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Post by drlj on Jul 14, 2024 7:06:33 GMT -5
The shooter was a 20 year old registered Republican who would have voted for the first time in the upcoming election.
Assassins are zealots so affiliation doesn’t really matter. Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Marty, we all need a loony conspiracy theory or two to use as a conversation starter, so nice job with that one. Did you confer with MTG?
Rumors of calls for makeup have not been verified.
How this will play out over the next few months is yet to be seen. I predict, though, the bloody ear will be in lots of fund raising ads.
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Post by howard lee on Jul 14, 2024 7:28:26 GMT -5
The blood on the ear is really chilling.
One inch or so to the right and US history would have been altered forever.
I am baffled by the lapse in security for a Presidential candidate at an open-air event like this one. |
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Post by drlj on Jul 14, 2024 7:45:44 GMT -5
Assassins find a way. No candidate or president will ever be 100% safe. I grew up living through assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK jr, attempts on Reagan & one instance where he was seriously wounded, a couple of attempts on Ford, and George Wallace, a southern segregationist who was paralyzed for life. All had security, except for MLK, and in all cases the shooter got through. It only takes one determined shooter who is patient and waits for his/her chance.
People would love to find explanations that clear everything up so we can understand it, but it usually is fairly simple. Somebody who felt they were on a mission found an opportunity. People who were not even born when JFK was killed have lots of conspiracy theories about that one to this day.
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Post by howard lee on Jul 14, 2024 7:49:27 GMT -5
Assassins find a way. No candidate or president will ever be 100% safe. I grew up living through assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK jr, attempts on Reagan & one instance where he was seriously wounded, and George Wallace, a southern segregationist who was paralyzed for life. All had security, except for MLK, and in all cases the shooter got through. It only takes one determined shooter who is patient and waits for his/her chance. People would love to find explanations that clear everything up so we can understand it, but it usually is how it happened. People who were not even born when JFK was killed have lots of conspiracy theories about that one to this day.
Let's not forget Lincoln and Garfield.
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Post by Marshall on Jul 14, 2024 7:51:40 GMT -5
I'm VERY surprised that Secret Service/police didn't have someone on the highest roof around to observe. A year after the Highland Park shooting, I attended a free concert in an Elk Grove shopping center parking lot. Hundreds of people there. I noticed police on a couple roof tops and a police drone overhead.
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Post by drlj on Jul 14, 2024 7:53:11 GMT -5
Assassins find a way. No candidate or president will ever be 100% safe. I grew up living through assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK jr, attempts on Reagan & one instance where he was seriously wounded, and George Wallace, a southern segregationist who was paralyzed for life. All had security, except for MLK, and in all cases the shooter got through. It only takes one determined shooter who is patient and waits for his/her chance. People would love to find explanations that clear everything up so we can understand it, but it usually is how it happened. People who were not even born when JFK was killed have lots of conspiracy theories about that one to this day. Let's not forget Lincoln and Garfield.
Before my time. I mentioned those I remember because I was around. |
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Post by kbcolorado on Jul 14, 2024 7:53:11 GMT -5
I am baffled by the lapse in security for a Presidential candidate at an open-air event like this one. One would think manning that rooftop would have been routine. Yikes.  |
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Post by millring on Jul 14, 2024 7:53:57 GMT -5
"When Crooks was 17 he made a $15 donation to ActBlue". Reuters
In Pennsylvania you have to be registered in the party to vote in the primary. To vote against Trump in the primary you would have to be a registered Republican. Party registration is inconclusive.
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Post by Marshall on Jul 14, 2024 7:55:05 GMT -5
It will be blamed on the Dems. I saw that on my facebook feed last night. |
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Post by drlj on Jul 14, 2024 7:57:25 GMT -5
"When Crooks was 17 he made a $15 donation to ActBlue". Reuters In Pennsylvania you have to be registered in the party to vote in the primary. To vote against Trump in the primary you would have to be a registered Republican. Party registration is inconclusive. I didn’t say it meant anything other than it’s a fact being reported. |
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Post by Cornflake on Jul 14, 2024 7:59:26 GMT -5
Most of the comments by public figures that I've read have been appropriately nonpartisan. Not all, but that's too much to ask for.
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Post by drlj on Jul 14, 2024 8:03:49 GMT -5
Most of the comments by public figures that I've read have been appropriately nonpartisan. Not all, but that's too much to ask for. Most politicians are smart enough to understand how easily it could happen to them. |
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Post by PaulKay on Jul 14, 2024 8:52:16 GMT -5
It was rather interesting that the first thing they did after he got shot in the ear was to “put him in the Van and Go”
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Post by howard lee on Jul 14, 2024 9:10:39 GMT -5
It was rather interesting that the first thing they did after he got shot in the ear was to “put him in the Van and Go”
I see what you did there.
