Tuesday Open Thread [4.16.13]
The news is focused on the Boston Marathon bombing, and for so much ink being spilled, there is precious little new information. So 2 bombs, 3 people dead, more than 150 sent to the hospital with injuries. There’s no one in custody yet, law enforcement of all kinds are at the scene and working to ID the bomber and apparently they are getting tons of tips. And right on cue, the right wingnuts are spinning up their conspiracy theories — this one claiming that the bombing is meant to frame the tea party and expand the TSA. Just so you can be certain that there is a national tragedy, the Westboro RatBastards have already pledged to picket funerals from this.
Ezra Klein points out Eight Facts About Terrorism in the United States. This is alot of good data, but this is a great reminder:
The US is the little sliver at the bottom. And for all of us thinking that it is dangerous to be anywhere — always remember that you are at greater risk of being shot than being targeted in a terrorist attack.
The Pulitzer Prizes were announced yesterday and you might want to check out one of the winners: Inside Climate News who seems to be owning the dilbit spill story in Arkansas. This is another year where an online news venue has nailed a Pulitzer for their work.
The price of gold is crashing and Businessweek tells us that global inflation rates are falling, so gold is no longer good as a hedge. But a good deal of the financial news is focused on the price of gold, so Barry Ritholz at The Big Picture has detailed the 12 Rules of Goldbuggery. Here’s a few:
1. Gold is a Currency: This is rule number 1. It is not a decorative or industrial metal, it is a permanent store of value, as dictated by Greeks in Lydia around 700 B.C. And, it shall be ever thus.
2. The price of gold cannot fall, it can only be manipulated lower: When gold’s price falls, it is an unnatural act. It can only occur as the result of an international cabal of Central Bankers and politicians. Its a conspiracy, and we know who the guilty parties are.
3. If the price of gold is rising, it is doing so despite enormous and desperate efforts by manipulators to prevent the rise: This is the corollary to the prior Rule of Gold manipulation. Gold runs up despite the overwhelming opposition to it.
4. The world MUST return to the Gold Standard one day: It is inevitable that we will return to a Gold Standard. We all know this to be true. When we compare the size of the money supply to past amounts when there was a Gold Standard, we can derive prices of Gold in the $7,000, $10,000 even $15,000. Hence, we know its cheap even at $2,000.
Go over to Barry’s place to see the other 8 rules.
Last — and thanks to an anonymous tipster — here is a clip of the radio show where Don Ayotte announces his resignation from the GOP, the conspiracy theory claiming that the GOP framed Bodenwiser for child abuse, the Chair of IPOD adds the cherry on top noting that the number of charges made against Bodenwiser is the same number as a major Sussex route number, nefariousness on the part of GOP to sabotage Ayotte’s campaign(s) and a choice bit wondering about the politics of personal destruction. You reap what you sow, good buddy.
What interests you today?
I condemn to Hell all those at InfoWars and particularly Alex Jones for all his nonsense yesterday about this being a false flag attack. Governor Patrick should revoke that idiot’s press credentials.
I didn’t hear Alex Jones(town) yesterday but the historical bases for his hysteria exists: When False Flags Don’t Fly
It’s also interesting that there are already reports in the LOCAL media of people talking about drills and so on and so forth given the history on that: Oops! London bombs 7/7: simultaneous drills a coincidence?
But given the trends in main streams of media (inc.) on this it seems that “Delaware Dems” may have the opportunity to be as happy with their entertainment as Republicans were with their own with Bush. And you’re still “the base” for the Democrats, right?
Of course it’ll all be just another lie for “the base” if history is any measure… but that’s par for the course for both Blue Team and Red Team. A Noble Lie: The Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995 (Notice now the Murrah building didn’t collapse into its own footprint at free fall speeds like WTC 7 due to a trick… I mean truck bomb. Imagine that.)
Governor Patrick should revoke that idiot’s press credentials.
If the alternative media is censored then we’ll hack to spy on these corrupt politicians along with their banksters, thieves and murderers.
As one decentralized movement puts it: “We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.” Or as Aaron Swartz put it: “Apparently these people don’t really know what the internet is.”
The alternative media you link to is bullshit. In the same category as Alex Jones. You are free to lie to yourself, but stop coming here and peddling those lies.
InfoWars’ internal motto is from P.T. Barnum.
As long as that is their target audience and their target audience finds it to be entertaining(or worse they use it as an information source) sites like InfoWars will continue to exist. It’s sorta like porn. If there is market, someone will sell it.
Gawker is rounding up the horseshit internet conspiracies.
WTF is wrong with these people?
