MEGA THREAD - Trump shot but safe, 2 others killed at PA rally

JonsJava@lemmy.worldmod to News@lemmy.world – 408 points –

WHAT

  • Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump was shot at a rally in PA.

TRUMPS STATEMENT

“I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead. I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW SO FAR

  • gunman is dead
  • Trump "is fine"
  • one attendee is dead
  • another attendee is in critical condition

News Sources

570

Alright, let's get it out ahead of time, since I'm already seeing this:

It's probably not staged. Trump reacts quickly - the fuck kind of timing you think that bloated potato has? To lift his hand to his ear just as the gunshot rings out? And the idea that the shooter grazed him on purpose is, likewise, absurd. The kind of risk that would entail, to just nick his ear?

Whether the shooter was insane or politically motivated, this is a real event.

Plus, the rally attendee being confirmed dead. Someone shot at him, 100%.

Do we know yet whether the would-be assassin or Secret Service hit the bystander? I was driving when it happened and am still getting up to speed

Edit/update: It seems the gunman was on a rooftop, not in the crowd, so, no idea what happened. I have a few theories, but I'm not gonna risk starting rumors.

Same. And same with Biden. When asked, he said "I have an opinion but we'll wait for the facts to come out."

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Thanks. Added your link and context to the mega thread

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I said this in another one of these threads- it is not at all outlandish to think that someone unhinged with a gun would see the threat of a fascist dictator and decide to do something about it.

Yeah, I remember my grandfather telling the story of how Hitler held a speech at a Stadium that was visible from his attic window, and his biggest regret was, that he did not have a machinegun to take him and the other Nazi officials with him out. The US has enough guns and desperation for someone to attempt this, definitely.

What year was that?

I don't remember him mentioning the exact year, it's been ages and I was a child still when he was still alive, but I know it was before the Machtergreifung, because he told it as having been a rally during an election campaign, eerily fitting, I guess.

The right has been agitating for stochastic terrorism for about sixteen god damn years. Well, they got it.

It's likely a good thing the guy missed. Trump being assassinated might just kick off the open violence that has been brewing. Still might, but it'll depend on the next couple of days. If that dude turns out to be a left-winger, and Trump makes no attempt to stop it, I could see things getting very, very ugly.

If that dude turns out to be a left-winger

That dude's political leaning will turn out to be whatever the news we prefer says he was.

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it happens a lot more than you would think throughout american history, sometimes with guns, sometimes without. Obama had 8 attempts throughout his terms in office. Biden has had one so far, trump has had a few, nothing more significant than obama though, except for maybe being shot, just barely.

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I don’t doubt the shooter was genuinely trying to kill him. But I also think there are an unprecedented number of Republicans and Democrats who would be secretly relieved if their own party’s candidate were assassinated.

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It's a very common gut reaction to assume something like this has to be "staged", I said it in the other thread in some discussions: It's understandable to have it as this feeling. But everyone who feels that way: take a breath, remember the world is much more chaotic and much less controlled than you think, you don't have to think of yourself as stupid for thinking it, but wait for more information to come out and be ready to give it up then.

Reacting properly to this new reality is much more important, than trying to adjust reality to fit an emotion. It's human to do that, react instinctively in a first gut reaction, but it is also human to be able to let go of that.

In the spirit of not promoting violence, I'd like to promote the alternative of the Alex Jones treatment. Gaslight the fucker and set a conspiracy in motion to hound him the rest of his days.

I am hoping it results in visible signs of PTSD. That would be a modern Tar & Feathering.

I agree. We're all just processing this and should probably take a break and come back when there is more info and we can think critically. That said, this is very scary, like, I feel like my physical safety is at risk because of this. So, not knowing what others are going through, I'm going to have some compassion for any initial reactions. People are having these same discussions face to face right now but not everyone can do that and may need to.

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Thank you. And fuck the idiots spouting off with the "staged" nonsense. The time to believe something is staged is when you have evidence that it was.

