2 January 2025
S.H.I.T. - Too much violence and death
After a blessed, blissful week of mostly ignoring the news, I’m finding it difficult to get back into the swing of S.H.I.T. Ordinarily I start typing up these stories on Monday. This time I procrastinated until Wednesday.
But my procrastination is understandable in light of the news that’s happened since my last round-up. Most of it is awful—plane crashes and terror attacks. What a depressing way for 2024 to end!
NOLA terror attack
This is a still-breaking story, but the man who rammed a pickup truck into a New Year’s Eve crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early Wednesday morning appears to be Shamsud-Din Jabbar (age 42). Reportedly, he is a U.S. citizen from Houston, Texas (born and raised in Beaumont, Texas) and a U.S. Army veteran (in IT and human resources), but he appears to have been radicalized, because an ISIS flag was mounted to the truck used in the attack. (The truck itself—an electric Ford F-150—had been rented in Texas via the peer-to-peer Turo app.) He used a weapon to fire both at people in the crowd and at police officers before being shot to death by them. IEDs were also found at the scene.
Some have speculated that Jabbar was a black American convert to Islam, but it appears that his parents also bear the Jabbar surname, and his younger brother, Abdur Jabbar, has indicated that the attacker “converted to Islam at an early age.”
The attacker was apparently twice divorced—in 2012 and around 2022—and was having financial problems as a result. He lived in a “squalid trailer park,” inhabited largely by Muslim immigrants, near a mosque. In videos filmed during his journey to New Orleans, he talked about plans to kill his family (presumably meaning his children and ex-wives—the second ex-wife had been granted a restraining order against him), but said he had changed his mind and decided to join ISIS instead as a result of “several dreams that he had.” Andy Ngo, on TwiX, has uncovered evidence that he had recently been selling firearms online, but that he had formerly been a professional-looking realtor/property manager.
While 10 people were killed outright, another 5 people have since died. At least 25 others have been hospitalized.
There is speculation that an explosion in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday morning may be related. A rented Tesla Cybertruck loaded with fuel cans and mortar-style fireworks exploded, but the bed of the truck largely contained the explosion, with the result that only the driver was killed, although seven bystanders were injured.
German Christmas Market terror attack
Much has been made of the fact that the Saudi doctor (evidently a psychiatrist) who rammed an SUV into the crowd at the Christmas Market in Magdeburg, Germany was not an Islamist, but rather an ex-Muslim atheist who supported the ‘far-Right’ AfD’s policies against immigration. But further information about Taleb al-Abdulmohsen (age 50) suggests that a combination of culture and mental illness may have made his religious beliefs immaterial, particularly considering that he targeted a venue where Muslims were unlikely to be present.
The reality is that he had a past history of threats. In one case, in 2013, he felt a medical board was being too slow to approve his request to take an exam, and he threatened to copy the Boston Marathon bombing, which had just occurred. Police found no bomb-making materials at his home, so although he was convicted of making a threat, somehow the incident didn’t get him deported (he had lived in Germany since 2006), nor did it affect his permanent residence status or his designation as a ‘refugee’ (due to his atheism). In 2015, he called a Public Prosecutor General a “dirty bacteria that should soon be destroyed to protect the German people” and stated that he was “prepared to pay my whole life” in order to fulfill a “moral duty” to destroy certain parts of the German constitution relating to judges.
Saudi Arabia had warned Germany about him repeatedly, including as recently as November 2023. But, as with many U.S. cases where an attacker was ‘known to the FBI,’ German authorities concluded that the accusations were “too vague.” His social media posts indicated that he was delusional (he had been treated for mental illness in the past); on one occasion he posted on TwiX “blaming Germany’s supposed liberalism for the death of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates.” A drug test after the attack was positive for drug use.
The attack—which killed four women and a 9-year-old boy and injured over 200 other people—was made possible in part because the gap in the site’s defensive bollards (left to allow access by emergency vehicles) was too wide and had been left unblocked by police vehicles. There was also supposed to be a chain across the gap, but “the concrete barriers delivered had no catches to hold chains.” Evidently the event’s organizers had complained to police weeks before, but gotten no response.
