UPDATE, FRIDAY 10/26: They’ve nabbed a suspect, a 56-year-old Florida man whose van is covered with pro-Trump stickers, alongside “CNN SUCKS” stickers and pictures of Hillary Clinton and other Democrats depicted in crosshairs. Somehow I don;t think this is going to stop these people from crying “false flag.”
By David Futrelle
At yet another of his endless series of rallies this Wednesday night, Donald Trump responded to the news that pipe bombs were sent to the homes and offices of a number of his top Democratic bete noires, as well as to CNN, another favorite Trump target, by offering only the vaguest possible condemnations of these acts of terrorism.
He decried the current poisonous state of political discourse, without acknowledging himself as the prime poisoner, And then he launched into a tirade blaming the news media for its alleged “endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks.” It’s almost as if he were suggesting that CNN deserved to receive the bomb found in its mailroom today.
The White House reportedly has not reached out to any of the Democrats targeted in the bomb attacks.
Trump’s graceless and self-serving response to this attempt to kill many of his most hated political opponents speaks volumes about the man. And so do the responses of many of his biggest fans online and in the right-wing media world. I’ve spent much of the day scanning the responses to the bombings amongst the MAGA crowd on Twitter and Gab, and let’s just say it hasn’t been pretty.
Most of the devoted MAGAheads seem to be going with the claim that this was all a “false flag” by the Dems — possibly paid for by George Soros, who was himself targeted with a mail bomb only a few days ago.
Quite a few of the false flag theorists appear unaware that caps-lock can be turned off.
Other conspiracy theorists constructed their tweets almost entirely out of hashtags.
For this fellow, the only real bomb is that … caravan of Honduran refugees.
A few ingenious tweeters even managed to work the NPC meme into the mix.
This guy thinks it’s all an elaborate plot to distract from … tech companies reporting strong earnings.
Some of the false flag theories have gotten fairly baroque already:
Only some of the “false flag” criers tried to offer any proof to back up their claims. As for those who did, let’s just say that their arguments are a little less than airtight.
Some think it has to be a liberal/lefty plot because if right-wingers had sent bombs in the mail, the bombs would have worked.
Some suggest that it has to be an inside job on the part of the Dems — because Florida Dem Debbie-Wasserman Schultz put her return address on the bombs!
THEY LITERALLY THINK THE FACT THAT WHOEVER SENT THE BOMBS PUT HER (MISSPELLED) NAME ON IT … PROVES IT WAS REALLY HER.
One of the many pushing this particular angle? Sarah Palin. But there were many more.
My favorite galaxy-brain version of this argument? That Wasserman-Schultz put her own address on the bombs … to draw attention away from her!
Wheels within wheels.
After the crowd at Trump’s rally today started chanting “lock her up” — this was before Trump himself went onstage — many liberal and lefty observers wondered aloud if that chant might change to “blow her up” (or “blow them up”) later in the evening. It didn’t, but some in MAGA-land clearly think that prospect is hilarious.
Of course, many of the MAGAheads insisting that they would prefer locking her up to blowing her to bits say it’s because they want the chance to watch her suffer … before she is executed. 
We’re down the rabbit hole now. And the rabbit hole is full of shit.
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@ bina
Yeah; although even before they merged they were quite cooperative in terms of divvying up work and covering for each other.
It is one of the more interesting conspiracy theories because there was that four day period the ships were in dock together. At the first (rushed) enquiry they actually used the plans of the Olympic by accident. Most of the photos today purportedly of the Titanic are actually the Olympic (big clue when you can see New York in the background). The Titanic is the famous one now of course, but at the time she was the Buzz Aldrin of ocean liners. White Star timed the maiden voyage to capitalise on the publicity of her more famous sister setting some record or something.
“Once the quarterback has the ball, he fakes to the left. No. He fakes to the right. He doesn’t fake.”
LG: I’m sorry about what you’re going through.
