framing the events of mass shootings

FBI: Motive in Oak Creek Sikh Temple shooting unclear

 

I just thought I'd help the FBI understand the US for a second. First of all thank you for coming by here and you don't need to pay me for doing your job as analysts. 

Remember after 9/11 when there was widespread violence against Sikhs?

So far in the news this event is being filed in the same category as the guy who thought he was in an action movie. Eventually the evidence will be found that this individual is extremely prejudiced against Muslims. 

Ok don't go away yet, let me finish. As is often the case in instances of extreme prejudice: the ideology when put in practice becomes absurdly ironic. And in my own personal opinion people that are extremely prejudiced are not critical thinkers. 

The shooter was clearly a fucking idiot and a violent idiot to boot. My money is that he thought he was shooting Muslims. 

 

He thought he was playing his role in the global holy war that is the "war on terror". But, as was the case after 9/11, these idiots will soon find out that Sikhs are not Muslims. I don't know too much about them except that its mostly practiced and historically from India. It is a religion that is passed down in a guru-apprentice type deal. So its a religion of direct gnosis. They dig meditation and reading of their holy texts. One thing I do know for sure about Sikhs is that they are most certainly not Muslims.

It is our decontextualization from reality which has led to the loss of "the neighbor". This mass murderer, this self-proclaimed lieutenant in the holy war (which is also appearing as a race war more and more) was not even accomplishing his own warped vision of his self-posited role as he threw his life away. This is where it is sadly ironic...but...there is a but. I do not wish to lighten the immensity of 7 innocent people murdered. But when this happens the whole system of terrorism and state security the Ouroboros of modern politics is laid bare, because there has been a breakdown, or maybe  short circuit is the better word. 

It makes it clear that all the ideologues and all their guns and all the technology in all the universe will never make a utopia, they will only bring violence. Whether it is one person killing because he mistook someone's religion in the holy war that only existed in his head until he took 7 lives. Or whether it is a trillion dollar network of satellites, spys, and drones that executes a 16 year old United States citizen WITHOUT A FUCKING TRIAL.

So as you mr. fbi analyst come across this site, remember that your agency catches some terrorists but it also covers for its own terrorists. Now you know why a violent idiot quickly and forcefully eradicated necessary pieces of 7 families.

I started with an attempt to first of all frame this event, because apparently I'm the only one who gets it so far. I've been looking through all kinds of articles and nobody understands this angle. So although I was attempting to delineate The theater murderer from the Sikh murderer to begin with I think they share one thing in common. 

This is the presupposition of Cartesian metaphysics. Which makes the human a subject with an inside like a vessel or a thinking camera. In the video footage of the theater murderer James Holmes he talks about his project being a retroactive reality change. Fancy semantics for memory programming. His study in neurology no doubt continued to condition him with the notion that the human is a subject with an inside and outside. And that the inside could be changed studied manipulated. This assumption makes other people in to other vessels. It makes them in to computers who can be controlled and dominated. It makes "the other" whose death only serves to remind the self that it is alive. After establishing borders of inside and out it is only one more step in to the hyperrealist(in both senses of a wanna-be action hero shooter and international relation's endless war between states[or bodies that are akin to states, with their borders]). You are only possible through another. Without another you can never be anything, let alone be yourself. The murderer today suffered from a creation of his own Cartesian inner-world. His decontextualization from reality meant that he actually expanded the borders of his conception of the enemy to a group of people that do not in reality fit his conception of the enemy. Again the hyperrealism of a mass murder and the war of all against all.

But I could be wrong maybe he really hates Sikhs...

The "trial" of Kalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM) and Ramzi Binalshibh

I am writing this because of my utter disgust at the proceedings of the kangaroo court in Guantanamo bay. This is something I cannot blame Obama for. He (Eric Holder) tried to treat this crime as a criminal matter. Rather than treating this crime as a military matter. Holding a trial where the crime was committed is an important symbolic act for proper justice. The laws of the state of New York or the laws of the federal government could have been used to prosecute these individuals. If they are guilty the evidence would have shown this and they would be convicted and sentenced. As I have stated repeatedly before the Florence ADX supermax is already the "arkham asylum" of the United States with MANY terrorists already imprisoned. Charging criminals with a crime and giving them a trial is what we have always done in the United States. It is what our constitution guarantees. And apart from our traditions and our legal system it is the only thing which even resembles a just response to crime for a society.