Mass attacks increasing in China
In 2024, the number of incidents in China in which an individual mass-attacked strangers rose from three to five per year to a total of 19, in which 63 people were killed and 166 injured. Interestingly, many of these attacks seem to have been a response to personal problems—a divorce and a failed exam, to mention two cases—rather than ideologically driven terrorism. Experts are blaming a combination of a struggling Chinese economy and a crackdown by the Chinese government on even minor forms of dissent (such as grousing on social media).
Victim in NYC subway attack identified
The woman who burned to death after being set on fire on a NYC train by a Guatemalan illegal immigrant on December 22nd has finally been identified as Debrina Kawam (age 57). Known as ‘Debbie,’ she appears in her Passaic Valley (NJ) Regional High School yearbook photo to be a fairly ordinary ‘80s girl.’ But she began struggling with debt and illness in the 1990s, and fell into a pattern of occasional arrests for public intoxication. She had been living periodically in NYC homeless shelters since September 2024.
A woman who lives in Kawam’s parents’ former home in Toms River, New Jersey told reporters that Kawam came to the house in May 2024, looking for her mother, who had moved out several weeks before. At the time, it appeared to the resident that Kawam had “might have had some mental challenges.” She had fallen asleep on a Coney Island F train when Sebastian Zapeta-Calil (age 33) intentionally set her clothing on fire and fanned the flames. Zapeta had already been deported once, in 2018. He has been arrested and charged with arson and murder.
More rich-vs.-rich violence?
A few days before Christmas, a recently hired employee at Anderson Express (a vehicle parts manufacturer) near Muskegon, Michigan left a staff meeting, only to return a short time later, wearing a black Covid mask, to stab the company’s president, Erik Denslow (age 58), in the side with a four-inch knife. The employee—Nathan Mahoney (age 32)—had reportedly been tapped to be trained as the company’s future CFO (chief financial officer). He fled the scene in a BMW, but was apprehended after a chase.
Denslow is reported to be recovering with “a good prognosis” after surgery. Mahoney has been charged with attempted murder, but has been ordered to undergo a competency evaluation. He wore a very bizarre grin in his booking photo.
Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes on Christmas Day
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 was supposed to land in Grozny, Russia after a flight from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. But the plane was diverted for reasons that are disputed: fog may have played a part, and at one point a bird strike was blamed, but eventually Dmitry Yadrov, the head of Russia’s aviation agency, stated that Grozny had been closed to air traffic due to attack by Ukrainian drones. The plane was en route to land at Aktau, Kazakstan, on the opposite side of the Caspian Sea, when it crashed about two miles from that airport.
Based on the reports of survivors (29 of the 67 passengers and crew survived the crash), there were loud bangs outside the aircraft as it was circling Grozny, one of which triggered the oxygen masks to drop. A flight attendant experienced a “deep wound […] lacerated as if someone hit me in the arm with an ax.” Damage on the plane’s intact tail section suggests it may have come under fire from “small surface-to-air missiles.”
Although Russia has “apologized for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace,” it has not admitted any responsibility. Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, however, has stated firmly that Russian anti-aircraft defenses damaged the plane, whether that was done accidentally or not. He is demanding an apology, an acknowledgment of guilt, a payment of compensation, and the punishment of those responsible.
Deadly plane crash in South Korea
On December 29th, Jeju Air Flight 7C 2216 crashed on the runway of Muan International Airport in South Korea, killing all but 2 of the 181 people on board. It was known that the aircraft was having engine trouble, but the proximate cause of the crash was that the plane attempted to land without the landing gear deployed, overshot the end of the runway, and crashed into a concrete structure designed to protect landing-assist antennas. The pilots had aborted their initial landing attempt for as-yet-unknown reasons. Although they were warned of a bird strike during the second landing attempt, it is not clear what role, if any, that played in the crash.
The most puzzling aspect of the crash is that, in addition to the landing gear not being lowered (which can be done with “an alternate system” if the main system fails), none of the other measures usually taken to slow an aircraft, such as opening the wing flaps, were employed to slow the plane, meaning that it was coming in far faster than it should have been. Another problem is that the plane had requested permission to land in the opposite direction on the runway for its second attempt, which put the concrete barrier at the end directly in its path.
The flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder were found quickly after the crash, but it may take months for the investigation to be completed. It has already taken days to identify all the victims, since over 30 of the bodies (or body parts) could only be identified by DNA or fingerprinting. Remarkably, the two flight attendants (one male, one female) who survived had relatively minor, non-life-threatening injuries. The trauma of the event, however, is likely to remain with them.