This is good news — White House issues a veto threat for CISPA
The alternative media you link to is bullshit.
Some of it is. But it’s still often better than the main streams of media that people incorporated into this Red Team/Republican and Blue Team/Democrat crap usually link to.
Worth mentioning that at a basic level some of it is just noting the laws of physics… e.g. Murrah (truck bomb? seriously?) vs. WTC 7 (symmetrical collapse at free fall speeds into its own footprint… from office fires or somethin’), etc. It’s these very basic elements that are observable that create “conspiracy theorists” for anyone even marginally interested in the truth. Not you… I mean normal people that actually care about other people more than politics or their favorite corrupt politician. You’re little different than Wallstreet traders. Your Democratic political calculus = their economic calculus.
You are free to lie to yourself, but stop coming here and peddling those lies.
What lies… again, note the laws of physics to begin with.
Meanwhile, the people that you’re anxious to have “care” for you and keep you safe in the intelligence communities are often the psychopaths responsible for terrorism. After all, it’s not just 16 year old Muslim kids that they’re willing to kill without trial. This isn’t rocket science.
Oregon 9-year-old killed by security guard practicing holstering weapon
Another good guy with a gun heard from. These good guys with guns are killing us, people.
This is good news — White House issues a veto threat for CISPA
That’s to their credit, as far as I know. Maybe they see that the writing is on the wall.
As long as that is their target audience and their target audience finds it to be entertaining(or worse they use it as an information source) sites like InfoWars will continue to exist.
You could say the same about main streams of media in the military industrial media (inc.), which are often actually becoming more like the trickle stream these days as people become aware that they keep on getting lied to. I’d rather watch the guys from Vice. Just get a camera, go in… interview people… and that’s the “news.” Enough with the “perceptions are reality” mainstream bullshit that Democrats and Republicans like wallowing around in.
Worth mentioning that at a basic level some of it is just noting the laws of physics… e.g. Murrah (truck bomb? seriously?) vs. WTC 7 (symmetrical collapse at free fall speeds into its own footprint… from office fires or somethin’), etc. It’s these very basic elements that are observable that create “conspiracy theorists” for anyone even marginally interested in the truth. Not you…
You might be interested to know that I am an engineer by training. That means that when I see people talking about the laws of physics being ignored in either bombings, I know that they are Full.Of.Shit. Not only because these people CANNOT produce any science, no engineering calculations, no materials or design or construction analysis that can ever gainsay the current astonishingly good reports on both the Murrah building and WTC7. What I’m completely certain of — as in I’d bet ALOT of money on it — is that you and your circle don’t know much about the laws of physics. And certainly not how those laws combine with materials and building to get a WTC7 in the first place. If you are insisting on being a science and engineering denier, then you’ll have to find someplace else to do it. Because all you can do is repeat other people’s lies. The day you can meet the engineers and scientists who produced the definitive report on how WTC7 came down with real science and real engineering to gainsay that report (you know, the way science actually gets done), is the day you can claim to not be a liar. Not before.
InfoWars’ internal motto is from P.T. Barnum.
Actually, Infowars often seems to mix a lot more truth in with their misinformation and hysteria than the American “mainstream” media does.
Eventually we’ll probably have to watch RT to figure out some semblance of reality with respect to our corrupt politicians and their handlers at a national level… and Russians will probably have to watch American media outlets.
….that can ever gainsay the current astonishingly good reports on both the Murrah building and WTC7.
You honestly care about other people? Enough to put your career at risk by focusing on the truth instead of imagining stories about how the official story could possibly be true or creating garbage in, garbage out simulations?
The day you can meet the engineers and scientists who produced the definitive report on how WTC7 came down with real science and real engineering to gainsay that report…
As I recall, there wouldn’t have even been a show of an investigation and meetings like that if the families hadn’t demanded it. That’s because they care. But most people don’t…
The true sign that DelawarePolitics.net is dead… Mynym is here. 🙂
Yep, I’m calling it. DP is dead.
I’ll offer to buy the URL for twenty bucks. Who do I contact?
As I recall, there wouldn’t have even been a show of an investigation and meetings like that if the families hadn’t demanded it.
Would it surprise anyone that you remember wrong? The preliminary report came from FEMA 8 or 10 months after the building’s collapse. NIST did the detailed analysis of both the Towers and WTC 7. WTC 7 came after the Towers report. There was always going to be an investigation, whether anyone wanted it or not.
But for everyone watching at home, this still isn’t an effort that specifically addresses one single bit of the detail of those reports.
But Cassandra, your facts, reality & science don’t fit w/ mynym’s preconceived conspiracy theories! Therefore, in mynym’s eyes, you are wrong.
