"Call Me God"

Possibilities and Perils

A hidden hunter watches for the right prey— a forefinger sliding back and forth along a polycarbonate trigger guard, barely restrained by discipline and training. The fat kaffir in the sights of his rifle is a tempting enough target. Loud, stupid, lazy, unholy, and unclean, so like his Zionist masters.

Legs shift and stretch within the trunk of the vehicle. It is transportation, sanctuary, and hunter’s blind all in one. It works perfectly, no one ever looks twice at the late model sedan. A car door opens. The hunter knows it is his partner, finished pumping gas. Sights shift as the rifle slides about in its hidden and recessed gunport. The hunter finds a better target. A woman. An infidel’s whore, obviously drunk. Shot selected, his finger caresses the trigger.

Is it a kill? He doesn’t care. She’s already fallen to the fuel-spattered pavement, her blood watering the ground of this holy work. If she survives or dies is of no matter. The vehicle is already in motion and leaving the scene before the victim or anyone around her is conscious of what just happened. The screaming and dismay will have to be imagined as they contemplate their next success. Their next episode of glory.

They will merge onto the nearby interstate and be miles away before Police have finished responding to reports of a random shooting.

Eventually, federal and state authorities will realize something of what’s happening, but it will be well after the hunter and his partner have rinsed, washed, and repeated their macabre drill that first 48 hours.

Good morning, friends,

The above is a fictional imagining— a presentation of possibility. It is inspired by the Lee Boyd Malvo and John Muhammad shootings that were called “the DC Sniper Attacks,” from October 2002.

A Baltimore Area Gas Station, at the time of the DC Sniper Attacks. Note the tarps, hung in an attempt to break a sniper’s line of sight. Image from the Baltimore Sun

It’s been a long time since then. We were working at a TV station in Chattanooga, TN when they happened. It’s hard to describe what the feeling was like over the course of their 3-week reign of terror. At first, even after authorities knew enough to connect a random seeming series of shootings, it still felt like something that was far enough away that one didn’t have to worry about it.

And then the weeks dragged on. And one realized, the shooters and their seeming preference for targeting people pumping gas could literally be anywhere with the kind of drive time available to them.

Even as one knew it was unlikely— hundreds of miles away from Maryland and Washington DC— there was still a heightened state of tension as you went about the work of fueling your vehicle. Worse, what if there were copycats?

As it happens, Malvo and Muhammad actually shot and killed people all over the country, while driving from California to DC. It wasn’t until they began repeating their actions in the DC area that authorities caught on to what was happening.

Malvo and Muhammad, Image Found at NPR

These were two insane Jamaican immigrants that had a half-cocked plan of somehow extorting a million dollars from the US Government.

There was always going to be a ceiling to what such a pair might actually accomplish— bloody and scary as it might have been.

Consider however, what might happen if you had a half-dozen pairs of shooters, all working in similar ways in different areas all at the same time. And not just that— but support for them too. Safehouses in various locations where they could pull into a garage and rest and eat in continued anonymity. Maybe a few car changes too. And serious funding. Muhammad and Malvo operated on a shoestring budget— mostly from cash they’d robbed from people they’d shot along the way to the DC area.

What are the odds that no one in Iran or some other location was paying attention to the mayhem potential demonstrated by two knuckleheads?

It may sound unlikely— but think about the dedication and planning that went into the recent attacks in Israel, kicking off current events there.

What kind of horrors of imagination could you conjure in weeks and weeks of uncertainty as teams of shooters roamed in different locations all over the country, taking their shots and moving on before anyone even knew what was happening?

One wouldn’t even have to destroy any infrastructure. The paralysis in the general public would be damaging all on its own.

Boyd and Malvo’s actions had a deleterious effect on the Capitol area. Parents were pulling their kids out of school— no matter how safe local authorities insisted the schools were.

After Uvalde, after Sandy Hook, who would even listen to some chump with a badge? Some might. Many wouldn’t.

Malvo and Muhammad were actually just getting started— they had vague plans of a phase 2, that involved shooting a policeman, and somehow bombing the funeral— theoretically killing and maiming even more police and first responders.

That may not have even been within their reach, but if one is imagining a more sophisticated crew of terrorists in action, it all becomes much more within the realm of possibility.

These are the kinds of thoughts that occur to us when contemplating the southern border that is so manifestly open.

Open borders activists love to tell you that there’s never been a successful terrorist attack launched by individuals who crossed the Southern border. That is true. And what a blessing, that we have been so fortunate to date.

But does anyone seriously think it is anything but a matter of time, before something does occur? How brazenly must we tempt fate?

The truth is, there are thousands of good reasons to close the border and tighten security. The possibility of terrorism is merely one.

We are hardly the first to make this argument— here’s Todd Bensman, in a piece we somehow missed November 3rd.

“Attachment A” is a reference to a piece of evidence, left over from the “Holy Land Foundation” trial. The Holy Land Foundation was a Dallas based front that was raising money for Hamas back in the early 90s.

