Comments

  3. Reginald Selkirk says

    Consider whether this might be a deliberate act of terrorism, and then reconsider whether you should be making light of it.

  4. Snarki, child of Loki says

    I guess they must of gotten one of the “rolling-coal” kits for Teslas that I had pondered selling.
    It just need a thick cable to short out the battery, and then the magic smoke escapes. Best not to breath the lithium-laden smoke, unless you’re a MAGAt, in which case: breath deep and enjoy.

  8. MattP (must mock his crappy brain) says

    The exterior security view (www.reddit.com/r/CyberStuck/comments/1hrafib/cybertruck_explosion_outside_trump_hotel/) shows the failblazer explosion with what definitely appear to be a shit-ton of fireworks spewing out of the bed and spinning around on the ground. Can still hear them squealing/whistling in the indoor video without shitty voiceover.

    So not likely terrorism and more stupidity of storing lots of fireworks for new year’s in an enclosed space in freakin’ vegas.

  9. says

    That does look like something intentional, not at all like an accidental truck fire.
    I approve of the kind of ‘terrorism’ that doesn’t harm any people, but does make a bold statement.

  11. Ted Lawry says

    Hi PZ
    More love from the Discovery Institute, see their #2 ID story of 2024 “Darwinists Devolve.” They claim that “Darwinists” have become lazier and stupider:

    “You also had biologist P. Z. Myers at the University of Minnesota Morris. He too could debate, although the quality of what you got was decidedly second rate. His preferred mode of discourse was invective. As he once instructed his fellow evolutionists, they should “screw the polite words and careful rhetoric. It’s time for scientists to break out the steel-toed boots and brass knuckles, and get out there and hammer on the lunatics and idiots” — by which he meant, of course, anyone who dared to criticize Darwin’s theory. In short, serious defenders of Darwinism were getting scarcer. ”

    They don’t like Jerry Coyne either, whom they mention just before you.

    “Well, you had evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne at the University of Chicago, a loudmouth atheist (see here, here, and here) who has declared war on religion. At least he was at a prestigious academic institution, and he could muster an argument if he had to. ”

    The possibility escapes them that the reason most scientists don’t bother with creationism or ID, is because they aren’t worth bothering about. But no! That can’t be right!

  12. robro says

    The truck had load of “fireworks mortars”. Might be suspicious, although it was NYE so maybe left overs.

    If it was an intentional act indirectly aimed at Trump, then he might begin to wonder if prison would have been a better choice. This job could end up killing him.

  14. Reginald Selkirk says

    @13: Cybertrucks have some degree of autonomy, so finding someone in the driver’s seat is not a guarantee that they were the driver.

  16. EigenSprocketUK says

    Awful events. This is a vehicle famous for being difficult to escape in power-loss situations like being submerged and being on fire.
    @Reginald, I hate to speculate when I know less than the video seen here, but people were almost certainly reacting with shots of “get out!” and I wonder if the driver was shouting “we don’t know, w-we don’t know [how]”

  18. stuffin says

    Found on YAHOO News – “The vehicle sat there about 15 seconds before the explosion went off, killing the driver, McMahill said. Police later discovered gasoline canisters, camp fuel canisters, and large firework mortars in the back of the vehicle.”

    Very interesting. Looks planned. The world is going over the edge. Thank you, Mr. Trump, for pushing us towards the apocalypse

  20. robro says

    The Guardian reports that the driver of the Cybertruck has been identified as Matthew Livelsberger of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was an active duty solider from 2006 to 2011. The consensus seems to be that there’s no connection between the Las Vegas event and the one in New Orleans.

  21. raven says

    Wasn’t much of a terrorism attack, not that I’m complaining.
    He could have driven that cybertruck into a crowd in Las Vegas instead.

    A few people had minor injuries, the cybertruck is destroyed by a fire, and the guy is dead.
    The damage to the Trump hotel looks like it is also minor.
    I didn’t even see any broken glass.

  22. Akira MacKenzie says

    My guess:

    This guy was going to go out and shoot off fireworks as part of the New Year’s celebration, but something caught on fire and “boom.”

  23. Continental Divide says

    That is a violent explosion. Is that what those batteries do? Seems more energetic than a battery fire.

  24. Continental Divide says

    NYT is reporting that the driver shot himself in the head moments before the explosion.

    And that the New Orleans guy acted alone.

  25. robro says

    Akira @ #22…Maybe not. The Las Vegas police are reporting that Livelsberger shot himself in the head shortly before the explosion. Possibly he set the fuse, committed suicide and boom.

    Also, Livelsberger was back in service after a break and at some point served in the Green Berets.

    The Guardian update has some interesting factoids such as they were able to track Livelsberger’s journey from Colorado Springs, where he rented the truck, to Las Vegas because he had to stop at charging stations. Musk had to help the police with unlocking the truck, and bragged that the truck was the wrong truck to pick because it contained the explosion.

