Shortly after 6:00 yesterday evening at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a shooter on the roof of a building about 400 feet from the stage appears to have shot eight bullets at the former president and into the crowd.
''Edward Luce of the Financial Times noted, “Almost any criticism of Trump is already being spun by Maga as an incitement to assassinate him. This is an Orwellian attempt to silence what remains of the effort to stop him from regaining power.” Indeed, MAGA Republicans appear to be trying to stop discussion of their extremist plans— which are enormously unpopular— by claiming that such a discussion is polarizing.''
Don't fall for it America. And remember this:
''Bad things happening to bad people don't make the bad actions or individuals good.''
This is how TFG wins. By never yielding. Making things worse and worse for everyone. Exhausting the other side to give up, to quit, to leave. He learned this from Roy Cohn. It might work for civil lawsuits but is it really sustainable in political leadership?
Don't remember the name of the psychologist I read around the 1st of the year (was it in the Atlantic?) who said something like, identifying all of trump's pathologies are almost worthless because his are so off the chart and he seems to benefit from them rather than suffer. While I don't believe in an actual Satan, if there was ever a better support of the myth, it's gotta be trumps unbelievable ability to fail upward, almost every damn time. On the other hand, I do believe in karmic justice and accountability is coming in drips and drabs. He may experience a tsunami in the near future, especially after we defeat him in November. And in the meantime, I see a deeply miserable human being who sees himself as too much of a victim to be anything but miserable. What's it like to live looking over your shoulder every single day?
And within the last hour (7/15 @ 11:00 a.m.) Judge Cannon has dismissed the documents case against Trump on the grounds that Jack Smith's appointment was unconstitutional. Good lord! How does such a blatant criminal do it!!??
Authoritarians become authoritarians with the help of a corrupt judiciary. Same as Orban in Hungry and Putin in Russia. It is a consistent playbook in both history and current events.
Hitler also owned the judiciary even before he was chancellor of Germany. All the pieces are coming together for Trump to regain the presidency and implement Project 2025 even though he denies knowledge of the project. His denial of Project 2025 is a lie. He knows all about it and stated as much earlier in his campaign. As a pathological liar, he can't help himself but lie.
Somebody besides Judge Cannon put this dismissal together. Justice Thomas was likely involved and that is why he inserted that note on appointments in the immunity ruling. They would have been working on this for awhile. But, again, they used the delay. This is high level stuff. This is about rigging the country's next president. Exactly what Trump has been saying in reverse. Which is standard Republican MO.
While I do not believe this was staged, it did put him back at the top of every news cycle, where Biden was dominating attention since the debate …. Interesting
It looks very staged. Don't forget tfg was an actor. We haven't yet seen his damaged ear. And if he said to put his shoes back on, why were they off in the first place?
How much blood can there be from a nick in an ear? You're right about the actor bit. He is a drama queen. He's so weak yet he has to put his shoes back on(what?), resist leaving the stage until he did his fist salutes (like Hawley) and say fight, fight, fight. Aren't people majorly upset when someone shoots them? So, let's play golf the next day then attend the convention. He is going to be like a puppy who remembers he was wounded to get sympathy, otherwise business as usual.
Notice that in the Photos of today's RNC, there is no evidence of a Wound to his Right-Ear... What is with the BIGGLY Ear Cover? Hmmm.... What's with his Shoes?
Very Interesting. I wouldn't put it past him to have staged this the shooting, but surely that can't be true! Two innocent, although misguided persons died.
That was my first thought too, but probably not. The whole thing is so unimaginable... but be sure tffg will play it for all he can. Looking at what we know about the shooter... I think he was trying for suicide by law enforcement. He'll certainly live on in the history books.
I don't think it was staged: the shooter was very likely going to die in this scenario, and too many people were hurt/killed. Clearly there was intent to kill (so I hope shooter was mentally ill... right age for schizophrenia onset... and anyone sane should know that neither success nor failure in this type of intervention plays out as wished.)
But if it IS something other than 'lone wolf', it seems likely that the interested parties include some R billionaire or a grumble of maggots (Bannon?, Flynn?) who may be starting to find tfg's derangement not sufficiently predictable or on message.
Yeah, so don't think it was Putin, or Melania (tfg's handler for Putin?), or Graham, or McConnell, or DeSantis, or Pence (joking), but Koch? Thiel? even Musk? - nah, not Elon, his passions are other worldly.
My money's on Flynn. (He is known to think in terms of assassinations to effect change.) (IFF not lone wolf.)
I also thought of the onset of schizophrenia, given his apparent isolationism. I find it amazing that it was perfectly legal to walk into a crowded event and legally carry a weapon...an assault rifle at that.
Yep. My husband and I thought of the World Wrestling Federation and reality TV in general when this happened. Could he have staged it? I think Trump thinks of people as expendable. And he has cried wolf so often it is hard to be sure. Crazy to think this but he lies so much. It does feel like we might once again have been played. So sad for the family of the fireman that was killed. I think Trump did not lose sleep over that senseless death.
An article in something (so much crap going around) said that people who think it was staged are just misinformed. Well answer a few questions, you smartest people in the room.
How did repubs have such an agenda to blame Dems all ready before the blood dried.
Where was Roger Stone. Maybe visiting Steve Bannon (or maybe before he went to jail) Roger is very proud of his machinations which went a long way to giving us W/Dickie. Steve Bannon has a history with Hollywood going way back. As we all know Hollywood has methods galore in creating scenarios that look real.
Does anybody question that some secret service people were guilty of aiding the Jan 6 insurrection, and then erasing all traces of text messages.
Does anybody question that chump and his cronies have replaced career civil service people with their devotees.
Does anybody question that chump is as capable as any dictator or mafia don of getting underlings to do whatever is required at whatever cost.
Does anybody question that chump would sacrifice innocent people for his quest for power.
Does anybody question that the money flows like a full blast faucet when chump has a plan.
Does anybody question that there are still questions regarding the murder of JFK 60+ years after the fact. Secrets do come out eventually, often decades after any body cares.
Does anybody question why it is that the insurrection that we all saw on tv has been redefined, and is now called a patriotic visit, by peaceful visitors.
So we saw it on tv, with repubs, seeing can mean “alternative facts, fiction, propaganda and have nothing to do with an actual happening.
There was an ER doc there (red hat) and if memory serves, chump has known a parade of docs who have spewed some rather ridiculous diagnoses at convenient times for him. BTW, where was Ronnie Jackson.
These cretins make Goebbels and Hitler seem like choir boys.
Don’t call me misinformed, until you consider all options.
Look at republican speech and actions. Guns in Congress and Christmas cards (who does that?). "blood bath", threats of violence if he loses. Executions, retribution, arrests, vermin, Jan 6th, and the list goes on. I don't think it is the democrats that are the violent ones.
It seems that lots of democratic people send condolences and well wishes (Clinton, Biden, basically most people). Then there was trump's response to Nancy Pelosi when her husband was shot. Insulted her and made jokes about it.
Present day dictators and would be dictators congratulated Trump on his sure win of the presidency on the heels of this assassination attempt. Nothing like a martyr to win a sympathy vote.
I am waiting for the evangelical heretics to claim that Trump was "saved" by Divine intervention. An "angel" caused Trump to turn his head just at the right moment.
He said in a statement last night he was "rewriting his speech". The man doesn't write speeches, and I believe making himself more statesmanlike is part of his scheme.
Everything unspooling according to plan. With the usual co-conspirators. Where is Jim Jordan?
Jen, Jerk J.D. Vance got his nonsense before Gym could even start to scream. Don't worry though, the House will be busy doing "investigations" and you will hear Gym shriek.
Jen Andrews -- It will be very interesting to watch Trumps demeanor today (Monday). Wonder if he can act well enough for long enough to fake the "caring" wronged one.
Had to choke back the disbelief today when I read that he thinks luck or God might have saved him. Good grief! Interesting that God was second on that list!
Is there any commenter here who thinks that chump can pretend to be more “statesmanlike” for 5 minutes. Any try should be the best unfunny comedy routine in history.
The tfg believes that those that "appear" statesman-like are the phony's wearing masks. That's the schtick he peddles anyway, and thus he talks and acts the precise opposite to play the part of 'common guy.'
JD. All this R shrieking has only made me more determined to call death star and them out. I am usually polite when on social media, but that may have just ended. Maybe no more subtlety! remembering our exchange this weekend.
What gets me is that the timing of this was too perfect plus the optics make it look staged. There’s no proof that it is, of course.
It’s right before an EXTREMELY high stakes election with catastrophic domestic & global consequences. (Just like Russia & Ukraine are having a physical war between authoritarianism & democracy on Ukraine soil. Americas are having a type of civil conflict with aid free m authoritarian countries. Only it’s a psychological civil war on American psyches.)
Right after the debate damage and Biden’s recovery during press conference and NATO speech which were very effective.
The press isn’t asking about the wound or statement from Trump’s doctor.
People have been freaking about Project 2025 so much that Trump is distancing himself from it, so it probably means some of his supporters were making noises about it. This attempt is helping rally those who were waffling.
I can’t imagine how the Secret Service could F up so badly.
Trump’s cultists are martyring him just for a nick on the ear and fighting harder now against their own concerns about project 2025. (Nothing WE warn them about sinks in because they’re so brainwashed - not climate change, Covid, masking, vaccines of any kind now, etc.)
There was open talk about how such an attempt would be beneficial to Republicans - Alex Jones and Ivan Raiklin
We’ve all heard from the docs that have been chump’s go all his life. Not a Hippocratic oath believer among them. Also the secret service had some MAGAts in their midst in Jan 01, deleted texts and no consequences. Don’t tell me it wasn’t staged til you check out all the possibilities. Otherwise, we have another event like the JFK murder that many still question 60 years later. BTW, Alex Jones has scraped the bottom of the barrel, for so long, that he has almost dug through to China. Maybe the FBI should visit him, he’s too stupid, but Roger Stone and his ilk are very experienced.
Yes, and the only way they win is to get enough of us to become pessimistic about our ability to win. So, the path to victory is simple: do whatever you can, but whatever you do, don't give up.
Writing postcards to Montana for Jon Tester, the only farmer in the senate. A rich non-Montanan has been brought in to defeat him. As conversation about climate change has been stilled, our need for food is not. Many people do not make the connection; those of us who love tomatoes in summer are constantly reminded of it.
Virginia. I have gardened here in Oregon for years. And now we have had many days of 90+ and a few 100+ days making it impossible to be out in the afternoon. In the ams it is cooler, but humid, so I have go out early to pick berries. Meanwhile the weeds grow a pace. Also we have some wild fires going, particularly in central, southern, and eastern Oregon. I see reports of human caused since we have not had thunderstorms for a while. Wth is wrong with people. They ought to be being extra careful. And in those areas most of them are adamantly against any mitigation of climate change. Btw, my garden is starting to produce tomatoes and the grower I like at the Saturday Market has her beautiful heirlooms going.
To the person who wanted to know where I get my postcards: The Turnabout Project, TonyTheDemocrat, Activate America and wherever else my Indivisible chapter sends them from.
A lot of food from other countries who are suffering from violent weather will become scarce. Most of our avocadoes from Mexico, vanilla from the Philippines, chocolate, sugar. Things will get really bad if any thing happens to our coffee supply (most is supplied by Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Columbia).
We will beat the MAGA....honestly! I will fight until the end! I have a lot of work to do and so do all of you! We have a little over 3 months....and we can do it!!!!!!
Just need to know there are likeminded patriots who know that this is not a hell hole -try as someone tried to make it be one by denying climate change, sexual preferences, personal choices, covid, the Constitution, and freedom. And that all this is worth holding to voting Blue.
The first, the very first, peaceful transfer of political power in world history took place right here on American soil on March 4, 1801 when Pres. John Adams relinquished the powers of the U.S. presidency to his bitter political rival, Thomas Jefferson. This was appropriate in a democracy where differences are settled peacefully at the ballot box: one person, one vote, majority rule. One tactic used by Fascists and would-be dictators is to undermine confidence in the integrity of the election system. Trump has been doing this since he rode down that elevator back in 2015. It would be error for us to divert our attention and efforts away from the task of defeating Trump at the ballot box. The stakes for us and the world couldn't be higher.
Good morning, Jen. The difference between the death of Hamilton and Jefferson's assuming the presidency is that Hamilton's death didn't involve the transfer of political power. As an aside, Hamilton's son was also killed in a duel.
Jen, we're probably having a semantical difference. American history and politics reek with violence: the Civil War, our genocide of Native Americans, Jim Crow and the thousands of lynchings, and thousands of more minor incidents. There are only two instances in our history where violence was attempted to alter political power: 1) April 12, 1861 with the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter; and 2) January 6, 2021 when Trump's supporters attacked our capitol to stop the election process.
I would add the March 1, 1954 attack on the United States Capitol in which four Puerto Rican nationalists shot up the House floor in an effort to bring about Puerto Rican independence from the United States. Five reps were wounded. All recovered.
Er…no. There were peaceful transfers of power happening in the UK since the Tory Horace Walpole had to step down as First Lord of the Treasury (Prime Minister) in 1742 to cede power to the Whigs, who had just won the General Election. And since Robert Walpole was the first “Prime Minister” we’d ever had, peaceful transfers of power have happened ever since monarchs ceased to be the executive leaders of the government (under Queen Anne).
Michael, I write simply to expand upon Luce’s explanation of MAGA’s Orwellian efforts to attack dissenters by underscoring how powers-that-be have appropriated the newspeak vernacular of George Orwell’s “1984,” in large part, to justify extraordinary measures in exchange for protecting citizens against unnamed, unproven threats.
'Newspeak' [I call it Cultspeak because it manipulates language to control thought and behavior, much like cults do. It limits dissent, enforces conformity, and perpetuates the ideology of those in power, suppressing individual freedom.] is a fictional language in George Orwell's novel "1984," designed to diminish the range of thought. Here are some examples of Newspeak terms:
Doublethink: The ability to hold two contradictory beliefs simultaneously and accept both as true.
Thoughtcrime: The act of thinking against the Party or having unapproved thoughts.
Big Brother: The leader of the Party, who is always watching and enforcing loyalty.
Ingsoc: English Socialism, the political ideology of the Party.
Oldspeak: Standard English, which Newspeak aims to replace.
Unperson: A person who has been erased from existence by the Party.
Miniluv: The Ministry of Love, responsible for law and order (primarily through fear and torture).
Minipax: The Ministry of Peace, which deals with war.
Minitrue: The Ministry of Truth, which controls information, education, and the arts.
Miniplenty: The Ministry of Plenty, which manages the economy.
Goodthink: Thoughts that are approved by the Party.
Duckspeak: To speak without thinking, often in a way that aligns with Party ideology.
Crimethink: Thoughts that are unorthodox or against the Party.
Bellyfeel: A blind, enthusiastic acceptance of an idea.
Blackwhite: The ability to accept that black is white, if the Party says it is.
Prolefeed: Superficial entertainment provided to the proles (working-class people) to keep them docile.
Newspeak: The language designed to limit freedom of thought.
Joycamp: Forced labor camps.
Ownlife: Individualism and eccentricity, considered subversive.
Oldthink: Holding on to old or outdated beliefs, particularly those before the Party's rise to power.
Michael, Thank you for providing this comprehensive listing. I simply would add a brief observation regarding your second entry “Doublethink,” enlisting a modest adjustment: As an educator, I would submit that education serves students when they are encouraged “to hold two contradictory beliefs simultaneously” and attempt their reconciliation.
Lynn, I very much appreciate you reinforcing that creation, in large part, is synthesis. Taken one step further, if one never brings competing ideas together, no synthesis can occur.
Judith, Thank you for writing. Your astute observation has prompted me to expand my earlier comment by noting the value for me personally of cultivating a willingness to let go of a point of view in which every question has a precise answer and accept that one often will find no finite resolution to urgent issues and that what seem to be answers frequently just opens new lines of inquiry.
I saw this quote yesterday from a Smithsonian magazine article in a tweet that was highlighted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat on X: “A reminder: there was an attempt on Mussolini’s life in 1926. That didn’t make him any less fascist, any less contemptible, any more worthy of the office he held, or any better of a human being. It just meant a deranged person did something stupid. Political violence is unacceptable, but it doesn’t vindicate or sanctify its target.”
Great book and another philosophy which aligns with my New Thought teachings. The main point of his book is that suffering is not a punishment from God but a result of the natural laws of the universe [cause and effect. Also read Emerson's essay Compensation'.]. Kushner emphasizes the importance of finding meaning in suffering and advocates for compassion and resilience in the face of life's challenges. He suggests that faith [positive thinking] can help people cope with pain, even if it doesn't provide clear answers.
What about the guy that did get killed? Did God sacrifice him?
"Good Theology"; God created a world with physics. The Bullet grazed some and killed others. God generally allows physics to take its course.....
Good Theology and politics: Guns are weapons of destruction that should be used only rarely and under controlled circumstances. Violence is anti-Christian, including gun violence.
And, no one has responded by reminding them that their Supreme Court just said a president could target a political opponent while doing his job, which is taking care of the country. As they blame Biden, they do not recognize their own hypocrisy. They were just rejoicing that Trump could get away with targeting an opponent according to 6 Supreme Court Justices. Now reality of their policies hits, but unfortunately for their understanding and growth, we have been able to stave off full on fascism here, so they have not been able to learn how truly awful all of their ideas are.
We could stave off fascism by electing DOWN BALLOT Dem candidates to the House and Senate, instead of allowing maga incumbent repubs stay in office to cheer on Project 25 mandates.
President Trump made an impressive response at the moment of the shooting. Sadly, President Biden's responses will likely be overlooked by most media outlets. The President proved his statesmanlike manner during a time when states(wo)manship appears no longer to be esteemed.
Sadly, this violence, and Democrats' repeated efforts to address it, is nothing new and the situation with respect to access to weapons may even be worse today than fifty-six years ago.
Since I am old and alone and lonely, today is one of profound pessimism for me. As I looked up the two statements by President Biden on C-span, each was preceded by the same advert. for a vid.-game glorifying mass-shootings. What a gun-saturated culture in which we live. Whether people understand that such simulated slaughter is fantasy is not the point; it is, as per Senator Kennedy's riveting words the day after the murder of Reverend Doctor King in April 1968, the systematic de-humanization fermenting a sickness in our souls.
I am old, but have a significant other. We both feel despair that such a worthless human being has risen to the Presidency and might again! The electorate has been so easily duped by a tv reality persona. Having knowledge and class is overlooked.
Yes, and the animus I have permitted to flourish within me is corroding my soul. One of the injured people on Saturday may very well have been a relative of a mid-shipman my sister's family sponsoured ten years ago. This hatred has to stop.
