I’ll Bet My Tin Foil Hat Beelzebub Shot Trump
Or maybe it was Lucifer since Liberal also starts with an “L”
I found out about the attempted assassination attempt on presidential candidate Donald J Trump on Xitter about two minutes after it happened. For a moment, it was deja vu all over again, with mostly credible sources posting in real time on social media. Since so many reporters are still on Xitter, its content on the shooting was the most robust of the five social media accounts I monitor..
About five minutes later, the noise began. The horror and shock of the social audience was drowned out by those desperate for attention and motivated by hate. Or both.
Reasonable people said reasonable things, including political officials from both sides of the aisle. There was a strong current of “tone it down, people.”
We now know the shooter was a young man who worked in food service at a local assisted nursing facility; he passed the employee background check and was barely visible on the workplace radar.
His father legally purchased the AR-15 type rifle used in the shooting. Allegedly, fixin’s for explosive devices were found in the young man’s vehicle.
I say allegedly because these types of details in crime scene reporting often don’t pan out. Cops and their spokespersons are also susceptible to the social trauma coming out of such an event. Or they lie to get attention. We’ll never know.
He fit the profile of the incel army some say is gathering at the periphery of reality. Bullied in school, drawn to gun porn on YouTube, and registered as a Republican. Dimes to doughnuts the guy never had a serious relationship with either sex. A widely reported donation to a progressive get-out-the-vote operation has people wondering, since the guy was 17 at the time and supposedly not able to donate. Some said the $15 donation actually came from a 60 year old man with the same name.
The FBI’s initial assessment of the crime says it was a solo act, and they have found no ideological motive.
The Associated Press reported the shooter was interrupted just before firing:
“A local law enforcement officer climbed to the roof and found Crooks, who pointed the rifle at the officer. The officer then retreated down the ladder, and the gunman quickly fired toward Trump, the officials said. That’s when U.S. Secret Service gunmen shot him, the officials said.”
We don’t need to worry about the shooter anymore. A witness told the BBC his head was blown off. There’s video of a Secret Service sniper showing recoil as if his gun had fired. I saw a picture of the body and a head wound was definitely visible
Former US Attorney Joyce Vance, who has some experience in investigations, put things into context.
We don’t know if Crooks was a disaffected Republican, a cross over Democratic voter, a lone wolf radicalized to some political purpose, or someone with serious mental health issues and a real or imagined grudge he thought he would satisfy by killing the former president.
It is important to keep those multiple possibilities in mind and understand just how dramatically our understanding of a crime can change as the investigation proceeds. Things are not always what they appear to be, and even the early information here is susceptible of different interpretations. I have worked investigations, like the bombing of a Birmingham abortion clinic by Eric Robert Rudolph in 1998, where the evidence emerges in a nonlinear fashion and as it evolves, understanding of motive can change. So be careful not to get ahead of yourself and draw conclusions too early. Sometimes people are lone wolves acting out political agendas, but John Hinckley Jr. who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, did it to try and impress actress Jody Foster.
When somebody is murdered there will always be anger on the part of those who feel victimized by the death. And so it was with assorted assholes who fantasized about their own relevance, revenge, or an uprising of like-minded types. Or that this tragedy guaranteed a Trump victory in November.
Flash Facts: President Gerald Ford survived TWO assassination attacks and still lost to Jimmy Carter. Teddy Roosevelt was shot and lost. Ronald Reagan’s boost in popularity after getting shot at the DC Hilton was short lived because the economy sucked. (At the time I lived a couple of blocks away and will never forget the wailing of dozens of sirens racing toward the scene)
The fundraising email sent out by the Trump campaign shortly before the rally, which was supposed to tease the announcement of a Vice President candidate, took on a whole new meaning after the fact.
Media stupidity - Christopher Bouzy, the activist who runs the Spoutible social media outlet, looked at some headlines and declared that future journalists covering such events should be required to take a breathalyzer before publishing. (Note that the Forbes story on the right was written by the reporter covering “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”)
Then there was this headline from the Daily Beast, currently shedding staff as new investors promise a rehab.
People that I thought would know better were quick to jump on the conspiracy train.
It was a false flag. It was a setup. It was antifa. The shooter was a brown immigrant. How could the Secret Service fail so badly unless they were following orders. Joe Biden ordered the hit… Yada, yada, yada.
These days it’s not just the cheap asshole at the bar (I was a bartender, trust me) running his mouth; millions of people read these “opinions” with no idea of who the purveyor is.
Via the Washington Post, which dedicated staff to monitor crack-a-doodles.:
Other accounts, such as the alt-right @Clownworld, with 2.5 million followers, posted a photo of police positioned on the roof of a building, with the caption: “Something ain’t adding up,” an echo of other posts suggesting that the shooting happened with the assent of the authorities and was an “inside job.”