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Post by TKennedy on Jul 14, 2024 9:20:42 GMT -5
Yep the schematic of to shooting puts the shooter in the best possible place for an attempt. Hard to believe it was not covered.
Latest news is that God has already cast the first vote of the election.
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Post by millring on Jul 14, 2024 9:27:35 GMT -5
Latest news is that God has already cast the first vote of the election. Or he merely graciously preserved the election we thought we were going to be having. |
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Post by howard lee on Jul 14, 2024 9:28:35 GMT -5
Why did they pause to let him get his shoes and stop at the edge of the podium to raise his fist and say, "Fight. Fight. Fight." instead of hustling him into the SUV post-haste? I think there may be some Secret Service reassignments coming down the pike.
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Post by drlj on Jul 14, 2024 10:12:35 GMT -5
Why didn’t he have his shoes on? Did he think he was in his den relaxing?
I’d want my shoes, too. Shoes ain’t cheap.
I thought he was yelling a different F word as in “F…., my ear! “
Who knows if agents will be reassigned. I would doubt it, but all guesses are equal right now.
I also sincerely doubt Divine intervention. It’s more a case of bad aim.
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Post by Russell Letson on Jul 14, 2024 10:35:50 GMT -5
1) WaPo has a piece on early conspiracy theories--the predictable kind, from the predictable sources. At least, they include the ones I was predicting to C. last night. Such predictions are not exactly rocket surgery.
2) Among the (also predictable) calls for calm and national unity I have already heard a nifty tactical use being made of the event: As I woke up with Morning Edition playing on the radio, some politician was suggesting that everybody should stop talking about fascism and threats to democracy--just so we could, you know, cool things down. Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted, "We’ve got to take the political temperature down, as evidenced by what happened in Pennsylvania today. We call on President Biden to immediately order that all federal criminal charges against President Trump be dropped, and to ask the governors of New York and Georgia to do the same. Such a gesture would help heal wounds and allow all Americans to take a deep breath and reflect on how we got here." Interesting logic there.
And from the LA Times: "Many Republicans quickly blamed the violence on Biden and his allies, arguing that sustained attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy have created a toxic environment." Since one of the strongest and most effective arguments against Trump is that he does indeed offer a threat to democracy, any let's-cool-it advice has the effect of defanging Trump's opponents.
3) Trump's reaction on not being dead--and the imagery that caught it--are brilliant. The guy is a performer to the bottom of his unshod feet. Marco Rubio posted, "God protected President Trump." (LA Times story.) I don't know whether he was the first, but he certainly won't be the last to insert that notion into the electoral conversation. INSTANT UPDATE: Trump has already agreed that "It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening."
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Post by millring on Jul 14, 2024 11:14:45 GMT -5
1) WaPo has a piece on early conspiracy theories--the predictable kind, from the predictable sources. At least, they include the ones I was predicting to C. last night. Such predictions are not exactly rocket surgery. 2) Among the (also predictable) calls for calm and national unity I have already heard a nifty tactical use being made of the event: As I woke up with Morning Edition playing on the radio, some politician was suggesting that everybody should stop talking about fascism and threats to democracy--just so we could, you know, cool things down. Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted, "We’ve got to take the political temperature down, as evidenced by what happened in Pennsylvania today. We call on President Biden to immediately order that all federal criminal charges against President Trump be dropped, and to ask the governors of New York and Georgia to do the same. Such a gesture would help heal wounds and allow all Americans to take a deep breath and reflect on how we got here." Interesting logic there. And from the LA Times: "Many Republicans quickly blamed the violence on Biden and his allies, arguing that sustained attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy have created a toxic environment." Since one of the strongest and most effective arguments against Trump is that he does indeed offer a threat to democracy, any let's-cool-it advice has the effect of defanging Trump's opponents. 3) Trump's reaction on not being dead--and the imagery that caught it--are brilliant. The guy is a performer to the bottom of his unshod feet. Marco Rubio posted, "God protected President Trump." (LA Times story.) I don't know whether he was the first, but he certainly won't be the last to insert that notion into the electoral conversation. INSTANT UPDATE: Trump has already agreed that "It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening." Well, you've made that pretty air-tight. You're sure we're on the brink of the collapse of democracy, so you're sure not going to be the first to blink. What're you supposed to do when your enemy is Hitler? Be silent? |
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