Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Let’s finish the job.

We still have time to mess this up!

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I was promised a recession.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Republicans in disarray!

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Battle won, war still ongoing.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Update on the London Bridge and Borough Market Attack

Update on the London Bridge and Borough Market Attack

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Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, has issued a statement in regard to the attack at London Bridge and Borough Market.

As we wait for the Metropolitan Police and other British authorities to provide further information, please take note that a variety of social media accounts, both automated bots and the alt-right, are using bogus imagery and information for their own particular ends.

Unfortunately not everyone has gotten the message!

Bjorn Stritzel of Bild reported that ISIS has been promoting these types of attacks:

(Before anyone asks, that is a full sized Springfield Armory XDM and based on the size of the muzzle I’m relatively sure it is a .45 ACP in caliber)

James Cox of The Sun has reported that the explosions are controlled detonations:

NBC has reported that a number of folks fought back in a very British sort of way:

Until more information comes in it is important to remember that no matter how good law enforcement, intelligence and counter-terrorism services are, it is virtually impossible to stop every act of terrorism. Especially in a liberal democracy where freedom of movement, speech, association, and religion is valued and protected. This is largely because of resources and not limited just to money. There is only so much time and so many personnel to go around. As a result people and their plans are going to slip through the cracks.

Just yesterday the Irish authorities were able to break up an IRA plot for a massive car bomb in Dublin.

A massive New IRA bomb plot was foiled after gardai seized a staggering 6kg (13.2lb) of explosives in Dublin’s north-inner city.

Heavily armed detectives carrying sub-machine guns stopped a seven-seater taxi during a dramatic arrest in Ballybough shortly after 6pm yesterday.

Gardai, aided by the army and the bomb disposal unit, arrested two men and seized the lethal explosives.

Investigating gardaí now believe the material seized is TNT. It was initially believed to be semtex.

The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation by the Special Detective Unit (SDU) into dissident republican activity.

The Herald can reveal that:

  • A massive 6kg of explosives, as well as detonators, were recovered.
  • The new, military grade explosives were recently sourced and brought into the State.
  • Two men were arrested at the scene, one with close links to the New IRA.

It has also emerged that the second man arrested has no known connections to any criminal gang, leading to fears of a new recruitment drive by the dissident republican terror group.

Armed gardai also raided the house of a politician’s relative, who has close ties to one of the men arrested.

A senior source last night stated that the explosives recovered were “big enough to blow up a street”.

Damage

The explosives “would have caused serious damage if used. It is a major catch for gardai,” said the source.

With relatively easy access to the Internet and social media the drift into radicalization and extremism is easier than ever. And harder to detect and stop. If these attacks are inspired/coordinated by ISIS, then expect to see more of them as they are squeezed and ultimately run out of the physical caliphate they attempted to establish in the Levant. Such attacks will be an attempt to pressure coalition members to abandon the US led coalition against ISIS.

Reader Interactions

167Comments

  2. 2.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Baud: You’re welcome? Feels a bit strange saying your welcome when updating information on a terrorist attack.

  7. 7.

    germy

    Adam, have you seen this?

    Kim Weaver is ending her campaign for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.

    In a Facebook post Saturday, Weaver, a Democrat, cited threats to her safety, financial security and her mother’s ongoing health problems as reasons for her withdrawal.

    “Beginning during my 2016 campaign, I have received very alarming acts of intimidation, including death threats,” Weaver said in the Facebook post. “While some may say enduring threats are just a part of running for office, my personal safety has increasingly become a concern.”

  9. 9.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Yashar Ali’s comment on the NBC Nightly News tweet may be the single most disturbing part of this entire episode. The damage Trump has done to our international credibility will last long after we’ve forgotten the details of tonight’s attack.

  10. 10.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    I read on NPR that Spicer Tweeted that Trump had been apprised of events…

    Is that supposed to somehow bring confidence to America? He may as well have said Homer Simpson had been briefed on matters.

  11. 11.

    MomSense

    This attack, like all the others before it, is horrible. Does it also seem like these are desperate acts? Are they acting out this way in part because they are so diminished and have lost so much ground militarily?

  13. 13.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Adam L Silverman: I feel depressed about the fact that there doesn’t seem to be any way to stop these kinds of attacks. Seems like we’re hearing about them too often now. Sigh.

  14. 14.

    amygdala

    Thanks, Adam.

    Grade A shade by NBC. Even Joe of the morning was slagging the orange one on Twitter.

    Getting the feeling that the Brits have gotten all organized and steely about this. The messaging on social media by the Metro Police, Mayor Khan’s office, and the like was concise and seemed to be well-coordinated.

