Trump’s assassination attempts aren’t going to be long-lasting stories primarily because discussion just how easy it was for this nutter, who had multiple prior gun charges, including possession of a weapon of mass destruction, to get an assault rifle and carry it around in Florida. Trump can whine all he wants, and his surrogates can spread nonsense about how Democrats’ critique of Trump caused a registered Republican who supports a Vivek/Haley ticket to try to take a shot at him, but come on. There’s no sane place on earth where this guy should be anywhere near a weapon.
Democrats’ desire to issue statements decrying violence don’t quite cut it (via Tom Sullivan):
Within minutes of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the Unity Statements began to popcorn out.
Every Unity Statement is different, but there are certain stylistic requirements that a Democratic political figure knows to follow.
First, the statement maker’s spouse’s name should be included prominently somewhere: “Becky and I were sad to hear…” “Corey and I were deeply shaken by the news…” “Charlie and I join together…” The inclusion of the spouse is important here because it signals that this is a special kind of statement. More Christmas card vibes than political statement vibes. The normal rules are suspended. There will be no jabs here, no stridency, maybe not even any truth. […]
Third, a Democratic Unity Statement must mention temperature. Specifically, it should suggest that the temperature has risen too high. Though it may be Republicans who are overwhelmingly responsible for raising the temperature, planetarily and politically, in a respectable Unity Statement, this cannot be said. Instead, it should be argued that the temperature be lowered. Who knows how it got raised, and who really cares? And the Democratic statement maker must immediately volunteer to participate in the lowering of what they may have had no part in raising. […]
Here, though, are some of the problems with the Unity Statement as we have been experiencing it.
It places the burden of healing the country on those not responsible for wounding it.
It asks well-meaning, earnest people to stop doing what they never were doing in the first place, while all but conceding that the people who are still doing it will not stop.
It deplores crimes against the common good without being interested in perpetrators.
It exonerates the victim who is the object of the statement from any complicity they might have had in creating the conditions that led to the statement having to be made.
It elevates the promptings of politeness over the promptings of honesty.
It substitutes a vague idea of “coming together” for the urgent and vital work of stopping an ongoing campaign of sowing hatred, disinformation, distrust, and enmity.
As Josh Marshall put it, we all know Trump started this fire. His campaign based on violence against opponents: for example, Junior posted picture of a hammer and underwear when someone bashed in Paul Pelosi’s head with a hammer. His campaign tells lies about immigrants that lead to bomb threats and school closings. His party squawks and squeals at even a hint of an assault rifle ban.
Trump is going to have to follow his own advice and get over it, because his campaign and his party demands that we live in a world where it’s too damn easy to get a gun.
NYC Meetup Proof of Life
Quinerly
Now let’s see what they do.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-secret-service-says-it-is-aware-musk-post-about-biden-harris-2024-09-16/
Baud
I’m even less impressed with people whose first thought is to complain about how Democrats are doing it wrong.
Steve LaBonne
I really appreciate Josh Marshall’s post. He nailed it.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: That’s the Republican talking point so we must all follow it. Hey, I don’t make the rules.
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: Thanks for the head’s up on the Joy Reid segment. Will def be watching for anyone who puts up a link to it.
I suspect the Secret Service was in touch with billionaire Musk. Question is how quickly his own corporate attorneys blasted him first.
Sure Lurkalot
Why not just the simple but meaningless “thoughts and prayers” because that’s all America’s kiddos get when their schools are shot up.
Elizabelle
I think in time Harris Walz is going to have to deal again with an assault weapons ban. She may have reassured voters in her first debate that no one is coming for their guns, but military grade assault rifles do not belong in public circulation. Enough.
bbleh
Trump is going to have to follow his own advice and get over it …
Ahahahahaha! Ahahaha! Stop! Please! Yer killin’ me! Ahahahahaaahaha!
Scout211
I guess Elon maybe learned something today that, as owner of a huge social media platform, he most certainly should have already known.
Good job, Elon. Knowing the context of a “joke” about assassination makes all the difference. Uh, huh. Hilarious.
ETA: I see Quinerly posted the link at #1 while I was composing.
japa21
@Quinerly: I may be in the minority, but I didn’t read his post as calling for an assassination attempt on Biden or Harris. Rather I see it as him thinking it is very suspicious that there have been no such attempts, implying the attempts on Trump are being orchestrated by the Dems.
Still an irresponsible tweet.
Steve LaBonne
@Elizabelle: They’ve been advocating for that all along.
