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On Credibility

April 4th, 2011

The conservative think tank in Michigan which joined with the Wisconsin Republicans in intimidation attempts against college faculty is reporting bomb threats against them:

The Mackinac Center For Public Policy — the conservative-leaning think tank in the news this week after it requested emails from Michigan labor studies professors regarding Wisconsin and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow — says it has called in the FBI after receiving a series of threatening voicemails that promised to bomb their Midland, Michigan headquarters.

“You are on Main Street,” one of the voicemails said, according to details posted on the Mackinac website. “You are the first place to be bombed.”

If authentic, then the bomb threats are indeed vile, no matter who they came from.

The thing is, I don’t buy it. Oh, I am sure there are those on the leftist fringe who could certainly do such things. However, considering the calls for “false flag” operations and the rather strong attempts by the right wing to create the impression that left-wingers in general and teacher unions specifically are violent, I would not be surprised in the least if this were indeed orchestrated by the conservatives to give themselves some free publicity and give liberals and teachers both a black eye at the same time.

Again, it could be authentic, but the language is just a little too over the top:

[A] female was quoted as saying the following in one of the messages: “Scotty Walker is dead. So are you. We know where you live.” The woman then recited the Mackinac Center’s address and said, “We are coming up to destroy you.” …

In another message, the Capitol Confidential article stated the woman said: “We are going to destroy everybody. We are going to destroy all of you. All of you die. Midland, Michigan. Get ready. We are going to destroy all of you.”

Usually I would not question stuff like this. But the current right-wing efforts in the Midwest simply have lost all credibility, and I would not put anything past them. And I think that needs to be said. By all means, have the police investigate and necessary precautions taken.

But keep your hands on your wallet. These people deserve protection without question, but not our unquestioning faith in their sincerity.

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  1. Tim Kane
    April 5th, 2011 at 03:04 | #1

    Agreed.

    This is a case of projection as well. This is how the right wingers want to talk to liberals. Tim Kane. Dead. We know where he lives. That’s intimidation language which is hardly any different than asking to see my emails. Since one side has already engaged in intimidation, it seems far more likely that the same side is projecting the same onto the other with false flags.

    Also look who this is being projected upon: teachers. It’s well known in the law profession, during jury selection, that prosecutors will seek to remove any teachers if they can. Teachers usually take the lead, and they are usually sympathetic to the person on trial – and try to ensure that fairness abounds.

    Finally, the conservatives, ever since Hitler perfected it, love to where the persecuted majority role. Hard to come by as they do most of the persecuting, but they love it, and will relish it when they can get it. They are still reveling in the ‘liberal media’ persecution that hasn’t been true in almost two decades.

    Having said that, I predict that sooner or later there will be reactionary violence against conservatives/republicans.

    Gandhi said that poverty is a form of violence – the worst kind. The republicans/conservatives are waging war against the poor, working and middle classes – they are inflicting mass violence upon tens of millions of suffering Americans, while banksters and CEOs take home record pay.

    When some former person who plays by all the rules finds he can’t feed, cloth and shelter his children you can expect a reaction. Most of the time, I think the voilence manifests in suicide, a sort of finishing the job the republicans/conservatives have started. But you can’t expect all people to do that. However, if we continue along this tragectory, at some point there is going to be a reaction – it’s as certain as gravety and that the sun will come up tomorrow. We just don’t know when.

  2. Tim Kane
    April 5th, 2011 at 03:07 | #2

    I meant to conclude that third paragraph on teachers as the very least likely of all unionized professions to react to pressure from the right with violence.

    I also want to note, that there is a subtext here: deep down inside, the right knows it should have voilence inflicted against it for the whacking they’ve given ordinary Americans.

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