blame Bernie (they had the clips to prove it), like people are now trying to blame Trump.
dfarrah
The lone wolves.
I call bullshit. Kazinsky never asked for help to do what he did. Now that is the true definition of a lone wolf.
And for a government agency to say they stopped a crime that they helped facilitate is laughable on all fronts.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Exactly
The frameup of Mohamed Osman Mohamud at the Christmas Tree lighting event in Portland, Oregon back in 2010 was pure FBI bullshit.
The FBI went looking for their Lee Harvey Oswald to push over the brink.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Luckily for Chuck Schumer...
https://politics.theonion.com/chuck-schumer-relieved-he-s-never-taken-st...
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
Schumer has worked hard to dodge the bombs
Right on cue
No matter what happens someone will connect the event with Putin. Every Damn Time!
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
@snoopydawg Oooh, Chuckie. Setting
Oooh, Chuckie. Setting the pick for those who want to repress left-wing "radicals." And I'm betting my bottom dollar that when they do get repressed, it won't be Antifa, but rather dangerous radicals expressing dangerous views online.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Since we're speculating...it could easily be both.
If you imagine that it's not the parties/politicians themselves planning bombings, but the CIA or one of the other alphabet soup agencies. Seems to me the CIA would be rather good at stochastic terrorism themselves--and they are (currently) supporting the Dems, mainly, it seems to me, because Trump the individual wasn't vetted by them and doesn't seem to altogether know the rules for being President. He's a bit of a loose canon; they don't like that. They also don't like the fact that they got an unexpected result in the last election. That alone would be enough to piss them off.
However, "supporting the Dems" doesn't mean that the CIA/other alphabet soup agencies actually give a shit about any individual Democratic politician's life. Given the CIA's institutional history, it's not improbable that they'd be willing to break some eggs.
Frankly, I expect that the PTB have a plan for when the shit hits the fan, and that plan involves throwing the politicians to the wolves as useful targets for the population's rage. Seems to me that Democrats, particularly Democrats of color, would be likely to be used in such a fashion, since they're the ones that get hatred from all sides of the ideological spectrum, unlike Republican politicians, who only seem to get hated from the left.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
This is kind of where
I am leaning. Every time I see something like this, my first thought goes straight to the CIA or the former rogue actors within the CIA. The timing is perfect for them to try to muck up the elections.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
You forgot the Red Brigades.
The bomb attempt was such a perfect combination of expertise and amateurism that it must have been a ploy. Sending bombs through the mail to people who must have aides to open their mail, most of whom have Secret Service protection? Using DWS as the return address? C'mon, a 14 year old can watch a James Bond movie and think up a better one than that!
I watched a film clip of Hillary reacting. She looked her usual smug, "see, I'm pretending to be normal" self. Reminded me of W's "what have I done?" look on 9/11.
On to Biden since 1973
Trolling Twitter Tonight
Ride this for all it's worth
Has anyone checked to see if Trump is actually donating his salary to veterans?
Mini-me Trump
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
@snoopydawg "Well, nothing else has
"Well, nothing else has made large numbers of people accept her victim status, so let's try this."
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@snoopydawg By the way, Chris
By the way, Chris Murphy, "locking people up" is usually what happens after somebody commits one or more serious crimes. There is an intervening step that the right sometimes forgets, called investigation and prosecution, which is rather important to me, and I, for one, would welcome it; particularly if done by someone with at least the possibility of some degree of impartiality.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Yeah, these people
are all upset over the lock her up, as if they have locked her in stocks.
I agree, she should be locked up after the typical required due process (assuming she is found guilty).
dfarrah
@snoopydawg Also...at what point
Also...at what point did John Brennan become a "leftist?"
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Like everything else, when it came to be to
his advantage.
Just like water, opportunists like him, The Clinton’s, Obama, always sink to their own level.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
No proof, just gut feeling -
Campaign stunts intended to increase (D) votes.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
You may be right.
"Vote for us because somebody wants us to die".