We remember it well, as the trial dragged on for a very long time. As you might imagine, the air was thick with accusations of racism and prejudicial news coverage. Reporters who noticed things were smeared as being anti-Muslim.

It is a great shame to the profession that certain news organizations caved to the critics and restricted their own reporting, trying to be “sensitive.”

Bensman and others point out, that the main reason Hamas and other organizations have probably not carried out attacks in the US is because they raise a lot of money here— money they send back to the middle east for attacks against Israel.

How long before they can raise similar funds in places like the United Arab Emirates? Qatar? Or Saudi Arabia, however? Truth is, they probably already are.

If you want to bet the protection of your life, wife, and kids on the slender reed of terrorist fundraising, well, one doesn’t know what to tell you.

We’ve titled today’s newsletter “Call me God.” It’s a reference to a message Malvo and Muhammad left behind at one of their shootings. Call me God, and don’t tell the press. They were trying to set up a way to communicate with authorities in the future. By using the identifier “God,” authorities would know that messages from them were legitimate and not the work of pranksters, nuts, and pretenders. As it happens, the detail leaked anyway, and was reported in the Washington Post and other outlets. Oops.

What else is going on out there? Well, Eagle Pass continues to be slammed. A fact getting documented on the daily by folks ranging from Bill Melugin at Fox News, Ali Bradley at Newsnation, and our friend Auden Cabello who seems to have joined forces with another individual named Efrain Gonzales as they cover events on both sides of the river. Keep your eyes on all four as they’ve just been killing it out there.

We haven’t been keeping count, but the numbers have been in the hundreds, several times a day. 500 in one group. 200 in the next. Twitter headlines about “hundreds rushing the border” in Eagle Pass. It’s all turning into a big old blur.

In Del Rio, authorities cut loose a group of 94 illegal alien asylum seekers who couldn’t afford to purchase their own bus tickets. The local NGO is somewhat exceptional in the fact that they don’t provide bus tickets themselves. Those 94 were said to be headed East, walking along Highway 90 toward San Antonio.

That’s absolutely nuts. Even if they make it 100 miles, they’ll be broke down— foot sore and starving with miles still to go— an unexpected burden on the many small communities along the way.

In Kinney County, Monday saw what must have been an exceptionally wild chase.

We’re told DPS troopers were trying to pull over a suspected smuggler on RR 334.

As is all too common, the driver stomped on the gas and smashed through the gate of a local ranch, before leading authorities on a roughly 12-mile cross-country chase that ended over the county line in Uvalde County.

Deputies and troopers tend to have to back off in this kind of a situation. With all of the dust and debris that gets kicked up, it becomes very dangerous— migrants can bail out and get run over before they’re even seen by pursuers. Never mind the risk of destroying one’s own vehicle in rough terrain.

Kinney County covers something like 1300 square miles— most of it unpopulated. It used to be bigger. The County was originally carved out of Bexar County along with others, back in the day.

In turn, Val Verde County was carved out of parts of Kinney, Pecos, and other Counties.

Point being, high speed pursuits in the area have what seem like miles and miles of open ground if they get off the highway, but the reality is, the ground can be deceiving with gullies, gulches, and all kinds of other rugged hazards lying in wait. Whoever managed to go all the way into Uvalde County in this fashion probably should’ve just stayed home and bought a lottery ticket instead of squandering their good luck.

That’s all for now. We didn’t originally plan to write some fiction at the start of this— but it seems recent conversations with folks about how certain writers seemed to predict 9/11 and other events have stuck with us.

No one should live in a perpetual state of low-grade anxiety, and it’s certainly not our goal— but it amazes us how willfully dismissive certain parties can be about the risks involved with such a wide-open border.

Anyway, keep your eyes open this week. It seems Ken Paxton is going on the warpath behind the scenes. State Rep. Andrew Murr, from the Junction area, just announced he won’t be seeking re-election. Murr is that one guy with the ridiculous Snidely Whiplash mustache, who led the House Impeachment proceedings against the Attorney General.

State Rep. Andrew Murr (R) - Junction, Image Courtesy: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune

In a letter, Murr said the threat of retribution from the Attorney General had no bearing on his decision to retire— characterizing it as a matter of wanting to spend more time with his family, after missing out on 10 years of life with his wife and kids while he was in Austin.

At the time of the impeachment’s failure, we predicted that there’d be a procession of lawmakers figuratively crawling on their bellies into Paxton’s office, begging forgiveness, or seeking favor after the impeachment failed. It seems that process is well underway.

As always, no one should mistake this humble newsletter for any kind of an official communication. Despite our employment with Kinney County, it is produced as separately as possible and without oversight. Any errors, mistakes, or misdeeds are entirely our own, and we make this declaration in keeping with County policies regarding employees and social media.

Have a great morning, we’ll be back again soon.