'America is a bomb waiting to explode'

Sam Gerrans is an English writer, translator, support counselor and activist. He also has professional backgrounds in media, strategic communications and technology. He is driven by commitment to ultimate meaning, and focused on authentic approaches to revelation and realpolitik.

Published time: 18 Oct, 2015 10:27

 

© Carlo Allegri / Reuters

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The United States is in decline. While not all major shocks to the system will be devastating, when the right one comes along, the outcome may be dramatic.

 

Not all explosives are the same. We all know you have to be careful with dynamite. Best to handle it gently and not smoke while you’re around it.

Semtex is different. You can drop it. You can throw it. You can put it in the fire. Nothing will happen. Nothing until you put the right detonator in it, that is.

To me, the US – and most of the supposedly free West – increasingly looks like a truck being systematically filled with Semtex.


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But it’s easy to counter cries of alarm with the fact that the truck is stable – because it’s true: you can hurl more boxes into the back without any real danger. Absent the right detonator, it is no more dangerous than a truckload of mayonnaise.

But add the right detonator and you’re just one click away from complete devastation.
We can see how fragile the U.S. is now by considering just four tendencies.

1. Destruction of farms and reliable food source

The average American is a long way from food when the shops are closed.
The Washington Post reports that the number of farms in the country has fallen by some 4 million from more than 6 million in 1935 to roughly 2 million in 2012.

And according to the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, only about 2 percent of the US population live on farms.

That means that around 4.6 million people currently have the means to feed themselves.
Food supply logistics are extended, sometimes stretching thousands of miles. The shops have nothing more than a few days’ stock. A simple break in that supply line would clear the shops out in days.

© Stephen Lam / Reuters

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Militias spring up across Mexico to defend communities but authorities fear 'rebel force' and an 'undeclared civil war'

Mexican vigilantes take on drug cartels - and worry authorities

• Jo Tuckman in Tixtla
• theguardian.com, Monday 28 October 2013 15.43 EDT

Self-defence forces gather near Buenavista in Michoacan, Mexico, part of a growing movement of militias taking on the drug cartels. Photograph: ZUMA/REX

With their scuffed shoes, baggy trousers and single shot hunting guns, the eight men preparing to patrol their hillside barrio in the southern Mexican town of Tixtla hardly looked like a disciplined military force. But this motley collection of construction workers and shopkeepers claim to have protected their community from Mexico's violent drug cartels in a way the police and military have been unable – or unwilling – to do.
"Since we got organised, the hit men don't dare come in here," said one young member of the group, which had gathered at dusk on the town's basketball court, before heading out on patrol. "Extortions, kidnappings and disappearances are right down."
Over the past year, vigilante groups like this have sprung up in towns and villages across Mexico, especially in the Pacific coast states of Guerrero and Michoacán. They make no pretence to be interrupting drug trafficking itself but they do claim to have restored a degree of tranquillity to daily life.
In a country where the police are commonly felt to commit more crime than they prevent, the militias have won significant popular support, but they have also prompted fears that the appearance of more armed groups can only provoke more violence.
Tensions exploded this weekend when a march by self-defence groups triggered a gun-battle between gunmen and federal forces in the city of Apatzingán, followed by attacks on power stations that left hundreds of thousands without electricity.
Nearly seven years after the government launched a military-led crackdown on the cartels, the weekend's events have caused many to ask if the new government of President Enrique Peña Nieto is presiding over the first rumblings of an undeclared civil war.
"Perhaps the closest antecedent is the civil wars of central America," said an editorial posted on the widely-read news site Sin Embargo.
The weekend's violence began on Saturday when a group of militiamen marched on the city, saying they were responding to calls for support by residents there who want to set up their own self-defence group. Similar groups claim to have forced the brutal Knights Templar cartel out of smaller towns in the region, but Apatzingán, capital of the Tierra Caliente region, has remained largely in the hands of the drug barons.
Troops allowed the marchers into the city after they had disarmed, but when they gathered in the central square, they came under attack from gunmen on the rooftops – including some who were reportedly stationed in the cathedral belltower. A video shows people running for cover as federal police officers appear to return fire at the attackers.
At the end of the day, the marchers withdrew after the army agreed to step up patrols and include observers from the self-defence groups. But the movement's leader, José Mirales, warned reporters that the fight was not over. "We are going to make sure that organised crime is expelled from Apatzingán," he said. "They will try to respond."

That response came just hours later, when, shortly after midnight, nine electricity substations were firebombed in a string of almost simultaneous attacks. More than 400,000 people were left without electricity. At least four petrol stations were also torched.

In a statement, Mexico's interior ministry promised that: "The actions of the criminals will not stop the actions of the government to protect the population."
But while the government claimed order had been restored to Aptazingán, the tension continued into Sunday when a second group of civilians marched on the local army base. The Knights Templar were widely believed to be behind this second march that demanded federal forces withdraw their protection from the self-defence groups. Also on Sunday, five bodies were reportedly found on the outskirts of the city, all wearing t-shirts identifying them as members of the self-defence groups.