Stowaways to Hawaii?
In other weird airplane news, a body was found in the landing-gear wheel well of a Chicago to Maui flight on Christmas Eve. Since the area “is only accessible from the outside of the aircraft and it’s not clear at this time how and when the unidentified individual accessed it,” it is unknown whether the deceased was attempting to stow away on that particular flight, and whether they expected to survive.
In a parallel case, a woman without a ticket was able—also on Christmas Eve—to sneak onto a Honolulu-bound flight at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Somehow she “had managed to get through a TSA security checkpoint the evening of 12/23 without a boarding pass” as well as “gain[ing] access to the loading bridge without a scanned ticket at the gate.” She was discovered on board the aircraft as the plane was preparing for take-off, and the plane went back to the loading gate. Remarkably, she managed to slip away as she was being walked off the aircraft, and she was found later in a bathroom and finally taken into custody.
The woman, now identified as Shemaiah Patrice Small (age 33) of California, had been wandering around the airport barefoot, carrying a bottle of whiskey, for over a day. She appears to have gotten though TSA security by a combination of cutting in line and ducking under line dividers. Although airport security attempted to investigate her as a suspicious person at one point, she took refuge in a bathroom stall and claimed she was too ill to come out (seemingly, they gave up). She managed to board the aircraft (she had already stood in line for two other flights without successfully boarding) by standing next to another passenger as he scanned his boarding pass. It was only when she took a ticketed passenger’s seat on the completely full flight and was unable to show a boarding pass of her own that flight attendants realized she was a stowaway.
These two incidents suggest disturbing things about the laxity of airport security, both inside and outside the terminals.
Prop 36 surprises shoplifters
California’s recently adopted Proposition 36, which rolls back some of the soft-on-crime aspects of 2014’s Proposition 47, went into effect midway through December, and the results surprised some shoplifters. The Seal Beach (CA) Police Department released security and bodycam footage of three women in their 20s who casually stole about $650 in merchandise from an Ulta Beauty and then went on to steal a little less than $1000 in merchandise from a Kohls.
When they were arrested, the women were stunned to learn that their previously unpunished shoplifting was now a felony. Thefts under $950 were considered misdemeanors under Prop 47. The video, released on Instagram, warned, “Remember folks, don’t steal in Seal.”
Florida homeowner kills one intruder, accomplice charged with murder
The day after Christmas in Sarasota, Florida, two men decided to break into a home; unfortunately for them, the homeowner was armed and shot at the masked men as they climbed in through a back window. Jorge Nestevan Flores-Toledo (age 27), a Mexican national with unknown immigration status, died of a head wound. Flores-Toledo, who also went by the alias Anibal Miller-Valencia, had recently been released on parole after a four-month stint in an Illinois jail under that alias for residential burglary.
His accomplice was Michel Soto-Mella (age 39), a Chilean national who had overstayed a 90-day visa that ended in September. Although he was not originally wounded, he was caught nearby and arrested…and was bitten by a police K9 in the process. He has been charged with felony murder in connection with the death of his partner in crime, since the shooting was declared “a justified use of deadly force” and the homeowner will not be charged.
Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells made the following statement: “If you want to break into someone’s home [in Florida] you should expect to be shot.”
Woman sues after being sexually assaulted by trans cellmate
A former inmate at the Washington Corrections Center for Women has filed a lawsuit against the Washington State Department of Corrections for housing her in the same cell with a trans inmate who sexually assaulted and harassed her. Mozzy Clark-Sanchez alleges that in 2022 she was placed in the same cell with Christopher Williams (age 34)—an intact biological male with no known female name, who succeeded in being transferred to the prison after claiming to identify as female—who then proceeded to molest her while she slept and talked constantly about how he wanted to use his sex toys on her.
Williams has a violent history. He began molesting his younger sister when he was 13, and was eventually charged in 2006, although he was given a suspended sentence. Thereafter, he was repeatedly charged for failing to register as a sex offender. In 2012, he assaulted first his girlfriend (hitting her on the head with a pipe) and then a corrections officer (leaving him unconscious and with injuries requiring surgery).
