Let's call the Nashville bombing today what it is: a domest…

Vehicle shows up in the wee hours.
Parks directly in front of the AT&T transmission building.
6:15-blares music from loudspeakers (gets attention), and verbal warning that there is a bomb. 15-minute 'get clear' countdown commences.
6:30-bomb explodes and devastates AT&T bldg--

and the server farm it houses, along with switches, trunk lines, and much more. AT&T telecomms go offline throughout the Nashville region. Phones down, wifi down. Nashville airport cancels flights because comms are affected by this outage. Even in Murfreesboro, ~50 miles away...

(and other places around the region), there are widespread outages. I discover this personally when we fail to have Christmas dinner as planned. I'm just outside Murfreesboro, but suddenly Grubhub cancels our order: they suddenly can't communicate with local restaurants.

Restaurants can't be reached by phone, and can't access the internet--so companies (and individuals!) trying to do business remotely via AT&T services are SOL for the duration.
We have a lot more to learn about this event, but the above facts are already in evidence. They..

worked to avoid casualties, so...yay? But that means that structural & infrastructure damage was their #1 priority.

There is the additional mystery of "shots fired" at 5:30AM, resulting in the 9/11 call that brought police to the scene, who then heard the bomb warning

and evacuated local residents. And "possibly human" remains found at the scene of the blast. What is that about? Last-minute remorse from someone in the RV? ("You didn't tell me we were gonna blow this up *now*!" my writer's imagination reconstructs possible scenarios and...

a tussle or resistance that is terminally ended by the more fanatical of the bombers.) No doubt the FBI will make sense of this all in the end.
But meanwhile, this much I know: there has been a massive increase in domestic right-wing extremism (as reported by FBI and DHS), and...

the vast majority of attacks in this country since 2001 (and especially in the last 4 years) have been committed by domestic far-right extremists. Whether this was the work of self-radicalized individuals or the plot of ideological fanatics in a group, the odds are...

extremely high that the Nashville bombing is the work of home-grown terrorists.
We still lack the legal category of "domestic terrorism." I.e. it is defined in the legal code but we don't yet have statute law under which it can be prosecuted.

Without that, and given law enforcement's traditional gentle handling of violent white extremists-- the social result is widespread reluctance to call a spade a spade. Media rarely calls these offenders "domestic terrorists",

and that in turn affects how the subject is framed and how we discuss this (and react to it) as a nation. Well, this Nashville attack wasn't quite as big as the Federal Bldg in Oklahoma City, and the perps

may not be the next McVeigh, but it was an act of domestic terrorism nonetheless. Let's call it what it is.

The effects are still wide-reaching and ongoing, as @DavidAFrench posted this evening: https://t.co/UfOcQHUW7H

This AT&T bombing outage is extraordinary. Going on 10 hours now with no cell or internet service and with 911 calling down in multiple counties (we can only connect to internet through a Verizon iPhone hotspot). We can only hope and pray the 911 outage hasn\u2019t cost lives.
— David French (@DavidAFrench) December 26, 2020

Here's a link re the lack of domestic terrorism law which notes "it's confusing to call someone a domestic terrorist and not charge them with terrorism". Which helps account for shyness around the phrase.
But if we don't name it, we don't fight it.
https://t.co/h7ghFE9nC3

Let's call the Nashville bombing today what it is: a domestic terrorism attack on our telecommunications infrastructure.
That much is clear on the basis of facts in evidence even at this early date.

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Let's call the Nashville bombing today what it is: a domestic terrorism attack on our telecommunications infrastructure. That much is clear on the basis of facts in evidence even at this early date.

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Let's call the Nashville bombing today what it is: a domestic terrorism attack on our telecommunications infrastructure.
That much is clear on the basis of facts in evidence even at this early date.