Thom Hartmann started attracting attention with this article in 2002
It started when the leaders of the government, in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, received reports of an imminent terrorist attack. A foreign ideologue had launched feeble attacks on a few famous buildings, but the media largely ignored his relatively small efforts. The government intelligence services knew, however, that the odds were he would eventually succeed.Guess the leader. Thom attracted attention but posted it anonymously.
But the warnings of investigators were ignored at the highest levels, in part because the government was distracted; the man who claimed to be the nation's leader had not been elected by a majority vote and the majority of citizens claimed he had no right to the powers he coveted. He was a simpleton, some said, a cartoon character of a man who saw things in black-and-white terms and didn't have the intellect to understand the subtleties of running a nation in a complex and internationalist world. His coarse use of language - reflecting his political roots in a southernmost state - and his simplistic and often-inflammatory rhetoric offended the aristocrats and the well-educated elite in the government and media.
But he knew the terrorist was going to strike (although he didn't know where or when), and he had already considered his response. When an aide brought him word that the nation's most prestigious building was ablaze, he verified it was the terrorist who had struck, and then rushed to the scene and called a press conference.
"You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in history," he proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building, surrounded by national media. "This fire," he said, his voice trembling with emotion, "is the beginning." He used the occasion - "a sign from God," he called it - to declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation for their evil deeds in their religion...
2 comments:
Well, before we get to the aide bringing him news that the WTC was ablaze, you would have to "guess" the leader was Bill Clinton, the nation's first Democrat president since Carter. But obviously you're trying to point to Bush. The trouble is the riddle contains so many clues that point to others:
1) "had not been elected by a majority" - this applies to Clinton twice and Bush once.
2) "didn't have the intellect to understand the subtleties" - this seems to apply to Clinton more than Bush as Clinton obviously did not understand the "subtleties" of sending missile after missile into a sovereign nation.
3) "political roots in a southernmost state" - again applies to both Bush and Clinton although Clinton's state was tiny, poor, backwards, and generally stratified socially.
4) "often-inflammatory rhetoric offended the aristocrats and the well-educated elite" - I did not have sex with that woman - Ms. Lewinsky.
Aristocrats? That's cute. How does a guy who is a chartered herbalist, a psychotherapist, and a Certified Electronics Technician and whose most "important" work is on adult ADHD get to call himself an aristocrat? What a load of garbage.
Hi Dave,
I find Conservatives have problems with both reading and reasoning.
Thom, who is also an author and historian, never calls himself an aristocrat.
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