Fascism is unlikely: idiocy is the real threat
The fight against domestic fascism is as American as apple pie. Even though much of the modern mythology of the western world celebrates the USA as a bastion of democracy, providing a steady and unalloyed example of democratic virtue for the rest of the world, this is misleading. It ignores the actual history of the land.
Back in the real world The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump is certainly not the first case in which the forces of niceness in America have moved to prosecute a bunch of runaway fascists, and it is unlikely to be the last. So, it is comforting to note that while Trump and his clowncar full of fascists do garner an awful lot of attention, they are also incredibly incompetent. Whereas the last time a coup attempt by a bunch of fascists was thwarted by the Justice Department it involved a plot being overseen by competent individuals who were all acting in accord with a potentially viable and well thought out plan.
In the 1930s American Fascism was on a roll. It must be remembered that until the entry of the US into WWII, in December of 1941, the idea of fascism was perfectly respectable in the US. Great swathes of the American population were avid followers of political activists who were avowed and self-professed fascists.
At this time the polarisation of Europe was echoed by a domestic polarisation within the USA. The large and growing domestic socialist movement in the USA, that had existed prior to WWI, had been the target of a concerted domestic backlash both during and following the war, with groups such as the American Defense Society in concert with many federal government authorities leading the charge. A similar polarisation was evident inside the workers organisations in the US, with the revolution in Russia forcing a schism between more moderate forces and the radical Leninists.
All of this context is mentioned so as to stress that up until the commencement of WWII, the idea of fascism in the US was perfectly respectable. Not like being a nasty un-American commie, or a Unionist. Fascism was popular. It was a growing trend.
Throughout the late 1930s radical demagogues such as Father Coughlin were drawing huge radio audiences. This Hitler loving cleric talked directly to more than thirty million listeners every week, preaching an anti-Semitic, antidemocratic, racist ideology to a growing and ever more radicalised listenership. As Mark Twain has observed, while history might not repeat itself, it often rhymes. So, at this point it is helpful to once again broaden our focus to include Trump and his clowncar. This is because, regardless of the epoch, American fascism – as with fascism everywhere – always remains much the same. It hums an ‘us and them’ song. A populist, ultranationalist, ditty that preaches the need to return to the values of a glorious past – a far greater and more glorious past. An utterly mythical past. But the focus is always on the unpatriotic hordes.
The targets change but the song remains the same. Coughlin was anti-Jew, anti-Black, anti-Labor, anti-atheist. He sympathised with strong man regimes around the world. He quite deliberatively provoked hatred for those he deemed to be un-American. He praised Hitler, urged his followers to get involved in politics at every level, and demanded that they strive to rid the American political system of Jewish, Socialist, Communist, and Atheist sympathisers. By the late 1930s Coughlin led a broad populist movement that was spread right across the USA.
The targets change but the song remains the same. Trump rants that gay transgender druggie leftists are stealing America. That black criminals are stealing America. That refugees are stealing America. That welfare queens, unionists, students, feminists, the entertainment industry, Silicon Valley, teachers, fully stocked libraries, RINOS and Democrats – and the rest of ‘them’ – are all engaged in stealing America. As with all fascists, the list of those who are patently unpatriotic is endless.
Father Coughlins’ fascistic dreams culminated in 1939. In February the American Nazi’s held a rally at Madison Square Garden that was attended by more than 20,000 supporters. This caused the Attorney for the Southern District of New York to become concerned. His office publicly petitioned the Feds to take action. In response, in December of the same year, the FBI raided the offices of the Christian Front and so famously thwarted a well-funded, carefully organised and more than adequately armed insurrection plot, just two weeks away from launching a full-blown coup to take over the government of the USA.
Following the raid seventeen people were indicted. They were charged with conspiring ‘to overthrow, put down and destroy by force the Government of the United States and by force to take its property’, as well as the theft and stockpiling of ‘Federal munitions and property’. Then history intervened.
Late in 1941 the USA entered the war against Germany, and as the Naz’s were allied with the fascists, the fight against ‘fascism’ was a now national security priority. At once the national mood changed. Fascism was instantly uncool. The charges against all the Christian Front operatives were vacated in the first year of the war. It was deemed to be against the public interest to engage in a lengthy and somewhat embarrassing trial during wartime, especially as there were bigger fish to fry. The domestic fascist threat was suddenly a thing of the past.