The Rs are saying he was hit by a bullet…..not likely, he was hit by flying glass from the teleprompter. So he didn’t take a bullet. He would have been bleeding far more if that were the case. Also, he just met with Orban…wonder what THAT discussion was about!
What struck me about that quote was ". . . to silence *what remains of the effort to stop him from regaining power*." I hope Ed Luce didn't mean to come across as so defeatist, but given what the punditocracy has been up to lately trying to push President Biden off the ballot I'm not sure.
they're looking for a motive....I have the motive:
It was the ultimate “suicide by cop.” That guy had to know he would be killed. Going out in style, with a place in history.
He was a nobody; now he's a somebody. If it had been a Biden rally in his region, it would have been Biden getting shot at.
He could clearly see the sharp shooters. And they could see him but didn’t know until he fired, that he wasn’t someone from another agency or local police.
Another screw up in communication by authorities like 9/11
The outrage from the "right" about yesterday's violence is mind-blowing. If only they had 1/100th the compassion for completely innocent school children subject to senseless gun violence these past years, as they have shown in the past 30 hours for their "not so innocent"cult leader, perhaps then we could finally get some control on these weapons of senseless destruction.
I’m glad to see you calling him a cult leader. We should refer to him as a cult leader every time his name is mentioned. Trump is a cult leader pure and simple, and by letting him skate by this fact, he has spawned more waiting in the wings to replace him if he were to be assassinated. Ivan Raikan, Alex Jones and General Flynn are constantly beating that drum with marked enthusiasm, warning there will be blood in the streets. On a positive note, I educated 5 more strangers this weekend about Project 2025. My goal is to educate as many as possible before the election and before the next one if that’s what it takes.
I’m so glad you mentioned that! I sat down last night to try to read the document and distill it to effective talking points. Although I read regulations and such in my career, P25 had me cross-eyed. I tried to find something that puts it in plain language. What did you use for talking points?
Good recap. In a sane America, the publication of Project 2025 would completely sink the electoral chances of the party associated with it.
My optimistic self thinks that this document swings the pendulum so far to the crazy side, that the non voters and non committed voters will become as frightened as we are.
Thank you for posting this. There’s no changing closed minds but this list is helpful when talking to those who never heard of P25 or think it’s “Lib fake news.”
Would love it if your sister (or anyone else) could outline Antony Blinken's two sections of the interview with Heather. They covered so much length and breadth of important issues trends and differences from past history in so little time, I'd appreciate a condensed list.
Perhaps making sure there is a clear question stated simply, followed by bullet points for each of Blinken's most direct answers to the question asked and the added considerations highlighting the history and why different approaches are needed.
I think I used to do fair job of breaking stuff down in writing tech manuals (biggest one 3,750 pages), but I'm very much out of practice.
I did appreciate what I remember as Bernie Sanders' business card size list of 10 things we were for and 8 things we were against as a great list of top issues.
They also intend to get rid of porn. Regardless of my feeling against porn, it would be something to see how they intend to carry that out. Reminds me of Prohibition, and how long that lasted.
Unfortunately......, not quite far enough IMHO. Better judgement, having been hijacked by the purveyors of fire and brimstone, virtually guaranteeing women will fall over backward when they need to call BS. And who are the most highly esteemed "hi-jackers"? Why.., the 'sinners' themselves, of course. May the Bakers' et al, RIP.
Good morning. Forgive me not replying sooner, but I got real busy yesterday. I tailor my pitch according to who I’m talking to. I mostly approach minorities, women and young people because I assume they’ll be more interested and are probably a Democrat or should be. I steer away from white people my age because it’s safe to assume in the south they vote Republican. If somebody doesn’t want to hear what I have to say they blow me off and keep walking. I was in sales for a number of years so I treat it like it’s number games. I’m really good with young people for some reason. I’m not your average 64 yr old so that works in my favor. I’ve been approaching people, well forever really, but about Project 2025 since I first heard about it when nobody was talking about it. Nowadays more people tell me they’ve heard about it and they want to know more. The first thing I say when I approach strangers is I ask them if they’ve heard about Project 2025. If not, I repeat the name a few times to make sure they remember it so they tell others, but in answer to no what is it, I tell them it’s the Republican agenda and it’s brutal. They want to reorganize society without our consent. Depending on how receptive they are, I decide what might interest them by trial and error.
Here’s a document prepared by Tony Michaels. He has a YouTube channel and a unique audience. I adore him but he swears a lot so he might not be your cup of tea. However, the document lacks any cuss words. lol
I've had limited success, but the two things I have found helpful when anything is, is to 1) never never insult or put them on the defensive because especially with some personality types that trend Republican, it's painful for them to feel like they have been wrong or lost social power in some way, and 2) ask don't tell (probably relates back to the bit above). Ask this person to explain to you what this passage in Project 2025 says and why it shouldn't be scary. They'll have to look it up, of course, to do so and maybe they never read it. Ask why Meadows and Miller being involved isn't significant or who would be significant. Ask them to reassure you about the scariest parts, and it might open the way for them to later listen to you come back and say "Wow. I just read this part xxxx... and I'm still working on thinking about what that means for me, who might be in that group" without asking them to generate reassurance - just opens the option of casually dropping thought bombs. Wedges, cracks, little baby steps. For someone who posted that the best you can probably do is lessen their conviction some.
I sent my brother a link to the P2025 page on the heritage foundation site, in response to his comment “I don’t think it really exists.” This was during a phone conversation in which we discussed current events and I touched on some of the points to I thought would be most meaningful to him.
Compare it to Agenda 47 and link all the people in Trump’s team who are from Heritage foundation. Reliable sources are sharing proof of the connection.
Joe Biden's message yesterday was perfect. All of the hate, anger, resentment spewed by the Republicans spawn fear. Don Bacon (R-NE) saying that his wife sleeps with a gun under her pillow exemplifies this fear. The Bacon's have 6 children and eight grandchildren that likely know that grandma has a loaded gun. But I'm sure, she locks away her weapon when she gets up every morning and doesn't get it out again until bedtime. /S
Jenn, there's a point to be made by those of us who agree: if the ban on assault weapons hadn't been lifted many years ago, it's likely this event wouldn't have happened (not to mention the numbers of children and adults who would still be alive today.)
But there's something fishy about this shooting which begs explanation:
1. If his ear was truly "pierced by a bullet", given the enormous kinetic energy these rounds have, why was his ear just grazed and not ripped from his head? Was it a bullet, or was it flying glass?
2. Some reports say the teleprompters were intact after the shooting; if so, where did this glass come from?
3. Others have noted the lack of blood spatter on his white shirt -- given the amount of blood which quickly appeared, wouldn't his shirt be more bloodied, given the collars' proximity to the ear?
4. Most people, if hearing gunshots and feeling pain and seeing blood near the head, would likely go into shock, no? Why did he have the presence of mind to ask for his shoes and then shout out "Fight" with an arm raised? And why did the SS allow him to be exposed to the crowd in that way, allowing a photo which will be used in future ads?
I'm generally not a conspiracy theorist, but these are questions which, if not answered satisfactorily by people smarter than me, will make me wonder what actually happened on Saturday evening.
I have some of those very same questions, especially about the injury from high velocity ammunition. I have seen in comments on a number of Substack posts that others are raising questions as well. I don't want anyone to be shot and killed. I know some victims of gun violence. This calling for more guns and violence by those on the right to generate clicks and attention for themselves and profits for others has to stop.
At the very least, regulated restriction to regulated shooting ranges, for those who feel the need for such entertainment. Otherwise, outright bans for me.
With combat optics. Talk with any infantry veteran. It isn’t just the rifle and bullets. Those optics for our military help them win on the battlefield. Soldiers that can acquire a target fastest, and thus can use one trigger pull to kill, can move to the next, and so on. Many of these optics should be banned too.
That repubs are blathering about gun violence is a hoot. Really, maybe the NRA can make some money off this. Never waste a good blood bath seems to be their mantra. Sorry, but my “give them the benefit of the doubt” gene is all worn down
Pf. If Biden had taken a bullet to the head, Rump, his cultist followers and the entire GOP would be screaming: "See! That's your just reward! That's what you get for spewing your leftist socialist rhetoric!" The gigantic double standard and the narcissistic rhetoric they employ cannot be countered by any reason or normal argument.
And yet, this week there will likely be several mass shootings across the country and not a word of it will be mentioned about any of them during the convention.
"Thoughts and Prayers" is their mantra. It's as meaningless as "make America great again."
Countering their position with reason is how to reach the people on the fence, who happen to be the people that will decide who wins in November. So, yes, the narcissistic rhetoric they employ can be countered with reason.
That phrase is as empty as "Make America Great Again" or "White Christian Nationalists."
How many hours will it be until convicted felon Donald Trump starts spewing his "Hate, Anger, Resentment, Revenge and Misinformation" again. I'm guessing it will be sometime today.
Of course many Republicans never stopped.
The Trump shooter left no clues whatsoever that he was going to do what he did. No manifesto, no social media presence, no confession to family and friends.
Yesterday, CFDT said that Biden was "nice" on his call. Anyone want to wager that within a few days he will flip-flop on that. Come to think of it, that may be the first true statement out of his mouth in recent memory.
Seems barely any notice that 8 people were killed in Alabama over the weekend in shootings of people at a nightclub and at a family driving in their car (mother, father, child all killed).
Totally agree. Every mass shooting is horrible but the slaughter of the first graders and their teachers in Newtown, CT was simply beyond the pale. My heart broke that day and the pain for those families never healed. The response of the NRA and republicans in general has continued this country's sickness.
They see themselves as troops in a perpetual war against Democracy and non-whites. So children are just collateral damage. Nothing is real except their personal grievances and their team’s grievances.
Let’s hope Democrats don’t wimp out and shy away from holding trump and the MAGA cult responsible for the current toxic and violence-prone atmosphere in the U.S.. Republican responsibility for the current state of affairs is obvious, as Heather points out. While sympathizing with trump, he still needs to be held accountable. “You reap what you sow,” should be on everyone’s lips.
I am not happy about the attempt on Trump’s life, or the nasty rhetoric he and others are encouraging. I really resent that Vance is blaming Democrats rather than actually trying to find solutions. Unfortunately, he is one of my senators, and I would prefer to see Mr. Vance return to Cincinnati where he now resides and to keep our other Senator, Sherrod Brown. Brown is in a tough race with Trump endorsed car salesman Bernie Moreno.
Has anyone read "Hillbilly Elegy"? Vance's hardscrabble Appalachian life is filled with examples of Democratic leg-up breaks that rescued him from family trauma and paved his path to an Ivy League education. Now that he has what he wants, he's bent on denying the same rights to everyone else.
Patricia, it sounds as if Vance has reproduced Clarence Thomas' ascent through the social ranks with similar self-righteous punishment meted out to anyone else who wants to try the same!
Yes, that is exact what I got from his book which I borrowed from the public library. That is the Tea Party manta. I got mine (with gov. help unmentioned) - too bad for you.
I wasn’t impressed with the book. Vance seems to see the worst examples and uses them as examples of what he thinks as the whole. And you are correct, Vance and Lauren Boebert want to deny opportunities to others that they got.
Patricia, my book club read Vance’s book, and we did not see the person that he is today, in that book. I thought JD was going to try to help coal miners in getting training, new skills for better jobs!!!
He said Trump was like his father, a fighter, boasting about the arm pump and the shouting “Fight, fight …”. I do not recall any favorable comments about his father or mother. Is my memory incorrect?
It's been a while since I read it, but I recall his father's role in his life was small. His memories of his mother were mixed, some good, some neglectful. His grandparents were the family members who were there for him. And now he's the Cult Leader's pick for VP. Two showmen.
Except that he grew up in suburban Ohio. It’s his maternal grandparents who were from the Appalachias. He created huge resentment in the Appalachias with his blame-the-victim attitude, depiction of their laziness and rejection of personal responsibility (which is just about the opposite of what many Appalachian people exemplify).
Thanks! I feel quite strongly about that, having dear friends in the Appalachias - born and bred in the mountains. It’s a resourceful culture. Are there deadbeats among them? Of course. But where are there not?
He is, and I’d love to keep him in the Senate. The one ray of sunshine in the Republican primary was that then Ohio Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, came in third in the primary. LaRose wanted to run as a federal senatorial candidate, and already lost his attempts to rig initiatives, ban abortion, and keep recreational marijuana illegal. We have had a gerrymandered government for years and need a broom to sweep these folk out of officr, as we deserve better.
Go to Mr. Pepper's Substack, Pepperspectives, for his take on P2025. He's writing a book, and has released 5 chapters that put the awful plans in a human perspective that is both eye-opening and chilling. Highly recommend it, and sharing it widely.
That bit of rhetoric hit my FB feed yesterday, while it's on the breath of a good many - i did NOT click Like on it; a friend of mine regretted the bullet didn't kill Trump. I'm not sure this is "calming", regardless of what's coming from prominent MAGA and likely an entire chorus from the maga echo chamber. Regardless of my tendencies, i suspect things will indeed "heat up" even more over this event.
Trump filled out his score card last week, sitting on his “golden throne” after his last golf outing. He HAD TO play a round to keep up the charade he’s a winner.
Hold on a minute. I have yet to see any real conclusive evidence that his "ear" was struck by a bullet. The red stuff..? Let's check that out, shall we. We're dealing with some pretty clever (but stupid) people here. We still don't know how JFK got shot, do we? This 'event' has all the corny characteristics of some inane production supervised and circumcized by Mike Flynn and Blackwater well familiar with co-lateral damage). Yup.., and with the 'incredible' assistance of Dr.Jackson..right on the scene! I'm calling BS.
But it's not the first time. Remember the Covid episode? What was it, two days in hospital, with a little drive-around in the middle to wave to his fans? Then back to the WH, sprinting up the stairs to the floodlit balcony to take a prolonged salute? There was nobody there to see it except the photographer.
That’s true. Tracy — but his mouth will spew about it for the next four months, which is going to be hard to take.
We need to be prepared to refute what is coming down the pike about this attempt — Ms. Cox Richardson’s list of Republican incitements is an excellent start.
Clearly, if Joe Biden wanted to “order” someone to assassinate his opponent, he could have found a sharpshooter capable of succeeding, but he did not have anything whatsoever to do with this. It is not how the Left conducts public and political life — This was a lone, misguided person who had access to a powerful weapon, the kind the Ultra Right thinks we all should stockpile in our homes.
It is Orwellian in the extreme to recall the rhetoric of the Right over the past few years, and think that one comment by Joe Biden, on a private phone call with a few supporters, could have played ANY role in this incident. How many of us even knew of that phone call? But we have seen the image Don, Jr., posted of our president hogtied in the back of a pick-up truck.
Don’t let them gaslight us about WHOSE rhetoric is amping up the violence…
What I find “ironic” or hypocritical is that with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling, IF Biden ordered an assasination of trump, it could be considered “an official act” which shows how horrendous that ruling was. However, we know that trump and his team will “punish” his political opponents once in office….and that guy running for governor in NC and speaking at the RNC convention has already said “some people need killing”!!!
Absolutely, Deborah … All Vance can point to is one vague half a comment Biden made in a private phone call … And Mr. Retribution has been talking about Second Amendment Solutions and being his people’s Retribution, and on and on and on … Not to mention that horrible image Don, Jr, tweeted showing Joe Biden tied up in the back of a pick-up truck!
They are AMAZINGLY Orwellian. It’s like they all took classes in how to be the most crass hypocrites on the face of their God’s green Earth.
A usually reasonable republican friend has flooded her Facebook feed with memes of the cult leader in Jesus' arms, sheltered by him, hugged by him. Ugh. Hook, line, and sinker.
He’s been going on about how the FBI came to his resort armed when they were searching for Top Secret documents he stole. He tried to float the idea that they were sent to shoot him … Now, this.
I’m actually a writer, sometimes of fiction … I could seriously spin this into a yarn of conspiracy and great intrigue, if I were wont to do so … I’m trying not to go there.
I'm already there. I'm not a writer, but what happens when a desperate felon meets a foreign ruthless dictator also desperate to destroy his enemy? And it's not like they just met, nor as if the felon hadn't carried out an elaborate scheme before,
If people just saw him as an actor playing a part, it would be so much more clarifying.
On Saturday, in Pennsylvania, Trump’s own rhetoric came back to bite him on the ear. What he has called down upon his critics and his supposed “enemies” came down upon him. By an inch or two he is still alive.
It wasn’t Biden, it wasn’t Antifa, it was yet another lone, young white male loner/gun fetishist, and reportedly a registered Republican, seeking a moment of glory followed by suicide by police.
Obviously we await the results of law enforcement investigation of the shooter’s motive, but interviews with his high school classmates were illuminating. The classmates said Matthew Crooks was bullied and rejected from the gun club for being a bad shot. It’s interesting that Crooks did not align with Trump’s grievance politics, suggesting that Crooks’ act was personal, not political, and his target was selected for the opportunity of an attention-getting figure appearing in geographic proximity for him to gain that f-you notoriety, even knowing it would likely end his life.
Like we need more evidence for mental health support of youths and gun safety legislation.
As a volunteer with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America,
"all" of this could have been prevented if reasonable measures had been in place to protect ALL concerned - the victim who was senselessly killed, the others injured, the target, and yes, the perpetrator himself (and the family I am sure is grieving as well).
"Our" side is trying to prevent tragedies and stop the ongoing uniquely American public health epidemic of gun violence.
"Their" side has been posing with guns on holiday messages and in campaign ads. They block legislation. They accept bribes from gun manufacturers and lobbyists. They pervert the original intention of the Second Amendment.
Thanks for your volunteer work. I have met, several times, with concerned Moms, several of whom created a local MDAfGSA. I gave them a blueprint for legislation: Codify the NRA Range Safety Rules, and pair the legislation with that regarding automobiles, from license, registration, and insurance. When crimes occur, pair them with how vehicle code does it with car crashes: Cause physical injury to another? Was it knowing, intentional, reckless or careless? Those 4 culpable mental states decrease the severity of the crime. Cause damage to the property of another? I usually use two stories: a local story of a guy who put his gun on the back of the toilet, knocked it off when he flushed, and the firearm discharged, damaging a trash can, and some chowderhead who shot out a bunch of street lights with a .22 rifle. First one is unintentional and careless, if not reckless, and cost about $40 bucks to make the establishment whole. The second is intentional and cost the city at least $1,000.
among the "upside down" ... this is the dangerous side of American gun culture, and hardly something new, though definitely a chronic part now of American Exceptionalism.
And more emotional support and therapy aimed at helping men, especially young men who feel isolated, alienated, and without a sense of purpose. It seems that almost all mass shooters and assassins are men under the age of 50.
Thank you Ellie for your important comments. As HCR reported the Biden White House is conducting its own investigation. Certain capable fact & law reporters such as Kyle Cheney & Josh Gersten have already written 1 Politico 7/14 report under the title "Massive Security Breach".