The only problem being that many do want the dim party to keel over.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
I laughed out loud
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
But the dims don't
really need the repubs' help, do they?
dfarrah
Yup. Same as that migrant
caravan being used by the Right Wing. Just one more vote getting ploy. I know we talk a lot about whether to vote or not here, and I am one who is leaning toward non voting but still sometimes on the fence. I woke up wondering today why these assholes go to all this trouble to gin up more votes from the rubes they revile and completely ignore once elected? I suppose it really is about their seeming legitimacy in getting votes, but there are times I really have to wonder. Maybe it's merely a game to them, I am quite sure they do really enjoy all the controversy and particularly the divide and conquer, but do they really even need that anymore? I guess, for now, they do.
Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur
Voting here in IL
Special case. Republican Governor (ex-Wall street hedge Fund manager) has almost succeeded in drowning the state in a bathtub. Nursing homes closing because the state won't pay the Medicaid bills plus more. Sometimes there really is a lesser evil. YMMV. Four Greens running for the Water reclamation board too. Tweedledee-Tweedledum Congressional race. No green. May vote for the (R) because he's an Uber driver and the incumbent Dem is a businessman, Centrist needless to say. May skip the race. For sure will vote for Pritzker (yeah, I don't trust him either) for Governor and the four greens.
I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.
Gee, and here I thought
the 'caravan' was being used and supported by dems.
If they reach the border and something bad happens (women, children get shot in some crossfire), I'm sure Trump will take the fall for it, and not the dems.
dfarrah
You are on a roll! This is exactly what we needed to read
and learn from.
How different are the following? OBL videos, and Mr. Trump's continuing campaign speeches?
Trump tonight, wink wink.
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Interesting tweet
Jason Sattler, a.k.a. LOLGOP is a russia russia, hillbot imho.
Never needed to belong to twit to be amused by his writing and not in a good way.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
But wasn't that particular tweet right on?
Broken clock and all that.
Another related:
Trump's wink wink this morning followed up with blatant
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
Give me a break.
Have you ever watched Trump at a rally?
dfarrah
Something else. We all know the oligarchy's corporate media
exists to manipulate and influence those that watch or read it, but stochastic terrorism assumes that it actually works to make people commit terrorism. I don't believe there's any evidence for that, certainly not enough to support the term. From Oswald to Sirhan Sirhan to OBL (who died in 2001 so he didn't actually release those videos), to the FBI Terror Factory, virtually all acts of terrorism are government or government related. Here's Obama in 2011:
"The biggest concern we have right now is not the launching of a major terrorist operation, although that risk is always there," the president said in an interview with CNN.
"The risk that we're especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort that we saw in Norway recently," he said. "You know, when you've got one person who is deranged or driven by a hateful ideology, they can do a lot of damage, and it's a lot harder to trace those lone wolf operators."
I wrote a diary on Daily Kos at that time explaining how that was bullshit and it was meant to condition the public to believe all these terrorists incidents were one of us and the government was completely innocent, as always. I almost GBCW'd the place at that time because of all the shit I got from the believers.
The onus is on the government and those that control it to prove they didn't do it, not some lone wolf.
@Big Al Kinda with you on that
Kinda with you on that one, Al; stochastic terrorism sounds plausible, but we have no proof, do we? We've got a kind of logic, but no evidence. We do have evidence that the CIA has historically participated in coups and assassinations while pretending that such things are the organic response of whoever happens to be living in the area of their manipulation.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Civil war man!
The government and media train people to look at anything other than them. It works, like with this term stochastic terrorism. Even people here seem to be falling for it.
I’m so glad to read this!! I was feeling ashamed
of myself because my first thought was “anyone seen Christopher Steele lately?” Then I wondered how Waters, Clinton, and Holder felt about ‘uncivility’ now. And then I thought “what a jackass, spending all that money on postage for a bunch of duds”. That’s when I started thinking that maybe they weren’t supposed to really work.