Republican legislators and corporate media managed to win another victory in their ongoing endeavor to fully militarize the American mind. They pretended that traditionally we haven't charged terrorists with crimes, given them trials, and incarcerated them. They pretended that it wasn't against the highest law of the land to waive habeus corpus. They pretended that it wasn't just to patch together a kangaroo court which will make these people in to martyrs for the islamist cause.


We will all regret allowing this to happen. This creation of martyrs strategy is something Egypt has been trying for years. We followed Egypt's lead in our political relationship to Islamist individuals when we engaged in torture and denied trials. We can look to their history to understand what happens next. When radical nutcases open their mouth and what they say is actually FUCKING TRUE! (Like the protest of the accused in this kangaroo court) WTF! We have proven a mass murderer right, it is disgusting. When we stoop so low that we prove a mass murderer right, guess what happens? Those people on the fence? They decide that the Islamist was right, because he IS right. He deserves a trial just like any human. These are not the same recruits that join the ranks of radical islam because you eat better in the barracks than on the street. These are the professional educated islamists who join these ranks from propaganda like this. These "trials" are an embarrassment to me as a citizen of the United States. They will be used to justify more terror attacks in the future. This is the first reason we will come to regret this bullshit kangaroo court brought on by jingoist republicans and their propaganda wing known as the media.

The second reason that we will regret this is because of the legal precedent it will set. If we allow it to be "OK" to deny anyone a trial, ESPECIALLY if the punishment is death, then this will be used to justify further "OKing" of denying other identities trials. This is a backdoor to the eradication of Habeus Corpus granting another victory to the very real agenda of corporatism that seeks to privatize all things and militarize civil society.

The last reason we will regret this is because the trial won't even fucking work! The stupidity of this trial is of such epic proportion it causes me a visceral reaction. Even if the accused decide to cooperate(which they fucking shouldn't that court has no legal authority derived from the people[and i'm pretty sure we're still a democracy, at least on paper]) and the trial goes straight to a very convincing conviction. It will be appealed through whatever fucked up legal rules they are deciding to use ,considering they will not be tried in violation of the laws that we the people have passed through our congresses. The appeals will be overturned because this trial is fucking absurdly unprecedented and has a disgusting amount of political intervention. Then these dirtbags can be let free because of all the whack legal process that got them there in the first place.


If they are guilty it should be easy to find evidence and prosecute them. There is no need to create a martyr, destroy our constitution, or create dangerous new legal precedents in order to incarcerate criminals. These individuals should be segregated from society so they cannot hurt more people and they should be punished for their actions...if they are guilty. That is why we have trials, there is NO justification whatsover for this kangaroo court. If anyone has a rational or logical reason why we should engage in this dangerous practice that won't reap any benefits, please share it with us.

The state of the right wing

A couple friends of mine are currently deep in debt and so they sent out this email with a link to sign a petition for the student loan forgiveness act. My friend got this angry response from a relative that was on the email by accident. She had asked me if she should be ashamed at their unveiled jabs at her under the guise of attacking her "generation". I dissected this statement to try to understand the mind of the modern right wing american.The demographic is that this is being written by a wife who has not gone to college or had a job outside the home. Most likely the wife is being dictated too by the husband who is a successful surgeon.


Original Email: 

Hi, Friends and Family:

Since 1999, average student loan debt has increased by a shameful 511%. In 2010, total outstanding student loan debt exceeded total outstanding credit card debt in America for the first time ever. In 2012, total outstanding student loan debt is expected to exceed $1 trillion.
In response to this crisis, U.S. Representative Hansen Clarke of Michigan has just introduced H.R. 4170, the Student LoanForgiveness Act of 2012, which would extend a helping hand to those struggling under massive amounts of student loan debt.

,That's why I signed a petition to the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, and  President Barack Obama, which says:

"Total outstanding student loan debt in America is expected to exceed $1 TRILLION this year. Millions of hardworking, taxpaying, educated Americans are being crushed under the weight of their educational debts, while the economy continues to sputter. Support a REAL economic stimulus and jobs plan. Support the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012 (H.R. 4170)."

