The Gods of Coincidence demand you stay skeptical

I'm recycling this story from the 10th anniversary of 9/11 as a reminder. Giuliani and George W, the two politicians who most effectively milked the disaster to revive flagging careers, are all over the television, taking their place among the galaxy of heroes. Christ, who wasn't a hero on 9/11? Today I learned that even the regular folks who did nothing more heroic than go to their office jobs that Tuesday morning are heroes. The politicians can stand there and laud the heroism of the first responders, even as several levels of government and the private insurance industry connive to deny them proper health care for terminal illnesses that are the direct result of their heroism at ground zero. And on it goes with the by now tiresome recitation of the names of the victims. Just the 9/11 victims, mind you. The good guys. The heroes. The office worker or the waitress or the prep chef or the janitor who just happened to call the twin towers their workplace. Well over 6,000 American servicemen and women have given their lives in the wars of vengeance that followed 9/11. When do we read their names? Six thousand Americans dead to avenge the deaths of three thousand Americans. The math doesn't really add up in my book. But at least we've laid some serious hurtin' on the towel-heads. They've been sent to heaven by the hundreds of thousands. That'll teach them to fuck with the big dog. Too bad the big dog had to go broke to teach them that lesson. So on this day-long celebration of heroism lets not forget to raise a toast to the Gods of Coincidence, who after all, had a very busy day on 9/11. Possibly their busiest day ever. How nineteen Muslim terrorists overcame the combined defences of dozens of security agencies is surely a coincidence of the highest order, especially when all of them had been on the radar of an alphabet soup of Western intelligence agencies for years. How indestructible flight recorders can be vaporized while Mohamed Atta's passport floats safely to earth. How hi-jacked aircraft can mosey through the most highly defended air-space in the world without being challenged. How massive steel columns hundreds of feet away from any impact or fire could spontaneously and simultaneously fail. Coincidence, coincidence, coincidence. A busy day indeed for the Gods of Coincidence. Stay skeptical, my friends

7 World Trade Center and Frankel Steel

Long before I was a high school teacher or a house-builder or a ship-yard worker, I served a spell at the Frankel Steel fab shop in Milton, Ontario.

During my tenure, that shop did the structural steel for a Trump casino in Atlantic City, an addition to the Toyota plant in Cambridge, and various towers in New York City.

One of those towers was 7 World Trade Center, which would get famous almost twenty years later.

Quite aside from the fame, that project was memorable because some of the structural columns were far from ordinary. Apparently the building was going up over a subway station or power station or something, and you had some really interesting stuff to figure out to make that happen. As a fitter-welder, I had to do math I’d never imagined before, just to get the angles on the connector plates right.

About a year into my stay at Frankel, an opening came up in the QC department for a welding inspector. I wrote a CWB exam and got a Level 2 Welding Inspector ticket and had the job.

I was relatively young and naive, and liked the job, and therefore tried to do it better than anyone had ever done it before.

Big mistake. To be honest, I should have known better. By that point I was well acquainted with shop-floor culture.

Doing a bang-up job resulted in me doing 3X the inspections of the guy on the opposite shift, who’d been an inspector for twenty years. Inspector was a bargaining unit job, and you simply don’t make your union brothers look bad.

That was the shop-floor code.

The head of QC, while not in the bargaining unit, may have been getting nervous that this keener was just a little too keen.

I was in the habit of leaving well-written and highly entertaining reports for the head of QC. He seemed to enjoy them. One night I left a note recommending he get lawn chairs for the welders, so they could stay out of my way while I’m doing inspections.

When I got to work at 4 pm next day, every welder on the shop floor had a copy of that hilarious note. None of them found it amusing.

I did the only honourable thing I could do at that point; fall on my sword. That was my last day at Frankel Steel.

It only occurred to me recently that there may have been more than shop-floor etiquette in play.

During my brief tenure as an inspector, I had flagged three columns in the shipping yard that were fabricated on lower grade H-beams than what the specs called for. If the engineers specify a certain sheer strength in the steel there’s probably a reason.

Those cheaper H-beams saved a lot of money. Maybe I had to go because using lower grade steel was more than an innocent mistake? 