"Massive Security Breach" may turn out to be a massive understatement as ABC News reported nationally yesterday afternoon that a "local" policeman engaged the shooter just before firing. There are other witnesses near the elevated firing position identified by multiple sources but, who were outside the security perimeter. I have handed off investigatory leads to Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein.
To me, the fact that the local officer engaged and retreated emphasizes that the police are out-gunned by these perpetrators and are not willing to confront criminals bearing assault weapons (see Uvalde for the most terrible example). Ban them. Now.
If the Secret Service cannot keep a former president safe, how in the world are schoolteachers supposed to keep our children safe, even if we arm them? (Which is an incredibly stupid idea.)
To be fair to the officer, it sounds like he was climbing a ladder and attempting to get on the roof when he found himself nose to muzzle, as it were, and needing his hands to hang on. The press reports that he 'confronted the gunman' make it sound like he had both feet under him and his gun drawn, and retreated. The one interview I heard from someone within his department was that he was just topping the roof line. If also sounds like he fell off the ladder. He didn't get a chance to confront. He was on his way.
Ellie, you've reminded me of one of my favorite quotes:
"There is no particular thing that you can do alone. The “I” in it is very small, after all. We are all here to have a kind of living of our own and to be recognized for what we are."
—Marian Anderson (1897–1993).
To that I'll add that being recognized for what we are is a "must have" need, and not a "nice to have" want. If we are all recognized for what we are without anyone being harmed, then we are working together to keep our social system healthy. A person who is not being recognized for what they are, or who is harming others or themselves for recognition, is a symptom of an unhealthy social system.
Mental health support is essential, but we need to go upstream to understand the reason why it is so essential at this time in history.
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." —Fredrick Douglass.
Great reminder—Frederick Douglass hit the nail on the head. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has belonging and acceptance as one of the basic needs for healthy development. That takes us upstream to the shooter’s upbringing, school experience, emotional injuries, and resilience or lack thereof, as well as all that failed to grow sufficient empathy in his bullies. “Mental health” includes growing emotional intelligence in children.
I think if, God forbid, it would have been Biden, he would have been more concerned about the people around him being hurt, then raising his fist and shouting "fight, fight".
When I first saw that video... And interestingly, they have played the audio from Trump's mic while he was on the ground but not after they stoof him up, but my first lip read of that video, I didn't see "fight". I saw something I'm more accustomed to seeing as a hockey fan and former referee.
Meanwhile, I'm just still stuck on how convenient this was for the campaign. I'm such a cynic, my initial reaction was that it was manufactured. Early evidence seems to say otherwise, but I'll be watching closely for the inconsistencies.
Or…in my limited knowledge, a bullet, regardless how small the caliber, doesn’t cause a minor scratch even when “grazing” a soft body part like an ear. Stitches are usually the least medical attention needed. It was an AR-15 after all, not a .22 rifle. So why isn’t there a T shirt with his ear ouchie? I don’t want to hear he “Took a bullet”. I’ve heard no such thing from anyone in the medical community, only Trump or his well known sycophants and the stupid press cause they’ll print anything, the dumber the better.
For the loss of 2 lives I offer my sincere condolences to the families. To the victims I offer my wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
These things don’t come in neat little details that read like a script (well, maybe in Russia they do), be here, we aren’t wired to just accept some guy just fell out of a 15 story window, was accidentally poisoned, died in prison in Siberia or my personal favorite, falling down stairs (how thoughtful, Ivana). What? Eastern European physical traits are such that many folks cannot put one foot in front of the other? Don’t you dare even think about asking questions.
Orban came for tea and a friendly catch-up session last week and stayed at Trump’s swamp. This week, gun violence at a Trump bitch session? We will have questions.
In closing, with respect to Refumblecans claims that “Biden ordered this”, I thought all that was on the up and up now according to SCOTUS. Is it not?
Biden, of course did no such thing, but if he had, what consequences would he face?
I thought assassination attempts were legal if ordered by POTUS now according to 6 corrupt members of the highest court in the land new ruling. Throw in the bump stock legalization and now we have even more questions. We aren’t now nor will we ever be under authoritarian rule so exercise our collective 1st A rights and ask as many questions as we feel.
Now who’s responsible for voting against every gun safety law or refusing to enforce the pitiful ones already on the books? Who? Which members of congress? Which party? Why?
After Saturday’s tragedy I fully support “The Donald Trump Assault Weapons Ban Legislation”.
The ear is odd. The shape is due to cartilage, and the cartilage often never heals to its normal shape when damaged. Google “cauliflower ear.” Will be interesting to see what sort of dressing they put on trump’s ear, and how self-conscious he’ll be about it at the convention. Especially considering his vanity. If the ear ends up with a permanent deformity trump will probably never get over, and constantly bring it up, like he does sharks and Hannibal Lector.
I'm glad you mentioned that he crouched down - he wasn't pushed down by the security detail at all. It was a very quick instinctive response. Ping/slap-BLOOD?-down.
And as for his Iwo Jima moment, with the flag artfully positioned overhead...
The killer so far has been indicated to having no "mental illness", but his mind plainly turned to political murder and self-sacrifice, fanatic thinking, gun culture enabled, call it what you want.... I guess we wait for more to unfold on him. That may not happen, if he kept it mostly to himself. No ever did figure out why the 62 year old banker? mass murdered double digit at that Los Vegas music concert a few years ago.
Hope everyone is able to read Timothy Snyder’s substack article today. Thankfully the shooter wasn’t a registered Democrat, immigrant or person of color.
Pulled quote: "We might be tempted to think that violence against one side must come from the other side. But the bloody genie, once unleashed, often stays close to home. Those who have made violence normal are especially vulnerable, because they will always have colleagues or followers who think they have not gone far enough."
Excellent and thoughtful letter from Dr. Richardson. Biden’s words, despite his elocution, were pitch perfect.
My 5th grade nun, Sister Ursula, was fond of saying “tell the truth and shame the devil”. Joe needs to do that and send a message to the whole country.
None of the Republicans repeated their usual mantra that now was not the time to act, and that it was time for thoughts and prayers. Instead, they blamed Biden and literally said God acted to save Trump’s life, meaning he was preordained by God to return to power.
I would add to Heather’s list:
State clearly that violent rhetoric leads to violent acts.
You can’t tell a crowd of supporters to beat up a heckler and that you will pay the legal bills.
You can’t tell police to bang the skull of someone they arrest on the door jam of the cruiser.
You can’t condone police using excessive force.
You can’t call for the execution of 5 innocent young black men to get yourself covered in the NY tabloids.
You can’t condone white supremacist violence that led to the death of an innocent woman by saying there are very fine people on both sides.
You can’t rile up the Proud Boys in a nationally televised debate and tell them to stand by.
You can’t incite a mob to attack the US Capitol and call the perpetrators hostages.
You can’t call Putin bombing Ukraine genius.
You can’t grab women by their genitals, rape them, and then pretend to be the victim.
You can’t tell riled up mobs to fight like hell, or fight, fight, fight.
You can’t tell your cabinet members and generals that they should shoot peaceful protestors and undocumented immigrants in the legs.
You can’t tell NATO allies that you will do nothing if Putin bombs the shit out of them.
You can’t tell women and the medical staff that treat them that if exercise reproductive freedom you will put them in jail.
You can’t stack the Supreme Court with Federalist Society judges and then have them take you off the hook for crimes you committed as president and for the future criminal action you plan to take.
You can’t go on the Alex Jones show and legitimize making a fortune denying the deaths of the children at Sandy Hook.
You can’t protect gun companies instead of school children, saying “get over it”.
We need to lead the American people. Lift them up. Bring them together. And end the hypocrisy.
Tape it. Get it right. And dare the mainstream media not to cover it.
They did all these things and the media moved on to another disaster, as was the plan. As to the Repub response, it’s like a script was all Planned out in advance. Makes me wonder…
Bravo, very well said…I, for one, have turned off the news, finally! Sick of hearing the regurgitation of facts…what else is happening in the world we’re missing?
And yet we continue to sit behind our screens and do nothing. We are not united behind Biden. We are not united as a country. We continue to allow trump and his cult to control the narrative, while we consider throwing our president under the bus 4 months out from the election. They rally behind trump and grow bolder and stronger in their hateful rhetoric. And we just sit behind our screens and complain online while they continue to control the narrative. We chase and complain. When do we get furious that our democracy is under attack and get out and protest?! Maga deserves this damn country because we are too weak to actually fight for it. We cannot wait until November. Voting is NOT enough this time around. I'm fkn exhausted.
This is true, and it has a lot to do with court decisions essentially legalizing campaign finance bribery and the need to buy expensive ads, so incumbent and new candidates have to spend an inordinate amount of time fundraising. Incumbents have less time to spend at actually governing.
Since when do a gang of journalists get to decide and brainwash scaredy cats that Biden must go? He’s done a great job and still has all his marbles. Help convince independents to vote for Biden rather than pushing them away. Maybe you are MAGA yourself.
Don't hold your breath, David, because it's about to get very real. Joe Biden is not stepping down. So he has the delegates. They aren't gonna kick him out. Kamala would have to be the nominee. Full stop. Pass on her and you lose a large portion of the dem base. Vote against their best interests? Yes, because fk racist America. That's what MAGA supporters are doing. There is equality in stupidity. Enough to go around. It would be a complete shit show. And we haven't even gotten to the millions of Americans that are completely checked out until a week before election day. Hence, the panic, confusion and despair.
No, we don’t all just sit behind our screens. Some maybe. I’m doing several things to try to educate, GOTV, work elections, (exhausting early voting going on now), write postcards, etc. NO more time in the day.
Maybe we hesitate in part because when peaceful, democracy-loving people take to the streets, they are endangered by gun-toting extremists and targeted as “Antifa” or “BLM.”
Maureen, fascists will never make it easier for us to protest this hostile takeover of our federal government. Of our beautiful country. We have to be brave enough to risk it all while there is something worth saving. What's the point in fighting once trump gets into office? We need to inspire and motivate the majority of Americans that we have a fighting chance to save our democracy. We can weaken magas resolve by showing them what they will face come November! We can't guarantee it will be completely safe but we can try. We've lost the MSM, it's on us now to raise awareness of project 2025 and the SCOTUS decisions, but we aren't gonna do it effectively online.
This conversation led me to research the Aikido principle of using an attacker's energy against them. Dems might be labeled as weak when they're baited and respond by staying on course: uniting around non-violent principles, staying grounded and focused, and attaining some detachment from media's drama/hype while sustaining some spiritual stamina and goodness in daily ways and yes, YES, call out lies, disinfo, and admit shortcomings that led us to this moment. Good to remember that the USA's successful economy has often been boosted by violence so, there's plenty of hypocrisy we're living in these days. We're being driven to become spiritual warriors, just to live with the fear and uncertainties about outcomes we can't control or predict.
We need to take action and not give into that trump is winning this. We have had elections since 2022 and Dems have over performed, and have rejected trump and MAGAs dystopian views. The reason we won was due to grassroots efforts. We volunteered—phonebanked, canvassed, wrote postcards and letters, donated. This was not a small feat. We have to do it again and we are doing it. Many grassroots organizations are registering voters and talking to them about the dangers of trump and MAGA, while talking about the successes of the Dems and what they’ll continue to do for Americans. I suggest volunteering, it does help with all the anxiety we are feeling.
I just got my BIDEN HARRIS t-shirts. I"ll be wearing one to the supermarket this afternoon. shop.joebiden.com, a union shop, isn't Amazon--it took about ten days from my time of ordering for them to arrive, but I'm looking forward to seeing what, if any, reaction, I get.
Reportedly just before the rally on Saturday, the Trump campaign sent out an email which promised that “all hell will break loose!“ at the event. I find this interesting given that as an incentive to get his supporters to attend his rally on January 6, he tweeted a couple of weeks before the event “be there! It’s gonna be wild!“
Dr. Heather sure knows how to end a LFAA with a bang:
"Observers noted that it sounded like MAGA plans to have yet another investigation designed to spread a narrative, in this case, that the “Deep State” was involved in the shooting."
My eyes are rolling so far back that I may pass out...
and with that, time to go to sleep. Always look forward to these late night letters, and appreciate the amount of time you must devote to write these.
Twitter said tfg staged it. Apparently he tweeted something just before the rally. If I didn’t have to check Twitter for other reasons, I’d never open it. Ugh.
I, too, thought he could have staged this. It's disgusting that a supporter was killed but there's no doubt in my mind that trump would consider that a small price to pay on his road to victory.
The fact that the repubs hit the ground running with attack ads (before the blood was dry) makes me wonder. The immediate response by chump to pose for the photo op of a lifetime nanoseconds after an attempt on his life makes me wonder. The timing of the incident days before the convention makes me wonder. The donation to a liberal cause by a registered Republican makes me wonder. I hope I am allowed to wonder because every time I have thought that something was too crazy to contemplate, turns out that people should have been contemplating it.
The republicans have long ago dismissed the idea of the America that Joe described. “…an American democracy where decency, dignity, fair play aren’t just quaint notions, but living breathing realities.” They have long denied such a reality. Think back to their verbiage and their actions, For them it is whatever they can create to advance their power agenda. Makes me wonder….those that still have the power should contemplate all options, even those that seem too crazy to contemplate. Don’t let it be one of those events in our history that 60 years later, people will still wonder…
TUCK and CHUCK is SOP for USSS! Shooter was down as they left stage w the psychopath but doesn't matter as it was unclear at the time if shooter acted alone. USSS allowing the psychopath's head and shoulders to be exposed twice is dereliction of duty. USSS looked scattered and uncoordinated. That shooter was spotted and LE alerted. This is a massive cluster fk. And I would not put it past the psychopath to have paid the isolated bullied white young conservative to do what he did.
Don’t forget that the USSS had some dirty players during Jan 6. Erased all texts for that day with no consequences. Are those players still on the job. If they have been working for chump all this time, no telling what their work ethic is. Biden had a different team picked out for his security.
Don’t think repubs have done rhetoric for eons, despite Luntz’ best efforts to make them sound scholarly. I just remember the Clean Air Act written to roll back regs, and W’s “compassionate conservatism,” which was anything but.
I had thought it very strange that the bullet would come so close to Trump that it would graze his ear but not cause any additional injury. Is it possible that he cut himself on purpose when he leaned down to get his shoes, hidden from view by the Secret Service agents surrounding him?
I absolutely agree. As soon as I saw the stills and footage, I thought something's not right. The fact that people in the crowd behind him weren't fleeing in fear and that Trump did not seem scared, I felt for sure it was staged. I thought it was only me until I saw on social media, thousands of others thinking the same thing. With Trump's reckless audacity to plan and stage the Jan 6th insurrection, his outright lying about the election results to grab power, means he's capable of anything. If I'm right, it's a work of genius actually because no-one of honorable character and good manners would dare to call out an assassination attempt as fake.
The best thing people can do is roll up their sleeves and register voters. There's an election to win. And just remember, the good guys always win.
Where was the person killed? Was that directly behind Trump, to the left of the rostrum? There seemed to be agitated people all bending over someone. Nobody else took any notice, but there were some bloodcurdling screams.
Sad that large numbers of people agree, it's something he might do
(especially since President Biden's rallies were exposing his plans and crimes.)
WORSE - many so-called "Christians" will somehow take the fact he survived and the reference to someone's ear being hurt as Jesus was being arrested before his crucifixion to be a sign of divine favor. If there EVER was a false idol, it is Donald.
I thought he might have slapped his ear to activate one of those blood capsules that are used on stage when someone gets killed. To me the whole movement looked rehearsed. But why were his shoes off?
Do we know that it was actually a bullet that caused Trump's bleeding? I read that a rally witness told reporters that he saw a bullet hit the glass on the teleprompter, & that he thought it was a shard of glass from the teleprompter that actually hit Trump's ear.
And what happened to that bullet? If it really was a bullet and it grazed his ear, it would have continued to travel. Were any of those attendees behind tfg injured? I didn't see any of them with blood or any sign of injury.
I was encouraged that Biden’s speech included a calling out of other acts of violence; Jan 6, Paul Pelosi, Gretchen Wittmer kidnapping plot, poll worker intimidation, and others, that, surprise, were all perpetrated by the MAGA mafia. Rump is praising and popularizing the Jan 6 goons as heroes and victims. Democrats need to flood the zone with video from Jan 6, the ultimate in political violence that is now so popular a topic. And I have to say, it is possible that this was a put up. The appearance of blood stained face and ear, choreographed for the perfect photo op for posters and MAGA merch. Seems callous to consider, but not out of character for someone with no character. It’s all about ratings.
“Not out of character for someone with no character” indeed. Most of us here are decent, truth seeking people who are cautious about jumping to conclusions when there are few facts available. We don’t want to join the conspiracy theorists. But something is rotten in Denmark. It is only natural to wonder if a chronic liar and fabulist is spinning a new production for the gullible public, relying on the media to amplify it. Who thinks about their shoes when they’ve just been shot? Who directs the Secret Service to stand down while they stand up, face bloodied, and fist pump while yelling “fight! Fight! Fight” under an American flag? All those years on The Apprentice taught Donald the value of a convincing reality show moment. I await facts, but I have many questions.
I've wondered the same thing, but I can also imagine Trump threatening ER personnel with a lawsuit based on HIPPA. It's customary for docs to make a statement after this type of medical emergency, but not required, and we have seen the same thing with Trump's tax returns and all medical information except the reports issued by Ronny Jackson - as laughable as Donald's golf score cards!.
I wondered, using veiled words, as soon as the story broke. Doesn't Melania's sweet message make your heart melt? She's actually got the syntax wrong - the first part is an indictment of the man himself.
What came into my mind when I first heard that the shooter was a 20 year old "kid" with an AR style rifle was the Republican embrace, including by DJT, of Kyle Rittenhouse. Republicans have glorified this young man who illegally obtained an AR rifle (he was underage at the time), travelled to a city in a different state, and chose to shoot three people as a vigilante, taking the law into his own hands. Republicans are continuing to glorify Rittenhouse... he is a frequent guest star at Republican rallies. The party that glorifies vigilantes, glorifies guns, and uses gun imagery in political speech and imagery needs self reflection on its own actions. Additionally, the right wing of SCOTUS needs to reflect on the problems it has created by effectively stating that, if elected, DJT has free reign to commit crimes with impunity. By defining a situation where Trump is above the law, they have created a situation that feeds the compulsion of someone who has vigilante tendencies.
This 20 year old kid was a product of his environment… and as a therapist I can tell you there are a lot more kids out there like him who are being made to feel that they are outcasts because they don’t fit the media stereotype of the golden boy/girl.