People are obviously on high alert, considering how far Trump is willing to go given Jan 6th. From the Reichstag fire to the Russian apartment bombings, such events manufactured or actual have profound impact on public perception and action. Naomi Klein's (not to be confused with the nut job Naomi Wolf) The Shock Doctrine details this well.

No sign this was a false flag, but holy fuck does it have terrible implications.

Oh, it's all tongue-in-cheek, and yet: quid pro quo.

Trump's entire persona is built on lies, it shouldn't be a surprise that it's many people's first thought.

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i mean honestly, it's scary, but it's also not a good time to be an american right now, from the immunity rulling to the jan 6th delays, and all the other bullshit going on, things seem to be getting vastly more interesting now than they were just a few months ago.

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Yeah, a 120 meter shot to graze does not exist. One inch to the right and he's dead. With wind variables and stuff, the shooter who can reliably pull that off in one shot or volley does not exist.

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It’s probably not staged. Trump reacts quickly - the fuck kind of timing you think that bloated potato has?

it's absolutely what you would expect the reaction to be. Much like burning your hand on a stove where your brain deals with the situation a lot quicker than you can logically process it, these kinds of injuries can do the same thing. It's more than likely the people surrounding him that clued him in on it quicker than anything. That's the one thing you would be prepared to expect.

Yeah, if you’re going to stage a fake assassination, you don’t fire a bullet a couple inches away from a kill shot. It’s crazy how close this was to a successful attempt.

If it was staged, the only feasible way would be that he wasn't shot at all and all we saw was fake blood. Regardless, I don't think it was actually staged

If it was staged then they are playing a very risky game. It doesn’t take much error to make a bullet that grazes your ear dome you. It’s basically certain that this wasn’t staged.

It seems far more likely that Trump has some sort of quantum immortality than this being staged. Truly an insane shot to miss so narrowly while still grazing. I get why it makes people scratch their head. It will be interesting to see what happens.

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Do not advocate or celebrate violence, please. Comments advocating violence will be deleted and bans will be issued.

Also, please avoid promoting conspiracies. Discussing current events is fine but suggesting things like “it’s a false flag” without evidence is spreading a conspiracy.

A reminder, he incited people Jan 6th which resulted in deaths.

That's the wild thing.

This is a "Oh no what will Cheeto say to start a riot?"

This shit was never here before because it's likely CYA mode for Lemmy because feds could come sniffing here if copycat incidents occur.

bro the feds are already sniffing lemmy you think they arent?

They're sniffing lemmy just like their sniffing literally every other social media platform right now.

There is a difference between background-level bulk sniffing and someone-here-maybe-incited-violence targeted sniffing. The former is data collection, which is passive in the form practiced by “the feds”. The latter is data connection, putting effort into connecting a subset of the data that has been collected to form a story. Data connections need a framing, a nucleation seed, an impetus for why the feds might think such a connection is interesting or relevant or worth adding to their story about a larger incident. Collecting data is cheap and done in bulk, partly because it can be done passively and partly because the US govt paid a lot of money on storage and collection mechanisms. Connecting data is something that requires a lot more time, effort, patience, and vetting to make sure you are doing it right.

Or you can give the job to generative AI and hope it doesn’t hallucinate that someone innocent is guilty; with a large enough data pool (ie the internet, reality, what-have-you) it’s possible to select a misleading subset to support whatever hallucination you want.

It’s easy to do wrong, which is exactly why you don’t want the feds sniffing around. Especially now that they have the tools to automate doing it wrong, and might not know how to use them yet.

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I know you have to say this, but holy shit do I disagree.

This person advocated significant violence and contributed to the deaths and loss of human rights of thousands. A good whack of the world would turn up hungover to work tomorrow after celebrating only a few inches over.

