The Democrats’ Jihad against Donald Trump

posted by Gary Gindler at American Thinker 

A bullet hit a United States president for the first time in 43 years.  They say it was a failed assassination attempt because the bullet did not kill Donald Trump.  That is true, but we should not forget that, at the same time, Biden’s political career was killed outright.  In fact, this inaccurate shot may be the beginning of the end of the Democrat party in its present form.  If this happens, it will lead to a long-term inactivation of most leftist movements in America.

Biden had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to alter the path of his decline into oblivion.  Nevertheless, he spoke 100 minutes after the failed assassination.  The whole world saw the footage of what happened and expected the White House to react in 10 minutes, not 100.

Many hoped Biden would finally apologize for years of lies that Trump is a modern-day Hitler and a threat to democracy.  Biden could announce the end of Trump’s political persecution.  Instead, there was another embarrassing speech by an ersatz president who tried to cling to power with his quivering hands.

In an intellectual dispute, the lack of arguments manifests in one party insulting the other.  In a political altercation, the dearth of reasoning ends in insults, bullets, dagger blows, or something similar.  Decades ago, leftists moved beyond civilized debate and the exchange of respectable ideas.  Even intraspecific discussions of the left quickly slide into mundane abuse, bizarre insults, and accusations of ignoring (or ignorance of) the latest DNC guidelines.

For decades, the left has attempted to normalize what has always been considered abnormal in developed countries: violence against political opponents.

Therefore, it is pretty natural that leftist airwaves were overwhelmed by a wave of regrets and lamentations, sorrows that the sniper missed, and complaining that the front sight was knocked off and, therefore, the assassin could not aim correctly.  There is a fervent craving for the next political targeted attack to achieve its desired outcome.  This chorus includes university professors, journalists, politicians, and Hollywood stars.  Many people honestly admit that it was the worst day of their lives because they did not witness Trump being assassinated.

Three months ago, Democrats proposed legislation that would strip former presidents of Secret Service protection in the event of “conviction of a federal crime.”  It is clear that this law was needed to leave Trump without protection.  Recall that the State Department’s diplomatic service demanded increased security to protect the United States ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.  The inaction of then–secretary of state Hillary Clinton preceded the death of the ambassador and four American citizens.  In line with unverified and unofficial reports, the Trump campaign has repeatedly requested the Secret Service to increase the number of Trump bodyguards.  However, the Secret Service has refused this request each time.

The 20-year-old assassin was registered as a Republican, which led some commentators to shift the needle from Democrats to Republicans.  They promote the idea that this is just an internal party squabble.  However, that is incorrect.  Let us recall that the assassin was from Pennsylvania.  Here, the Democrats endeavored to crush Trump at the primaries stage.  However, the problem was that Pennsylvania primaries were closed; only Republicans could participate in Republican primaries.  Then the Democrats issued a cry: Democrats need to abandon the party and re-register as Republicans to vote against Trump in the Republican primaries.  Hence, the sniper was registered as a Republican, although he solely donated to left-wing organizations.  Unfortunately, many observers, especially from other countries, do not know such details of the political struggle in America and draw far-reaching but fundamentally incorrect conclusions.

There is a direct cause-and-effect relationship between the anti-Trump hysteria in the disinformation media and the assassination attempt.

Democrats’ desperate efforts to replace Biden stalled immediately after Trump’s assassination attempt.  The next day, the Biden campaign slashed campaign activity, including withdrawing all television advertising in six battleground states.  The mood among Biden’s staff is by no means combative.  Among them, there is an opinion (entirely justified) that “it is over.”  In the words of one senior Democrat, “we have all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency.”

The truth is, nothing will help Democrats at this moment.

Now, if the famous leftists of the past suddenly resurrected and took Biden’s place, he would still lose to Trump.  Napoleon would lose with his artillery fire control system, Stalin would lose with his terror, and Hitler would lose with his anti-Semitic eloquence.

The jihad against Trump has been carrying on for eight years, and the word “jihad” is not a catchphrase here.  The left has long, since the Soviet Union era, joined forces with Islamists and even adopted some of their tactics.  However, Trump turned out to be too much for them.  As the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle said in 1841, “no sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men.”  Trump has long left the “ordinary American” category and is now noticeably closer to the definition of “great.”

In retrospect, the evolution of jihad against Trump occurred quite smoothly and predictably, from less bloody to more bloody methods.  Reflect on excommunication from social networks; the shameful Russian hoax; two impeachments; criminal charges; and, ultimately, an attempted murder.

