If the News Was Small Kitchen Appliances

Oh, the woes of my quest to discover a thought-provoking topic to write about! Today, I find myself afflicted by the opposite of writer’s block—a condition known as “squirrel syndrome.”

After starting a post, thumbs, like the wings of a hummingbird, fluttering over my phone’s keypad, something more riveting, catches my eye. Squirrel! This has happened several times today.

At last, a solution to this conundrum. I scribbled each topic on random small kitchen appliances. (I can’t find any paper.) Then I tossed them in a large Rubbermaid container, closed it and shook, hard. (I had someone help me because I’m not stupid.) Then, donning my frozen sleep mask to cover my eyes, I lifted the lid and pulled out the first thing I could lift: the toaster

I’ll give you an idea of what else I started, and hope to finish in the coming days, before I get to the toaster.

The hand mixer:

The jig is up, the news is out, Trump will be indicted. For what? Espionage! We are looking at a 400-year sentence. A 44-page indictment covers only a fraction of his offenses. This is the first of six indictments Jack Smith has ready!

Trump is posting on his forum the time and place to end communism on Tuesday. someone keeps putting this alert over his words.

More charges are expected in DC! Choosing Florida as the first jurisdiction to indict was a strategic move for the DOJ. It will expedite the process by eliminating likely objections by Trump, claiming bias. This includes the theft of 337 classified documents. Mark Meadows flipped. Game over!

Squirrel!

French Press Coffee Pot:

The US court for the Southern District of Florida, “randomly appointed” Judge Aileen Loose Cannon, who previously delayed the DOJ document search at Mar-a-Lago.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/florida-judge-overseeing-trumps-trial-hobble-justice-departments-case-rcna88694

How could this be random? There are only about eight judges to choose from in that pool, and oh, look – Clarence Thomas presides over the 11th Circuit. Ain’t that some shhh…

*Side note – who came up with the name “Mar-a-Lago?” It is sooo pretentious and awkward to type with my thumbs. V/stupid.

Another squirrel!

Blender:

“SCOTUS ruling on redistricting!” Gerrymandering takes a hit! This is good!

Microwave:

Aliens in Las Vegas. (Take me!)

Tea Kettle:

Argh… Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s brother-in-law got a $7 million no-bid government contract for indigenous Americans! He’s blindingly white and claims native ancestry, without proof! Next time, I’ll expound on McCarthy, unless there’s another squirrel!

Like it or not, I’ve made my it to my pick.

The Toaster:

The Unabomber died at age 81. He was found unresponsive in his cell, and The New York Times has reported, (citing three unnamed guys as their indisputable source), that it was suicide.

Let’s start with the title Unabomber. He was so named by the FBI because he started his 17-year terrorist streak by targeting universities and airlines. Un+A+Bomber.

Anyway, his death led me off course plunging me into several hours of research. He is a fascinating character study, his ideas about technology are ominously aligned with thoughts in my last post. Despite having been alive and well when he was arrested in 1996, I only knew bits and pieces of his story.

Netflix has a very good documentary four part series, called “… something… something, his own words.” Link below.

His IQ was 167 (as a point of reference, Trump’s is 45) He skipped sixth and eleventh grades, which led to bullying and isolation. No one likes a young brainiac, I can attest.

[Checks own transcropts, corrects spelling for the word transcripts, but leaves in the remark about being smart despite the implication. — I can attest because I have empathy, okay, and ego.]

He proceeded to Harvard, where he attended on a full scholarship at age 16, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics in just three years. He was… 19. (I can do math too.) Theodore Kaczynski earned a master’s degree two years later, (21) and a Ph.D. three years after that, (24!) both from the University of Michigan, in math.

(I’ve avoided writing the Kaczynski’s name until this point because it is a bitch difficult one to spell.)

But screech… let’s back up. Something happened at Harvard. Somehow, he ended up taking part in a study run by Harvard psychologist Henry A. Murray. These experiments were funded by the CIA. The goal of intense psychological manipulation, was to improve techniques practiced during interrogation of terrorists. He clocked in 200 hours over a three-year period.

According to the Washington Post, Murray’s study was program code-named Project MK-Ultra, inspired by the use of mind-control techniques on U.S. prisoners of war in Korea by the Soviet Union, China and North Korea. Sometimes the study included use of LSD, or similar substances, according to a document the CIA made publicly available in 2018. (Audio tapes and notes of Kaczynski’s experiments are sealed.)

In the Netflix film, a former CIA agent says the tests used in the experiment are illegal now because it is torture. They break people down using various forms of humiliation and destroying sense of self-worth.

A friend asked him why he kept going back to the program. He said he found it a challenge-wanted to prove he couldn’t be broken. Over time, during his student life at Harvard, he cut off all contact with friends, isolating himself completely. Despite the toll of the experiment, he graduated in three years with a 3.2 GPA.

Moving on…

Dr. Ted Kaczynski, at 25, he became the youngest professor ever hired by UC Berkeley. He stayed just long enough to save money to purchase a shack on a large, wooded, isolated Montana property. He lived in 10 x 12 foot shack and used the seclusion to make bombs.

Interesting factoid:

Merrick Garland was the supervising attorney for the prosecution in Kaczynski’s case.

What made this genius a killer? It wasn’t any one thing.

Ted’s mother thought his personality changed from happy to disassociated after two weeks in isolation at a hospital as a toddler. Two weeks, I don’t know is that possible?

He had a long list of people to target, but it was often the assistants or other unintended victims who intercepted the explosives. He targeted a wide range of people whom he never met, for “revenge.”

Click to access kaczynski2.pdf

Kaczynski set off 16 bombs that killed three people and injured 23 others in various parts of the country between 1978 and 1995. The FBI arrested him in 1996 after his manifesto was published. It convinced his brother and sister-in-law that the ideology and writing style matched Ted’s other writings.

Ted’s defense attorneys had promised his brother that they would try to avoid a death penalty sentence. Their strategy to do so involved portraying him as schizophrenic. However, Kaczynski vehemently opposed being labeled as mentally ill, fearing it would undermine his life’s work, diminish the message in his manifesto, discrediting it as the rantings of a lunatic. The judge refused his request to replace his legal team and to allow him to represent himself. That prompted him to attempt suicide. They reached a solution: he pleaded guilty in exchange for a life sentence.

Many of the warnings in Kaczynski’s manifesto have proven correct. Technology has changed the world in negative ways. His peers have read the manifesto and agree with his theories. However, his decision to commit mass murder, thinking that would change the course of technological advances, is impossible to understand.

I guess I’m trying to understand what mental illness box he fits into.

He was a murderer who had no empathy or remorse for the death and the harm he caused. While incarcerated, he wrote more on the subject of the evils of technology. He has five published books.

The Netflix documentary is worth the time it takes to watch.

Ted Kaczynski, ‘Unabomber’ Who Attacked Modern Life, Dies at 81

Death of Unabomber returns spotlight to Harvard mind-control study – The Washington Post

Unabomber Special Report