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Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

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Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#181

Post by dubyah »

wyck wrote: post #14
corresation wrote: post #5

Another possibility is that he had a nervous breakdown or substance abuse episode, leading to both the paranoid emails and the irrational vehicle operations. Obviously I'm not saying that's the case, but the extremely irrational driving goes fits a theory of paranoid delusions (brought on by any number of mechanisms), just as the hacked car system goes with about to uncover something big.

This first question that comes to mind is what was he doing driving at 4:30 in the morning. His friends describe him as a "grandma diver" so why was he driving so fast and blowing red lights on a residential street? Did he ever display this type of behaviour before? Another question is.. how does a well made car burst into flames so quickly.

In his first book, he said he crashed a Buick while drunk at the age of 19. He also had mentioned in a few columns about being a former addict. He said he'd been sober since (10+ years?), but until there are conclusive results on the toxicology report, it's all really speculative. In either case, yes, he has displayed this type of behaviour before.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#182

Post by coldtea »

corresation wrote: post #5

Another possibility is that he had a nervous breakdown or substance abuse episode, leading to both the paranoid emails and the irrational vehicle operations. Obviously I'm not saying that's the case, but the extremely irrational driving goes fits a theory of paranoid delusions (brought on by any number of mechanisms), just as the hacked car system goes with about to uncover something big.

>Another possibility is that he had a nervous breakdown or substance abuse episode, leading to both the paranoid emails and the irrational vehicle operations.

Something very plausible and easy to think -- even in cases where it is not the case. Which reminds me: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137363/

He was a seasoned journalist. Working on a very dangerous case (as he has done in the past, annoying many).

He might have feared and feel intimidated -- and that might have led to erratic driving and crash.

But he sure knew when and if the FBI talked to his friends and colleagues. And it's not like it's the first time a journalist is crashed (either literally or figuratively) for his work. Gary Webb comes to mind. Ruben Salazar too. And those were more innocent times.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#183

Post by coldtea »

marze wrote: post #161
scythe wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am afraid Taylorious misses the point. I am afraid sage_joch misses the point in an even worse way. You may be surprised to hear this: it does not matter politically one tiny iota whether the FBI killed Michael Hastings. He's just one journalist, there are many like him. What matters is what happens after Mr. Hastings' death. If the FBI is to be trusted, they will deny involvement on the low and the high: a trustwo…

>He's just one journalist, there are many like him. Uh, name a few?

Gary Webb used to be one.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#184

Post by coldtea »

skwirl wrote: post #44
sage_joch wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, we really don't know. But I'm extremely uncomfortable by the fact that foul play is a real possibility. We already know that the federal government is operating largely in secret and without regard to the law (their insistence that are indeed following their own secret set of laws doesn't provide me much solace). We already know that various press organizations have been wiretapped. I feel like I've woken up in…

It is a huge leap from the revelations of late and a world where the government goes around killing journalists. When your parents confided to you that Santa Claus wasn't real, you didn't suddenly become adopted too. Chill out and reacquaint with reality.

>It is a huge leap from the revelations of late and a world where the government goes around killing journalists.

Really how? How is it out of order for a government that goes around jailing foreign citizens without trial abroad to avoid local laws?

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#185

Post by coldtea »

mikeash wrote: post #97
byeworld wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting parallel (I know the events are not equivalent, but still): Here's a report of a Mercedes crashed at Nurburgring by a test driver: http://www.automotto.com/2014-mercedes-benz-sls-amg-black-se... Both the test driver and the passenger walked away unharmed. Do note that this was on the track, where the cars are supposedly driven at much higher speeds than on regular roads.

People are making a typical statistical error here. It is unlikely for a car to catch fire in an accident, certainly. But it's wrong to take that and conclude that this fire was therefore likely due to foul play. Foul play is still a much less likely explanation for the facts as currently known.

That's only the case if in your world theory (and based on the input you have) you trust the government to not do such stuff.

If an investigative journalist "mysteriously vanished" in a Latin American dictatorship, for example, one would not even raise an eyebrow if told it was government work. Even if lots of people also vanished without foul play there.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#186

Post by coldtea »

_pmf_ wrote: post #173
corresation wrote: post #5

Another possibility is that he had a nervous breakdown or substance abuse episode, leading to both the paranoid emails and the irrational vehicle operations. Obviously I'm not saying that's the case, but the extremely irrational driving goes fits a theory of paranoid delusions (brought on by any number of mechanisms), just as the hacked car system goes with about to uncover something big.

> Another possibility is that he had a nervous breakdown or substance abuse episode, leading to both the paranoid emails and the irrational vehicle operations. Ah, but that spin is highly unlikely to generate buzz among moronic internet detectives, and therefore no responsible journalist will deal with such a trite story.

>Ah, but that spin is highly unlikely to generate buzz among moronic internet detectives, and therefore no responsible journalist will deal with such a trite story.

On the contrary. Every "respected" news outlet will play this story. After all, it's the place where this happened: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird (and still goes on, of course).

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#187

Post by coldtea »

anigbrowl wrote: post #55
tcdent wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how does a well made car burst into flames so quickly? I always wonder about this, it's not like a car fire is anything like hollywood makes it out to be.

The fact that movies prefer to show a big dramatic explosion in a fictional context does not mean that cars can't catch fire in real life. http://www.usfa.fema.gov/statistics/reports/vehicles.shtm

Sure -- but a small percentage of them does it in a crash.

Of course, if you are so inclined (either way), you can explain away any coincidence.

We had the "conspiracy theorists", not we have the "coincidence theorists".

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#188

Post by coldtea »

tzs wrote: post #85
DigitalSea wrote: post #18

How does a 2013 model Mercedes Benz with a five star ANCAP safety rating (the highest rating you can get) scoring 35.51 points scored out of 37 (an Australian car safety rating for reference) with more airbags than wheels (8 airbags for those of you playing at home including a curtain airbag that drops in-front of the passenger and driver protecting the head and upper-body from impacting anything) crash into a tree w…

> How does a 2013 model Mercedes Benz with a five star ANCAP safety rating (the highest rating you can get) scoring 35.51 points scored out of 37 (an Australian car safety rating for reference) with more airbags than wheels (8 airbags for those of you playing at home including a curtain airbag that drops in-front of the passenger and driver protecting the head and upper-body from impacting anything) crash into a tree…

>You are massively confused over what airbags do. They don't do anything at all to reduce the chances that one will drive one's car into a tree. They only come into play AFTER an accident has begun.

And you are massively confused about why he mentioned the airbags.

Not to point to their assistance of driving a car into a tree, but as items in a large list, pointing to the ridiculous amount of safety measures built into the car.

Re: Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

#190

Post by jlgaddis »

TechNewb wrote: post #134
TechNewb wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wonder if his notes could be found, I imagine they would have been cloud backed.

@dllthomas "Of course they were; that's how the NSA found out." Right. Yet to our knowledge the NSA does not have delete privileges to the data centers, meaning that copies of his notes most likely still survive on either local or cloud based storage.

Depends on whether his e-mail was hosted by Google or not. ;)
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