Will you sign this petition too? Click here:

http://signon.org/sign/support-the-student-loan?source=s.fwd.in&r_by=4287311

Thanks!     

Response:

Sorry! Not very sympathetic on my end. I didn't go to college because I couldn't afford it. I worked instead. Uncle X went to medical school and we paid off his school before we could to have kids and buy a house. College is a choice, not a "right". It should be an investment. Not a right of passage. Most people who go to college shouldn't be there.  It is not an extension of high school to continue partying while you "find yourself." College is essential for the hard sciences, engineering, and to develop critical thinking skills.  The first thing you should learn is to budget.  It is stupid to take out loans and amass unaffordable debt so that you are prepared for a career as a Starbuck's barrista.  The "occupunks" are not hardworking and are unlikely to pay taxes (50% of the population pay no taxes).  The 1 trillion dollars you cite is GOVERNMENT debt that must be paid back at a market interest rate.  The tax payers will have to pay this down ( the other 50% of the population).  The govt admits to 16 trillion debt but the unfunded liabilities of social security, Medicare/Medicaid, and government workers pensions (which is bankrupting municipalities and states) is 145 trillion dollars.  This debt will destroy our economy, opportunities and standard of living as well as our country as a constitutional republic.  This situation was created by the political class that uses govt spending to buy various factions/special interests (eg people with large student loans) in order to get their votes.  Therefore, I think people should learn from their mistakes, engage in productive enterprise, and earn the income to pay off their debt like responsible adults have done throughout history.  That's the view from the "real world."

P.S.  For an in depth discussion of the educational bubble, mortgage meltdown, financial crisis, and the political rules to rule by call Uncle X and get a useful education.

P.S.S.  As a law student, you should know that a loan is a contract.  Contracts must be enforced for an economy to function.  If laws can be arbitrarily enforced or changed for the benefit of one party to the detriment of another party the result is tyranny.  Arrogant fools like Hansen Clarke have been undermining the rule of law and wrecking the economy for decades.  

My dissection of the text:

"Sorry! Not very sympathetic on my end. I didn't go to college because I couldn't afford it. I worked instead."

-She COULD have taken loans they WERE available. And most people who attend college work at the same time. She thinks they're mutually exclusive lol.

"Uncle X went to medical school and we paid off his school before we could to have kids and buy a house. College is a choice, not a "right". It should be an investment. Not a right of passage. Most people who go to college shouldn't be there.  It is not an extension of high school to continue partying while you "find yourself." College is essential for the hard sciences, engineering, and to develop critical thinking skills.  The first thing you should learn is to budget.  It is stupid to take out loans and amass unaffordable debt so that you are prepared for a career as a Starbuck's barrista. "

-This chick needs to get a job and see what its like to live off what people pay in the service industry. The way out of those jobs is education just as it was for her benefactor, errr husband. This next statement solidifies the fact that she just has disdain for working class people.

"The "occupunks" are not hardworking and are unlikely to pay taxes (50% of the population pay no taxes). "

-As has been the case since the industrial revolution the working class makes up most of the population. In fact the economy wouldn't work without these people. Here is interesting stuff on her statement about the 46% that don't pay taxes. Half of them are in this situation: "A couple with two children earning less than $26,400 will pay no federal income tax this year because their $11,600 standard deduction and four exemptions of $3,700 each reduce their taxable income to zero. The basic structure of the income tax simply exempts subsistence levels of income from tax.".

so 25% of those who don't pay taxes, don't pay taxes because they are barely earning enough to survive. If they paid taxes they would become indigent meaning the job they work would have nobody working it. So in a world where these 25% pay taxes and end up living on the street or forced to.....take predatory loans to survive another month. You actually might kill off a large portion of a neccesary workforce in the economy.

Here is another 12% of that 50%: "The second reason is that for many senior citizens, Social Security benefits are exempt from federal income taxes. That accounts for about 22% of the people who pay no federal income tax." 
Then heres another big chunk: "The third reason is that America uses the tax code to provide benefits to low-income families, particularly those with children. Taken together, the earned income tax credit, the child credit, and the childcare credit account for about 15% of the people who pay no federal income tax."

