Slain U.S. Nazi Millionaire Had Parts for Dirty Bomb.

[JackRiddler]

[compared2what?]

I got two sets of I-hope-not-rumor-mongering questions, arising from curiosity about two untested hypotheses, the first of which has more going for it than the second, imo. And they are:

(1) Basic Money Following Q's:

(a) Did James G. Cummings Sr. make the family fortune from nothing, or did he inherit some capital?

(b) Fort Bragg, CA is a small and low-density population town, with a small police presence. It also has some pretty sweet geographical advantages from a narco-trafficking perspective, and a quick Google indicates it has at least some narco-trafficking gang activity.

But just from a common-sense POV, it's got a lot of features that would be mighty appealing to anyone interested in smuggling anything up the Pacific coast to British Colombia (or vice versa). Practically the whole raison d'etre for the Mexican cartel currently destroying Mexico is that it can take an overland route to (initially) Los Angeles. And from there, Fort Bragg is a nice straight shot up the interstate, as well as an excellent place for the part of the action that's taking a right toward its hubs in Arizona to do that.

So...would the coastal property Cummings Sr. traded in be of any particular value for some tangent of that enterprise?

(c) From what I can gather, the major money is in a trust that owns and operates a trailer park. That's kind of an atypically unstable investment for a trust that has most of its assets in real property. (I think. That's what the reporting suggests. But I can't find much documentation to back it up.) And....I'm not sure how odd it would be if that were the kind of holding on which Cummings Sr. built his real-estate-tycoonery. And it might not be odd at all -- Fort Bragg used to be a mill town (and was very much a part of the OG circuit, wrt both early lumber and railroad mega-fortune-making, neither of which were exactly squeaky clean industries). So there might be a kind of company-store tradition there, in terms of housing arrangements. And the same goes double for the housing needs of whatever transient or seasonal labor force was working for local fishery- and winery-related enterprises.

But the thing is: Those are both really high-potential dual-purpose shady businesses, especially fishing. And the first thing that crosses my mind when I ask myself why someone would make a major long-term investment in mobile-home-park real-estate is that it would present 1001 daily opportunities for exactly the kind of easily concealed small cash transactions that turn large amounts of dirty money into clean and reportable assets and/or income.

Or, to put it in question form: What's up with that, if anything?

I'll put the second, much lamer hypothetical in another post.

[chiggerbit]

"...There's not only not a good explanation, but not even a good excuse for the story not getting major national play. Assuming the report is accurate**. I mean, he got the depleted uranium ON THE INTERNET.."

Do you suppose it's possible that the authorities asked the media to keep mum because they were investigating a Timothy McVeigh-type conspiracy?

[justdrew]

America's Heroine, we need more ladies like this to step up and do what needs done:

Take a look at this steaming pile of shit:

But now it's 2009, Barack Obama is in the White House, and the inventor of chun kuk do is preaching the martial art of insurrection against the U.S. government. He also wants to run for -- and no, I'm not making this up -- "the president of Texas.":

The call by some right wing leaders for rebellion and for the military to refuse the commander in chief’s orders is joined by Chuck Norris who claims that thousands of right wing cell groups have organized and are ready for a second American Revolution. During an appearance on the Glen Beck radio show he promised that if things get any worse from his point of view he may “run for president of Texas.” The martial artist/actor/activist claims that Texas was never formally a part of the United States in the first place and that if rebellion is to come through secession Texas would lead the way.

Norris really comes close to crossing a line with this:
Norris claims that; “Thousands of cell groups will be united around the country in solidarity over the concerns for our nation.” The right wing cells will meet during a live telecast, "We Surround Them," on Friday March 13 at 5 p.m.

He closes with the words of Sam Houston followed by a plug for his next martial arts event.

“We view ourselves on the eve of battle."

You really have to almost laugh at some of this. For eight years, progressives were lambasted -- in the face of the most unpopular and arguably the worst American president since the Civil War -- as victims of "Bush derangement syndrome" or as "Kos Kooks." That was largely because in the face of a government that invaded another nation on bogus pretenses and violated laws on core issues like torture and domestic spying, a few people advocated impeachment, a deliberative process under the U.S. Constitution, and a tiny handful talked about things like moving to Canada.

