FBI probes insect attack on Democratic breakfast in Chicago

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 285 points – FBI probes insect attack on Democratic breakfast in Chicago
usatoday.com

Chicago Police and the FBI are investigating if saboteurs placed bugs in a breakfast buffet prepared for delegates at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday.

"Multiple unknown female offenders are alleged to have entered a building...and began placing unknown objects onto tables containing food," the convention's information center said in a statement. "The offenders are believed to have then left the area. One victim was treated and released on-scene. Along with CPD, FBI-Chicago is assisting in the investigation."

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What an atrocious waste of food. And what exactly was this supposed to accomplish? What did their best case scenario look like?

It's simpler than what you're even asking.

These people are just childish and petty. I speculate their only goal was as-is, put bugs in democrats food. Something immature adolescents might do. Yet these are adults.

That's my guess.

Breakfast with a side of bioterrorism, depending on the type of species.

Probably cause some slight discomfort to genociders?

Childish sure, but it’s a noble goal to harass and disrupt these scum anyway possible.

Yes, this certainly will help the Palestinian cause. No question. All the deaths will stop tomorrow.

Yes, certainly doing nothing will achieve something. Carry on!

Putting maggots in food at the DNC and doing nothing will both achieve the same amount for Palestinians.

You could pick your nose and eat the boogers and claim it's helping Palestine too. It isn't, but you could claim it.

It was mealworms, not maggots. Still, I wouldn't want mealworms in my food

That’s not as bad actually. Mealworms are edible and people eat them, but they do have to be raised for human consumption and we don’t know if these were. I haven’t eaten mealworms, but I have other insects. Maggots are another story.

One sends a clear message about unhappiness from voters.

The other says “Do whatever, I won’t complain”

No it doesn't. It sense a clear message that some lunatics did something stupid and unhelpful.

No one has even claimed credit for it yet. So you're basically saying that putting maggots in food at the DNC and not saying why helps the Palestinian cause.

More likely angry trumpets

Last month, maggots and other insects were reportedly released at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC, during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Chicago has seen nightly protests during the convention by organizations seeking an end to the Gaza war and an end to U.S. military support for Israel.

Doesn’t sound like it to me.

Hmm. Well, if no one takes credit for it, it’s just going to be forgotten.

"Chicago Police and the FBI are investigating if saboteurs placed bugs in a breakfast buffet prepared for delegates at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday."

They are DNC delegates, according to the article. You think they are scum and you call them genociders?

Do I think the DNC are scum who silence Palestinians and support Israel like nearly everyone else in US politics does?

Yes.

So what you're saying is that we should let trump win and let israel completely wipe gaza and the west bank off the map? We don't vote for harris because we love her or something. We vote to keep fascists from winning and destroying everything.

What is it with you people? Im pro-palestine but do you want lgbt people murdered, people of color even more oppressed, set back society 80 years, possibly never get to vote again because trump WILL make sure of that. And dont forget destroying educations, food health and safety and other laws and institutions that makes society better and safer?

I get that democrats are not doing nearly enough to stop israel. But trump will do so so so much worse. And not only the palestinian people, but also america itself.

What in your brain makes you think they're saying that? Demanding more from Democratic leadership isn't the same thing as saying you're going to vote for trump, or not vote at all.

Will I vote for Kamala? Sure its better than Trump, and even a little better than Biden. She's still a fucking cop who supports genocide though. Low fucking bar, and we absolutely have every right to removed, moan, and complain about it.

Stop making excuses for establishment neoliberalism

"I will demand more from them by poisoning their food! That will surely make them love me! And listen to me! There no way this can backfire at all!1!"

That’s a lot of words to say you tolerate genocide abroad to avoid it at home.

Maybe all those words are saying something about naive single-issue voters who can’t comprehend the world is not perfect and it’s not that simple.

Genocide is non-negotiable. Shame some people don't agree with that sentiment.

Theres plenty of room to argue that

  1. No US presidential candidates are involved in genocide
  2. While there’s a huge atrocity/humanitarian crisis in Gaza, genocide implies an intent that’s not there
  3. Hamas started it and are the legally elected and internationally recognized government - they invaded a foreign country, killed over 1,000 civilians, kidnapped hundreds as hostages, and assumed they could just leave safely.