  18. 18.

    The Pale Scot

    “New IRA” = ASSHOLES

    Like the Gotti gang in the 80’s, who whacked Paul Castellano because they liked beating people up, it was one of the perks of the job, white collar crime was for sissies.

    On the Beeb because of the lack of anything new to say the reporter is going into granular detail about what nearby Police stations have armed details available and which of those have heavy weapons suitable for an extended firefight. He sounds ammosexual-curious

    Really dude, shut the fuck up. If this is how the media is covering these incidents someone is getting detailed info about how London situates reaction forces.

    Unless? It’s all disinformation, I wouldn’t put it past them, there’s a lot of institutional memory left over from fighting the IRA

  19. 19.

    amk

    Don't really understand why American president is more eager to speak out on London terrorism deaths than Portland terrorism deaths.— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) June 4, 2017

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amk: Actually the BBC reposted the Sun’s reporter’s reporting:

    http://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-40147014

    Posted at 21:16
    James Cox, a deputy digital news editor at The Sun, tweets that explosions in the London Bridge area “are controlled and police monitored”.

    Follow
    James Cox ✔ @jcoxwriter
    Just had confirmation explosions in London Bridge area are controlled and police monitored
    8:56 PM – 3 Jun 2017
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  22. 22.

    amygdala

    @MomSense: From what I’ve read, the fear has long been, as ISIS gets displaced from their nests in Iraq and Syria, that the foreign fighters who survived would inflict this kind of mayhem in their home countries. In addition to passports, they now have combat experience. Europe, for numbers of these individuals and proximity is especially vulnerable, but there have been Americans and Canadians who’ve gone over there, too.

    Worth remembering, probably, that the Kurds are set to go into Raqqa soon.

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: Yup.

    Potential ISIS/muslim-related terrorist attack: be-all, end-all, close the gates, seal the borders, THE END IS NIGH!

    Demonstrable white-supremacist attack: meh

  27. 27.

    MomSense

    @amygdala:

    Do we know if the perpetrators today were foreign fighters or sympathizers?

    It’s all so gruesome and hard to wrap my head around.

  29. 29.

    clay

    Not that I expect anyone here to understand the “logic” of a terrorist organization, but… why would the IRA bomb Dublin? I thought their beef was with the UK over Northern Ireland. Why would they attack the Republic?

  30. 30.

    germy

    Furthermore, [Kim Weaver] explained, she cannot currently risk losing her health coverage, which would disappear if she quit her current job to campaign full time. Added to that, Weaver said her mother is in poor health in Des Moines.

  31. 31.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amygdala: Worth remembering the Kurds backed by US and coalition special forces would have been in Raqqa months ago if not for Michael Flynn and his Turkish and Russian paymasters.

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    It would be helpful to the country in general if some prominent Dem would jump out there and call a presser or something to explain how all this shit works…I know it would look opportunistic, but compared to Trumpov?…I think we’re good there.

    Just remind the country that we have had low-level ‘lone wolf’ terror attacks both here and abroad for many, many years, and while they are horrible, over-reacting and living our lives in fear is exactly what the terrorists (and, unfortunately, much of the GOP) want.

    It’s not a panacea, but it’s important to have that message out there…otherwise, the only message out there is the Chief Moran’s: “SEE! I TOLD YOU WE HAD TO BAN MOOSLIMS OR ELSE!!”

  37. 37.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Jeffro: If you read the comments on the Washington Post article about this attack, that’s pretty much the argument.

    Unfortunately I can see too many Americans falling for Trump’s Islamophobia with each act of terrorism. Thank goodness for the courts stopping his Muslim ban (so far).

  38. 38.

    MomSense

    @Adam L Silverman:

    It would seem to me that foreign fighters going to or back to Europe and the U.K. implies a different level of planning and strategy than sympathizers who have been swayed by daesh’s social media urgings and whatever is happening in their lives that makes them vulnerable to that type of persuasion

  40. 40.

    amygdala

    @MomSense: I haven’t seen anything about who today’s perps are yet. Not even sure they’ve caught them all.

    The various intel agencies got better, post-9/11, at picking up impending trouble by groups interested in doing stuff like this. But with so-called lone wolves, unless there’s a neighbor or friend or something who suspects something, prevention is much harder.

    It is incomprehensible. The British and French have been through a lot of these, and demonstrated incredible resilience.