This whole thinks just doesn’t ring right somehow. Maybe the ‘lone wolf’ is a Clinton/ supporter or a rabid Dimocrit trying to make drum up ‘support’ for the party now that there’s been talk that there won’t really be a ‘blue wave’ this election. But even if it is a crazed rightie, the insulting and nasty rhetoric coming from the msm and the Dims might have ‘triggered’ someone or pushed them over the edge.
Glad it’s not just me.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
Blue Wave
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Wow! Perfect.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
@snoopydawg I note "Open Borders"
I note "Open Borders" and "More Taxes" back there. It's sad that the right, even at this late date, can't get free of their own talking points either.
There's never gonna be "open borders;" too many people in the military-industrial complex and private prison industry are making money off having the borders we have. Even if there were completely open borders, which at this point would probably be a bad idea, that problem would be miniscule in comparison with the problems we've already got. The problems we've already got are literally killing us en masse, albeit slowly.
As for "More Taxes," until they realize that they are paying more because the rich are paying less, rather than bitching and moaning about how much it costs to maintain a functioning country, they will remain both helpless to decrease their taxes and an oddly unpatriotic destructive force on the place they call home.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
@Amanda Matthews Well, if the anthrax
Well, if the anthrax attack didn't work, why would these bombs?
Personally, I believe the anthrax attack was a mafia-style warning, not intended to kill, but to scare. This one...well, they're making so much hay out of it so fast that I'm thinking it's intended to do nothing except make them the good guys.
I guess Americans aren't buying the idea that the Democrats are the faces.
You can't have this guy's friends be the face in the wrestling ring:
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
They have to keep the ‘terror’ up
for a couple of weeks until the midterms so it will be ‘interesting’ to say the least.
I'm tired of this back-slapping "Isn't humanity neat?" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes, okay? That's all we are. - Bill Hicks
Politics is the entertainment branch of industry. - Frank Zappa
I was wondering the same thing.
The last I heard (yesterday) is that there was no verification that the items were truly workable bombs.
And now you mention duds. So, maybe the objective was not to explode (except in the media).
dfarrah
my feelings are less mixed
but pretty clear on that. Just hard to admit it might be so. I don't see much stochastic in all of it, because the probability of the terrorism expressed is pretty high so that it becomes more of a certainty than a probability.
Great essay. First time I learned about that term 'stochastic terrorims'.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Did you know that
Maxy was exhorting the crowd around her (as in yelling) to go after people in department stores, at gas stations, at restaurants, and surround them to harass them until they leave?
Have you seen that clip yet?
dfarrah
no /nt
https://www.euronews.com/live
People around here
need to take a deep breath and watch some fox news once in a while, in particular Tucker and Ingraham.
The other news networks simply don't report this stuff.
dfarrah
Germany has no Fox News—German news broadcasts are a big cop-out
Mainstream media here in Germany cop out in the same way that Wikipedia does with its rule about who and what is to be regarded as a “reliable source.”
The default assumption, cast in concrete in both cases, is always that the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Time magazine, CNN, etc. are telling the truth until conclusively proved otherwise.
Remember what Larry Summers told Elizabeth Warren — insiders don’t criticize other insiders?
German media insiders must never question U.S. media insiders.
Udo Ulfkotte was definitely on to something.
Can't let this Fox News worship stand. The corollary is,
@lotlizard
if we believe the MSM (i.e. NY Times, WaPo, CNN, etc) to be a bulwark of the status quo, then you have to believe, despite the broken clock theory that they may be slightly correct twice a day (which isn't even true), that Fox News is a blatant, over-the-top partisan propaganda machine. It's undeniable that they often go on air with vicious lies, defaming exaggerations and ad hominem attacks (as do all of Murdoch's properties, see the NY Post, the Sun, News of the World, which he closed to stem the tide of serious allegations of defamation ).