It’s interesting you guys brought up the Titanic; my recent trip to St. John’s had a lot of information on it (given it sank just off the Grand Banks). The Johnson GEO Centre had a whole display about the timeline and an assessment of exactly who was at fault (everybody). I’m glad I got a chance to see Cape Race lighthouse too, where the Marconi wireless station was receiving transmissions from Titanic while the iceberg warnings were attempting to break through (which wireless operator Jack Phillips infamously waited on before chastizing the operator of the Californian attempting to give the same warning). Cape Race also received the SOS transmission.
It was an eerie sight, as Cape Race was shrouded in fog the day I was there.
If it was a conspiracy for insurance money, it was one that required a lot of things to go wrong at the perfect time. And having seen the graves of Titanic dead in Halifax… it was a costly one.
ETA: I found this hilarious Rude Pundit take on how the New York Times will profile the bombing suspect: http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-future-new-york-times-profile-of.html
@Katamount
That will just prove the ATF is in on it.
@ AsAboveSoBelow
Thanks. It’s a mindfuck and a half to be in a position where people are trying to defend your abuser and attack you even though he desperately doesn’t want them to.
I keep thinking about how male reputation isn’t necessarily about the man in question, what he wants or what makes him happy or healthy, it’s about upholding the systems and keeping women down.
My former mother-in-law even told me, basically, that the appropriate way for a wife to avoid marital rape is to “just go along with it” because her husband “needs” it. My partner is adamant, now that he’s learned what sex is like when you respect and connect to your partner, that THIS is what he’s *actually* been needing. But she doesn’t care because she’s martyred herself to the idea that basically being a concubine to her husband is somehow this powerfully good thing for him. It’s so fucking sad because I know she’s seen hella trauma in her life, but there’s nothing I can do to make her stop hating me.
@ katamount
We’ve got the other Marconi station not far from here; and that can be similarly eerie!
As for the purported motive; the theory was that the Olympic had been more badly damaged in her collision than originally thought, and was beyond economic repair. So whilst the two ships are in dock together, White Star swaps the names and re-jigs the porthole arrangement at the front of the promenade deck (the only real external difference). Smith and Ismay then find a suitable iceberg to scrape against. And the Carpathia picks everyone up. Bob’s your uncle.
@Alan
That is undoubtedly one of the weirdest things Uncle Bob’s ever done, and he’s been involved in some weird ones over the years.
@ Alan, all;
yeesh, I started something here!! 🙂 🙂
them’s some lucky people!!
@Skylalalalalalala
How will they even know? They think the sky is plaid and people are robots and Democrats collectively have Munchausen syndrome. They’re adrift in the 83rd dimension.
Should the Democrats manage to take back the House, I think everyone should collectively reassure the Q/MAGAheads that it’s fake MSM news and Democratic reps are just paid actors who are secretly working for Trump, so no need for violence. Let them live in their fantasy world while we go about cleaning up the mess in the real world.
@ weird eddie
Just been talking about Violet elsewhere! Her previous experience came in handy when the Brittanic was hit. She was able to tell everyone to get straight to the lifeboats despite the apparent lack of immediate danger.
Oh, and as for Jack Philips (and to open up another possible debate about capitalism) the Marconi crew weren’t on a fixed wage. They got commision from sending and recieving telegrams. Hence the prioritising of passenger messages (paid) as opposed to ice warnings (not paid).
Ruchard Spencer posing in front of a gay flag, or a reasonable facsimile thereof?
Perhaps “new girlfriend” is the questionable part.*
*rumors spreading, so it must be true (sarcasm)
Loo Dumbs is spouting conspiracy (still)…
well, Loo, the repugnican’ts have been benefiting from fakery for some time, now….
LG: Hugs if you want them. Take good care of yourself.
@Alan Robertshaw
That would explain a great deal.
I’ll bet. It was interesting insofar as it was basically the only day out of the week I was in Newfoundland that it was the legit “fogged in” experience. But holy crap, it made for a treacherous approach: the road to Cape Race is a single-lane half-paved half-gravel road. It’s a really remote part of the Avalon Peninsula as nobody actually lives there anymore.
I think I posted some pictures on Twitter…
Here’s the Cape Race lighthouse as I saw it:
Here’s a 100 foot drop into the Atlantic Ocean that was easy to miss the markings for in thick fog:
And here’s a three-legged fox I saw on the side of the road to the lighthouse:
Poor foxy. 🙁
My main problem with comparing Trump to Hitler is that Trump is a lot more like Marshall Petain, with Putin as the puppet master instead of Hitler.
