DID A RIGHT-WINGER JUST CALL IN A FAKE MASS SHOOTING BECAUSE OF TERROR INTERRUPTUS?

We know that right-wingers feel miserable rightv now because a deadly car cash at the U.S.-Canada border yesterday was the result of bad driving by a middle-aged American who was hoping to see Kiss in concert, not an evil terrorist who slipped over our northern border. Compounding the right's rush to judgment was the poor command of basic geographic facts displayed by some A-list wingnuts. Here, for instance, was Charlie Kirk on Twitter:

Actually, Charlie, the driver and his wife were trying to cross a bridge that's six and a half hours from Manhattan -- and they were leaving the U.S. and heading toward Canada, not the other way around, so if their destination was Manhattan, they were headed the wrong way. Also, when the explosion took place, they weren't in Buffalo -- the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls is a half hour away.

So while I can't prove this and I could be wrong, I'm going to venture a guess that it was a similarly geography-challenged right-winger who subsequently phoned in this false alarm:

Buffalo Police were today called to a false report of a mass shooting at the Hyatt Regency hotel that later turned out to be fake.

The incident sparked panic among EMS and police officers who rushed to the scene shortly before 8am. A SWAT team was also called to the hotel.

It's unclear where it originated, or whether police intend to investigate the caller.

An earlier version of this story, posted at 7:30 this morning, reported that a truly horrifying incident had apparently taken place:

I assume that a mentally unstable right-wing rage junkie, someone whose desire for an emotionally satisfying wallow in hate was thwarted when the "terror attack" in "Buffalo" proved not to be terror at all, decided to create his own terror attack -- in Buffalo. He Googled Buffalo hotels, picked the first one on the list, then made his call.

It's also quite possible that the person was apolitical, or that the false report resulted from some other scenario. But this is my hunch. Happy Thanksgiving! Let's be thankful that this didn't really happen.