Thank you, RDB for spalinin’ that. I suppose we can be eternally grateful that mynym doesn’t handle anything more valuable than tin foil.
CNN is reporting that an envelope with traces of ricin on it was sent to (but intercepted) Sen. Wicker.
Cassandra: Thank you for wading into that muck and draining the fever swamp.
My Dad used to say when something like this happened that we should find the person that did it, and once it was absolutely confirmed who did it, then they should be put on national television and shot to death. The only way you are going to curtail all this violence is to stop allowing criminals to go free, and start killing the people who are doing the killing. There needs to be a crystal clear message that if you murder someone, you are going to be killed. That is the kind of deterrent that will give people pause when they are planning something as horrific as this bombing. After all, like Tag Romney said, whoever did this is a coward, so if they know when they are caught that they can not plead insanity or some other stupid reason, and get away from being killed, then they might have second thoughts when it comes time to carry out the mission. And for those of you who think you can deal with this without politics, it is impossible, liberals are for lenient criminal justice system, and conservatives are for strict prosecution of criminals, which is the only way you are ever going to deter this. So of course president Obama says that at times like this we are just americans, and not conservatives or liberals, as usual, he is dead wrong. Conservatives want to strictly enforce felonies, primarily to deter this type of activity, while liberals want to be lenient on criminals, in order to give them a second chance. Guess what, these people that plan all these violent crimes are planning on the lenient criminal justice system letting them off the hook
Richard Jewell would probably disagree with your dad’s theory if he was still alive.
Deep thinking runs in the Dils family, I see. Whoever did this is either a religious zealot or someone with secularly scrambled brain wires. Not even the most crystalline of crystal clear message about punishment can have an impact on someone who thinks they are doing God’s (or Dog’s) work.
Shorter Rusty: Blame Liberals.
If you are going to quote Tag Romney, could you do us all a favor and put it at the beginning of your comment so we will know just to skip over whatever you are trying to say.
Yeah, enforcing felonies has ended the drug trade and eliminated murder rates rates. I can imagine the bomber thinking, I do it in Boston so I’ll get a liberal judge. Rusty you are in need of some serious help unfortunately your party is opposed to spending any money on mental health care.
Rusty: Can you name a living liberal who wants to be lenient on criminals? I bet you can’t. We’ll wait.
Step carefully now. First you’d have to find a living liberal. But I’ll accept any Democrat, just so it won’t be a totally impossible task for you.
Then be careful of the definition of “criminal.” If you check your Constitution you will find that people are not criminals until convicted.
Then define “lenient.” Treating people humanely while imprisoned is not leniency. Life in jail instead of the death penalty is not leniency.
I suppose there might be some Democrats trying to reform three-strikes laws. But they aren’t getting very far. And that’s as close as you will be likely to get to answering my question.
Would it surprise anyone that you remember wrong? The preliminary report came from FEMA 8 or 10 months after the building’s collapse.
People with reason to actually CARE demanded an investigation so many times it probably depends on what time period you pick. Glad to see that they got rid of Kissinger “investigating” it though. What a joke… actually, they didn’t even get rid of him: “However, Kissinger resigned only weeks after being appointed, because he would have been obliged to disclose the clients of his private consulting business.”
Also worth mentioning that architects and engineers actually interested in the truth because they care, like normal people, often have to put their careers at risk. After all, who usually does contracts for big steel frame buildings? Multinational corporations…
NIST did the detailed analysis of both the Towers and WTC 7. WTC 7 came after the Towers report. There was always going to be an investigation, whether anyone wanted it or not.
$afety first? If there’s an unprecedented event where steel frame buildings collapse into their own footprint at free fall speeds then one would think that those running the investigations would save the steel.
But for everyone watching at home….
Entertainment for the masses… i.e. the ten to twenty people that would bother to read the comments on a political blog, I suppose? Maybe you should email me, if entertainment is really getting in the way of the truth… I’m all for entertainment, otherwise.
….this still isn’t an effort that specifically addresses one single bit of the detail of those reports.
They’ve already been dealt with: (The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7: Why the Final Report about 9/11 is Unscientific and False by David Ray Griffin)
What details are you referring to?
Seven points:
1. Rapid onset of collapse
2. Sounds of explosions at ground floor – a second before the building’s destruction
3. Symmetrical “structural failure” – through the path of greatest resistance – at free-fall acceleration
4. Imploded, collapsing completely, and landed in its own footprint
5. Massive volume of expanding pyroclastic-like clouds
6. Expert corroboration from the top European controlled demolition professional
7. Foreknowledge of “collapse” by media, NYPD, FDNY
E.g., see: BBC Reported Building 7 Collapse 20 Minutes Before It Fell
Giuliani is probably about to begin chanting 911 again now, that’s just great.