Lemmy users when they can’t advocate violence:

young_guy_straining.jpg

Advocating for violence to prevent a fascist from abolishing the democracy is the only acceptable violence. Sometimes a democracy has to be protected violently if it is too weak to protect itself. Trump allies always say its why they have the second amendment. Now that it is used against them they cry about it.

Everybody thinks their form of violence is the only acceptable violence.

The paradox of tolerance is only a paradox if you don't believe in the social contract.

Beliefs that violate the social contract deserve no protection under it.

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spreading a conspiracy

I know this is off-topic, but can we please go back to saying "conspiracy theory"? Conspiracy and conspiracy theories are not the same. There are actual conspiracies (a secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful) , and there are theories of conspiracies. They should not be confused.

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How do the people get justice for a convicted criminal that's above the law? Is there a reason why the constitution has an amendment for guns? Why are so many platforms against the constitution and against the need for correct course when apt?

Stop acting like corpo reddit admins and mods.

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Did you guys hear Richard Simmons died? So sad.

And Dr. Ruth :(

They noped out of wherever the fuck this chapter of America is headed.

Sadly was more surprised she was still alive. Thought she had already passed :(

No way! Oh man! I feel like the teenage late night radio listening part of my heart just died.

What peeves me is that the right are all clutching their pearls about anyone who says anything other than blind Trump sympathy. Don't get me wrong, political violence is wrong. But, remember this:

When Paul Pelosi got his face bashed in with a hammer, the right made fun of it. Mocked him. Idk, man.

This is what is so frustrating.

Conservatives call for violence; Call for rising up; Literally calling themselves DOMESTIC TERRORISTS: Absolutely a nothing burger. Just a bunch of locker room talk. Relax that's normal conservative speech.

Liberals blinking aggressively: WHY ARENT YOU MORE TOLERANT BE BETTER.

That shit was amazingly disgusting. And yeah, Trump gets no sympathy from me. But I won't call for his death, either. I want him to live a very long time. In prison.

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Have we considered that the gunman might be a jilted lover? /s

Maybe it was the father of one of the children trump raped.

Or how about when he said that if he lost to Clinton:

“If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people — maybe there is, I don’t know.”

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Fuck. This is probably not going to lead to good things.

Agreed. It's going to further inflame chaos and tensions in the country, it's going to further radicalize Trump himself into an even nastier man, and it's going to motivate his base. Even if Trump were to pass away, that base still remains, and we have the risk of a much more intelligent and gifted speaker taking up its leadership.

people gathering around him ready to pounce and abuse power are more dangerous than he is

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If it were anyone else, almost getting shot should be a wake-up call. "What have I become that this happens? Maybe I need to change how I act, and what I do." But , no.

There have been many failed and successful assassinations of political leaders or other public people. You think if John Lennon had survived his assassination he should have taken it as a wake-up call and revisit his values and public stances?

There is many good reasons why Trump should start introspecting. And if he would develop some sort of empathy and decency probably the pain of seeing who he was and is would kill him better than any bullet could.

But this is because he is Trump. This is not because someone wanted to kill him. All sorts of people want to kill all sorts of people for all sorts of reason.

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If you're planning to take out an aspiring despot, you better be damn sure of your shot

I don't think your advocating for or celebrating violence, but this comment is probably going to be taken that way and deleted. I totally agree with your point though, a failed assassination attempt is probably the worst thing you can do to a guy who wants to destroy democracy.

All things being equal, I am glad that the assassin failed. I am no fan of Trump by any measure. I wish, every day, that Trump would just go away and stay out of politics.

I feel that assassinating someone like Trump would only intensify the right-wing’s rhetoric and make things worse in the long run. I also feel that whomever would replace Trump would be far much worse than Trump himself. It’s a lose-lose either way.

No, the appropriate thing to do is to vote these bastards out of office. I fear the worst, that maybe we’re going to fail doing that; we’re what, 4 months away from the election and we’re talking about replacing Biden, but NOBODY has said with whom? Yeah that’s confidence inspiring.