  26. John Morales says

    Robro, a bit more than “at some point served in the Green Berets”.

    Livelsberger was a special forces operations sergeant assigned to the 10th Special Forces Group in Stuttgart, Germany, an Army spokesperson said. U.S. Special Operations Command confirmed Thursday he was on approved leave at the time of the Las Vegas explosion.

    He served a total of 19 years. Livelsberger enlisted in the Army as a special forces candidate in January 2006, an Army spokesperson said. He remained on active duty until March 2011, at which point he joined the Army National Guard. He switched to the Army Reserve in July 2012 and then reentered active duty in December 2012.

    Livelsberger deployed twice to Afghanistan and served in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the Army said. He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a Combat Infantry Badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor.

    (https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/extremism-disinformation/2025/01/02/green-beret-identified-as-driver-in-cybertruck-blast-at-trump-hotel/)

  27. raven says

    As a few pointed out on Bluesky, the Tesla Cybertruck doesn’t even look cool when it is exploding or on fire.

  28. Akira MacKenzie says

    23 & 24:

    I’m seeing reports that this guy was a big Trump supporter, whatever he had planned, I don’t think it was meant to attack him.

  30. StevoR says

    From Aussie ABC news :

    Livelsberger was also a supporter of the president-elect throughout the Republican’s political career, an anonymous family member told Reuters. “He thought Trump was the greatest thing in the world,” the man said.

    Plus :

    Both men (The Tesla exploder & New Year’s Day mass murderer who drove a truck into acrowd – ed) spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive army base in North Carolina that is home to multiple army special operations units. However, one of the officials who spoke to the AP said there is no overlap in their assignments at the base, now called Fort Liberty.

    Both served in Afghanistan in 2009, but police said there was no evidence they were in the same province, location or unit.They both used rental company Turo to rent the vehicles involved.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-03/man-who-died-in-cybertruck-blast-was-in-us-army/104780632

    Some strange co-incidences there which could and probly are just co-incidences but odd.

    Also “no evidence they met or are somehow linked” doesn’t mean they didn’t and weren’t although they seem very different in their beliefs and motivations and probly not. Co-incidences do happen and aren’;t necessarily significant.

    Weird incident all around that seems to be a suicide designed to send a symbolic message of sorts – but just what that message was supposed to be seems unclear.

  32. raven says

    LATimes:

    Two semiautomatic firearms, purchased by Livelsberger on Monday, were found inside the vehicle, McMahill said.
    and
    “The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience,” Cooper said.

    Livelsberger worked as a special forces operation manager for the U.S. Army since 2006 before switching to a remote and autonomous systems manager two months ago, according to his LinkedIn profile.

    On his Facebook profile, Livelsberger once criticized the withdrawal of the U.S. Armed Forced from Afghanistan in 2021. He called it the “biggest foreign-policy failure in the history of the United States.”

    This guy was a right wingnut of some sort.
    Active duty war zone military veteran.

    He had the knowledge to make a better bomb.
    He also had the usual semiautomatic rifles with him, two of them,
    He didn’t need two AR-15s. since he pulled up to the hotel and then shot himself in the head.

    None of this makes any sense.

    My best guess is that he had planned some dramatic and bloody terrorist attack, targeting Democrats or Muslims or whatever his main hate targets were.
    And then decided at the last minute to forget the mass murders and just check out from the living.

    Since he is dead, we are unlikely to ever figure it out for sure.

  33. Bekenstein Bound says

    OT, but something’s gone wonky with the site again. The comment submission form is missing from the bottom of the infinite thread, though it’s still here on this thread and others at Pharyngula. Needless to say this is a major problem for anyone seeking to participate in the infinite thread.

  34. chigau (違う) says

    Bekenstein Bound #31
    It’s not wonky.
    The Infinite Thread has timed-out again.
    The Boss needs to refresh it, which he will do when he gets around to it.
    Chill.

  35. chrislawson says

    raven, we don’t know enough about Livelsberger and the explosion yet, but it’s worth pointing out that even people who thought the US should have withdrawn from Afghanistan long ago, like myself, still object to the precipitous withdrawal with absolutely no thought for consequences. They pulled out so fast that they left thousands of their own citizens in territory that was quickly overtaken by the Taliban.

    The Australian politicians who insisted on the invasion, then kept the occupation going long after its original strategic justification was gone, then ended the occupation in a mad rush when it no longer suited them politically…well, these political asses are the same ones blocking visas for Afghanis who helped keep our troops alive during the occupation.

    Of course the politics was even more hypocritical in the US, where the right-wing media kept blaming Biden for withdrawing from Afghanistan when it was Trump who made the decision and withdrew over 80% of the troops by the time the Biden admin took over, paving the way for the collapse of the ANSF and the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Don’t get me wrong: Biden was criminally stupid and deceitful over the withdrawal and deserved criticism — but 95% of the blame was Trump’s and he got zero pushback from the lickspittle press.