Flight School at Falling Downs

It's that time of the year when the geese begin training up for their Florida winter vacations. Once they're off, they'll be beshitting the beaches, golf courses, and sundry public spaces in Florida and the Carolinas for the next several months.

But before they can do that, they gotta figure out the "V" formation.

We witnessed a test flight today where the "V" looked more like an alphabet soup, but not to worry.

They'll figure it out and they'll be happily spreading their feces all over the southern states in a month, as if those folks don't have enough on their plates already.

Speaking of which, the 'mericans are celebrating 9/11 today, the 20th anniversary. Those Saudi dudes who piloted those passenger jets into the twin towers had never before piloted jets, and according to their flight school records, had a lot of issues landing a Cessna.

Go figure...

And how about lead terrorist Mohammad Atta's passport falling safely to earth after he crashed his jet...

Really?

Hark, the war drums beckon!

Big Steve and a gaggle of like-minded neocon has-beens wasted no time offering Mafia Don props on a job well done.

Trump abrogates the Iran deal on Tuesday and Harper & Company have their rancid diatribe in the New York Times the very next day!

Only the greatest leader since Moses was quicker off the mark than this sorry lot; he managed to launch a major missile attack on Syria even before Harper et al launched their bought and paid for op-ed!

And who can blame him? After Trump's announcement of the US embassy move, after Trump delivers the imbecile MBS to the Israeli camp, after Trump unilaterally dumps the JCPOA agreement, Bibi obviously sees green lights all over the place.

No wonder they love Trump in Israel!

Harper is concerned that Iran "oppresses its people" and "commits violence against the people of Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon..."

Hmm... does Iran oppress its people more than, say, Saudi Arabia?

Is the war on Yemen not a Saudi project?

Has not the US committed far greater violence against the people of Iraq than has Iran?

And no one has inflicted more death and destruction on Lebanon than our good friends, the Israelis.

Even though fifteen of nineteen 9/11 terrorists were Saudis, and none were Iranian, Saudi Arabia is our ally, and Iran is the enemy?

But forget all these trifles! The free world must come together as one and teach those uppity Persians a lesson they won't soon forget.


I'll bet old Eric Arthur Blair is enjoying the greatest stiffy of his life, even though he's been in the grave nearly seventy years!

What if they played the national anthem and NOBODY stood up?

It's quite the thing that Colin Kaepernik got started, isn't it? Americans publicly displaying their contempt for their ruling elites by refusing to stand for the anthem. Kaepernik has been joined by other NFL players and soccer star Megan Rapinoe, as well as an enlisted sailor who may well pay a high personal price for her act of defiance.

Not only that, but there are rumours afoot that the entire Seattle Seahawks roster will decline to stand at an exhibition game on Sunday, the 15th anniversary of 9/11.

Frankly, while this is all symbolism, it's highly significant. Americans have become totally inured to reflexively honouring the flag, the anthem, the men and women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice to supposedly keep America free... free from a decent public education system, free from universal health care, free from racial justice, social justice, and economic justice, and free from having to take responsibility for the devastation they have visited on vast swaths of the planet over the past fifty years.

The times they are a changing.

You'll know it's over for the plutocracy when the NASCAR boys choose to put a knee to the tarmac during the pre-race patriotism ritual.

Four days on, Dubai skyscraper gutted by fire still standing

Silly me!

I went on the record a couple of times predicting the imminent collapse of that 63 floors of steel and glass.

After all, that's what happens when steel and glass buildings go up in flames, isn't it?

So, my face is red... sorry folks!

Obviously it takes a lot more than a fire to bring down one of those!

Why Jon Stewart is wrong about Dylan Roof's terrorist cred

The word "terrorism" is one of those slippery handles that serves many masters.

It is always a term intended to heap shit on the people you're talking about. I think the English teachers call that a "pejorative."

It's a propaganda term, a political term.

That's why we time and again see last year's terrorist morph into next year's statesman, as has happened in the Middle East and in the UK, and most noticeably to Nelson Mandela.

Terrorist today. Icon of freedom, hope, democracy, everything good under the sun the next day.