As it is known, being under gunfire always reveals a person’s essence.  No one knows in advance what a man’s reaction will be to the fact that projectiles whistle over his head until that moment comes.  The assassination ultimately revealed President Trump’s character to those who have yet to comprehend it.

Trump’s future is guaranteed if everything remains as it is until November 5, 2024.  In this case, the United States will pass this point of political bifurcation with dignity.  Americans are asking just one question: will the scar be visible on Mount Rushmore?

X22, And we Know, and more- July 19

 

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The Ballot or the Bullet

Our situation is not yet desperate, and to make sure it never becomes so, we must manifest both menace and discipline.

by Michael S. Kochin for American Greatness 

Saturday’s attempted assassination of President Trump killed one rallygoer, a father of two who died shielding his children from the assassin, and critically wounded two others. President Trump miraculously escaped with a slight wound in one ear, and in the photo of the century, he stood up from under the swarm of secret service agents, literally bloody but unbowed, raised his right hand in a fist, and mouthed, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Some of Mr. Trump’s partisan critics attacked Mr. Trump’s “violent rhetoric.” Of course, none of them squawked when President Biden said on Monday before the attack that “we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” We do not know, and may never know, whether the murderer perceived that he was simply following an order from his Commander in Chief.

It is time to man up, stop blaming others, and figure out what we ourselves have done or not done that made this attack and the inciting rhetoric that led to it possible. The hard truth is that it is our weakness, not our extremism or our own “violent rhetoric,” that invited this attack. 

The regime media from the top down, in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic, on television and on social media, have repeatedly called Mr. Trump a fascist, compared him to Hitler, and called for his elimination from the race by any means necessary.

We know that nothing Mr. Trump did or said, and nothing we, his partisans, have done or said, can be called the true cause of this kind of talk. We know that because the same outlets said the same kinds of things about other Republican leaders, from Thomas Dewey to Mitt Romney.

Democrats talk this way about Republicans because they are not afraid of the consequences of talking that way. The party that banned God from the schoolroom and forbade public worship has no fear of God, who sees and punishes the deceitful, and has no fear of us. They believe, correctly, that they can, without fear of us, delegitimize elections by effectively licensing fraudand intimidation of voters, and that they can turn mobs on synagogue-goers and conservative speakers. Too many Democrats live their lives in media, public “service,” nonprofit or academic echo chambers in which everyone either amens such transgressions or is silenced by fear of violence or corporate HR.

Ignore the hysterics about “violent rhetoric.” Politics is about violence, about the control and deployment of the force of the community for the ends of the community. Free and fair elections, free discussion, and even the right of the people to peaceably assemble come not from rhetorical or actual disarmament. These necessary features of free government come from a balance of terror that produces mutual fear and, thus, mutual respect.

Sadly, in western countries, including the United States, that balance of terror does not exist. MAGA may have guns, but our anti-populist, that is to say anti-democratic rivals, have the secret police, the intelligence services, and, when necessary, Antifa, the stormtroopers of the woke capital, ever ready at the nod of the authorities or the regime media to target peaceful opposition.

We who fear God have to be better than them, but that also means we have to be at least as frightening as them. As Malcolm X said sixty years ago, it is always and everywhere “the ballot or bullet.” It is better to fight it out with violent rhetoric and ballots than with bullets, but that is only possible, Malcolm X explains, as long as every side fears what their rivals could do should they become enemies.

Yes, my friends, we have to fight. We have to fight for the right to speak and to be heard, for the right to rally for our candidates and our beliefs, and for the right to wear a red hat in every corner of this great land.

The only way that we can maintain our right to fight this “campaign” without resorting to actual violence is to frighten our rivals into refraining from violence, even when they know that the media and “authorities” will take their side. In this struggle, there is no substitute for courage, but there is also no substitute for brains about when and how to show fight. Our situation is not yet desperate, and to make sure it never becomes so, we must manifest both menace and discipline.

🎭 𝐖𝟑𝐏 𝓓𝓐𝓘𝓛𝓨 𝓗𝓾𝓶𝓸𝓻, 𝓜𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬, 𝓐𝓻𝓽, 𝓞𝓟𝓔𝓝 𝓣𝓗𝓡𝓔𝓐𝓓

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Joy Reid's Disgusting Comments About Iconic Trump Shooting Photo

Sarah Arnold reporting for Townhall 

MSNBC’s racist and woke commentator Joy Reid made jaw-dropping disgusting comments about the would-be assassination of former President Donald Trump. 

