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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Bomb suspect arrested! Cesar Sayoc Jr. Googling for that name turns up someone of the same age and location, and says that he’s a registered republican. Oops.
It’s entirely possible their original plan was to kill the recipients, but since that hasn’t happened (so far; fingers crossed), they’re currently telling their fellows that blowing up any of these public figures would just have made them martyrs and that it’s far cleverer to intimidate and that that was their plan all along. When they get caught, they will no doubt use that as their defense argument as well.
@Mish:
That’s Shiro, possibly the world’s most relaxed cat (google for shironeko).
It’s scary to see the mainstreaming of this “false flag” narrative. It’s a familiar conspiracist trope, but this time it’s not just fringe figures pushing it – and that feels dangerous.
Claims that bomb suspect’s van is covered in Trump stickers:
https://twitter.com/JordanChariton/status/1055841312921018373
Seems like this may be the alleged bomber’s twitter:
https://twitter.com/hardrock2016
And it’s… hmm. Let’s just say that if those posts are representative of his state of mind, I would be concerned to live near him.
No, see, it was a deep state false flag operation. Soros paid their operative to join the Republican party back in the ’80s, at the direction of Hillary Clinton, to throw people off the scent….
It seems he was caught:
Seems he identifies as Seminole? Shaking my head at the thought of Native Americans supporting Trump.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/stderr/2018/10/25/fake-bomb/
Marcus Ranum plays some sort of expert on, this, if you’re interested. I’ll quote one of his comments as an addendum to his recent blog post.
@Moggie:
Well, you have to admit that Native Americans have much more historical reason to complain about ‘disease-bearing immigrants’ than modern white Americans.
@Lumipuna:
Yes, I saw that post earlier. I remember Marcus from Bruce Schneier’s blog as well. He may be right about a lot of this, but honestly, back when I read his post I thought that ‘idiot who only thinks he knows what he’s doing’ was still more likely than ‘deliberate fake’.
Of course, Marcus’ comments on ‘really bad tradecraft’ have been borne out by just how quickly the suspect was tracked down
“Unconquered Seminole Tribe”?!
That’s a new one on me. The rest is dismayingly predictable.
I’m glad they caught him.
Fun little detail: on Fox News coverage of this guy, they are blurring the stickers on the van. I guess it’s sorta tough to go railing on about democrats and brown people when the terrorists are using all of your catch phrases.
Re: David’s update.
As expected, the denials of the evidence have begun: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/26/trump-supporters-sceptical-about-pipe-bomb-arrest
I particularly like the “Have you stopped to consider why only high-level Democrats were targeted?” one. People no longer send bombs to people they disagree with, they send bombs to people they agree with so that those they disagree with get the blame. Also, water is dry and the sky is green.
@Moggie, I’ve no idea how I’ve managed to live until now, without knowing about Shironeko. You’re a gem 🙂
Coincidentally, I have a Shiro myself, although his temperament is nothing like Shironeko’s, except that he also sleeps a lot. My Shiro is rather high-strung when he’s awake.
http://i67.tinypic.com/2nbf3pz.png
Sorry all, that I’m babbling about cats. Every time I venture onto Twitter, I encounter more bizarre discussions of the pipe bombs and the arrest, and I’m having trouble accepting that we live in the same world as some of these folk.
I see that the packaging of the suspect as mentally ill is in full force – sadly, from many leftie people as well as the right.
@Mish
Kitty! So fluffy ^_^
@Robert,
The ‘Unconquered’ bit may be referring to the fact that the Seminoles were the only Native tribe to not sign a peace treaty with the US government way back when. Plus when the government tried to evict them from Florida, they weren’t 100% successful.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seminole
Pretty fascinating history of the tribe there.
And yes, the Seminoles have publicly stated this guy isn’t a member of their tribe, nor worked at one of their businesses. They’re still trying to see if he might’ve been an employee of one of their vendors, though.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/newsmaven.io/indiancountrytoday/api/amp/indiancountrytoday/news/seminole-tribe-of-florida-arrested-magabomber-cesar-sayoc-is-not-a-member-HO1eoexVoE2N_a8Bf47mBg/
There have been reports that Sayoc’s father immigrated to the US from the Philippines in the ’60s.
@Prophet309, he’s a floof all right, but Mei-Mei is even floofier, and her tummy fur is fleecy lil curls ?