So what happens when we apply this slippery propaganda term to Dylan Storm Roof?

As in, "Dylan Roof is a terrorist."

What does that word mean to America?

Terror/terrorist/terrorism.

That's what America has been fighting a no-holds-barred battle against since 9/11, is it not?

Terrorists.

Evildoers.

When we affix that label to Dylan Roof, we excise him from the body of that great dysfunctional family known as America. That label marks him as an outsider, an enemy, someone we've been fighting for years.

That's not who Dylan Roof is.

Dylan Roof is very much a member of that dysfunctional family.

Dylan Roof is every bit as American as apple pie and the second amendment.

Calling him a "terrorist" allows America to avoid looking at itself.

Casual encounters with Homeland Security

Here's a perfect example of mission creep.

Or maybe a perfect example of creeper missions.

Either way, you have to wonder if it's the place for the Department of Homeland Security.

As you recall, Homeland Security was invented round the time of the 9/11 attacks on the Homeland. Coincidentally, that was also around the time when anyone anywhere first began to refer to the USA as the "Homeland."

Before that it was just America.

"Homeland" always had a bit of a Reifenstahlian ring to it, at least to my ear. "Homeland" has a statist odor usually associated with totalitarian dictatorships of one stripe or another.

Let's circle the wagons and defend the Homeland!

The mandate for America's Department of Homeland Security is to keep America safe from internal threats. And God knows, that as the last bastion for freedom on this planet, and an open society to boot, lots of threats may have slipped in while America was busy watching the Super Bowl or something.

So what is Homeland Security doing these days to keep the Homeland safe?

According to this story, they're keeping America safe by posting bogus adverts on Canadian websites hinting that there may be under-age nooky available in the USA!

Sure enough, Kuldip Singh Mahal, a doomed schmuck from BC, sees the ad and takes the bait.

Now, I don't mean to raise the ire of the forces of political correctitude, but just looking at the guy's name, it seems to me he comes from one of those cultures where their concept of "age of consent" bears little or no resemblance to ours.

The dude is looking for a bride! Ya, he's 47, the potential bride is 12, but that's how they roll in some of those foreign cultures. Why is it our job to judge that?

More importantly, why has it become part of Homeland Security's mandate to entrap foreigners into fanciful child exploitation cases?

There is absolutely nothing about this case that contributes in any way to keeping America safe from the scourge of international terror.

Seems Homeland Security has strayed way beyond its original mandate.

Canada celebrates 100 years of fighting terrorism!

Well before 9/11, Canada was knee-deep in the yet undeclared war on terror. Here's the nitty-gritty;

Werner Horn's St. Croix bridge bombing in WW I happened 100 years ago today

Rail bridge between New Brunswick and Maine targeted by Germans as possible route for Japanese army

CBC News

Posted:Feb 02, 2015 1:02 PM AT

Last Updated:Feb 02, 2015 2:23 PM AT

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the bombing of a train bridge on the Maine-New Brunswick border during the First World War.

The bridge between Vanboro, Maine, and St. Croix, N.B., that German agent Werner Horn attempted to sabotage during the First World War. (Submitted by Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society)

In the early-morning hours of Feb. 2, 1915, German agent Werner Horn and his Irish accomplice planted a large satchel of explosives on the CPR train bridge between Vanceboro, Maine, and St. Croix, N.B., says Brent Wilson, director of the New Brunswick Military Heritage project at the University of New Brunswick's Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society.

They thought they could take out a strategic supply line to the Canadian war effort, says Wilson.

Japan had recently entered the war and the conspirators misguidedly thought a Japanese army might soon be using the rail line to get to the Western Front.

The group actually planned to destroy several bridges along the New Brunswick-Maine border, including those in St. Stephen, Debec and Perth Andover.

The conspirators gathered beforehand in Portland, Me., where the plan was actually given up, partly due to the cold, windy weather, says Wilson.

Werner Horn was convicted of attempting to sabotage the rail between between St. Croix, N.B., and Vanceboro, Maine, during the First World War. (Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society)

Horn, however, missed that meeting, says Wilson, and didn't realize the operation had been cancelled.