My doomer mentality aside, I do still hope I’m wrong, and that democracy and justice will prevail. But dammit if the “good guys” aren’t bending over backwards to make that hard to believe.

we’re talking about replacing Biden, but NOBODY has said with whom?

People have said over, and over, and over that it would be Harris. She is beating both Trump and Biden in the polls, is able to take over the Biden-Harris campaign funds with minimal legal dispute, she appeals more to women, independents, black voters etc.

It's not a question. She's not ideal, but she actually stands a chance to beat Trump. Biden does not, especially now. It would be Harris. Now you know.

I have heard that mentionedonce or twice, but never concretely. Most of what I’ve been seeing is that “Biden should step down,” and nothing more.

Either way, the last thing the Democratic Party needs right now is more fragmentation. If they’re going to replace Biden, just fucking do it already. If not, shut the fuck up about it. Time is ticking, and it’s not on our side.

4 months is not a long time to campaign. We’re already halfway through July. This should’ve been figured out long ago.

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I feel that assassinating someone like Trump would only intensify the right-wing’s rhetoric and make things worse in the long run.

I hear that a lot, but I honestly don't see how. The man is toxic to the core, he consistently takes all the sanity out of public conversation. An America without him is just less crazy and less angry.

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"If you come for the throne you best not miss" or something like that

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The great recession, a global pandemic, and now a second American civil war. I want off this train.

And not a single of those things will matter or be remembered after the great climate collapse.

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Guy tries to overthrow the country, and people are worried that someone tried to kill him. What is wrong with this world. If people aren't trying to kill him we have something to worried about.

The justice system failed to arrest and detain the suspect and keep him imprisoned until charged properly. This isn't a failure of the people, it is a failure of the government.

We're worried because of what will happen in retaliation.

I'm sure he will spin it into some grand conspiracy with very little evidence behind it. But his lunatic supporters don't really need evidence of conspiracies so I'm not sure it'll change anything very much.

Now if the bullet had hit him that would be a very different thing.

True, unlike the packed supreme court, literal attempt at insurrection, already #1 terrorists in the USA according to the DHS and FBI...

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I can’t wait for Trump to turn pro-gun control.

Wouldn't be the first time. Conservatives are conservative up until the moment someone uses freedom from government oversight in a way that hurts or inconveniences them. Then they're all, "There oughta be a law against blah blah blah" without an iota of self-awareness.

I like it when they say it's not about guns, it's about mental health and then you say okay, let's have universal healthcare and they say, "no, not like that!"

Right? I'm 100% ready to agree with them on the mental health aspect, let's address that by giving people healthcare and access to food and housing

But that's not cruel enough for them

He literally said "take the guns, then do process [sic]" years ago

then do process

Heads up, it's due process because it's the process you're due (the process you're entitled to or that's proper, expected, etc), not the process you're doing.

[sic] means they’re quoting as originally said, including mistakes.

I know, however I looked it up to see the context and it sounds like it was part of a spoken conversation, not written text. As such, the [sic] doesn't make sense.

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The bump stock ban overturned by the Supreme Court was put in place by Trump. He is not pro-gun.

He's not pro-gun. Neither is he anti-gun.

He's pro-Trump. He'll say anything if he thinks he'll get more money (and now, enough votes to escape his crimes). You won't find a single issue he hasn't flip-flopped on except "How can this make Trump richer?"

He’s not pro-gun.

I just said that.

Neither is he anti-gun.

I'm not very convinced of that.

"It takes so long to go to court to get the due process procedures I like taking the guns early like in this crazy man's case that just took place in Florida he had a lot of firearms and they saw everything to go to court would have taken a long, long time so you could exactly what you're saying but take the guns first, go through due process second." - Trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du4xz6Lndxk&t=43s

He’s pro-Trump.

I wouldn't argue with that.

