Real-life Friend’s Status Update:
I’m NOT necessarily criticizing the police — since I don’t know what they know — and I honestly don’t know what level of response is proportionate to the threat being faced right now, but I have to be honest in saying that I can’t help but feel at least somewhat uncomfortable about the scenes coming out of Watertown. Door to door home searches. Forcing people to completely strip their clothes in the street, etc. What are your thoughts? Is it too soon to start hashing this out? Probably. But I have feelings right now and you probably do too. It’s OK for us to discuss, no?
Friend #1 of my Friend, leaves comment (after dozens of other comments):
The entire history of the FBI via COINTELPRO, etc. is waging war on their own people. It’s corrupt at the very top, and we should not be viewing them as saviours, and *definitely* should not be cheering on martial law. I have friends in Boston, and it’s a total police state right now. Meanwhile, we have no evidence shown that these guys are actually the bombers, and looking at the profile of the second guy and what people are saying about him, it seems pretty unlikely. Yet people believe whatever the fuck the media tells them. Naive.
Friend #2 of my Friend, leaves next comment:
No evidence to show? Thanks! I haven’t laughed like that in a while? R u bein sarcastic? With the No evidence bid? Lets pray ur just joshin around
My response to this network, and anyone else interested:
Thank you good friend! My heart goes out to victims and their microcosms everywhere, and to all of my friends in or from Massachusetts, and continue to condemn violence everywhere. <3
I apologize for the length and intensity of the following window to my mind, but wish to share the best of my current understanding. I find the following aspects of this case much more relevant and important than questions of such suspects being enemy combatants or criminals? In my humble logic, we should not treat any citizen as an enemy combatant unless we have declared some kind of civil war. The label of Enemy Combatants is another tool of violence just like the newest unnecessary weapons used by governments and citizens alike. With so many such tools at their disposal, I believe the reaction to these kinds of events must begin to focus much more on better root solutions.
The very framing of your comment show’s how unfortunately painful, awkward, and fear-based our collective situation is. I don’t think it’s just a scary level of clampdown. It’s so scary that you were nervous to even ask the question. Too soon? It’s probably much more constructive and productive to respectfully discuss tragic events as they are happening (to the degree we have credible info). If we wait too long, the government’s escalatory reactions can’t be minimized in real time by our people power.
Your initial framing was more in terms of police actions, but they are generally only following orders (and hOpefully often NOT -~ OathKeepers.org), so I do not see your questions or opinions as too critical of police in general. Police orders over the past dozen years are increasingly militarized (also due to the overlapping $1 trillion+, three decade War On Drugs), centralized, and standardized more seemingly by the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Department of Homeland Security side of map. The majority of these organizations are also mostly filled with culturonormatively well-intentioned people, also mostly compartmentalized, following orders and standard procedures…similar to police and military hierarchies. Information sharing tools like Fusion Centers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_centers) have also been greatly expanded over the past ten years aiding centralized systems.
The Martial Law (literally, http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/19/metropolitan-boston-awakens-under-siege-police-launch-manhunt-for-marathon-bomber/AcObNkQ5NOJC4Acv2azyZJ/story.html) initiation orders presumably also come from closer to the top, so most any cops and agents on the ground likely have limited SOP choices once an “Emergency” has been declared. These standards are likely to err on the side of more hostile since this is a ‘war on terror’, as the puppets dub it, albeit without any clear or Congressionally/Constitutionally pronounced boundaries.
But the terrorizing enemy is still largely smoke in mirrors. Unfortunately, there are horrific events that get publicized 24/7 for weeks, and others that are just one side-note. Not just the terror our government directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally finances abroad, but at home too. Both the instigating media-pimped violence and ignored violence can get very bizarre a scratch or two below the surface.
Unfortunately, Friend #1’s above comment doesn’t seem too off the mark to me in this case, and many events we’ve lived through. Hello Friend #2 and some weird network of networks. It’s impossible to both succinctly sum up and document the entire history of COINTELPRO, but here’s a few starting sources listings Wikipedia, Mother Jones, The New York Times, and The Corbett Report. There’s also the European recent history of Operation Gladio, state-sponsored but covert domestic campaigns of false flag terror. Starter documentation: Wikipedia and The Corbett Report.
Sorry for the depressing but hopefully informative info bomb. Take Everything Everywhere with moderate salt, as we might have decades until state secrets expire. I’m not saying every terrorist event is a tool of some FBI informant or some agent/tool used and sacrificed, but it should pretty much Always be assumed at least one realistic possibility. Without intent to offend anyone, it honestly makes me nervous how many people find these historically likely realities to be laughable.