Just off the top of my head locally the NY Post routinely published false or exaggerated stories regarding OWS in what was a steadfast hit-job obvious to denigrate the movement and pit public sentiment against it (like all oligarchs he was scared shit of being moved into the crosshairs of rising popular discontent about monopoly media ownership, endless money in politics, etc). Part of the multi-faceted focus of Occupy was Fox News, whose reporters were mercilessly derided and mocked. Or look at the positions the Post took against the Central Park 5. They were viciously dragged threw the mud by Murdoch's monsters, in what was practically a modern day media lynchig. ALL were proven completely innocent, but not before serving many years in prison. All were teenagers in the prime of their lives.
What he did with the Sun and News of the World is infamously treacherous too. Read about the phone-hacking scandal in which his paper was caught breaking into the messages of an already dead "missing" girl of whom they disgustingly profited off of by leading the public by stoking their hopes with front page headlines that she was still alive. Better yet, just take a look at the Frontline special to get an idea of how many scandals this piece of shit has been involved.
Nope. Fox News is pure propaganda evil. I don't care how many seconds per week Tucker Boy, high profile host/scion of the Swanson TV dinner family, appears like he's having a progressive epiphany.
What remains of this pure propaganda machine that Murdoch built with his Daddy's money (another aspect of RW extremism, pampered privilege, which then stunningly results in imperious finger-pointing at the poor that they must work harder and not live off the fat of the land) is that this is how these people land jobs at Murdoch's place. You've got to be either fake dumb blondes towing the corporate line and a nice feel-ups for the dirty old, half-witted white men like O'Reilly, Ailes, etc, or a recipient of pure nepotism due to your rich daddy's friends.
Fox has ruined so many older people in the country who in the twilight of their lives because of them have subscribed to the worst and most vile strains of xenophobia, racism, and bigotry, while being conditioned with fake patriotism, Christianity and American Exceptionalism 24/7. See "The Brainwashing of My Dad" by Jen Senko, a gripping film about the disintegration of her union-enlisted father's liberal views into this ranting, raving RW extremist lunatic, from watching Fox News all day and RW radio in the car (of which Fox hosts are also prominent). So fucking angering. I see it with my own parents. I'm sure many here can attest to similar stories.
I'm not in any way defending their counterpart propagandists, like MSNBC, who run RussiaGate propaganda all day long and tow the Neoliberal line. I despise them too.
But Fox News is literally an abomination on the welfare of society.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
"Cause Of Death: Fox News"
Friend sent this yesterday in relation to something I tweeted, basically about it being so sad that RW propaganda has deformed what would otherwise be good people into ranting, paranoid racists.
Cause Of Death: Fox News, by Tom Hoagland
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Obviously, you have never
bothered to watch it, hence your ignorance about what is discussed on the news shows.
As I have posted over and over, there is quite a bit of overlap between the left and the right. But people refuse to check it out for themselves.
But as long as people are as closed off as you, unwilling to poke around here and there, nobody will ever realize that the overlap exists.
And I feel the same way when someone on Fox ignorantly knocks the left for so-and-so, not realizing that both sides agree on something.
dfarrah
In Germany, CNN International cheer-led the 1991 Iraq war 24/7
A whole generation of younger Germans fluent in English were turned away from the 1980s peace movement and made receptive for the neocons’ wars and world dominance dreams to come.
Fox isn’t even on German cable and satellite. (Murdoch-Fox property NatGeo is, though.)
U.S. mainstream media all serve the same masters. If one appears to have a more baleful influence than others at any given time, I now tend to think that is a by-product of marketing formulating different mixes for different demographics.
Since the 2001 anthrax attacks (never satisfactorily cleared up)
nobody whom the Powers That Be consider truly important opens their own mail.
It seems probable to me that genuine terrorists, like the Unabomber or pro-Israel, pro-Zionist Anton Breivik, would have known this.
Pipes with wires sticking out them?
I remember how we were supposed to take one look at the writing on the anthrax envelopes and immediately think, “Oh, obviously it was an Arab Muslim who sent this.”
There’s this concept called “Hollywood science,” where if you invoke artistic license, you can toss both real science and common sense out the window for the sake of telling a good story —
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HollywoodScience
This strikes me as something similar — call it “Hollywood terrorism.”