Don’t forget that this was Trump himself… an outcast now hell bent on retribution and revenge. He seemed genuinely surprised that people from both sides of the aisle called with well wishes for him. How sad you can get to 78 and running for president and really believe that it’s all a fake game about power and money where nobody really gives a damn about each other.
DMS, a whole lot of us ended up in the band/choir/orchestra rooms at our schools. Now that we don't fund music, and that we bombard the airwaves (whether TV/Radio <or the current iterations thereof>, Social Media, and pop culture) with the message of violence and that guns=power), there's no place for kids to go.
You have crystallized their technique and habit to use projection, blaming the other side, rather than confront their own actions that glorifies violence and how they have incited more violence.
Yes, Republicans project their own ill behavior onto Dems, as if Dems scheme as do Republicans.
So why do Republicans get away with their brazen lying, while Dems seem enfeebled?
Look at Japan, whose writer Kaori Shoji has a few clues as to how our apparently erstwhile too largely cripple themselves. She noted the phenomenon where, “In another two decades, 60% of the men in this country could spend their entire lives solo, dying without ever having had a relationship.”
One key reason for human enfeeblement – the Japanese took everything possibly personal out of the school curriculum. Their humanities got crippled. As another writer, Minae Mizumura noted, with the exception of silo lit departments, no school asks anyone to read any novel from beginning to end.
Everything gets fragmented for the algorithms of standardized testing.
U.S. Republicans meanwhile soar on the mad human. Human bitterness. Hatred. Violence titillation. White people and billionaires all as scripted victims of taxes and the state. A Clarence court so hates secular, free, modern life that it quashes the Constitution and rules for monarchy return.
Republicans have their criminal cult hero. Their members of Congress visited his Manhattan trial all decked out as their felon-in-chief. Their Clarence court further ruled it doesn’t matter he committed crime, setting him (and themselves) beyond the law.
Dems? Neutered by schools, like Japan’s. All trapped in but wonk spiraling worse and worse.
Except, too, the two dovetail. In order to get the ur-commercially-tilted U.S. he desired, Louis Powell wrote and distributed that 1971 memo of his. And its first goal -- to reach "hyper-commercial culture" -- was to rid the schools of humanities.
Thus the work of the new Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institution, and ALEC all through the 1970s. Deliberate, organized, well-funded successes, which then allowed the dark money forces much more easily the fuller, real power they coveted.
A good friend of mine who plays french horn in my quintet, and is also a middle school band director, had his job eliminated by the school district. I don't think they cut hockey or football, however to save money. He recently applied for another job and came in second out of 53 applicants! I need to get in touch with Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, to direct more funding towards the arts. Minnesota is flush with cash, and these cuts make no sense.
Those who implemented the Powell memo made sure that all public officials feel the arts as only ornamental, nothing even remotely, residually valuably human.
The rest of U.S. madness -- gun murders of school children, deaths of thousands of others daily by opioids, public health crisis obesity, youth deaths due to bullying, the entire Republican party as agents of Putin, dark money corrupting now even the U.S.'s highest court -- all this as normalized?
Many athletes who go onto other careers say it is both the competition and team work that counts. In a band or orchestra or choir, it is the team work. In my opinion competition in the arts is nonsense. Rather you play or sing or paint or draw, trying to engage your audience. Music competitions are stupid in my opinion.
I'm agreeing. I was impressed when Dave Hemery (Olympic hurdler won gold, silver and bronze medals) told me that it's the relays he likes the best -- passing the baton in support of the group win. He's designed educational programs around being the best you can be -- and that's aimed for serving the group.
“There is no more state funding for the arts in Florida after Governor Ron DeSantis cut 32 million from the state budget. Now arts organizations are scrambling to make ends meet.”
Not liking this comment at all, Matt. Cutting the arts/humanities is cutting our kids' throats. I don't know about you, but the band room in school was my safe zone.
The public school near where my father lived fired the principal after parents launched a protest of the principal's firing of a football coach. I doubt any similar protest would have appeared had a skilled teacher in any subject had been let go. Priorities.
Fascinating, thanks for pointing this Japanese trend in education out. Had not been aware of how the Japanese school system had evolved.
I wonder if we shifted to something more like Germany has, focusing on not sending everyone to college, perhaps re-energizing Community Colleges to help young people make smooth transitions into well-paying trades that need their labor (electricians, plumbers, construction workers)--use the German apprentice system. Seems to me a far better alternative...
Yes, and some basic humanities courses should always be a foundational part of our kids' education up through high school. Germany has had a long tradition of gymnasium (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(Germany)) high schools that feed kids into the higher education focused upon the humanities, but also have very robust trade school tracks kids can funnel into, which unlike us, are not regarded as a lower or lesser education. We need to elevate blue collar work back up as something to be very proud of, zero shame associated with it.
After 47 years of teaching in NJ, and 44 of them at a really fine Community College, I tried teaching many students who were not capable of college level work. Those who were became contributing members of society. Those who were not needed to be more focused on practical trades, things they could do really well. Some of those unsuccessful ones suddenly blossomed and discovered their beings through English and Poetry and Creative Writing. "We are all universes," Louis Ginsberg, Allen's father, told me in 1974.
Were American teachers permitted -- encouraged -- to exercise their own human, personal curiosity (viz. Finland), we'd get more like you looking into most-pertinent, most-aptly-human comparisons.
Can you explain the relation between not reading novels and not having relationships ? Most of humanity spent most of its history without reading at all, let alone reading novels. We always had stories, but presumably people (in Japan and elsewhere) still watch narrative series on their screens, at the very least. Atomisation and solitude must have other reasons.
Novels guarantee nothing. No strict cause-&-effect here. But they open possibilities. It all depends on the teacher(s), and schools' investment in teachers above all other players (viz., Finland).
No full novels means a dead landscape, total surrender to the linear, causal, abc chronology, and other rationalized logics built into all demeaning standardized testing. And it's all demeaning for the purposes of more profiting, more empowering the most vulgar money classes, who "live" to see "life" as units, numbers, repetition, abstractions, plus whatever subliminals in temptation-fishing let advertising net more spending.
Atomisation and solitude (all these lonely young men killers, mass murderers) of course "have other reasons." Like the dominance of metal-&-plastic modules called cars that, with strangling ribbons, shopping malls parking lagoons of asphalt and concrete near-totally killed American cities (but did totally segregate the doomed poor from the criminally-subsidized rich).
« No full novels means a dead landscape, total surrender to the linear, causal, abc chronology, and other rationalized logics built into all demeaning standardized testing. And it's all demeaning for the purposes of more profiting, more empowering the most vulgar money classes, who "live" to see "life" as units, numbers, repetition, abstractions, plus whatever subliminals in temptation-fishing let advertising net more spending. »
The way I see it, it is the working classes, and increasingly the middle classes, that have been reduced to number units. That’s why the money value of a financial trader, who does nothing else but buying and selling intangible possibilities of money, is higher - much higher - than the money value of a writer, a family doctor, a home carer or a warehouse worker, and the money value of a bean counter is higher than that of an engineer in the same company, even when that company’s business is whatever the engineer is creating (cars, bridges, circuits, molecular chains, etc.)
And since increasingly self-worth is tied to monetary worth - especially in a context where wealthy blowhards like Trump and Musk are turned into folk heroes - any man who can’t keep up is devalued in the eyes of society and his own. Women, who rarely tied their worth to money, earning power or ability to project monetary success, aren’t as affected by this trend (we are affected by other forms of devaluation.)
Perhaps novels, because they help us understand and empathise, might help men who feel undervalued understand their dilemma and fight back in positive ways, getting closer to women and to others who have been devalued. But instead, they become obsessed with gaming, winning and revenge.
"So why do Republicans get away with their brazen lying, while Dems seem enfeebled?" This is a great question Phil, but I fear it remains unanswered. I've been thinking about the reality tv star, and now with that reported comment that at his rally "all hell will break loose," I also fear we'll never know the truth about one Saturday in Butler, PA. Except that banana republicans will continue to "get away with their brazen lying."
Thankful the world did not witness another American politician's life ended with an assassin's bullet to the head.
Butler, PA did not become Dallas, TX or Memphis, TN or Los Angeles, CA or Tuscon, AZ.
But it would not have happened at all if reasonable measures wanted by the majority of Americans were in place.
A twenty-year-old with an assault rifle shooting at a peaceful public gathering does not fit the original intent of the Founding Fathers.
MAGA is going to dominate the news cycle for the next week.
Don't let it change the FACTS - Project 2025 will end the American "experiment" in representative government.
Putin met with Orban. Orban met with Trump, while President Biden hosted the nations of NATO. Trump (thankfully) survives an assassination attempt. Trump then spends the day...
golfing.
Expect the conspiracy theories to proliferate.
Don't be distracted.
November 5, 2024 is the day we MUST save democracy.
We have allowed the garish and outrageous presence of Trump to monopolize our attention and our governance even though he is no longer an elected official of any kind, and in fact has been convicted of crimes that would bar him from holding office in many states.
Does anyone really think the full story of what happened and why can be known in 24 hours? This “call for committee hearings” at this point reeks to me of another attempt to distract us from the fact that the Republicans have no ability to govern and no interest in doing so.
I was quite surprised that no media questioned on why Thomas Matthew Crooks' father allowed their 20-year old son have access to a gun, and how did this young man get lessons of target practice for that rifle?
More and more it seems like the print and television media use poor taste in how they control the narrative in our media.
In the same news week - a Texas grocery store installed a vending machine to sell ammunition..."American Rounds has ammunition kiosks in Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma" - The company behind the latest trend, American Rounds, claims its machines offer the highest standards and state-of-the-art security.
- Pulled Quote -
''Edward Luce of the Financial Times noted, “Almost any criticism of Trump is already being spun by Maga as an incitement to assassinate him. This is an Orwellian attempt to silence what remains of the effort to stop him from regaining power.” Indeed, MAGA Republicans appear to be trying to stop discussion of their extremist plans— which are enormously unpopular— by claiming that such a discussion is polarizing.''
Don't fall for it America. And remember this:
''Bad things happening to bad people don't make the bad actions or individuals good.''
Chump is still the same existential threat that he was before the debacle. In fact, I would say a worse one.
100%. Much much worse now.
This is how TFG wins. By never yielding. Making things worse and worse for everyone. Exhausting the other side to give up, to quit, to leave. He learned this from Roy Cohn. It might work for civil lawsuits but is it really sustainable in political leadership?
The agenda of a malignant narcissist.
Don't remember the name of the psychologist I read around the 1st of the year (was it in the Atlantic?) who said something like, identifying all of trump's pathologies are almost worthless because his are so off the chart and he seems to benefit from them rather than suffer. While I don't believe in an actual Satan, if there was ever a better support of the myth, it's gotta be trumps unbelievable ability to fail upward, almost every damn time. On the other hand, I do believe in karmic justice and accountability is coming in drips and drabs. He may experience a tsunami in the near future, especially after we defeat him in November. And in the meantime, I see a deeply miserable human being who sees himself as too much of a victim to be anything but miserable. What's it like to live looking over your shoulder every single day?
Trump Contagion, Dr Bandy Lee
Speaking of failing upward (or falling upward) The 'honorable" Judge Cannon just dismissed his case. One down 3 to go.
And within the last hour (7/15 @ 11:00 a.m.) Judge Cannon has dismissed the documents case against Trump on the grounds that Jack Smith's appointment was unconstitutional. Good lord! How does such a blatant criminal do it!!??
Authoritarians become authoritarians with the help of a corrupt judiciary. Same as Orban in Hungry and Putin in Russia. It is a consistent playbook in both history and current events.
At last she may have overstepped so far that the court will have no option but to remove her from the case. One hopes.
🤞🙏
is there appeal coming?
Hitler also owned the judiciary even before he was chancellor of Germany. All the pieces are coming together for Trump to regain the presidency and implement Project 2025 even though he denies knowledge of the project. His denial of Project 2025 is a lie. He knows all about it and stated as much earlier in his campaign. As a pathological liar, he can't help himself but lie.
Whenever he opens his ugly mouth the lies pour out!
He even hired a person who works for it.
Hope If we follow Judge Cannon’s bizarre judicial logic, then Special Counsel Hur’s appointment by Att Gen Garland was also unconstitutional.
The odor of the Stench Court clearly has filtered down in the Trumpian system of ‘justice.’
I hope the indictments are re-directed to a higher court. The sham continues.
Somebody besides Judge Cannon put this dismissal together. Justice Thomas was likely involved and that is why he inserted that note on appointments in the immunity ruling. They would have been working on this for awhile. But, again, they used the delay. This is high level stuff. This is about rigging the country's next president. Exactly what Trump has been saying in reverse. Which is standard Republican MO.
DJT Corrupts everything that He touches...
Teflon Don strikes again.
While I do not believe this was staged, it did put him back at the top of every news cycle, where Biden was dominating attention since the debate …. Interesting
It looks very staged. Don't forget tfg was an actor. We haven't yet seen his damaged ear. And if he said to put his shoes back on, why were they off in the first place?
How much blood can there be from a nick in an ear? You're right about the actor bit. He is a drama queen. He's so weak yet he has to put his shoes back on(what?), resist leaving the stage until he did his fist salutes (like Hawley) and say fight, fight, fight. Aren't people majorly upset when someone shoots them? So, let's play golf the next day then attend the convention. He is going to be like a puppy who remembers he was wounded to get sympathy, otherwise business as usual.
Notice that in the Photos of today's RNC, there is no evidence of a Wound to his Right-Ear... What is with the BIGGLY Ear Cover? Hmmm.... What's with his Shoes?
Very Interesting. I wouldn't put it past him to have staged this the shooting, but surely that can't be true! Two innocent, although misguided persons died.
I absolutely don’t think this was staged… it’s all terrible. But what’s worse is the blaming the Left…
I doubt he would care...as long as he came out on top. I thought the "blood" looked fake!
That was my first thought too, but probably not. The whole thing is so unimaginable... but be sure tffg will play it for all he can. Looking at what we know about the shooter... I think he was trying for suicide by law enforcement. He'll certainly live on in the history books.
trump is ruthless and I think he will do anything to assure his presidency. What is one life? Small price to pay for all the power he would reap.
I don't think it was staged: the shooter was very likely going to die in this scenario, and too many people were hurt/killed. Clearly there was intent to kill (so I hope shooter was mentally ill... right age for schizophrenia onset... and anyone sane should know that neither success nor failure in this type of intervention plays out as wished.)
But if it IS something other than 'lone wolf', it seems likely that the interested parties include some R billionaire or a grumble of maggots (Bannon?, Flynn?) who may be starting to find tfg's derangement not sufficiently predictable or on message.
Yeah, so don't think it was Putin, or Melania (tfg's handler for Putin?), or Graham, or McConnell, or DeSantis, or Pence (joking), but Koch? Thiel? even Musk? - nah, not Elon, his passions are other worldly.
My money's on Flynn. (He is known to think in terms of assassinations to effect change.) (IFF not lone wolf.)
I also thought of the onset of schizophrenia, given his apparent isolationism. I find it amazing that it was perfectly legal to walk into a crowded event and legally carry a weapon...an assault rifle at that.
Interesting.
And we must never yield either. We are on the Constitution's side.
Exactly right
Far biglyer
Should I just say what I’m thinking? And you know what I’m thinking.
Yep! Now he can play the martyr. His crowd of belligerent degenerates love that dark and nefarious theater.
He learned from Roy Cohn to Vince McMahn.., the “pro wresting” script
Yep. My husband and I thought of the World Wrestling Federation and reality TV in general when this happened. Could he have staged it? I think Trump thinks of people as expendable. And he has cried wolf so often it is hard to be sure. Crazy to think this but he lies so much. It does feel like we might once again have been played. So sad for the family of the fireman that was killed. I think Trump did not lose sleep over that senseless death.
An article in something (so much crap going around) said that people who think it was staged are just misinformed. Well answer a few questions, you smartest people in the room.
How did repubs have such an agenda to blame Dems all ready before the blood dried.
Where was Roger Stone. Maybe visiting Steve Bannon (or maybe before he went to jail) Roger is very proud of his machinations which went a long way to giving us W/Dickie. Steve Bannon has a history with Hollywood going way back. As we all know Hollywood has methods galore in creating scenarios that look real.
Does anybody question that some secret service people were guilty of aiding the Jan 6 insurrection, and then erasing all traces of text messages.
Does anybody question that chump and his cronies have replaced career civil service people with their devotees.
Does anybody question that chump is as capable as any dictator or mafia don of getting underlings to do whatever is required at whatever cost.
Does anybody question that chump would sacrifice innocent people for his quest for power.
Does anybody question that the money flows like a full blast faucet when chump has a plan.
Does anybody question that there are still questions regarding the murder of JFK 60+ years after the fact. Secrets do come out eventually, often decades after any body cares.
Does anybody question why it is that the insurrection that we all saw on tv has been redefined, and is now called a patriotic visit, by peaceful visitors.
So we saw it on tv, with repubs, seeing can mean “alternative facts, fiction, propaganda and have nothing to do with an actual happening.
There was an ER doc there (red hat) and if memory serves, chump has known a parade of docs who have spewed some rather ridiculous diagnoses at convenient times for him. BTW, where was Ronnie Jackson.
These cretins make Goebbels and Hitler seem like choir boys.
Don’t call me misinformed, until you consider all options.
Look at republican speech and actions. Guns in Congress and Christmas cards (who does that?). "blood bath", threats of violence if he loses. Executions, retribution, arrests, vermin, Jan 6th, and the list goes on. I don't think it is the democrats that are the violent ones.
Once you know the script, it’s easy to recognize. Help other by explaining it. This has proven to break the spell, prevents others falling for it.
It seems that lots of democratic people send condolences and well wishes (Clinton, Biden, basically most people). Then there was trump's response to Nancy Pelosi when her husband was shot. Insulted her and made jokes about it.
Or, the troubled you g man who was fed lies and told he'd be a martyr!
His pictures has been shared around the world. I wonder what his parents are thinking about now? Are they MAGA too?
If he did...he would have delayed his part in the convention and he is there today!
Say. I notice yourr Ukrainian colors avatar. I have a good friend who is Ukrainian. As to Cohn & al, you can add Alex Jones to that cabal.
I’m not Ukrainian.
The colors caught my attenton. Thanks for responding.
Present day dictators and would be dictators congratulated Trump on his sure win of the presidency on the heels of this assassination attempt. Nothing like a martyr to win a sympathy vote.
I am waiting for the evangelical heretics to claim that Trump was "saved" by Divine intervention. An "angel" caused Trump to turn his head just at the right moment.
Remindes me of Reagan!
Sounds like a script with which he is very familiar.
He said in a statement last night he was "rewriting his speech". The man doesn't write speeches, and I believe making himself more statesmanlike is part of his scheme.
Everything unspooling according to plan. With the usual co-conspirators. Where is Jim Jordan?