During her coverage of the Republican National Convention (RNC), Reid argued that Trump staged a photo-op just moments after being almost shot to death.  

Joy Reid and Jen Psaki said that Biden having COVID is "exactly the same" as Trump surviving an assassination attempt.

You CAN'T make this up. pic.twitter.com/MPAeYeXR2Q

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 18, 2024

Secret Service agents gave Trump “nine seconds to take an iconic photo op during an active shooter situation” during the assassination attempt, Reid said. 

“Weird situation. We’ll figure that out one day,” the lefty looney added. 

Being a shameless leftist liar and race-baiter and not just some “God-awful white” person must be one of the primary qualifications for working at a leftist media outlet. 

Reid also questioned whether Trump’s injuries actually came from a bullet that grazed his ear during last week’s shooting. 

Despite clearly having been shot at and standing up with blood running down his face, Reid suggested the wound came from glass. 

“Where are the medical reports? What caused Trump’s injury, and what was the injury? Sheapnel? Glass? A bullet? Where were the three attendees who were shot, seated, or standing relative to Trump? Why was Trump allowed to stand and pose for photos, fist-pumping for nearly ten seconds while asking about his shoe when there could easily have been additional shooters?” She wrote in a social media post. 

She also seemed to doubt that the 20-year-old shooter used a five-foot ladder to climb to the roof of a building. 

If that’s how she feels, maybe Reid should explain how he got on the roof, then? Maybe by flying? Or by teleporting? Because she clearly knows more than experts and authorities do. 

Ukraine Loses Battle for Krynky, a Small Village on Eastern Side of Dnipro River

Sundance reporting for Conservative Treehouse 

The Dnipro River essentially forms the boundary between Russian controlled territory and Ukraine.  Everything East of the river is controlled by Russia, while everything west is controlled by Ukraine.  This status is essentially the underpinning of the visible stalemate.

By most generally accepted accounts, the Russians have carved out the buffer zone they initially wanted. Russia is essentially no longer trying to take any more ground in Ukraine and in many places, they have begun rebuilding towns. That’s what it looks like on the ground.

Ukraine had crossed the Dnipro to take the village of Krynky (near Kherson) a few months ago and had been trying to hold the area.  However, with the river behind them it was increasingly unrealistic to stop Russia from retaking the town.  As expected, Russia pushed the depleted Ukraine forces back across the river.

UKRAINE – […] Ukrainian troops have lost a hard-won position on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River, near the southern city of Kherson, after months of bloody fighting to hold on to a piece of land in what some Ukrainian soldiers and military analysts have described as a futile operation.

The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday night that fighting continued on the eastern bank but that most of the main positions in the village of Krynky, where its troops had gained a foothold, “were destroyed by intense, combined and prolonged enemy fire.” The statement came after several Ukrainian news media outlets reported that Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from the village, which now lies in ruins.

The operation to establish a bridgehead on the Russian-controlled eastern bank of the Dnipro had been controversial from the start. Launched last fall, it was seen as an attempt to open a new front in the south that would disrupt Moscow’s logistics and tie down its troops in the area. But military analysts warned that the operation, which consisted of dangerous river crossings, was vulnerable in its logistics and unlikely to lead to rapid breakthroughs.

Ukrainian gains were limited to small pieces of land near the river, of which Krynky was the most notable.

[…] holding on to Krynky also cost Ukraine many lives. Ukrainian soldiers said they were stuck for days in muddy terrain with little to no cover from Russian artillery, drones and airstrikes.

An article published on Wednesday by Slidstvo Info, an investigative Ukrainian news outlet, reported that at least 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed on the eastern bank or are missing. That figure could not be independently confirmed. (read more) 

It will be interesting to see what the State Dept/CIA do if Biden makes an exit announcement.

Will a successful Trump/Vance ticket fundamentally change the Russia-Ukraine war?

Lots of variables and financial interests positioning to keep the USA financial support in place.

The NATO alliance will do whatever the USA does.

The One Thing Biden Never Recovered From During His Time In Office

Sarah Arnold reporting for Townhall 

President Joe Biden’s approval ratings suffered early in his term and then drastically dropped after former President Donald Trump announced his candidacy for 2024. 

Biden’s disapproval rating has reached nearly 60 percent as reports indicate he will drop out of the 2024 race as soon as this weekend,

From record-high inflation to unprecedented crime, one disastrous event plagued Biden’s approval rating and kept him from recovering: his botched Afghanistan withdrawal. 

