Open Thread - Thurs 18 Jul 2024 - 'Eh'
18 July Open Thread - 'Eh'
I didn't and don't have much reaction to the attempted assassination of Trump. Mostly my reaction is, 'eh'. I'm upset about the man who died protecting his family. And the possible screwups, that's bothersome too. What really upsets me is what the shooting revealed, once again, about America. Our country is founded, and built, by violence and the guns that reflect that. RJ Eskow expressed exactly what I've been feeling, but couldn't describe very well, is his article 'One Nation Under Fire: Trump Resurgent'.
Eskow talks about how most Americans are 'under the gun', 'under the gun' of economic hardship as well as random shootings and so on, and about how America was founded in violence and how the wars America has fought in the last 75 years have all been driven by political violence, one way or another. I can't disagree; he's right.
From 2012, but it fits. An editorial cartoon from Cleveland.com.
Eskow writes, 'Gun violence is terrible. But the structural violence of economic inequality also kills us, every day, in numbers that dwarf our nation’s lethal shootings. That’s a message voters haven’t heard from Democrats, who instead seem to radiate contempt for Trump’s supporters. But the MAGA movement isn't a collectivity of evil people. It isn’t even an ideology. For millions of its members, it’s a drug. Like fentanyl, it relieves the constant terror of precarity.' I think that hits the spot, doesn't it?
Eskow finishes with 'We aren’t one nation under God, despite what the Pledge of Allegiance says. We’re one nation under fire, divided and divisible, with anarchy and numbness for all. For Trump’s opponents, the hour has arrived. Whether they understand it and act accordingly is up to them.'
Taibbi writes about the sudden changes the assassination attempt have brought to the political scene. Maybe they are permanent, maybe not. One is that RFK, JR, will now have official secret service protection, or something. Maybe the changes are the beginning of a new political era, like Taibbi postulates, or maybe... 'eh'. One thing both articles make me think is that our country's change into an empire, like the Roman empire, is certainly continuing apace. Maybe Trump, or Vance, will be the first emperor?
As for JD Vance - once again, my reaction is, 'eh'. I wasn't voting for Trump before (or Biden), I'm not now. I think the selection is very appropriate for our horrific politics and current conditions. Let's get another @&&hole to rule us. It's what we need!
Thanks for reading! Here's the open thread - remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!
Comments
It's Thursday! Yay!
Hope everyone is having a good day, and a good week! It's been tons of gardening here, but things are moving along! And growing like mad. That's been good. Been dealing with my Dad in the memory care home. The home is great, but Dad's health is failing, slowly, but surely. And that's very, very hard to take.
Anyway, post what up with you, what you are thinking, reading, learning! We wanna know!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Bon dia
.
.
Thanks for posting this essay Sima. I do not think we can shoot our way out of failed
domestic policies any more than we can bomb our way out of international failures.
The gun lobbies won't admit it any more than the weapons lobbyists will. There must
be a better way to settle disputes than violence?
Cheers
I think there must be a better way to settle disputes...
But I bet it comes down to some primitive, beat the chest and howl like a monkey, kind of thing for many. And so, violence it is
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Which makes me think of
Brian Bilston's poem, entitled "America Is A Gun".
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Great poem...
That poem really hits the spot. Thanks for introducing us to it!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
My interest in the shooting comes from wondering about....
Who is responsible. Was it a deep state inside job? Was it a Hollywood setup to promote Trump? Was it a political hit by Ukraine operatives? Was it...
When you ask "who benefits?"...let's see taking out Trump 2 days before the convention would leave the RNC in turmoil. Or if it was a set up, Trump emerges as a hero.
Plenty of intrigue to speculate about to my mind. I have no answers just speculations. Tucker said in DC this week, the election is over...and I suspect he is correct.
We're staying busy in the garden too. Tomatoes and okra coming in fast and furious. Take care and thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I believe a House
(R-controlled) committee will be looking into the attempt next week in hearings. FBI and SS roles probed, under oath. There are a number of puzzling aspects of that event and the official story so far makes no sense except as the SS showed extraordinary incompetence and negligence, always a possibility.