Yet even though the Trumpian hordes sing a fascistic song, and his followers dance a fascistic jib, which is all directly comparable to that which was celebrated by millions during the 1930s in the USA, most media outlets in the land still refuse to label it ‘fascistic’. Or acknowledge we have seen it all before. Which is entirely understandable for those outlets that have declared a partisan political allegiance, but not the rest. Or the major political parties.
I feel this is largely down to category confusion. Many are critical of Trump but are nevertheless confused regarding what they are seeing occur. They are careful to avoid calling it a ‘fascist’ movement as they mistake this as being a reference to a political movement or idea. Which is simply a failure in comprehension more than anything. Fascism is expressed politically but it is not at all about politics. Fascism is all about populism and raw power, it is always both anti and non-political.
Which is to say, fascistic movements everywhere in the world have always derived their strength and support from drawing from all sides of an existing political spectrum. But more significantly, they are populist movements that serve to mobilise a large proportion of otherwise politically unengaged citizens. Consequently, one of the defining characteristics of both the movement in the 1930s, and the Trumpian horde, is that a large proportion of these people were previously politically unengaged and unaffiliated. These are voters who are largely new to any sort of political discourse or action and who commonly profess to be largely disaffected with all sides of the political process prior to their becoming fascistic supporters. Thus, these are people who are seeking a different message and solution to those that are being considered and offered by mainstream political parties. In simple terms, a fascistic movement is always characterised by simple, dangerously fantastical, ideas. The propositions of a mythical past might differ (be it a glorious Roman or American Republic), but the systemic denigration of minority groups remains the same. The targets change but the song remains the same.
Therefore, the principal threat that is posed by the rise of a fascistic dialogue (as is perfectly illustrated by the MAGA movement), is generally missed. It is unlikely that the fascists will take outright power. Yet the concerns and arguments that are pedalled by the fascists nevertheless do take a terrible toll on our social life and governmental institutions. This is because fascism is not politics, it is organised hating. Fascism is an ideology that hinges on the identification and civic defenestration of mythical enemies. It is undemocratic, but to dismiss it as being ‘unpatriotic’ simply leads to an ever more determined failure to focus on the imaginary world of American nationalism and the need to be careful and considered in our political speech. It only serves to further blur the line between mythic representations and reality. When we entertain or respond to ‘culture war’ idiocy in our media, policy discussion is thus slowly abandoned. It is far less interesting. It catches fewer eyeballs than any good culture war fight.
Thus, seamlessly and slowly, the possibility for any sort of rational and coherent policy discussion is largely obviated. Idiot propositions are normalised. All that is left in the commercial ‘mainstream’ is the proposition of nonsense and the countering of the nonsense; an ongoing, ever-expanding and ever more nonsensical culture war. Thus, in my opinion, the biggest threat from fascism in the modern age is that it serves to debase our pollical discourse. The real threat from the Trumpian discourse is not that a fascist government in the USA is a likely prospect. The real threat is the normalisation of idiocy.
The biggest threat is to allow people to spout overtly fascistic idiocy and false information in public, without this drawing hoots of derision and guffaws of astonished laughter. Without these idiots being laughed off the stage. The real threat is that large swathes of our media now actively indulge in fostering an ‘us and them’ fascistic worldview, where cultural uniformity and traditions, in accord with a (mythical) glorious past, are always privileged, regardless of the topic under consideration and usually instead of the topic under consideration.
In such a manner, fascistic thinking is caustic. It rots the brain by privileging the basest tribal instincts. A lot of time can be saved by simply identifying the one small segment of the American population that is ignored by the fascists. When considered from this vantage, it is very soon obvious that the only ‘real Americans’ in the USA – according to both Father Coughlin and Trump – are white, affluent, Christian and heterosexual. It is simple bigotry and runs counter to the intent of the founders of the American Republic and the plain text of the American constitution.