Matt Wallace, a right-wing figure online, posted, “Rumors are circulating that the Trump assassination attempt was an inside job after the release of this angle,” and included a clip that appeared to show Secret Service agents hesitating slightly before rushing to the stage following the sound of shots fired.
Other influencers blamed the shooting on the Secret Service’s efforts to include more women and minorities. “There should not be any women in the Secret Service,” Matt Walsh posted on X. “These are supposed to be the very best, and none of the very best at this job are women,” he wrote, echoing a sentiment that gained momentum into Sunday morning.
And it wouldn’t be a major tragedy without “Mr False Flag” at Infowars having a role, as Jay Kuo explained:
But wait! Why on earth would a radicalized Republican want to assassinate Trump? That makes zero sense, right? It turns out that the idea that a Trump assassination would be somehow beneficial for the right was actually advanced publicly five months ago, according to right-wing watch group Patriot Takes.
On Infowars, Alex Jones and a guest spoke openly about how a Trump assassination would be “so much better for us and so much worse for them” because it would lead to retaliatory in-kind assassinations of a “deep state” list that included President Joe Biden. It’s just the kind of insane idea that a young and troubled zealot might attempt.
As bad as the conspiracy and ideological scat was, the both-sides-ing reporting was even worse. I was amazed that, after years of actions and statements filled with violent allusions and language strong enough for the term “stochastic terrorism” to become common, right wing pundits got an extraordinary amount of ink and air time to say the violence was instigated by President Biden calling out Trump’s lies and persona.
Really? Are they saying that wanna be lone wolf assassins are so weak minded that speeches warning of a threat to democracy would inspire them to act? That a 20-year-old shooter was “inspired by Joe Biden's fiery rhetoric" is like the least believable string of words in the human language.
When a lunatic beat Paul Pelosi with a hammer, the Republican candidate for president made jokes. And when Trump sent a mob to attack the Capitol, the GOP collectively made up lies to cover it up, repackaging criminals as political hostages. And does anybody think that calling opponents “vermin” is the same as saying they’re “deplorables?”
Meantime, the stench from all the grifting is getting mighty strong in MAGA-land. There are assorted tee-shirts for sale with pictures of Trump raising a fist as he was hustled off stage, and even commemorative trading cards.
The one thing I have “questions” about is the GOP claim (and media repetition) of a narrative about a bullet piercing Trump’s ear. What ever happened to reports that his wound was caused by glass shards caused by a bullet hitting a teleprompter? There is even a photograph of the damaged screen. This is about messaging; saying the man took a bullet for you is a lot stronger than something-something flying glass.
President Biden’s campaign did the honorable thing, which was to halt all political advertising and rhetoric concerning the election shortly after the event. And they were rewarded for trying to turn down the heat by Politico with the headline: Dems U-turn on Trump criticism following rally shooting,
After watching the Biden Press Conference crisis and the Pot Shot At Trump Crisis I have to say that all the talk about toning it down has no chance if the chattering class can’t quit acting like they’re dogs running after squirrels.
The best thing about the Saturday shooting is that the naysayers-white-boy-soft-coup has faded. Frankly, it was silly to be talking about changing candidates at this point in the race, especially when polling wasn’t matching up to pundit predictions. We had primaries and nobody said jack sh*t.
The doom and gloom set on Capitol Hill that was all charged up about changing horses midstream is now telling reporters (off the record, of course) that it’s over. Trump will win, they say, as if the current president is too enfeebled and the GOP candidate has become a living martyr.
This week will feature the Republican Convention. We’ll find out who kissed the master’s ring enough to get the second in command gig. And it’s being said that the original themes, portraying Biden as weak and Trump as strong is still happening.
If Democratic activists are smart, they’ll get back to work this week. Winning an election is a long slog, and there are people willing to be convinced. All you have to do is ask. And there are tons of down ballot races needing attention.
Project 2025 is a gold mine, to be decried for its disregard for checks and balances and its for policy proposals. If you read far enough into those 900 pages (and I have) you’ll find areas where the authors just cataloged various strategies. They know the real decisions will be made by an unpredictable Dear Leader.
The Republican Convention will also be a shit show. If there’s one thing we should have learned about the Trump family, it’s that they are sloppy and lazy when it comes to details.
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The one lesson that should be repeated often in the aftermath of this assassination attempt isn’t about rhetorical excess or who said what first. It’s the guns.
Jill Filipovic called it:
The problem here is not just political violence, although of course it’s that too, but the fact that the US is the only wealthy democracy where disturbed people and angry people and just about any people can get their hands on deadly weapons. Political violence is very bad. Political violence in a nation where weapons that can inflict mass deadly violence are readily available is particularly bad. It’s not “politicizing” this moment to point out that guns are at the core of the danger here.