Meanwhile, less than two months into the Obama administration, right-wingers are stocking the basement pantry, piling up the shotguns and organizing "cells," all with the help of a talk-show host who coincidentially became unhinged after he drove down the ratings at CNN Headline News, something that most people didn't think was possible. There's a lot to hash out in this country over the next few years but it's becoming more and more clear who respects the Constitution, and who does not.
Posted by Will Bunch

Everyone's bound to laugh and joke about these clowns, but knowing what we know about their numbers, joel's army and the rest, the state of mind these people have... We should be CONCERNED and WARY.

Do you suppose it's possible that the authorities asked the media to keep mum because they were investigating a Timothy McVeigh-type conspiracy?

No, they are aiding and abetting if anything.

[compared2what?]

"...There's not only not a good explanation, but not even a good excuse for the story not getting major national play. Assuming the report is accurate**. I mean, he got the depleted uranium ON THE INTERNET.."

Do you suppose it's possible that the authorities asked the media to keep mum because they were investigating a Timothy McVeigh-type conspiracy?

Maybe, but probably not. It was in the Bangor and Fort Bragg press, after all. My guess would be that no one picked it up because it's too much of a deviation from the totally random -- oops -- I mean, thoroughly justified narrative standards for a mass-media dirty-bomb-scare story for it to have really registered as one with the national news media.

They're not very original thinkers, you know? From their point of view, we live in the United States of America, where the white supremacist movement is a politically and culturally marginal group with little if any mainstream hard-news value. So unless they either actually detonate a dirty bomb and/or get more emphatically declared to be enemies of the state by the spokespeople of the state. they're strictly a side-show. And that's that.

Given which, it might even strike them as both a little unseemly and a little irresponsible to depict any plot that had a neo-nazi domestic pedigree as if it were a serious threat to national security or one that might have larger implications for the future.

Especially during wartime. I mean, that role's already taken, you'd just be terrorizing your readers if you added another bogey-man.

Just my subjective take on it, obviously. But it's very characteristic of press-think to fail to grasp that the factor that should make a demonstrable threat to national security newsworthy is that it's demonstrable, not to whom it's demonstrably attributable. And...oops. Forgive me for the superfluous part of the forgoing. Which I do realize isn't much more than a formal exercise in the Telling to Everybody of What They Already Know genre. It kind of got away from me there toward the end.

[compared2what?]

America's Heroine, we need more ladies like this to step up and do what needs done:

I don't know about that. She could have turned him in if her motives were heroic, unless he was practically keeping her in isolated lock-down. Shooting suggests emotional self-interest, and not necessarily in a bad way, but not in any way that indicates she didn't or doesn't have the same views he did.*** If the child is nine, they've been together since they weren't much more than kids themselves.

***Assuming he held them. And I'd like to note that apart from the unsent application, there's not a whole lot of detail on that point. And at least anecdotal-level detail shouldn't be that hard to find. Assuming that he was just your basic, garden-variety lone nut. He'd have posted to websites and ranted at neighbors and so forth. Though he totally might have been a fanatical neo-nazi, anyway. Because there might not be much detail if he were a pro, or had close connections to legitimate money and/or power of an ostensibly non-white-supremacist nature, or something like that. That's one of the things I don't have time to look for signs of.

[nathan28]

"...There's not only not a good explanation, but not even a good excuse for the story not getting major national play. Assuming the report is accurate**. I mean, he got the depleted uranium ON THE INTERNET.."

Do you suppose it's possible that the authorities asked the media to keep mum because they were investigating a Timothy McVeigh-type conspiracy?

Maybe, but probably not. It was in the Bangor and Fort Bragg press, after all. My guess would be that no one picked it up because it's too much of a deviation from the totally random -- oops -- I mean, thoroughly justified narrative standards for a mass-media dirty-bomb-scare story for it to have really registered as one with the national news media.

They're not very original thinkers, you know? From their point of view, we live in the United States of America, where the white supremacist movement is a politically and culturally marginal group with little if any mainstream hard-news value. So unless they either actually detonate a dirty bomb and/or get more emphatically declared to be enemies of the state by the spokespeople of the state. they're strictly a side-show. And that's that.

Given which, it might even strike them as both a little unseemly and a little irresponsible to depict any plot that had a neo-nazi domestic pedigree as if it were a serious threat to national security or one that might have larger implications for the future.

Especially during wartime. I mean, that role's already taken, you'd just be terrorizing your readers if you added another bogey-man.

Just my subjective take on it, obviously. But it's very characteristic of press-think to fail to grasp that the factor that should make a demonstrable threat to national security newsworthy is that it's demonstrable, not to whom it's demonstrably attributable. And...oops. Forgive me for the superfluous part of the forgoing. Which I do realize isn't much more than a formal exercise in the Telling to Everybody of What They Already Know genre. It kind of got away from me there toward the end.

