American man with guns

The latest news about letters preliminarily detected to be laced with ricin being sent to President Obama and Republican Senator Roger Wicker (a hard right conservative who voted to allow debate on background checks) in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing seems to expose something about underground anarchists crawling around under the crust of society in America. After further testing, these letters may turn out not to be laced with ricin but threats to our President and politicians by “fellow Americans” take place every day and the proliferation of coverage of a terrorist attack seems to whip up more of them.

We all remember the anthrax attacks that followed the 9/11 attacks and the failure of the FBI to definitively solve that case.

What did seem to be clear in that case and in this case is that the initial terrorist attack and the subsequent use of deadly toxins in letters sent to politicians and journalists (though not yet confirmed at this time in this latest case) were not committed by the same groups or people.

So is there a subculture of sociopathic Americans out there who act spontaneously to “jump on the bandwagon” and launch their own attack on their perceived enemies in American society after witnessing the coverage of another terrorist attack? Or are such sick people, whether as loners or in hate groups, readied and waiting to launch an attack once they perceive that the floodgates are opened? It is the case that some of these types desperately want the day to come when anarchy, terror and fear tear apart our society as it is which they believe will allow them and their types to take over and reshape society into their own image.

It now looks so outrageous that the Tea Party garnered the kind of attention and positive media they received when they were first becoming so visible. They have always represented the kind of American government hatred, racism and paranoia that is so endemic to the most dangerous extremists in our country.

Who but someone who hated our government would try and assassinate the elected officials in it? Who but someone who hated huge swaths of America would try to assassinate those in the media who they see as not speaking for them? Who but an American would touch both of those bases?

Some suggest that these terrorists who copycat terrorism after initial attacks are just trying to get attention and know their attacks will fail. Tell that to the postal workers who were murdered due to handling anthrax laced letters and the ones that would have been this time around had the government not instituted screening on all mail to DC politicians. Whether they are primarily seeking publicity or not, these terrorists who are homegrown, want to terrorize Americans and some are willing to murder Americans in that pursuit.

What is unbelievable is that many of these types believe they are patriots for “standing up to tyranny”…by being willing to murder innocent Americans, possibly even children. That is “patriotism”? This dangerous myth has been incubated amongst those who feel most neglected or marginalized by American society…it is really revenge they seek for a life of difficulty and disappointment, they merely use “patriotism” as a facade. Right Wing media though the MSM have also contributed to this along the way too. There has been an intentional sanctioning of radicalization by the creatures at Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, the NRA and even elected politicians in the GOP. They praise and celebrate people who hate fellow Americans, who hate Democrats, the poor, the unemployed, black people (including Pres. Obama), Latinos, women…and on and on. The profitable industry of Hate in America can’t be held harmless as sick Americans act out on their delusions and paranoias…which have been validated by that Hate industry.

Fox and their fellow Fiends don’t care one bit that they aid and inspire hatred of America in dangerous people, for them it would be the same as opposing that they turn a profit off of such sick human beings. It is a symbiotic relationship, between sociopaths and the Media Hate Industrial Complex. Even so, each individual makes their own choices and decisions and the ultimate responsibility lies with the murderers, not their cheerleaders.

It is nauseating that simultaneously, as Americans are murdered and terrorized by attacks on them, we hear that the background checks bill in the Senate has been killed by Republicans. These Republicans are standing up for the right of terrorists to freely obtain semi-automatic and other weapons at gun shows. And they are the party that represents itself as ultra-patriotic? Aiding and abetting the arming of terrorists? One can only hope that Democrats put this anti-Americans campaign of theirs (opposing what 90% of Americans want) front and center in next year’s elections.

So what creepy, crawly vermin scuttle around underneath the surface of our society unbeknownst to most Americans living their daily lives?

There are the Dominionists who are Christian extremists that literally want to take over America and the world and force their religious beliefs onto all others under the rule of law, they have no reservation about committing murder and other acts to get what they believe they are entitled to by God. There are the White Power Militias and gun nuts out there who are convinced that the day of reckoning is coming and must come, when the white race will have an apocalyptic battle against the tyrannical, gun-confiscating, multiracial American government and they are the heroes who must attack and kill government officials…to defend America.