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MomSense: My guess is that it’ll be radicalized locals. Most likely 2nd or 3rd generation, but there might be a 1st generation immigrant that came to Britain as a kid and grew up there. This is the usual pattern. It is harder to track these guys, and they’re almost always guys, than it is to track those that went to join the caliphate and have tried to come back.

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Pint glasses and bits of furniture used in a fight? I thought this was London not Glasgow.

  45. 45.

    japa21

    Trump keeps bringing up the travel ban. But wasn’t the ban originally to have a limited time frame, until a new vetting system was completed. And I believe, that time frame has already passed. I wonder if the new vetting system has even been worked on. I also wonder why no one has asked that question of the administration.

  46. 46.

    amygdala

    @Adam L Silverman: Don’t mind me. I’ve read a few too many comments and Tweets today from Trump supporters whose response to the various truth marches has been to demand evidence of a Russia connection. Sometimes I think physicists haven’t paid sufficient attention to the strongest force in all the universe: willful ignorance.

  49. 49.

    Jeffro

    @Patricia Kayden: They think every bit of data…’micro data’? anecdote?…is actual data that must be acted upon. Someone needs to step up and show them the actual numbers and calm their fears. They won’t all be enlightened but for some it’ll be a real “aha” moment…

    Hell, walk it all the way back and have someone explain that for those with a high threat threshold (aka paranoia, but we won’t call it that), even the most minor of incidents feel like justification of that paranoia.

  52. 52.

    MomSense

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I hope we can try to disseminate information about warning signs because there must be recognizable signs before someone does something like this.

  53. 53.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @? Martin: I was looking for, “But this was a terrorist attack not a regular Saturday night down the pub.” Nice try though.

  55. 55.

    efgoldman

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I thought no one talks to the Sun.

    My granddaughter was talking to the sun just the other day. Scolding it, I’m told.
    Oh, the Brit newspaper. Never mind.

  56. 56.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MomSense: There are. And the authorities are aware. But it isn’t always possible to track everyone that fits some or all of the trend lines. People get dropped from tracking because of more immediate threats that need more attention and focus. Once those are resolved, sometimes the resources are never put back in place to track those that were considered potentially problematic. Hence falling between the cracks.

  58. 58.

    amygdala

    @debbie: They’ve been investigating for 10 months and haven’t found anything! There are four investigations going on! Libtards just aren’t satisfied that there is no evidence! With time, it devolves into Solyndra, Benghazi, ad nauseum.

    It’s like this constant completely elastic collision with reality. It would be almost be funny if there weren’t so much on the line. I read this stuff mostly to get a window into how their thinking and mine are so different. I don’t engage because despite my fairly high tolerance for frustration, I recognize an utterly lost cause when I see it.

  59. 59.

    efgoldman

    @japa21:

    I wonder if the new vetting system has even been worked on

    By whom? Kushkie? Bannonazi?

    I also wonder why no one has asked that question of the administration.

    Who? The emmessemm is too busy finding assholes who think Orangemandyas is the second coming of Lincoln and FDR, and writing puff pieces about Ivanka.

  60. 60.

    debbie

    @germy:

    I’m glad to read that. I’d pretty much given up on the House.

    @amygdala:

    I got two words for them: Michael Flynn.

    Also, the Russians’ changing stories (yeah, someone in Russia could have been hacking) proves there is something there.

  61. 61.

    Mike in NC

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was at the train station in Glasgow in 1986 when football hooligans staged a riot using their team colors (scarves) to launch empty bottles and bricks at their adversaries. Good times.

  62. 62.

    Anya

    DAMN! Six peope are confirmed dead. These psychopaths and our toddler in chief are determined to spread hatred and violence. Just horrible!

  64. 64.

    Anya

    @MomSense: Their friends and families need to be more vigilant and to alert the authorities when they notice changes in them. The Manchester attacker was radicalized when his father took him with him to fight in Libya.

  65. 65.

    MoxieM

    I’m interested to hear from other European residents or family thereof, and their internal scare-o-meters. My daughter (virtually) set her chin and said, “yeah, but they aren’t going to change how I live my life.” No major bombing incidents where she lives, yet, only a “minor” one. But give it time, and I touch everything within reach, spit, throw salt. and you name it. Yet, I still tell people I feel she’s generally safer there, b/c no handguns! even if she transits via the Hauptbahnhof (major train station) a few times a week.

    It would piss me off even more than I already am, if possible, if I thought that the Orange obscenity *resident was in any way responsible for triggering any of this. I have not seen that theory posited by wiser heads here, beyond that the world hates us, which was already manifest.