Quinerly
@japa21:
I actually read it the way you read it. Either way, he deserves a visit from the authorities.
dmsilev
If Trump wants to golf in his publicly-accessible courses, fine. Let him be responsible for his own security. Otherwise, he could do the responsible thing (ha ha ha ha) and be like Obama and golf on courses on secure military bases.
(see this: Trump’s golf outings have long concerned Secret Service )
Elizabelle
Scolding by JD Vance (aka Jay Divans). My my my.
MagdaInBlack
@Scout211: The post he responded to, “DogeDesigner” was also him, one of his alter twitter persona’s.
So he, as his alter, made the first comment specifically so he could respond as he did.
He does this shit all the time
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Scout211:
Incels like Vance and Elon both say something is a “joke” when it’s clearly not. It’s on page one of the abusers playbook.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
Yep.
Elizabelle
@Steve LaBonne: Good to hear, although that nuance did not come up in the debate. It was “Tim and I own guns, and we are not coming for yours.”
Just say that because most people (OK, me) don’t check out Kamala’s website, but a lot of us paid close attention to that debate.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Elizabelle:
I thought Ken White’s (Popehat) reply on Bluesky was about right:
https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social/post/3l4co6vfs4i2s
Quinerly
@Scout211:
All cool. I go for short. If I post anything here, I’m mostly using my phone. I figure people can click on a link and read or not. The synopsis and block quotes folks do are great. For me, I always click on links and read for myself anyway.
dmsilev
@Scout211:
Most people manage to figure that out long before reaching his age and number of failed “joke” social media posts. Not to mention, most people don’t have a team of lawyers and PR specialists and so on and so forth who can tell him BAD IDEA. Maybe he should lay off the mind-altering substances for a month or two?
Scout211
What!? You mean the Secret Service hasn’t been in a readiness model?! WTAF? This is actually quite disturbing.
bbleh
@japa21: he wasn’t calling for it explicitly. This is edgelord, wannabe-mob-boss language. This is the language of someone with the emotional maturity of a ten-year-old (at best) tiptoeing right up to the line and then staring at the teacher plainly to say waddaya-gonna-do-about-it HUH? It’s the same kind of stuff the Felon himself has been doing for, well, years.
It’s perfectly clear what he said and meant. “Funny” how this thing (which I certainly don’t want to happen nonono!) hasn’t happened, huh? Isn’t that … odd? That it hasn’t happened? Why hasn’t it?
It’s a calculated lie, and anybody who falls for it is a sucker.
Quinerly
@dmsilev:
I am so old I remember when Obama was accused of excessive golfing while on the job.
Pretty sure all his golfing was at golf courses on military bases. I guess I could check to see if Camp David has a course. I bet it does.
Elizabelle
@@mistermix.bsky.social: Yep. It’s deny and distract.
And this on the same day he admitted to making up crap AND kept the lies about pet-eating Haitians going.
Looked up the acronym DARVO, which others have brought up as being abusers’ behavior.
Another Scott
But he didn’t.
WaPo – July 1995:
NewYorker.com (from March 2014):
Saying it’s all Turnp’s fault lets the rest of the monsters off too easy.
It doesn’t cost anything to say “there’s no place for political violence; we’re happy the guy didn’t succeed.” It won’t change any views; it won’t feed the mania of the gun nuts; it won’t distract voters from the vital business at hand – namely turning out as many voters as possible to vote the monsters out.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Wombat Probability Cloud
@japa21: That was my take, also.
Quinerly
OT/
This is cool. National Portrait Gallery spotlighting the artist known for the Michelle Obama portrait.
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime”
https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/09/16/national-portrait-gallery-will-spotlight-amy-sherald-artist-behind-iconic-michelle-obama-portrait/
Eric S.
@dmsilev: I recogniE your snark but obviously Trump won’t do this for multiple reasons including his pocketbook. The USSS pays to rent those carts they ride in.
A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
I’d just respond that shootings are a fact of life now, as JD said. Hardly worth noting.
Renie
Reposting from a prior thread:
OT: The Nassau County GOP on Long Island, New York has invited trump to do a rally in the N.C. Coliseum Wednesday night. At the moment the County still owns the Coliseum so I do wonder if our tax dollars are paying for all the expenses for the rally. I’ll make sure I stay off the highways near it that night while all the idiots here go there.
The GOP County Supervisor, Bruce Blakeman, recruited “special deputies” aka armed civilians to deploy during disaster or unrest. I’m not aware of any protests that are going to be held there Wednesday cuz Blakeman has claimed in the past this “militia” will also be used for “riot control” aka democratic party protests.
And why is trump even doing a rally in New York? It’s still a solid blue state.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: It can be both of those things. The GOP has given the NRA just about everything they want, at the cost of Americans’ lives and safety.
