In The News Today...

Talk about the Grinch that stole Christmas
On Christmas eve of all days, the republicans refuse to help struggling Americans

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/coronavirus-surges-countries-spend-more-economic-aid-not-u-s-n1250411
"As coronavirus surges, countries spend more on economic aid. But not the U.S.
Unlike Western Europe and Canada, the U.S. is asking citizens to face the Covid-19 pandemic without any additional financial cushion from the government."

Quote: terapined

Talk about the Grinch that stole Christmas
On Christmas eve of all days, the republicans refuse to help struggling Americans

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/coronavirus-surges-countries-spend-more-economic-aid-not-u-s-n1250411
"As coronavirus surges, countries spend more on economic aid. But not the U.S.
Unlike Western Europe and Canada, the U.S. is asking citizens to face the Covid-19 pandemic without any additional financial cushion from the government."

Because the Republicans are the adults in the room. There are still unemployment benefits. Food pantries up the wazoo. Thousands of entry level jobs are going begging. My son and his fiance each make somewhere around $60k a year. Their expenses are WAY down as there is no travel, no eating out, ridiculously low gas prices. Please explain to me how it is wise use of tax dollars to give them each a check of $2,000? FOR EXISTING? It frankly makes NO SENSE to even give them a check for $600 each. As a matter of fact, as a retired guy I probably will qualify for the check, even though I have 7 figures in the bank.

So the original deal agreed to, negotiated in good faith by ALL (except Trump, of course!), should be voted on again, and hopefully will get the 2/3 vote required to override the doofus in chief's veto. Just throwing another $1400 at some who truly need it and most who don't makes no sense. Give that $1400 to the state's to bolster their unemployment payments, or to food pantries, or to job training program..... anything except just handing it out to many who do not need it.

But simple minded Americans will see it as terapined does. "Those bad Republicans don't want to help struggling Americans...."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/12/24/national-guard-response/

Apprantly this year has had more National Guard activations in any year since WWII. This is largley due to a combination of States activating the Guard for a combination of riots, wildfires, and COVID, which when combined in one year made for a huge number of duty days.

'Tens of thousands of Guardsmen were mobilized in all 50 states, three territories and Washington, logging more than 8.4 million duty days this year, according to National Guard data. The bulk of efforts has focused on the coronavirus pandemic, with roles in administering tests, distributing protective equipment and in some cases, retrieving the dead.'

Quote: Gandler

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/12/24/national-guard-response/

Apprantly this year has had more National Guard activations in any year since WWII. This is largley due to a combination of States activating the Guard for a combination of riots, wildfires, and COVID, which when combined in one year made for a huge number of duty days.

I've been telling you peeps for years now the 2020s would be a violent decade. Get used to it.

Not a good day for Nashville. Explosion at 6:30am. Interesting how many news websites have NOTHING about it as of now...... 10am.

Time and place selected seems to be to maximize physical damage while limiting loss of life. As of now no fatalities. But sad X-mas for many....

Quote: SOOPOO

Not a good day for Nashville. Explosion at 6:30am. Interesting how many news websites have NOTHING about it as of now...... 10am.

Time and place selected seems to be to maximize physical damage while limiting loss of life. As of now no fatalities. But sad X-mas for many....

"Merely 'Peaceful but Explosive' demonstrations" will be how CNN covers it I guess.

Oh, wait, the election is over, maybe not

Quote: SOOPOO

Not a good day for Nashville. Explosion at 6:30am. Interesting how many news websites have NOTHING about it as of now...... 10am.

Time and place selected seems to be to maximize physical damage while limiting loss of life. As of now no fatalities. But sad X-mas for many....

Sounds like somebody parked an RV with some sort of explosives in it and detonated it.

The police were investigating the RV left on the street before it exploded -and something they saw caused them to call the bomb squad- (presumably they have the tag and VIN), so it should not be that hard to find who owns it. (And I would assume downtown Nashville has cameras everywhere).

Its sad that something like this would happen on Christmas Day. I am glad that nobody was killed.

Quote: Gandler

The police were investigating the RV left on the street before it exploded -and something they saw caused them to call the bomb squad-

Possibly because the police noticed it, it was set off early. Or perhaps was set off before it could be moved to its target. Perhaps a government building.

Quote: rxwine

Possibly because the police noticed it, it was set off early. Or perhaps was set off before it could be moved to its target. Perhaps a government building.

That is a good point.

Exact details are scarce, and to some degree inconsistent. But, it sounds like the RV was left abandoned on the street at some point overnight. And, the police were investigating it as a standard abandoned RV left on the street, but while there they saw something which caused them to pull back and call the bomb squad. And, it exploded before the bomb squad arrived (I think, timeline varies).

So it is quite possible that if it was being monitored they wanted to destroy it before the bomb squad could find out more. But, if it was being stored to be moved to a different target leaving it downtown overnight , where it surely would be looked at by police for a parking ticket if nothing else would not be wise? I don't know, there is a lot of things that seem odd. Or maybe it was in the right location like you said and they were staging it for later in the day when more people are downtown?

More details, but now looks like they wanted people to know it was a bomb.