It could be real.
But it could also just be stage props and plot devices and people who want to tell us, and sell us, a story.
@lotlizard I'm with you, lotlizard.
I'm with you, lotlizard. If somebody is well-informed enough to know who John Brennan is, surely they would know that he, a member of the fucking Deep State, is not going to open packages the way I do.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I definitely agree with you
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
At this moment,
two bomb specialists are on Ingraham, saying that the bombs are a joke and more like movie props.
FWIW.
dfarrah
The German mainstream media are taking it all at face value
These days, that’s an indicator that one should not necessarily take the story at face value.
Was Udo Ulfkotte right about German media? Was he blowing the whistle on something real?
I now think he probably was.
After all, in the absence of a peace treaty, Germany was by law an occupied country and the Allies’ play toy for almost half a century. The foundations of today’s German media landscape were laid by the strategic services of the Western occupiers, with the U.S. foremost.
Wikipedia labels Udo Ulfkotte as a “conspiracy theorist” in its very first paragraph.
Ulfkotte passed on at the relatively young age of 56, so Wikipedia no longer has to apply its rules concerning biographies of living persons (in other words, “libel away, me lads”).
In light of the Philip Cross affair, what, after all, is the significance of being disparaged on Wikipedia? In some cases, could it even be a badge of honor?
Chaos is but order unpercieved. Nothing is truly random.
When “random violence” strikes in an election season and it has a decidedly partisan tilt, the FIRST thing we should ask is who benefits. All but brain dead Her zombies should realize that the whole Russia,Russia,Russia! gambit was utter BS, designed to deflect blame for Her stunning loss and to inoculate the accusing Dems from the likelihood that a Trump administration would go after the corrupt and manipulating Clinton campaign (election interference, both primary and general).
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. Psy-ops and domestic propaganda by the Alphabet agencies is the norm in our modern world. Very little of what is pushed out in our MSM is what it appears to be.
“The story around the world gives a silent testimony:
— The Beresovka mammoth, frozen in mud, with buttercups in his mouth…..”
The Adam and Eve Story, Chan Thomas 1963
look out kid they keep it all hid
true then and true now
bygorry
@bygorry Does that make C99 the
Does that make C99 the manhole? Let's light ourselves a candle.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Excellent summary
of the situation we find ourselves in here in the United States. Great comment!
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
People use the
word, "random," incorrectly.
dfarrah
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar
but with the phrase "October surprise" becoming part of the vocabulary, esp. after Comey, it's hard to see this as not being one side or the other.
@Snode Goes all the way back to
Goes all the way back to the attempt to break Iranian hostages out of Iran. Somehow, one helicopter developed problems and they all had to turn back. Whoopsie!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
What was the story there?
That the sand was causing malfunctions?
dfarrah
How would "they" know
there's a bomb floating around somewhere intended for Biden if they didn't have a list of the recipients? Red flags just keep popping up all over the place.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
@Raggedy Ann I guess that the
I guess that the terrorist/assassin had a neat list of his targets that he kept around after sending the bombs. Smart.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Well, there you go.
Another careless bomber!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
The Bomb Site I can see from my window this morning
I read at TOP that there was another bomb found at 4:00 am at Robert de Niro's Tribeca restaurant. A quick trip to my window and then a clearer view from my balcony revealed the Police Vans, yellow taped scene etc. still evident. (I slept thru what must have been a loud event.)
Forgive me if I am on the wrong track here, but I'm feeling that this is a grotesque stunt meant to generate headlines and be a vague threat about what will happen if Democrats garner significant wins on November 6.
I watched my local NYC news and MSNBC yesterday and I was struck by how many "experts" they had on board to allege that these were Real bombs.
Until that emphasis and then, thankfully, no explosions or injuries occurred, I didn't question the events. Now, that is what I'm doing.