And: Trump is a vortex of ugliness who urges violence.
I do worry that Musk’s widely spread tweet might have reminded some a-hole that Kamala and Tim are out there, too. Although, they might be harder targets, being that they listen to their security staff.
Kay
I was waiting for a good PA poll.
Maxim
@Quinerly: OT — I asked in the previous thread, but everyone had already moved on to this one. Is there an update on Ozark?
Kay
Matt McIrvin
@Elizabelle: I suspect that if there’s any reason aside from bad luck that Trump’s been targeted by the high-profile assassination attempts, it’s simply that Harris doesn’t take foolish risks and is better protected, so the plots don’t get far enough to make the papers. People try to kill high-profile politicians and candidates all the time. I recall they gave Barack Obama Secret Service protection unusually early, when he was running, because he was getting so many threats.
citizen dave
From Orange Man’s website, this week’s events–as of now–are Tuesday night, Flint Michigan; Wed night, Uniondale NY, and Saturday afternoon, Wilmington, North Carolina.
Good seats still available! Not sure what they are paying
FWIW, my first take on Elon’s “joke” was an intimation that trump was targeted because he is the important candidate, and the other two he mentioned just weren’t worth it…
FelonyGovt
@bbleh: Nice business ya got here, be a shame if anything happened to it…
cmorenc
@dmsilev:
But then, Trump could not gouge the secret service for cart rental etc., and he would be playing on golf courses he did not own and control, where the course superintendents would be not so inclined to humor his habit of driving golf carts right up onto the immediate green aprons instead of obeying the signs usually about 30 yards out directing golf carts to exit the fairway to the side and stick to the cart path around the green.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Quinerly: I don’t think Camp David has a golf course. There’s a Maryland State Park there and when POTUs is at Camp David they close some of the hiking trails for security – you’re that close to Camp David. I’ve hiked all those trails many times and never seen any hint of a golf course. I don’t they could hide one – even a 9 hole one, out of sight of the vistas.
KatKapCC
@Quinerly: He wants to colonize Mars so badly, stuff him in a rocket and let him be the first resident.
Jackie
Heard on the news; RFK jr must stay on Wisconsin ballot😂, and Mark Meadow lost his argument to move his AZ case to federal court.😂
Quinerly
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Thanks for the info. I figured it might have a secure one. I think Eisenhower was a golfer. I might just Google “where did Obama golf?”
😉
Edited to add…Obama golfed at Andrews AFB and Ft Belvoir. Secure bases.
Scout211
@Quinerly: @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Trump is a private citizen. I suppose a military base might let Trump play on their golf course as a safety precaution but he really doesn’t qualify as military right now so he shouldn’t really have that privilege.
stinger
@japa21:
Plausible, but if so, even less of a “joke” on his part.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Renie:
Good question. He might help some downballot candidates on Long Island, since it’s purple at best, but he’s not going to win New York.
Quinerly
@Scout211:
I get it. But when he was president he golfed at his own courses, too. A strain on the Secret Service.
mrmoshpotato
@KatKapCC:
Yes please.
@mistermix.bsky.social
@Kay: Nice to see it.
It’s interesting that 36% of R’s total spend on ads is in PA. Twice as much as the next state (GA).
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2024/Items/Sep16-2.html
Quinerly
@Maxim:
I saw your question and responded.
lamh47
Dafuq…why… also too…
KrackenJack
@Quinerly:
Thank you sharing that. I miss living close enough to DC to be able to catch the exhibitions.
Darkrose
@@mistermix.bsky.social: My wife always says the trick is to ask, “I don’t understand–why is that funny?” and make them defend it.
Eolirin
@@mistermix.bsky.social: PA is the most important race this election. If Harris wins it, we’ve pretty much got this.
Geminid
@@mistermix.bsky.social: A friend was looking at advertising expenditures and said it appears that Trump’s campaign team is putting most of their eggs in the Pennsylvania and Georgia baskets. That’s a narrow path to victory, but it could be the only one they have.
Renie
@@mistermix.bsky.social:
I think you may see some of those Long Island GOPs lose their seats. We turned George Santos seat back to blue with Tom Suozzi. Certainly hope I am right.
WaterGirl
@Maxim: I am checking into a couple more things and should have an update in the next couple of days.
lamh47
Gwen Walz is gonna be a great 2nd Lady I think.
Oh and if Maya Rudolph is dusting off her Kamala wig, then Kristen Wigg needs to dust off a wig to play Gwen Walz.