Axios reporter Alex Thompson revealed that Biden’s August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, in which 13 service members were killed in a bombing as American forces were evacuating from Kabul, cost him his entire presidency.

He called it a “self-inflicted error” on the president’s part, “And the reason has nothing to do with his advisers. This goes to the president himself.”

According to a Gallup poll, Biden’s approval rating was 49 percent at the beginning of August 2021. However, just one month after the botched withdrawal, it was 43 percent. A year later, the president’s approval rating was just 38 percent. 

The poll indicates that the exit from Afghanistan had lasting effects on Biden’s standing with American voters. 

“It’s not like things dropped and held where they were. They kept falling. A lot of other things we know are historically way more important to Americans were also unfolding,” Mohamed Younis, editor-in-chief of Gallup News, told Axios. 

Thompson pointed out that Biden has always been defensive about his decision to abruptly pull out of Afghanistan, criticizing the president for not showing enough empathy toward the lives lost and their families. 

He also noted how disgusted Americans were after the president checked his watch as the bodies of the fallen servicemen were delivered at Dover Air Force Base. 

“He looked at his watch while people came off — like while the bodies came off that plane,” Thompson said. “Afterward, the families complained that he was talking too much about his own son, not about their sons. And in response to the criticism from those families, he did not reach back out.”

However, Biden’s Afghanistan pull-out was just the slippery slope. After that happened, the president’s approval rating continued to drop as his policies began to set in. 

Inflation began to creep, his incompetence began to show, and his border policies caused a record number of illegal immigrants to enter the U.S.— which have all contributed to his record-low polling numbers. 

On the contrary, Trump made efforts with the Gold Star families, meeting and spending time with them. 

During the Republican National Convention (RNC) this week, the families criticized Biden for never publicly naming their loved ones. 

“Joe Biden has refused to recognize their sacrifice,” Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of the fallen Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee said on Wednesday. “Donald Trump knew all of our children’s names. He knew all of their stories.”

J.D. Vance Appeals To The ‘Cast Aside And Forgotten’ In RNC Speech

What many heard was a guy who, despite being a millennial millionaire, shares an all-too-common upbringing in impoverished rural America.

Matt Kittle reporting for The Federalist

MILWAUKEE — The man who would be vice president formally introduced himself to a jubilant Republican National Convention on Wednesday evening in Wisconsin — and to voters nationwide. And he had a very compelling story to tell. 

Sen. James David “J.D.” Vance, R-Ohio, former President Donald Trump’s freshly minted running mate, accepted the nomination and addressed his fellow Republicans, his fellow Americans. What many heard was a guy who, despite being a millennial millionaire, shares an all-too-common upbringing in impoverished rural America. Vance, the author of the best-selling Hillbilly Elegy, literally wrote the book on it.

At 39, Vance is one of the youngest vice presidential candidates in American history, nearly 40 years Trump’s junior. The significant age spread is by design in an election year where, once again, two elderly men — at least at the moment — are the major party standard bearers on the ballot. 

From Humble Beginnings

By many measures, Vance is the epitome of the American Dream. He grew up in poverty, a “family tradition” in rust-belt Middletown, Ohio, and in the Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky. The son of a drug-addicted mother and a father who left him, Vance, as they say, rose above his circumstances. He went to college on the G.I. Bill after serving in the Marines and the Iraq War. He earned his law degree from Yale and made a very comfortable living in venture capital. Vance’s bleak memoir was made into a movie in 2020, a couple of years before his successful Senate run. 

“Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I would be standing here tonight,” Vance told the thousands of conventiongoers assembled at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum and the millions more watching across the country. 

God and Mamaw

While his parents were absent from much of his childhood, Vance said he had God. 

And Mamaw. 

The senator’s “guardian angel” grandmother raised him. She was tough as nails, Vance said, a Christian woman who loved the Lord nearly as much as she loved the “F word.” Mamaw once told her grandson that if she ever caught him again hanging out with a kid who was a notorious drug dealer in town, she’d run the boy over with her car. 

“And she said, J.D., no one would ever find out about it,” Vance recalled. The convention hall erupted in laughter, then echoed with a chant of “Mamaw.” The GOPers love them some Mamaw. They seemed pretty taken by her successful grandson too. 