For a change, the mainstream media must publicly admit my kind of dissent exists and is apparently doing so a bit more for this case than in the past…though surely still blanket labeling as ‘conspiracy theories’. But two confused young extremists planning, then acting to blow up and shoot people would be a conspiracy, and is therefore simply the ‘official conspiracy theory’ until enough hard evidence can really prove any side. And if ‘our’ government cannot produce such hypothetical solid evidence due to national security (eg. 9/11 investigations), and yet we are subject to the new emergency laws resulting from the post-panic of such horror (eg. USA Patriot Act), then our form of representative government has the furthest thing from an informed and empowered populace (eg. stripped of most rights on as-needed basis). Remember, the Associated Press told us there was a video of them dropping a bag, but it nor any other real evidence has been shared [yet].
I have not yet delved into all the contradictions and inconsistencies of this most recent tragedy. But here are the most interesting little red flags I’ve already easily found which better overlap with the current alternative narratives than the mainstream. There were drills in progress parallel to the real events, as runner Alaistar Stevenson said, “At the starting line this morning, they had bomb sniffing dogs and the bomb squad out there. … They kept announcing to runners not to be alarmed, that they were running a training exercise.” The FBI says/admits they questioned the suspects in 2011. Also, the suspects’ mother seems quite informed of our country’s history outlined above and is already either crying wolf, whistle-blowing, or misinforming for some even more convoluted conspiracy. She claims her sons were setup by the FBI:
That would make the alternative narrative something closer to: impressionable young ~immigrant radicals coaxed by FBI to do something horrific whether it got a bit out of hand or not. Pure side-conjecture: perhaps the kids realized they were being used and felt an instinctive and/or culturally conditioned need to fight back against the small army hunting them. Then the local and national governments briefly and experimentally implementing martial law on a US city.
Should the alternative narrative be closer to reality than whatever current narratives are being woven for the world propaganda cycles, then interpreting this entire situation changes dramatically. Does this police state experiment, false flag initiated or not, also set a precedent? Do we the people find this acceptable? I most certainly do not. I also do not fully know how to stop them, but perhaps bombarding public offices with phone calls of protest from our homes would be a worthy first step (if those tools are shut down during a declared ’emergency’).
Our government and it’s overlapping corporate-interest conglomerate MSM happily feed us so many harmful lies with short and long-term consequences from day to day. Why should we believe them any more during a time of crisis? Without adequate open source information from the public, they just pass us statements from the state and it’s protected mutual corporate interests.
So during the panic of a Problem, a true life-or-death crisis, we must strive to at least partially stay calm enough to think and act soundly during our Reaction. Otherwise, the Solution desired from the initial aggressor is likely to play out as they have plan…as we have not personally planned for such a scenario.
‘Our’ Reaction within mainstream narrative: Martial Law terrorizes major city, adding to initial fear of ~radical ~religious ~groups or ~lone~wolf-style terror. ‘Terrorists’ won, with ‘terrorists’ meaning mostly radical religious ‘enemy’ of the year/century.
‘Our’ Reaction from ~currently ~likely alternative analysis: Martial Law experiment on major city successfully practices control and imposes fear, following state-sponsored covert poor sap partial-victim/patsy terror. ‘Terrorists’ won, with ‘terrorists’ here meaning covert and rogue government operatives and their military-industrial friends and interests, (and at least some of their assets win).
Time will provide more hints as to the closer reality. Either way, I think it’s a really dangerous precedent, should almost be a warning to all residents, and should be protested. Unless strongly discouraged, the complex will keep pumping out headlines like, “Thank you, Big Brother: Do cities need more surveillance?”, http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130420/thank-you-big-brother-do-cities-need-more-survei.
Terror ‘real’ or ‘manipulated’, this populace programming helps mentally prepare and train the wider populace for the — I truly hope not eventual — nation-wide version of such emergency law. Without protesting a police state, do we not passively consent? If something much larger happens (which the MSM constantly fear-mongers about), what stops Obama or any future President from running a larger experiment before we even have access to any of the information of the hypothetical situation. Such performances akin to real-life Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds are possible, ‘entitling’ yet another advancement in Orwell’s real-life Eastasia, foreign or domestic.
I know it is somewhat different with the apparent IEDs in this Boston incident, but I was still living just outside of Washington DC during the ‘Beltway sniper attacks’ of 2002 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltway_sniper_attacks . Some of those took place where I used to bike around as a kid, and one just three blocks from my house where my parents still live. Martial law was not implemented as far as I know, so it’s an interesting comparison for me to think about. Now ten years more radical, perhaps I should do some research on those events some time.
