Good morning. It is January 2nd. It is a windy, bright morning in New York City, and this is your Indignity Morning Podcast. I'm your host, Tom Scocca, taking a look at the day and the news. 

The new year arrived with violence, spectacle, and carnage, and the New Orleans segment of it gets a full-width headline across this morning's New York Times. “Revelry turns to horror in New Orleans. US is investigating deadly attack by pickup driver as act of terrorism.” The death toll from the rented pickup truck being driven into a crowd at 3 a.m is up to 15. The Times writes “the attack killed at least 15 people, wounded about three dozen others, and left New Orleans a city of 364,000 on edge.” Because no matter how compelling the facts and events are, you have to wedge the vibes in there somehow.

The Times reports that the driver who was killed in a shootout with police was identified by the FBI as Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen and U.S. Army veteran from Texas. He had, the Times writes “loaded his rented truck with weapons and at least one potential improvised explosive, the authorities said, and an Islamic State flag was found on the trailer hitch of his rented white Ford pickup.” The story notes that New Orleans was in the middle of replacing protective bollards there. The old ones were removed in November and the new ones were supposed to be in place for the Super Bowl in February. In the accompanying story, profiling the attacker, the Times writes that investigators believe that Mr. Jabbar was not solely responsible. This apparently refers to some sort of terroristic conspiracy and not the inevitable blowback of imperial violence from the periphery to the core.

Speaking of which, yesterday's other act of spectacular public violence, the detonation of a Tesla cyber truck full of fireworks and other flammable and explosive materials outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, only made page A19, the driver in that one the only person killed in the incident was identified overnight as Matthew Livelsberger, another army veteran. People seem to be scrabbling at the fact that both people rented their trucks through the same peer-to-peer car rental app, and they were both stationed at the same army base. Given that the army base in question is the one now known as Fort Liberty, then known as Fort Bragg, which has more than 50,000 troops stationed there at a time, there's no real reason to think that represents any sort of personal connection or conspiracy between the two beyond, again, the grander conspiracy that is the relentless military industrial complex. 

On page A18 is the news unearthed by the CourtWatch website earlier in the week that, as the Times writes, “a Virginia man was arrested last month with what federal prosecutors described in court papers on Monday as the largest cache of finished explosive devices ever found in the FBI's history. That number is listed as more than 150 mostly pipe bombs,” the Times writes, “which seems kind of low for the all-time record in this country. The accused man, Brad Spafford, allegedly blew off three fingers while building his collection. 

Back on page one, there's an extremely weird story that got a lot of reach on social media. “Devotees swear by ‘raw water,’ despite risks.” Raw water is in quotes there. “A drink untested and untreated for those who scorn tap.” The story ties all of this into what the Times calls “the so-called health freedom movement, which opposes government public health interventions, including vaccine mandates, pasteurized milk and fluoridated water. They now have a powerful ally in Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who espouses many of the same views, including opposition to fluoridated water and who is president elect Donald J. Trump's pick to lead the health and human services department.” Mr. Kennedy has yet to say whether he advocates drinking raw water, but the other name for raw water is “spring water.” These are people who get spring water from springs, which has unfortunately become less safe in our current omni-degraded environment, but is something that's been going on since long before Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lost his mind or even was born. Someone really should introduce the New York Times to the blue glass bottles at many of their favorite delis and restaurants and explain to the people in the newsroom just what the word “Saratoga” means. 

In further confusion about local institutions and well-established practices, below the fold is a story, “Katz's Deli Settles Legal Trouble that began with savory review,” which sounds like it should be about some kind of deep irony that goes with success, but it is just about how Katz's has been willfully non-compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The business with the review is just that in 2011, Zagat put Katz's on a list of the city's 50 most popular restaurants, which not to slight Katz's excellent foodstuffs, barely counts as critical approval. That's just a statement of fact. It's a very popular restaurant. And so in September 2011, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan decided to survey those 50 most popular restaurants for ADA compliance. All of the other non-compliant ones either went out of business or resolved their violations by 2013, according to the Times. But Katz's just chose not to, including, the Times reports, “failing to bring its restrooms into ADA compliance when it renovated them in 2018 under a newly announced consent decree.” That is the occasion for the article. The Times writes that “Katz's agreed to make the required renovations within the next several months. In addition, Katz's agreed to pay a $20,000 civil penalty.” The Times sent a reporter to Katz's for comment and found Lauren Peck and Nick Sauer, both 27 and visiting from Washington, D.C. Ms. Peck, the Times writes, “had been to Katz's twice before. Both times, she said, she had been struck by the restaurant's tight confines. ‘Every time I've been in there, I've thought to myself, “wow, it would be extremely hard to be in here in a wheelchair,’” she said. ‘It is tough with old buildings,’ Mr. Sauer, an engineer who works in construction design, said, emphasizing that he had no specific knowledge about Katz's. ‘You always want to make sure you do renovations without changing the character of a place.’” Speaking of the character of place, the Times wraps it up by turning back to Peck, who said she thought the restaurant could probably afford to make the changes. ‘It costs like $30 for a sandwich,’ she said.”

Below that on the jump page is an update on this week's terrifying subway shove incident. The 45 year old victim who was shoved off the downtown one platform at 18th Street, apparently in a random attack by a stranger, “suffered serious injuries,” the Times writes “a ruptured spleen, four broken ribs and a fractured skull. His accused attacker, a 23 year old, was charged with attempted murder in the second degree and four counts of assault.” Please do stand away from the platform edge.

That is the news. Thank you for listening. The indignity morning podcast is edited by Joe MacLeod. The theme song is composed and performed by Mack Soccca-Ho. Our podcasting work is sustained through the subscription dollars and tips of you, the listeners. So please do keep those coming. And if nothing unexpected happens, we will talk again tomorrow.