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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   26424 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 4, 2023

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If the deep state is really as powerful and good at working in shadows as some people think, why is Trump even still alive? Couldn't such a powerful organization manage to kill him in some way that looks like a plausible sudden health failure of some kind? More kinetic means such as arranging a car accident would be too likely to draw outrage from his supporters, but what if he just suddenly had a heart attack or something? I don't know how possible this is to achieve medically, though.

but what if he just suddenly had a heart attack or something? I don't know how possible this is to achieve medically, though.

Absolutely possible. The 1975 Church Committee hearings revealed the CIA made a heart attack gun that worked by silently firing a small frozen needle of concentrated shellfish toxins at the victim. It would melt upon piercing the skin, leaving no trace, and cause an immediate heart attack.

The KGB had a similar heart attack triggering weapon that worked by spraying a puff of cyanide gas into the victim's face.

Didn’t they test this on mythbusters?

The gun is definitely real, the director of the CIA brought one of the guns into the congressional hearing.

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/17/archives/colby-describes-cia-poison-work-he-tells-senate-panel-of-secret.html

At the four minute mark in the video below they pull it out and start examining it. It's built along the lines of a 1911 handgun and has an electric powered mechanism instead of using gunpowder, with what looks like a some kind of pneumatic system chamber where the hammer would go and a compact scope, according to the director firing almost silently and hitting targets with a variety of dart types at 100 yards or meters. They had both shellfish toxin and cobra venom derived compounds.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4703553/user-clip-cia-director-william-colby-church-committee-shellfish-toxin-dartgun

At the four minute mark in the video below they pull it out and start examining it. It's built along the lines of a 1911 handgun and has an electric powered mechanism instead of using gunpowder, with what looks like a some kind of pneumatic system chamber where the hammer would go and a compact scope, according to the director firing almost silently and hitting targets with a variety of dart types at 100 yards or meters.

This story doesn't pass the sniff test- hitting targets at 100 yd with a handgun? Come on.

From what I can find, tranq pistols can have an effective range up to 40 meters. That's firing an entire syringe. I wouldn't be surprised at being able to achieve 100 meters with a much, much smaller dart.

Also worth considering that range would likely be an engineering goal for a CIA heart attack gun. They aren't really focused on achieving range in typical dart pistols, because that would never be needed.

They tested if you could shoot bullets made out of ice (and meat, and a few other exotic materials) from a normal gun and they didn't work. I don't know if they tested any sort of purpose built ice dart gun (potentially pneumatic?) so it's hard to say if the concept as a whole is "busted."

And of course the Bulgarian ricin umbrella used to assassinate a Bulgarian dissident in London.

I don’t think the ‘deep state’ such as it is cares that much about Trump. The media class does, because Trump sells papers, gets views, and because they don’t really understand how things work. But is the average Treasury Dept official terrified of a second Trump term? I doubt it, they probably don’t want it to happen but I don’t think they expect whatever some The Atlantic columnist predicts to occur.

But is the average Treasury Dept official terrified of a second Trump term?

Average FBI agents were reduced to tears during the first one, if you believe their text messages.

Because he's worth more to them alive than dead.

How so?

By preventing the emergence of a Republican candidate who might be better able to challenge them.

Was the GOP about to challenge the deep state before the rise of Trump?

No, but now that Trump has shown that's a viable path to electoral victory, there are others who would take up the challenge. But Trump occupies that niche now.

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