Terrornado Week

Let's just assume for a moment that the American government's answer to Sharknado has nothing to with deflecting attention from the fact that our government is spying on us, and everything to do with some actual nefarious "chatter" among the folks who hate us for our freedoms.

Let's assume that there are, indeed, plans afoot to blow some Mid-East embassies to smithereens.

If that is the case, then we must acknowledge that the so-called terrorist folks have every right to be irate. Any plot they might be hatching would be in the realm of counter-terrorism. Take your pick of atrocities:

Drone strikes are increasing, Obama's impassioned public promise to taper them down notwithstanding. People are still being obliterated. In the days immediately preceding the Terror Alert, the State Department blithely proclaimed: "In no way would we ever deprive ourselves of a tool to fight a threat if it arises.”

So, Obama will continue to bomb the residents in "tribal regions", where marginalized populations risk death for simply failing to pledge allegiance to any of the nations under American control and for occasionally allowing "militants" to camp out in their neighborhoods because hospitality is an integral part of their culture. (See: Yemen, Waziristan, Somalia). It is therefore very easy to envision the relatives of the "collateral damage"  chattering up a storm in between bouts of crushing grief for their crushed children.

In the days immediately preceding the Terror Alert, the Center for Investigative Journalism reported  that the CIA was actually targeting rescue personnel ("double-tapping") in the aftermath of drone fatalities as recently as two years ago. This is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. The people who hate us for our freedoms are very much aware of the fact that past and current administrations are never prosecuted for war crimes. I imagine that the deliberate killing of medical personnel by Predator drone caused quite a bit of renewed chatter in the tribal regions.

The continued operation of Guantanamo Bay. It's still there. Inmates are still being force-fed, in violation of both their civil rights and religious beliefs during this holy season of Ramadan. It's a violation of internationally recognized medical ethics. It's torture. Outraged chatter has been busting out all over.

Revelations that Benghazi was the site of a secret CIA operation keep coming. The Susan Rice "talking points" scandal might have been a double contrivance -- both in the lies she told about possible motivations, and in the wrong reasons for Republican outrage and ensuing investigation. If Benghazi was an illegal black site prison, as David Petraeus's mistress once alleged, look for the GOP to shut up about it forthwith. When it comes to endless war, they will protect President Obama. Impeachment will be off the table. Domestic chatter will cease as partisan mouths clamp shut in solidarity.

There have been a series of apparently coordinated prison breaks, including from the infamous Abu Ghraib in Iraq, scene of inmate torture by the American military. I imagine those newly-freed inmates are chattering up a storm, especially if they were locked up for political reasons, at the behest of the American security apparatus.

So, although I'm leaning toward the theory that the surveillance state bureaucrats announced a new terror plot simply because they're terrified that their lucrative operations are about to be defunded by Congress, there may be some truth in it. If there's a plot, it was provoked by our own government. And very possibly aided and abetted and even orchestrated by our own government in order to keep us compliant and quiet. In other words, they are operating on the conventional wisdom that any terror attack represents an ensuing cash cow for the security state. A little human collateral damage in the name of disaster capitalism has never stood in their way before. Their cynicism has always been beyond breathtaking.

 Just look at how President Obama himself cynically spent his weekend. He played golf and partied hearty with a "This Is Your Life" cast of characters from the last 52 years of his storied existence. He was not "huddled" in the Situation Room with his national security team.

The fact that CNN pre-empted its regular programming to dust off the terror graphics and 9/11 doomsday music to broadcast a marathon special report consisting of vague threats is another huge hint that the alleged threat is a wholly fictionalized, Homeland Security theater production. Did you notice how all their paid defense industry and ex-CIA consultants magically appeared in the studio, all at once, to parrot identical government talking points? It reeked of pre-arrangement. Wolf Blitzer is still around to cry Wolf.

Meanwhile, Congress  unconcernedly flew home in their unsequestered jets to raise money and hide from their constituents, getting richly rewarded for fake gridlock. They're also falling all over themselves to preen before the TV cameras, moaning about how many ways Russia and Putin and Snowden are physically inconveniencing them. Chuck Schumer (D-Wall Street) has been poked right in his beady little eyes! Paul Ryan (R-Gerontophobia) complains of being both slapped in the face and stabbed in the back. It's a good thing these gold-plated government leeches won't have to shop on the ObamaCare exchanges to get taxpayer care for their myriad wounds and maladies. The co-pays for the treatment of Putin poisoning alone would bankrupt them otherwise.

If these people were truly in panic mode, they'd be hunkered down in undisclosed locations. But they're right out there in the open, jaws flapping, freely chattering and scarifying and looking rather clownish while doing so.  So, as far as I can tell, the only thing we have to fear is fear-mongering itself.

But Since Terror Sells, They'll Never Shut Up