  66. 66.

    mdblanche

    @clay: Some IRA splinters consider the Irish Republic to be illegitimate since it emerged out of legislative agreements with the British and view themselves as the representatives of the “true” republic proclaimed in the Easter rising.

  67. 67.

    clay

    @germy:

    pressure Ryan to act

    I wish I could believe that Ryan gave two shits about having a functioning House with committees that fulfll their remit, or that he gave a damn about oversight into an executive branch that is obviously a) corrupt, b) incompetent, and c) a danger to our nation and the world.

  68. 68.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Anya: And members of the community notified the authorities. Who tracked him for a while until resources were needed for something more pressing and he dropped off the radar so to speak.

  71. 71.

    Shalimar

    @Adam L Silverman: Ghost’s comment at #11 referring to Weaver as a coward for withdrawing because of death threats is a bit over the line, is what I think Corner Stone was saying.

  72. 72.

    Keith P.

    People used pint glasses and chairs to fight back as at least 1 attacker entered a pub in London.

    They’re attacking a British pub, and nobody fights back with *darts*?!!??

    EDIT: I also expected to hear that the attackers got called “wankers” and “c**ts”.

  73. 73.

    clay

    @mdblanche: Geez. The Republic is 100 years old, and these dipshits are upset that it wasn’t created the “right” way? What on earth do they expect will happen?

  74. 74.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @MoxieM: Not recent, but I was living in London when the IRA Brighton attack occurred. I also lived in Germany post-Baader-Meinhof. One doesn’t walk away from a bag in a train station. One notices a bag that has been abandoned. One goes on with one’s life.

  77. 77.

    efgoldman

    “What kind of a bömm?”
    The explöding kind!”

    Summer of 1984, mrs efg and I were in the Montreal train station, in line for the Via Rail to Quebec City, along a bank of lockers.
    A few days after we got back to Boston, Quebec separatists set off a bomb in the lockers right where we had been standing.

  79. 79.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Shalimar: Ghost is a troll, but I haven’t seen it step beyond Cole’s rules as yet. I would advise not interacting with the asshole.

  80. 80.

    J R in WV

    When I was a kid, in Jr High, so mid 1960s, I often waited around at my parents place of work for them to finish up a task and head home for dinner. It was a newspaper, and they had a well organized “morgue” which is press terms for the library where back issues of newspapers, sometimes many papers now merged into a single one, were stored and indexed.

    I would put a microfilm roll on the reader, and read old newspapers from the 1920s and ’30s. It was pretty interesting – you saw big historical events from away, but that was usually very minor compared to the local news in southern West Virginia. It was a little bit old west in that there was a ton of crime – much like the rest of the country, actually.

    We have forgotten how much crime there was a century ago or more. There was no communications between police departments, so if you got across the county line, or the stat e line, you were nearly always good to go. There was no professionalism in the police departments – if a violent crime was committed, the local deputy literally rounded up a posse to chase the guy(s) they thought did the deed.

    There were train robberies – usually of payrolls being delivered to coal mines, which all had railroad access to sell their coal. There were frequently stick-ups at poker games all around, often in hotels or fraternal lodges, like the Elks or Moose, or Odd Fellows. Not that I remember which clubs were stuck up nearly 100 years ago, but you get the drift. Where there was a pile of money, there was crime.

    Eventually the police and banks and businesses got telephones, which were faster than a posse, and could go in multiple directions at once. Cops in general learned more about how to go about quelling crime, and guys became civil service instead of the buddies of the newly elected Sheriff or Mayor. Crime began to shrink.

    Now we’re used to being safe in our homes, and in our work places. But there is still crime, people get arrested every day for horrific crimes. Most of them are actually defective people who get ideas from, well, everywhere, the ether, TV, The Daily Inquirer pulp news, a drunk guy at the barber shop. Then they do a terrible execution of a bad idea, and people are harmed.

    We hear politicians talk about “A War On Terror!” like we can win a mighty victory and there will never be terror again. This is so stupid I hardly know how to debunk it, except to tell all that there has been terror forever, way back beyond history. There are tooth marks and flint knife marks on the bones of people who died eons ago (well not literally, just tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago – I think eons are longer than that).

    The Ice Man who thawed out of a glacier in the Alps had an arrow in his back.

    Crime and terror had been with us forever; all we can do is fight it individually and collectively as we have been doing for centuries. Things are better today than they have ever been before, and politicians who say otherwise are lying for their political benefit. It isn’t a War on Terror that can be won to end terror for all times.

    The story about the “New IRA” in Ireland being caught with TNT and detonators is one more example of the never-ending battle between civil society and those who can’t or won’t join civilization. The IRA laid down their arms years ago, and gave their arms caches up to the government more recently. So now there’s a NEW IRA???

