Today in Domestic Terrorism

First, and most prominently, a man driving a truck literally flying the ISIS (Daesh) flag, drove into a crowd, killing at least 15 people.

A New Orleans Police Department vehicle was blocking Bourbon Street in place of barriers that were down for repairs early Wednesday when a Texas man drove a pickup truck around it and onto the sidewalk, police said.

The suspect, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, then sped down New Orleans' most famous street, killing and injuring people in an attack the FBI has labeled as terrorism.

"We had patrol cars out there as a hard target," said New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick at an afternoon news conference. "This particular terrorist drove around onto the sidewalk and got around the hard target."

Kirkpatrick and Mayor LaToya Cantrell acknowledged that security barriers installed years ago to prevent terrorist attacks along Bourbon Street were being replaced when Jabbar, flying an ISIS flag from his tailgate, mowed down dozens of people. Fifteen were confirmed dead as of Wednesday evening. At least 30 more were injured, many of them severely, officials said.
Bollards don't cover sidewalks

Bollards don't cover sidewalks

The removable stainless-steel bollards are designed to be securely locked at each crosswalk along Bourbon Street between Canal and St. Ann streets, according to Cantrell's administration. They do not cover city sidewalks. The alleged attack occurred near the intersection of Bourbon and Iberville streets.

………

Kirkpatrick and Mayor LaToya Cantrell acknowledged that security barriers installed years ago to prevent terrorist attacks along Bourbon Street were being replaced when Jabbar, flying an ISIS flag from his tailgate, mowed down dozens of people. Fifteen were confirmed dead as of Wednesday evening. At least 30 more were injured, many of them severely, officials said.

(emphasis mine)

This was not security, it was security theater.

Even if the Bollards had been operational, it would not have stopped him, because he was driving on the sidewalks. 

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, a Cybertruck loaded with fireworks and a pressurized gas tank exploded in front of a Trump Casino, and there are concerns that this was related to the New Orleans attack:

Officials are looking into the possible connection between the Las Vegas explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck and an attack that left 15 dead in New Orleans, President Joe Biden said in a Wednesday evening address to the nation.

One person was killed and seven suffered minor injuries when a Tesla Cybertruck exploded Wednesday morning in front of the entrance to Trump International, Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference.

The person who died was in the Cybertruck, and McMahill said it was unclear if it was a man or a woman.

According to Jeremy Schwartz, acting special agent in charge for the FBI’s Las Vegas office, authorities also are trying to determine whether the explosion was an act of terrorism but believe it was an “isolated incident.”

Finally, an FBI raid uncovered an enormous hoarde of home made explosives when raiding a farm for illegal sawed-off weapons.

A Virginia man was arrested this month with what federal prosecutors described in court papers on Monday as the largest cache of “finished explosive devices” ever found in the F.B.I.’s history.

The man, Brad Spafford, was taken into custody at a farm outside Norfolk on Dec. 17 on the basis of a single-count criminal complaint accusing him of illegally possessing an unregistered short-barrel rifle. When investigators searched his 20-acre property, in Isle of Wight County, they found in a detached garage more than 150 explosive devices — mostly pipe bombs, some of them labeled “lethal,” prosecutors said.

They found more pipe bombs in a bedroom inside Mr. Spafford’s house, loosely stuffed in a backpack that bore a patch shaped like a hand grenade and a logo reading “#NoLivesMatter,” prosecutors said.

The slogan had the same name as a nihilistic, far-right ideology that largely exists on encrypted online messaging apps like Telegram. There was no other evidence that Mr. Spafford adhered to such beliefs.

Yeah, that last sentence seems to be whistling in the dark.

………

According to the court papers, which were reported earlier by the website Court Watch, the investigation into Mr. Spafford began last year, after a neighbor reached out to the authorities. Mr. Spafford had lost three fingers on his right hand while working with a homemade explosive device, the neighbor said, and he was stockpiling weapons and homemade ammunition.

The neighbor reported that Mr. Spafford had told him that he and his friends were “preparing for something” that he “would not be able to do alone,” the court papers said.

The neighbor also told investigators that Mr. Spafford sometimes used photographs of President Biden for target practice at a local shooting range and believed that “political assassinations should be brought back.” After the attempt on President-elect Donald J. Trump’s life in Pennsylvania in July, the papers said, Mr. Spafford told his neighbor that he “hoped the shooter doesn’t miss Kamala,” an apparent reference to Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Let me rephrase myself, "Yeah, that last sentence seems to be irresponsible and reckless whistling in the dark."  

Then again, what would one expect from what Atrios calls, "That Fucking Newspaper."

The New Orleans case, and the Virginia case both seem to be people involved in right wing terrorism, with the former hearkening back to 8th century Basra, and the former yearning for the height of the Klan in the 1920s.

As to whatever happened in Vegas,it's not clear yet.

All I can do is to quote Bette Davis in All About Eve, "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night."

The year is not off to a good start.

(On Update)

Both the New Orleans and Las Vegas vehicles were rented through the Turo app, which allows people to peer-to-peer car sharing, which might be a connection.