Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

The lights are all blinking red.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

So very ready.

The National Guard is not Batman.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / The NC Sharks Aren’t Threatening Enough White Teenagers

The NC Sharks Aren’t Threatening Enough White Teenagers

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That last batch of tweets reminded me that I meant to link to this NYTimes story:

Alex, a 23-year-old Sunday school teacher and babysitter, was trembling with excitement the day she told her Twitter followers that she had converted to Islam…

One in particular, Faisal, had become her nearly constant companion, spending hours each day with her on Twitter, Skype and email, painstakingly guiding her through the fundamentals of the faith…

The only Muslims she knew were those she had met online, and he encouraged her to keep it that way, arguing that Muslims are persecuted in the United States. She could be labeled a terrorist, he warned, and for now it was best for her to keep her conversion secret, even from her family. So on his guidance, Alex began leading a double life…

Even though the Islamic State’s ideology is explicitly at odds with the West, the group is making a relentless effort to recruit Westerners into its ranks, eager to exploit them for their outsize propaganda value. Through January this year, at least 100 Americans were thought to have traveled to join jihadists in Syria and Iraq, among nearly 4,000 Westerners who had done so.

The reach of the Islamic State’s recruiting effort has been multiplied by an enormous cadre of operators on social media. The terrorist group itself maintains a 24-hour online operation, and its effectiveness is vastly extended by larger rings of sympathetic volunteers and fans who pass on its messages and viewpoint, reeling in potential recruits, analysts say…

But then, as TNR reported some months ago, “The FBI Keeps Arresting Hapless Jihadi Fanboys and Calling Them ISIS Recruits“…

… U.S. officials regularly tout the dangers of domestic terrorists and lone wolves. “Homegrown violent extremists continue to pose the most likely threat to the homeland,” Clapper told a Senate committee in February. FBI Directory James Comey echoed that line when addressing another Congressional committee: “The threat from homegrown violent extremists is of particular concern.” Media tend to repeat those claims on face value. An ABC report on Wolfe’s paraphrases unnamed law enforcement officials who posit that “young men and women could possibly return home [from Syria], freshly trained in deadly operations, and unleash havoc on the homeland.”

Homegrown. Homeland. The FBI wants you to remember where it’s fighting this battle. The Bureau has evolved from an agency focused on law enforcement to one focused on counterterrorism, which now commands $3.3 billion annually, or 40 percent of the total operating budget, according to a 2014 report from Human Rights Watch. Busts like Wolfe’s help the Bureau justify the billions spent on preventing terrorist attacks.

Yet a close examination of Wolfe’s case, as well as numerous similar cases, call into question the threat posed by homegrown extremists. The recent cases, taken as a whole, describe an intelligence agency indulging in borderline entrapment. The FBI is conflating jihadi fanboys on social media with serious threats to national security; to make cases, the FBI relies heavily on paid informants acting in their own self-interest. The feds are flexing to show they can prevent terror attacks—a mission only made more difficult when the Bureau overreaches, sowing suspicion in communities it is tasked with protecting…

Since 9/11 the FBI has repeatedly used informants to manufacture plots for targets who would never have been capable of carrying them out on their own. “Of 508 defendants prosecuted in federal terrorism-related cases in the decade after 9/11, 243 were involved with an FBI informant, while 158 were the targets of sting operations,” writes Trevor Aaronson, a journalist who has studied the FBI’s use of informants. As the enemy du jour has shifted from Al Qaeda to ISIS, the practice still appears to be common in FBI terrorism arrests…

Reader Interactions

204Comments

  1. 1.

    Mike in NC

    Re: shark attacks. We’ve lived in this little beach town for seven years and most summers have seen no shark activity, or maybe one incident. So far there have been eight at the Outer Banks and Inner Banks (islands south of Wilmington). Weird.

  2. 2.

    srv

    PEAK REDDIT UNLOCKED! Actually, locked…

    Why hasn’t Balloon-Juice gone dark yet? Do you not realize dozens of reddit subreddits have gone dark in a massive protest by moderators against an admin firing?

    What if ISIS is behind this?

  5. 5.

    KG

    @Mike in NC: we’ve been getting more than a few sightings here in Southern California too

    @srv: um, honest question: why in the blue bloody hell should we give a flying fuck about reddit?

  7. 7.

    FlipYrWhig

    @efgoldman: but then there’s the whole Africa thing, like King Kong and the ravished white maiden. It’s surprising to see a gorilla-themed propaganda image that has nothing to do with race…

  12. 12.

    srv

    @KG: The Social nexus of the internets is collapsing – unpaid moderators revolting against the oppressive system that enslaves them.

