When I read the things Republicans were saying to blame this on Dems or even Biden specifically, I scoffed. Sad thing is, some people are gonna believe it.
There were four major mass shootings Trump’s first year in office alone. He rolled back a Obama-era restriction on guns. He did NOTHING to prevent this sort of thing from
Happening when he was president the *first* time.
He did this to himself, and the Republican Party helped.
And I doubt this will be the last time it happens to him if he keeps this promise:
The leopards eat faces eventually. If Republicans continue their violent rhetoric, their base will be fired up to turn on each other when they realize they’re also pawns in the twisted game we’re living through right now. When Project 2025 affects them personally, they’ll already be conditioned to act with violence.
Republicans have spent decades digging themselves into a hole and now it seems they’re digging it deeper.
Thank you, Qasim, for making it so clear that political violence is unacceptable.
In his current article, "Political Violence: Reflections from the 1920s and 1930s", [Timothy Snyder
Jul 14, 2024], Prof Snyder provides sufficient historical evidence to show that people in civil society cannot expect violence, such as what we have seen, to change conditions for the better.
Americans need to begin to make a sincere effort to get with each other to find out what actually are the differences Americans believe they have. By ourselves and among ourselves, we can be blunt and candid in scoping out our disagreements. When we don't make the effort to do it, then we cannot blame the media or pundits or self-proclaimed 'know - its' for pushing incorrect ideas and incorrect history at us.
The larger majority of voting Americans can and must assert and follow through on a constitutional and non-violent legal election-based transition of government in November. That is the only way that, as it appears now, Americans will prop up support enough for our constitutional governance system and its civil society institutions that we can sustain useful and long term conversations about our differences and begin to use our rule of law to prove that it does democratize our agreements and contain our disagreements.
I am back with another comment. I listening to exFBI agent Jim Cavendish on MsNBC bringing out the old power-infamy motive which simply does not fit the forensic profile. If this was a movie and not real life Trump would be responsible for the murders and deaths etc on Jan 6 and retributive justice would be his “execution” and Crooks his executioner.a d their would be no sympathy for Trump.
Thank God he wasn't shot up worse or even killed. Can you imagine the hell that would have broken loose?....Mini-insurrection all over the country and the government forced to deal with restoring (what we think of as...) order. The Next Thing that would be normalized: Americans killing other Americans over political differences, en masse!
Thank you, Dean, for your take- optimism with realism. I appreciate your writing. And I just keep writing postcards to get out the voters. It’s what I do. Hoping it works.
As a dialectician — bioth an optimist and a realist— Trump and is MAGA world will not have a Jesus Moment. On the contrary, they already believe that Trump’s alive because Jesus had his back.
If I may I would like to raise some related thinking --as a criminologist who is big on motivation among other things.
Here's my question: How come if we know that the shooter was not mentally ill, worked as a health dietitian assistant in a nursing home where he was conscientiously engaged and that his employer and co-workers were saddened and surprised by his behavior; and we also know that he was a social loner not on social media, had some history of being bullied himself, used an AK-47 semiautomatic rifle that his father had legally purchased, was a registered Republican, had given $15 dollars to ActBlue or another Democratic organization, why haven't we concluded --more below-- what is motive was yet?
The question of motive is fairly obvious to me, however, neither the FBI or anyone is willing to speculate yet until they get access his phone and email content. I don't blame them and I would do the same in their position which is to gather as much information as possible before positively asserting the motive which is staring everyone in the face.
Now that we can rule out mental illness, I think most people would say he was trying to get Trump out of the 2024 election and he almost succeeded knowing that he would be killed trying. This was not a narcissistic act but an attempted altruistic killing of an evil and dangerous person as well as a altruistic suicide for what Mr. Crooks thought was for the good of America and the rest of the world. And no, I do not believe he thought he would go down as a hero in history who showed the former president what goes around may indeed come around.
What say you Qasim or anyone else on this Substack?
A possibility: maybe the two Grand Patsies Of All Time, Oswald and Ray, will need to make room on their podium for this shooter, who may have been inserted by cooperating parties and was programmed to "nick" Mr. Trump as a "message", a tactic of intimidation said to have been used on one LBJ, who was riding a couple of cars back in the motorcade behind President Kennedy. You know, hearing those rifle shots, one would want to reflect deeply on how one's behaviour is being evaluated, by higher-ups and higher, even yet; up the food chain.