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5 Dead as Mexican Vigilante Groups, Cartel Clash

MORELIA, Mexico October 28, 2013 (AP)

By GUSTAVO RUIZ and MARK STEVENSON Associated Press

Clashes in which self-described "self-defense" forces sought to oust the Knights Templar drug cartel from the western Mexico state of Michoacan left at least five men dead and hundreds of thousands of people without electricity.

The weekend confrontations followed a daring march by a self-defense force into the city of Apatzingan, the central stronghold of the pseudo-religious Knights Templar cartel that for years has dominated Michoacan, a state that sends a steady stream of avocados and migrants to the United States.

State Interior Secretary Jaime Mares said soldiers and federal police had taken over security in Apatzingan following the clashes.

Since rising up in February against systematic extortion by the Knights Templar, residents of a half dozen towns that formed self-defense patrols have lived without access to Apatzingan, a commercial and road hub that is home to the region's main hospital and markets.

Self-defense leaders said they finally grew tired of the cartel blocking services and commerce in an attempt to strangle their uprising and showed up Friday on Apatzingan's outskirts, armed and ready to "liberate" the city. They were turned back by soldiers who said they couldn't enter with weapons.

A convoy of hundreds of unarmed self-defense patrol members returned on Saturday and successfully entered the city, where they were met by gunfire, presumably from the Knights Templar.

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Dental hygienist, Miriam Carey , shot dead after ramming her car into the White House 'had been taking medication for schizophrenia'

'She thought she was Prophet of Stamford and Obama was stalking her': Dental hygienist shot dead after ramming her car into the White House 'had been taking medication for schizophrenia'

• Capitol Hill was placed in lockdown on Thursday after gunshots fired in downtown DC on Thursday

• Her one-year-old daughter was in the car when her mother was shot and killed by police officers

• 34-year-old has a history of mental illness

• One of Carey's five sisters is an NYPD cop

• Mother said she suffered from postpartum depression after birth of daughter Erica

• Miriam Carey had been sued by her Connecticut condominium association for failure to pay fees

By Louise Boyle, Rachel Quigley, James Nye and Michael Zennie
PUBLISHED: 13:38 EST, 3 October 2013 | UPDATED: 18:53 EST, 4 October 2013

The mother gunned down yesterday after ramming a White House barrier because she thought President Obama was stalking her was prescribed schizophrenia medication after telling police she was the 'Prophet of Stamford', it emerged today.
Miriam Carey, 34, was taken for a mental health evaluation after an encounter with Connecticut police almost a year ago, in which she claimed to be a prophet and said the President was going to place the city of Stamford under lockdown, according to CBS.
She also believed he had been electronically monitoring her Connecticut home in order to broadcast her life on television like in the movie The Truman Show.
Authorities did not alert the Secret Service about the mother-of-one as they had no evidence she had ever made any kind of threat against Obama.
ABC News reports that cops had twice in 2012 been called by Miriam Carey's boyfriend, who reported the woman was delusional, acting irrationally and putting her infant daughter in danger.

Snapped: Authorities said the single-mother and dental hygienist had a 'history of mental illness' but did not elaborate

Miriam Carey is pictured at the Connecticut periodontist office where she worked. Her bosses described her as having 'a delightful bedside manner'

Luxury Car: Police swarm around the Nissan Infiniti car on grass near the U.S. Capitol October 3, 2013 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC

Rescued: This is little Erica, the one-year-old daughter of Miriam Carey who was miraculously rescued safely from her mother's bullet-riddled car

US CAPITOL SHOOTING: Moment police draw guns on driver

Last night her mother revealed the 34-year-old has suffered from postpartum depression since giving birth to her daughter Erica last year.
These revelations are the first clues as to what led a seemingly happy dental hygienist to snap and drive her Infiniti luxury sedan 270 miles from her home in suburban Stamford to Washington, DC - where her rampage put the nation's capital on lock-down Thursday.
Carey's 18-month-old daughter Erica - who was in the back seat - was not injured, despite the Secret Service and U.S. Capitol police firing up to 15 shots into her car.
Little Erica was rescued from the bullet-riddled car after her mother was shot dead. She is currently in the custody of child services workers.

Pictured: A neighbor has confirmed to MailOnline that this is Miriam Carey, the woman who is believed to have been shot dead by Capitol Police

It also emerged today that Carey's friends said she was upbeat and 'normal' until she fell down some stairs and hit her head in April 2012.

When Carey was receiving treatment for the injury in the hospital, she learned that she was pregnant.
She received a handicapped parking permit because of the injury, but doctors from the medical suite where she worked complained that she was tying up parking in front of the building, according to CBS.
The resulting dispute from this ended with her losing her job.
It emerged today that Carey had been sued by her condominium association for failure to pay fees.

The complaint filed in November by the association for the Stamford building said Miriam Carey had failed to pay her fees in full since August 2010 and owed the association $1,759 in addition to collection costs.
The lawsuit was settled in February.