SatanicPanic
I think people just don’t care that much. One attempt was news for like a week. This one will probably drop off the radar in a few days.
lamh47
Vance got some damn nerve with the lastest bullshit
lamh47
@SatanicPanic: Cause folks see it as it seems to be…an distraction.
If it happens everytime the campaign has a gaffe or implosion, then at some point it becomes the boy that cried wolf
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
@@mistermix.bsky.social: He’s in NY for a fundraiser. The rally is for television purposes.
SatanicPanic
@cmorenc: this isn’t great advertising for his courses though. Who wants to risk golfing at a course where people with guns are loitering around?
mrmoshpotato
@SatanicPanic:
Ain’t that a shame for the orange shitstain. Boo hoo!
ETA – maybe he should build domes over all of his wastes of land. He is a billionaire, isn’t he?
cmorenc
@Eolirin:
If she wins NC, Harris is still 3 EV short, but Trump would need to run the table on the remaining swing states Pa, Ga, Az, and Nv. Assuming she also holds Wisconsin and Michigan. The advantage of Pa for Harris is that together with the other “blue wall” states, it’s game, set, and match with 270 EV regardless of whether she wins NC, Ga, Az, or Nv.
MagdaInBlack
@WaterGirl: Thank you
jayne
So, if Donald Trump was literally anyone else in Florida, would some wackjob waving a gun around a golf course in his generally vicinity actually be a crime? Inquiring minds and all that.
geg6
@Eolirin:
At this point, I’d be a much happier person if PA would just go Blue and be done with it. The amount of advertising we are subjected to is astonishing and the most I’ve ever seen. At least many of the Harris/Walz and Dem ads are upbeat. The GOP and Cheetolini ones a dystopian.
mrmoshpotato
@geg6:
Yeah. I notice that about the ads too.
Suzanne
@Kay:
Men, what the fuck?!
japa21
@Suzanne: The problem is many of the men aren’t getting any and taking it out on the Dems.
mrmoshpotato
@japa21: Apparently Pennsylvania isn’t for lovers.
Jackie
Does this mean Nicky Jam has unendorsed DonOLD?
Jay
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/elderly-golfer-is-fucking-losing
different-church-lady
I don’t want Trump to get shot shot. But if there were a gun that would make him just go away I’d use it in a heartbeat.
different-church-lady
@geg6: New Hampshire welcomes you to the club.
Suzanne
@japa21: Since moving here. I have observed literal street fighting with baseball bats, men verbally abusing their girlfriends/wives in public, a drunk man on a train freaking out at a woman who he thought was sitting in his seat, and none of that even includes the guy down the street who cooks meth in his mom’s apartment or the asshole that broke into my house after getting high and taking his clothes off or the guy a few streets over who fires his gun (blank) because he doesn’t want property values to get higher. I saw plenty of shit in AZ, but there does seem to be something more toxic going on here with the dudes.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
I want Trump alive in prison serving time for his many crimes.
different-church-lady
@Scout211:
How many years have you been using the internet now, Rocket Boy?
different-church-lady
@Suzanne: Uhhh… where’s ‘here’?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Suzanne: Are you in Pennsylvania now?
FelonyGovt
@Jackie: Also this Nicky Jam just lost a collaboration with the Mexican rock group Maná. Maná pulled the record after Nicky appeared with Trump, saying “we don’t work with racists”.
japa21
@Suzanne: And you’re not even in the “rural” area of PA.
Suzanne
@different-church-lady: @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: I moved to Pittsburgh in 2020. Voted in the primary in AZ and then in the general in PA. It was weird.
I mostly like it. Except for the aforementioned things.
FelonyGovt
@Suzanne: Hopefully none of the sterling examples of American masculinity you just mentioned vote.
lowtechcyclist
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
She’s in Pittsburgh.
ETA: Way slow, I am.
TBone
@Jay: always a treasure is Tiedrich.
Jeffro
@@mistermix.bsky.social: let them go all-in on PA and GA, probably still lose both, and DEFINITELY lose NC
I will LOL myself to sleep on Election Night, wake up, and then do it all over again for 7 straight days
Frankensteinbeck
@MagdaInBlack:
That is so unbelievably pathetic. It’s sad. It’s just sad. How can a man with so much money be so slathered in loser stink?
EDIT – Seriously, this is the kind of thing a character does on kids’ shows so the audience knows he’s a loser.
Suzanne
@FelonyGovt: I looked up the voter registration for the lowlife who broke into my house. I’m sure you’re shocked to learn he’s a registered Republican. AND, because Mr. Suzanne and I consented to his plea-bargain, he is not a felon (for this incident)….. so that fucker could vote.
He also said lots of nice things about trans people on social media.
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: thank you, I think a lot of people missed that detail.