Was there more than one actor, a guy who could nail a small object (an ear?) at an even greater distance than our guy, who yes, probably did cap a bystander or two.....WTF knows, nicht wahr?
All sheer speculation, but hey, aren't those horses are already out of the barn? "Hey!!... Trigger,... Flicka!, National Velvet, yeah, you too! And you too, Lassie!... who told y'all you could run off, like that?!!"
I will say the AP appears to have been wrong in attributing that contribution to him. It was by another person by the same name who is a 69 year old man.
Must agree with you. Also, consider the recent "supreme" court ruling that a President has immunity from deeds committed in line with his official duties. The Presidents attorney actually argued that the President could have a political opponent killed and be immune from prosecution. The Court seemed to agree. And some eight years ago, Trump bragged that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and no loose any votes. Nice talk, guys.... Then there has been a lot talk about civil war, again from the right, with militias expanding their groups in every state. And the President of the Heritage Foundation just stated something like: We have a revolution going on, and there will be no violence unless the left doesn't accept this... sorry everyone, the violence is coming from the right, not the left. It will be interesting to see what the shooter was thinking... if this is actually released.... maybe he heard about Project 2025, the right wing plan to undermine the Constitution and install trump as a dictator...
When I read the things Republicans were saying to blame this on Dems or even Biden specifically, I scoffed. Sad thing is, some people are gonna believe it.
https://open.substack.com/pub/chrishedges/p/my-thoughts-on-the-attempted-trump
Very well said
There were four major mass shootings Trump’s first year in office alone. He rolled back a Obama-era restriction on guns. He did NOTHING to prevent this sort of thing from
Happening when he was president the *first* time.
He did this to himself, and the Republican Party helped.
And I doubt this will be the last time it happens to him if he keeps this promise:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-vows-undo-biden-gun-restrictions-if-re-elected-2024-02-10/
The leopards eat faces eventually. If Republicans continue their violent rhetoric, their base will be fired up to turn on each other when they realize they’re also pawns in the twisted game we’re living through right now. When Project 2025 affects them personally, they’ll already be conditioned to act with violence.
Republicans have spent decades digging themselves into a hole and now it seems they’re digging it deeper.
I am probably a very bad person to say this, but regarding Trump shooting…. Meh! Children are
massacred in schools because of his gun policy. He calls for violence against democracy. Calls
Democrats vermin. Calls for revenge on people who disagree with him. Just look at Jan 6! And he
has a "hit list" for use if he is elected or even if he isn't.
He hasn't shown sympathy for families who lost people/children in schools, at music festivals
(October 2017 shooter killed 60 people and wounded at least 413), stores and parks. All he has done is nurture violence and manufacturers' profits ...
My only regret is that this has added to gun violence, but I honestly don't care about Trump. And I guarantee
you that the people who called him out of concern, such as Biden, Cheney et al, would never get a call from Trump
if the situation was reversed. Remember when he charged into the White House the first day and left his
wife sitting in the car. An omen. What a mess of terrible behavior.
Thank you, Qasim, for making it so clear that political violence is unacceptable.
In his current article, "Political Violence: Reflections from the 1920s and 1930s", [Timothy Snyder
Jul 14, 2024], Prof Snyder provides sufficient historical evidence to show that people in civil society cannot expect violence, such as what we have seen, to change conditions for the better.
Americans need to begin to make a sincere effort to get with each other to find out what actually are the differences Americans believe they have. By ourselves and among ourselves, we can be blunt and candid in scoping out our disagreements. When we don't make the effort to do it, then we cannot blame the media or pundits or self-proclaimed 'know - its' for pushing incorrect ideas and incorrect history at us.
The larger majority of voting Americans can and must assert and follow through on a constitutional and non-violent legal election-based transition of government in November. That is the only way that, as it appears now, Americans will prop up support enough for our constitutional governance system and its civil society institutions that we can sustain useful and long term conversations about our differences and begin to use our rule of law to prove that it does democratize our agreements and contain our disagreements.
I am back with another comment. I listening to exFBI agent Jim Cavendish on MsNBC bringing out the old power-infamy motive which simply does not fit the forensic profile. If this was a movie and not real life Trump would be responsible for the murders and deaths etc on Jan 6 and retributive justice would be his “execution” and Crooks his executioner.a d their would be no sympathy for Trump.