That is 90% of the 46% who don't pay their taxes: ppl too poor to pay taxes, seniors who only have social security as a source of income, and tax benefits which attempt to make having a family possible for working class people. Obsessing about this statistic is weirdly fascist considering that to raise taxes on these people might actually kill them. I'm sure this is a talking point on clear channel or news corp owned talk radio stations, because to understand that statistic as anything related to the "occupy"/"arab spring" movements is tarded. It displays such an ignorance that it is physically making me angry that such people continue to survive in this world and perpetuate a way of knowing the world that keeps so many in poverty.

" The 1 trillion dollars you cite is GOVERNMENT debt that must be paid back at a market interest rate.  The tax payers will have to pay this down ( the other 50% of the population)."

-So if you are going to pay back your debt...how will the taxpayers have to pay that down...This is just senility. By market interest rate she means they adjust the interest rate according to the change in value of the "90 day treasury bill" rate. I think it is a good thing the government caps the interest rate even though its such a dangerous intervention in to the "free" market!  Otherwise there would be widespread usury for anyone who wanted to go to college. It would make it untenable for anyone to go to college(much like the tuition is now).  I think she means that if they forgive the loans that the government will be short the money it was owed.Which is the same old bullshit refrain that the right wing practices to be completely ignorant of the percentage of gdp we spend on defense vs. social needs. Its our government, to forgive that debt will free up future entrepreneurs and professionals to find their niche in the economy. This will be better for everyone in the country than another contract for boeing or lockheed.

 "The govt admits to 16 trillion debt but the unfunded liabilities of social security, Medicare/Medicaid, and government workers pensions (which is bankrupting municipalities and states) is 145 trillion dollars.  This debt will destroy our economy, opportunities and standard of living as well as our country as a constitutional republic."

-The "unfunded liabilities" wtf? I'm pretty sure there is funding. This is where people have really become drones check this out. They already have this like picture of government health care so then they're too stupid to remember the history of social security and this generation of right wingers are often 1st or 2nd generation immigrants who are like "i got mine, now fuck everyone else". They think social security must be the same as medicaid and medicare! and then government pensions must also be the same!! I don't know how these conclusions are drawn from one another, but clearly to lump these very different things in together just displays ignorance. Medicaid is a mostly state run program that provides health care to people that are too poor too afford it. Medicare is a federal program that supplies seniors with some health care coverage. These two things are fundamentally different than social security and pensions. Social security and pensions have been paid in to for our entire lives. To eliminate medicaid would take health care away from people that paid in to taxes to get it. To eliminate medicare would take health care away from seniors that have worked their whole lives and paid taxes. To eliminate a pension would steal the money someone invested in themselves. To conflate these things is so ignorant its insane. Corporate shills get elected because tards like this believe corporate news and loot pensions from people who have been having it subtracted from their check for years. Then they turn around and say "amg the pensions are so untenable, we don't have enough money! I totally didn't use that money to fund MYYYY pet projects". The reason we're having trouble paying this shit back is because we don't have real journalism, we don't have government transparency, and so shitty politicians use it for other things and don't get ousted next election because people believe corporate media bullshit like this. This is more evidence that the right wing is just becoming more distanced from reality. The spectrum swung hard right after 9/11 but people are coming to their senses and most of this bullshit falls on deaf ears now. You should see the skew on women voters for obama vs. romney its like 54-36 or something crazy. And ignorant right wingers always come with some esoteric definition of what our government is. And to be technical we are a democratic-republic (because of our bicameral legislature). So if you want to include the "constitution" part for shits and giggles(maybe to sound smart to ignorant people again?) you would say "constitutional democratic-republic". I'm sure these "big" words work for this guy at his local watering hole, but for a person like yourself with an education in politics they're the words of an elementary schooler pretending he knows what hes talking about.

  "This situation was created by the political class that uses govt spending to buy various factions/special interests (eg people with large student loans) in order to get their votes.  Therefore, I think people should learn from their mistakes, engage in productive enterprise, and earn the income to pay off their debt like responsible adults have done throughout history.  That's the view from the "real world.""