From an MSNBC article…published on 03/06/2013, a month and a half ago, before these terrorist attacks:

Domestic terrorism: ‘Patriot’ hate groups skyrocket

The number of anti-government hate groups hit an all-time last year, according to data from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

These conspiracy-fueled groups have been on the rise over the last few years but hit a high of 1,360 “Patriot” groups in 2012, the Center’s new report found. Patriot groups believe “that the federal government is conspiring to take Americans’ guns and destroy their liberties as it paves the way for a global ‘one-world government.’”

When President Obama won the 2008 election, only 149 such groups existed. By the next year, anti-government groups skyrocketed to 512, then 824 in 2010, and 1,274 in 2011.

And the number of general hate groups slightly decreased from 1,018 in 2011 to 1,007 in 2012, the number of Patriot groups went up about 7% in the same time frame.

The “growth has just been astounding over the last four years: 813% growth. We’ve never really seen anything like this in any of the groups that we count,” Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell Wednesday. ”As gun control talk began in the wake of the slaughter in Newtown…[the] whole movement, these groups out there, have gone from sort of a red heat to white heat. So we are at a very scary moment. It is very reminiscent at least to me the months leading up to the Oklahoma City bombing.”

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/03/06/we-are-at-a-very-scary-moment-hate-groups-on-the-rise/

No one knows right now and it would be irresponsible to say one way or the other with any certainty but the Boston Marathon bombing could have been committed by a foreign group or individual but it could also be a result of one or more domestic terrorists. However, the follow up terrorism of potentially sending ricin-laced letters to specific politicians sure seems reflective of one or more Americans with specific political views acting upon their own hatreds. Either way, I hope that the FBI is far more diligent and committed in this case than in the 9/11 anthrax attacks, in finding the perpetrators of these follow up acts of terrorism. If it turns out to be from one of these “Patriots”, they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and all media romanticism over government-hating “Patriots” should be extinguished for good and all.

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Kalima
Admin

How the media got it all wrong again.

“Boston Marathon Bombing Media Errors Pile Up, as Does the Outrage”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/18/boston-marathon-bombing-media-errors-pile-up-as-does-the-outrage.html

kalie
Member
kalie

Ad Lib:

Hate groups have risen much in the last four years, and many jobs have been lost in the last eight, that it makes sense that “idle minds are the devil’s playground.” It seems to me that many of the members of these hate groups are young men/people who are angry and impressionable. And isn’t that just how the RW wants it? The less jobs people have the more evil can be stirred up. Its a sick state we are in now. Do you think that if we got another Progressive in office after Obama leaves, that anything will change?

kesmarn
Admin

kalie, the same thought has crossed my mind: that some of this anger is rooted in economic hopelessness.

Even though there’s no obvious connection on the surface, one thing that I think would be helpful is to adopt the President’s proposal to raise the minimum wage. People who are working — even full time — at the current minimum wage simply can’t support themselves. They must feel like slave labor, trapped in an endless cycle of futility. Their choices? To angrily keep on working, hating their lives, or to quit and see things get even worse. Who wouldn’t be infuriated by that?

Sadly, they’ve been taught so little history that the alternative of organizing, along with their co-workers, to empower themselves doesn’t even occur to them. And many are so demoralized they don’t even bother to vote.

The President took a lot of flak for saying that people in these circumstances “cling to their guns and (faux*) religion,” but I think we’re seeing that. We could toss in that they “cling to prejudice and anger” as well. And the consequences aren’t pretty.

*parentheses mine

Kalima
Admin

Hi AdLib, great piece.

This might sound odd to American ears, but since the attacks in Boston, I’ve been hoping and also thinking that this was a domestic terrorist act. The reason is that I believe that the attention to the extreme groups operating within your own borders are tempered because of free speech which I believe has its limits. The right to bear arms which in this day and age seems ridiculous to someone who has lived in three countries where owning a firearm is forbidden by law. The holding back because of infringement of rights is normal, but knowing that a group is made up of nutters and letting them practice their delusional belief is a danger to everyone who lives in America. Where is the balance and where does it start and end?

