"The Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck that a man used to kill at least 14 people Wednesday on Bourbon Street and the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel on the same day..."

"... were both rented through the [Turo] car-sharing platform, which allows owners to list their vehicles to drivers.... Turo touts the unique nature of its vehicles as opposed to traditional rental car fleets; the value of its pricing; and the option for a 'personalized experience' that allows users to coordinate with local hosts and skip a 'cold, impersonal' rental car counter...."

From "What is Turo? Car rental app was used in New Orleans, Vegas incidents/The peer-to-peer car-sharing company said it is 'devastated' and working with law enforcement" (WaPo).

Insurance detail: "Customers get liability insurance when they book on Turo, which covers property damage or physical harm to another person if the driver is responsible...." 

Both men chose a truck, but I hadn't noticed until now that the New Orleans terrorist, like the Las Vegas terrorist/"terrorist," chose an electric truck. That isn't an odd choice for someone seeking to cause maximum damage. The electric truck is much heavier. A gas F-150 weighs 4,021 to 5,540 pounds. An F-150 Lightning weighs between 6,015 to 6,893 pounds. That's an extra ton.

(I wondered whether gasoline, like the battery, adds much weight. The weight of the gasoline in a full tank of an F-150 is 139.68 pounds or 218.63 pounds, depending on whether you have the 23 gallon tank or the 36.)

An electric vehicle may have been chosen because of the potential for fire — not that the EV is more likely to catch fire, but the fire is more difficult to extinguish:

IN THE COMMENTS: Two additional features of the electric truck: 1. It is quieter, giving less warning to the victims to clear out of its way, and 2. It accelerates faster, especially from 0. Thanks to Breezy and Narayanan for immediately raising these points.

"The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken."

Tweeted Elon Musk, showing this video of the aftermath of the explosion:

🚨 #BREAKING: Las Vegas Police release new video of the exploded Cybertruck outside of the Trump Hotel, showing explosive ordinances in the back

Police credited the lack of damage to the Trump Hotel to the strength of the Cybertruck, as it remained mostly intact.

“The explosion… pic.twitter.com/lajQZX2pOI

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 2, 2025

The bombs bursting in the Cybertruck gave proof through the night that our Trump Hotel glass doors were still there. 

"Cybertruck that exploded and truck in New Orleans attack rented on same app."

 ABC reports.

Investigators do not know what caused the blast, such as whether something was wrong with the vehicle or whether something external prompted it. Determining what was behind the explosion is the key focus of the probe.

An official briefed on the probe told ABC News that the Tesla Cybertruck had a load of fireworks-style mortars onboard. Investigators were urgently working to determine a motive and whether the driver intended to set off an explosion and why....

[Elon] Musk later posted on X: "We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself." 

It's not known if Musk's claim has been independently verified....

"We expect our would-be tyrants to command a certain gravitas, to be earnest, play it straight. But Donald Trump almost never does."

"He’s always smirking, acting coy, camp, or just plain bizarre. The effect can be deflating, confusing, bathetic. Can a man this ridiculous really pose an existential threat to our democracy?... [I]n Oaks, Pennsylvania... [Trump] spent 39 minutes mostly silent, standing, rocking side to side, and occasionally dancing to his campaign playlist.... Pundits were quick to call the musical interlude inexplicable and to attribute the choice to Trump’s congenital weirdness and possible mental deterioration. They seemed to have hope that this was the type of moment that might wake up the electorate. But I didn’t find his performance particularly jarring. The sentiment he expressed — who the hell wants to keep doing this shit — brought to mind a wistful indiscretion from the grinding days of the 2020 campaign. 'By the way, nice trucks,' Trump said to a crowd in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which included a contingent of Truckers for Trump. 'You think I could hop into one of them and drive it away? I’d love to just drive the hell out of here. Just get the hell out of this. I had such a good life. My life was great.'"

Writes Sam Adler-Bell, in "The Music Man/Trump’s kitschy nostalgia is the point" (NY Magazine).

Sounds like the final scene in "Five Easy Pieces":

"This image from Donald Trump is the type of crap you post when you're calling for a bloodbath or when you tell the Proud Boys to 'stand back and stand by'...."

"Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it's time people take him seriously — just ask the Capitol Police officers who were attacked protecting our democracy on January 6...."

Said Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler, quoted in "Trump is 'inciting political violence' sharing Biden hog-tied video: Biden campaign/Trump shared the video on his social media platform on Friday" (ABC News).

You've seen the video, I'm sure:

The Ford experience.

Meade texts from the service waiting room:

A nice, precise 10 for today. Here it is, Althouse-curated TikTok. You can rank them, like that lady ranked the lyrics of "It's Corn."