@Katamount:
Aww, poor fox.
(A friend of mine who was doing geological surveying up in the Kirkland Lakes area said he once looked down to find a fox chewing on his boot. While his foot was still in the boot. He got to find out first hand what anti-rabies injections are like.)
Also, my sister lives within sight of a lighthouse, out on the other end of the coutry at Sheringham Point in B.C.
@Hoosier X:
Even before the election, people were pointing out that Trump should really be compared more to Mussolini, who was much more of the businessman and ran on similar levels of ‘I’m going to make everything work, and if I say it’s working, it is, no matter what your lying eyes say’.
@OP:
From some of what I’ve been hearing, most of the bombs were pretty amateur things, built by someone whose knowledge of bombs likely comes more from movies than reality. Good at scaring people, though. Which means ‘militia-type’ is definitely not out of the running of who was behind this.
@AsAboveSoBelow:
Well right wingers are the ones who came up with “Oh well trump’s lies are just pretend lies, so it’s ok, but Hillary’s lies are REAL lies, which is BAD.”
@FishyGoat:
Yeah, that sounds plausible…you’d be surprised (or maybe not?) at how many women think “Oh, she was bad, I’ll just be better and nothing will happen.” Internalized misogyny is a real bear sometimes.
@Alan (and all, re: Titanic):
The most recent (and plausible) explanation for the Titanic sinking when it did is that the hull was weakened by a slow fire in the coal bins that started during a speed test and was never successfully extinguished. Doesn’t have quite the fillip that a crunchy conspiracy theory does, but science would appear to support it. In fact, there’s even a contemporary article (at the link) saying that the ship’s stokers knew about the fire and cited it as a factor in the sinking.
Also, greed is certainly not ruled out by this explanation. On the contrary, the fact that they chose to press ahead with the maiden voyage even knowing that the ship was damaged speaks volumes as to the greed and hubris of the line’s owners. And to their stupidity in thinking nothing could go wrong.
@ Bina
“Yeah, that sounds plausible…you’d be surprised (or maybe not?) at how many women think ‘Oh, she was bad, I’ll just be better and nothing will happen.’ Internalized misogyny is a real bear sometimes.”
I mean, this is exactly what I did.
I hope the arsehole/arseholes responsible for sending those bombs get caught! As for these idiots, I couldn’t even read half of it because it was so stupid. Do they really believe this crap? Do they really expect anyone outside of their echo chamber to believe it?
Have you heard of Improved Engine Green? It was a paint for steam engines developed in the 1880s. By all accounts it did a great job of protecting the metal from rusting and they used it for years. But Improved Engine Green was actually ochre or brown. The boss was colour blind and because it was the 1880s nobody told him.
It’s sort of the polar opposite of peer review and although it must be lovely in the short term, it seems like a very dangerous place to be. It also seems to be fairly common among the ruling class.
@Moggie, I’ve just seen your new avi photo! Cute white cat blep 🙂
Re the OP, the MAGA peeps certainly had the most bizarre takes on the bombs, but Steven Pinker had possibly the most pathetic attempt at minimising them:
I’ve just seen, on Twitter, someone saying “If bombs don’t explode, don’t report it”. Yes: why let people know what’s happening in an enormous terrorist event which must be one of the most evidently party political interventions in decades?
In other news, apparently one was sent to Cory Booker, too. What, are we up to 10 now?
https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/10/bomb_addressed_to_cory_bookers_intercepted_in_flor.html
It looks as if the would-be bomber(s) is / are either trying to scare and intimidate (in which case I think they are, or just not very good at making explosives.
Add James Clapper to the list.
Just realised my post was more than usually incoherent:
I managed to delete the bit in square brackets.
@LG, I’m so sorry you went through that and hope you are in a better place now.
It is a surprisingly regular occurrence: I used to volunteer on a domestic abuse phone-line and the number of times I heard someone saying effectively, “Yes, I knew his previous relationship ended terribly but this one won’t.”
A couple of times even the person saying that had been IN the previous relationship with the same abuser!