Jen, Jerk J.D. Vance got his nonsense before Gym could even start to scream. Don't worry though, the House will be busy doing "investigations" and you will hear Gym shriek.
They already have a committee forming to investigate this mess!
Yes, I saw little Johnson proclaiming about how they were going to "investigate".
That’s all the House knows how to do!
If Johnson and the House investigates, then for sure the truth will come out. Hahaha 😂 best way to institutionalize the fiction
That's Adolf Johnson!
Jen Andrews -- It will be very interesting to watch Trumps demeanor today (Monday). Wonder if he can act well enough for long enough to fake the "caring" wronged one.
Had to choke back the disbelief today when I read that he thinks luck or God might have saved him. Good grief! Interesting that God was second on that list!
Is there any commenter here who thinks that chump can pretend to be more “statesmanlike” for 5 minutes. Any try should be the best unfunny comedy routine in history.
The tfg believes that those that "appear" statesman-like are the phony's wearing masks. That's the schtick he peddles anyway, and thus he talks and acts the precise opposite to play the part of 'common guy.'
And I would agree with you Jeri. I have said from the beginning- he is a brilliant marketer.
You mean propagandist.
Knows how to sell bull Schitt and make people love the smell.
JD. All this R shrieking has only made me more determined to call death star and them out. I am usually polite when on social media, but that may have just ended. Maybe no more subtlety! remembering our exchange this weekend.
I doubt that Zuck will be happy with that. Or the algorithms
Of trump wins we're all going to Siberia!
I’m down on the list but they will have representatives in the states looking for chump haters.
So like Nazi Germany....always someone to act as rat....in beekeeper associations, choirs, down at the local ratskeller, etc.
Exactly, you must watch WW2 docs too
What gets me is that the timing of this was too perfect plus the optics make it look staged. There’s no proof that it is, of course.
It’s right before an EXTREMELY high stakes election with catastrophic domestic & global consequences. (Just like Russia & Ukraine are having a physical war between authoritarianism & democracy on Ukraine soil. Americas are having a type of civil conflict with aid free m authoritarian countries. Only it’s a psychological civil war on American psyches.)
Right after the debate damage and Biden’s recovery during press conference and NATO speech which were very effective.
The press isn’t asking about the wound or statement from Trump’s doctor.
People have been freaking about Project 2025 so much that Trump is distancing himself from it, so it probably means some of his supporters were making noises about it. This attempt is helping rally those who were waffling.
I can’t imagine how the Secret Service could F up so badly.
Trump’s cultists are martyring him just for a nick on the ear and fighting harder now against their own concerns about project 2025. (Nothing WE warn them about sinks in because they’re so brainwashed - not climate change, Covid, masking, vaccines of any kind now, etc.)
There was open talk about how such an attempt would be beneficial to Republicans - Alex Jones and Ivan Raiklin
https://x.com/patriottakes/status/1812460546236518607?s=46. Not that this means anything except that it’s on the radar of Raiklin
We’ve all heard from the docs that have been chump’s go all his life. Not a Hippocratic oath believer among them. Also the secret service had some MAGAts in their midst in Jan 01, deleted texts and no consequences. Don’t tell me it wasn’t staged til you check out all the possibilities. Otherwise, we have another event like the JFK murder that many still question 60 years later. BTW, Alex Jones has scraped the bottom of the barrel, for so long, that he has almost dug through to China. Maybe the FBI should visit him, he’s too stupid, but Roger Stone and his ilk are very experienced.
I say shooter was a REPUBLICAN'T hired by REPUBLICAN'TS. They don't like him either
I vote for Flynn , Bannon, or Stone. That photo op beat anything that Michael Deaver came up with for Reagan.
And lies are the enemy of democracy. "GOP" rhetoric is as Orwellian as it gets.
Yes, and the only way they win is to get enough of us to become pessimistic about our ability to win. So, the path to victory is simple: do whatever you can, but whatever you do, don't give up.
Writing postcards to Montana for Jon Tester, the only farmer in the senate. A rich non-Montanan has been brought in to defeat him. As conversation about climate change has been stilled, our need for food is not. Many people do not make the connection; those of us who love tomatoes in summer are constantly reminded of it.
Virginia. I have gardened here in Oregon for years. And now we have had many days of 90+ and a few 100+ days making it impossible to be out in the afternoon. In the ams it is cooler, but humid, so I have go out early to pick berries. Meanwhile the weeds grow a pace. Also we have some wild fires going, particularly in central, southern, and eastern Oregon. I see reports of human caused since we have not had thunderstorms for a while. Wth is wrong with people. They ought to be being extra careful. And in those areas most of them are adamantly against any mitigation of climate change. Btw, my garden is starting to produce tomatoes and the grower I like at the Saturday Market has her beautiful heirlooms going.
Presumably this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to dislodge him. I hope hope he prevails again!
Where are you getting your postcards from? I live in a "red" part of VERY blue Illinois. I would like to help more than just vote.
To the person who wanted to know where I get my postcards: The Turnabout Project, TonyTheDemocrat, Activate America and wherever else my Indivisible chapter sends them from.
Apologies for not being able to find your post.
But, I found your response! Thank you! I will look into all of these. My name is Ruth.
Hello, Ruth! And May you write many postcards, enjoying the experience.
A lot of food from other countries who are suffering from violent weather will become scarce. Most of our avocadoes from Mexico, vanilla from the Philippines, chocolate, sugar. Things will get really bad if any thing happens to our coffee supply (most is supplied by Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Columbia).
Important! Everyone who reads this should take notice. Coffee and chocolate are and have been for some time, on the”extinction” list.
No coffee. Apocalypse! Imagine the price of a Starbuck's lattee
Despondent enough to NOT vote. Vote BLUE, up and down the ticket.
I recall Jesse Jackson saying something like "You don't drown until you stop swimming.
Volunteer! Go knock on doors and remind people that the Biden administration has been fantastic! Vote blue, no matter who!
We will beat the MAGA....honestly! I will fight until the end! I have a lot of work to do and so do all of you! We have a little over 3 months....and we can do it!!!!!!
Just need to know there are likeminded patriots who know that this is not a hell hole -try as someone tried to make it be one by denying climate change, sexual preferences, personal choices, covid, the Constitution, and freedom. And that all this is worth holding to voting Blue.
"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope." —MLK.
Oooh - I like that quote. A lot.
The first, the very first, peaceful transfer of political power in world history took place right here on American soil on March 4, 1801 when Pres. John Adams relinquished the powers of the U.S. presidency to his bitter political rival, Thomas Jefferson. This was appropriate in a democracy where differences are settled peacefully at the ballot box: one person, one vote, majority rule. One tactic used by Fascists and would-be dictators is to undermine confidence in the integrity of the election system. Trump has been doing this since he rode down that elevator back in 2015. It would be error for us to divert our attention and efforts away from the task of defeating Trump at the ballot box. The stakes for us and the world couldn't be higher.
Peaceful except when Hamilton was killed in a duel.
Good morning, Jen. The difference between the death of Hamilton and Jefferson's assuming the presidency is that Hamilton's death didn't involve the transfer of political power. As an aside, Hamilton's son was also killed in a duel.
Thanks, I didn't know that about Hamiltons son.
My point is that violence in setting political disputes is part of our history.
Jen, we're probably having a semantical difference. American history and politics reek with violence: the Civil War, our genocide of Native Americans, Jim Crow and the thousands of lynchings, and thousands of more minor incidents. There are only two instances in our history where violence was attempted to alter political power: 1) April 12, 1861 with the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter; and 2) January 6, 2021 when Trump's supporters attacked our capitol to stop the election process.
I would add the March 1, 1954 attack on the United States Capitol in which four Puerto Rican nationalists shot up the House floor in an effort to bring about Puerto Rican independence from the United States. Five reps were wounded. All recovered.
A time in history rarely taught. In today’s constraints on teaching history, the Puerto Ricans would be verbally crucified by the MAGAts.
And his son, before him-
Er…no. There were peaceful transfers of power happening in the UK since the Tory Horace Walpole had to step down as First Lord of the Treasury (Prime Minister) in 1742 to cede power to the Whigs, who had just won the General Election. And since Robert Walpole was the first “Prime Minister” we’d ever had, peaceful transfers of power have happened ever since monarchs ceased to be the executive leaders of the government (under Queen Anne).
It's complicated. Thank you for this, Sophie.
Michael, I write simply to expand upon Luce’s explanation of MAGA’s Orwellian efforts to attack dissenters by underscoring how powers-that-be have appropriated the newspeak vernacular of George Orwell’s “1984,” in large part, to justify extraordinary measures in exchange for protecting citizens against unnamed, unproven threats.
Yes.
Let's review:
'Newspeak' [I call it Cultspeak because it manipulates language to control thought and behavior, much like cults do. It limits dissent, enforces conformity, and perpetuates the ideology of those in power, suppressing individual freedom.] is a fictional language in George Orwell's novel "1984," designed to diminish the range of thought. Here are some examples of Newspeak terms:
Doublethink: The ability to hold two contradictory beliefs simultaneously and accept both as true.
Thoughtcrime: The act of thinking against the Party or having unapproved thoughts.
Big Brother: The leader of the Party, who is always watching and enforcing loyalty.
Ingsoc: English Socialism, the political ideology of the Party.
Oldspeak: Standard English, which Newspeak aims to replace.
Unperson: A person who has been erased from existence by the Party.
Miniluv: The Ministry of Love, responsible for law and order (primarily through fear and torture).
Minipax: The Ministry of Peace, which deals with war.
Minitrue: The Ministry of Truth, which controls information, education, and the arts.
Miniplenty: The Ministry of Plenty, which manages the economy.
Goodthink: Thoughts that are approved by the Party.
Duckspeak: To speak without thinking, often in a way that aligns with Party ideology.
Crimethink: Thoughts that are unorthodox or against the Party.
Bellyfeel: A blind, enthusiastic acceptance of an idea.
Blackwhite: The ability to accept that black is white, if the Party says it is.
Prolefeed: Superficial entertainment provided to the proles (working-class people) to keep them docile.
Newspeak: The language designed to limit freedom of thought.
Joycamp: Forced labor camps.
Ownlife: Individualism and eccentricity, considered subversive.
Oldthink: Holding on to old or outdated beliefs, particularly those before the Party's rise to power.
Michael, Thank you for providing this comprehensive listing. I simply would add a brief observation regarding your second entry “Doublethink,” enlisting a modest adjustment: As an educator, I would submit that education serves students when they are encouraged “to hold two contradictory beliefs simultaneously” and attempt their reconciliation.
Yes, thank you Barbara. It is that third step of reconciliation that creates. Without it, everything runs down. A principle well worth remembering.
Lynn, I very much appreciate you reinforcing that creation, in large part, is synthesis. Taken one step further, if one never brings competing ideas together, no synthesis can occur.
It seems like it is a basic law of nature, how things work.... from making babies to writing a thesis to running a country.
Barbara Jo Krieger -- "Doublethink" can also be thought of as meaning **seeing** both (or all sides) without necessarily choosing one to adhere to.
Judith, Thank you for writing. Your astute observation has prompted me to expand my earlier comment by noting the value for me personally of cultivating a willingness to let go of a point of view in which every question has a precise answer and accept that one often will find no finite resolution to urgent issues and that what seem to be answers frequently just opens new lines of inquiry.
The only phrase missing is Alternative Facts: Kelly Ann Conway’s response when caught lying (wink, wink)
Michael Corthel -- "Duckspeak" a.k.a. "Quack Quack".
That last quote, "Bad things..."...where does it come from? I want a cite so I can use it!
It's a paraphrase of something I learned in ethics class.
I saw this quote yesterday from a Smithsonian magazine article in a tweet that was highlighted by Ruth Ben-Ghiat on X: “A reminder: there was an attempt on Mussolini’s life in 1926. That didn’t make him any less fascist, any less contemptible, any more worthy of the office he held, or any better of a human being. It just meant a deranged person did something stupid. Political violence is unacceptable, but it doesn’t vindicate or sanctify its target.”
Indeed, but that's exactly what the MAGA GOP is doing now and will continue to do this week.
Already, Trump has pandered to the Christian right by publicly saying that God saved his life. The megalomania knows no bounds.
And then, skipping church to go golfing. The church of golf.
🤮
Also a book “When Bad Things Happen to Good People” by Harold S. Kushner.
Great book and another philosophy which aligns with my New Thought teachings. The main point of his book is that suffering is not a punishment from God but a result of the natural laws of the universe [cause and effect. Also read Emerson's essay Compensation'.]. Kushner emphasizes the importance of finding meaning in suffering and advocates for compassion and resilience in the face of life's challenges. He suggests that faith [positive thinking] can help people cope with pain, even if it doesn't provide clear answers.
Another thought that a very smart friend posted:
"Bad theology": God kept me from being killed!!
What about the guy that did get killed? Did God sacrifice him?
"Good Theology"; God created a world with physics. The Bullet grazed some and killed others. God generally allows physics to take its course.....
Good Theology and politics: Guns are weapons of destruction that should be used only rarely and under controlled circumstances. Violence is anti-Christian, including gun violence.
I'm part of New Thought too.
FMI: https://www.michaelcorthell.com/2023/04/selected-quotes-from-emersons-essay.html
I read the Rabbi's book ages ago.
So, can I use this with...or without??? Attribution?
And, no one has responded by reminding them that their Supreme Court just said a president could target a political opponent while doing his job, which is taking care of the country. As they blame Biden, they do not recognize their own hypocrisy. They were just rejoicing that Trump could get away with targeting an opponent according to 6 Supreme Court Justices. Now reality of their policies hits, but unfortunately for their understanding and growth, we have been able to stave off full on fascism here, so they have not been able to learn how truly awful all of their ideas are.
We could stave off fascism by electing DOWN BALLOT Dem candidates to the House and Senate, instead of allowing maga incumbent repubs stay in office to cheer on Project 25 mandates.
President Trump made an impressive response at the moment of the shooting. Sadly, President Biden's responses will likely be overlooked by most media outlets. The President proved his statesmanlike manner during a time when states(wo)manship appears no longer to be esteemed.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?537018-1/presidential-remarks-trump-rally-shooting (President Biden's initial statement of three minutes on 13jul24)
I suspect the brevity of these statements by M.A.G.A. demagogues will be 'proof' of President Biden's incapacity; in actuality, no more need be said.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?537030-1/president-biden-addresses-nation-attempted-assassination-president-trump (six-minute address to the country on 14jul24)
Sadly, this violence, and Democrats' repeated efforts to address it, is nothing new and the situation with respect to access to weapons may even be worse today than fifty-six years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKu4FklXJsg (seven minutes)
Since I am old and alone and lonely, today is one of profound pessimism for me. As I looked up the two statements by President Biden on C-span, each was preceded by the same advert. for a vid.-game glorifying mass-shootings. What a gun-saturated culture in which we live. Whether people understand that such simulated slaughter is fantasy is not the point; it is, as per Senator Kennedy's riveting words the day after the murder of Reverend Doctor King in April 1968, the systematic de-humanization fermenting a sickness in our souls.
I am old, but have a significant other. We both feel despair that such a worthless human being has risen to the Presidency and might again! The electorate has been so easily duped by a tv reality persona. Having knowledge and class is overlooked.
Yes, and the animus I have permitted to flourish within me is corroding my soul. One of the injured people on Saturday may very well have been a relative of a mid-shipman my sister's family sponsoured ten years ago. This hatred has to stop.
The Rs are saying he was hit by a bullet…..not likely, he was hit by flying glass from the teleprompter. So he didn’t take a bullet. He would have been bleeding far more if that were the case. Also, he just met with Orban…wonder what THAT discussion was about!
Dandy Letter summing up the consistent MAGA message , Heater🫶
Correct, Michael. They can ‘spin the yarn’ for sure.
Also heard Cannon dismissed the Maralago Case' TCinLa posted. Cannon needs impeached IMHO!
Thanks Joe Biden for speaking consistent decency.
💙💙VOTE ALL THE COMPLICIT OUT💙💙
What struck me about that quote was ". . . to silence *what remains of the effort to stop him from regaining power*." I hope Ed Luce didn't mean to come across as so defeatist, but given what the punditocracy has been up to lately trying to push President Biden off the ballot I'm not sure.
they're looking for a motive....I have the motive:
It was the ultimate “suicide by cop.” That guy had to know he would be killed. Going out in style, with a place in history.
He was a nobody; now he's a somebody. If it had been a Biden rally in his region, it would have been Biden getting shot at.
He could clearly see the sharp shooters. And they could see him but didn’t know until he fired, that he wasn’t someone from another agency or local police.
Another screw up in communication by authorities like 9/11
And, a real F up for the secret service.
I stand with you, Michael!
The shooting is helping Trump increase popularity. DEMs need to reassess their strategy to win.
The outrage from the "right" about yesterday's violence is mind-blowing. If only they had 1/100th the compassion for completely innocent school children subject to senseless gun violence these past years, as they have shown in the past 30 hours for their "not so innocent"cult leader, perhaps then we could finally get some control on these weapons of senseless destruction.
I’m glad to see you calling him a cult leader. We should refer to him as a cult leader every time his name is mentioned. Trump is a cult leader pure and simple, and by letting him skate by this fact, he has spawned more waiting in the wings to replace him if he were to be assassinated. Ivan Raikan, Alex Jones and General Flynn are constantly beating that drum with marked enthusiasm, warning there will be blood in the streets. On a positive note, I educated 5 more strangers this weekend about Project 2025. My goal is to educate as many as possible before the election and before the next one if that’s what it takes.
I’m so glad you mentioned that! I sat down last night to try to read the document and distill it to effective talking points. Although I read regulations and such in my career, P25 had me cross-eyed. I tried to find something that puts it in plain language. What did you use for talking points?
My sister sent me this from Swing Left about some of the things it proposes:
Reproductive Freedom
Banning abortion nationwide
Banning or severely restricting IVF
Installing an anti-abortion task force
Executive Power
Replacing civil servants and agency experts with MAGA loyalists
Ordering the prosecution of political opponents
Pardoning January 6 insurrectionists
Defunding the Department of Justice
Dismantling the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Eliminating the Department of Commerce
Requiring local law enforcement to use stop and frisk
Education
Eliminating the Department of Education
Eliminating early childhood education and nutrition assistance through
Head Start
Allowing guns in classrooms
Cutting funding for schools with mask mandates
LGBTQ+ Rights
Government will "promote" heterosexual marriage
Discriminate against transgender community
Bar public school teachers from using names or pronouns other than
names and assigned sex at birth
Immigration
Mass deportations
Reinstating Trump-era family separation policy
Reinstating Trump-era Muslim ban
Terminating the legal status of 500,000 Dreamers
Blocking federal financial aid for up to two-thirds of all American
college students
Threatening funding for states who do not share driver’s licenses and
taxpayer info with federal authorities
Climate
Dismantling National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Attacking the National Environmental Policy Act
Pushing a pro-fossil fuel agenda
Good recap. In a sane America, the publication of Project 2025 would completely sink the electoral chances of the party associated with it.
