Predicting Terror: Thanksgiving & Black Friday

What is going to happen on Black Friday?

President Barack Obama decided to conduct an unusual surprise news conference. He held a special press conference on Wednesday morning, November 25, 2015, apparently to calm fears about terrorism over the upcoming American Thanksgiving holiday, Black Friday, and the weekend.

"As of now, we know of no plot intending to threaten our homeland" and urged Americans who will be traveling over the weekend to "go about their usual Thanksgiving activities," saying that security and intelligence officials are constantly working to prevent any security threats.

"They did so before the Paris attacks and they do so now," said Obama. "As we go into Thanksgiving weekend, I want America to know we are taking every possible step to keep America safe."

As news talking heads discussed today, there seems to be a government sense that a "global terror alert" is important to give for these upcoming few days, "just as there was over the July 4th weekend."

Of course, no one in the media follows up with the observation that no terrorist events occurred on the July 4, 2015, date or over that following weekend. Terror fears were whipped up in July (see here), but nothing happened. CNN was not able to have another "Breaking News" moment. 

Now we are getting similar "alerts" on the American news networks about the dangers of this holiday week.

What might be the reality behind these "warnings"? What potential indicators exist to have official agencies' guard up for November 26 (Thanksgiving), November 27 (Black Friday), and the weekend.

First off, I think the "copycat" calendar cannot be ignored. The Paris Terror Attacks occurred on Friday the 13th, exactly two weeks ago from Black Friday, November 27th.  The copycat effect has an internal clock that often works on two week, one month, and one year anniversary cycles. Therefore, while organized terrorists might not do anything on this coming Friday, it actually is the lone player, triggered or inspired by the Paris events, who would.

Terrorists, with an international perspective, have a longer view of history, also, and that may be a key to why something might happen this weekend.

If you say "Remember 26/11" to Americans, most would not have a clue to what you are talking about. 

But in Asia, even in Europe, it means a great deal.

In November 2008, 10 Pakistani members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic militant organization, carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai. The attacks, which drew widespread global condemnation, began on Wednesday, 26 November ("26/11" outside the US) and lasted until Saturday, 29 November 2008 ("29/11/08"), killing approximately 166 people, plus 9 terrorists, and wounding at least 308.

Metro Adlabs cinema (historic Art Deco movie theater; Mumbai is the center of the Bollywood film industry)

Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai: at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, the Nariman House Jewish community centre, the Metro Cinema, and in a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College. There was also an explosion at Mazagaon, in Mumbai's port area, and in a taxi at Vile Parle. Read more on India's 9/11, here.

Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel (above, a castle-like 1903 landmark, across from the Gateway of India monument)

The master plan for the Paris attacks very much matched the Mumbai attacks. 

Therefore, the anniversary of the Mumbai attacks (November 26 through 29) and the two-week copycat short-term ripple effect from the Paris attack (on Black Friday, November 27), do point to why there may be some concern.

Where? The intelligence communities are talking about Washington D.C. area (e.g., at a high profile site, like Union Station or a football stadium) or New York City (e.g., the Statue of Liberty, the Eero Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, or a score of other locations).

The law enforcement authorities need to put extra security around some of the most obvious of targets, despite the fact these actions might be ridiculed by some. Protect important American symbols, keep our citizens safe. Put more guards around the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade's Dino!!

The terrorists might surprise everyone with an attack in, say, a Kansas City mall, or elsewhere. Snopes, of course, is putting to rest most of the rumors. But is there a reality to any of this?

What is real is the psychology of terror.

What do the terrorists want? They desire the fear of being blown up by terrorists to destabilize and immobilize the population. So, of course, Obama's talk versus the wall-to-wall televised news stations' "Breaking News" and "Terror Alerts" makes some sense.   It hardly spreads any secure feelings when CNN's Wolf Blitzer is trying to "restore calm" with his shrill reading of every new detail about "terrorists at large."

In The Copycat Effect: How The Media and Popular Culture Trigger The Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004), I document how this attitude is dealt to us as "death sells."

Due to what the calendar tells us, we should not ignore the danger, but should we buy into this climate of fear, either?

No.

The Perfect Synch Storm

The events of October 2014 have been mind-boggling in terms of twilight language, lexilinks, synchromystic overlapping thoughts, and copycat phenomena. Many interpretations and observations have been made across the blogosphere this month, too many for me to link to, as well as in the social media and backchannel emails. The mainstream news has even jumped in, now and then. But I do need to pause, to take a few minutes to take stock of the fact that we are in the midst of this, and get ready for November 7th. More on that soon, but let's take a moment.

This horrible month seems to have started on Saturday, September 27, 2014, when five bodies in the Strack family were discovered to have died mysteriously in their duplex on the road leading to Springville High School in Springville, Utah. That high school's mascot is the Red Devil - based on the concrete company that was named after the use of the word "devil" throughout the area, not just because of the devil on the cement bag, as some would have you believe.

The wormholes are temporal and the rabbit holes are deep. The twilight language played games with many clues during the last 30 days.

One day was so bad, October 24th, that it was termed by one blogger, "Black Friday."

Even evil/killer clowns became part of the mix: see here and here.

How have people been internally integrating all of this?

