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Links 7/14/2024

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Happy Bastille Day to those who celebrate. –lambert

* * *

Where are all the butterflies this summer? Their absence is telling us something important Guardian

These Are the Best U.S. National Parks—and They’re Not Even That Crowded WSJ

Climate

‘It’s good news’: Scientists suspect history about to be made in China Sydney Morning Herald

Extreme weather halts container traffic at Cape of Good Hope Container News

Climate change and shareholder value: Evidence from textual analysis and Trump’s unexpected victory Journal of Business Research. “Firms exposed to climate change saw a reduction in shareholder wealth after Trump’s election.”

Montana’s High Court Considers a Constitutional Right to a Stable Climate Inside Climate News

The predicament of climate scientists on the road to a super tropical Earth Arctic News

Syndemics

Eminem slams people who refuse to wear masks in new song with Kid Cudi CNN

US COVID-19 activity rising steadily Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy

NYC COVID cases up 250% in 2 months — and this variant’s harder to duck Gothamist

South Floridians scramble to find medicine, test kits as state sees surge in COVID-19: “It just blew up” CBS

China?

Trump rally shooting: Chinese online retailers quick off the mark with souvenir T-shirts and How the Trump Pennsylvania rally shooting looked from China South China Morning Post

‘Opportune’ timing: Why the Philippines is filing a seabed bid in the South China Sea, and the likely outcome Channel News Asia

Myanmar

The Difference Between Chinese and Western Peace Efforts in Myanmar The Irrawaddy

Buddhist Pacifists at War JSTOR Daily

Africa

‘We are the Church’: Kenyan tax protesters take on Christian leaders BBC

Syraqistan

Road to Redemption: Israel Seized 26 Percent of Gaza. Now, Jewish Settlers See Their Chance Haaretz

Israeli strike targets the Hamas military commander and kills at least 90 in southern Gaza AP

Israel’s leading paper says its own army deliberately killed Israelis on October 7. But in the U.S. media: silence Mondoweiss

Revealed: America’s Secret Special Forces Flights to Israel from UK Base on Cyprus Declassified UK

Footage Shows Palestinian Militia Take Out Israeli Merkava Tank at Zero Range Military Watch

European Disunion

NATO’s bad boys: Turkey and Hungary play their own game Politico

Dear Old Blighty

The Election Where Nothing Changed Craig Murray

First Covid inquiry report to set out ‘appalling failures’ during pandemic Guardian

New Not-So-Cold War

NATO Is Helping Ukraine to Fight—but Not to Win Foreign Policy

Ukrainian Men Desperate to Escape War Are Drowning as They Flee WSJ

Ukraine’s F-16 Ambitions Snarled by Language Barrier, Runways and Parts Bloomberg

Zelenskyy asks US governors to cooperate with Ukrainian oblasts Ukrainska Pravda

* * *

NATO SUMMIT: Collectively Losing Their Minds Joe Lauria, Consortium News

Russia threatens European capitals over US missile deployment Ukrainska Pravda

‘The Great Game’ versus ‘Evening with Vladimir Solovyov’: Russian talk shows today Glibert Doctorow

We need a rational discussion about the Russian threat Responsible Statecraft

* * *

Russia increases income taxes for the wealthy to help fund Ukraine offensive France24

US announces new pact to boost shipbuilding, Arctic fleet The Hill

2024

I have a round-up on the Trump assassination coming later, so if you run across any informative, evidence-heavy links, do feel free to live them in comments. Thanks! –lambert

Trump is SHOT in the side of the head and left with blood strewn across his face in horrifying assassination attempt Daily Mail. Commentary:

Playbook: Shots fired at Trump Politico

OnPolitics: Assassination attempt on Trump USA Today

Thomas Matthew Crooks ID’d as gunman who shot Trump during Pa. rally NY Post

* * *

Biden backers risk deluding their party into defeat LA Times

Washingtonology and Bidenism Abroad New Left Review

Should Biden take a cognitive test? Here’s what it would — and wouldn’t — tell us LA Times

* * *

Can Biden run out the clock? Politico

Why There is No Ballot Access Problem for the Ohio Democratic Party Presidential Ticket Ballot Access News. Commentary:

Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the Election and Change the Country ProPublica

The Supremes

Supreme Court Chevron Decision Explained: Why It Matters Teen Vogue

Police State Watch

Protests Erupt in Utica After Brutal Police Killing of 13-Year-Old Refugee Unicorn Riot