My optimistic self thinks that this document swings the pendulum so far to the crazy side, that the non voters and non committed voters will become as frightened as we are.
My bumper sticker:
" Have You Read Project 2025?
Spoiler: It Is Fascism! "
Excellent and succinct .. I will use that, Bill .. thanks!
and we still RFK, who will he take votes from?
Nine hundred pages of pure drivel, but very, very scary drivel…
Betsy: Enormously helpful distillation. Thanks to your sister and to you!
Anything in there about Social Security? The EPA? Dismantling agencies? Ending health and safety regulations? I do need to read this thing....
Yes!
It's over 900 pages. There's lots more, and everything that I've learned about is anti-democratic.
Thank you for posting this. There’s no changing closed minds but this list is helpful when talking to those who never heard of P25 or think it’s “Lib fake news.”
If only facts, issues, policies, and accomplishments mattered. If they did this election would be a slam dunk.
Would love it if your sister (or anyone else) could outline Antony Blinken's two sections of the interview with Heather. They covered so much length and breadth of important issues trends and differences from past history in so little time, I'd appreciate a condensed list.
Perhaps making sure there is a clear question stated simply, followed by bullet points for each of Blinken's most direct answers to the question asked and the added considerations highlighting the history and why different approaches are needed.
I think I used to do fair job of breaking stuff down in writing tech manuals (biggest one 3,750 pages), but I'm very much out of practice.
I did appreciate what I remember as Bernie Sanders' business card size list of 10 things we were for and 8 things we were against as a great list of top issues.
They also intend to get rid of porn. Regardless of my feeling against porn, it would be something to see how they intend to carry that out. Reminds me of Prohibition, and how long that lasted.
That thought has occurred to me as well. That will drive it underground and we know that will end.
Thank you very much for this outline. It’s all so horrible that having it in simple print makes it « absorbable.”
I tell people to imagine Marjorie Taylor Green being able to pass laws without expert opinion.
Thank you, Betsy.
When people tell you they haven’t heard of Project 2025, ask them these questions:
https://open.substack.com/pub/project2025istheocracy/p/how-to-tell-your-friends-about-project?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Use this New Readers’ Guide to Project 2025 to get started.
https://open.substack.com/pub/project2025istheocracy/p/project-2025-new-start-here?r=fqsxl&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Here's another resource:
https://www.democracydocket.com/analysis/what-is-project-2025-and-why-is-it-alarming/
Thank you for this!
🙌From another “ Susan Jane”…DOB 1949…women must STAND STRONG…we have come so far🤞🤞🤞
I agree. 1950 here. It is my women friends who are most engaged. We have seen a lot over the years, but NOTHING like this!
Unfortunately......, not quite far enough IMHO. Better judgement, having been hijacked by the purveyors of fire and brimstone, virtually guaranteeing women will fall over backward when they need to call BS. And who are the most highly esteemed "hi-jackers"? Why.., the 'sinners' themselves, of course. May the Bakers' et al, RIP.
Good morning. Forgive me not replying sooner, but I got real busy yesterday. I tailor my pitch according to who I’m talking to. I mostly approach minorities, women and young people because I assume they’ll be more interested and are probably a Democrat or should be. I steer away from white people my age because it’s safe to assume in the south they vote Republican. If somebody doesn’t want to hear what I have to say they blow me off and keep walking. I was in sales for a number of years so I treat it like it’s number games. I’m really good with young people for some reason. I’m not your average 64 yr old so that works in my favor. I’ve been approaching people, well forever really, but about Project 2025 since I first heard about it when nobody was talking about it. Nowadays more people tell me they’ve heard about it and they want to know more. The first thing I say when I approach strangers is I ask them if they’ve heard about Project 2025. If not, I repeat the name a few times to make sure they remember it so they tell others, but in answer to no what is it, I tell them it’s the Republican agenda and it’s brutal. They want to reorganize society without our consent. Depending on how receptive they are, I decide what might interest them by trial and error.
Here’s a document prepared by Tony Michaels. He has a YouTube channel and a unique audience. I adore him but he swears a lot so he might not be your cup of tea. However, the document lacks any cuss words. lol
https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A59b838af-5f37-3f68-8a87-17696a7474ae
I hope this helps and apologize for any typos but my laptop broke and so I’m typing on my iPad and can’t stand this keyboard.
Read Andra Watkins substack “How Project 2025 will ruin your life.” She interprets the Christian Nationalist language and what it means.
I'm pondering how to engage a friend of mine who posted a meme: Project 2025 as "Q-Annon for lefties."
I've had limited success, but the two things I have found helpful when anything is, is to 1) never never insult or put them on the defensive because especially with some personality types that trend Republican, it's painful for them to feel like they have been wrong or lost social power in some way, and 2) ask don't tell (probably relates back to the bit above). Ask this person to explain to you what this passage in Project 2025 says and why it shouldn't be scary. They'll have to look it up, of course, to do so and maybe they never read it. Ask why Meadows and Miller being involved isn't significant or who would be significant. Ask them to reassure you about the scariest parts, and it might open the way for them to later listen to you come back and say "Wow. I just read this part xxxx... and I'm still working on thinking about what that means for me, who might be in that group" without asking them to generate reassurance - just opens the option of casually dropping thought bombs. Wedges, cracks, little baby steps. For someone who posted that the best you can probably do is lessen their conviction some.
Thanks!
I sent my brother a link to the P2025 page on the heritage foundation site, in response to his comment “I don’t think it really exists.” This was during a phone conversation in which we discussed current events and I touched on some of the points to I thought would be most meaningful to him.
That’s troubling. A radicalized right wing, and an apathetic unaware right middle. I share your frustration Ally.
Compare it to Agenda 47 and link all the people in Trump’s team who are from Heritage foundation. Reliable sources are sharing proof of the connection.
Ignore
There is no reason an ordinary citizen needs a combat weapon.
Joe Biden's message yesterday was perfect. All of the hate, anger, resentment spewed by the Republicans spawn fear. Don Bacon (R-NE) saying that his wife sleeps with a gun under her pillow exemplifies this fear. The Bacon's have 6 children and eight grandchildren that likely know that grandma has a loaded gun. But I'm sure, she locks away her weapon when she gets up every morning and doesn't get it out again until bedtime. /S
Jenn, there's a point to be made by those of us who agree: if the ban on assault weapons hadn't been lifted many years ago, it's likely this event wouldn't have happened (not to mention the numbers of children and adults who would still be alive today.)
But there's something fishy about this shooting which begs explanation:
1. If his ear was truly "pierced by a bullet", given the enormous kinetic energy these rounds have, why was his ear just grazed and not ripped from his head? Was it a bullet, or was it flying glass?
2. Some reports say the teleprompters were intact after the shooting; if so, where did this glass come from?
3. Others have noted the lack of blood spatter on his white shirt -- given the amount of blood which quickly appeared, wouldn't his shirt be more bloodied, given the collars' proximity to the ear?
4. Most people, if hearing gunshots and feeling pain and seeing blood near the head, would likely go into shock, no? Why did he have the presence of mind to ask for his shoes and then shout out "Fight" with an arm raised? And why did the SS allow him to be exposed to the crowd in that way, allowing a photo which will be used in future ads?
I'm generally not a conspiracy theorist, but these are questions which, if not answered satisfactorily by people smarter than me, will make me wonder what actually happened on Saturday evening.
I have some of those very same questions, especially about the injury from high velocity ammunition. I have seen in comments on a number of Substack posts that others are raising questions as well. I don't want anyone to be shot and killed. I know some victims of gun violence. This calling for more guns and violence by those on the right to generate clicks and attention for themselves and profits for others has to stop.
Doug, I’ve said from the start as I watched this, this was 100% staged political theater.
I’ve been wondering the same thing. The Washington Post did a piece showing the damage to a human body from an AR15 after Uvalde.
I thought it looked like a wound from a pellet gun.
Wondering a lot of this as well.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-damage-to-human-body/
Article explaining damage caused to human body by an AR15.
Exactly, Fran.
At the very least, regulated restriction to regulated shooting ranges, for those who feel the need for such entertainment. Otherwise, outright bans for me.
Jenn, If they were members of a well-regulated militia they might need a combat weapon
With combat optics. Talk with any infantry veteran. It isn’t just the rifle and bullets. Those optics for our military help them win on the battlefield. Soldiers that can acquire a target fastest, and thus can use one trigger pull to kill, can move to the next, and so on. Many of these optics should be banned too.
That repubs are blathering about gun violence is a hoot. Really, maybe the NRA can make some money off this. Never waste a good blood bath seems to be their mantra. Sorry, but my “give them the benefit of the doubt” gene is all worn down
Sometimes chickens come home to roost. Shooter used NRA choice of weapon? Good week to register more Democrats.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/
Thursday is Florida day on Textarcade. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ft6arcade24bamk.
Focus for Democracy with Adam Schiff -- Tuesday, July 16th at 5pm PST/8pm
EST. Register at https://bit.ly/F4D16July
Also Florida day on FT 6 phonebank. https://www.fieldteam6.org/actions
Thanks Dan, your persistence pointing to FT6 worked on me and, in turn, others.
Me, too.
Thank you, may have a few bucks for candidates and a little time for action.
Every time they open their mouths, we learn more about their plans. All they can do is bleat. We’ll never hear the end of this.
Pf. If Biden had taken a bullet to the head, Rump, his cultist followers and the entire GOP would be screaming: "See! That's your just reward! That's what you get for spewing your leftist socialist rhetoric!" The gigantic double standard and the narcissistic rhetoric they employ cannot be countered by any reason or normal argument.
And yet, this week there will likely be several mass shootings across the country and not a word of it will be mentioned about any of them during the convention.
"Thoughts and Prayers" is their mantra. It's as meaningless as "make America great again."
That’s why I thought it was so great—so sarcastic!—that Rep. Hakeem Jeffries offered “thoughts and prayers” to wounded Trump!
Bazinga!
hahaha..hahahaaa...you kno it Kathryn.., Hakeems' gesture needs to be extended to the poor souls on the security detail, they're gonna need some.
👍👍🙏
Understatement to the max. And at 90 decibels
Countering their position with reason is how to reach the people on the fence, who happen to be the people that will decide who wins in November. So, yes, the narcissistic rhetoric they employ can be countered with reason.
Hear Hear, Mike👏
"Thoughts and prayers" for Donald Trump.
That phrase is as empty as "Make America Great Again" or "White Christian Nationalists."
How many hours will it be until convicted felon Donald Trump starts spewing his "Hate, Anger, Resentment, Revenge and Misinformation" again. I'm guessing it will be sometime today.
Of course many Republicans never stopped.
The Trump shooter left no clues whatsoever that he was going to do what he did. No manifesto, no social media presence, no confession to family and friends.
Yesterday, CFDT said that Biden was "nice" on his call. Anyone want to wager that within a few days he will flip-flop on that. Come to think of it, that may be the first true statement out of his mouth in recent memory.
You know them well.
Seems barely any notice that 8 people were killed in Alabama over the weekend in shootings of people at a nightclub and at a family driving in their car (mother, father, child all killed).
Totally agree. Every mass shooting is horrible but the slaughter of the first graders and their teachers in Newtown, CT was simply beyond the pale. My heart broke that day and the pain for those families never healed. The response of the NRA and republicans in general has continued this country's sickness.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/exclusive-inside-the-nras-response-to-newtown/#:~:text=The%20tragedy%20shocked%20the%20nation%2C%20sparking%20an%20outpouring,powerful%20political%20force%3A%20the%20National%20Rifle%20Association%20%28NRA%29.
Lauren, dream on.
100%
They see themselves as troops in a perpetual war against Democracy and non-whites. So children are just collateral damage. Nothing is real except their personal grievances and their team’s grievances.
Let’s hope Democrats don’t wimp out and shy away from holding trump and the MAGA cult responsible for the current toxic and violence-prone atmosphere in the U.S.. Republican responsibility for the current state of affairs is obvious, as Heather points out. While sympathizing with trump, he still needs to be held accountable. “You reap what you sow,” should be on everyone’s lips.
I am not happy about the attempt on Trump’s life, or the nasty rhetoric he and others are encouraging. I really resent that Vance is blaming Democrats rather than actually trying to find solutions. Unfortunately, he is one of my senators, and I would prefer to see Mr. Vance return to Cincinnati where he now resides and to keep our other Senator, Sherrod Brown. Brown is in a tough race with Trump endorsed car salesman Bernie Moreno.
Has anyone read "Hillbilly Elegy"? Vance's hardscrabble Appalachian life is filled with examples of Democratic leg-up breaks that rescued him from family trauma and paved his path to an Ivy League education. Now that he has what he wants, he's bent on denying the same rights to everyone else.
If people want to read it, they should borrow it from a library — Don’t buy it. But do know about it …
Patricia, it sounds as if Vance has reproduced Clarence Thomas' ascent through the social ranks with similar self-righteous punishment meted out to anyone else who wants to try the same!
Yes, that is exact what I got from his book which I borrowed from the public library. That is the Tea Party manta. I got mine (with gov. help unmentioned) - too bad for you.
Paul Ryan also
Very Clarence Thomas isn't he?
I wasn’t impressed with the book. Vance seems to see the worst examples and uses them as examples of what he thinks as the whole. And you are correct, Vance and Lauren Boebert want to deny opportunities to others that they got.
Patricia, my book club read Vance’s book, and we did not see the person that he is today, in that book. I thought JD was going to try to help coal miners in getting training, new skills for better jobs!!!
He said Trump was like his father, a fighter, boasting about the arm pump and the shouting “Fight, fight …”. I do not recall any favorable comments about his father or mother. Is my memory incorrect?
It's been a while since I read it, but I recall his father's role in his life was small. His memories of his mother were mixed, some good, some neglectful. His grandparents were the family members who were there for him. And now he's the Cult Leader's pick for VP. Two showmen.
Except that he grew up in suburban Ohio. It’s his maternal grandparents who were from the Appalachias. He created huge resentment in the Appalachias with his blame-the-victim attitude, depiction of their laziness and rejection of personal responsibility (which is just about the opposite of what many Appalachian people exemplify).
Thanks for the additional clarification. Of course many Appalachian people are known for their resourcefulness.
Thanks! I feel quite strongly about that, having dear friends in the Appalachias - born and bred in the mountains. It’s a resourceful culture. Are there deadbeats among them? Of course. But where are there not?
A terrible shame..Sherron Brown is such a good man of honor and integrity.
He is, and I’d love to keep him in the Senate. The one ray of sunshine in the Republican primary was that then Ohio Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, came in third in the primary. LaRose wanted to run as a federal senatorial candidate, and already lost his attempts to rig initiatives, ban abortion, and keep recreational marijuana illegal. We have had a gerrymandered government for years and need a broom to sweep these folk out of officr, as we deserve better.
David Pepper has nothing good to say about LaRose.
I have nothing good to say about any Republican.
Any who still claim the mantle are MAGAts, far as I can tell
Go to Mr. Pepper's Substack, Pepperspectives, for his take on P2025. He's writing a book, and has released 5 chapters that put the awful plans in a human perspective that is both eye-opening and chilling. Highly recommend it, and sharing it widely.
I’ve been reading his weekly installments and also highly recommend them.
Yes, I have been reading that.
An soon to get a few bucks from me.
Senator Brown will prevail in November.
Apparently Vance is VP running mate pick….Secret Service all over him….
Not surprised. Vance will enable Trump like Pence would not.
In spades
That bit of rhetoric hit my FB feed yesterday, while it's on the breath of a good many - i did NOT click Like on it; a friend of mine regretted the bullet didn't kill Trump. I'm not sure this is "calming", regardless of what's coming from prominent MAGA and likely an entire chorus from the maga echo chamber. Regardless of my tendencies, i suspect things will indeed "heat up" even more over this event.
I am very grateful trump wasn’t martyred on Saturday. We’d never hear the end of it.
We can be happy in the knowledge that his poor ear didn't stop him playing golf today.
First chuckle in weeks.
Trump filled out his score card last week, sitting on his “golden throne” after his last golf outing. He HAD TO play a round to keep up the charade he’s a winner.
Hold on a minute. I have yet to see any real conclusive evidence that his "ear" was struck by a bullet. The red stuff..? Let's check that out, shall we. We're dealing with some pretty clever (but stupid) people here. We still don't know how JFK got shot, do we? This 'event' has all the corny characteristics of some inane production supervised and circumcized by Mike Flynn and Blackwater well familiar with co-lateral damage). Yup.., and with the 'incredible' assistance of Dr.Jackson..right on the scene! I'm calling BS.
And WHO in this county is released from a hospital that quickly ??
BS is the right call....
But it's not the first time. Remember the Covid episode? What was it, two days in hospital, with a little drive-around in the middle to wave to his fans? Then back to the WH, sprinting up the stairs to the floodlit balcony to take a prolonged salute? There was nobody there to see it except the photographer.
That’s true. Tracy — but his mouth will spew about it for the next four months, which is going to be hard to take.
We need to be prepared to refute what is coming down the pike about this attempt — Ms. Cox Richardson’s list of Republican incitements is an excellent start.
Clearly, if Joe Biden wanted to “order” someone to assassinate his opponent, he could have found a sharpshooter capable of succeeding, but he did not have anything whatsoever to do with this. It is not how the Left conducts public and political life — This was a lone, misguided person who had access to a powerful weapon, the kind the Ultra Right thinks we all should stockpile in our homes.
It is Orwellian in the extreme to recall the rhetoric of the Right over the past few years, and think that one comment by Joe Biden, on a private phone call with a few supporters, could have played ANY role in this incident. How many of us even knew of that phone call? But we have seen the image Don, Jr., posted of our president hogtied in the back of a pick-up truck.
Don’t let them gaslight us about WHOSE rhetoric is amping up the violence…
And in November, VOTE BLUE.
What I find “ironic” or hypocritical is that with the Supreme Court’s recent ruling, IF Biden ordered an assasination of trump, it could be considered “an official act” which shows how horrendous that ruling was. However, we know that trump and his team will “punish” his political opponents once in office….and that guy running for governor in NC and speaking at the RNC convention has already said “some people need killing”!!!
Absolutely, Deborah … All Vance can point to is one vague half a comment Biden made in a private phone call … And Mr. Retribution has been talking about Second Amendment Solutions and being his people’s Retribution, and on and on and on … Not to mention that horrible image Don, Jr, tweeted showing Joe Biden tied up in the back of a pick-up truck!
They are AMAZINGLY Orwellian. It’s like they all took classes in how to be the most crass hypocrites on the face of their God’s green Earth.