1. The vacation on TikTok vs. Reality.

2. The price of an overnight stay — with breakfast and a beautiful view — in Kyrgystan.

3. What country is longest, north to south?

4. The lines of "It's Corn" — ranked.

5. Spend $80,000 on a truck....

6. Sometimes a m-f talks nice to your face...

7. The phrase "we love that for you."

8. She believes she is still 70.

9. Ricky Gourmet reads the letter his 12-year-old self wrote him.

10. Trying to read.

Oil change.

"Now, during my voyage down this strip of pavement that’s about as wide as a paper towel roll and surrounded by large vehicles driven by people who hate me for no reason..."

"... I will face many perils. I will face the towering metal rear ends of illegally parked postal trucks. I will face hundreds—nay—thousands of glass shards from shattered Miller Lite bottles. I will face potholes deep enough to turn me and my bike into something out of Picasso’s Guernica. And you will witness me conquer them all in a glorious spectacle of labored breathing and back sweat!... Cheer in rapture as I zigzag between wasp-infested construction cones, mysterious piles of sand, and joggers who think this is a special bicycle-themed running track....Yes, I may be smacked into oblivion by the side mirrors of an F1-50 that’s passing too closely...."

Writes Joe Wellman, in "For My Next Death-Defying Stunt, I Will Ride My Bike in This Bike Lane" (McSweeney's).

Hey, McSweeney's people, that's really funny, but it's F-150, not F1-50, as a hell of a lot of Americans know. I wouldn't have known it either, but these days, I actually own one — co-own, co-own something that I'd never have selected for myself and would only drive in some hair-raising emergency that, if I worked hard enough at envisioning, could be the topic of a McSweeney's humor piece.

I've got 7 TikToks for you tonight. Let me know what you like.

1. If "Seinfeld" were on today and George used the wrong pronouns.

2. The most disorienting thing about being alive today.

3. The best father-playing-guitar-for-baby video ever.

4. How to act when you see an attractive person.

5. How to kiss a girl.

5. Living conditions inside a truck.

6. "Oh, I'm so sorry. We're actually out of nothing."

7. What does she want?

ADDED: Looking at this at 6:22 the next morning, I see there are two 5s, for a total of 8. Too late to change all that now.

I accomplished my #1 goal for the summer!

I slept overnight in the camper!

Meade took that picture of me after our hike out to see the sunrise. And here's his panorama that includes me along with the sunrise (to enlarge click (and click again)):

I'll have a few of my sunrise pictures in a separate post. This is a post to celebrate what was, for me, a big challenge.

"As the water level drops, formerly sunken boats are emerging in the mud, and other vehicles are getting newly stuck...."

"And on Monday the National Park Service shared several photos on Twitter that showed trucks stuck in the mud around the lake – a shoreline that looks deceivingly stable, but acts more like quicksand."

CNN reports — with photos showing the kind of truck that makes you think you can go where those other vehicles can't.

Interesting to see the old quicksand! threat making a comeback. From a 2010 Slate article:

For now, quicksand has all but evaporated from American entertainment—rejected even by the genre directors who once found it indispensable.... Quicksand once offered filmmakers a simple recipe for excitement: A pool of water, thickened with oatmeal, sprinkled over the top with wine corks. It was, in its purest form, a plot device unburdened by character, motivation, or story: My god, we're sinking! Will we escape this life-threatening situation before time runs out?... Time was, a director could sink a man in the desert and still win the Oscar for best picture. Today, that gimmick has been scorned in third-rate schlock.

Here's the comedian John Mulaney joking about his childhood concept that quicksand was going to be a big threat.

Does Biden, posing with Mack Trucks, say "I thought I was going to get to drive one of these fuckers today"?

Here's the video I found after I was watching a bit of the event live:

 

Did you hear the line? "I thought I was going to get to drive one of these [???] today." I hear "fuckers."

I'd just run into the live event on TikTok, and I was surprised at all the abuse the TikTok users were putting in the live comments. Here's a screenshot I took: 

 

There was a very fast moving stream of comments. Very nasty. It's just by pure chance that the screenshot ends with "Where's Will Smith when you need him?"

I got some background on the event from Washington Examiner. Biden was talking about trucking as "a national priority, including improving training and employment standards." And apparently, back in 2017, Trump had an event where he was "photographed in the cab of an 18-wheeler Mack honking the horn and pretending to drive before a listening session with executives and their employees on healthcare," so that may have prompted Biden to express disappointment at not getting to sit in the truck. I'm guessing his handlers were afraid it might look weak rather than strong (like Dukakis in the tank).

Oh! I see the Washington Examiner fills in the blank with "suckers." You tell me. I think if you watch believing you'll hear "suckers," you will hear "suckers," but when I didn't have a text, I heard "fuckers" every time (and listened 10 times).

"What is ‘Type II fun,’ and why do some people want to have it?"

A WaPo headline asks a question I didn't have but now want to know how to answer.   

According to REI Co-Op, "Type 2 fun is miserable while it’s happening, but fun in retrospect. It usually begins with the best intentions, and then things get carried away. Riding your bicycle across the country. Doing an ultramarathon. Working out till you puke, and, usually, ice and alpine climbing." 