The battle is against the celebration and retailing of idiocy and bigotry. Not Trump. There are commercial forces in the media that have decided that they will dictate that the political dialogue of the whole world will be either Trumpian nonsense or the refutation of Trumpian nonsense, as this averts all eyes from much needed media and monopoly law reform, and for as long as we are thus engaged in arguing about nonsense, we suffer the crazy status quo.
So, while I expect that in the next few months we will see the long-awaited implosion of the current fascistic movement in the US, in much the same manner as it dissipated very quickly last time around, I suggest that it will take a very long time to repair the damage done to our media and political discourse. Which requires that we all refocus our attention on all of the boring yet actually consequential topics that the current political discourse seems to ruthlessly avoid.
(Funny thing that. Have a nice day.)
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26 comments
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Harry Lime -
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Fred -
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Brad -
andyfiftysix -
New England Cocky -
Terence Mills -
Canguro -
Fred -
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Clakka -
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Fred -
Clakka -
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Fred -
Jack sprat
Return to home pageThanks James,I was having a bad day until I read this…now I don’t know whether I feel better or worse.
Thank you – a very interesting read, both as a history lesson and understanding what is going on in the USA.
@ Harry, yes I agree with you
Sorry … but the USA is no bastion of democracy … after watching them deliberately exclude native Americans from being able to vote when they live on reservations … by having ten times as many polling places in rich white neighborhoods as they do in poor African American neighborhoods … where if you are lucky enough to have a job paying less than minimum wage and relying on tips to meet your bills only to have your boss refuse you time to go to a polling booth when an election is happening … and the apathy of those that don’t bother to vote anyway … where they have an electoral college system that may or may not follow the wishes of the voting public … I would not call it remotely close to democratic at all!!
I am probably not the only one to see parallels with the anti-voice movements in Australia, the anti-vaxers, those opposed to SSM etc. We seem to be developing our own fascistic movement and it frightens me. A small example. The NT’s Chief Minister was the subject of an assault yesterday ( I happened to witness a precursor event) but a Facebook report on the incident drew the most disgraceful comments seeming to imply this criminal action was somehow ok, or that politicians were fair game. Indeed the perpetrator, interviewed by Sky (!) downplayed it as ‘ only a cream pie’. – it was actually a crepe from a popular market stall the owner of which will, hopefully, be appalled at the use to which his very tasty product was put. The perpetrator was an apparent anti-Vaxer who had earlier been stalking the NT’s Administrator, formerly the NT’s Chief Medical Officer and Covid advisor to the then (not current) Chief Minister. Both Administrator and CM were in the area for a special event.
@ Rhonda: Agreed. The USA (United States of Apartheid) is anything EXCEPT democratic. The rural poor make a farce of the American Dream while the profit centred motivation of the Chairman Emetic permeates all levels of a ”greed is good” and ”everything for me” society.
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This spills over into a self-gifted right for politicians and bureaucrats to interfere in any country where alternative ideals exist and are practiced. Being an ally of America is very dangerous and probably means that no other enemies are required.
This is where the USA’s take on democracy has degenerated to; a system of torture applied to people who are demonstrably innocent of the charges which underlie the appalling treatment meted out to them… in this man’s case, interminable detention, failure to put him before a court – where, if fairly treated, he will be found innocent of the charges levied against him – and, worst of all, so appallingly treated, tortured, that he is now so psychologically broken, so psychotic, that no court of law can be expected to hear a properly founded case against him.
What makes this one example so dreadful, one amongst dozens of innocents captured, rendered to third party countries for torture, victimised by a legion of American military and civil along with political apparatchiks all of whom conspired to overturn all of the fundamental platforms of human rights in their obsessive and megalomaniacal drive to pinpoint the architects of the 9/11 New York disaster while all the while refusing to seriously consider that the originators were in their own backyard, that the demolition of the twin towers was an inside job headed by stateside Israelis intent on fomenting American opposition to Middle Eastern Arabian countries and thus provide a pretext for USA military intervention; a convenient Trojan Horse that would assist the Zionist cause in its never-ending campaign of aggression towards its Arab neighbours. Towers brought down by kerosene-fulled jets my arse; that this ludicrous hypothesis was ever considered let alone accepted just demonstrates the degree of stupidity and cupidity alive & kicking in that deeply troubled land, the depth of neurosis made evident in the devolvement back to the Middle Ages and the acceptance of torture of human beings despite all the evidence pointing to that form of coercion being totally antithetical as a form of information extraction.