I was born and raised in a country with a history. A history no one will let us forget, not even here. We bow to whatever Israel wants because we are ashamed of our past and don’t want to be accused of anti-Semitism. We fight extremist groups, neo-nazi groups to try to get away from the image and the past but no one seems prepared to give us a chance. To many, we are all Nazis.

Today in MB, I posted two stories about how American Muslims are feeling at this moment after the attacks, and end with an ignorant Fox hothead who had to rant and insult right after the attacks. America, wake up. Free speech is great, but at what cost to your progress and future?

—-

US Muslims ‘holding their breath’ as Boston investigators hunt for bomber

Muslim American organisations say they fear increased racial profiling if an Islamic link to the marathon attack is established

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/17/us-muslims-fear-profiling-boston

—-

As a Bostonian and Muslim, I wept Monday – and worried

It seems that until proven otherwise, terrorists are Muslims, and for some, all Muslims are terrorists

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/17/boston-marathon-explosions-muslim-reaction

—-

The nutty Right.
————

‘Muslims are evil. Let’s kill them all’: Fox News guest Erik Rush provokes furious reaction with Boston bombing Twitter rants

Rush appeared to imply in a tweet that the culprit was from Saudi Arabia

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/muslims-are-evil-lets-kill-them-all-fox-news-guest-erik-rush-provokes-furious-reaction-with-boston-bombing-twitter-rants-8575176.html

Nirek
Member

Ad, Bourne, KT and Kes, You all make good points. These people are cowards and ill informed. They cling to their beliefs in part of the bible , and the Amendments. They choose only those parts that they like and ignore the rest.

BourneID
Member

AdLib,

I don’t recall using “traitors’ or “enemies” when referring to members of congress. I do hold to my opinion that when the entire body fails all are accountable. I know pretty much about how government functions and follow closely the activities of members of the Congress. In my view it is a combination of failed governance by both parties and a poorly informed press that provides more entertainment than than it does news.

I draw on remarks and conversations with friends I’ve know for years. I am especially interested in how those who live in Europe see us now. It is extremely difficult when I read that people who used to admire and respect America – and indeed wanted to live here – now see the shameful disrespect for the President; the self-serving behavior of the congress to one another and the President, and Supreme Court Justices who have forgotten why they’re there. And when they see the murders daily in our country, one said that they know America is no longer how they want to be. This matters to me, AdLib. How we are viewed by the rest of the world matters to me.

We all the product of our experiences and vantage points. Mine may not suit every reader, but they are mine.

In your comment on gun legislation, you say the majority in the Senate voted for background checks. Why is it not in the bill? I’m going to check with Murph on this. He’s done a great deal of research on the gun control bill. I don’t think we disagree that much about the members of Congress. You concluding paragraph is much the way I feel. We just write it differently.

Bourne

KillgoreTrout
Member

Ad, we don’t know who sent those ricin laced letters yet. It could have been the same person/people that were behind the bombings. We just don’t know yet.

Now I’m not saying that you are wrong about a violent, anti-government underground existing. I would be a fool to think otherwise. I do know that using the mail to commit violent acts, including the use of poisons, is something very difficult to find the perp/perps. The uni-bomber was operating for years, out of an old mountain shack. Very few even knew he existed. I don’t envy the FBI or ATF’s task in trying to catch these sick individuals.

I also think the RW talking heads who cheer on and inspire this madness are complicit. They give discontented people ideas. Ideas based on lies and paranoia. They fill these malcontents with a false sense of patriotism (which you already mentioned)
and these morons actually believe they are working to better America and American society. All they see is “the other.” All wars involve a creation of “the other,” to form a common enemy and also these “others,” are made to be subhuman and not people at all. This makes the killing much easier to reconcile among those who do the killing.

