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PaperclipPerfector  14hr ago (text post)   529 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 10, 2025

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Another incident of political violence happened on Sunday. A man attempted to bomb members of the Supreme Court while they attended a traditional start-of-term Mass at St. Matthews Cathedral in DC. We can quibble a bit about his motives, but it's being reported that his manifesto included animosity towards the Supreme Court, Catholics, Jews and ICE.

Now, you may be wondering if I posted this in the wrong thread, but I did not because this plot was so utterly fucking stupid and inept that I'm not even mad about it. It's just hilarious from start to finish.

The Gang Bombs the Supreme Court

Louis Geri of New Jersey, on the morning of Sunday October 5th, set up a tent outside the cathedral, because he was already banned from the cathedral. I have never heard of someone being banned from a cathedral, and can't find any reporting about why he was banned, but I maintain high hopes that the story is delightfully stupid.

The police, attempting to clear the area ahead of a mass that was to be attended by sitting SC justices, told Geri he had to leave and remove his tent. Geri replied, “You might want to stay back and call the federales, I have explosives.” Quoting that article,

The affidavit said the officer notified a bomb technician with the Metropolitan Police Department’s Bomb Squad of Geri’s actions, and they approached him together. After the bomb technician told Geri that he needed to move because of a special event, he said, “I’m aware of that.”

The affidavit said Geri then threatened to test an explosive in the street.

“Do you want me to throw one out, I’ll test one out in the street? I have a hundred plus of them,” he said.

After being told he would be removed against his will, Geri said, “Several of your people are gonna die from one of these.”

Geri later handed the bomb technician a manifesto consisting of nine pages torn from a notebook with the title “Written Negotiations for the Avoidance of Destruction of Property via Detonation of Explosives," according to the affidavit.

A review of the manifesto “revealed his significant animosity towards the Catholic church, members of the Jewish faith, members of SCOTUS and ICE/ ICE facilities,” the affidavit said.

From another article:

The sergeant opened the tent flap fully after noticing a butane lighter and another object in his hand, which outraged Geri, who then reached into a bag and told her, “All right, if you want to do it, we’ll do it now.”

He proceeded to pull out multiple capped vials containing yellow liquid with explosives taped to them and told her to “step away or there’s going to be deaths.” Police retreated and formed a perimeter.

He was handcuffed after a brief tussle shortly afterward when he got out of the tent to urinate on some trees.

Friends, this is some actual Charlie Day level shit right here. "Officer- no, officer, you can't arrest me! I called time out pee break! You can't- you can't arrest a guy after he calls pee break! What am I supposed to pee in my tent?"

He had "200" "explosive devices", but many of them were just fireworks he rolled in thermite, and others were just vials of nitro rubber-banded to what I'm guessing were the most ghetto detonators ever built.

I am just in awe of this mans dedication to executive disfunction. I honestly think I could have planned, built and executed a better attack when I was twelve. Pitting Geri against the DC Metropolitan police is just unfair; as a foe, he's more in the range of being an antagonist for a Wolf Scout den. But that would cause it's own nightmare scenario, because Geri is a sex offender:

Geri was at a Scottsdale doughnut shop in May 2021 when a woman and her daughter, 4, noticed he was standing in line behind them with his genitals exposed, according to court documents.

The woman asked Geri why he was exposed and Geri told her that she “can’t tell (him) how to dress,” court documents said.

Geri left the shop and walked down Hayden Road with his boxer shorts tucked underneath his exposed testicles, said court documents.

An officer, responding to complaints, arrested Geri, according to court documents.

Geri, who represented himself at trial, admitted he did expose himself but said he did not do so with the intention of offending anyone, court documents said. He said his intention was to “exercise a perceived freedom of attire,” according to court documents.

Geri was convicted by a jury in September 2021 of two counts of indecent exposure, with one of those being a felony because it involved a child, court documents said. He was sentenced to three years of probation.

Geri appealed his conviction, again representing himself, saying Arizona had no law against public nudity and that being nude was a constitutional right, according to court documents. The Arizona Court of Appeals rejected his argument and upheld his convictions in June 2022.

Again, not even mad, this guy is just amazing.

How do you get smart enough to manufacture thermite and nitro, plus detonators, but not smart enough to realise that you're going to get arrested when you leave them behind to take a piss in front of police officers? Serious question. Is it just that mental illness affects different cognitive capacities differently?

If I google "nitromethane" I get two sales links among the results; apparently reputable racing and model racing leagues think it's too dangerous to allow, but it's not banned for private use? Well, either that or the two shops were Fuel Booster Inc and All Top Fuels and either would be happy to rush a team of "salesmen" to my house after I placed an order.

Thermite is basically powered aluminum mixed with powdered rust, isn't it? I once considered a demo for my kids, and at that time IIRC the only obstacle to getting everything off Amazon was that the smallest sizes for sale would make for a lot of demos. I'm not sure how it would be useful for a would-be murderer, though, unless the target can be convinced to stand in a specific spot under a prepared mixture and then not look up when they hear sparks flying above their head.

Proper detonators I've heard are difficult to make, but any crazy person can make something they think is a detonator, if it never ends up getting tested.

I wonder if the plan (to the extent that any of this can be called a plan) was to throw the nitro, and then remotely ignite it with the thermite-tipped bottle rockets.

That's something I might have come up with when I was 10.

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