No one can argue the horror being inflicted on Palestinian civilians, nor the scale of that horror, but it’s not as black and white as you make it seem by throwing around loaded terms like “genocide”, nor is US directly involved, nor can we necessarily intervene in another country’s affairs

Any country that intentionally restricts access to food, medicine, and portable water to a population it finds inconvenient is a government intentionally committing genocide.

Biden literally fast tracked arms and funding to Israel. As well as all the warships and other direct military support being offered.

America is literally the sole reason Israel continues to act with impunity.

And this genocide has been going on long before Hamas, they didn’t start shit.

To pretend America is not deeply involved in this affair is the most ignorant brain dead take possible.

There's been a deal with Israel since 2016. Israel is fighting after a terrorist attack. They're doing your genocide, blame them. Weird how nobody blames Israel, instead they want to blame the Democrats???? Laughable.

This isn't working, you're not helping your cause, in fact you're just pissing people off that do care and would do something. Hmmm, maybe you know and understand that and you want the genocide so this is your way of making sure it happens? Is that true?

Trump called Bibi in an attempt to sink a ceasefire deal because it would help the Democrats. But I'm sure since you're so concerned with genocide that you've already heard this and called him out on it.

Biden could end this with a single phone call like Reagan.

Furthermore, every genocide apologist like yourself, or that like to use the disgusting phrase 'single issue voter' needs to reread this poem:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

There is no "slightly less" form of genocide. It is binary, and anyone willing to commit genocide against one people will be willing to commit it against another.

Huh, I suppose if you do support Palestine, you can’t be a DNC delegate?

Huh, I suppose if you do support Palestine, you can’t be a DNC delegate?

Of course not, you simply shouldn't be a DNC delegate if you support Palestine. Because they'll point at these delegates and use them as props to say "see, we're listening to Palestinians" while not changing course.

These are not ordinary voters, these are sometimes local politicians but competing to run the same machine as their more successful national counterparts. These individuals have some degree of power and influence, and they're choosing to use it for the American Empire.

Zero pity for these turbo-losers getting bugs in their food. Admittedly, making "putting bugs in food" a popular protest tactic doesn't set a great precedent considering the food safety implications for everyone else, but food safety concerns are NOTHING compared to what Palestinians are suffering at the delegates' party's hands.

You are making this the ONLY issue in the world. I fucking hate the israeli government for what they are doing. Fuck israel. But you are willing to let everyone around you burn for this. Willing to let lgbt, people of color, students, poor people and the working class be oppressed and possibly murdered. Because trump WILL make sure of that.

You apparently don't understand the word intersectional.

You also need to reread this:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Genocide is something that is binary, and you are either against it or a fascist. There is no middle ground with genocide.

The DNC has already started to indicate they will throw trans people under the bus next.

Willing to let lgbt, people of color, students, poor people and the working class be oppressed and possibly murdered.

Sounds like what's happening right fucking now under a Democrat presidency!

Comic of Lucy and Charlie Brown where Charlie Brown is falling on his ass because Lucy tricked him into kicking a football and then pulling it away at the last second

How many times do you have to try to kick Lucy's football before you realize that she's punking you?!?

Voting for President merely ratifies decisions already made by capital. I'm not voting for your candidate, and I refuse to be guilted for decisions already made by capital.

Because trump WILL make sure of that.

Trump winning would be an indicator of the trajectory you have no control over as far as the ballot box is concerned.

But you are willing to let everyone around you burn for this.

No I am not. I want people to organize themselves against the system, not within it. The system itself is the problem. Having """good people""" is insufficient to get even mediocre change. See self-described socialist AOC speedrunning ghoulification.

your rhetoric only serves to further de legitimize your position. you're basically a caricature of a useless tankie.

Ah yes, expressing schadenfreude against the Dems as a possibly overzealous condemnation of a genocide == sending in the tanks against an uprising

keep playin like it's the democrats fault. it's nice when morons self-identify

The genocide is happening now, under Biden, who could end this in a day.

I have more respect for the people with their 'single issue voter' defense of genocide. They at least aren't living in a fantasy land that Trump is responsible for Biden's actions.

Will do because the Democrats are the ones in power right now.

To be crystal clear: fuck the Republicans. No disagreement there.

But they're not pretending to be the good guys, sapping energy from radical movements and (as liberals) basically existing to spoil popular revolutions. They're not pulling possible comrades out the game with their variety of liberalism. That's why I'm so incessant on pushing back against the Democrats.

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Most of us are not organizing within the system to fix it. We are voting as a way of putting our foot on the breaks while we organize outside of it. The train is going fast. Trump accelerates it and Harris makes it go slower.