Danielx
@Scout211:
And after him doing everything but pissing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the military might not be so eager to host him.
Ksmiami
This is the world the corrupt af Court made. Let the Republicans live in it unprotected like the rest of us
HumboldtBlue
Tim Walz is very good at this.
lollipopguild
@Frankensteinbeck: Trump learned that he could play THE VICTIM and his cult followers would eat it up. They also would give him money to salve his wounds. He is at the same time the smartest toughest hombre in the country as well as the most picked on and bullied person in the country.
Lamh47
Sigh…”fried chicken” really 😡. This muthaphucka not even dog whistling…it’s a foghorn…cause yeah “friend chicken”…is what the Black equivalent cause MVP is a Black woman 🤦🏾
ugh. So damn tired of the bullshit
rikyrah
They were discussing on the local news that the City Council had approved $15 million in CPD police misconduct settlements.
4 cases
not trials.
settlements by the city before it could go to trial.
one of them was for $11.4 million.
what thee phuck did the CPD DO to warrant an $11.4 million settlement? The city lawyers looked at the case and went….yeah, give them $11.4 million…we don’t want to go to trial…
I don’t even want to know.
this is the part of being a taxpayer that angers me. Why should we pay police salaries and for them to abuse the public?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Suzanne: Big change! You went from constant, overbearing sun shine to very little winter sun.
Danielx
@Suzanne:
Where is here, if I may ask?
eta: nevermind, asked and answered.
K-Mo
@Quinerly: When I screamed FIRE in a crowded theater I was talking about the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate industry
Rusty
It’s not the Democrats that blather on about “2nd amendment solutions”, and take the annual family Christmas photo with everyone holding an assault rifle. The craziness is all on one side.
lowtechcyclist
@Lamh47:
What gets me is that Loomer’s line about curry was mild compared to what she followed it with – mentioning the Great Replacement theory by name, she said that the Dems were engaging in it, trying to replace all the white people in the U.S. with dark-skinned people.
And that’s gotten next to no play in the media. Nobody’s asking other Republicans whether they agree with what she said about the Great Replacement Theory.
TS
And Wapo has front page news of Trump blaming “rhetoric of Biden and Harris”. not to mention the rubbish from the RW pro trump Editorial board. 99% of the comments told them as I did.
You reap what you sow – and trump sowed hate and misery and anger all over everyone.
Danielx
I’m no more in favor of political violence than anyone else – amongst sane people – but….
As unpleasant a miserable prick as he is and how many people he’s screwed over the years, small business people and whatnot, I’m surprised someone hasn’t taken a shot at him long before he ever formally entered politics.
Starfish
@rikyrah: Woah. I love how you broke this down.
From this story:
Jackie
@HumboldtBlue: Love it!
prostratedragon
@lamh47: Oh, that makes it even more brilliant on her part.
Measuring mark: Nixon attended JFK’s inauguration.
prostratedragon
@TBone: O’Donnell is about to cover the Supreme Court and Roberts memos.
Jackie
@Lamh47: He could have said watermelon🍉 🤦🏼♀️
Kidding aside, yes, knock off with the bullshit😡
JoyceH
@Matt McIrvin: Presidents and presidential candidates are always under threat, but the Trump detail, though they respond adequately, always have an air of surprise in the aftermath of an attempt – and I thinks it’s because of an unacknowledged blind spot, the subconscious belief that all gun owners are Trump supporters.
TBone
@prostratedragon: 👍 thank you!
Betty
I am a registered Democrat in PA and started receiving emails from Donald two days ago. They are desperate.
Kayla Rudbek
@Quinerly: every Air Force base has a golf course (according to what I learned as an Army brat)
NotMax
@Kayla Rudbek
Somewhat doubtful in the case of Thule Air Force Base (now Pituffik Space Force Base) in Greenland.
;)
NotMax
FYI.
Reporting breaking on Vance today saying “The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris.”
head/desk to infinity
prostratedragon
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Me too. I can wait.
Jay
@NotMax:
https://www.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2000581594/
Jay
@NotMax:
It is true, so far “Conservatives” have only tried to kill Dolt45.
NotMax
@Jay
As a wiser person was in the habit of saying, “Well, shut my mouth.”
:)
Manyakitty
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: penniless and forgotten
mrmoshpotato
@Manyakitty:
After Dump is imprisoned for his crimes.
Manyakitty
@mrmoshpotato: exactly.
StringOnAStick
@FelonyGovt: Good! Mana’ does some nice music that is very pro Latino, they don’t need to do music with a magat musician.
Jackie
@FelonyGovt: AWESOME!👍🏻👍🏻