“When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.”  Victor Hugo

A couple of years ago some guy pooped a CEO of a health corporation…..and he has become some what of a cult hero.  I have heard people whine about his wife and kids but no one whines about the wife and kids of those denied healthcare by his organization.

Was this the start of a budding revolution?

Luigi Mangione, the man awaiting trial in the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is fast becoming a symbol of a new wave of ideologically-motivated violence, argues the Washington Post‘s editorial board. Investigators say his case inspired last year’s deadly shooting at the Manhattan skyscraper home to the NFL headquarters. The editorial board highlights other cases—including a California warehouse arson that caused an estimated $500 million in damage and a firebomb attempt at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Texas home—in which suspects allegedly referenced Mangione.

The Post notes the 27-year-old, who has pleaded not guilty in Thompson’s murder and awaits a trial this fall, has taken on “folk hero” status among some on the radical left, with a legal defense fund pulling in $1.46 million from more than 40,000 donors. Federal prosecutors say his supporters increasingly see violence as a substitute for political or ideological argument, supercharged by online anonymity and social media. The editorial insists there’s no justification for such attacks—against tech leaders, health executives, or anyone else.

For the full argument and examples, read the editorial here.

Full disclosure–I do not rust the WaPo to be forthcoming with the news…..but I include it for the sake of my readers….

That aside it seems the recently violent acts are seemingly accelerating….recently, last week, a disgruntle employee of a paper company set fire to a warehouse…..

A California warehouse worker accused of torching his workplace allegedly cast himself as a kind of anti-corporate avenger, prosecutors say. Authorities say 29-year-old Chamel Abdulkarim set multiple fires early Tuesday inside a 1.2-million-square-foot Ontario warehouse packed with Kimberly-Clark paper products while about 20 others were on site, then posted video online that appears to show a hand igniting stacks of paper as a voice complains about worker pay, the Los Angeles Times reports. In texts afterward, he allegedly compared himself to Luigi Mangione—the man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in New York—and wrote, “I just cost these [expletive] billions.”

Federal prosecutors say Abdulkarim also posted videos arguing workers aren’t paid enough to live and texted complaints about the “1%” and corporate shareholders. The blaze destroyed roughly $500 million in goods and the $150 million building, per local officials, and grew so fast firefighters had to withdraw and fight it defensively; about 175 responded before the six-alarm fire collapsed the roof. No one was injured, KTLA reports. Abdulkarim, an employee of third-party distribution company NFI Industries, was arrested later that morning. He faces one count of aggravated arson and six counts of arson of a structure in state court, with a potential sentence of 10 years to life, ABC 7 reports. He is also expected to face federal charges.

I believe some of his words were….this did not have to happen if you paid a livable wage”…

Not to fear the culprit has been arrested…

Next came a fire bomb of AI guru Altman’s house…..

The man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home in San Francisco has been charged with attempting to kill Altman and a security guard at the residence, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Monday. Daniel Moreno-Gama, who also faces multiple federal charges, faces two counts of attempted murder and attempted arson in California state court, the Washington Post reports.

• Authorities allege the 20-year-old threw the incendiary device about 4am Friday, setting an exterior gate at Altman’s home alight before fleeing on foot, police said. Less than an hour later, Moreno-Gama allegedly went to OpenAI’s headquarters and reportedly threatened to burn down the building. Moreno-Gama was opposed to artificial intelligence, writing about AI’s purported risk to humanity and “our impending extinction,” according to court documents.
• This was not spontaneous. This was planned, targeted and extremely serious,” said FBI San Francisco Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo during a press conference. On Monday morning, FBI agents went to Moreno-Gama’s home in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston, where they spent several hours before leaving. He has been charged by federal prosecutors with possession of an unregistered firearm and damage and destruction of property by means of explosives. The criminal complaint does not name Altman or OpenAI but both have confirmed they were the targets of the attack. No injuries were reported.When Moreno-Gama was arrested Friday, officials found a document on him in which he “identified views opposed to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the executives of various AI companies,” court documents say. The document discussed AI’s purported risk to humanity and “our impending extinction,” according to the criminal complaint. Authorities allege Moreno-Gama traveled from his home in Texas to San Francisco and visited Altman’s home early Friday morning.”
• “We are only at the beginning of this investigation, but if the evidence shows that Mr. Moreno-Gama executed these attacks to change public policy or to coerce government and other officials, we will treat this as an act of domestic terrorism and together with our law enforcement partners prosecute him to the fullest extent allowed by law,” US Attorney Craig Missakian said in a statement, per Reuters.
• The document in which Moreno-Gama discussed his opposition to AI also made threats against Altman, officials said. “Also if I am going to advocate for others to kill and commit crimes, then I must lead by example and show that I am fully sincere in my message,” Moreno-Gama is alleged by authorities to have written in the document.
• Advocacy groups that have issued grave warnings about AI’s risks to society condemned the violence. PauseAI said in a statement that the suspect had no role in the group but joined its forum on the social media platform Discord about two years ago and posted about 34 messages there, none containing explicit calls to violence but one that was flagged as “ambiguous.” Discord said Monday that it has banned Moreno-Gama for “off-platform behavior.”