    Yes, and people still rob banks, on TV that is broadcast not long after their robbery. My bank has a sign, “No Hoodies” so the CCTV can get a better image of customers. Crime will never go away, not until we can repair broken minds or brains, which doesn’t look to even be on the horizon.

    We don’t need to worry about “foreign fighters” coming into the country, we generate terrorists here at home when people aren’t treated fairly, or are brainwashed into believing things aren’t fair for them. Like the guy who killed two and injured one with a knife in Portland, Oregon, just the other day. He was brainwashed into hating people he didn’t even know, was a member of a group of haters, and lashed out uncontrollably as a result.

    But some of our “leaders” won’t call that terrorism, won’t call the Oklahoma City Federal Building explosion terrorism, won’t call the church killings of Dylan Root terrorism. I think it’s because some of our leaders agree with that flavor of terrorism, bold though that statement may be. What does the New York Times say about it? I don’t care.

    I know terrorism when I see it. People who never harmed anyone, little kids, ministers and day care workers and teachers and students getting harmed or killed. People who stand up to stop harassment getting harmed or killed. That’s terror. Know it when you see it, understand when “leaders” are encouraging it.

    And don’t expect ANY leader to be able to stop violent crime. The best we can do is minimize it by maximizing opportunity for everyone. President Obama and President Clinton did just that, and it resulted in the lowest crime rates in decades. Along with the long battles to remove lead and other harmful pollutants from our daily environment.

    People who aren’t for a clean environment, they’re in favor of crime committed by brain-damaged mental cases, that’s off topic for this thread, but not for this moment in time, when we see leaders denying the harm of pollution. I’m thinking pollution is terrorism, in an industrial sense, but I’m odd that way. Along with tobacco and alcohol and gambling sales. I better stop now, I’m meandering again.

    Take care, have a good day off tomorrow, and RESIST !!

  81. 81.

    Anya

    @Patricia Kayden: I was just watching the police announcement. They said 30 people are taken to several hospitals and 6 are killed + the 3 attackers (shot dead by the police)

  84. 84.

    MoxieM

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I’m already airport-bag sensitized, myself. And I travelled to London on and off during the Troubles. Which, of course, this London incident as well as Manchester recall. (Notwithstanding the IRA frequent warning phone calls.) AFAIK, we don’t get those these days. It’s gotta be traumatic for the people who lived through the earlier bombing campaigns.

    [Also I had a long conversation at lunch about the consequences for child development of being raised in an endless war time environment, in light of the emergent studies showing, if I am correct, epigenetics of stress effects among the descendants of Holocaust survivors–generalizable to deep trauma and stress effects in children and families subjected to decades of bombing, and how it would shape their capacities for social attachment, moral reasoning, being manipulated, and the like. I hope this makes sense and not just a late Sat. nite ramble, but basically– what does it do to people to be raised in environments like Syria, Yemen, or the DRC, e.g.? If we know that 1 or 2 years in trenches or other forms of intense combat can create deadly and long-lasting social/emotional/psychological challenges (to put it gently), in addition to TBI, among trained soldiers; well, those neighborhood kids? huh. ]

    So much pain to answer for.

  88. 88.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Keith P.: I lived in Scotland for 3 and 1/2 years and worked as the cooler at one of the largest entertainment venues, which included five bars on site open 7 days a week, for almost that entire time. You’d think the dart players would be the violent ones because they’ve got pointed weapons, but it’s actually the domino players you have to keep your eye on.

  89. 89.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Corner Stone: I knew it was a retread troll. I ain’t yet convinced that it is derf. But then, I spent a lot of time in the sun today.

  90. 90.

    Mnemosyne

    @clay:

    The Republic is 100 years old, and these dipshits are upset that it wasn’t created the “right” way? What on earth do they expect will happen?

    We have natural-born American citizens who think that if an American flag inside a courtroom has gold fringe on it, they can’t be convicted by that court, so …

  91. 91.

    mdblanche

    @clay: It’s ridiculous now, but the issues involved were relevant at the time and caused the Irish Civil War. Today the only people still upset about it are literally the splinter of a splinter of a splinter. Nobody would even pay attention to them if it wasn’t for the Semtex.

  92. 92.

    amygdala

    @Adam L Silverman: Takes fine motor skills to throw darts, and having high levels of circulating adrenaline, while helpful for running like hell, isn’t so useful for intricate motor tasks.

  94. 94.

    Another Scott

    @J R in WV: Well said.

    Cosign.