The WaPo article says: 

On this scale, Type I fun is an activity you’re sure you’ll enjoy, and you do. Think: sharing a nice meal with friends, going to the beach....

Type III fun? It’s actually not fun at all. It’s often described as “harrowing,” like getting dangerously lost in the wilderness or trying to swim across the Atlantic....

But Type II fun? That’s the sweet spot. It challenges you without putting you in danger — and it’s often uncomfortable but in ways that also make you feel alive.

I'm reading this just as I'm trying to get my mind around going out for several days in our new camper, which is Type I fun for Meade, but Type II for me:

Testing out the camper in the heartland.

Yesterday, we seemed to have state park all to ourselves.

 

After the snowfall...

"We’re going to keep annoying D.C. … Just make them wonder a little bit. Look, we’re truck drivers; we’re very spontaneous."

Said People’s Convoy organizer Mike Landis, quoted in "‘Freedom Convoy’ spinoff arrives in Md. with about 1,000 vehicles and unclear plans/The group, which is protesting vaccine mandates, previously planned to arrive in the D.C. Beltway area Saturday" (WaPo).

ADDED: Are vaccine mandates really still a problem? 

AND: I want to give the NYT credit for perceiving the truck driver as having spoken with a semicolon.

"A group of US truckers embarked in a convoy of vehicles on Wednesday on a 2,500 mile cross-country trip from Barstow, California to Washington DC to protest against coronavirus restrictions."

"The group, which is calling itself the 'people’s convoy,' is one of several starting from different parts of the country and due to start arriving in the US capital at various points through to late next week – all inspired by the demonstrations that recently paralyzed Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, for weeks....  Some of the trucker groups are scheduled to arrive in time for Joe Biden’s State of the Union address next Tuesday, 1 March.... The Pentagon said on Tuesday it had approved 400 national guard troops from the District of Columbia, who would not carry weapons, to help at traffic posts from this Saturday through 7 March. About 50 large tactical vehicles were also approved to be placed at traffic posts. In addition, up to 300 national guard troops from outside of Washington were approved to come to the city to assist at traffic posts if needed. Brian Brase, a truck driver who is one of the organizers, said that, regardless of where the trucks stop, 'we’re not going anywhere' until the group’s demands are met.... We plan to stay a while and hope they don’t escalate it the way Trudeau did with his disgusting government overreach'... Organisers bill the convoy as non-partisan, trucker-led, and supported by a wide range of ethnic minorities and religious faiths. However, as in Canada, significant elements of the protest appeared to attract a rightwing crowd...."

From "US trucker convoy gathers for cross-country trip to protest Covid rules/Group calling itself the ‘people’s convoy’ is one of several due to arrive in capital, similar to the demonstrations in Ottawa" (The Guardian).

"'This is not my city,' said Ellie Charters, 45, crossing the street before a line of shoulder-to-shoulder tractor cabs, their metal grills festooned in flags, handmade signs and stuffed toys."

"Ms. Charters, a local resident, called the party scene a 'sanitization' of the protest’s darker motives. From the start, the protest, initially organized to oppose a vaccine mandate for cross-border truckers, has attracted the company of far right, anti-government and other fringe groups in Canada.... Many demonstrators... demanded Parliament be dissolved, and Mr. Trudeau be removed from office. But when many of the thousands of protesters who first arrived in Ottawa went home, several hundred truckers held firm. They parked their vehicles and refused to leave — and the police could do little to force them out. Now, the protesters who have dug into Ottawa’s core for nearly two weeks are giddy with their sense of collective purpose and, so far, perceived success. However, many of the residents who live in nearby apartment buildings and renovated heritage homes don’t see it as a celebration but as an unruly, disrespectful and even dangerous occupation. How could a group of ostensible anti-vaccine protesters, many wonder, descend upon their city and manage to take it over?... Many protesters say they are here in peace. Some get on their knees and pray outside Parliament.... But there is a definite edge — like that end-of-the-night feeling at a tailgate party, when some of the crowd might have had too much to drink, and things could go sideways..... Many locals said they felt abandoned by the police..... 'Why weren’t they enforcing the law at all? The police aren’t doing anything,' said Ms. Charters, a community activist..."

From "'This Is Not My City': Protesters Turn a Quiet Capital Upside Down/The Ottawa protesters are giddy with their sense of collective purpose. But local residents see the demonstration as an unruly, disrespectful and even dangerous occupation" by Catherine Porter (NYT). 

It's like the takeover of Portland, Oregon in 2020. How long did that go on and how did it end? And the old Occupy movement. These things demonstrate how close we are to chaos. I understand that these protests are against the excessive imposition of order by the government, but for a lot of people, they prove the opposite, how much we love order. The order we rely on is mostly invisible. It becomes visible in its absence.