Man, I would love to watch his supporters work through the dissonance on that one. On one hand, they already chose Trump over their god... On the other hand, "come and take it" culture is right up there with evangelicalism as far as being really ingrained.

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I didn't need this fucking stress on top of everything else. I only hope that the poll bump he'll get for this is short-lived.

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Biden added: "Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety. There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it,"

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-says-he-is-grateful-hear-trump-is-safe-has-been-briefed-shooting-2024-07-14/

Must the Democrats champion good manners ALL the time? Jesus Christ he's a fascist! Fuck good sportsmanship!

Who the fuck are you trying to impress? Who's going to consider this the moment they vote for Biden over Trump?

"Violence has no place in America."

Cops killing citizens. Native genocide. Genocide in Palestine. Protesters being beaten. People using their "rights" being arrested and killed. Slow socially accepted murder caused by poverty. Rights for Queer youth being taken away, which leads to self harm.

Why do they just give "thoughts and prayers" to Hitler 2.0? Trump isn't going to be kind with this, he'll start saying every Democrat is responsible for this. Fuck the "higher moral ground".

Because like it or not saying "Too bad you didn't die from that" will not only lose moral high ground but also already-can't-aford-to-lose votes?

Are you suddenly pro-violence because one is a someone you think is the Hitler 2.0? I get the sentiment but I'm pretty sure that's exactly what Jan 6 people would say to Joe.

Don't fuck the higher moral ground. Why be them to fight them? Celebrating public shooting is doing more than just losing moral highground...

"Thoughts and prayers to the man who wishes to make America a fascist dictatorship because of Russia. It'd be rude to wish that man dead."

Violence to fascists is self defense for minorities, especially ones like me. I bet you if Trump died, the Mexicans locked in cages at the border would cheer. I would.

When Trump starts calling for certain politicians to be unalive and even gets the ok from the Supreme Court, I hope all the people crying about the moral high ground remember this moment

They'll say we're the true monsters for wishing the camp guards to keel over and die as we dig our mass graves.

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That makes so much sense! Hitler had to commit suicide because no one else could execute him without risking losing the moral high ground! I can't believe I never realized that!

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Don't forget allowing abortion bans so teen and child rape victims are forced to give birth to their rapists' babies. And Tuskegee. And lack of healthcare access which kinda eugenics disabled people. And the CIA. Guantanamo. The government's response to the AIDs epidemic.

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I mean this is the world he wants, you can't dog whistle people to take up arms against tyranny without a comfortable acceptance of the irony pool you are filling. Everyone will try to spin this to their political advantage but the truth is this is the level of political discourse the right has been driving towards.

Trump's rhetoric almost lead to Pelosi getting killed. Trump's rhetoric got people killed on Jan 6th. Republicans have been posting images with crosshairs of their opponents for years, and now they are surprised that shit is turning violent...

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So, I am fearing this will not only rally all Trump supporters to really vote for and support him extra hard, and get some undecideds to his side for his martyr status, but it might also spark a wave of stochastic terrorism and shootings by some right-wingers acting out, who will want to deliver justice to whatever group they will blame.

There is definitely some danger of this potentially spiraling, not guaranteed, but that will depend on some more potentially chaotic weeks ahead. Stay safe, stay prepared, stay organised.

Have you seen the photo? You couldn't have staged a better one. It makes me sick

I bet Trump is perversely happy he got shot. He can be a Real Brave Man, now. How much attention it gets him. How much more clout he believes he will get because he will weasel some political capital out of it. Heaven help us if the shooter was liberal, this man is fine with dog whistling violence and more than a few of his followers are itching to engage in it. It won't matter one whit how many people have been killed or hurt by right wingers.

When 9 11 happened, people had different reactions: sadness, fear, shock... people like Dick Cheney immediate reaction was: what can I gain from this.

I'm pretty sure Trump runs on that exact mentality.

When 9/11 happened, Trump bragged about having the tallest tower in the city even though he did not.

