The News Thread

[Morris Schæffer]

Is anyone following what's happening in Alberta, Canada? Numerous forest fires have begun to spread laying waste to cities, airports and the fire departments are now saying they cannot control the fire any more, that only serious rainfall could possibly turn the tide. I think that the city of Fort MacMurray was completely evacuated.

http://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/...sts/wildfires/

[Scar]

Please source 'numerous fires'.

I'm aware of the big wildfire that's threatening Fort McMurray.

[Scar]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36209649

[Morris Schæffer]

Please source 'numerous fires'.

I'm aware of the big wildfire that's threatening Fort McMurray.

Another Belgian site I frequent seemed to be saying it hád gotten so big that it was no longer just one fire. But I did think fort macm. Was already evacuated and damage extensive.

[Morris Schæffer]

Another terrorist attack time in France. In Nice this time. 84 dead so far.

[kuehnepips]

Anyone have any more knowledge or insight into these sex attacks that happened in Germany on New Years eve?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35239503

It seems weird that I am just hearing about it today, and that it hasn't been reported on more.

It's been reported in Germany every fucking day since ...

[[ETM]]

A friend was like 6ft away from where the truck slammed into the crowd in Nice. She only got home at 3AM because the streets were blocked.
Good thing the first thing I saw this morning was the Facebook alert that she was safe, or I would have freaked the fuck out. So horrible.

[Dukefrukem]

These attacks are getting more frequent and more random. It's painful to read about this on a week to week basis.

[number8]

The randomness has to do with the fact that these attacks no longer need to be coordinated on any level. Structured terrorism is Al Qaeda thinking from last decade. Many of these ISIS attacks now are claimed after the fact, so all you need is to expel hateful rhetoric over the internet and wait for wannabe lone wolves all over the world to do something, then say they were your boy.

This dude didn't even have any weapons or explosives. He just waited for a crowd and stepped on a gas pedal. That's it. That's how easy it is for terrorism to work. And what are you gonna do about it? There's nothing to bomb in retaliation. You can't assassinate an idea.

[Raiders]

The randomness has to do with the fact that these attacks no longer need to be coordinated on any level. Structured terrorism is Al Qaeda thinking from last decade. Many of these ISIS attacks now are claimed after the fact, so all you need is to expel hateful rhetoric over the internet and wait for wannabe lone wolves all over the world to do something, then say they were your boy.

This dude didn't even have any weapons or explosives. He just waited for a crowd and stepped on a gas pedal. That's it. That's how easy it is for terrorism to work. And what are you gonna do about it? There's nothing to bomb in retaliation. You can't assassinate an idea.

Well, last I head he had guns and grenades in the truck and witnesses say he was shooting before he was killed.

As I said on Facebook last night in a discussion with a friend of mine... at this point, it is an ideology we are "fighting" and you have to defeat this if anything will change, but I'll be damned if I am savvy enough to figure out how to do that. With something like the Holocaust, it was an ideology as well, but one founded on nationalism and thus more contained, and so you know what to target. Here, it is culturally and religiously motivated... I don't know how you target that.

[number8]

Well, last I head he had guns and grenades in the truck and witnesses say he was shooting before he was killed.

They were apparently fake guns and grenades.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36800730

[Irish]

"You can't kill an idea" sounds like you're cribbing from Alan Moore, which is a fun reference, but in the real world it isn't true.

You can definitely kill an idea.

If you want to do it peacefully, all it takes is a generation or two and a bit of legislation. In the 2020 election, there will be US citizens eligible to vote who have never known anything except the Patriot Act and mass surveillance. You and I can sit here and complain that the 4th amendment has been reduced to tatters over the last 40 years, but for them, those tatters are their "normal." (Tangentially, you can leave an "idea" intact but make employing or exercising that idea so difficult or impossible that, in practical terms, the idea may as well not exist, cf: abortion rights, gun rights, voting rights).

If you want to kill an idea violently, all it takes is a willingness to kill a random and large number of people (and usually, your own people). Cf: Poland, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Cambodia, North Korea, Rwanda.

I'm not a big fan of the concept that this is a fight over "ideology" either, because it's a little bit too pat. I mean, "ideology" is usually a euphemism for "power" and in practical terms, violent arguments are about money, control, and borders. Open borders and "free" money resolves a lot of those same arguments (Cf, again, Northern Ireland). At least in the short term.

The big diff, to me, with this current crop of Crazies is that they're good at PR. They're good at social media. They're good at getting Westerners to spread Crazy propaganda.

Afaik, The Crazies didn't claim Orlando and haven't claimed Nice. Their online fanboys crow and woo-hoo anytime anything violent happens, but there's a distinction there that I think is important.

The real sadness here are the workaday Muslims who want nothing more than to have a job, raise their families, and live their lives. But now they're caught in the middle. The West uses them as a political punching bag and the ~East uses them as another target.

The other sad bit of collateral damage are the so-called liberal democracies who get pushed further right every time there's any kind of incident. This will eventually result in a "papers, please" style society.

For my own pop culture reference, I'll add: I look forward to the day when some dude in a gas mask and body armor tells me to PICK UP THAT CAN.

[Scar]

The only gun I heard that he actually had was 7.65 (32 ACP) pistol. Certainly could kill a person or three in very capable hands, but not something someone who wanted to shoot a bunch of people would use.

[Morris Schæffer]

Oh crap. The turkish military have taken control of things in turkey. News sites speak of impending coup against Erdogan!

[Skitch]

The fuck is going on in Turkey...is this good or bad?

[bac0n]

Jesus - off the grid for a week and I come back to this shit. Feel like turning the fuck around and going straight back to no bars country.


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[Scar]

Jesus - off the grid for a week and I come back to this shit. Feel like turning the fuck around and going straight back to no bars country.


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Or just come over tomorrow and get good and drunk?

[bac0n]

Haha - that'd work too!


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[[ETM]]

A friend was like 6ft away from where the truck slammed into the crowd in Nice. She only got home at 3AM because the streets were blocked.

Oh, FUCK. She was literally there when the truck hit, and a steel beam saved her. She's from Quebec, so her home newspaper ran an article: http://www.lapresse.ca/la-tribune/ac...-un-poteau.php

It is so surreal...

[Morris Schæffer]

Oh, FUCK. She was literally there when the truck hit, and a steel beam saved her. She's from Quebec, so her home newspaper ran an article: http://www.lapresse.ca/la-tribune/ac...-un-poteau.php

It is so surreal...

Glad she made it out! The death toll seems inconceivable, unfathomable.

[Dukefrukem]

MALL RAMPAGE in MUNICH now. Several dead.

[Scar]

*sigh*

When I saw the notification that there was a new post in the News Thread, my first thought was: Where, how, and how many?

[number8]

They're still trying to catch the guy.

[Dukefrukem]

They're still trying to catch the guy.

Three shooters.

[kuehnepips]

MALL RAMPAGE in MUNICH now. Several dead.

Three guys shooting; they escaped the mall, Munich is closed down