    This is your kids’ 9/11, and you’re just… whut?

  15. 15.

    gratuitous

    I discern a certain commonality between these breathless news reports, the overreaction this morning at the Naval Ship Yard, and the nincompoopery of conservative has-been floating back to the top of the septic tank. Our society is increasingly fragmented (Hannah Arendt called it “atomized”), and many people feel isolated and on their own.

    We’re told to be very afraid, but in contrast to times past when we were encouraged to stick together, we’re told to go it alone on our own, because you never know who you can trust. You are certainly not supposed to trust the government, in spite of the fact that when someone’s town gets flooded or blown off the map, it’s the government that arrives first to succor the survivors and restore order. Not to mention the fact that so many of the clowns we elect to government are so untrustworthy that it’s no wonder Fox gets to play their “government bad” schtick for decades.

    We need to change things. I don’t know if ISIS recruitment is really a thing, but it’s not surprising that some directionless young people, no prospects, will cast about for something, anything that might come along.

  18. 18.

    Xenos

    @efgoldman: There was a very effective policy to turn WWI into some sort of international race war against The Hun. I am not an expert on the times in question, but the big surge in free-market racism in the 1920s seems to have been encouraged by official federal government policies of racialist propaganda and frankly racist federal policies during the Wilson administration.

    A real SOB, that guy.

  20. 20.

    Helen

    @Little Boots:

    Holy crap. So I say to myownself “he does not mean the Sultans of Swing.” Jeepers dude, how the hell old are you?

    As old as me, apparently.

  23. 23.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Helen: Probably older. But the first Dire Straits album holds holds up very well. Some things are timeless. Coltrane’s version of My Favorite Things? Who cares when it was recorded.

  31. 31.

    Major Major Major Major

    When I was getting my wisdom teeth out the surgeon was like “so, any music preference for while I operate?” And I was like “uh, well, um… that Dire Straits live album?”

    The last thing I remember hearing was the intro to Sultans. No, I didn’t just age myself–it’s just that good.

  41. 41.

    Helen

    @Little Boots:

    Fleetwood Mac. Dixie Chicks. Landslide.

    Four years ago I was driving to VA with my 80 year old Dad (real Dad – not Joe Biden Dad). Playing the Dixie Chicks.

    When Landslide comes on Dad says “I know that song” Good answer Dad. He remembered Fleetwood Mac from, what year????

    I actually like the DC version of Landslide better than the FM version. And I love FM.

    But not nearly as much as I love Corner Stone.

  45. 45.

    Little Boots

    but you know what, omnes, irrestible, I know, I know, but he is.

    he hates that, but he is.

  54. 54.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Steeplejack: Obviously, I saw it. Both of your comments appeared right after I went to bed. I read them in my morning(really it was still morning).

  62. 62.

    srv

    @Corner Stone: He’s a fed, looking for the next silk roader.

    Winter arrived early this year. Never visit SF in August. But I’m going up to the Napa ranch tomorrow, so it will be 90.

  64. 64.

    Steeplejack

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I haven’t rolled back to 4.4.4 yet. I made it a point to be on the tablet a lot today, and it seems to be working okay. There are some noticeable longueurs on Balloon Juice, but, hell, that could be Balloon Juice. I look at the desktop site on the tablet, but it acts a little different (with Chrome) than it does on my ThinkPad (with Firefox).

    I posed the question to you because I know you’re always rooting, rebooting, etc., and I thought you might have some hands-on experience.

  70. 70.

    Helen

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Beautiful. Thank you.

    “Feckless Thug” My most favorite phrase. Thought about it recently.

    “Two Cathedrals” One of the best TV episodes ever.

  76. 76.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    That is my new favorite word with the housecat. “Here is a yooge helping of wet food.” “I gave you a yooge taste of milk a while ago.” “Who’s a yooge cat? You are!” She is not a yooge cat.

  80. 80.

    Little Boots

    Omnes, I’m still listening, it is incredibly beautiful.

    I hate you right now.

  83. 83.

    Helen

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I remember BW TV. I also remember watching the civil rights riots in 1968. The water cannons and the dogs. And I clearly remember comforting myself by saying in my head “We are a new country, we just haven’t figured out how to get along.”

    Then I learned about world history.

  101. 101.

    opiejeanne

    @Little Boots: That was played incessantly on one particular radio station at the beginning of our invasion of Iraq.

    Oh wait. Was it played when we went to Kuwait? Now I can’t remember, but probably the latter.

  103. 103.

