Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 03/22/18> My Austin, TX. Big Bang theory went “BOOM” and Bust.
Well the last 48 hours in Austin, Texas has been quite an exciting time for both law enforcement officials and the general public. The good news is that the bombing suspect that has been linked to the bombings with about a 99.999% probability of being the bomber has been sent to the morgue for positive identification testing. That all happened in the early morning hours on Wednesday in the town of Round Rock, Texas.
There is quite a sense of relief in the area but officials are saying that since they don’t know what the suspect had done from Sunday evening up until his ultimate demise on Wednesday morning that there could be some bombs scattered around that have yet to be discovered. So they are still recommending using extreme caution when handling packages, especially if you are not expecting any packages.
So, how did I do on my big bang theory? Not too well, but I am more than happy to say that I wasn’t completely wrong either.
The bomber, or should I be politically correct and say “alleged bomber”?, Nope, the bomber, was a home grown terrorist just like I thought. He was born and raised right here in Texas, like right in the immediate area. He was a 23 year old white boy,( I can say that, right?) (hell yes I can, this is my daily dose, I’m not writing for some PC news organization) and he had been HOME SCHOOLED, so now the focus will surely be on home schooled, home grown terrorists going forward should any other terrorist events take place.
He was also unemployed, that clearly would make him a suspect, since the Austin area is one of the areas of real low unemployment. Making high quality sophisticated bombs takes time, a good terrorist wouldn’t have time for a job and bomb building, so being unemployed will also be a key in identifying suspects in future events.
All the reports on the news from “neighbors” is that he was from a good family, with no problems and that they never would have suspected that he would ever do such a thing. Like I really believe that, most people now a day’s couldn’t tell you the names of the families that live three doors down from them on each side of the street. So never put any faith in what the neighbors have to say, they more than likely don’t know a thing about them but just want to be on the news.
So. just how wrong was my theory? Pretty wrong, he wasn’t ex US military; he didn’t have a military training in explosives. I thought he was smart enough to carry this terror event on for another eight weeks with five more bombings before allowing himself to be caught, and that he didn’t want to die, but just wanted to get treatment for PTSD. So I pretty much was wrong on all of those items. So, I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong, I just gave you a detailed account of all my theory components that were not correct.
What I find interesting in this case is to listen to law enforcement and what they say about how they solved the case.
They were on the television and radio stations saying that they have had this guy on their radar screen for a couple weeks, by using cell phone records of pings from cell towers that show phones movements in and out of cell tower areas. Well if that is the case then the bombing on Sunday evening shouldn’t have happened, if they supposedly new his phone number, they also should have had a name to go with that phone number, and they dang sure could have run that name through the DVM drivers license data base to come up with an address and photo.
So I don’t believe them when they say they had him on their “radar screen”, if that was the case then they were very negligent in not putting him under 24 hour surveillance when they determined his cell number. The more likely scenario is that when he went to the Fed Ex drop off location is when they got the break in the case, they got video of him and his vehicle and then they were able to hone in on him.
The guy made his mistake early Wednesday morning, about 2:00 AM, when he turned his phone on and it pinged the cell tower, that set off all the alarms with the law enforcement and they moved in on him at a hotel parking lot in Round Rock, seeing that the police were approaching he drove out of the parking lot and onto the feeder road along I-35 headed south, the police gave chase and forced his Jeep into the bar ditch, at that point the suspect detonated a bomb he had with him and blew himself up.
They don’t have a motive at this point and may never know what he was disturbed enough by to cause the actions. The truth is, it doesn’t really matter, what is done is done. All the data and details won’t change what has happened, but if the law enforcement officials keep running their mouths about how they knew, and when they knew, they just might tarnish themselves in the eyes of at least the people who were injured on Sunday evening in that bomb blast.
So, I guess I was only right on one thing, home grown terrorist; but the funny thing is, no one in the media is referring to him as a terrorist. Why is that I wonder? Is “terrorist” reserved only for brown skinned foreign nationals who wreak terror on folks in the United States? Come on news media can we not agree that this was in fact terrorism?