How any other government around the planet can continue to support the USA is beyond my comprehension.
@Canguro … Agree with you about the use of torture being useless as a method of information gathering or rendering confessions … complete violation of human rights — but your conspiracy theory about the 9/11 towers being an inside job … wow … lost the plot there me thinks … we all saw the footage of the planes into the towers … and the plane that went into the pentagon … and the one that didn’t make it’s target because some brave passengers fought back … Occam’s Razor … that which everyone was able to see is the simplest explanation — stick to the rage about the physical and psychological torture they are known to perform in the name of freedom … who’s freedom is another conundrum!!
@Rhonda, an easy reply… notwithstanding that 9/11 was twenty years ago; there have been numerous advocates for a more rigorous investigation into the tragedy; many books written citing all of the evidence that was ignored by the official enquiry, including thermite residues from the placement of thermite explosives along the steel girders comprising the towers core skeleton, the rivers of molten steel in the basement post destruction – a function of the extreme temperatures as a function of thermite explosives, explosions in the basements of the buildings witnessed by first responders, the video footage of lateral ejection of materials as the planned demolition of sequential floor by floor explosions took the towers down, the dancing Jews across the Hudson seen celebrating the downings, the lack of physical evidence of commercial aircraft at both the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania sites, – people flubbing their lips and saying, in effect, ‘goddamn, where’s the wreckage?’, the slip of tongue of leaseholder Larry Silverstein who admitted he had WTC7 demolished on the day, the conversation one of the Rockefellers had with a Los Angeles movie producer around 9 months prior to September 11th where he confided that there was going to be a ‘big event’ which would change the course of history and America’s involvement with the rest of the world, the consortium of concerned architects and engineers who have collectively debunked the official narrative and argued for a truthful appraisal for what happened, the unprecendent never-happened-before standing down of the American national air defence network on the singular day such that there was no scrambling of jets to shoot down the so-called kidnapped airliners… the inconsistencies that give lie to the official narrative are startling and obviously there is an agenda to discredit them, such is the inherent reluctance to consider that America itself may, or more correctly, expatriate Israelis, ex military & ex-Mossad, all of whom had contracts for servicing and maintenance within the towers and thus unparalleled access to the building have been front & centre in this atrocity. And let’s not overlook that Israel has form when it comes to black ops and its dealings with the USA, as in, for example, its attack on the USS Liberty.
Canguro: Incorrect. Unfortunately Jet A fuel max burn temperature is 2,200+C. Structural steel strength is around 5% of normal at 1,000C, which is unlikely to remain intact if under load. I watched the coverage on the day and saw a plane hit a building and some time later saw it “pancake” collapsing. Apparently less steel was recovered from the twin towers wreckage than the design called for. You might like to reconsider your “bullshit” statement.
Fred: Incorrect. You are seriously misinformed.
Like you, millions of people around the world watched the towers collapse. Like you millions of people accepted the ‘official’ story, and have remained blind and uninformed as to the reality behind the crime.
You might like to engage yourself in some education on the actuality of evidence of that criminal event.
Canguro is correct. I didn’t pay much attention for almost 20 years then chanced upon the work of Dr Judy Wood, Professor of Mechanical Engineering. She has detailed the evidence in a book ‘Where Did the Towers Go? You can find her videos on YouTube discussing ‘Evidence of Breakthrough Energy’. Most of the public receive their info from smiling ass-ass-ins’ employed by MSM. And every time they drop the phrase ‘conspiracy theory’ into one of their deliveries most people tune out. I did for decades. Now ‘conspiracy theory’ is a red flag to conduct independent research. Other people have banded together to look into what really happened on 9/11, eg Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth, Pilots for 9/11 Truth, Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth, to name three. Then there’s the fact all rubble and dust was shipped out to China ASAP. Get rid of the evidence? Makes sense if you want to hid a crime. Conspiracy theory – BOO!