The bomb went off, damaging, but not destroying the bridge. It was closed for a few days for repairs. It also shattered shop windows in Vanceboro and St. Croix. 

It didn't take long for the authorities to figure out who was behind the incident.

They had seen Horn arrive in the community a few days earlier and were suspicious of him already. He was quickly arrested by Maine police before he had a chance to move on to St. Stephen-Calais.

Put on trial in Fredericton 

Horn was put on trial in the U.S. for the property damage caused in Vanceboro, and held for a few years, during which time the Canadian and British governments presented the Americans with arguments he was part of a major German government conspiracy, using the U.S. as a springboard for espionage against Canada.

Three or four years later, Horn was extradited to New Brunswick. He was put on trial in Fredericton, convicted and sentenced to 10 years in the Dorchester Penitentiary.

The German government interceded on his behalf, and by 1921, Horn was deported to Germany, a very sick man. He had been officially classified as insane, but was later discovered to be in the advanced stages of syphilis, says Wilson.

Horn faded into history, says Wilson, but the effect of his attack was to help awaken American officials to the fact that Germans were using agents, including the military attaché in Washington, Franz von Papen, to organize activities aimed at conducting attacks on Canada.

Von Papen was said to be the mastermind of the bombing.

The incident was a clear violation of American neutrality, says Wilson, and served to worsen relations between Germany and the United States and push the Americans slowly towards supporting the Allied cause.

The U.S. eventually entered the war in 1917.

-------------

Meanwhile, fast forward 100 years, and the Government of Canada has some genuine towel-head terror-types on trial.  Esseghaier and Jaser (very Germanic names for towellers, wouldn't you agree?) were gonna blow up a rail line between Toronto and New York, but unlike their Germanic counterparts of 100 years ago, they were, evil evil-doers that they apparently are, gonna pull this off while a passenger train chock full 'o passengers were on those very rails they were plotting to blow up!

Oh, the pure evil of it all!

Alas, the trial is merely at day one, so we are a long way from hearing from the multiple police informants who were no doubt paid millions to frame up our latest terrorists.

How does Dr. Paul Craig Roberts come up with his crazy conspiracy theories?

Hey, just because the dude was once an associate editor of the Wall Street Journal doesn't mean he knows anything.

Roberts has been running amok all over the internet lately insinuating that the Charlie Hebdo operation may not have been what we have been led to believe it was.

For Roberts and others of his ilk, this excerpt from a 12.1.15 CNN International story provides all sorts of fodder for speculative innuendo;

Authorities have released few details on why they've zeroed in on the Kouachi brothers. But they have pointed to one key clue found inside a getaway car the gunmen apparently used: Said Kouachi's identification card. It was discovered by investigators as they combed the vehicle for clues after impounding it.

"It was their only mistake," said Dominique Rizet, BFMTV's police and justice consultant, reporting that discovering the ID had helped French investigators

Damn! Of all the things that could fall out of one's pocket in the midst of a terror op, why does it always have to be the ID card!

Not a set of house keys, not a crumpled receipt from the deli, not a condom packet, not some loose change, not a bag of weed, but the goddam ID card for fucks sakes!

Here's a Guardian story from 2002 about the happy coincidences that abound when the Nations of Virtue are investigating terror attacks. Not least among the happy coincidences post 9/11 was the fortuitous coincidence of Mohamed Atta's passport fluttering safely and unsinged to earth, there to be picked up in the midst of all those mountains of 9/11 rubble by a particularly sharp-eyed investigator!

Folks, this can not be mere coincidence. Nor is it evidence of "conspiracy." 

This is the hand of God at work in our world!

Let's drink a toast to Lou Upper

Who the hell is Lou Upper?

Don't know. Never met the man. But according to the web-site of Niagara Steel he is now their guy in charge of special projects.

And here's why we're drinking that toast; Lou has been with the company since 1959!

Let me back up a bit. My journey to the Niagara Steel web-site started with a story about ADF Steel Fabricators being sued by the folks putting up the "Freedom Tower". That's the new build on the site of the 9/11 attacks.

Right away we've got interlinking stories that capture my attention. Canadian structural steel companies building American landmarks is way up there. As long-time readers will recall I was at Frankel Steel when we built the skeleton for Seven WTC, the building that inexplicably collapsed late in the afternoon of 9/11.