Biden/Mayorkas (DHS) should also be demanding, ordering an internal SS review to get out ahead of the committee and show the admin is awake at least part of the day.
'Admin awake at least part of the day'...
I wish
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
I'm violating my vow to reduce my visibility
but it's very difficult when I look at the issues we are facing and how we are so bound to the chains that were put around our neck so long ago.
Before discussing my vow I have to comment on our "shooter". I have seen independent opinionators who suggest that the shooter had more in common with Arthur Bremer than Oswald. In the case of the latter the underlying motive was specific to the target. In the case of Bremer the motive was more internal, that the shooter was faced with some serious psych issues that he couldn't cope with and that he wanted to do a deed which he felt would provide him a relief. Perhaps a little too permanent but then when I look at his station in life there was a lot of misery.
I think there are reports that he was researching opportunities for different high profile targets and DT was more reachable. This also corresponds to the incompetent actors in our society, based primarily on board room talent, PMCs and MBAs. Not the font of innovative thought. I'm sure they have this great AI data base of potential unhappies. Big BS on social media, etc. Completely misses anyone who doesn't fit their profile. I lived those "meetings" long ago, tasked with make work while the superstars on their way up from kneeling before the supreme commander sporting his brag wall.
Oh well, enough of that...
A couple months ago I rid myself of my long time cell number. Took a new one and have not notified anyone other than the LOML, not even my sons. I have a landline that we use when separated. She is suffering some aging difficulties and cannot drive, navigate the web, deal with a smart phone, etc. This arrangement has proven to be a good decision. Kinda quiet but no more BS calls. One key press and that contact is gone forever.
When I check nakedcapitalism I see links which reinforce the contact stuff, eg, the guy whose number was cloned and the bad guy used it to transfer his bank account. Since I relocated my bank to a block away I allow transfers only from one account to another, never outside, no bill pay, etc. Those are done in an office with a rep, face-to-face. The LOML and I do one check each every other a month, a cashiers check for the rent, which I then hand deliver to the office here.
In closing, I have been quite taken by the opinions of Charles Hugh Smith. You might enjoy them: https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/
Please be well all. Much love.
PS: If BO lied so well to make me believe in something he would do if elected, why would I not provide some leeway to our new vp pick? With some minor differences, his life story comes close to mine. I may end up being disappointed but I wait and see. He can't be worse than what we've lived recently.
Thanks for the introduction...
to Charles Hugh Smith. Good writing! I think your way of treating a cell phone makes a lot of sense. I don't give out my number at all. People can text me, but no calls. I wish people like those at the doctor's office would pay attention where I wrote that my preferred phone number is my home number. Don't call my cell phone, I won't answer!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
@Lookout There are too many
There are too many outrageous lapses and ridiculous features of this event for me to believe it was organic. Ever since the Smith Mundt Modernization Act passed in 2012, it has been legal for the government to use propaganda against the population, and it is with that in mind that I have come to question and doubt the authenticity of many of the mass shooter/public terrorism events of the last several years, including but not limited to Sandy Hook, Boston Marathon, Las Vegas, and this one.
It is my theory (and I have read this elsewhere) that there was in fact an inside plot to take out Trump in the usual way with a lone, crazed shooter who would be killed. However, I believe Trump's team sniffed it out and foiled it beforehand, then leveraged those plans to put on it's own performance, complete with crisis actors, fake blood, etc. I don't believe in the kind of luck that a shooter missed from that distance and just nicked Trump's ear because he fortuitously turned his head at the right moment.
The Deep State (including the media) are reluctant to call B.S. on this because Trump's team has the receipts and can expose the actual foiled plot, and perhaps several others that were perpetrated in previous years. I believe this is a great example of Sun Tzu (The Art of War), turning an attack by the opponent into a massive victory for the intended victim. That "iconic" photo was just the cherry on top. Just my two cents.