The Republican vice presidential candidate said he made it out of the generational poverty that has trapped so many of his family and friends. He escaped through hard work, with the help of his guardian angel, and by the grace of God, Vance said. Every now and then, he said, he’ll get a call from a relative back home asking if he remembered this person or that. As a face in time fills his mind, Vance said he’s often told that the old neighbor or schoolmate has died of a drug overdose. 

‘Failed and Failed’

“As usual, America’s ruling class wrote the check. Communities like mine paid the price,” he said. He then took aim at the members of said ruling class — Democrats and Republicans — who have over the last generation-plus enriched themselves while average Americans have suffered. The people on the list of D.C. elites include Republican President George W. Bush and Democrat Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. None more, Vance stressed, than career politician Biden, hungry for another term in a rematch with Trump. 

“For decades, that divide between the few — with their power and comfort in Washington — and the rest of us only widened. From Iraq to Afghanistan, from the financial crisis to the Great Recession, from open borders to stagnating wages, the people who governed this country have failed and failed again,” he said. 

There is, of course, according to Vance, one exception to the governing class rule: businessman Donald Trump, who in 2016 ran on nothing short of a revolution to “drain the swamp.” Vance wasn’t on board the Trump train then, blasting Trump as “reprehensible” during his first run. Vance has had a change of heart since those early days, becoming one of the more ardent defenders of Trump’s vision of “making America Great Again.” Biden’s curious victory in 2020 put the MAGA agenda on hold. Trump’s new running mate sounds like he is champing at the bit to help the former president bring it back and make the case, particularly in the critical swing states, for a return to Trumpenomics and homeland sanity. 

“It’s about the auto worker in Michigan, wondering why out-of-touch politicians are destroying your jobs,” Vance said. “It’s about the factory worker in Wisconsin, who makes things with their hands and is proud of American craftsmanship.”  

“It’s about the energy worker in Pennsylvania and Ohio who doesn’t understand why Joe Biden is willing to buy energy from tinpot dictators across the world when he could buy it from his own citizens right here in our own country,” Vance hammered. 

Trump’s running mate wasn’t simply speaking to the party; he was attempting to connect with what he called the “cast aside and forgotten.” In the tradition of Trump. 

The Federalist’s Mark Hemingway, also covering the convention with wife and Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway, told me in a “Federalist Radio Hour” podcast that the GOP establishment types aren’t happy with the Vance VP pick, a good sign Trump made the right call.

Meanwhile, Democrats and their corporate media public-relations firms have spent the past couple of days trying to diminish Trump’s lieutenant, as the corporate media are wont to do. The Atlantic’s Stuart Stevens lamented Ohio transforming from a swing state to a dependable red. He decried the Buckeye State’s abandonment of weak-kneed RINOs for Trumpicans like Vance. 

“But don’t make the mistake of thinking this transformation was the result of a hostile takeover; that implies there was a fight. The truth is that the old guard surrendered to forces contrary to what it had espoused as lifelong values,” Stevens whined. 

The old guard, Vance tried to convey to voters, is part of why this republic is in so much trouble. 

‘The American Story’ 

David Arredondo, former chairman of the Lorain County Republican Party, part of the Cleveland metropolitan area, told me Vance brings pluses and minuses to the ticket, but a lot more positives than negatives. 

“He checks all the boxes,” Arredondo said. Vance is young and a veteran. And Vance’s experience with poverty and family drug addiction, Arredondo said, makes him relatable to voters billionaire Trump needs to win the election. 

“It’s the American story of the person who started from nothing and became great,” he said. 

As the former county GOP chairman noted, Vance won a lot of Ohio hearts and minds following the devastating train derailment in East Palestine in early 2023. He was there. So was Trump, handing out bottled water and standing with a broken community as Biden and his competence-challenged transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, were slow to show up to the conservative-leaning community near the border of Pennsylvania. Biden waited a year. He was not well received.

“Vance’s quick response to the train derailment and advocacy for local residents landed him in the spotlight and earned him a front row seat in the news for months. Trump joined Vance and other Ohio lawmakers on Feb. 22, 2023, to shake the hands of local residents and distribute water, food and other supplies to those desperately in need of necessities,” Fox News reported shortly after Trump announced Vance as his second-in-command. 

Vance closed with a vow to the “cast aside and forgotten.” 

“To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and every corner of our nation, I promise you this: I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from,” he said. 

Tucker Carlson at RNC: After Assassination Attempt, 'Donald Trump...Became Leader of This Nation'

Jennifer Van Laar reporting for RedState 

Tucker Carlson took the stage at the Republican National Convention to thunderous applause, and gave a heartfelt speech about Donald Trump (the man) which also included some great philosophical nuggets and a few lines that are sure to set liberal tongues wagging.