Interesting, eh?

But not to worry the pampered billionaire is safe….

The man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home in San Francisco has been charged with attempting to kill Altman and a security guard at the residence, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said Monday. Daniel Moreno-Gama, who also faces multiple federal charges, faces two counts of attempted murder and attempted arson in California state court, the Washington Post reports.

• Authorities allege the 20-year-old threw the incendiary device about 4am Friday, setting an exterior gate at Altman’s home alight before fleeing on foot, police said. Less than an hour later, Moreno-Gama allegedly went to OpenAI’s headquarters and reportedly threatened to burn down the building. Moreno-Gama was opposed to artificial intelligence, writing about AI’s purported risk to humanity and “our impending extinction,” according to court documents.
• This was not spontaneous. This was planned, targeted and extremely serious,” said FBI San Francisco Acting Special Agent in Charge Matt Cobo during a press conference. On Monday morning, FBI agents went to Moreno-Gama’s home in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston, where they spent several hours before leaving. He has been charged by federal prosecutors with possession of an unregistered firearm and damage and destruction of property by means of explosives. The criminal complaint does not name Altman or OpenAI but both have confirmed they were the targets of the attack. No injuries were reported.
  • When Moreno-Gama was arrested Friday, officials found a document on him in which he “identified views opposed to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the executives of various AI companies,” court documents say. The document discussed AI’s purported risk to humanity and “our impending extinction,” according to the criminal complaint. Authorities allege Moreno-Gama traveled from his home in Texas to San Francisco and visited Altman’s home early Friday morning.

Then a couple of days later Altman’s house once again a target….

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s San Francisco home may have been targeted by two alleged attacks in a span of three days, with police announcing a pair of arrests in the latest incident, the San Francisco Standard reports. Around 1:40am Sunday, a Honda sedan allegedly drove past Altman’s property in Russian Hill, then stopped; the passenger extended a hand out the window and appeared to fire a shot toward the Lombard Street side of the estate, according to a police report citing security staff and surveillance video. No injuries were reported. The Standard frames the alleged shooting as an attack on Altman’s home, but the San Francisco Chronicle notes that has not yet been confirmed by police.

Police say a license plate captured on camera led them to a residence on Taylor Street, where officers detained Amanda Tom, 25, and Muhamad Tarik Hussein, 23, without incident and recovered three firearms. Both were booked on suspicion of negligent discharge of a firearm. The alleged shooting followed a Friday morning episode in which a 20-year-old Texas man, Daniel Alejandro Moreno-Gama, is accused of hurling a Molotov cocktail at Altman’s gate from Chestnut Street; security extinguished the flames, and the suspect was later arrested after making threats at OpenAI’s Mission Bay headquarters, authorities say. The suspect has been linked to a Discord server called PauseAI, which is against the development of frontier AI models; the group quickly disavowed the alleged attack, Business Insider reports.

After the first incident, Altman wrote a lengthy blog post reflecting on it. “There was an incendiary article about me a few days ago. Someone said to me yesterday they thought it was coming at a time of great anxiety about AI and that it made things more dangerous for me. I brushed it aside,” he wrote. “Now I am awake in the middle of the night and pissed, and thinking that I have underestimated the power of words and narratives.”

While I was writing news came across of more warehouse fires….

there are now reports of six different Warehouse or storefront fires that have happened across the United States in the last three days five of which are in different states. currently there have been two in California one in Queens New York another in Ohio at an Amazon location another in Pennsylvania and a final one in New Jersey. They’re pretty hard to look up, I’m suspecting to keep the trend from catching on.

Fascinating.

Is this the beginning of a revolt against technology or against the insanely rich?

Sorry but I cannot work up much sympathy.

“A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.”

I have been waiting a long time for this….Let it begin!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”