They even managed to get a triumphant picture out of it. The Secret Service is surrounding him, he's bloody but holding his fist high, and the American flag is perfectly framed in the background. This shit is going to pump his polling numbers. All he has to do is put whatever fake nationalist bullshit he wants over that picture for 30 seconds and it's an instant ad in battleground states.

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I bet there will be a retaliatory attack on his Biden

I mean, the right is already committing violence against its enemies, the media just fails to report it as what it is. Instead it's "lone wolves" and "mental health problems". Rittenhouse literally shot people on camera and got away with it "because skateboard".

Daniel Perry murdered someone after driving his car into a crowd and was pardoned because Abbott agreed with his politics.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Garrett_Foster

The right is perfectly fine with violence that supports them.

The fact that he claimed self-defense really goes to show how far the MAGA attitude of being "victimized" goes. Literally plows his car into a crowd of people and then claims self-defense when shooting someone.

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I doubt it. Something like this already happened before in 2017. A deranged Bernie supporter went to a congressional baseball game and tried to shoot as many Republicans as he could. He ended up killing 6 people. However, despite that, there were no reactionary shootings. It was an isolated incident. I think this will be the same, or at least I hope.

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I was excited at first, then sad. Trump's death would be the only way american people get justice as he's clearly above the law. Can't believe all the news hasn't called him felon trump, instead calling him president trump, dropping the former.

Reddit's megathread on this is already broken. Just goes to show how terrible it is, you'd think after all this time they'd figure out how to run a website...

What does it look like? Ive finally deleted my account there and I'm trying not to keep browsing despite that lol

My guess: Spez team broke it when the monetizattion algo collided with the censorship algo.

Gotta love how people are instantly pulling a QAnon deal of “ITS A FALSE FLAG, FAKE NEWS, NOTHING HAPPENS WITHOUT A GRAND CABAL!”

Somehow Trump is a mastermind of this. The dude who can’t hide stolen files properly, can’t lie on his taxes properly, and loses money on a casino, somehow has the ability to rig a false flag assassination attempt.

Are NeoLibs that so far into the Kool-Aid that Dipshit Trump is also a grandmaster 5D chess player of this, while not being able to string words together? It’s not like he’s ever been a good actor.

"Now Trump's gonna say Biden tried to kill him."

He already said that.

"Now Trump's gonna call for repression of the left."

He already did that.

"Now they're gonna say Trump is a martyr."

They already say that.

"Now the right is gonna get violent with their political opponents."

They already do that.

"Now the fash are gonna push for an enabling act."

They already are doing that.

It's equally frustrating and vindicating that people are waking up to the alarms minorities have been sounding for... decades? Even during 9/11, people were saying this is the start of the end for any form of freedom. Then we had economic crash after crash. Then more rights removed. More drone strikes. More illegal wars.

Then we tried to warn about Trump. No one cared. He won. The people who said he would hurt did get hurt. People acted shocked.

Biden came in. Ignored the people in jail cells, ignored COVID for better polling, refusing the new powers given to him to do anything better for the country at large, and slowly turning into a walking skeleton.

And every single time people have said "Hey this is bad for any form of democracy" people said it was overblown, nothing bad would happen. Then it got worse and worse. Voting didn't solve most of the issues. Protesting did. And then both parties clamped harder on protestors and increased funding to the militarized police.

Welcome to Weimar Germany, America. People have only warned you for decades. If this doesn't wake anyone up, then you'll sleepwalk as you claim ignorance on why you're "just following orders".

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out --- Because I was MLK's white moderate.

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate,

who is more devoted to "order" than to justice;

who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice;

who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action";

who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

Welcome to Weimar Germany, America.

I've been armed 24/7 since 01/06. Women, POC and LGBT folks are the largest gun purchasing demographic. They too got the memo. So no, I'm not giving up my AR-15 or anything other gun.