Carlson's become important enough in Trump's world that the New York Times has written about him twice this week - once about his alleged influence on Trump's choice of JD Vance as his running mate, and then a bit of a puff piece on Carlson "roaring into Milwaukee" as a key Trump ally:

But behind the scenes over the past year, Mr. Carlson has become more deeply allied with Mr. Trump than at any point in his long relationship with the former president, a man for whom the broadcaster once expressed deep ambivalence.

Mr. Carlson lobbied Mr. Trump to select Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, who had been a frequent guest on his Fox show, as his running mate, and he helped broker a meeting in Milwaukee between Mr. Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate.

There's another project Carlson's been working on, according to the Times:

He and a longtime producer of his shows, Justin Wells, recently visited Mar-a-Lago to pitch Mr. Trump on a fly-on-the-wall docuseries about his campaign. Mr. Trump granted access, and the series is set to be released on Mr. Carlson’s streaming platform before the election; Mr. Wells and a cameraman were filming several feet away from the former president in Pennsylvania on Saturday when he was shot by a would-be assassin.

During his RNC appearance Carlson quickly spoke of the event on everyone's mind and how Trump's character and mettle were immediately evident.

Like Trump's friend Steve Witkoff, who spoke earlier in the night, Carlson spoke to Trump Saturday evening after the former president dodged an assassin's bullet:

I think it changed him. I reached out to Trump within hours of it, that night, and what he said to me that night – he said not a single word about himself. He said only how amazed he was and proud he was of the crowd, which didn’t run.

Of course they didn't run. His courage gave them heart. A leader’s courage gives courage to his people.

For a man who's allegedly divisive and selfish (according to Democrats and the legacy media), Trump's actions since the assassination attempt have been anything but, Carlson said:

He turned down the most obvious opportunity in politics to inflame the nation after he was shot...This is the most responsible, unifying behavior of a leader that I’ve ever seen.

Carlson then turned his sights on The Swamp, Washington DC, and gave VP nominee JD Vance props as "one of the few politicians in Washington, DC who’s close to his own wife" and the person in Washington DC whose policy views are the closest to those of Trump's voters. Carlson noted that The Swamp's response to the fentanyl crisis shows the level of care they have for everyday Americans - and that's none. Trump, however, "actually cares," Carlson said:

It’s [politicians ignoring the fentanyl crisis] too insulting. It’s a middle finger in the face of every American. It’s a very clear statement which is unmistakable, and that is, we don’t care about you. And Donald Trump…

Everything else about Trump aside, he actually cares. A father’s job, his duty, is to his family. As president, it’s to his country. He seems to be the only one who thinks that.

A few years ago Carlson's family was targeted by Antifa at a time they knew Carlson wouldn't be home. His wife hid in a pantry as the thugs attempted to break down their front door, and was understandably terrified. The next morning, Trump called Carlson's wife to see how she was doing and offered support, saying he'd come guard their house (which is totally believable). Then Trump said something we should all remember during these times:

You know, there’s a lot of hate out there. But there’s also a lot of love.

Carlson ended his remarks by saying that over the past week, "I think even people who don’t believe in God are starting to think, maybe there’s something to this," that there might have been divine intervention in Trump's last-second turn of the head, and that while he doesn't claim to be "with God" or "on God's side," though he tries hard to be, that "God is among us right now, and I think that’s enough."

I had a blissful 20 minutes of maternity leave before I heard the words “Trump’s been shot.”

 

At the start of the speech, I thought Trump had this election pretty well cinched. But if a functional, fully alert Democrat was the nominee, honestly, it would be a toss-up! As the pollster Dave Wasserman put it: “Periodic reminder that someone is going to have to win the 2024 election despite their best efforts not to.” My main remaining question is regarding Usha Vance, J.D.’s very smart and lovely wife. See, I’m not seeing filler. I’m not seeing a wig. I’m not even seeing an earring! I’m seeing a look of shock and alarm. How long will she resist the Trumpification? 

Meanwhile, Democrats are going for the jugular with Joe. Apparently, he hadn’t taken the very strong hints—you know, of every swing state going for Trump—so staffers for Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer spent the week leaking details about how they had meetings with Biden and told him to resign. Nancy Pelosi is a killer—she will put a horse’s head in Biden’s bed, and she’ll have sliced it off herself. 