Add a satire – Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry on YouTube – ‘A 9/11 Conspiracy Theory Explained in 5 Minutes by James Corbett’
the right is now trying to rewrite the narrative. George Brandis now writes in the age opinion piece that america has a choice between criminality and senility. Yes they have accepted that Trump is a criminal but they want to take the house down with them. I see no sign of senility in Biden. As Carlin would have said, stop fucking with the language. Sure he isnt physically as able as a 50yr old but he aint senile. They sure do want to ensure the idiocy factor is alive and well.
Brad, i too think the 9/11 conspiracy shit is crazy. So many people have gone against human nature, not one whistleblower with evidence. Out of the 5,000-10,000 people involved ( my estimate), not one peep. Conspiracy or stuff up? ……
Its a strange time we live in when conspiracies with all sorts of rabbit holes are deemed more reliable than vison from our own eyes. Yes i too saw a plane go into a tower. Seemed big enough to bring the tower down.
I aint no engineer but i have played with toys long enough to know when its enough to bring it down. All the psuedo engineers out there trying to micro reverse engineer the explosion are just playing with themselves. Nobody will ever know the atom to atom details
As for building 7, i have no idea. Half stories and half facts seem to be the way things are. I dont think there is any conspiracy but I am open to an authoritative investigation that covers all the ” but..but…but….”
I await the full story knowing full well some things will never be fully fleshed out. I have better things to do with my life……after all, we have the JFK saga, UFOs and alien bodies too to worry about. All when there are obvious villains floating around, Murdoch, Trump, Putin……….obvious existential therats to human existance like climate change …………coming disruptions to society due to technological disruptions………….the idiocy factor is distracting from the real problems we have.
The fascists may well have their day in the sun, but as we all know, you cant hide or supress human behaviour for ever. Those leaders who hope to control all will fall victim to their own hubris. Putin is the obvious example in this day and age. Trump will soon be wearing an orange jump suite and even Mudoch wont be long for this world. Pezzullo too has learned that karma is a bitch. Climate change wont wait for us either. History is full of collapsed empires. We are no different. Nature knows how to fix us up, lol. Its waiting patiently with its own baseball bat.
@ Brad: Your comments remind me of the Warren Commission Report into the assassination of JFK in 1963 (?). This document is/was the biggest misinformation cover up of FBI involvement in this matter, that continued to include ”removing” any witnesses unfortunate enough to reveal that they had an opinion based on personal experience for at least 30 years AFTER the event.
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Political conspiracies must be distinguished from corporate forward planning.
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Even so, when a corporation like IT&T ”buys” President Nixon for $1,000,000.00 paid as 50 ”donations” of $20,000 each from separate third party corporations to the Republican Party of that time, it is difficult to separate those descriptions.
On the Pezzullo encrypted communications to Liberal Party ‘powerbroker’ Scott Briggs.
I read that ‘encryption is the process of protecting information or data by using mathematical models to scramble it in such a way that only the parties who have the key to unscramble it can access it’.
So, we now know that a wealth – possibly thousands – of highly damaging encrypted communications have been leaked to Nine publications presumably to damage one or more people.
If it was Briggs who leaked was he after Pezzullo because if he was he has also damaged the Liberal Party. Surely it wasn’t Pezzullo as he is inevitably the big loser.
So who could the leaker be and what was their motive ?
Terence Mills, I read that Brandis described Briggs as a ‘parasite’. We may or may not ever know, but it’s in the realms of possibility that Briggs was himself copying the Pezzullo conversations to a third party as a means of making an impression.
The impression I get from reading the texts so far published is that Pezzullo may have been using Briggs as a useful idiot, a convenient conduit to more powerful players.
Canguro: Please… too much conspiracy theory. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LFZA0Rx1gg for a simple explanation and demonstration of beam failure at 750C. Video footage from many sources clearly shows a 767 style a/c striking the South Tower building, not a “controlled explosion”, some showing bits of building/plane/contents coming out of the other side. Some time later after fire has spread, the building collapsed with the center of failure near the floor the A/C struck. As for the “serendipity” website, I don’t have enough free time to wade through the BS and write a response.