My Dad used to say when something like this happened that we should find the person that did it, and once it was absolutely confirmed who did it, then they should be put on national television and shot to death.
But if history is any measure, you’d probably be manipulated into shooting the person that tried to stop the event or people that didn’t really have anything to do with it.
Has anyone clicked on mynym’s links? I know I’m not going to.
Has anyone seen this error found in the basis of all the austerity hysteria?
http://www.nextnewdeal.net/rortybomb/researchers-finally-replicated-reinhart-rogoff-and-there-are-serious-problems
There are a bunch of people in Europe right now doing a Homer Simpson Doh!
Please don’t let mynym crap all over this blog too.
And, of course, the litany of your complaints is the litany of complaints your truther friends have been repeating ad nauseum. Not that these have any technical relationship to the NIST report, recommendations or findings. NONE. This is just the pathetic bullshit of a bunch of people who refuse to do the work to come to grips with the technical aspects of a report that is already influencing how big buildings are being designed.
And here’s one more clue that you’ve no idea what you are talking about — Kissinger resigned from the 9/11 Commission. He had (and would have had) nothing to do with the FEMA or NIST reports.
News organizations report the wrng thing all of the time. NPR reported that Gabby Gifford was dead after she had been shot. All that means is that NPR blew their responsibilities that day — not that Gabby is now a zombie.
So now you are officially done. 9/11 truther bullshit is not welcome here.
I’m not clicking on any more of his links. One video I started looking at was just insulting.
Here’s the last bit of my rant on these 9/11 truthers. mynym is here ranting on about the banksters and the other people who have too much influence on the government of this United States and yet he is perfectly willing to believe that the government of this United States is going to be in the business of destroying the banksters very valuable assets as a false flag operation. Really? This same government that is handing over money hand over fist to make sure that these people’s banks are saved from their own bad business decisions.
The government of this United States doesn’t have to destroy the assets of its funders — the War on Drugs is a perfectly acceptable drain on the treasury AND long term fodder for the prison complex that is astonishingly worth bigger investments than the education of taxpayers kids. Even the War on Education works — making sure that your kids do more with less, while making sure that law enforcement and prisons lack for nothing. Then there’s the Patriot Act — all kinds of surveillance and monitoring that you can know little about and certainly know nothing about how all of that data gets used and kept. Your government isn’t going to be destroying the property of the people who keep them in power when there’s nothing but opportunity to misuse citizens — and often with their consent.
Before Duke, before Steubenville, there was the Central Park Jogger.
Last night I watched part of a documentary on the 1989 Central Park Jogger case (The Central Park Five“) in which five boys were convicted of the savage beating and rape of a young woman in Central Park. This case was memorable for me because I lived in New York at that time, and I was also a Central Park jogger. It was my local news, and it gripped the city. This case is where the term “wilding” came from.
The boys were tricked by detectives into giving detailed confessions, and none of the DNA evidence matched them, yet they were convicted. After the boys served their time, a totally different individual was conclusively proved to have been the rapist instead and the boys were exonerated. The actual rapist was in fact a serial rapist who had been feared in the neighborhood at the time.
The documentary was created by Sarah Burns, the daughter of Ken Burns. It focuses on the hysteria to convict, which I was well aware of and experienced at the time.
Well worth watching. I don’t know if it is available online, but it will air again locally multiple times:
Wednesday, April 17 — 8:00pm
22.2 – MPT2
Thursday, April 25 — 9:00pm
23.1 – NJTV
Friday, April 26 — 8:00am
12.3 – Y Info
Friday, April 26 — 8:00am
64.3 – Y Info
Friday, April 26 — 2:00pm
12.3 – Y Info
Friday, April 26 — 2:00pm
64.3 – Y Info
Friday, April 26 — 7:00pm
12.3 – Y Info
Friday, April 26 — 7:00pm
64.3 – Y Info
Saturday, April 27 — 12:00am
12.3 – Y Info
Saturday, April 27 — 12:00am
64.3 – Y Info
Saturday, April 27 — 3:00am
23.1 – NJTV
Puck… Thanks for posting the schedule. I saw the film at Theatre N a few months ago, but I’d like to see it again.
“Before Duke, before Steubenville, there was the Central Park Jogger”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxfZbj5vf7Y
I heard about this yesterday on NPR, it sounded like an insteresting and tragic case. Looking forward to seeing it.