The lawsuit by the Woodside Green Association indicates Carey took out a mortgage on her Stamford condo in the amount of $237,616 in September 2009.
Idella Carey told ABC News that her daughter Miriam 'had postpartum depression after having the baby' in August 2012.
'A few months later, she got sick. She was depressed.... She was hospitalized,' Mrs Carey added.
She thought Carey was taking Erica to a doctor's appointment in Connecticut.
The 34-year-old has five sisters, one of whom is an NYPD officer.
Another, Amy Carey - who is a nurse in Brooklyn - expressed disbelief when told about what happened to her sister by a Washington Post reporter.
'That's impossible. She works, she holds a job. She wouldn't be in D.C. She was just in Connecticut two days ago,' she said. 'I spoke to her...I don't know what's happening. I can't answer anymore.'
Dentist Barry Weiss told NBC Connecticut that Carey was working for him in January 2012 when she suffered a fall and missed two-to-three weeks of work.
When she returned she was pregnant but he later fired her in August 2012 after patients complained that she was too rough.
She was not married to the father but 'seemed happy' about the pregnancy, the former boss said.
Authorities said the single-mother had a 'history of mental illness' but did not elaborate.
Neighbor Erin Jackson told ABC she believed Carey lived in the Stamford home with the baby and the girl's father.
Asked if she believed Carey suffered from a mental illness, Jackson said 'absolutely' and revealed she had her tires slashed in an incident last year in Connecticut.
Police, including FBI and bomb disposal units, surrounded a home in Stamford on Thursday evening that authorities say is linked to the investigation, but won't give specifics.
Police there said they were awaiting a search warrant from Washington, though 50 people from the apartment building already were being evacuated for the night.

Stamford: Hazardous materials personal prepare to enter the apartment complex where Miriam Carey is believed to have lived in the early hours of this morning after a neighbor said the dental hygienist 'absolutely' was crazy

Aftermath: Capitol Hill police officers look at a car following a shooting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. A police officer was reported injured after gunshots at the U.S. Capitol

Impact: A veteran Capitol Police officer smashed his squad car into a barrier while rushing to the scene of the incident. He was not severely injured

Run For Cover: Seen from the US Capitol, tourists flee as Capitol Police are seen outside of the Senate side of the Capitol Building on October 3, 2013 in Washington, DC

Events Unfolded just after 2 p.m. today in Washington D.C. when the vehicle driven by an unidentified woman crashed into security gates at the White House sparking a furious chase that ended at the Capitol

US CAPITOL SHOOTING: Police car's high-speed crash following...

BRAVE CAPITOL POLICE RISKED THEIR LIVES FOR FREE BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

When Congress reconvened after the lock-down Thursday afternoon, the Capitol Police officers who stopped Miriam Carey got a standing ovation - but not much else.
The 1,800 officers who protect the nation's capital are currently working for free thanks to the government shutdown.
The officers are considered essential staff - so they are turning up for work, but won't get paid for their service until the impasse ends and Congress agrees to fund the government.
Congressmen tweeted about hiding in coat rooms and ducking behind cars during the harrowing moments before Carey was killed within sight of the Capitol Building.
Meanwhile, the officers who risked their lives haven't been paid since Tuesday, thanks to Congress' in-fighting over whether to pass a Continuing Resolution to fund day-to-day operations.

Carey's former boss of eight years, Dr Steven Oken, said in the eight years he knew Miriam she was 'always happy' - and not interested in politics. Neighbors told the New York Daily News she was 'a nice young lady, stable'.

'I would never in a million years believe that she would do something like this,' he told ABC. 'It's the furthest thing from anything I would think she would do, especially with her child in the car. I am floored that it would be her.'

That portrait contrasts starkly with the woman who sent Congressmen diving for coatrooms in the Capitol Building and tourists fleeing in terror after she tried to force her way into an entrance to the White House about 2pm on Tuesday.
Despite the sensitive location, Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine said: 'This appears to be an isolated incident.There is no nexus to terrorism.'
Witnesses say Carey plowed through a temporary barrier and hit a Secret Service agent who was trying to wave her off - sending him flying onto the hood of her car.
The Secret Service opened fire on her car as she turned and fled.
Police pursued her through the streets of Capitol Hill during a frantic chase that hit speeds up to 80pmh.
Video footage shows the Capitol Police officers - who have not been paid since Tuesday because of the government shutdown - surrounded Casey's car - guns drawn. At one point an officer even sticks his weapon inside her open passenger-side window.

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• Miriam Carey: Dental hygienist shot dead on Capitol Hill 'suffered postpartum depression'
• Miriam Carey Thought President Barack Obama was Stalking Her When She Rammed the White House and Capitol Hill
• Capitol Hill shooting: Who was Miriam Carey?
• Capitol Car Chase Driver Had History of Schizophrenia
• Miriam Carey: investigators find schizophrenia, bipolar disorder medications in apartment (VIDEO)
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