Even after Clark-Sanchez succeeded in getting him removed from her cell (by filing a Prison Rape Elimination Act complaint), he continued to verbally harass her with sexual comments and “started threatening her with violence if she complained about him again.” She also alleges that prison personnel “actively discouraged her from filing any complaints” and said “if she complained it would be considered a hate crime.”
Three big companies filed for bankruptcy in 2024
Last year was not a good year for some of America’s famous brands. Spirit Airlines, Big Lots, and Red Lobster all filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024.
Spirit Airlines, struggling after a proposed merger with JetBlue was blocked, filed in November. But the airline is continuing to operate for now.
Big Lots filed in September, and had planned to shutter all of its stores until a last-minute deal with Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC was announced on December 27th. It remains to be seen whether the deal will be approved by the bankruptcy court.
Red Lobster filed in May, after economic challenges and poorly thought-out offers (like the all-you-can-eat shrimp for $20 deal) brought it to its knees. But the company was bought out by Fortress Investment Group LLC in September, and expects to continue operating its remaining 544 locations.
Bald eagle made official national bird
If you believed (quite rationally, as I did) that the bald eagle was America’s official bird, you were mistaken. Somehow Congress found the time before Christmas to formally correct that oversight. That’s a wee bit of good news, but rather late in the game, and quite pointless compared to other issues our nation faces.
Obits - Olivia Hussey and Linda Lavin
Olivia Hussey, who was born in Argentina on April 17, 1951, grew up in London, where she aspired from an early age to be an actress. She was ‘discovered’ in 1966, while playing in a London production of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and cast as Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s famous 1968 film version of Romeo and Juliet, for which she won a Golden Globe award. Although she starred in various movies and TV miniseries throughout the rest of the 20th century—particularly in horror and religious roles—she never had another blockbuster film. Her attitude that she “couldn’t see herself with [John] Wayne” cost her an offer from Hal B. Wallis to star in True Grit and Anne of the Thousand Days.
Even though Hussey had said for years that she had no problems with the nude scene that Zeffirelli insisted on shooting, she later joined with her co-star, Leonard Whiting (with whom she had remained lifelong friends), in a $500 million lawsuit against Paramount Pictures, which alleged that “they had suffered emotional damage and mental anguish for decades” as a result of the “sexual exploitation” they experienced as teens. A judge dismissed the suit in 2023.
Hussey was married three times (including once to Dean Martin’s son), and had a child from each marriage. She had been fighting recurrences of breast cancer since 2008, despite a double mastectomy. She died at home, at age 74, on 27 December 2024.
***
Linda Lavin was born October 15, 1937 in Portland, Maine, the granddaughter of Russian Jewish immigrants on both sides. She began acting on stage as a child, and originally considered herself primarily a Broadway actress. But she and her husband, actor Ron Leibman, moved to Hollywood in the 1970s, where guest appearances on other sitcoms led to her starring role in Alice, alongside Polly Holliday and Vic Tayback, for which she is best known.
Although she had many other TV and film roles after the series ended in 1985, she returned to her original love—Broadway theatre—in 1987. Her marriage to Liebman ended in 1981, and after a “bitter divorce” from her second husband, actor Kip Niven, in 1992, she married “the love of her life,” Steve Bakunas, with whom she lived and did charity work in Wilmington, North Carolina until 2012. She had no biological children, but was active as a parental figure in the lives of Niven’s children.
Lavin won a number of awards over the years, including Tonys and Golden Globes, and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2010. She died at age 87 in Los Angeles on December 29, 2024 from the complications of lung cancer, which had only recently been diagnosed.
Thoughts?
Can't help but wonder if the recent unexplained drone surveillance is related to Intel about possible Isis and other terrorist attacks re nuclear etc. It's interesting that my husband who doesn't watch much news, got right away that it was a terrorist attack, probably coordinated with others. Maybe the useful idiots who have been supporting these intertwined terror groups and excusing them as oppressed freedom fighters will finally get a clue! WA state has lost it's gender loving mind. How much more proof do the idiots need that this shit is completely toxic?
Nice summary of not-so-nice news.
Re: the New Orleans case, Townhall.com has a video clip of an FBI agent saying the agency will take the lead on the investigation and “this is not a terrorist event,” but they have found IEDs that could be “viable.” Not a terrorist event, the agent declares at the outset, despite the ISIS flag conspicuously affixed to the truck. Shake my head.