Or, it could be, that the press has been finagled into not covering the far right in US because the far right was so heavily penetrated by Them that there is a do-not-look sentiment going around[/extra-heavy tinfoil]

aren't dirty bombs a hoax?

[justdrew]

I mean, he got the depleted uranium ON THE INTERNET.

once that would have been the focus of reporting and all the chum required. Today, it would have been necessary for him to have got it on Craigslist, then it would have been a feeding frenzy for a week or two.

[compared2what?]

Okey-doke. My other set of questions doesn't even really rise to the level of hypothesis. But I'd really, really like to know more about his family background. In particular, how far back the money and class privilege goes, as well as where and how it was acquired.

There's a Cummings, California, on what was the Redwood Highway. As seen here:



For example. And I wonder for whom it was named. Especially how long there might have been Cummings's with big money in that part of the world before Standard Oil came into the picture, and if there were, what their associations were.

Most old-for-California family money came from some kind of monkey business, originally, anyway.*** If that's where they're from.

And no matter where they or their money came from originally, two shooting deaths in two generations should raise at least a general question about where it was coming from recently, imo.

ON EDIT: *** In all fairness, that's not actually unique to Californians. I really meant that most old-for-California money was made after the Civil War, and some of it on booms that didn't really get going until as late as the 1920s. Or arguably, even the 1940s, although that's kind of pushing a point. My point was more that they're not many generations away from whatever monkey business practically all family money everywhere comes from originally.

[SonicG]

I was a bit frightened to open this thread and yes, once again, the liberal mass media pillories a decent, god-a-fearing christian for just doing what is best for America...BUT seriously, imagine the outcry if say, if some fantasy world, Ward Churchill or even Noam Chomsky uttered equivalent words. It is the combination of his thinking and this guy's easy access to dirty bomb parts that should make Americans step back and take a look at the "pro-wrestling" of politics (hat tip to A.:.A) before it does get "real".
Oh BTW Norris was a Ron Paul supporter

[chiggerbit]

Wish I had more to go on. I found this on a James Cummings:

James CUMMINGS
Birth Date: 23 Nov 1945
Death Date: Sep 1986
Social Security Number: 562-64-9452
State or Territory Where Number Was Issued: California

Death Residence Localities
ZIP Code: 95838
Localities: Sacramento, Sacramento, California

[chiggerbit]

Sorry, it looks like the death date doesn't add up for the above Cummings--ten years too soon, right?

[brainpanhandler]

http://www.amazon.com/Uranium-Ore/dp/B000796XXM

http://www.imagesco.com/geiger/radioactive-sources.html

From the reviews on Amazon:

Passed by Prime (Klaproth's Limerick)

There once was a man named Klaproth
Who cooked up some pitchblende-y broth
This bright German fellow
Mixed cake that was yellow
And found something new in the froth

He'd already discovered Titanium
Because of the size of his cranium
So not wanting to strain us
He thought of Uranus
And called his new product "Uranium"

Now Amazon's got it in stock
I'll admit that one came as a shock
An ore in a tin
Radioactive within
With a four-million year ticking clock

I just noticed while writing this rhyme
That this product ain't covered by Prime
Though small, it's got weight
So you'll pay lots for freight
And spending that much is a crime

So although I'd have wanted much more
Than this tiny container of ore
I'll have to make do
With one U 92
For my Geiger device checking chore

But if science is your main ambition
Since Amazon gives you permission
Please cover your a$$
If you want to tint glass
And you can't tell your fusion from fission





Amanda Richards, December 12, 2007

[wintler2]

To save anyone making same mistake i did, the Calif. city Fort Bragg isn't the N.Carolina army base same name that is home of US Army Special Operations Command, Airborne and Special Operations Forces, Psychological Warfare Center, etc.

Fort Bragg Calif. is quite small (7000 ppl) and largely white

..79.46% White, 1.04% Black or African American, 1.85% Native American, 0.88% Asian, 0.14% Pacific Islander, 12.06% from other races, and 4.57% from two or more races. 22.72% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Bragg,_California

CAn't answer any of yr questions c2w, but they're good ones. Where did the Cummings money come from?

[chiggerbit]

Here's a part I don't get:

Business Category: Pension/Health/Welfare Fund Trailer Park/Campsites Repair Services in Fort Bragg, CA