So the Freedom Tower needs this Canadian steel that will bring it up to 1776 feet, which the hoary sentimentalists in charge of this stuff have deemed the appropriate height for the building.

ADF Steel isn't shipping until the developers pay up their outstanding tab.

That got me wondering about the state of employment opportunities in the steel fabrication trades. It's something I've been away from for awhile.

ADF is looking for fitters and welders.

Wondered what else was out there, and that's how I got to Niagara Steel. Seems they have some opportunities too.

And they've got Lou!

In these turbulent times this guy has managed to put in his entire working career with one employer. Well over fifty years.

I had my first steel fab job in the early seventies. Lou was an old hand by then. My experience was that welders and steel-fitters who were any good were always able to find a job and make a decent wage. I did that over twenty years and from the east coast to the west coast.

From what I hear from younger folks coming back from Alberta, it's still possible to make that decent wage today.

Mind you, there are some skills required. You can't bullshit welding and you can't bullshit fitting. At the end of the day you built it right or it ain't going to work.

If it doesn't work you'll be unemployed shortly.

Lou must have known his stuff. And Niagara must be a decent gig, because Lou would have had lots of opportunities to go elsewhere.

Looks to me like there are still lots of opportunities. I'm tempted to dust off my resume... I can smell those low-hydrogen rods sizzling already!

It disturbs me that the Harper gang is succumbing to the industry's call to allow foreign steel-fitters into the country. I've got nothing against immigrants; me and most of the guys I worked with were immigrants. All of them when you look at the big picture.

But bringing guys in from Hungary and Romania and Poland when you should be training young Canadians to do this work just isn't right.

I'd like to know what Lou thinks about that.

Seven World Trade Center

I was nodding off in front of the television the other night when the BBC documentary "The Third Tower" came on, all about the so-called conspiracy theories re what made this building drop in its footprint on 9/11. I had to run out to the shed to see if the project decal was still on my toolbox nearly thirty years later. Sure enough! Seven World Trade Center it says across the top. Silverstein Tishman Frankel Steel Structures it says across the bottom. In between is an architect's rendering of the completed tower. My God, I've touched history with my own two hands! And controversial history, apparently.

The steel for WTC 7 came out of the Frankel fab shop in Milton. I did some time there in the mid eighties, first as a fitter and then as an inspector. Overall it wasn't a bad gig. The plant manager was a guy the lads had nick-named Bunglaow Bill, which we thought a witty allusion to the fact that he knew absolutely nothing about steel fabrication or high-rise construction. It was rumoured he got his job because he was a golfing buddy of the company president and had the good judgement to let the president win regularly. I suppose sucking up to the boss is still an important part of making it up the managerial ladder, but back in the day it was often the only qualification required.

The WTC 7 job was memorable because it was a steel-fitter's nightmare. Part of the building sat astride a power station that couldn't be disturbed. The load-bearing columns had to work around this, which resulted in all sorts of funky angles in the connector plates. There was many a night of heavy-duty head-scratching to endure as that job was going through the shop.

I'm bemused by the rancour that these so-called conspiracy theories attract. When you watch the show  the only thing that is beyond dispute is that the building fell into it's footprint. After that, I think it's the official story that should draw derision, not the conspiracy theories. I'm sure that the farther away you are from ever having worked with steel the easier it is to believe the building just fell down, but just for fun ask any steel-fitter or iron-worker what they think. It takes a LOT of heat to compromise a steel beam, and it'll turn rubbery long before that happens. Nothing I saw in the documentary ever got rubbery - just poof, straight down. The structural columns in a building like this can weigh four or five tons apiece. Sorry folks, this stuff doesn't just fall over because there was a fire on the other side of the building for a few hours.

So for sure there are some mysteries to be solved here, but the think tank here at Falling Downs has come up with a plan; give Larry Silverstein a ride on the old waterboard. Maybe treat Rudy Giuliani to a dunk too, just to see if his memories match Larry's. Don't knock waterboarding. It got us Osama, after all. It can get us to the bottom of this mystery too.