10.07.15
McAfee goes full EMP Crazy
Gun nut, sexual athlete and ex-antivirus mogul John McAfee just went full electromagnetic pulse crazy. I suppose it had to happen although on the scale of all things McAfee, it’s not very original.
In a recent syndicated column (yes, someone gave him one), McAfee parrots what the extreme kook right and survivalists/preppers have been going on about for the last fifteen years, electromagnetic pulse doom:
My first thought upon hearing Obama’s proclamation [on the Roseburg massacre and gun violence) was that I was in the middle of an acid flashback and I had no benzodiazepines to mediate the trip. My second thought was: what possible single issue, in this complex society of ours, would merit a “single issue” status?
I assumed that the single issue would be the tragic issue of our national security. This issue would clearly be the rampant illiteracy of our elected leaders in the science of cyber security. Experts agree that an all out cyber attack, beginning with an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) attack on our electronic infrastructure, would wipe out 90% of the human population of this country within two years of the attack. That means the death of 270 million people within 24 months after the attack.
Yet our leaders are nearly all ill prepared for this near certain, not-too-distant event. If I were forced to choose a single issue, this would obviously be the issue.
One of my favorite celebrity freaks, McAfee then flails around for a bit before offering up the statistic that “85 percent of all mass shootings have happened while Democrats were on watch.”
Of course. McAfee continues that this needs looking into.
And I’m happy to say that someone did look into it a couple years back, except not expressly from the angle of gun massacres, but from the slightly broader definition of domestic right wing terrorism. (I think we can agree Chris Harper Mercer was a right-wing gun nut (along with his mother), as well as a few other things.)
[The] report, entitled Challengers from the Sideline: Understanding America’s Violent Far Right, analyzed right wing domestic terrorism for contributing factors. The strongest correlator was the number of seats held in the House of Representatives by Republicans.
Simply, right wing violence escalates when their are more GOP Reps. The report reasoned this might be because those perpetrating right wing violence feel supported ideologically by Republicans in that body.
The other possibility, of course, is that the rhetoric emitted by the Republican Party in control of the House creates an environment in which some people feel empowered, or moved, to violence against the government.
The other contributing factor was legislation, specifically that having to do with gun control. The Brady Bill, or Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, signed into law in 1993 during the Clinton administrations, caused a spurt in militia growth and related right wing violence in that period …
And in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security got into hot water over a report on domestic terrorism that painted the right wing as fertile ground for radicalization. And that the specifics fueling the radicalism and violence were political issues, economic hardship and a couple other things (like the resentment of an African American president). But the most specific driver was the belief that the state was either planning to confiscate guns or enacting gun control legislation even when none of these were true.
And today we know that for the entire duration of the Obama administration, the National Rifle Association has mounted a concerted campaign that has little other purpose than to gin up paranoia and fear about gun confiscation by the same administration. Even though there has been absolutely (or virtually) no gun control laws of any kind enacted during the period.
So if we are to take Mr. McAfee at his word, yes, it certainly looks like most of the slaughters look like they take place when Democrats are in charge. And one of the drivers appears to be because white gun nuts have been repeatedly told Democrats are coming for their guns, among many other things.
The Homeland Security report was issued around the time of the massacre in Aurora and readers can see how that turned out.
The authors paid for that one with their careers. However, it proved a little harder to get at West Point.
In any case, often by intent and sometimes not, John McAfee has always had something of a comedic flair. This column being a good example, as well as his recent announcement that he’s running for President. Pat Paulsen lives!
As the paranoia of the gun crazy right wing in America rolls on newspapers continue to publish features on the local white guys who believe it’s all going to come crashing down from electromagnetic pulse attack. But they’re going to be ready with their off-the-grid homes, ammo, guns, gold bars and pemmican, ready to preserve their American way, if not democracy, in the inevitable ritual of purification.
Excerpts from the Kansas City Star:
Mark Rinke — a 32-year-old, married father of two in Olathe who worries about TEOTWAYKI (The End of the World As You Know It) — declined to be interviewed at his home for a strategic reason.
“OPSEC,??? said Rinke, floating the military jargon for operations security.