    Possibly Livelsberger, reportedly a Trump supporter, became disillusioned over time given his direct experience of serving in Afghanistan. But the choice of timing and the decision to rent a Cybertruck suggests it’s more likely he’s one of the MAGA crowd feeling betrayed by Musk’s sudden elevation to the inner circle. (Imagine being surprised at this late date to learn that Trump doesn’t give a toss about loyalty to anyone but himself!) Anyway, it’s all speculation at the moment.

  37. says

    I wouldn’t be surprised if we never learn the motivations for his attack. He may be like the Las Vegas mass shooter and have left no manifesto.

    Fortunately he didn’t decide to ram the front doors of the hotel and then detonate the bomb. More damage might have resulted even with the weak bomb.

    Musk bragged the stainless steel body of the Cybertruck acted like armour and contained the explosion. This is silly. Thin stainless steel like that used on Muskmobiles isn’t armour plate. If Livelsberger had used a large quantity of explosives like dynamite or commercial plastic explosives the results would have been far worse.

    Lithium ion batteries used in any electric vehicle will burn spectacularly and are hard to put out. People just pay more attention when it happens to Muskmobiles because of Musk’s character and reports of shoddy quality in Tesla built vehicles.

    The chances he encounter the New Orleans truck terrorist during his military career are pretty slim. There are more that 52 thousand personnel stationed at the former Fort Bragg.

  38. stuffin says

    @30 raven – He had the knowledge to make a better bomb.

    After reading about how many explosive items were found in his vehicle, I could only think he wasn’t very bright. With what was discovered, he could have produced a more devastating scenario. Choice of vehicle, placement of vehicle, and contents of vehicle were not maximized. Why two assault rifles if he didn’t use them? He had the necessary tools to pull off a disaster but his use of them was weak. Like you suggest, did he say fuck it at the end and make a quick exit? Or, did he just choke?

  39. Reginald Selkirk says

    @38 stuffin
    @30 raven – He had the knowledge to make a better bomb.

    After reading about how many explosive items were found in his vehicle, I could only think he wasn’t very bright. With what was discovered, he could have produced a more devastating scenario. Choice of vehicle, placement of vehicle, and contents of vehicle were not maximized…

    Which is why it seems to me, and some others, that he was not trying to cause maximal damage, he was making some sort of statement.

  41. birgerjohansson says

    Another maga dude was recently arrested after FBI found the largest store in their history of home-made explosive devices.

  42. raven says

    He left a note behind.
    He was a Trumper.
    Also seemed to be suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury from combat and PTSD.

    It was a message and a suicide.

    The Daily Beast
    Soldier Left Note Explaining Why He Turned a Cybertruck Into a Suicide Bomb
    Josh Fiallo
    Fri, January 3, 2025 at 1:46 PM PST
    Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
    A note left behind on an iPhone has revealed a partial motive for why Matthew Livelsberger blew himself and a Cybertruck up in front of Donald Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas this week.

    The 37-year-old Green Beret, who the FBI says suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, had “no animosity” for Trump and wrote that the explosion was “not a terrorist attack.”

    However, Livelsberger did make clear that he was displeased with the state of the country.

    “This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call,” he wrote. “Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives?”

    His point, apparently, was that the United States, the “best country people (sic) to ever exist,” are “terminally ill” and are headed for “collapse.”

    “Fellow Service members, Veterans, and all Americans, TIME TO WAKE UP!” Livelsberger wrote. “We are being led by weak and feckless leadership who only serve to enrich themselves.”

    The explosion’s timing and symbolics led some to speculate that he chose a Cybertruck—Elon Musk’s crown jewel of a vehicle—and blew it up in front of a Trump hotel because he opposed the president-elect and his new top ally.

    Advertisement
    Livelsberger’s note paints a different—and perhaps muddier—picture, however.

    “Why did I personally do it now?” he wrote. “I needed to cleanse my mind of the brothers I’ve lost and relieve myself of the burden of the lives I took.”

    Livelsberger was the explosion’s only fatality, but seven bystanders were injured in the New Year’s Day blast.

    A law enforcement source told the Daily Beast on Thursday that Livelsberger’s family told investigators he was a “big” Trump fan who voted for him in November. Another report by The Independent corroborated that, with his uncle saying his nephew “loved Trump” and “a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American.”

  43. Rich Woods says

    Contrast:

    “We are being led by weak and feckless leadership who only serve to enrich themselves.”

    With:

    Livelsberger’s family told investigators he was a “big” Trump fan who voted for him in November.

    Not one of the world’s greatest thinkers.

  44. KG says

    Livelsberger was an admirer of both Trump and Musk – and indeed, RFK Jr. He hated Democrats and, er… selfish leaders and the 1%. He was, not to put too fine a point of it, completely and bizarrely deluded. See Lynna, OM’s post on the Infinite Thread here and the links therefrom.

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