I not into being politically correct, but you people are the bastion of political correctness, and are not using the term “terrorist.” This actually kind of angers me on your lack of consistency when you report on things like this; if this had been a Middle Eastern young man doing the bombing the headlines would be big and bold with the word “terrorist” in them.
One more reason not to believe everything you see, read, or hear coming from the media in the United States.
Terrorism is terrorism; it makes no difference who is directing the terror.
Just my thoughts, have you got any on this subject?
Until next time,
@sultnpapper
The man asks. And I think to myself, "Oh, God, I could write a book."
First of all ... as a life-long student of psychology (especially abnormal psychology) ... like you, @sultnpapper, I try to get inside the head of the person who does things like this.
I can understand the Jihadists. I can understand the suicide bombers in the Middle East. I get why they do what they do. It's misguided ... but it makes a twisted kind of sense.
This guy ... and others like him. Like The Unabomber and to some extent like the Oklahoma City bomber -- Timothy McVeigh -- I just can't make the leap. How can killing a bunch of strangers ... people who never did one bit of harm to you ... possibly make your life any better or ease one single speck of your pain? It's not a statement about anything except that you're evil and crazy ... and if blowing yourself to Kingdom Come saves us all the expense of a trial and your care-and-feeding for the rest of your miserable days ... fine by me.
I can understand wanting to hurt -- even kill -- someone who harmed you ... believe me I can!! And I "get" that they don't see their victims as people, as humans, individual beings, precious souls with a right to a life ... because they themselves feel invisible and discounted. But how is this going to help?
Set off a bomb in the desert. Scream your lungs out. Take a ball-bat to a heavy weight punching bag. Find a therapist and talk until you're both blue in the face. Any of that might help. But causing more pain on top of your pain? How does that heal anything? How are your needs served by harming total strangers ... just because you can? Are you so miserable that this makes you feel powerful? And in the end ... what good have you done, for yourself ... or anyone? I know you don't know. I know you don't care. But I can't get my mind inside that kind of thinking. And that's why you remain a mystery. If there is an expression of genuine evil -- and I don't use that word lightly or often -- that kind of mindset is a big part of it.
I don't have answers or sympathy either. Not for any of it. I just don't.
I am glad I asked, it is a shame though that this guy isn't around to read what you think about his sorry ass.
Genuine evil would be an accurate description, totally agree with that and everything else you had to say, Thanks for weighing in on this subject.
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Exactly. Why do we have to attach colour or religion to terrorism? And as you said about the police saying they had their eye on him, how many times have we heard this in the past few months? Let's face it. They are not as smart as they would like us to believe...
Well said, agreed that the police have a tendency to over rate their performance some times. I guess the media thinks we don't know what terrorism is , so they only apply the term when the "correct" folks are carrying it out, that is almost an insult to our home grown terrorists, they work just as hard at it as the foreign nationals but get no credit for it.
"He was a good fellow, nice and polite. We never suspected anything like this" seems to be what all family/neighbors say after events like this. Las Vegas shooting, Sandy Hook, Parkland... it just keeps repeating, yet, "He was a good fellow..."
You know what all those people who say those things have in common?
They all claimed to ...um... "know" the guy... 😜
That of course... and that we hear about what they say from them because..... they were on TV... which is exactly what I pointed out, people say the stuff to get on TV. Most of those people no more know the guy as much as me or you who live hundreds or a thousand miles from there. Living next door or down the street doesn't mean anything any more because we don't know our neighbors anymore like back in the 50's and 60's.
We go out of way to avoid neighbors because if we don't we might actually have get to know them, Hell they might even want to knock on the door and visit or borrow something. Knowing neighbors is just to inconvenient in these times we are in right now. So when confronted with a situation like this it is easier for the "neighbor" to say something nice instead of admitting that they don't have a clue about who their neighbors are despite having lived there for several years if not decades.
Yes, with the latest reports suggesting that the bombs were sophisticated, I was thinking ex-military too.
Glad the fucker's dead! I hope things return to normal in Austin soon.
The saying for the city of Austin is, "keep Austin weird" , they get what they wanted in weirdness from this terrorist bomber and then complain about what has happened. Be careful what you ask for is something Austin might consider.