Once Nancy turns on you, you’re done. The journalist Mark Halperin reported that he’s hearing Biden will withdraw his nomination by Sunday and that Jon Meacham is punching up the speech. Then Meacham said it was totally false. What’s true? What’s false? I haven’t slept in five days and don’t even know my own name. 

→ Someone really almost killed Trump: A 20-year-old man named Thomas Matthew Crooks pitched a large ladder and climbed the roof of a building during a Trump rally, posted up with a “semiautomatic AR-style rifle,” and fired at the former president. Trump was saved only by a last-second turn of the head—the bullet whizzed through his ear. As Secret Service swarmed him, as blood streamed down his face, as an American flag flew behind him, Trump threw up a fist and screamed “Fight, fight, fight.” He is now selling “Fight fight fight” sneakers. 

Those facts are just about all people can agree on. The immediate reaction from the left and a few very mainstream Democrats was that this was a false flag, a fake assassination attempt designed to make Trump look cool and strong, straight out of Putin’s playbook. I’m totally serious. 

Reid Hoffman—the co-founder of LinkedIn, one of the top donors for Democrats, the man who funded the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit—has Dmitri Mehlhorn to help dole out his political cash. Here’s what Melhorni wrote to a large group of allies and journalists after the shooting: “[One] possibility—which feels horrific and alien and absurd in America, but is quite common globally—is that this ‘shooting’ was encouraged and maybe even staged so Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash. . . . 

This is a classic Putin play and given the facts seems more plausible. Look at the actual shot. Look at the staging.” 

This is a conspiracy that could take root only on the left. Here’s why: to believe that a 20-year-old hobbyist sniper, from 390 feet away, could perfectly and reliably shoot at a rapidly moving head and hit just the ear. . . well, you have to have never aimed a gun in your entire life. Those Trump ears don’t even stick out much; they’re tight to the head, maybe a little small now that I stare at them. This conspiracy could work only among a cohort who weren’t allowed Nerf guns, let alone Call of Duty, let alone a real gun to shoot. But it’s going mainstream! This is a completely normal take to have among MSNBC Democrats right now. Don’t believe me? 

“Donald Trump is an elderly man who, for whatever reason, was given nine seconds to take a[n] iconic photo op during an active shooter situation,” said MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid as Biden’s former White House press secretary Jen Psaki nodded along. “Weird situation, we’ll figure that out one day.” She goes on to say that Biden getting and surviving Covid is the same as Trump surviving the bullet, which everyone latched onto, but for me it’s the first bit, the was given nine seconds to take an iconic photo op. These are mainstream Democrats on a national news show openly mulling that Republicans planned the shooting for a photo op.

And even if Trump didn’t specifically pay for his cool new ear gauge, maybe he was sort of asking for it:

→ But let me present my own conspiracies, which are really theories: Let me indulge in my own alternative narrative footsie, if you will. Like: Thomas Crooks was recorded in the background of a video at 5:06 p.m., about an hour before the shooting, pacing around the boundaries of the Trump rally. 

It was around then that he was identified as a person of interest by law enforcement while Butler Township police separately received a report of a “suspicious male.” At 5:52 p.m., Secret Service snipers first spotted Crooks on the roof of a building outside the security zone. 

Various rally attendees yelled and pointed him out to security. Around this time, a Butler Township police officer attempted to climb up on the roof and stop Crooks until he pointed his gun at the officer, scaring the cop away. At 6:12 p.m., Crooks opened fire on Trump. It took 26 seconds after that for a Secret Service sniper to fatally shoot Crooks in the head. 

The roof he shot from is clearly a good roof to shoot a president from, so why wasn’t it secured? “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” said the head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle. Of course, Kim wouldn’t want to make anyone uncomfy by putting them in an unsafe sitch. The Secret Service is for wearing cool sunglasses and whispering a secret into your jacket sleeve every so often. 

Don’t forget: inside that exact building a team of snipers was hanging out, waiting. Didn’t they think to peek on the roof? Slope too scary? Now, honestly, I feel divided on this. Mostly I think it’s just Uvalde levels of incompetence and cowardice. But it is all a little weird. Little odd. A little “someone gave him nine seconds.” But back to Kim, the head of the Secret Service.

One thing Kim has prioritized is Secret Service gender diversity, hoping to get to 30 percent female agents by 2030. And it looks like she’s well on her way! Trump was guarded by a surprising number of petite female Secret Service agents. And while I think women are amazing (I am one, married to one, daughter of one, mother of future one, etc.), I question the efficacy of a petite female tasked with this job (covering the president’s big body with her own to take a bullet). A small female can certainly cover Trump’s legs and midsection, but that would leave the chest and head. They could probably get the whole back but only if he’s sitting down. Tricky. 