Voting does not mean we are organizing inside the system. Its a half baked measure we use to our advantage.

Nobody is saying Harris will stop or reverse the train. But we are not going accelerate the train and hurt even more people than it already is. We are privileged to be hanging off the sides instead of laying on the tracks like many many others.

We are voting as a way of putting our foot on the breaks while we organize outside of it. The train is going fast. Trump accelerates it and Harris makes it go slower.

I got no beef with people voting for Democrats in the general election, even though I disagree with their choice, because it doesn't affect the outcome of anything. My beef is with these delegates, these people in a position of influence and power.

Nobody is saying Harris will stop or reverse the train. But we are not going accelerate the train and hurt even more people than it already is.

Of course we shouldn't accelerate the "train", I cannot stress enough that I agree with that statement and that accelerationism is bad, but it is my view that

  1. Voting in the general election does nothing to brake the train. Not near zero, zero. Voting is orthogonal to what needs to be done. If it'll make you more comfortable, then go vote I guess.
  2. Voting as a DNC delegate requires you to tow their party line and do other things that compromise any intended "braking" of the "train". This specific vote, as well as any other equivalent collaboration with the Democratic establishment, is what I am irritated about.

Voting in the general election does nothing to brake the train. Not near zero, zero.

I fear that you're mistaking your own pessimism for absolute truth, but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

Voting is orthogonal to what needs to be done.

What, in your view, needs to be done?

I fear that you're mistaking your own pessimism for absolute truth, but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise.

Indigenous Action did a great write-up on this topic. Although to be completely honest, the point of this thread was really to condemn the DNC delegates specifically. Actually, I brought up voting at all in this thread in response to the suggestion that I am:

Willing to let lgbt, people of color, students, poor people and the working class be oppressed and possibly murdered.

As a poor grad student, and sibling to two lovely LGBT POC for whom I would literally kill to protect, this is a particularly offensive implication (from a different user!) that I often see bundled with pro-electoralism rhetoric, so I preemptively brought in Colin Ward's article against voting.

What, in your view, needs to be done?

In the large, abolish all authority and hierarchy by popular revolution. If that is impossible, then approximate it as best as possible in the real world using a basis of popular liberatory actions emulating the end goal.

In the small, these delegates could use their power to physically and logistically disrupt the DNC until at least the US ending weapons transfers is secured. For everyone else, support protesters for Gaza in your life, show up to the protests if you can, do direct actions [1] if you can ... do nothing if you have to, but most importantly, don't cooperate with the war machine!

I hope this clarifies what I meant by saying:

Voting is orthogonal to what needs to be done.

Because while voting doesn't necessarily hurt direct action efforts [2], it doesn't help either. It's just a completely independent class of activity. It's like if, on a typical x-y plane (where the x and y axes are assumed to be orthogonal), we need to move in (let's say) the positive x direction, and people keep spamming inputs in the y direction.

[1] Just the first part of section J.2, not including J.2.1 and onward. The rest is supplementary.

[2] There is an argument to be made (and I believe the article I cited makes it) that activism for voting takes time and energy that would otherwise be spent on direct action. Also, technically speaking, voting does literally take time away from direct action for the amount of time you're waiting to vote and actually in the booth, but I'm an engineer so I'm willing to neglect small-valued terms 😆.

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yeah I somehow doubt that the people attending the DNC are the same people murdering innocent civilians in Palestine. There is quite a gap between "people not prioritizing pressuring the current administration as to their support of isreal" vs "people actively engaging in genocide."

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Thank you, enemies of Harris! This will accomplish something or other!

Yeah I'm not really stoked about the food safety implications and food waste for the rest of us if "bugs in food" protests become normal, but I still think that inconveniencing and antagonizing powerful people complicit in genocide is in general an acceptable form of protest. It accomplishes perpetual and fractal ("at all levels") discomfort for their actions as long as they continue them.

Why are you assuming that this is about Palestine?

Good question! Because of:

Last month, maggots and other insects were reportedly released at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC, during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Chicago has seen nightly protests during the convention by organizations seeking an end to the Gaza war and an end to U.S. military support for Israel.

And because Palestine is the main focus of DNC protests right now, i.e. the big thing that the DNC is choosing to ignore.

Frankly, if it ends up being a Republican or non-political attack, I'm still cool with seeing the ruling class squirm even if it's done by assholes for the wrong reasons.