Please keep this in mind too, beautiful brothers and sisters. Without considering any alternative narratives during times of public/violence crisis, it is impossible to test each theory against new information as it develops. It is more accurate to compare all the most credible facts to as many credible possible narratives as possible. This is much easier to do by always considering all possibilities and methodically checking what adds up most rationally. I like to check the most credible alternative news sources, at first ignore their content only reading their sources, come to my own initial conclusion, then consider hearing out their take on the whole narrative. My favorite, well documented alternative sources are PeaceRevolution.org and CorbettReport.com .
To get some positive light in the rabbit holes, enter one more overlap with recent events: Big Pharma’s mood-altering medication and shootings. 30 years of mass shootings data collected by Mother Jones (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data) shows only 15 of 62 terrorists/victims showed no prior signs of mental health and many are confirmed to be on medications. It also shows only one was a female. Not only do distressed mental states seem instrumental in self-made terrorists, but makes tools or patsies that much more impressionable and pliable. So I find this related topic pretty applicable to both mainstream and alternative narratives.
MY PREFERRED SOLUTIONS…a heavy, depressing rant this long deserves my preferred light directions.
‘Terrorism’ will not end alone by controlling various scales of various weapons or tools in the hands of citizens or police. Most terrorism is directly or indirectly state-sponsored. Martial Law is not a reasonable solution, and like the strategy of counterinsurgency, only creates blow-back and escalates violence. Our military occupies countries and, by definition, must impose some level of martial law there, surely creating inspired radicals there. Does anyone know how pissed informed anarchists in Boston are right now?
Real Solutions Options: Stop terrorizing, invading, conquering, and occupying sovereign nations. It creates more terrorists, is violent, and is wrong. To me, this minimally means pulling all troops out of all countries and de-militarizing the military (and police) only capable of preventing invasion on are soil (if that is a possible compromise). I think this would help reduce the overall gun size and count in the country with less theoretical need to protect one’s self and family from a government gone tyrannical (how many/most right-wing extremists and myself largely interpret the 2nd amendment). I am not sure all the votes in the world will be able to accomplish those solutions. So disbanding the state and peacefully asserting ourselves as sovereign citizens free to create and self-manage our communities and lives might also more purely accomplish this solution. Either way, we must remedy the injustices which create terror.
‘Freak Mass Violence’ will not end by different scales of different weapons or police tools. I imagine the rare mind on a murderous rampage with the most primitive of instincts and adrenaline functioning can usually find methods for violence and the weapons available (eg. massive cars are everywhere). The stupid weapons are controlled by the current legal state of some weird type of arms race, and I do support deescalating such races. But it would not affect the root issues, and is not worth the painful political capital required for any of these kinds of moves…for some reason. The most tragic acts of violence in our country are usually caused by people with mental health issues, often on psychotropic medications.
Real Solutions Options: Doctors and patients can stop taking medications known to be dangerous (unlike cannabis and other natural plants), not to mention passing them through to our water supply, and can urge votes against government giveaways to Big Pharma. Healthier diets of non-processed foods would also likely create a much more mentally healthy population. Encouraging, and positively reinforcing masculine identities with less associated violence might also help in the longer run.
Solutions ideally applied within mainstream narrative: Citizens have less terror and fear, less need for weapons to ‘protect against government’, ‘terrorists’ have less need to terrorize as our government would do not terrorize and occupy their homeland. Win, win.
Solutions ideally applied within alternative narratives: Citizens have less terror and fear, the few true terrorists out there are less inspired, the military is hopefully largely de-funded and dis-empowered, the minimal defensive violent forces left do not follow unconstitutional orders, money goes back to people or actually constructive projects. Win, win.
This is a bias, over-simplified, game theory style analysis, and it is way too soon for any concrete-seeming degrees of certainty on any aspect of this Boston Marathon. But hopefully this line of reasoning and example aids in how I strive to approach what reactions and solutions are most appropriate to our problems. I think to best achieve the goals of avoiding these tragic events, such strategies would have a deescalating effect and have far more net positive impact that any of the proposed solutions about to be sold over the mainstream airwaves with current winds.
He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither. The military-industrial complex (with allies and states) is the direct or indirect cause of almost all cycles of terror. Terror cannot end unless the whole military-industrial complex ends. Period.
I Love You All <3 !
Update: The original version of this post — online for somewhere between 4 and 48 hours — included inaccurate claims that there were rumors that drone strikes were being used. At the time, I was so freaked out by martial law that I failed to realize that my friend had written a satirical post — a thought experiment. I failed to attempt to verify what I described as rumors. This was sloppy, and wrong, and I once again learned how hard it is to figure out current events in real time. <3