Trump’s particular lady SS agents seemed overwhelmed, beyond just being short. One tried valiantly to holster her gun, over and over. It was not a great look. Apparently the SS tests for men and women have totally different standards. You cannot tell me these scenes are good for feminism. Feminism is letting women try to pass the same tests as men. It’s not giving me a tiny lady firehose for the test—and then nodding solemnly when I can’t carry the real firehose and everyone dies while people get viral videos of me crying and calling my dad. 

→ This was the ramped-up security: In recent weeks, the Secret Service learned that the government of Iran is looking to assassinate Trump. So they ramped up security. Indeed, this was the ramped-up security. The same team who missed a large ladder and a kid sniper, who local and likely a little beer-drunk MAGA fans were pointing to, all “There’s a goddamn kid with a gun on the roof!” My expectations now are very low. If Trump lives all the way to the election, I’ll consider it a win. 

→ Hide the pics: For the mainstream press, the big problem was that there now exists a pic of Trumpo looking brave—bloodied, defiant, standing with his fist in the air. The picture was taken by the incredible Evan Vucci. 

Here’s Axios on the crisis, quoting an anonymous photo editor from “a major news outlet” who says: “It’s dangerous for media organizations to keep sharing that photo despite how good it is.” As Trump put it: “A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen. They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.” 

The mainstream media didn’t seem to want to linger on the attack. The Denver Post simply went with: “Gunman Dies in Attack.” Though some outlets came out with special surprises:

The piece has since been pulled, but I’d like you to take notice of the section that it was filed under. Moving on!

→ Give him a trophy: The shooter, Thomas Crooks, tried to join his high school shooting club but was rejected because he was bad at shooting. So we might have an example here of when gentle parenting would have been good. Let little Tommy onto the team. Give him a participation trophy. Say everyone’s a winner, and that he hit the bull’s-eye in our hearts.

Aside from being bullied, we still don’t know that much about the shooter. Like, this kind of awkward loner type lives online, but no one can find much of anything. Which is a little weird, right? And he really almost killed the former president, but it’s almost like, not a big deal. And the Secret Service head isn’t even resigning. Odd, no? Anyone? Mom, please come back to the table. I promise not to bring it up again. 

→ Heated rhetoric: In the days before someone put Trump in the cross-hairs, Biden suggested putting Trump in a bull’s-eye. “I have one job, and that’s to beat Donald Trump. I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that. So, we’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye,” Biden said. Bad timing. Uncomfortable. But rhetoric on both sides is deranged. I don’t blame one or the other here. We also have no idea what motivated the shooter, and it was probably just general insanity, of which there is plenty to go around. (But maybe one of our enemies trained him? Iran? I have zero evidence. Just vibes. Think about it.)

→ Leave Tenacious D alone: Now that cultural and political power has started shifting away from the left, we’re seeing a fresh take on our old friend: cancel culture. Yes, right-wingers are going all in on canceling random people for minor infractions. They’re seeing apologies as nothing but a little more blood in the water. They’re finding cashiers and bartenders to thrust in the spotlight and shame. And surprise: it’s horrible! 

If you’re calling a random restaurant to get a private citizen fired for a Facebook comment, you’ve lost your mind. Or here: a random older woman running a checkout station at Home Depot had posted that she wished the shooter had been a better shot. 

A conservative went to the Home Depot, found her working, took video of himself confronting her, and then right-wing accounts amplified the video and called on Home Depot to axe her:

Lo and behold, Home Depot fired her. Well done, guys! That powerful checkout lady learned a big lesson. 

Meanwhile, Kyle Gass of the comedy and performance duo Tenacious D made a similar comment onstage (“Don’t miss Trump next time!”). He profusely apologized. But as with any internet mob cancellation, an apology is just the very beginning. His talent agency dropped him. Jack Black, his longtime bandmate, canceled the whole tour with him and then publicly disavowed him. Dismal. 

If you were against cancel culture when it targeted random citizens who posted thin blue line flags, then you better be beating your chest to honor that Home Depot worker. Where is J.D. Vance, voice of the working class, enemy of cancellations? If you thought it was crazy when assistant professors were being fired for giving grades based on merit, you better be Braveheart for the kitchen & bar worker. 

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