    Many here know that Kevin Drum has done great work on reporting on studies about lead and crime. A couple of days ago he pointed us to a small study that indicates lead may be implicated in autism, also too.

    There’s still a vast amount of stuff that we don’t know about our bodies and our brains. Too much crime and antisocial behavior, and even terroristic acts, are due to things that I’m convinced can be fixed – brain chemistry, education, getting people out of various kinds of bad environments, etc. It’s not caused by someone being “evil”. If Donnie and Kim and their minions don’t blow us all up soon, I’m optimistic that things will continue to get better over time. But it will take work – nothing is inevitable.

    And even then, we’re never going to be perfectly safe from our fellow men and women…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  97. 97.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: Yep, a new avatar of RtR. I checked the email it’s a variation of the one I banned for that. So back in his box.

  102. 102.

    Calouste

    @J R in WV:

    The story about the “New IRA” in Ireland being caught with TNT and detonators is one more example of the never-ending battle between civil society and those who can’t or won’t join civilization. The IRA laid down their arms years ago, and gave their arms caches up to the government more recently. So now there’s a NEW IRA???

    There are many groups that call themselves some form of IRA. What people generally think of as the IRA, is commonly called the Provisional IRA. Besides that there are/were the Continuity IRA, the New IRA, the Real IRA, the Official IRA and probably a few I forgot, as well as some other groups that split off of those above but no longer use IRA as part of there name.

  104. 104.

    Anya

    Interesting thing about the BBC reporting is that they’ve mentioned Macron’s statement but not our Vulgarian. Did he not issue a statement of support? I am avoiding twitter because it gets too depressing.

  106. 106.

    Calouste

    @MoxieM: When I grew up in Europe in the 70s/80s, terrorist attacks by the IRA, ETA, RAF, Brigada Rossa, etc, etc, etc made the news multiple times a week. Things are pretty quiet now compared to that.

  107. 107.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Anya: Nothing on his official POTUS account. He issued an initial tweet from his personal account about needing to be strong and smart and get our rights back and therefore the courts needed to reinstate the travel ban. Then, after a bit, he finally sent a second tweet from his personal account offering support and assistance.

    Also, I’m not sure what rights have been taken away. And since he’s now publicly stated his EO on entry is a travel ban, expect that tweet to be admitted into evidence at some point.

  108. 108.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I have no idea why he decides to try again and again and again.

    He’s got to do something while he scarfs Cheetos by the case in his mom’s basement.

    It is strange, though. There are trolls who fixate on a particular blog and will go to almost any lengths to get back into it (changing nyms, changing ip addresses….)
    Our cross-eyed bear, I guess.

  109. 109.

    Anya

    @Adam L Silverman: He’s such an embarrassment. He’s the president of the United States, but he acts and talks like an anonymous youtube commenter. He doesn’t even know whether the attackers were British born or not.

  112. 112.

    MoxieM

    @mdblanche: A note about the ‘New IRA’ : the forced release of the extensive materials collected by Boston College (in the form of oral histories, in-depth interviews, all kinds of texts, testimony, media reports, police reports, and God only knows what) has stirred up a craptastic reemergence of old wounds and hatred and grudges related to the Irish Civil War/Pt II, aka The Troubles.
    As I understand it, BC, which has a large, well funded and impressive Irish History Dept became a repository of choice for primary materials including a lot of what I’ve mentioned. Buried within the testimony and &&, previously embargoed, and–crucially–promised to be maintained in secrecy for xx (50?) years— was information that would point to, or lead to conviction (in a kangaroo court or other), or condemn participants for actions like informing to one side or another, or for doing bad stuff to the wrong people. The British Crown sued for release of the archive. BC resisted very strongly, but the Crown’s lawyers won in US court. (Which totally sucks for people who do interpersonal research, as I used to do, in terms of the inviolability the IRB guarantees you could offer).
    More importantly it put the lives of people mentioned, or individuals whose interviews or testimony occurs in the collection, at very real personal risk of being assaulted or murdered. Of course this is why BC tried to not only keep its word (basic level), but: how can you attract anyone to work with you on an edgy research project or an important one if you can’t actually guarantee the safety of your research materials?

    And, the nearly faded mumbles of the old grade IRA seems to be showing flickers of embers here and there, in that loopy ‘too many generations removed from the original situation, but carrying the grudge because my grandpa said so’ situation.

  114. 114.

    efgoldman

    @Smiling Mortician:

    Is it yours? It’s perfect.

    Oh, hell no. My 86 year old mother in law learned it as a child from HER parents, who probably learned it in the old country.