It's like liberals skipped history class. We're months away from "red hats" grouping up and patrolling neighborhoods for "undesirables".

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You realize Trump was already previously part of a conspiracy to overthrow the election and was convicted of this, right? It's not like he's new to this kind of organizational crime. No one thinks he's a mastermind; they think he's a con artist and they just don't trust him. And I'm not saying it was a false flag, I'm just pointing out that people are basing this on past evidence of his behaviors.

This is also not a qanon level of a conspiracy, it's quite mild.

Here's what right wing conspiracies have to say so far about the shooting (I highly recommend monitoring them to gauge how they will react the next few days):

https://kansascitydefender.com/national/trump-shooting-antifa-conspiracies/

Right-Wing Accounts Launch Mark Violets Antifa Conspiracy in Light of Trump “Assassination Attempt

Please note this has been DEBUNKED.

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I’m so over politics in America. This shit is terrifying. People trying to overthrow elections, seniors that are too old to lead, voter suppression, people stuck in disinformation bubbles, and now assassins. Meanwhile, the rich just get richer, and “middle class” life just gets harder and harder.

I have dual citizenship with an EU nation from birth, and this week had made me start to dust off those childhood documents and look into the details of relocating.

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this BBC interview with a guy outside the security perimeter who claims he saw the shooter before he fired is absolutely wild

Wow, you weren't kidding

Sounds like it was pretty amateur hour with the police and security. Nuts he was there for minutes and they didn't do anything.

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I added some of yours to the mega thread - the ones not directly depicting death.

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https://kansascitydefender.com/national/trump-shooting-antifa-conspiracies/

Right-Wing Accounts Launch Mark Violets Antifa Conspiracy in Light of Trump “Assassination Attempt

Please note this is a DEBUNKED conspiracy per the link above, the shooter's identity is unknown at this time

Shooter appears to be a white male, aged 20s or early 30s by the look of it. The t-shirt he was wearing is allegedly marked with branding for a firearms-related YouTube channel.

https://x.com/Shadi_Alkasim/status/1812315218258833590

Edit: Possible suspects are either Maxwell Yearick, previously arrested while demonstrating against Trump in Pittsburgh on a previous occasion, or a Thomas Matthew Crooks, according to the NY Post.

Hasn't been officially ID'd yet though, so still speculation.

Looks like Thomas Matthews Crooks is not the right guy

Edit 2: but there are a lot of images/videos of the wrong guy going around.

He posted a video saying "you've got the wrong guy" but looks like he's been talking to lawyers and decided to make his whole account private now".

http://youtube.com/shorts/DM9SVbojbl4

https://x.com/ValorMG/status/1812357749784936512

Edit: Maybe? It could be that the name is correct, but the guy you see in the video is definitely not him.

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I did some cyberstalking (someone actually built a whole ass family tree on Ancestry already, which was my source to look up the other info). Just a reminder, please don’t dox or post any publicly identifiable info on here.

The alleged shooter did donate to a liberal group in 2021, age 17, before he was registered to vote. Rumors of this being another person are likely inaccurate, as the donor has the correct name and zip code listed.

The alleged shooter is a registered Republican. Some have theorized he did this as a “stop Trump” sort of thing to vote in PA’s closed primaries. His father is a registered libertarian and his mother is a registered democrat. His sister is a registered libertarian.

I imagine we will have more info on his background and motivation in the coming days and weeks. It’s possible that he could have any kind of political alignment. A lot of young men can get radicalized between 17 and 20.

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This quote from a supporter is very rich indeed

The witness said she wasn't surprised a shooting occurred because of the current political climate.

It’s a great opportunity to open a conversation about gun control.

Dark times (including a now virtually guaranteed Trump presidency) ahead.

RIP to the USA.

Care to explain where your certainty is coming from?

Biden's poor polling combined with the tendency of those with assassination attempts against them being seen as martyrs.

On the contrary, I'm hoping that this is what it takes to make the polls look ugly enough to Biden that he finally steps down.