Thank God he wasn't shot up worse or even killed. Can you imagine the hell that would have broken loose?....Mini-insurrection all over the country and the government forced to deal with restoring (what we think of as...) order. The Next Thing that would be normalized: Americans killing other Americans over political differences, en masse!
Thank you, Dean, for your take- optimism with realism. I appreciate your writing. And I just keep writing postcards to get out the voters. It’s what I do. Hoping it works.
Keep up the great work.
Thank you so very much for such your wisdom. Will share and hope for a miracle.
Thank you, Myra.
So true .
As a dialectician — bioth an optimist and a realist— Trump and is MAGA world will not have a Jesus Moment. On the contrary, they already believe that Trump’s alive because Jesus had his back.
Good point.
If I may I would like to raise some related thinking --as a criminologist who is big on motivation among other things.
Here's my question: How come if we know that the shooter was not mentally ill, worked as a health dietitian assistant in a nursing home where he was conscientiously engaged and that his employer and co-workers were saddened and surprised by his behavior; and we also know that he was a social loner not on social media, had some history of being bullied himself, used an AK-47 semiautomatic rifle that his father had legally purchased, was a registered Republican, had given $15 dollars to ActBlue or another Democratic organization, why haven't we concluded --more below-- what is motive was yet?
The question of motive is fairly obvious to me, however, neither the FBI or anyone is willing to speculate yet until they get access his phone and email content. I don't blame them and I would do the same in their position which is to gather as much information as possible before positively asserting the motive which is staring everyone in the face.
Now that we can rule out mental illness, I think most people would say he was trying to get Trump out of the 2024 election and he almost succeeded knowing that he would be killed trying. This was not a narcissistic act but an attempted altruistic killing of an evil and dangerous person as well as a altruistic suicide for what Mr. Crooks thought was for the good of America and the rest of the world. And no, I do not believe he thought he would go down as a hero in history who showed the former president what goes around may indeed come around.
What say you Qasim or anyone else on this Substack?
A possibility: maybe the two Grand Patsies Of All Time, Oswald and Ray, will need to make room on their podium for this shooter, who may have been inserted by cooperating parties and was programmed to "nick" Mr. Trump as a "message", a tactic of intimidation said to have been used on one LBJ, who was riding a couple of cars back in the motorcade behind President Kennedy. You know, hearing those rifle shots, one would want to reflect deeply on how one's behaviour is being evaluated, by higher-ups and higher, even yet; up the food chain.
Was there more than one actor, a guy who could nail a small object (an ear?) at an even greater distance than our guy, who yes, probably did cap a bystander or two.....WTF knows, nicht wahr?
All sheer speculation, but hey, aren't those horses are already out of the barn? "Hey!!... Trigger,... Flicka!, National Velvet, yeah, you too! And you too, Lassie!... who told y'all you could run off, like that?!!"
I hear you and see my other post about the movies and real life.
As to others and a conspiracy I would not go there in general and in this case in particular.
Plus it is my understand there was no bullet that touched Trump’s ear, it was shattered glass.
I included several of my favorite characters in my......
I will say the AP appears to have been wrong in attributing that contribution to him. It was by another person by the same name who is a 69 year old man.
Good to know but doesn’t undermine his motive.
At present I am interested in local law enforcement that did not want confront the kid and the incompetent SS that responded as they did.
You know what else ought to be unacceptable? Buying AR-15's for your children. Or at all!
Absolutely right.
Good thing this guy didn’t know that Trump’s Supreme Court said he was allowed to use a bumpstock
Sheesh good point.
I thought Republicans welcome Violence ??? Not when it involves them ???
Must agree with you. Also, consider the recent "supreme" court ruling that a President has immunity from deeds committed in line with his official duties. The Presidents attorney actually argued that the President could have a political opponent killed and be immune from prosecution. The Court seemed to agree. And some eight years ago, Trump bragged that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and no loose any votes. Nice talk, guys.... Then there has been a lot talk about civil war, again from the right, with militias expanding their groups in every state. And the President of the Heritage Foundation just stated something like: We have a revolution going on, and there will be no violence unless the left doesn't accept this... sorry everyone, the violence is coming from the right, not the left. It will be interesting to see what the shooter was thinking... if this is actually released.... maybe he heard about Project 2025, the right wing plan to undermine the Constitution and install trump as a dictator...
Yep address the scotus immunity point early in the article. It truly is wild watching their lack of self accountability.