Trump, the King of Attention-Getting hostile behavior, must be reveling in this. Cannot help think that all the "Will nobody rid me of this meddlesome Priest?" rhetoric has paid off for him.
Now the headlines are Bombs. Not MBS. Or stock market plunges.
NYCVG
The stock market
rallied a bit today.
dfarrah
Stock market is not far from a loss for the year
Trade wars and huge tax giveaways to the rich, so they can stash more money and keep it from the economy, are starting to take their toll. The Obama recovery is ending and I think we're about to start the Trump economy. It will be flavored with lots of major hurricanes and fires and floods. When the Trump induced ignorant hysteria ends in 6 years we will have an entrenched aristocracy and a bunch of peasants and maybe 4 years to stop continually increasing climate chaos by banning all internal combustion engines.
Beware the bullshit factories.
True. The market may be red
in the end. And whose fault is that? Trump or Obama's, since you are apparently crediting Obama for anything good that has happened the last two years. (gee, I have a hunch it will be all Trump's fault if in the red, and Obama's accomplishment if not in the red).
As to those whining about a trade war, why don't you take a look a this:
http://www.atimes.com/article/how-chinas-economic-rise-killed-off-3-2-mi...
You've become a one trick pony regarding Trump, refusing to see good in anything.
Do you honestly think it was a good idea for critical US industries to have moved (or continue to move) to China? They (and their politicians like Obama - "those jobs are not coming back.") helped to weaken the US and hollow out the middle class. And yet you think Trump's efforts to revive manufacturing, protect US developed technology (another industry selling out to the Chinese), and to create more jobs is somehow bad.
The US is a declining world power, likely to be taken over by the Chinese, thanks to these traitors to our country. And Trump, who has been complaining about the trade imbalances for years, has nothing to do with the decline. We've been stuck with "those jobs are not coming back" sellout politicians, who have whole-heartedly supported outsourcing the US.
dfarrah
My guess is CIA/FBI all running as dim's
and they need help
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A]
I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish
"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"
Heard from Margaret Kimberley
i can't say i'd seen any coverage of the mail bombs
until this morning, but wsws.org has a pretty complete rundown on who's and where's.
'Bombs mailed to prominent Democrats and Trump critics' Patrick Martin, 25 October 2018
these passages are both interesting and hilarious:
"FBI and police officials involved in the investigation into the mail bombs told the media that the packages addressed to Obama, Clinton, Brennan, Soros, Waters and Holder all appeared to have come from the same source. The bombs were of similar construction, simple but powerful enough to kill or maim.
They were mailed in similar envelopes, and the return address of Representative Wasserman Schultz was used on all of them. No information has yet been made public about the triggering devices and why the bombs failed to explode in the two instances when the packages were opened."
ah, rats. i tried to find, but couldn't the snl parody sketch of dan rather's 'anthrax' scares. "this just in..." "no, belay that..." etc. "just in...ricin!", etc.
I heard that they were real
used black powder and glass inside, and the battery for the timer/clock didn't develop enough electricity/heat? to set it off.
Bombs only cost $2.50 to send through the mail?
Look at how many stamps were used to mail it. Was the pipe made out of plastic since it obviously didn't weigh very much. Are those stamps cancelled out or don't packages go through the cancel-outer-machine? Hmmm, what else do you find funny about this event?
Oh yeah. After the bombs were found to have DWS's return address of them then wouldn't mail people be extra aware today that packages that look like they might have bombs in them and not just drop off a potential pipebomb to some in politics on the dem side or a prominent person? Just a few thoughts here that tells me that we are being played!
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
From what I remember hearing
it's plastic, and the stamps weren't cancelled...so not through postal service. They run cameras at postal offices. We're always being played, and the truth will be manufactured for their benefit, and our consumption. Same as it ever was.
Geez, even the
post office knows about suspicious packaging.
We even have a picture in our break room at work to be aware of suspicious packages, and we are nowhere near the mail department.
dfarrah
Thanks for all the excellent dialogue, folks. I'm deep in the
Grind here. On top of which I lost all my keys while on a walk last night.