Too many actual videos and photos
look so unnatural, it is easy to think of this attempt as a staged event.
The first photo of the dead shooter showed what appeared to be an Asian man with no glasses. That photo cannot be found on the internet since a few hours after it was posted.
Crooks' body showed no blood blowout. When a bullet goes into your forehead, the back of your head explodes. Blood, brains, bits of skull can be found on the ground, some flying several yards away. The immediate surroundings of the body wwill be absolutely drenched in blood. Where were his glasses?
Trump put his hand to his bloody ear, minutes later, raised an iconic fist that had no blood on it, nor did his white shirt.
By the time of the iconic photo, his ear was no longer bleeding. He is a super human blood clotter?
Trump went from a felon to a hero in record time.
Biden went from the obstinate candidate to the "too sick to run" guy in record time.
I have reviewed approximately 15 murder scenes, examined photos, videos, clothing, weapons, autopsy reports, in 17 murders, one suicide, and countless shootings that did not lead to a death.
Crooks should have been lying in a pool of blood.
Like sima says, we should be most upset about the dead firefighter.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
@on the cusp All good points and I
All good points and I have read about all of those strange circumstances and then some. Why would you believe any aspect of it, including the dead firefighter?
Perhaps the dead firefighter
is a real person in the wrong place at the wrong time. Validity?
His life and death would be easily provable.
Another aspect of this is Crooks parents, reportedly "behavioral clinicians", or something like that, suggesting they are counselors or therapists dealing with people with behavioral problems.
Well, their son, 20 yrs old, never left home, apparently did not work, by their admission had no friends, so I would strongly suggest they are not good at what they do for a living.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
@on the cusp I don't think
I don't think many things I see in the media are "easily provable" anymore, especially when official records are the evidence. The therapist parents/psychotic son story screams MK Ultra to me, foreshadowing an exposure of that evil system.
Hmmm...
I was thinking "easily provable" because a firefighter has a position among other firefighters, a fire chief, etc...Civil servants are just a step down from public figures.
They also have payroll records, and typically have life insurance through their city employers.
But a loner and parents with strange job titles who seem to have disappeared is a gift to skeptic of the official narrative.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
@on the cusp I understand,
I understand, but I am thinking Witness Protection programs. We know they exist and have been referred to in many articles and films. I expect they are used quite often. It's a big world.
I have friends
who have had their clients get into the Witness Protection program. The program is real.
Good point. I see Trump is using the firefighter's hard hat as a prop at his rallies today.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
All of these things you've noticed...
really speak to how this assassination attempt was faked in many ways. I'm so sorry for the people who were hurt and died; common people so 'who cares?'. I care. You care. I still don't think Trump was actually nicked by a bullet, I just don't.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
I once
gave instructions to a crew of volunteers to do a clean up of a property where a man killed himself by blowing his brains out. The property owner had about 4 dogs who lived outside, not inside house dogs. The fear I had was the property owner, traumatized enough already, might one day see one of her dogs gnawing on a sliver of bone.
The photos of Crooks on the roof lying dead simply defy reality. Period.
I lean strongly toward Trump not being shot.
BringBackCivics does bring up a good point about the firefighter being alive and well in Witness Protection.
I hope nobody got hurt or killed. I prefer being lied to than for their deaths and injuries to be real.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I've read speculation...
that Trump wasn't even nicked by a bullet, and so it's all kinda fake. And I'm suspicious. Give RFK, Jr, 'protection', or just make it easier to off him if he gets too much support?
The first of our garlic has been harvested. It is earlier! Hardneck garlic is taking a bit longer. Onions are ready, last of our broccoli is ready, harvest is happening!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Just when you
think it's over x 2: 1) Joe B under tremendous party pressure from Pelosi, Schumer, Schiff, Jeffries to step aside, and now the covid announcement, with Biden on record the same day earlier in an ABC interview saying he might conceivably step aside if a "health condition" occurred, and then voilà. 2) If #1 does happen, possibly this weekend, Kamala would be the obvious front runner, would benefit from the sudden change in events, and might look like she could win behind an energized and no longer depressed DP.