Digital Watch

Crooks Steal Phone, SMS Records for Nearly All AT&T Customers Krebs and Security

Google can totally explain why Chromium browsers quietly tell only its websites about your CPU, GPU usage The Register

Net neutrality rules reinstatement temporarily halted by US appeals court Reuters

Zeitgeist Watch

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, America’s diminutive and pioneering sex therapist, dies at 96 AP

The Science Behind the Emotions in Inside Out 2 Kottke.org

Healthcare

The Emergence of Protein Organ Clocks Eric Topol, Ground Truths

Class Warfare

Dollar General to Pay $12 Million to Settle Alleged U.S. Store Safety Violations WSJ

The Symbolic Professions Are Super WEIRD Symbolic Capital(ism)

Harley Will Ride or Die With the Graybeards WSJ

Antidote du jour (Kpjas):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.

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334 comments

    1. griffen

      Media coverage just flipped away, and it may be only briefly, from the Democratic party shenanigans to remove or replace somehow Biden on their national ticket for POTUS. Not the 34 convictions. And the RNC convention starts this week.

      Joe Biden may still stand a chance to win, but anyone replacing him now would be on a fools errand as they have to swallow the harsh truth of facts on the ground, today until November.

      1. curlydan

        Is it a fool’s errand if you set yourself up as the frontrunner for 2028? I mean, if many of the things the Democrat nominee can say about Trump in 2024 come true, then you’ve set yourself up well for a 2028 run.

        I don’t think Newsome (semi-failing state) or Harris (high unlikable) would benefit from a 2024 run, but Pritzker or Whitmer could position themselves best for 2028.

      2. montanamaven

        Scott Adams, this morning, speculated that it would be Biden as the nominee as the other contenders would have to run on policies rather than Trump is “Hitler, Satan, threat to democracy” because the Hitler meme doesn’t look like a winner in light of the assassination attempt. He speculated that most of them like Newsome wouldn’t want to enter what he considered a buzz saw. He also doesn’t think it’s a slam dunk for Trump as the Dems still could figure out election rigging or something else.

        1. The Rev Kev

          From looking at that second clip, I have the impression that all those SS agents were wearing body armour. I wonder if Trump was? With that white shirt on, it was hard to tell as he is bulky at the best of times.

          1. Louis Fyne

            to stop a rifle bullet, you need a lot of body ***plating**, (which would be obvious to a normie)

            …not just something like a patrol cop’s vest.

          2. VTDigger

            Correct, kevlar vests will not have any effect on a .223 round you would have to be wearing ceramic plate that would weigh at least 50 lbs

            Kevlar will stop a 9mm round at best

    3. Samuel Conner

      Very disheartening event, and a disheartening set of circumstances leading up to it (polarizing “nation/democracy at stake” rhetoric on both sides and possibly widespread impairment of executive function in the population due to COVID sequelae).

      The thought occurs that this is not a great time (in the progress of the pandemic) to be seeking medical attention. I have heard that the White House has become somewhat scrupulous about trying to reduce reinfection risk for POTUS. Perhaps the Secret Service will insist that all medical personnel attending DJT will be properly equipped with effective PPE.

    4. Washington Woman

      A gentleman at my bar last night shared with me two clips. One was a video from of a woman yelling the shooters name and yelling “What are you doing”? And another of Crook in a commercial from Blackrock that was filmed at his high school. (!)

      I trust the man who showed them to me does not fall for fakes because of the nature of his job. I am not on Twitter so was wondering if anyone saw these as well.

    5. Kontrary Kansan

      Trump received a “million dollar” wound. The bloody ear, red rivulets streaming down his face, fist clenched defiantly in the air will wheel him into the White House.
      Democrats, perplexed, in deep consternation, staggering under their self-imposed of a Biden candidacy must surely know that it’s game, set, and match.

      1. Strovenovus

        Yep this pretty much seals what I’ve come to mockingly call the Democratic Party’s Secret Plan to Get Donald Trump Elected Again

      2. John k

        Yeah. You left out the us flag waving bravely behind him. Right out of Hollywood. Nailed it on the first take.
        I wonder if at this point the wannabe dems are getting cold feet. Maybe let ‘ole joe and Kamala just take the debacle? Granted, a lot of those just wanting their own re-election might have to share in it. Pelosi’s dreams of speaker, shumer’s hope for no fundamental change, all up in smoke.