  118. 118.

    Barbara

    @MoxieM: You cannot guarantee absolute confidentiality but there are other reasons that the BC materials should not have been released the way they were having to do with constitutional criminal protections. If I recall correctly BC tried to keep the whole project under wraps to avoid this issue, but someone connected with it decided to risk going public with some of the information. But really, if your loved one were on the wrong side of a criminal gang, even one that is politically motivated, in which witnesses were guaranteed to be the next murder victims you might not be all that impressed by the personal risks suffered by those disclosing what they know after all these years.

  123. 123.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @efgoldman:

    Didn’t think so. Hopefully he’s just taking a break. FSM knows I sometimes need a Trump-free day.

  125. 125.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:
    @Smiling Mortician:

    It is a famous mondegreen:

    The top three mondegreens submitted regularly to mondegreen expert Jon Carroll are:

    Gladly, the cross-eyed bear (from the line in the hymn “Keep Thou My Way” by Fanny Crosby and Theodore E. Perkins, “Kept by Thy tender care, gladly the cross I’ll bear”). Carroll and many others quote it as “Gladly the cross I’d bear”; They Might Be Giants allude to this line and its mishearing in their title album’s song “Hide Away, Folk Family”, which contains the line “And sadly the cross-eyed bear’s been put to sleep behind the stairs”.

    There’s a bathroom on the right (the line at the end of each verse of “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival: “There’s a bad moon on the rise”).

    ‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy (from a lyric in the song “Purple Haze” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience: “‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky”).

  131. 131.

    MoxieM

    @Barbara: For sure. As a bystander and observer to that particular project (but writing as someone who did research into Injection drug use, HIV/AIDs harm reduction, as well as advocacy for needle exchange in the mid-1990s, using State data as the basis for analysis, some of those, “which side ARE you on issues” could easily become germane at any moment. And did.) And this is why the archive was collected with the intention that it would be under an embargo for a long enough period of time that living participants would have shuffled off before anything substantive was published. It was my understanding that the Crown got wind, and wanted to check through the files (I could be wrong in this). It’s exactly the kind of thing that makes IRB/HRS committees do their stuff, though. But once it gets outside the Ivory walls and into the courts, it’s pretty much game over. Put differently, I don’t think BC was trying to protect the individuals who spoke on the record, as individuals, so much as they were trying to protect the integrity of the entire project for its usefulness in the future. (sounds icy cold, eh?) I mean, murder wasn’t a plus, but ….

  132. 132.

    Mnemosyne

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):

    Sadly, I do not know. I think we successfully talked TaMara into trying to automate one while she takes a summer break from coming up with topics for us, but I don’t know when that was going to start.

    I did have a very nice time at my writers’ retreat today — got some good brainstorming done and won a Kindle in the raffle.

  134. 134.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    And since he’s now publicly stated his EO on entry is a travel ban, expect that tweet to be admitted into evidence at some point.

    Probably shouldn’t laugh when the context is so grim, but damn, I love to watch him digging the hole bigger and bigger.

  135. 135.

    efgoldman

    @MoxieM:

    I don’t think BC was trying to protect the individuals who spoke on the record, as individuals

    I believe when the project first came to light, but before the Brits got the courts involved, that’s what the professor in charge told at least one Boston Globe reporter.

  137. 137.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Quinerly: Not so much…
    http://themiamigazette.com/disclaimer/

    Disclaimer:

    The Miami Gazette is an entertainment and satire web publication.

    Much of the content found on The Miami Gazette is listicle or quiz style articles that have been properly sourced and were created for your entertainment.

    The Miami Gazette also publishes largely NON-POLITICAL, satirical in nature, fake news articles – also created for your entertainment.

    When it comes to fake or satirical news – we attempt stay away from publishing anything of a political nature (unless it’s something really silly) as our intent is not to stir up political outrage or debate. We simply aim to provide an outlet for our writers and contributors to develop creative, outrageous, and 100% fictional, tall-tales that our audience can enjoy reading and sharing with friends.

    All mugshots used in our satirical news articles are for illustrative purposes only.

    The Miami Gazette may or may not use real

    All news articles contained within The Miami Gazette are fictional and presumably satirical news – with the exception of our ‘list style’ articles and quizzes that include relevant sources.

    The content published on The Miami Gazette is intended to be entertainment and is often intended to generate thought and discussion among its readers.

    Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental. Advice given is NOT to be construed as professional. If you are in need of professional help, please consult a professional.

    The Miami Gazette is not intended for children under the age of 18.

  148. 148.

