# Who is sending Bombs? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 24, 2018, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454 "2018-10-24T19:31:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/81 "2018-10-25T14:59:30Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Meanwhile, Donald being Donald, Trump is blaming the media for yesterday’s wave of mail bombs: > > [Trump tweet blames media for bombing - Vox](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/25/18022154/trump-blames-media-tweet) Well, he’s got a point. Fox News constant hammering and demonization of half the country is probably part of the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/82 "2018-10-25T15:13:04Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I have no doubt this character was ginned up by Trumps remarks at these rallies. True, the broader issue of [stochastic terrorism](https://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/were-trumps-comments-stochastic-terrorism-20160810) is more important that this particular manifestation. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/83 "2018-10-25T15:19:42Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > When Trump [said](https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/24/politics/reaction-suspicious-devices/index.html), with apparent seriousness, that > > > [@](#): > > > > In these times we have to unify, we have to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the United States of America. > > First, I checked multiple sources, because it didn’t sound like Trump at all. Then I started wondering if he had set the whole thing up, because this is what his presidency has reduced me to. I honestly cannot imagine why Trump gives two fuzzy rats’ asses about political violence directed at Democrats. He has shown no signs of this before. Why now? It was painfully obvious that he’d been arm-twisted into making the statement – I’ve seen more enthusiastic narration in hostage videos. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/84 "2018-10-25T15:28:45Z")
The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser [listened to all six of Trump’s rallies in the first week and a half of October](https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/i-listened-to-all-six-trump-rallies-in-october-you-should-too), and wrote about it on October 12. Her concluding grafs: > [@](#): > > But what the President of the United States is actually saying is extraordinary, regardless of whether the television cameras are carrying it live. It’s not just the whoppers or the particular outrage riffs that do get covered, either. It’s the hate, and the sense of actual menace that the President is trying to convey to his supporters. Democrats aren’t just wrong in the manner of traditional partisan differences; they are scary, bad, evil, radical, dangerous. Trump and Trump alone stands between his audiences and disaster. > > I listen because I think we are making a mistake by dismissing him, by pretending the words of the most powerful man in the world are meaningless. They do have consequences. They are many, and they are worrisome. In what he says to the world, the President is, as Ed Luce wrote in the Financial Times this week, **“creating the space to do things which were recently unthinkable.”** It’s not a reality show; it’s real. Bolding mine. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/85 "2018-10-25T15:47:43Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser [listened to all six of Trump’s rallies in the first week and a half of October](https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/i-listened-to-all-six-trump-rallies-in-october-you-should-too),… I hope she seeks therapy. Trump is unique in the modern era as not only a candidate but a sitting president who used his public platforms to express wishes for literal harm on his opponents (not to mention still encouraging supporters to demand imprisonment for his defeated opponent). I would accuse him of intentionally propagandizing support for his demagoguery but he frankly isn’t that smart of self-aware; he is just doing what an entitled, protected, infantile, third rate realiy TV celebrity would do if he got into a position of power. Which speaks to the reserve of other presidents, even those who surrounded themselves with advisors with their own covert agendas, e.g. W. Bush or Truman, who, still managed to sound presidential and at least in nominal control of their own faculties even if they weren’t calling many of the shots with national finance or foreign policy. These mail bombs aren’t a false flag operation because Trump opponents would be better at it (at least capable of spelling Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s name correctly) and because dirty tricksterism has been the hallmark of the GOP since Nixon decided to run for president. It is likely to be some wanton nutcase, the type of which exist in all eras but are being encouraged to come out of the woodwork by our baby-man president who just wants the attention it brings him. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/86 "2018-10-25T15:53:38Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > It was painfully obvious that he’d been arm-twisted into making the statement – I’ve seen more enthusiastic narration in hostage videos. Whenever he’s forced to say something he doesn’t want to say he reminds me of a little boy being forced to apologize to his sister. ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/87 "2018-10-25T16:48:26Z")
> [@Scylla](#): > > Are there any actual quotes? I had not heard the false flag argument before seeing it here. [I’m assuming part of it came from here](http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/prominent-conservatives-think-bomb-scares-are-a-liberal-hoax.html). Any second thoughts on your “not voting for Democrats because they’ve become so much more threatening and violent”\* position? \*Only counting over the last 18 months or maybe longer, but only if a right wing Breitbart site says so, but certainly not so far as 2010, when the Democrats had power and passed Obamacare and not counting the 400% increase of death threats against Obama, because I just discovered that threats and violence are bad things in 2016, and we can’t include threats and violence done by white supremacists, fascists, or Nazis because of … ponies? and certainly not counting death threats against people who had the audacity to speak up about Brett Kavanaugh and we can’t count actual statistics about right wing murders and real violence, and only threats if I call them threats and only if the violence and threats are against politicians or political figures rather than normal people who are victimized by far right hate groups. Offer not valid in Alaska, Hawaii or reality. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/88 "2018-10-25T17:17:05Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > It was painfully obvious that he’d been arm-twisted into making the statement – I’ve seen more enthusiastic narration in hostage videos. Trunp speaks slowly when he is reading, and then when the words run out, you get the _ **flight** _, out of the written words, where he is so grateful to get back to himself, that he comments on the last phrase, repeats it, and then says something that obliterates any intelligence hinted at. ---