There is no better example of this than how the NAZIs dehumanized the Jews and Poles and Russians and gypsies. Those in the SS had so effectively dehumanized these groups, that soldiers and death camp personnel had very little moral qualms about what they were doing. There are people in every society that can be manipulated in such a fashion. In almost all cases, it’s the uneducated, the non-thinkers and the incurious and sycophantic members that are the most vulnerable.

kesmarn
Admin

AdLib, thanks for a fine article on the dark side of American politics that includes hate/phony “Patriot” groups, even though it’s far from a pleasant subject to deal with.

For anyone who can spare an hour and 15 minutes, here’s a link to a documentary filmed in 1991 that explores a number of Aryan supremacy/neo-Nazi/religious extremist groups in the midwest. There’s no voice-over, no editorializing. The film-makers pretty much just set up the camera, let it roll, and let these people gabble and rant. It’s stunning:

The film is called “Blood in the Face,” not as a reference to violence, but due to the fact that these people cling to the genuinely bizarre belief that Caucasians were made as superior beings by their Creator. The “proof” of this is the “fact” that that white folks are (allegedly) able to blush when they sin (if that’s the case there should have been nothing but red faces throughout this entire film) –known as having “blood in the face.” And they’re ignorant enough to believe that black folk are “unable to blush,” hence unable to feel shame, hence they lack consciences. Is that not beyond the pale? And that’s just one example of their lunacy. There are many. Their attitudes, fears, prejudices have echoed down to the present day, unfortunately.

I was so discouraged, too, to see that sensible gun control measures were defeated in the Senate today. These gun people are a minority. They’re unbalanced, to put it mildly. And yet they manage to rule the day. Here’s another example of their inability to form a rational thought. This is the “visual” they’re putting out there:

[img]http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/535920_453049298104739_89759780_n.jpg[/img]

Does it ever occur to them that bombs are already illegal, while assault rifles should be? There’s something wrong with their cognitive function, don’t you think?

And while I’m seeking your opinion — do you know, AdLib, (or does anyone else?) why Harry Reid apparently voted no on this Senate bill?
I’m baffled by that one.

BourneID
Member

AdLib, September 11, 2001 began in Boston. Is there a message here? I think so. Hate is already here. Those underground vermin have surfaced -they could be next door, across the street, standing in line at the grocery store and even in our own families. It’s easy to teach hate. Let’s take one word: “Immigrant”…Change it to “alien” add an adjective, “illegal” and you have the recipe for hate. Hitler did it with “Jew.” Many of those elected officials you speak of have added the fuel as they pander to the stupidity of their constituents and the greed of the money men.

We have a 2nd rate media. Beautiful women dressed in Prada; handsome men with great voices – all news readers whose collective intelligence might reach 100 on the IQ scale. They don’t know history; they don’t understand the world they live in; the networks glut the channels with nonstop coverage, and we stop listening. Are we perhaps complicit by being drawn into the discussions on whether or not the President is right to use drones? We demand answers from the President of the United States on decisions he makes based on information he knows. When we publicly question the wisdom of our own leaders, we lower the standard of trust and create the image of weakness that precipitates what happened Sunday. We’re still apologizing for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, despite the fact that President Truman’s decision was based on the calculations from the Department of War that more than 250,000 Americans would die in the Pacific Theater if the war did not stop. We don’t learn history; we don’t refer to it; we are dismally uneducated on the facts of when and why we became a super power. My degrees are in history, specifically WWII and US foreign policy following its end. it fills in all the spaces, but what good are facts…

Michener said in his great book, Hawaii, that “Very few countries have beeen fortunate enough to lose a war to the United States.” How right he was. – We don’t put any distance between where we were and where we are now. And God forbid we should take that journey to how we got here. And history is not a journalist’s best friend.

Adlib, i worked for the US Government on 5 continents, in 5 countries. My screen name comes from the agencies I worked for. I believe we have to do what we have to do. In my view, the real danger are the 500+ people who sit in the two chambers of Congress…both parties. The Dems who did nothing in the first two years of the President’s first term,and the Republicans who have paralyzed the Oval Office.