Capt. Ironpants
Active Member
I've been lurking and keeping quiet ever since my CNN link faux pas, but as an American, would like to add a bit of -- nuance? Is that the right word? -- to the discussion of the power grid attacks.
First, a bit of background. We have a serious problem with mental illness in my country, and do not deal with it properly, and in my opinion, we certainly do not deal with it humanely. We dismantled our mental health system back in the late 1970s/early 1980s and never enacted the promised reforms or funded the alternate means of help as promised. Hence, mentally ill people were just dumped in the streets and comprise the majority of our growing homeless population and a goodly proportion of our prison population (our law enforcement folks also think it inhumane and lament they are not equipped to treat these mentally-ill prisoners). It's heartbreaking what families of the mentally ill go through in trying to get help for their loved ones, only to fail.
We also have various small but troublesome extremist groups, on both the far right and far left, that attract more nutters. The majority of in-the-news incidents, such as mass shootings, turn out to be committed by mentally-ill people after much agitation in our media about their having some political motivation or other. As in paranoid schizophrenics, etc. Serious organic mental illnesses. Most mentally-ill people tend to be victims of crime, rather than perpetrators, but a small subset commit crimes. And those who do often pick up on and act out whatever is "in the air" around them, whether some whacky alt-right site or loony enviro-activist bunch. They also commit copycat crimes (why our mass shootings tend to happen in clusters).
The incidents in the Seattle and Portland areas may well be people who are mentally ill. They might possibly be enviro-activists or crazed Climate Change activists who have a few screws loose. It's possible the ones responsible are far right wingnuts, but such people are incredibly rare in those areas. Both are bastions of the far left, and much farther left than say, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, etc.. There are some far right loons in the far east of Washington State, but such are *very* rare birds around Seattle and Portland.
My take on it: Who knows who is doing this in the Seattle-Portland area? Could be just about any bunch of nutters. Or lone copycat nutters.
As for the incidents in the Carolinas, it could be alt-right nuts (they have them there), could be good ol' boys out in their pickup truck with a twelve-pack of Bud ("Hold muh beer, Bubba, and watch this"), could be a disgruntled employee or one looking for overtime, a whacko guy who was ticked off over having his power cut off after forgetting to pay his bill -- so many possibilities. I doubt it was leftist enviro-activist crazies as they are rare there, but I suppose as possible as far right crazies in Seattle-Portland area. The South Carolina incident looks like it could be a copycat after the North Carolina attacks -- possibly just drunken Bubbas.
www.cbsnews.com
As our FBI is intensively surveilling and infiltrating far-right groups, and given that they have come up with zero suspects so far, I think it doubtful an organized far-right group is responsible, but could be far-right lone wolves. Could be enviro-activists in the Seattle-Portland areas. Likely lone wbackos or drunks in the Carolinas. We simply don't know. As for Russian interference, I seriously doubt it, although it's possible. Seems to me the Russians would go more for DC or NY or somewhere like that, not Seattle -Portland or the boonies of the Carolinas. I doubt Russia would need to bother. We have quite enough loonies without them, especially in Seattle and Portland and the Carolina backwoods.
In other words, I would not get too worked up over this at this point.
First, a bit of background. We have a serious problem with mental illness in my country, and do not deal with it properly, and in my opinion, we certainly do not deal with it humanely. We dismantled our mental health system back in the late 1970s/early 1980s and never enacted the promised reforms or funded the alternate means of help as promised. Hence, mentally ill people were just dumped in the streets and comprise the majority of our growing homeless population and a goodly proportion of our prison population (our law enforcement folks also think it inhumane and lament they are not equipped to treat these mentally-ill prisoners). It's heartbreaking what families of the mentally ill go through in trying to get help for their loved ones, only to fail.
We also have various small but troublesome extremist groups, on both the far right and far left, that attract more nutters. The majority of in-the-news incidents, such as mass shootings, turn out to be committed by mentally-ill people after much agitation in our media about their having some political motivation or other. As in paranoid schizophrenics, etc. Serious organic mental illnesses. Most mentally-ill people tend to be victims of crime, rather than perpetrators, but a small subset commit crimes. And those who do often pick up on and act out whatever is "in the air" around them, whether some whacky alt-right site or loony enviro-activist bunch. They also commit copycat crimes (why our mass shootings tend to happen in clusters).
The incidents in the Seattle and Portland areas may well be people who are mentally ill. They might possibly be enviro-activists or crazed Climate Change activists who have a few screws loose. It's possible the ones responsible are far right wingnuts, but such people are incredibly rare in those areas. Both are bastions of the far left, and much farther left than say, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, etc.. There are some far right loons in the far east of Washington State, but such are *very* rare birds around Seattle and Portland.
My take on it: Who knows who is doing this in the Seattle-Portland area? Could be just about any bunch of nutters. Or lone copycat nutters.
As for the incidents in the Carolinas, it could be alt-right nuts (they have them there), could be good ol' boys out in their pickup truck with a twelve-pack of Bud ("Hold muh beer, Bubba, and watch this"), could be a disgruntled employee or one looking for overtime, a whacko guy who was ticked off over having his power cut off after forgetting to pay his bill -- so many possibilities. I doubt it was leftist enviro-activist crazies as they are rare there, but I suppose as possible as far right crazies in Seattle-Portland area. The South Carolina incident looks like it could be a copycat after the North Carolina attacks -- possibly just drunken Bubbas.
Shots fired near Duke Energy facility in South Carolina
It was not clear if the facility itself was targeted.
www.cbsnews.com
As our FBI is intensively surveilling and infiltrating far-right groups, and given that they have come up with zero suspects so far, I think it doubtful an organized far-right group is responsible, but could be far-right lone wolves. Could be enviro-activists in the Seattle-Portland areas. Likely lone wbackos or drunks in the Carolinas. We simply don't know. As for Russian interference, I seriously doubt it, although it's possible. Seems to me the Russians would go more for DC or NY or somewhere like that, not Seattle -Portland or the boonies of the Carolinas. I doubt Russia would need to bother. We have quite enough loonies without them, especially in Seattle and Portland and the Carolina backwoods.
In other words, I would not get too worked up over this at this point.