Brad: The “Pilots for 9-11 Truth” have misrepresented the supposedly impossible speed flown as measured in Knots rather than MPH. Their argument is plausible if the 767s were flown at greater than 510 knots, They do question the “reported” speed, but then draw the wrong conclusion that the a/c have been modified, rather than the bleeding obvious. Apparently Air Traffic Control were upset because they were flying at about 500 MPH, which is approximately 430 knots and on the edge. How fast were they going – see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LFZA0Rx1gg The last para of the report confirms the unit of measure. As for experienced pilots ability to hit a building… they seem to forget how kids on a game console can easily beat their parents. A few days with a “flight simulator” and you can get the hang of it.
Fred,
I find it most impressive that this was the first time in recorded history that 2 aluminum aircraft managed to reduce 3 significant steel frame buildings to so much rubble.
And as we speak this record has not been matched anywhere on this planet, which says a whole lot for the architectural skills of the USA, and the outright cunning of Bin Laden in hatching this plan to absolute perfection.
The terms of reference for the enquiry confirmed the way the event was to be viewed by history
Or is it the combined genius of the secret service, and the CIA, and some very very skilled demolition operatives who cannot list this on their company CV?
Personally, I dont think Bin laden was as smart as that, but the skill of his pilots must have exceeded his expectations by a country mile.
It is very sad for me to observe here, commentaries of otherwise very well spoken and learned folk suddenly declaring their expertise in the physics and structural nature of high-rise buildings of the era, and the physics and chemistry of being impacted at high velocity by large commercial jet aircraft.
Having a lifetime of involvement in the technologies and construction and demolition of such building structures, and also aircraft tech, including the metallurgies involved, and watched the entirety of the events, and the ongoing blah blah of classic American partisan conspiracy theories thinly disguised by less than credible half-baked engineering and science alternatives, I am yet again drawn askance.
Rather than being drawn from rigorous investigation of the scientific probabilities using scientific method, and thorough consideration of the background, the motivation, and the m.o. of the perpetrators, it seems to be a selective narrative (drawn from the conspiracists) to suit a quest for reasons to further an already established dislike for America and its complex history, and political woes.
For example, one comment by DP, ” … I dont think Bin laden was as smart as that … “. It may be relevant to understand that Osama Bin Laden was born of the largest construction conglomerates in the world and was highly educated, and very familiar with engineering as well as being a master strategist. He despised his family’s deep association with the Bush family, for example in banking and Carlisle Corporation – probably the largest arms dealer in the world.
As for James Moylan’s article, a good article well observed and written.
Compared to Oz, certainly America’s much longer and more complex history has been blighted by various coups and internal warfare wrought by competing interests of numerous and various conflicting ideologies and interests imported from Europe, Britain and Scandinavia at their time of ongoing divisive religious and political competitiveness and crisis.
And so it has gone on, and so they keep trying to make laws, manage and govern themselves amid ebbs and flows of diverse escapees, malcontents and aspirants arriving from relatively nearby Europe and South America, and latterly the entire world. Despite the ructions and difference, becomes the largest and weirdest multicultural collective ever, the largest industrial and agricultural powerhouse and economy in the world.
Many across the world have much to take example from and to thank America for. But beguiled by its own capacity and the ‘thank yous’, becoming the ‘world’s policeman’ and the concomitant exceptionalism and expansionism has certainly been a failed venture that the world stood by and just watched. Thankfully they appear to be making a retreat from that failure and its deep scars. They and the world feel the pain and anguish, yet to allow them to fall into a babbling heap would be a global calamity.
Rather than turning disappointment into hatred and casting rocks, it might be far better to accept that they are made up by many good folk able to exercise sound reason, and despite their self-beguilement, their pride and often prickly demeanour, provide the help they to find a way.
Clakka,
Dont be sad. Rejoice because this could be the start of a whole new world of enlightenment.
In Physics I was top of my class in the school that Mick Jagger attended so my thinking is based more on hard evidence.
You have experience in the construction industry, and demolition, and more importantly an inquiring mind.
Lets begin with baby steps.
Watch the manner in which building 7 falls.
Now ask yourself how all 3 fall on their own footprint in the space of time that a TV audience can hold their attention.