          1. montanamaven

            What’s with the short women SS agents? Trump is tall. They can guard his knees, but that’s about it. They should probably have been working the parameters and spotting the shooter who several spectators saw “bear climbing up the building with a rifle.”. The BBC interviewed the spectator that spotted the shooter. Later interviewed at home. Seemed very even keeled and rational. He also was very impressed with Trump standing tall and defiant. Even though this guy was a big guy, he said that after the incident, both he and his girlfriend’s legs felt like mush. Both the Australian news and BBC did good work on this. The Aussies were especially outraged by CNN reporting that Trump had “fallen” and his rally and had to be escorted out. They also kept calling it an “incident”. Bad media.

  2. The Rev Kev

    Working link for “We need a rational discussion about the Russian threat” article at-

    https://responsiblestatecraft.org/russia-threat/

    Russia was never a threat until the west launched the Ukrainians at Russia and tore up the nuke treaties so that nuclear-tipped missiles could be stationed in Europe. If they have become our enemies, it is because we made them that way. They are doing the same to China and now the west is shocked that China and Russia are now rock solid allies and won’t listen to our threats anymore.

    2. furnace

      Putin was incredibly pro-West (somehow I can’t stop thinking about the way Russia still seems to revolve around the old Slavophile vs Westernizer discourse), to the point he repeatedly made some critical errors because he naively thought he could trust their word (the Soviets were very poor at the whole deception business, whereas the West has some centuries of broken treaties and bad faith to fall back upon). The fact that the US political elite managed to force Putin’s hand with a war declaration speaks more to their utter incompetence than about any internal movement inside Russia.

      1. ilsm

        Clinton stopped considering Putin’s request to join NATO.

        Even then the US “establishment” was going for all of Eurasia!

        Clinton brought in Talbot and Nuland in 1993!

        US empire’s march eastward!

        1. CA

          https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/05/opinion/a-fateful-error.html

          February 5, 1997

          A Fateful Error
          By George F. Kennan

          In late 1996, the impression was allowed, or caused, to become prevalent that it had been somehow and somewhere decided to expand NATO up to Russia’s borders. This despite the fact that no formal decision can be made before the alliance’s next summit meeting, in June.

          The timing of this revelation — coinciding with the Presidential election and the pursuant changes in responsible personalities in Washington — did not make it easy for the outsider to know how or where to insert a modest word of comment. Nor did the assurance given to the public that the decision, however preliminary, was irrevocable encourage outside opinion.

          But something of the highest importance is at stake here. And perhaps it is not too late to advance a view that, I believe, is not only mine alone but is shared by a number of others with extensive and in most instances more recent experience in Russian matters. The view, bluntly stated, is that expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold-war era.

          Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking. And, last but not least, it might make it much more difficult, if not impossible, to secure the Russian Duma’s ratification of the Start II agreement and to achieve further reductions of nuclear weaponry.

          It is, of course, unfortunate that Russia should be confronted with such a challenge at a time when its executive power is in a state of high uncertainty and near-paralysis. And it is doubly unfortunate considering the total lack of any necessity for this move. Why, with all the hopeful possibilities engendered by the end of the cold war, should East-West relations become centered on the question of who would be allied with whom and, by implication, against whom in some fanciful, totally unforeseeable and most improbable future military conflict?

          I am aware, of course, that NATO is conducting talks with the Russian authorities in hopes of making the idea of expansion tolerable and palatable to Russia. One can, in the existing circumstances, only wish these efforts success. But anyone who gives serious attention to the Russian press cannot fail to note that neither the public nor the Government is waiting for the proposed expansion to occur before reacting to it.

          Russians are little impressed with American assurances that it reflects no hostile intentions…

          1. ilsm

            Thank you.

            I would suggest that Kennan lost influence in the US as Truman became a war president reneging on any semblance of the Morgenthau protocols to honor Russian/USSR desires for Germany/West Europe never again do a Napoleon or Hitler.

            Kennan had advocated a diplomatic “cold war” not a military industry complex business plan.

            Back to a State Dept intent on being the war dept.

            1. ex-PFC Chuck

              On the other hand there’s this by GK back in the day: the State Department’s 1948 “Report by the Policy Planning Staff,” signed off upon by George Kennan, Director:

              “ . . we have about 50% of the world’s wealth but only 6.3% of its population. This disparity is particularly great as between ourselves and the peoples of Asia. In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming; and our attention will have to be concentrated everywhere on our immediate national objectives. We need not deceive ourselves that we can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction.”