But also, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with Palestine, that is far from the only reason to be irritated with the Democrats. For example:

  • Their continued funding and support of police
  • Their continued material support of capitalism and neoliberalism
  • Their support for putting down radical movements,
  • Their tendency to soften radical movements (for example, abolish the police -> defund the police)
  • Their quiet support for racism at home and abroad
  • Their use of jails and prisons
  • Their imperialist foreign policy (other than on Palestine)
  • Their enforcement of borders (which has been strengthened under the Biden administration)
  • Their rejection of refugees that their foreign and climate policies created
  • Their tolerance of LGBTQI oppression
  • Their attempts to destroy what little privacy we have left and destroy our precious free internet
  • Their antagonism towards homeless people in a country with more empty homes than homeless people, a system of property ownership that they fundamentally support
  • Their refusal to fix the Supreme Court, which they absolutely have the power to do

And so much more! All while pretending to be the party of progress, they are in fact the party whose sole goal is to prevent more radical change being imposed on the ruling class from below!

What exactly do you expect this to change?

This exact action? It might make things worse for leftists on the ground at the DNC since now the FBI is involved 😳.

So honestly good point, but IMO reflecting an infinitesimally small fraction of the violence that they inflict upon Palestine (and all life on Earth) forces the ruling class to deal with actual consequences for their actions.

Without any kind of message this is just revenge

Quoting my reply to someone else:

Frankly, if it ends up being a Republican or non-political attack, I'm still cool with seeing the ruling class squirm even if it's done by assholes for the wrong reasons.

Or:

Image that says "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." with a hat from Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat

Emphasis on the second clause.

The problem is that without attaching an actual message to the action, it's just an attack. It doesn't convey anything, doesn't further any agenda.

Agreed.

Hence why I'm expressing my schadenfreude that it happened at all, rather than saying "yeah this is a perfect protest by perfect people who are definitely 100% confirmed doing this for perfect reasons that I perfectly agree with".

In fact, I said as much in the comment you replied to:

Frankly, if it ends up being a Republican or non-political attack, I'm still cool with seeing the ruling class squirm even if it's done by assholes for the wrong reasons.

I'm not operating under the pretense that it is necessarily revolutionary action. I'm simply expressing my frustration at Democrat ghouls and laughing at their misery because they give us nothing else in return for our submission.

Completely agree. It was really frustrating to hear Bernie evoke FDR in his speech without being honest about how he accomplished so much: by packing the courts and being extremely aggressive in pushing through a real progressive agenda. It really highlights the failings of the party more than anything.

Oh shit, is this about Mike Pillow's diseased mustache falling off into the scrambled eggs at the buffet?

How the fuck do you know????

🎶 Cree-hee-hee-heep-pee-CRAW-LERS!!!! They're squirmy, and wormy, and purple and green... 🎶

Pro tip: block 2 trolls that can't see past their nose to have rational discussion in the thread.

This thread:

ITT: Liberals learn that leftists aren't their friends

i have a secret to tell you. listen closely:

i d o n ' t c a r e a b o u t i s r a e l o r p a l e s t i n e

abrahamic religions are the scourge of the earth. maybe they will all kill each other somehow and we can try to have an actual global society without a bunch of religious freaks ruining it. the earth could use about 6 billion less people. i can easily think of which ones should go first.

1 calendar year to evacuate, salted nuclear weapons as semi-permanent area denial. Now no one can have it.

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Ok so was it tankies or MAGA?

Brother I fucking wish Marxist-leninists were enough of a problem to create real life news. I might not be one, but they actually make a good foil for dem socialists.

I'm guessing qanon brand crazies, Alex Jones types are constantly saying that the dems are trying to force everyone to eat bugs so I imagine it's related to that.

By tankies do you just mean people against the Palestinian protesters... Yikes

Per Urban Dictionary (NA, 2004): "A hardline Stalinist. A tankie is a member of a communist group or a "fellow traveller" (sympathiser) who believes fully in the political system of the Soviet Union and defends/defended the actions of the Soviet Union and other accredited states (China, Serbia, etc.) to the hilt, even in cases where other communists criticise their policies or actions. For instance, such a person favours overseas interventions by Soviet-style states, defends these regimes when they engage in human rights violations, and wishes to establish a similar system in other countries such as Britain and America.

The term is used to distinguish the rare individuals with these kinds of beliefs from communists more broadly (including Communist Party members), whose adherence to Soviet doctrine and attachment to existing "socialist" states is somewhat weaker.