Let me share some thoughts sent to me by one individual who wishes to remain anonymous. It certainly speaks to the attempt by folks to try to make some sense of all that is occurring:

I wanted to suggest an additional interpretation among the welter of logical interpretations, as to these events. Possibly this is another form of the Killing of the King ritual. The Native America lad who shot up his friends and family at the Tomahawk school had been recently elected "Prince." And the MK-Ultra-style attack on the police by hatchet-man (once again a fellow connected to the US military), took place in Queens. It's all standard Kabbalist ritual, as I see it. So much of these repeated event-makings stink of straight astrotheology/kabala/sorcerous numerology. As the "cosmic doorways" community is aptly detailing. Much easier making sense of all of it when this is assumed as the source. Amusing to me that the "American Slave" assaulting the "Big House" is highlighted by the lad's strangely but childishly informed and expressed postings about the Rothschild dynasty. Also amusing that days later some bloke who "wasn't on his meds" "drives/rams into" the Ten Commandments in OKC, a city with its own unique Satanic flair. And recently the ACLU attacked the idea of this monument, essentially siding with the Church of Satan. They both had the same response to the assault on the monument. Of course, the smashing of the tablets has a clear Biblical resonance, to be understood by Biblical types more than I, probably. The reportage makes an effort to note that the 2nd commandment was the one which suffered the break..meanwhile, it is the 2nd Amendment which is rife in the news. What with all these unstable shooters running about in the land...And as you've prolly noticed, Zale was 32, suggesting a possible succession-link to the lad's chosen number 33...Yep: heady times, Mr. Coleman.

Regarding the number 237, after I noticed that the Logan Airport Ebola scare was linked to Flight 237, other items began turning up, related to 237. See here, here, here, and here.

Then AWG/RDR said, "Within hours of reading this, I went to the tag agency to get a new license plate for my car. Oklahoma tags have three numbers followed by three letters. The numbers? 237, of course!" And he wrote about it here.

Native Americans. See here. Native Americans and 237. See here.

Insights have been shared on the Canadian War Memorial attack, here and here, for example.

Even some events I did not discuss need to be mentioned, like the White House astrologer dying.

I wrote about "car rammings," and soon RDR observed that the Ten Commandments were run down in Oklahoma City.

Temple Mount sychs and car rammings predict the potential for other events. Like the one that happened today:

But wait, Halloween is Friday! And we aren't through with pitchforks/tridents yet.

Coming soon...Why November 7th is worth watching...

Black Friday's Dark News

Black Friday's first victim: Jdimytai Damour

The 2011 Honda Civic of Black Friday's latest victim: Patrick Henry Boyd.

Some have asked, "Why is there a concentration of attention on 'bad news' on this blog?".

Fair enough.

The simple answer is that social science on the twilight language is done more easily through tracking violent events in the media, as those are noted more routinely.

In The Copycat Effect: How The Media and Popular Culture Trigger The Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004), I document how this attitude is dealt to us as "death sells."

While it would be wonderful to track daily events and changes in terms of positive behaviors, that is rather difficult. The copycat effect, for example, is working all the time, whether in milder forms such as people copying "fads" like hula hoops, buying the same color of cars or shooting victims in schools.

The media gets more involved with acts of violence, because, if it bleeds, it leads is a truth of modern news.

So, here we are, the day after Thanksgiving 2013, in the USA. It is Black Friday, which is named for businesses going into the "black" (turning a profit) in revenue. The death is rising, and even the English are following the history of "worst clashes."

The day's name - Black Friday - originated in Philadelphia, where it first was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term started before 1961 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975.

In reality, in recent years, it has become capitalism's version of "Devil's Night," chiefly associated with the serious vandalism and arson seen in Detroit, Michigan from the 1970s to the 1990s. Violence has been frequent news byproduct of reports on Black Fridays, since 2006, and the media appears to be enjoying detailing every fight, shooting, or near riots on Black Fridays.

Black Friday 2008 seemed especially dangerous. A New York Wal-Mart employee Jdimytai Damour died after 2000 bargain hunters broke down the doors to the store, pushing him to the ground. The 34-year-old male employee was pronounced dead an hour after shoppers breached the doors to the shopping center at 77 Green Acres Road, Valley Stream, Long Island. On the same day, two people were fatally shot during an altercation at a Toys "R" Us, Desert Crossing Shopping Center at 72314 Highway 111, in Palm Desert, California.

This year, here's the rundown, thus far, as noted by the Black Friday Death Count:

2013 Teen returning home from Black Friday shopping fell asleep at wheel, killed in wreck

The wreck happened at 7:24 a.m. on South Point Road near Tucker Road, in front of Jim's Grocery. The driver, 19-year-old Patrick Henry Boyd, of 6915 Treebark Lane, Clover, South Carolina, died in the wreck. Boyd's 2011 Honda Accord struck a sign at 1901 South Point Road.

2013 Man Stabbed During Black Friday Event at Carlsbad Mall

A man was hospitalized after being stabbed, just after 12:30 a.m., police received a report of a stabbing at the Westfield Plaza Camino Real mall located at 2525 El Camino Real. An 18-year-old man, who they identified as Javier Covarrubias, stabbed the man in the stomach, and then fled the scene on foot with another suspect towards the Movie Max Theater at the mall. He was arrested; the other man vanished.

Click the links, below, for more details on each incident:
2013 Newport, Arkansas Walmart employee injured during Black Friday sales
2013 NBPD confirm woman trampled at Wal-Mart
2013 Scenes of chaos during chain store's Black Friday sales in Ireland
2013 Several injured in Black Friday-related shooting outside Kohl's in Illinois
2013 Black Friday: Virginia Man Stabbed In Walmart Parking Lot Over Space
2013 Rialto Walmart brawl sends one police officer to hospital
2013 Shopper carrying TV home from Target shot in Las Vegas

More collections of Black Friday's Dark News (2013 edition) can be found here, here, and here. Heck, you can just follow it on the Drudge Report too, for the next few hours.

(H/T to Enki & JWC.)