Have already spent some of the very cold morning here with my young son in tow and daughter harnessed to my chest searching in vain for them. Am about to go out again right now, this time with the help of a neighbor and her two daughters.
Will check in again when I can.
Maybe I really am losing my mind. Heh...
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
That's a real bummer.
Hope they weren't identified with a name and/or address, and the ring contained very few keys. I have a carabiner with at least three rings of keys attached to it. If I ever lose mine, I lose everything. Hope you find them Mark.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
You know a good place to start?
STOP DOING SHIT LIKE THIS.
Reddit, 4chan, and Stormfront have no business whatsoever being looped together like birds of a feather. This is NUTS. This is flat-out Orwellian Newtruth.
This is like people who never heard of Islam before 9-11 rooting their every thought regarding Islam/the Middle East/foreign policy/their entire godsdamned view of history on the epistemic equivalent of seeing your reflection for the first time in your life in a funhouse mirror, while on LSD and cocaine, at the age of 40. This is people who have always viewed a nascent counterculture as beneath their notice, only starting to care when something they don't understand has happened. This is like people who know nothing about Mesopotamian history suddenly deciding they're fit to start a war in Iraq based solely on stuff published in 2002. Do you get what I'm saying here?
I actually don't know a lot about this myself - but at least I KNOW I DON'T KNOW, and I know enough to know that...something is seriously wrong with all this. The entire concept of 4chan is ANATHEMA to fascism. It's where LOLcats and Bronies came from, for the love of fuckola. It wasn't even that long ago AT ALL that Hollywood was (in some eyes) celebrating Anonymous in the form of that The Lone Ranger movie with Johnny Depp.
People are trying to impose Order on Chaos, here...and that's bad. It's like burying someone alive, a fate that used to be one of the most terrifying things on people's minds (and rightly so on countless levels, if you understand the process) as recently as Eleanor Roosevelt, who (like many others of the 19th-early 20th Centuries) made arrangements that doctors sever a major artery to MAKE SURE she was dead rather than risk the alternative - and that's to say nothing of its significance in gothic horror ("For the love of God, Montresor! For the love of God...!").
I know more about this than most people - and still, I know very little, and actually wish I knew less. Again, though, at least I KNOW that I don't know enough, and I am capable of TOLERATING (a word I don't hear enough anymore) the Unknown rather than being so actively stupid as to plaster it over with something familiar that looks kinda sorta similar. I'm sick of hearing the word "narrative" - it's just a LIE, is what it is. It's the kind of "thinking" that went into the Malleus Maleficarum and the Satanic Panic (read the book about that by Jeffrey S. Victor, by the way, it's very relevant now).
As Martin Luther King (I'm long in the habit of "collecting" quotations that resonate with me, and that man was a friggin' factory for them) said, "human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted" - and for some reason, over the course of (by my reckoning) the past 4 years, there has been an unprecedented war on precisely that breed of person, making them out to be THE DEAD OPPOSITE of everything they've always been - "#MeToo GOOD, #GamerGate BAD", that sort of thing. It's like what James O'Keefe did to ACORN, specifically the part where the victims felt obligated to believe their own character assassin ("this is good for us, we need our bad elements pointed out to us"). Again, I'm confused just like everyone else...but I do know that a consensus is now being built upon a grave libel. Nerds aren't bullies, Chaos is anathema to fascism, and shitty as everything was before...this is just a whole extra layer that needs to be peeled back.
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Anarchy of unrestrained, unvetted “politically incorrect” speech
on websites like Reddit and 4chan is being equated to fascism?
Interesting. Kind of turns authoritarianism on its head.
Guess Orwell wasn’t making things up — political insiders really do find freedom for non-insiders as threatening as slavery.
And once again, the tax-funded German TV’s 8 o’clock evening news just take the entire narrative at face value — “Bombs mailed to Dems and anti-Trump media; Dems say Trump’s anti-media barbs to blame.”
Pages