**Author:** ![Modesty\_Blaise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Modesty\_Blaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Modesty_Blaise)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/89 "2018-10-25T17:24:54Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > Whenever he’s forced to say something he doesn’t want to say he reminds me of a little boy being forced to apologize to his sister. Yes He’s just laughably childish. I tend to think of Trump as a five year old. The image he’s created for himself is what a five year old would come up with: I’m the smartest! I’m a stable genius! I’m the strongest! Fire and fury! I get all the pretty girls! And I can do what I want with them! Everyone likes me! And if you don’t like me, you’re a poopy head! I have the best words! My numbers are the biggest! And he brags like a five year old, he must constantly tell everyone how great he is. “Lookit me, lookit me, lookit me!” Sometimes I can laugh at the preposterousness of Trump. Mostly, I just want to cry. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/90 "2018-10-25T17:26:44Z")
There’s a small chance that this is a leftist who has gripes about ideological purity. I can’t imagine why anyone on the right would really want to blow up Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, but she was the face of the “DNC favors Clinton” scandalette. So it could theoretically be a Bernie Bro angry about DINOs or something. My money is still on lone right-wing nutjob though. ---
**Author:** ![Modesty\_Blaise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Modesty\_Blaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Modesty_Blaise)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/91 "2018-10-25T17:32:02Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > [I’m assuming part of it came from here](http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/prominent-conservatives-think-bomb-scares-are-a-liberal-hoax.html). > > Any second thoughts on your “not voting for Democrats because they’ve become so much more threatening and violent”\* position? > > \*Only counting over the last 18 months or maybe longer, but only if a right wing Breitbart site says so, but certainly not so far as 2010, when the Democrats had power and passed Obamacare and not counting the 400% increase of death threats against Obama, because I just discovered that threats and violence are bad things in 2016, and we can’t include threats and violence done by white supremacists, fascists, or Nazis because of … ponies? and certainly not counting death threats against people who had the audacity to speak up about Brett Kavanaugh and we can’t count actual statistics about right wing murders and real violence, and only threats if I call them threats and only if the violence and threats are against politicians or political figures rather than normal people who are victimized by far right hate groups. Offer not valid in Alaska, Hawaii or reality. A very accurate and comprehensive summary of his posts in that thread. Kudos. That thread was quite something. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/92 "2018-10-25T17:55:54Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > [If it’s a false flag operation, it was an extremely sophisticated one](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/explosive-device-sent-cnn-featured-parody-isis-flag-get-er-n924166): But your cite proves that it was indeed a false flag operation. False ISIS flag admittedly, but false flag none the less. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/93 "2018-10-25T18:54:12Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > But your cite proves that it was indeed a false flag operation. False ISIS flag admittedly, but false flag none the less. 🙂 One of the aforementioned Twitter posts was someone arguing that this was proof that it was really ISIS sending these. On its own, fine. But then they had to add “and the Democrats are trying to hide it.” ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/94 "2018-10-25T19:04:41Z")
On the face of it, it looks like a Deep State nutter is behind this. A bunch of out-of-office Dems targeted, plus George fucking Soros? Because, yanno, that is who is Really pulling the strings behind the scenes. But who knows? Could be a Loughner type who barely even knows where he is. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/95 "2018-10-25T21:02:24Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > On the face of it, it looks like a Deep State nutter is behind this. A bunch of out-of-office Dems targeted, plus George fucking Soros? Because, yanno, that is who is Really pulling the strings behind the scenes. > > But who knows? Could be a Loughner type who barely even knows where he is. Anyone on the list of targets that Trump\* hasn’t \*repeatedly slagged at his hatefests? Clinton, Obama, CNN, Soros, Holder, Maxine Waters - they’re all popular Trump targets. I don’t know if Biden is or not. Who else had one of these bombs addressed to them? ETA: John Brennan, Robert DeNiro. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/96 "2018-10-25T21:11:15Z")
A quick bit of Googling shows that Biden, Brennan, and DeNiro have all been publicly extremely critical of Trump. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/97 "2018-10-25T21:11:23Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’d classify it as stochastic terrorism: you get a whole bunch of people to hate on some other particular people, and if you’re lucky, a few of the folks you’ve riled up will be sufficiently riled up to take out your targets for you. All the while, doing the bare minimum to maintain “plausible deniablity”. Unless you’re a dumb fuck like Trump, and just have to double down and triple down the same fucking day at a rally and in tweets. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/98 "2018-10-25T21:15:49Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Second Amendment solutions anyone? > > - eta - You get that right? > > Bueller? Bueller? Uh huh. Who is the angry mob??? ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/99 "2018-10-25T21:17:34Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > Trump recommended [second amendment solutions](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/10/us/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton.html) to his political adversaries. Seeing as how “bear arms” apparently means any and all weapons to you second amendment folks, how exactly is sending a pipe bomb not explicitly following his directions. We have “second amendments” too. Pew pew pew. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454/100 "2018-10-25T21:19:25Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Meanwhile, Donald being Donald, Trump is blaming the media for yesterday’s wave of mail bombs: > > [Trump tweet blames media for bombing - Vox](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/10/25/18022154/trump-blames-media-tweet) Fuck him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-sending-bombs/823454.md?page=6)