I agree. While I want him out of the running for president, I don’t want him to have martyr status.
A usually reasonable republican friend has flooded her Facebook feed with memes of the cult leader in Jesus' arms, sheltered by him, hugged by him. Ugh. Hook, line, and sinker.
I've seen those. Digusting.
I'm terribly glad I can't see them.
it might have led ultimately to the breakup of MAGA/GOP as we know it, but I can't really say. They'd need a cult like figure to take his place.
It's actually more helpful to him that he wasn't. All according to plan.
He’s been going on about how the FBI came to his resort armed when they were searching for Top Secret documents he stole. He tried to float the idea that they were sent to shoot him … Now, this.
I’m actually a writer, sometimes of fiction … I could seriously spin this into a yarn of conspiracy and great intrigue, if I were wont to do so … I’m trying not to go there.
I'm already there. I'm not a writer, but what happens when a desperate felon meets a foreign ruthless dictator also desperate to destroy his enemy? And it's not like they just met, nor as if the felon hadn't carried out an elaborate scheme before,
If people just saw him as an actor playing a part, it would be so much more clarifying.
For sure, Jen.
Watching his behavior as they moved him off the dais, he clearly perceived this attempt to assassinate him as a PHOTO OP.
The man is incredibly sick. What if there had been a second shooter? What a foolish risk he took! He has no grasp of actual reality.
Lots of WTFs
Point well made and empirically evidenced.
Thanks Frank
Add Hosea 8:7
You reap what you sow.
On Saturday, in Pennsylvania, Trump’s own rhetoric came back to bite him on the ear. What he has called down upon his critics and his supposed “enemies” came down upon him. By an inch or two he is still alive.
It wasn’t Biden, it wasn’t Antifa, it was yet another lone, young white male loner/gun fetishist, and reportedly a registered Republican, seeking a moment of glory followed by suicide by police.
MAGA refuses to see any of this.
Obviously we await the results of law enforcement investigation of the shooter’s motive, but interviews with his high school classmates were illuminating. The classmates said Matthew Crooks was bullied and rejected from the gun club for being a bad shot. It’s interesting that Crooks did not align with Trump’s grievance politics, suggesting that Crooks’ act was personal, not political, and his target was selected for the opportunity of an attention-getting figure appearing in geographic proximity for him to gain that f-you notoriety, even knowing it would likely end his life.
Like we need more evidence for mental health support of youths and gun safety legislation.
As a volunteer with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America,
"all" of this could have been prevented if reasonable measures had been in place to protect ALL concerned - the victim who was senselessly killed, the others injured, the target, and yes, the perpetrator himself (and the family I am sure is grieving as well).
"Our" side is trying to prevent tragedies and stop the ongoing uniquely American public health epidemic of gun violence.
"Their" side has been posing with guns on holiday messages and in campaign ads. They block legislation. They accept bribes from gun manufacturers and lobbyists. They pervert the original intention of the Second Amendment.
The two sides are not the same.
Agree one thousand percent!
Thanks for your volunteer work. I have met, several times, with concerned Moms, several of whom created a local MDAfGSA. I gave them a blueprint for legislation: Codify the NRA Range Safety Rules, and pair the legislation with that regarding automobiles, from license, registration, and insurance. When crimes occur, pair them with how vehicle code does it with car crashes: Cause physical injury to another? Was it knowing, intentional, reckless or careless? Those 4 culpable mental states decrease the severity of the crime. Cause damage to the property of another? I usually use two stories: a local story of a guy who put his gun on the back of the toilet, knocked it off when he flushed, and the firearm discharged, damaging a trash can, and some chowderhead who shot out a bunch of street lights with a .22 rifle. First one is unintentional and careless, if not reckless, and cost about $40 bucks to make the establishment whole. The second is intentional and cost the city at least $1,000.
Thanks again for your work.
NOT the same, I quote.
“rejected from the gun club for being a bad shot”
I thought the point of target practice & gun clubs was to learn how to shoot well along with gun safety.
What an upside down world this is.
The classmate suggested that Crooks’ conduct was dangerous, and it was the upside down social world of teenagers.
I saw that too. He missed trump and hit three of his followers. One paid dearly.
If only …
among the "upside down" ... this is the dangerous side of American gun culture, and hardly something new, though definitely a chronic part now of American Exceptionalism.
And more emotional support and therapy aimed at helping men, especially young men who feel isolated, alienated, and without a sense of purpose. It seems that almost all mass shooters and assassins are men under the age of 50.
Thank you Ellie for your important comments. As HCR reported the Biden White House is conducting its own investigation. Certain capable fact & law reporters such as Kyle Cheney & Josh Gersten have already written 1 Politico 7/14 report under the title "Massive Security Breach".
"Massive Security Breach" may turn out to be a massive understatement as ABC News reported nationally yesterday afternoon that a "local" policeman engaged the shooter just before firing. There are other witnesses near the elevated firing position identified by multiple sources but, who were outside the security perimeter. I have handed off investigatory leads to Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein.
Thank you once again.
To me, the fact that the local officer engaged and retreated emphasizes that the police are out-gunned by these perpetrators and are not willing to confront criminals bearing assault weapons (see Uvalde for the most terrible example). Ban them. Now.
If the Secret Service cannot keep a former president safe, how in the world are schoolteachers supposed to keep our children safe, even if we arm them? (Which is an incredibly stupid idea.)
To be fair to the officer, it sounds like he was climbing a ladder and attempting to get on the roof when he found himself nose to muzzle, as it were, and needing his hands to hang on. The press reports that he 'confronted the gunman' make it sound like he had both feet under him and his gun drawn, and retreated. The one interview I heard from someone within his department was that he was just topping the roof line. If also sounds like he fell off the ladder. He didn't get a chance to confront. He was on his way.
That makes sense.
Ellie, you've reminded me of one of my favorite quotes:
"There is no particular thing that you can do alone. The “I” in it is very small, after all. We are all here to have a kind of living of our own and to be recognized for what we are."
—Marian Anderson (1897–1993).
To that I'll add that being recognized for what we are is a "must have" need, and not a "nice to have" want. If we are all recognized for what we are without anyone being harmed, then we are working together to keep our social system healthy. A person who is not being recognized for what they are, or who is harming others or themselves for recognition, is a symptom of an unhealthy social system.
Mental health support is essential, but we need to go upstream to understand the reason why it is so essential at this time in history.
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." —Fredrick Douglass.
Great reminder—Frederick Douglass hit the nail on the head. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has belonging and acceptance as one of the basic needs for healthy development. That takes us upstream to the shooter’s upbringing, school experience, emotional injuries, and resilience or lack thereof, as well as all that failed to grow sufficient empathy in his bullies. “Mental health” includes growing emotional intelligence in children.
How did he lose his SHOES by crouching down?
I was wondering that also.
I think if, God forbid, it would have been Biden, he would have been more concerned about the people around him being hurt, then raising his fist and shouting "fight, fight".
When I first saw that video... And interestingly, they have played the audio from Trump's mic while he was on the ground but not after they stoof him up, but my first lip read of that video, I didn't see "fight". I saw something I'm more accustomed to seeing as a hockey fan and former referee.
Meanwhile, I'm just still stuck on how convenient this was for the campaign. I'm such a cynic, my initial reaction was that it was manufactured. Early evidence seems to say otherwise, but I'll be watching closely for the inconsistencies.
Steph I didn't think the word he was using was "fight" either when I first saw it!
I thought he said fuck u…
Or…in my limited knowledge, a bullet, regardless how small the caliber, doesn’t cause a minor scratch even when “grazing” a soft body part like an ear. Stitches are usually the least medical attention needed. It was an AR-15 after all, not a .22 rifle. So why isn’t there a T shirt with his ear ouchie? I don’t want to hear he “Took a bullet”. I’ve heard no such thing from anyone in the medical community, only Trump or his well known sycophants and the stupid press cause they’ll print anything, the dumber the better.
For the loss of 2 lives I offer my sincere condolences to the families. To the victims I offer my wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
These things don’t come in neat little details that read like a script (well, maybe in Russia they do), be here, we aren’t wired to just accept some guy just fell out of a 15 story window, was accidentally poisoned, died in prison in Siberia or my personal favorite, falling down stairs (how thoughtful, Ivana). What? Eastern European physical traits are such that many folks cannot put one foot in front of the other? Don’t you dare even think about asking questions.
Orban came for tea and a friendly catch-up session last week and stayed at Trump’s swamp. This week, gun violence at a Trump bitch session? We will have questions.
In closing, with respect to Refumblecans claims that “Biden ordered this”, I thought all that was on the up and up now according to SCOTUS. Is it not?
Biden, of course did no such thing, but if he had, what consequences would he face?
I thought assassination attempts were legal if ordered by POTUS now according to 6 corrupt members of the highest court in the land new ruling. Throw in the bump stock legalization and now we have even more questions. We aren’t now nor will we ever be under authoritarian rule so exercise our collective 1st A rights and ask as many questions as we feel.
Now who’s responsible for voting against every gun safety law or refusing to enforce the pitiful ones already on the books? Who? Which members of congress? Which party? Why?
After Saturday’s tragedy I fully support “The Donald Trump Assault Weapons Ban Legislation”.
The ear is odd. The shape is due to cartilage, and the cartilage often never heals to its normal shape when damaged. Google “cauliflower ear.” Will be interesting to see what sort of dressing they put on trump’s ear, and how self-conscious he’ll be about it at the convention. Especially considering his vanity. If the ear ends up with a permanent deformity trump will probably never get over, and constantly bring it up, like he does sharks and Hannibal Lector.
I'm glad you mentioned that he crouched down - he wasn't pushed down by the security detail at all. It was a very quick instinctive response. Ping/slap-BLOOD?-down.
And as for his Iwo Jima moment, with the flag artfully positioned overhead...
And the flag’s angle in the photo makes it appear upside down!
Iwo Jima moment—lol
i lost both shoes in a minor traffic accident when another vehicle crossed the median at hit ours, no one was doing more than 30 mph.
The killer so far has been indicated to having no "mental illness", but his mind plainly turned to political murder and self-sacrifice, fanatic thinking, gun culture enabled, call it what you want.... I guess we wait for more to unfold on him. That may not happen, if he kept it mostly to himself. No ever did figure out why the 62 year old banker? mass murdered double digit at that Los Vegas music concert a few years ago.
That is the obvious version, but while MAGAts accuse, I wonder…
You told the truth, but truth doesn’t sell MAGA propaganda!
Hope everyone is able to read Timothy Snyder’s substack article today. Thankfully the shooter wasn’t a registered Democrat, immigrant or person of color.
Pulled quote: "We might be tempted to think that violence against one side must come from the other side. But the bloody genie, once unleashed, often stays close to home. Those who have made violence normal are especially vulnerable, because they will always have colleagues or followers who think they have not gone far enough."
Link: https://snyder.substack.com/p/political-violence/comments
A baby-faced boy.
Re
Excellent and thoughtful letter from Dr. Richardson. Biden’s words, despite his elocution, were pitch perfect.
My 5th grade nun, Sister Ursula, was fond of saying “tell the truth and shame the devil”. Joe needs to do that and send a message to the whole country.
None of the Republicans repeated their usual mantra that now was not the time to act, and that it was time for thoughts and prayers. Instead, they blamed Biden and literally said God acted to save Trump’s life, meaning he was preordained by God to return to power.
I would add to Heather’s list:
State clearly that violent rhetoric leads to violent acts.
You can’t tell a crowd of supporters to beat up a heckler and that you will pay the legal bills.
You can’t tell police to bang the skull of someone they arrest on the door jam of the cruiser.
You can’t condone police using excessive force.
You can’t call for the execution of 5 innocent young black men to get yourself covered in the NY tabloids.
You can’t condone white supremacist violence that led to the death of an innocent woman by saying there are very fine people on both sides.
You can’t rile up the Proud Boys in a nationally televised debate and tell them to stand by.
You can’t incite a mob to attack the US Capitol and call the perpetrators hostages.
You can’t call Putin bombing Ukraine genius.
You can’t grab women by their genitals, rape them, and then pretend to be the victim.
You can’t tell riled up mobs to fight like hell, or fight, fight, fight.
You can’t tell your cabinet members and generals that they should shoot peaceful protestors and undocumented immigrants in the legs.
You can’t tell NATO allies that you will do nothing if Putin bombs the shit out of them.
You can’t tell women and the medical staff that treat them that if exercise reproductive freedom you will put them in jail.
You can’t stack the Supreme Court with Federalist Society judges and then have them take you off the hook for crimes you committed as president and for the future criminal action you plan to take.
You can’t go on the Alex Jones show and legitimize making a fortune denying the deaths of the children at Sandy Hook.
You can’t protect gun companies instead of school children, saying “get over it”.
We need to lead the American people. Lift them up. Bring them together. And end the hypocrisy.
Tape it. Get it right. And dare the mainstream media not to cover it.
They did all these things and the media moved on to another disaster, as was the plan. As to the Repub response, it’s like a script was all Planned out in advance. Makes me wonder…
Bravo, very well said…I, for one, have turned off the news, finally! Sick of hearing the regurgitation of facts…what else is happening in the world we’re missing?
Can I copy & paste? Your list is more complete than mine
Feel free
This was so good. I had to share it on my FB page.
And yet we continue to sit behind our screens and do nothing. We are not united behind Biden. We are not united as a country. We continue to allow trump and his cult to control the narrative, while we consider throwing our president under the bus 4 months out from the election. They rally behind trump and grow bolder and stronger in their hateful rhetoric. And we just sit behind our screens and complain online while they continue to control the narrative. We chase and complain. When do we get furious that our democracy is under attack and get out and protest?! Maga deserves this damn country because we are too weak to actually fight for it. We cannot wait until November. Voting is NOT enough this time around. I'm fkn exhausted.
They just had an election in the UK.
It was held 5 weeks after being announced and the new Prime Minister moved into 10 Downing Street the following day - straight to work.
..... only 4 months out from the election?
This is just a money spinning circus.
We are not the UK. We have a much larger population, the electoral college and guns. A lot of guns.
Irrelevant. The constitution that set the timetable was written when the population was much smaller.
Your politicians are always campaigning. That’s a huge problem for governance.
This is true, and it has a lot to do with court decisions essentially legalizing campaign finance bribery and the need to buy expensive ads, so incumbent and new candidates have to spend an inordinate amount of time fundraising. Incumbents have less time to spend at actually governing.
Counting the votes is not an impediment to switching presidential nominees. Neither is a larger population.
And now MAGA knows they aren't the only people with guns.
Get real. We need to drop Biden. Now
Since when do a gang of journalists get to decide and brainwash scaredy cats that Biden must go? He’s done a great job and still has all his marbles. Help convince independents to vote for Biden rather than pushing them away. Maybe you are MAGA yourself.
Don't hold your breath, David, because it's about to get very real. Joe Biden is not stepping down. So he has the delegates. They aren't gonna kick him out. Kamala would have to be the nominee. Full stop. Pass on her and you lose a large portion of the dem base. Vote against their best interests? Yes, because fk racist America. That's what MAGA supporters are doing. There is equality in stupidity. Enough to go around. It would be a complete shit show. And we haven't even gotten to the millions of Americans that are completely checked out until a week before election day. Hence, the panic, confusion and despair.
Really, careful about that “ASSumption”
some truth to your claim to over-extended American political theatre, Christopher. It's been around for a very long time.
No, we don’t all just sit behind our screens. Some maybe. I’m doing several things to try to educate, GOTV, work elections, (exhausting early voting going on now), write postcards, etc. NO more time in the day.
Thank you.
For me too. We are hamstrump, or hogtied, or mesmerized. Come on people. Woke is not a bad thing.
Maybe we hesitate in part because when peaceful, democracy-loving people take to the streets, they are endangered by gun-toting extremists and targeted as “Antifa” or “BLM.”
Maureen, fascists will never make it easier for us to protest this hostile takeover of our federal government. Of our beautiful country. We have to be brave enough to risk it all while there is something worth saving. What's the point in fighting once trump gets into office? We need to inspire and motivate the majority of Americans that we have a fighting chance to save our democracy. We can weaken magas resolve by showing them what they will face come November! We can't guarantee it will be completely safe but we can try. We've lost the MSM, it's on us now to raise awareness of project 2025 and the SCOTUS decisions, but we aren't gonna do it effectively online.
This conversation led me to research the Aikido principle of using an attacker's energy against them. Dems might be labeled as weak when they're baited and respond by staying on course: uniting around non-violent principles, staying grounded and focused, and attaining some detachment from media's drama/hype while sustaining some spiritual stamina and goodness in daily ways and yes, YES, call out lies, disinfo, and admit shortcomings that led us to this moment. Good to remember that the USA's successful economy has often been boosted by violence so, there's plenty of hypocrisy we're living in these days. We're being driven to become spiritual warriors, just to live with the fear and uncertainties about outcomes we can't control or predict.
Maureen, I'll take both of those monikers with pride. I am at my core both Antifascist and believe that Black Lives (and Joy) Matter.
We need to take action and not give into that trump is winning this. We have had elections since 2022 and Dems have over performed, and have rejected trump and MAGAs dystopian views. The reason we won was due to grassroots efforts. We volunteered—phonebanked, canvassed, wrote postcards and letters, donated. This was not a small feat. We have to do it again and we are doing it. Many grassroots organizations are registering voters and talking to them about the dangers of trump and MAGA, while talking about the successes of the Dems and what they’ll continue to do for Americans. I suggest volunteering, it does help with all the anxiety we are feeling.
I just got my BIDEN HARRIS t-shirts. I"ll be wearing one to the supermarket this afternoon. shop.joebiden.com, a union shop, isn't Amazon--it took about ten days from my time of ordering for them to arrive, but I'm looking forward to seeing what, if any, reaction, I get.
Yay, Betsy ! I’ve been wearing mine since Feb in a red,Fl county with only ++comments. I just added “Ask Me About PROJECT 2025” button to my ensemble.
🛒👕
Basically, none of us wants to get shot, if possible.
Take it easy, Jozilyn.
Reportedly just before the rally on Saturday, the Trump campaign sent out an email which promised that “all hell will break loose!“ at the event. I find this interesting given that as an incentive to get his supporters to attend his rally on January 6, he tweeted a couple of weeks before the event “be there! It’s gonna be wild!“
You wonder too..,we all should
Can you cite a source on this? I can’t seem to find anything.
Great question — and here is where I saw it. Obviously it should be verified. https://x.com/MeidasTouch/status/1812316210727702925
I had heard that too. But who knows? He’s always full of hyperbole.
Dr. Heather sure knows how to end a LFAA with a bang:
"Observers noted that it sounded like MAGA plans to have yet another investigation designed to spread a narrative, in this case, that the “Deep State” was involved in the shooting."