    Helen

    My second best West Wing moment. Regarding the War on Terrorism:

    The Joint Chief of Staff:(beautifully played by John Amos) “I don’t know who the world’s leading expert on warfare is, but that list must include me and I can’t tell if it’s peacetime or war.”

    youtube.com/watch?v=vN8U-TSbfwE

  109. 109.

    opiejeanne

    @Little Boots: I didn’t say that to be mean, it was merely a reminiscence. my husband was living 400 miles away because that’s where his new job was, and I was living in our house with our three kids in Riverside, trying to sell that house so we could be with him.

    I also remember staying awake for three nights straight during the Rodney King riots. I have no idea what was on the radio at that time. The second night everything in town closed down before 4pm and everyone was edgy even though we were so far away from the trouble. That night I went outside several times to listen (we lived in the downtown area) and it was eerily quiety. No noise from the freeway, no dogs barking, almost no noise at all.

  116. 116.

    srv

    Fireworks won’t be the only thing exploding soon:

    Chinese stocks fell again on Friday, as the securities regulator said it was investigating suspected market manipulation amid increasingly desperate attempts by Beijing to head off a full-blown crash.

    After a slump of nearly 30 percent in Chinese stocks since mid-June, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has set up a team to look at “clues of illegal manipulation across markets.”

    The end is nigh. Surely someone has a good song to mark this event.

  120. 120.

    Little Boots

    @srv:

    apparently the rich think the government will bail them out.

    wonder where they ever got that idea?

  123. 123.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Steeplejack: Don’t go back to 4.4.4, 5.1.x is much better wrt performance and battery usage. Also, don’t run the battery ALL the way down, you might end up having to replace the battery. If the problem is only with one app(Chrome) you can try to wipe cache and data in ManageApps in Settings. If that doesn’t solve the problem, next I’d try to remove and re-update the app. The last thing I’d do, if you’re not rooted, is to do a factory reset. If you’re rooted, you can wipe the caches in recovery. Make sure you do a backup before a factory reset or ANYTHING in recovery.

  130. 130.

    Villago Delenda Est

    If you’re looking to be serious about domestic terrorists, you go after assholes waving the Confederate swastika, and you go after the NRA.

    Everything else is marginal.

  141. 141.

    Steeplejack

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Thanks for the input. I’ll try wiping Chrome’s cache and data and see what happens. I don’t know about removing and reinstalling it; it came with the tablet and has been auto-updated since. So I’m assuming it’s a “safe,” well-behaved app. I guess the final step will be a factory reset. I’ll let you know how it goes. The main thing was I was wondering if there was some double-secret master stroke that I was overlooking.

  150. 150.

    mclaren

    Home grown violent extremists DO continue to pose the most likely threat to the homeland. Homegrown violent extremists like Ann Coulter. Homegrown violent extremists like Glenn Beck. Homegrown violent extremists like Michelle Bachmann. Homegrown violent extremists like Rush Limbaugh. Homegrown violent extremists like Rand Paul. Homegrown violent extremists like John Boehner. Homegrown violent extremists like William Kristol. Homegrown violent extremists like John Hinderaker. Homegrown violent extremists like Glenn Reynolds. Homegrown violent extremists like the head of the NRA. Homegrown violent extremists like the Bush crime family.

    But these people are all white, so we’re not allowed to talk about them.

  151. 151.

    mclaren

    @srv:

    The end is nigh. Surely someone has a good song to mark this event.

    It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine) by R.E.M.

    Alternatively, The End by The Doors.

    Or possibly Reign In Blood by Slayer.

    But really, Reign In Blood should be our national anthem.

  173. 173.

    Steeplejack

    @Helen:

    Bob Crewe? He did a lot of writing and producing for the Four Seasons. This was his only hit that I remember. Really takes me back.

  177. 177.

    Steeplejack

    Damn, now I’ve screwed around so long that I have to wake up the housecat to go to bed. So wrong. But she hates to wake up and find that I have “abandoned” her.

  191. 191.

    Little Boots

    @Steeplejack:

    I’m needy. You knew that, going in. you knew that.

    I know you should sleep, but I don’t want you to. is that selfish?

  199. 199.

    opiejeanne

    @Helen: I loved that show, but never saw it when it was on the air. We binge-watched it last year on Netflix.

    Right now we are watching The Newsroom. We’re on the third episode of the first season and are shouting in recognition at the political nonsense being called out.

  204. 204.

    bjacques

    Getting back to that gorilla with the kultur club (sorry)…

    Why did he carry a swooning woman all the way to America? And how did be manage it without getting her hair or dress wet?

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