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It makes him a martyr. Biden was already an extremely weak leader with a massive public perception problem. Trump surviving an assassination attempt while defiantly pumping his fist in the air is the clarion call for Amerikan Fascism.

Biden was already losing in every single swing state. I believe his existing chances before this event for winning reelection were somewhere around 10% at best. This obliterated those chances entirely. The average person is dumb as fuck, and they will vote for strong man leadership. It is a generational mind virus that rises up over and over again in the human psyche. This generation will be no different.

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After thinking about this...offing him will do nothing to stop the creep of facism. You have an entire party now aligned with the idealogices that the 3rd Reich had. And it's the entire party. MAGA killed the GOP after they got rid of Cheney. You cut one head off and 3 more will pop up identical to him...with vindication. Its going to be a yearly struggle and I fear we won't be able to hold the line forever

Offing him would be a pretty stark warning that tyranny comes at a price. As the kids say, “fuck around and find out”.

A federal execution would be, maybe.

Good luck seeing that happen.

If he had died today he’d be a martyr. We don’t need a martyr… and he’s gonna ham it up as he if he were.

This was an incredibly stupid thing to do.

Nah they wouldn't be scared. Just more emboldened. They have an entire political party now that feels the same way they do

It took one bullet to stop an insurrection. Fascists are cowards, if the consequences were death or life in prison, they would stop.

I like Presidents who DON'T Fail their Assassinations!

All of the Trump rally photos that I have ever seen have an audience behind him. If they did the same here, then any missed shots would go into the audience.

We'll see now this just wouldn't have happened if they let the attendees bring their guns now would it?

Don't forget it's not over after November. There are more elections and more chances to turn this around and save our country.

Are there? He's made it clear he wants to do away with anything resembling democracy. What elections do you think are going to survive white christofascism

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Chris Hedges' tweet...

My thoughts on the assassination attempt on former President Trump:

The assassination of Trump would not remove the yearning of tens of millions of people, many conditioned by the Christian right, for a cult leader. Most of the leaders of the Christian right have built cult followings of their own. These Christian fascists embraced magical thinking, attacked their enemies as agents of Satan and denounced reality-based science and journalism long before Trump did. Cults are a product of social decay and despair, and our decay and despair are expanding, soon to explode in another financial crisis.

The efforts by the Democratic Party and much of the press, including CNN and The New York Times, to discredit Trump, as if our problems are embodied in him, are futile. The smug, self-righteousness of this crusade against Trump only contributes to the national reality television show that has replaced journalism and politics. This crusade attempts to reduce a social, economic and political crisis to the personality of Trump. It is accompanied by a refusal to confront and name the corporate forces responsible for our failed democracy. This collusion with the forces of corporate oppression, which have impoverished the working class, fostered endless war, militarized our police, created the largest prison system in the world, licensed corporations to exploit the most vulnerable and transferred wealth upwards into the hands of a billionaire class, neuters the press, Trump's critics and the Democratic Party.

Our only hope is to organize the overthrow of the corporate state that vomited up Trump. Our democratic institutions, including the legislative bodies, the courts and the media, are hostage to corporate power. They are no longer democratic. We must, like resistance movements of the past, engage in acts of sustained mass civil disobedience, especially strikes, and non-cooperation. By turning our ire on the corporate state, rather than Trump, we name the true sources of power and abuse. We expose the absurdity of blaming our demise on demonized groups such as undocumented workers, Muslims, African-Americans, Latinos, liberals, feminists, gays and others. We give people an alternative to a bankrupt Democratic Party -- whose presidential candidate is in clear cognitive decline -- that is a full partner in corporate oppression and cannot be rehabilitated. We make possible the restoration of an open society. If we fail to embrace this militancy, which alone has the ability to destroy cult leaders, we will continue the march toward tyranny.

source: https://x.com/ChrisLynnHedges/status/1812526737982726267

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