(In London, Grenfall tower burned for 36 hours and is still standing).
The top of the (tall) buildings do not buckle, or topple but fall fall through the path of maximum resistance.
If the lift shaft has already been weakened, then that resistance is no longer there
Then your curiosity may be aroused and you check through some of the points that Canguro raised earlier in this thread.
My quaint little story about Bin Laden is meant to simply amuse, because the “truth” of the day is hard to swallow.
A short time after the event one of our social group had direct contact with a business guy in NY who had been advised to call in sick. At the time I thought it far fetched but when I was prompted 10 years ago to look a bit closer-I did.
You, too, are not too old to learn, and rejoice in the new knowledge.
A timely warning: Thanks James
Thanks DP, I see you continue to amuse. And presume.
For the sake of not wishing to deconstruct or bend moments or inflame by tossing fuel and aluminium into the spark of enlightenment via your Gods and paradise, I am content to leave you with your baby steps.
Funnily enough I was dux of physics statewide, and didn’t find evidence hard at all.
Weirdly, I was in 1993 in Saudi Arabia consulting with government on matters aerospace, and only two weeks before ‘the event’ I was talking with Boeing mates at Renton, Washington. Really weird but completely irrelevant.
So as not to be shafted, I shall return to my stack of cards
And continue to exercise flexibility and doubt in research and successful resolution across 15 years of $0.25 billion in technical disputations as a consultant and judicially appointed expert witness.
Ah, for the stories we can all tell. Some I cannot, as I do not fancy drink, certainly from within the jug, as I’m sure applies to many of us.
At the end of the day what do we know for sure?
Regards 🙂
Brad: Apologies – I supplied an incorrect link. It should have been: https://web.mit.edu/civenv/wtc/PDFfiles/Chapter%20III%20Aircraft%20speed.pdf
Clakka: Then you will enjoy http://www.civil.northwestern.edu/people/bazant/PDFs/Papers/00%20WTC%20Collapse%20-%20What%20Did%20&%20Did%20Not%20Cause%20It.pdf Funny how something slightly complicated like a building collapse, that can be explained by current engineering theory, somehow attracts a simple explanation based on a new form of energy.
Fred, many thanks.
I have before read a summation of this report. Now I have read it in full.
Absolute poetry. Sublime.
Fred,
Those are simply stunning explanations, put together by Americans AFTER the event.
What is very relevant is the architectural skill that Bin Laden showed by running through these mathematical scenarios BEFORE the event.
Then putting the cunning plan into action under the noses of the American CIA/FBI/secret service.
Finding “top gun” pilots was obviously not a problem.
Knowing the academic skills of such a person you would think that putting him on the payroll would be a smart outcome.
For the North and South towers you may be happy with the maths, but when it come to building 7 it demonstrates the amazing power of prayer.
Will the congregation please rise, and offer a prayer for USA.
DP: No explanation is needed before the event. I’d suggest OBL didn’t expect or need the buildings to collapse to have made the point of “America being under attack”. The images of commercial jets crashing into tall buildings were confronting enough. Putting myself in their shoes, the question of where to hit (high, low or the middle) a 110 story, 707 impact tolerant building would certainly have been asked and the possible outcomes “white boarded” (or scratched in the sand).
Methinks you are far too generous about the abilities of the CIA/FBI/secret service (Feb 6 showed they were clueless/didn’t have their ears on the ground).
Please bear in mind the aircraft were hijacked when airborne in cruise flight. The most difficult part of each flight is landing, followed by take-off then en-route navigation. Essentially the hijackers only had to “know where they were” and then “point and crash”.
As for building 7, there is a report that deals with the matter in reasonable detail: https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.NCSTAR.1a
Yes, the USA needs all the divine help they can get, given that any of them are prepared to vote in an ex president convicted of fraud. As we know, due to the lack of a divine being, that help will not be forthcoming.
Look up one General Smedley Butler ,who single handedly stop a fascist coup led by America’s leading business men to over throw the then president Franklin D Roosevelt in the 1930’s. Also his book “War is a racket” is worth a good read as it clearly explains America’s military imperialism.