In other words, should the United States ever fall into social chaos through war, economic collapse or some other calamity, Rinke would rather, for security’s sake, not reveal too much regarding the details of his stockpiled energy, arms, water and food.
“WHAT WE’VE SEEN IS NOT ONLY THE PROLIFERATION OF APOCALYPTIC IDEAS BY THE INTERNET, BUT THEIR PROLIFERATION IN POPULAR CULTURE IN ALL FORMS.???
— Michael Barkun, Syracuse University professor emeritus of political science
“I think it [electromagnetic pulse doom] is a pretty decent concern because it doesn’t necessarily take a country making a decision to do it,??? Rinke said. “It can be a rogue thing with a homemade rocket. One day a guy pulls his contraption out of his garage and shoots it off. Our grid goes down.???
Should that day arrive, Rinke feels confident he will be among the prepared.
Remember, no liberals in the bunker.
The Pulse — from the incomparable archives.
Anonymous Coward said,
October 8, 2015 at 10:10 am
Don’t you get the feeling that watching the NRA is like watching Big Pharma?
Why try to get drug reps to convince physicians to write scripts when you might need to have actual data behind you, an evidence-based practice approach?
Instead, advertise to consumers and create a demand-side element. Slap on an incentive system where you can see what scripts are written, and throw the benefits of being free with the dispensing at those docs with a loose pad?
Is coffee bad for you? Eggs? Nobody can tell anymore. So many studies, so much contradiction, and who can even tell if the stats are jinked, or the conclusions valid?
But the media run out with the story because there’s air time to fill, pages to print, click-thrus to harvest.
The NRA is an end-user-funded lobbying effort that serves the interest of the weapons manufacturing complex.
A shooting turns into yet another product pitch. Rattle the cages a bit, no need for evidence, and you can scare people into further stockpiling of weapons and rounds because someone is going to come along and confiscate all that crap, right?
How many weapons can someone actually use at a time? Even if you can buy a rational argument for weapon ownership, going all John Woo on a home invader (probably just your kid sneaking food in the night, but summary judgment is that you should shoot their ass for snacking down on your treats) is absurd.
More magazines seems like, perhaps, a smarter move for pistol owners. But that strategy doesn’t keep the good ol’ boys churning them off the production line in business, does it? It’s all about flow, you have to make those numbers, and the shootings that feed the media cycle that feed the hysteria certainly generate demand, which they shall eagerly supply.
George Smith said,
October 12, 2015 at 2:10 pm
“A shooting turns into yet another product pitch.”
Full time. The argument-ender now is that if you’re the victim of a gun massacre, it’s you fault for being a “sheep” and not carrying a gun with which to defend youself or launch a counterattack. That’s the Ted Nugent line, adopted by others very quickly, and so despicable I chose to skip over it.
The other main line is that there might have been no Holocaust if the Jews in Nazi Germany had more guns, or bought more guns, or kept guns and immediately attacked Hitler. Which is the most horrible of stupidities and anti-Semitic to boot, peddled as describing how one, or a group, should have fought for freedom and against “tyranny.”
There is very little that can be done when dealing with people who hold such views.
anon said,
October 19, 2015 at 7:49 pm
Have you also noticed that the shootings most likely to make the national or international news are the “senseless” shootings, where the targets are “random” and not very well known to the shooter? This would include most of the shootings at schools.
The multiple victim shootings that do not seem to get as much media attention are the family annihilations and personal “revenge” situations. Aren’t people more likely to be shot by someone they know personally?
So, it seems that the best marketing for selling more guns comes from an event (or events) that are much less likely to occur in real life. I wonder what the odds are for being shot and killed in a “random” mass shooting versus things like winning the lottery, dying in a traffic accident, a slip and fall in the home, or other “common” forms of dying suddenly from something other than a disease.
George Smith said,
October 21, 2015 at 11:48 am
When I was much younger, the shootings between family members of lovers and so on were all called crimes of passion. There’s a newer category which encompasses accidental domestic shootings, or too much stupid in the house. Every week a bunch and they would seem to be directly proportional to the rise in multiple guns in the household in, um, households that want multiple guns.
Eventually, it may take a year or so, someone will compile statistics on it.