Just sayin, it aren't over til it's over.
Kamala...
'Eh'. I'm not excited at all, gotta admit.
They should replace Biden with someone with real potential. Even Newsome, or hell, Inslee. Heh.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Luck?
Karma? Divine protection? Just so damn close.
New reports are that security knew Crooks' name long before he climbed on the roof. Trump shouldn’t have been allowed on the stage.
Ray McGovern
There were problems with running a campaign of Joy while committing a genocide? Who could have guessed?
Harris is unburdened of speaking going forward.
Heh. Too focused on too many projects to be too cogent.
"In god we trust" - of course we do, an angry, avaricious, imperialist war god who demanded sacrifices and lucre and perpetrated massacres and genocides, both by himself and by proxy. That god also helps those who help themselves, and the US has been helping itself to everything it coould get its hands even before it ws officially formed.
be well and have good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Sounds like a good description...
of many gods, throughout the ages
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Public Schools teaching Oligarchy Taxation
https://www.levernews.com/americas-billionaires-are-teaching-your-kids-t...
“He may not have gotten the words out but the thoughts were great.”
Ugh
My stomach heaved...
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Many things
in the political sphere have been making me throw up a little in my mouth, here lately.
Must be something in the water.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Gag!
I remember school as being so good. I was lucky, I guess, in regards to the time and place of that schooling. And, my parents moved us to a new town in order to get good public schools for us. We kids were lucky, so lucky.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Biden Gone
I've been saying that Biden is going to be replaced due to medical problems and it looks like I am right. Not that I am a genius or anything, just have had too much experience with dealing with the elderly population. Look at the way Biden's speaking now. He barely moves his mouth. It's like mumble, mumble, mumble. You can barely understand what he's even saying. The average amount of time for dementia patients is around 8 years from the time of diagnosis. Biden has shown signs as far back as 2015/2016. He's had access to the best doctors around. They've known for years. That's why he never did any press conferences or anything where he would have to think for himself. He couldn't even read a teleprompter anymore.
Best wishes for your father. It's hard to see the man who was strong and took care of his family disappear before your eyes. My father wasn't that bad mentally but still I could see the change and it broke my heart. At least they made it to old age before it happened. I have a brother-in-law less than a year older than me who's been gone mentally for at least 5 or 6 years. When I was still working as a case manager, I did have a couple of clients who were totally gone in their 60's. One man's wife told me that it was like being married to a dead man. That he wasn't her husband anymore. More like her child.
My Dad is like Biden...
Only a couple years more advanced in the dementia. Several years ago, maybe like 5 or so, I could see it in Biden as I had watched it progress in my Dad.
Thank you for your wishes. I too think it's lucky that my Dad is 89, and made it to old age before the dementia hit. I can't imagine it hitting younger, but it does, and that's awful. It is like being married to a child, it's awful.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Sima,
I can put a slightly positive spin on your Dad's issues.
Aside from the professional care, and family expressions of love, he has no ability to be afraid of the end that is nearing. He feels no dread, no regrets, and is slowly ending in the same way we all want to die: in our sleep.
I admire you for stepping up to the plate to see to his needs.
Thanks for the OT, chica.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Thank you for the..
positive spin. I'm going to repeat it to my Mom. She feels so guilty about putting him into a home, but, it had to be done. He's doing well there, and he's getting the care he needs. And he doesn't know most everything.
Have a good weekend. No heat, no fires, no floods... I wish!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
My first satirical thought as of Saturday evening
was to channel Mission Impossible -- the key to the IM Force's scam is a gizmo that blows up the shell of the ear on cue, to look like an assassination attempt. The strait news stories do not need much help from the writers of the story. The shooter I call Lee Harvey Osgood is a twerp walking around the meeting space carrying a range finder. The only detail that looks real is the bloody ear. . .
I cried when I wrote this song. Sue me if I play too long.
This was funny...
Thank you, made me have a good laugh!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so