It is always more-or-less abusive in the sense that those termed tankies do not use the term themselves, but it doesn't have any particular bite (unlike, say, Trot).

The term derives from the fact that the divisions within the communist movement first arose when the Soviet Union sent tanks into communist Hungary in 1956, to crush an attempt to establish an alternative version of communism which was not embraced by the Russians. Most communists outside the eastern bloc opposed this action and criticised the Soviet Union. The "tankies" were those who said "send the tanks in".

The epithet has stuck because tankies also supported "sending the tanks in" in cases such as Czechoslovakia 1968, Afghanistan 1979, Bosnia and Kosovo/a (in the case of the Serbian state), and so on (whereas the rest of the communist movement has gravitated towards anti-militarism). I wouldn't be surprised if the tankies even defend Saddam Hussein.

Some of the people round George W Bush used to be left-wing, but they haven't really changed their views much; they were mostly tankies."

Source: https://www.urbandictionary.com (Retrieved 8/22/24)

Ok but there are no large camps of people at the DNC defending the soviet union... There are people protesting the Palestinian movement. So im pointing out that person oeginally asking of it was maga or tankies is using thr word tankies to belittle people protesting genocide and how gross that is.

Get me?

I can't say I didn't at least try to educate you. I'm not responding further, as you're acting in bad faith.

Im not but i get that there is no real argument to call people against genocide tankies so i get why youre tapping out.

Back to .ml with you, nutjob.

Yikes back to the third reich with you, genocide supporter.

You're the one who brought it up when it was completely unrelated, weirdo

The dude I responded orginally called people protesting the genocide in Palestine tankies I pointed out that that was f****** weird that is a pro genocide comment I was responding to.

Do you not get that or is this just a bad faith defense?

If your a nazi then fuck you If you're ignorant look into the genocide

Meme remixing a scene from Jaws saying "We're gonna need a smaller violin!" lol

Edit: these assholes are complicit in genocide. Fuck these people, fractally.

Do you pay taxes? Congratulations you are also complicit in genocide

Do you pay taxes? Congratulations you are also complicit in genocide

And that's exactly why I want my fucking tax dollars to stop funding genocide holy shit

Nope, doesn't matter, you're obviously genocidal scum. I mean, that's your thought process for everyone else

your logic

It's not literally everyone, it's people with power and influence who use their energy to prop up the Democratic machine.

You have power and influence.

  1. The entire sentence, with different emphasis, is:

It's not literally everyone, it's people with power and influence who use their energy to prop up the Democratic machine.

So clearly I'm not irritated at literally all people with power of any form.

Keep in mind, in this thread I am charitably replying to the dishonest suggestion that the average taxpayer has just as much culpability in the genocide in Gaza as someone who goes deep into the halls of power and participates in their process as a delegate.

The power and influence to which my previous comment alluded is that which these delegates fought hard to get, and are now using to prop up the war machine. Again, there is a huge difference in culpability between DNC delegates and the average liberal that's just trying to get back.

Clearly that kind of nuance cannot be indicated by the meme that started this whole thread, as memes intentionally trade substance for brevity, but my other comments throughout the thread have sufficiently explained that my position is a lot more nuanced than "haha all Democrats all bad".

  1. The power and influence I have is basically entirely privilege that I didn't choose to get and can't fully reject even though I try my damnedest. I literally don't even have a job, can't find one if I tried, no influence on social media other than what you're reading now, and look what good that's doing.

Basically the only real power I took for myself in my entire adult life is my education, on which I defer to Bakunin:

Does it follow that I drive back every authority? The thought would never occur to me. When it is a question of boots, I refer the matter to the authority of the cobbler; when it is a question of houses, canals, or railroads, I consult that of the architect or engineer. For each special area of knowledge I speak to the appropriate expert. But I allow neither the cobbler nor the architect nor the scientist to impose upon me. I listen to them freely and with all the respect merited by their intelligence, their character, their knowledge, reserving always my incontestable right of criticism and verification.

I.e. I don't think that all the power afforded to me by my education is unjust. I am most certainly not using the little power I have to prop up the war machine. (Much to my personal detriment! My line of work is extremely useful to the war machine.) That power which is unjust I take very seriously to reject as best as I can.

Again, it is a ludicrous suggestion that a poor grad student posting memes dunking on the misfortunes of people in power has a comparable power and influence to a delegate at the Democratic National Convention.

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