-Lol the shut-in is right about it being created by politicans vying for speial interest, but i'm pretty sure people with large student loans are not a key demographic lol. This is hilarious. Your relative thinks that politicians want votes from people with loans, but they're living in like the 1800s in terms of their their knowledge on elections. Politicians appease factions that have, can you guess?, MONEY! lol if this demographic is too poor to even pay off their loans why the fuck would a politician want them! lolololol, are your relatives aware of the correlation between campaign funding and campaign victory in modern america? Politicians spend public money to get wealthy supporters who will give them private money to fund their campaign. LOL thats something most americans learn like the first election they're lucid for like around age 12. This statement just makes me pity such ignorance, that her twisted and blind view of the world which seeks to kill off the working class is characterized as the "real world". I think people should engage in politics as they have done throughout history and use the state to help a large amount of people rather than build the next aircraft carrier or hand out a trillion through corporate tax breaks. 

"P.S.  For an in depth discussion of the educational bubble, mortgage meltdown, financial crisis, and the political rules to rule by call Uncle X and get a useful education."

-K. it may be obvious by now, but your education has come from books, periodicals, etc. Their education has come from whatever the Karl Roves of the world have decided is the next big lie. You have far more epistemological justification for your knowledge claims. And your stance on politics doesn't distance it from the self and make politics just the mechanism by which corporations rule us,as hers does. The "educational bubble" sounds like a critique of undergraduate education we can all agree with that there are many problems with the price and product of undergraduate education. I think we would probably disagree that they are so hardcore positivist they actually disdain the social sciences, even though metaphysics ALWAYS comes before science:) You are way smarter than whoever wrote this letter and your knowledge is far less dangerous to other people than their knowledge(when evangelized or reproduced through discourse).
The "mortgage meltdown" and "financial crisis" are the same thing. I don't know why they're being mentioned separately except as an attempt to appear intelligent to an ignorant audience.  I'm sure they blame the recession on like lesbians or Chinese people or something and ignore the deregulation.

"P.S.S.  As a law student, you should know that a loan is a contract.  Contracts must be enforced for an economy to function.  If laws can be arbitrarily enforced or changed for the benefit of one party to the detriment of another party the result is tyranny.  Arrogant fools like Hansen Clarke have been undermining the rule of law and wrecking the economy for decades.  "

-Lol first of all its "p.p.s." and I'm not even from a generation that wrote letters. DIctionary.com:

tyr·an·ny

[tir-uh-nee] Show IPA

noun, plural tyr·an·nies.

1.

arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power; despotic abuse of authority.

2.

the government or rule of a tyrant or absolute ruler.

3.

a state ruled by a tyrant or absolute ruler.

4.

oppressive or unjustly severe government on the part of any ruler.

5. undue severity or harshness.




So the definition of tyranny is either an abuse of power or rule by one person.  I do not understand how forgiving loans would fit either of those definitions. The reason the loans are there is to provide the opportunity for college so that people can get what is NORMAL in the MODERN "real world" not in this chick's kitchen: a B.A.. B.A.s are as common as high school degrees were when your relative was our age. Contracts can be changed by the sovereign whenever and whereever, thats why its the sovereign: it can do whatever the fuck it wants. If the intention of the loans was to provide an education than forgiving the loans does NOT arbitrarily go back on the intention of the law. I feel like this is going to be how the election breaks down this year it will be a referendum on our construction of gender. In order to have a country which supplies the social spending necessary to make social mobility possible we need full employment(including women!). In order to get full employment and a good economy we need to ensure that our population is well educated. How do you do that? Send them to college. In nortern Europe and like Scandanavian countries there is health care and free education. But in order to accomplish this they don't spend huge percentages of GDP on defense and they require full professional employment so there are is a robust middle class to tax. What do the women of this country want for themselves? What does everyone want for their daughters and sisters? Do they want a woman whos stupider and more reliant on men's money? Do they want a woman who cannot afford birth control? This email is good evidence of how the right wing has alienated moderates in the United States and barring some catastrophic collapse in the economy will lose the election to Obama.




There are some people out there who want to help a generation experiencing a pretty rough recession with their debt so that they can have more disposable income to kick start the economy with.
There are others who don't give a shit, because their husband says empathy is for pussies. And if I don't do what my husband says I don't have any other way to survive.


They should be ashamed of their own greed and lack of empathy.