    Adam L Silverman

    Alright I’m going to watch the Mountain Monsters, or as I like to call them Cole’s neighbors, season finale, rub some doggie bellies, and rack out. Someone should be along with the overnight open thread. Eventually. At some point.

  149. 149.

    Villago Delenda Est

    This may have been the Home of the Brave once, but we’ve collectively been acting like the most delicate of snowflakes since 9/11.

    Disgusts me no end. People in this country are doing EXACTLY what those perpetrating the terror want them to do.

  151. 151.

    TenguPhule

    @MomSense:

    I hope we can try to disseminate information about warning signs because there must be recognizable signs before someone does something like this.

    Well it doesn’t help when the police units that normally would be tracking and tracing those warnings get laid off.

    Which is what the Tories did in the UK.

    And we’re not much better off here, so much firepower and money poured into the “War on Drugs” that state level LE isn’t exactly designed to deal with terror threats until they actually happen. And we’ve all seen how fucked the FBI is.

  152. 152.

    TenguPhule

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    People in this country are doing EXACTLY what those perpetrating the terror want them to do.

    They’ve been doing it since 9/11/01. It got better after President Obama managed to bring sanity back but it never really stopped.

    We’re a nation of many cowards and idiots. And the King of them all is now in charge.

  153. 153.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, a kitty update while we’re waiting for a new thread: I’m pretty convinced now that the animal dermatologist has the right diagnosis (pemphigus, an autoimmune disease that attacks skin cells), because two days of steroids have been a freakin’ miracle cure. Annie is already coming out from her hidey-hole under the dining room table and demanding herr wet food treat. There’s still a slight chance it could be something nastier, like a specific form of lymphoma, but she’s matching all the symptoms of pemphigus and the standard treatment is working like a charm.

  157. 157.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mike in NC:
    That would have been Celtic fans versus Rangers fans, right? The old sectarian bad blood between the former’s traditionally Catholic fans and the latter’s traditionally Protestant supporters?

  158. 158.

    fuckwit

    @germy: Another reason to make sure health care is employer-based and end the evil scourge of Obamacare. Got to keep those troublemakers in line. Bow to the corporate gods, lest they smite you with medical bills!

  160. 160.

    Matt

    Expect we’ll see all the usual Nazi assclowns out in force tomorrow clutching their pearls about this. In addition to the New IRA plot mentioned above, some attacks they *won’t* be bringing up:

    * the Portland MAX killing
    * Trumpkin runs over people with his truck while shouting slurs https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/non-native-man-runs-two-tribal-members-one-died-result-injuries-sustained-incident/
    * the Atomwaffen shit. Yep, neo-fascists collecting radioactive material. Imagine the epic pants-shitting on the right if those guys had a copy of the Koran.

    Already saw Richard Spencer waving his e-Peen about. I’d love to see him go to the UK so they could re-enact the Battle of Britain using his face and a curb.

  161. 161.

    evodevo

    @amygdala: Hey! I’ve got conservative friends who are still on about Whitewater and Travelgate …. wingers never let ANYTHING go, no matter how ludicrous.

  163. 163.

    Laura

    @SiubhanDuinne: expert Jon Carroll-Full Stop!
    SD, you have made my Sunday with the sweet reminder of Jon Carroll. What a writer. I’m flooded with memories of his San Francisco Chronicle column. Mondagreens, wives and granddaughters, observations of life so common that we miss the mysteries in our midsts. Cats! Orange Boys, like Pancho. And his giving generous heart and urging readers to give just slightly beyond comfort, especially the Untied Way. The Untied Way directs you to take put more cash than you should, and just slip a 20 into as many unsuspecting hands as possible. Young and old hands, dirty or dainty hands without supposing what the recipient might do with the sudden, unexpected money. Jon Carroll opened my heart, and it’s stayed mostly open ever since. My eyes are all leaky with the memories.
    Thank you SiuhbanDuinne, you dun made my day.

  165. 165.

    Applejinx

    @Mnemosyne:

    Thanks! It’s the bottom-of-the-line Kindle, with ads and no backlight, but it’s still a free Kindle, and I’m pretty stoked.

    Nice! E-paper is good without a backlight, nice and restful. I’ve looked into hacking mine (I paid for no ads, but they took to messing with the OS) but got it to a state where it didn’t bug me that badly. I’m happy to hear you got one, Kindles are nice!

  167. 167.

    Mike G

    @Keith P.:

    I also expected to hear that the attackers got called “wankers” and “c**ts”.

    And told to “f*ck off”. And that’s before they even pulled out their knives.

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