My eyes are rolling so far back that I may pass out...
and with that, time to go to sleep. Always look forward to these late night letters, and appreciate the amount of time you must devote to write these.
The only deep state is the one they want to create under Project 2025.
Of course, does anybody else wonder why the repubs have an agenda to blame Dems before the blood is dry.
It’s the Roy Cohn playbook…
Roy was evil personified, and he taught chump all his dirty tricks
Twitter said tfg staged it. Apparently he tweeted something just before the rally. If I didn’t have to check Twitter for other reasons, I’d never open it. Ugh.
I, too, thought he could have staged this. It's disgusting that a supporter was killed but there's no doubt in my mind that trump would consider that a small price to pay on his road to victory.
Sadly, I had the same thought.
The fact that the repubs hit the ground running with attack ads (before the blood was dry) makes me wonder. The immediate response by chump to pose for the photo op of a lifetime nanoseconds after an attempt on his life makes me wonder. The timing of the incident days before the convention makes me wonder. The donation to a liberal cause by a registered Republican makes me wonder. I hope I am allowed to wonder because every time I have thought that something was too crazy to contemplate, turns out that people should have been contemplating it.
The republicans have long ago dismissed the idea of the America that Joe described. “…an American democracy where decency, dignity, fair play aren’t just quaint notions, but living breathing realities.” They have long denied such a reality. Think back to their verbiage and their actions, For them it is whatever they can create to advance their power agenda. Makes me wonder….those that still have the power should contemplate all options, even those that seem too crazy to contemplate. Don’t let it be one of those events in our history that 60 years later, people will still wonder…
Just an aside, I saw that the David Crooks who donated via Act Blue was a different individual, a 69 year old man.
Hadn’t heard that, thanks.
He donated at age 17 before he was even allowed to vote.
Looks like it was a different older gentleman altogether and not the shooter
Incorrdct
TUCK and CHUCK is SOP for USSS! Shooter was down as they left stage w the psychopath but doesn't matter as it was unclear at the time if shooter acted alone. USSS allowing the psychopath's head and shoulders to be exposed twice is dereliction of duty. USSS looked scattered and uncoordinated. That shooter was spotted and LE alerted. This is a massive cluster fk. And I would not put it past the psychopath to have paid the isolated bullied white young conservative to do what he did.
Don’t forget that the USSS had some dirty players during Jan 6. Erased all texts for that day with no consequences. Are those players still on the job. If they have been working for chump all this time, no telling what their work ethic is. Biden had a different team picked out for his security.
Um, "verbiage". Do you mean "rhetoric"? That's sarcasm, btw, rhetoric is No 1 on the current list of words over-used until they lose their meaning.
Don’t think repubs have done rhetoric for eons, despite Luntz’ best efforts to make them sound scholarly. I just remember the Clean Air Act written to roll back regs, and W’s “compassionate conservatism,” which was anything but.
I had thought it very strange that the bullet would come so close to Trump that it would graze his ear but not cause any additional injury. Is it possible that he cut himself on purpose when he leaned down to get his shoes, hidden from view by the Secret Service agents surrounding him?
I wondered this too. I *might* be doing them an injustice, but I’m not the first person I know who wonders if this was a put up job of sorts.
I absolutely agree. As soon as I saw the stills and footage, I thought something's not right. The fact that people in the crowd behind him weren't fleeing in fear and that Trump did not seem scared, I felt for sure it was staged. I thought it was only me until I saw on social media, thousands of others thinking the same thing. With Trump's reckless audacity to plan and stage the Jan 6th insurrection, his outright lying about the election results to grab power, means he's capable of anything. If I'm right, it's a work of genius actually because no-one of honorable character and good manners would dare to call out an assassination attempt as fake.
The best thing people can do is roll up their sleeves and register voters. There's an election to win. And just remember, the good guys always win.
I too wondered why the people behind him did not scatter.
Where was the person killed? Was that directly behind Trump, to the left of the rostrum? There seemed to be agitated people all bending over someone. Nobody else took any notice, but there were some bloodcurdling screams.
Expect conspiracy theories to abound.
Sad that large numbers of people agree, it's something he might do
(especially since President Biden's rallies were exposing his plans and crimes.)
WORSE - many so-called "Christians" will somehow take the fact he survived and the reference to someone's ear being hurt as Jesus was being arrested before his crucifixion to be a sign of divine favor. If there EVER was a false idol, it is Donald.
They're already doing that, Beverly. I've seen a score of meme's with fpotus in the arms of angels, or Jesus... 🤮
I thought he might have slapped his ear to activate one of those blood capsules that are used on stage when someone gets killed. To me the whole movement looked rehearsed. But why were his shoes off?
"I've been shot! Don't let people see my toes!"
????!!!
The shooter was a bad shot, but not a completely useless one. Or maybe he didn’t shoot to kill.
The probability of his being hit but barely injured had to be infinitesimal. Has the bullet that supposedly hit him been found?
Do we know that it was actually a bullet that caused Trump's bleeding? I read that a rally witness told reporters that he saw a bullet hit the glass on the teleprompter, & that he thought it was a shard of glass from the teleprompter that actually hit Trump's ear.
That seems more logical.
And if not, why not?
And what happened to that bullet? If it really was a bullet and it grazed his ear, it would have continued to travel. Were any of those attendees behind tfg injured? I didn't see any of them with blood or any sign of injury.
I was encouraged that Biden’s speech included a calling out of other acts of violence; Jan 6, Paul Pelosi, Gretchen Wittmer kidnapping plot, poll worker intimidation, and others, that, surprise, were all perpetrated by the MAGA mafia. Rump is praising and popularizing the Jan 6 goons as heroes and victims. Democrats need to flood the zone with video from Jan 6, the ultimate in political violence that is now so popular a topic. And I have to say, it is possible that this was a put up. The appearance of blood stained face and ear, choreographed for the perfect photo op for posters and MAGA merch. Seems callous to consider, but not out of character for someone with no character. It’s all about ratings.
“Not out of character for someone with no character” indeed. Most of us here are decent, truth seeking people who are cautious about jumping to conclusions when there are few facts available. We don’t want to join the conspiracy theorists. But something is rotten in Denmark. It is only natural to wonder if a chronic liar and fabulist is spinning a new production for the gullible public, relying on the media to amplify it. Who thinks about their shoes when they’ve just been shot? Who directs the Secret Service to stand down while they stand up, face bloodied, and fist pump while yelling “fight! Fight! Fight” under an American flag? All those years on The Apprentice taught Donald the value of a convincing reality show moment. I await facts, but I have many questions.
Maybe that’s why medical providers haven’t spoken—injury inconsistent with a bullet?
He was so injured that he spent the rest of the day golfing!! You just can’t make this sh$$ up!!!
I've wondered the same thing, but I can also imagine Trump threatening ER personnel with a lawsuit based on HIPPA. It's customary for docs to make a statement after this type of medical emergency, but not required, and we have seen the same thing with Trump's tax returns and all medical information except the reports issued by Ronny Jackson - as laughable as Donald's golf score cards!.
Good point.
Still I wonder, too many WTFs
Well and succinctly put, JD.
I wonder, and I hope others do too
I wondered, using veiled words, as soon as the story broke. Doesn't Melania's sweet message make your heart melt? She's actually got the syntax wrong - the first part is an indictment of the man himself.
Made me heave, written by someone who knew him not at all. And assumed that America is what the pamphlets say
What came into my mind when I first heard that the shooter was a 20 year old "kid" with an AR style rifle was the Republican embrace, including by DJT, of Kyle Rittenhouse. Republicans have glorified this young man who illegally obtained an AR rifle (he was underage at the time), travelled to a city in a different state, and chose to shoot three people as a vigilante, taking the law into his own hands. Republicans are continuing to glorify Rittenhouse... he is a frequent guest star at Republican rallies. The party that glorifies vigilantes, glorifies guns, and uses gun imagery in political speech and imagery needs self reflection on its own actions. Additionally, the right wing of SCOTUS needs to reflect on the problems it has created by effectively stating that, if elected, DJT has free reign to commit crimes with impunity. By defining a situation where Trump is above the law, they have created a situation that feeds the compulsion of someone who has vigilante tendencies.
This 20 year old kid was a product of his environment… and as a therapist I can tell you there are a lot more kids out there like him who are being made to feel that they are outcasts because they don’t fit the media stereotype of the golden boy/girl.
Don’t forget that this was Trump himself… an outcast now hell bent on retribution and revenge. He seemed genuinely surprised that people from both sides of the aisle called with well wishes for him. How sad you can get to 78 and running for president and really believe that it’s all a fake game about power and money where nobody really gives a damn about each other.
DMS, a whole lot of us ended up in the band/choir/orchestra rooms at our schools. Now that we don't fund music, and that we bombard the airwaves (whether TV/Radio <or the current iterations thereof>, Social Media, and pop culture) with the message of violence and that guns=power), there's no place for kids to go.
Points well taken, but Republicans gave up on thoughtful reflection long ago.
Excellent point. Kyle’s parents were culpable in my estimation. Maybe a further look…
100%.
You have crystallized their technique and habit to use projection, blaming the other side, rather than confront their own actions that glorifies violence and how they have incited more violence.
Yes, Republicans project their own ill behavior onto Dems, as if Dems scheme as do Republicans.
So why do Republicans get away with their brazen lying, while Dems seem enfeebled?
Look at Japan, whose writer Kaori Shoji has a few clues as to how our apparently erstwhile too largely cripple themselves. She noted the phenomenon where, “In another two decades, 60% of the men in this country could spend their entire lives solo, dying without ever having had a relationship.”
One key reason for human enfeeblement – the Japanese took everything possibly personal out of the school curriculum. Their humanities got crippled. As another writer, Minae Mizumura noted, with the exception of silo lit departments, no school asks anyone to read any novel from beginning to end.
Everything gets fragmented for the algorithms of standardized testing.
U.S. Republicans meanwhile soar on the mad human. Human bitterness. Hatred. Violence titillation. White people and billionaires all as scripted victims of taxes and the state. A Clarence court so hates secular, free, modern life that it quashes the Constitution and rules for monarchy return.
Republicans have their criminal cult hero. Their members of Congress visited his Manhattan trial all decked out as their felon-in-chief. Their Clarence court further ruled it doesn’t matter he committed crime, setting him (and themselves) beyond the law.
Dems? Neutered by schools, like Japan’s. All trapped in but wonk spiraling worse and worse.
It's not just the schools. It seems like our hyper-commercial culture is taking a lot of the humanity out of being human; our sense of community.
Yes, of course, J L -- correct you are.
Except, too, the two dovetail. In order to get the ur-commercially-tilted U.S. he desired, Louis Powell wrote and distributed that 1971 memo of his. And its first goal -- to reach "hyper-commercial culture" -- was to rid the schools of humanities.
Thus the work of the new Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institution, and ALEC all through the 1970s. Deliberate, organized, well-funded successes, which then allowed the dark money forces much more easily the fuller, real power they coveted.
Unfortunately, this is true.
A good friend of mine who plays french horn in my quintet, and is also a middle school band director, had his job eliminated by the school district. I don't think they cut hockey or football, however to save money. He recently applied for another job and came in second out of 53 applicants! I need to get in touch with Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, to direct more funding towards the arts. Minnesota is flush with cash, and these cuts make no sense.
I think the damage is done, Matt.
Those who implemented the Powell memo made sure that all public officials feel the arts as only ornamental, nothing even remotely, residually valuably human.
The rest of U.S. madness -- gun murders of school children, deaths of thousands of others daily by opioids, public health crisis obesity, youth deaths due to bullying, the entire Republican party as agents of Putin, dark money corrupting now even the U.S.'s highest court -- all this as normalized?
Many athletes who go onto other careers say it is both the competition and team work that counts. In a band or orchestra or choir, it is the team work. In my opinion competition in the arts is nonsense. Rather you play or sing or paint or draw, trying to engage your audience. Music competitions are stupid in my opinion.
I'm agreeing. I was impressed when Dave Hemery (Olympic hurdler won gold, silver and bronze medals) told me that it's the relays he likes the best -- passing the baton in support of the group win. He's designed educational programs around being the best you can be -- and that's aimed for serving the group.
Indeed, when I watch track and field in the summer Olympics, I love the relays best!
I couldn't agree more. I avert my eyes when I see the word "award" or "prize".
“There is no more state funding for the arts in Florida after Governor Ron DeSantis cut 32 million from the state budget. Now arts organizations are scrambling to make ends meet.”
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/01/nx-s1-5021829/hundreds-of-florida-arts-groups-scramble-for-funding-after-desantis-vetoes-grants
Not liking this comment at all, Matt. Cutting the arts/humanities is cutting our kids' throats. I don't know about you, but the band room in school was my safe zone.
My best friends in high school were all in band and jazz band.
The public school near where my father lived fired the principal after parents launched a protest of the principal's firing of a football coach. I doubt any similar protest would have appeared had a skilled teacher in any subject had been let go. Priorities.
Fascinating, thanks for pointing this Japanese trend in education out. Had not been aware of how the Japanese school system had evolved.
I wonder if we shifted to something more like Germany has, focusing on not sending everyone to college, perhaps re-energizing Community Colleges to help young people make smooth transitions into well-paying trades that need their labor (electricians, plumbers, construction workers)--use the German apprentice system. Seems to me a far better alternative...
Yes, and some basic humanities courses should always be a foundational part of our kids' education up through high school. Germany has had a long tradition of gymnasium (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_(Germany)) high schools that feed kids into the higher education focused upon the humanities, but also have very robust trade school tracks kids can funnel into, which unlike us, are not regarded as a lower or lesser education. We need to elevate blue collar work back up as something to be very proud of, zero shame associated with it.
After 47 years of teaching in NJ, and 44 of them at a really fine Community College, I tried teaching many students who were not capable of college level work. Those who were became contributing members of society. Those who were not needed to be more focused on practical trades, things they could do really well. Some of those unsuccessful ones suddenly blossomed and discovered their beings through English and Poetry and Creative Writing. "We are all universes," Louis Ginsberg, Allen's father, told me in 1974.
Love your allusions, "Systematic Curiosity."
Were American teachers permitted -- encouraged -- to exercise their own human, personal curiosity (viz. Finland), we'd get more like you looking into most-pertinent, most-aptly-human comparisons.
Can you explain the relation between not reading novels and not having relationships ? Most of humanity spent most of its history without reading at all, let alone reading novels. We always had stories, but presumably people (in Japan and elsewhere) still watch narrative series on their screens, at the very least. Atomisation and solitude must have other reasons.
Excellent Q., Sophie.
Also excellent other points.
Novels guarantee nothing. No strict cause-&-effect here. But they open possibilities. It all depends on the teacher(s), and schools' investment in teachers above all other players (viz., Finland).
No full novels means a dead landscape, total surrender to the linear, causal, abc chronology, and other rationalized logics built into all demeaning standardized testing. And it's all demeaning for the purposes of more profiting, more empowering the most vulgar money classes, who "live" to see "life" as units, numbers, repetition, abstractions, plus whatever subliminals in temptation-fishing let advertising net more spending.
Atomisation and solitude (all these lonely young men killers, mass murderers) of course "have other reasons." Like the dominance of metal-&-plastic modules called cars that, with strangling ribbons, shopping malls parking lagoons of asphalt and concrete near-totally killed American cities (but did totally segregate the doomed poor from the criminally-subsidized rich).
« No full novels means a dead landscape, total surrender to the linear, causal, abc chronology, and other rationalized logics built into all demeaning standardized testing. And it's all demeaning for the purposes of more profiting, more empowering the most vulgar money classes, who "live" to see "life" as units, numbers, repetition, abstractions, plus whatever subliminals in temptation-fishing let advertising net more spending. »
The way I see it, it is the working classes, and increasingly the middle classes, that have been reduced to number units. That’s why the money value of a financial trader, who does nothing else but buying and selling intangible possibilities of money, is higher - much higher - than the money value of a writer, a family doctor, a home carer or a warehouse worker, and the money value of a bean counter is higher than that of an engineer in the same company, even when that company’s business is whatever the engineer is creating (cars, bridges, circuits, molecular chains, etc.)
And since increasingly self-worth is tied to monetary worth - especially in a context where wealthy blowhards like Trump and Musk are turned into folk heroes - any man who can’t keep up is devalued in the eyes of society and his own. Women, who rarely tied their worth to money, earning power or ability to project monetary success, aren’t as affected by this trend (we are affected by other forms of devaluation.)
Perhaps novels, because they help us understand and empathise, might help men who feel undervalued understand their dilemma and fight back in positive ways, getting closer to women and to others who have been devalued. But instead, they become obsessed with gaming, winning and revenge.
"So why do Republicans get away with their brazen lying, while Dems seem enfeebled?" This is a great question Phil, but I fear it remains unanswered. I've been thinking about the reality tv star, and now with that reported comment that at his rally "all hell will break loose," I also fear we'll never know the truth about one Saturday in Butler, PA. Except that banana republicans will continue to "get away with their brazen lying."
I know it’s early Phil, but I’m missing a link or two. Will reread later.
Thankful the world did not witness another American politician's life ended with an assassin's bullet to the head.
Butler, PA did not become Dallas, TX or Memphis, TN or Los Angeles, CA or Tuscon, AZ.
But it would not have happened at all if reasonable measures wanted by the majority of Americans were in place.
A twenty-year-old with an assault rifle shooting at a peaceful public gathering does not fit the original intent of the Founding Fathers.
MAGA is going to dominate the news cycle for the next week.
Don't let it change the FACTS - Project 2025 will end the American "experiment" in representative government.
Putin met with Orban. Orban met with Trump, while President Biden hosted the nations of NATO. Trump (thankfully) survives an assassination attempt. Trump then spends the day...
golfing.
Expect the conspiracy theories to proliferate.
Don't be distracted.
November 5, 2024 is the day we MUST save democracy.
They will dominate the news cycle for eternity
We have allowed the garish and outrageous presence of Trump to monopolize our attention and our governance even though he is no longer an elected official of any kind, and in fact has been convicted of crimes that would bar him from holding office in many states.
Does anyone really think the full story of what happened and why can be known in 24 hours? This “call for committee hearings” at this point reeks to me of another attempt to distract us from the fact that the Republicans have no ability to govern and no interest in doing so.
It should be a deep dig by law enforcement, not law breakers in the house
I was quite surprised that no media questioned on why Thomas Matthew Crooks' father allowed their 20-year old son have access to a gun, and how did this young man get lessons of target practice for that rifle?
More and more it seems like the print and television media use poor taste in how they control the narrative in our media.
In the same news week - a Texas grocery store installed a vending machine to sell ammunition..."American Rounds has ammunition kiosks in Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma" - The company behind the latest trend, American Rounds, claims its machines offer the highest standards and state-of-the-art security.
For a 20-year-old to have such access and skill, look at the parents