              In 1948 he was fully on board with the emerging predatory, neocolonialist foreign policy.

          2. TomW

            Bravo. And a US diplomat thinking reducing nuclear weapons in Europe as a good idea. We coulda just declared victory. Nah.

          3. Susan the other

            Thank you CA. Kennan referring to a change of “personalities” in 1997 in terms of foreign affairs was putting it too delicately. Clinton was almost as goofy as Yeltsin as if neither one of them really knew where they were going. But little George was a different animal altogether. As was his father. I’d guess that Clinton was foggy tool who knew he was taking first steps to set up NATO to confront Russia but he merely took his marching orders. I was under the impression that Clinton really didn’t want to Bomb Yugoslavia but he got forced into it by various nefarious means, including Monica Lewinsky.

            1. NotTimothyGeithner

              The Dick Morris anecdote about Bill’s status as a “great president” shouldn’t be ignored despite the source. Lewinsky aside, Bill made the calculation bombing would make him look tough.

        2. spud

          yes 1993 was the year, america changed. every major, even minor nation is guilty of coveting their neighbors resources, labor and land.

          this has been all throughout history, america was no different. but 1993 was the year america went full bore fascist.

          and war on the whole world through free trade or by the gun, became official policy. either you signed up to be raped, or you get bombed.

          by the year 2000, americas economy was in shambles, and endless wars were initiated.

          no one would reverse bill clintons disastrous policies which collapsed in 2008, which lead up to the election of trump.

          trump tried in a few minor ways, but we see how that ended in 2018 when americas put the democrats back in charge of the house.

          then elected bill and obamas right hand man.

          its amazing to me today, to see republicans walk the picket lines with unions, whilst the most progressive president(YES I WILL INCLUDE SARC!)guts america even further.

            3. spud

              actually america and the world dodged a bullet, when the fraud wallace was replaced by truman.

              from what i read, wallace was your typical do gooder, who thought free trade benefited the poor.

              as far as truman is concerned, mark blyth says truman saved the new deal, and is one of his favorite presidents.

              on the one hand, truman made blunders, but the biggest blunder would have been re-instituting free trade.

              the new deal would have collapsed rapidly under free trade, like it did from 1993-2001.

              truman wisely vetoed any trade deals till we got Gatt, which allowed for sovereignty and protectionism.

              https://www.commentary.org/articles/david-bazelon-2/the-faith-of-henry-wallacethe-populist-tradition-in-the-atomic-age/

              “Wallace’s free-trade policy in economics is a clear example of his devious way with the essential meaning of populism. Like most liberals during the 30’s, he began, more or less consciously, to advocate the Keynesian program for a controlled economy.

              A controlled capitalist economy in a democratic country must answer two major questions: how to insure capital investment, and how to maintain wage levels and not conscript labor.

              High wages cut into profits, and without a high profit return the capitalist simply will not make risky investments. Without going into the economic details, it can be said that, fundamentally, there is only one capitalist resolution of this primary conflict: imperialism—exploitation of foreign markets through overlordship of other peoples. Imperialism is called “free trade” by liberals. In actual fact it is not, and cannot be, any more “free” than the conditions of labor in the colonies and dominated countries with which trade is being carried on.

              Wallace is a free-trader of old. But he came to it by another path than did the usual sophisticated liberal. And therein lies our tale. The Iowan began his espousal of free trade as part of a farm program.

              The farmer is forced to sell in a free market and buy in one protected by tariffs—Wallace tells us he realized this “quite early in life.” But it should be easy to see that free trade for the farmer is something very different from free trade as imperialism.

              This first is in the genuine interest of the small proprietor and is the stuff of the traditional populist program in the United States. The second is a dangerous diversion of the progressive aims and program of farmers and labor, leading to the ever-increasing power of international cartels —and to war.

              Though he advocates free trade in moral terms, Wallace’s morality actually justifies imperialism at the same time—which is typical of what happens when an old morality is applied to a new and inappropriate situation.

              The contradiction here results from Wallace’s inability either to abandon the populist tradition or to ignore—or to solve progressively—distinctly modern problems.

              Clinging to a particular morality and yet unaware of the immoral consequences of the application of that morality in the contemporary world, Wallace has become a nonfunctioning moral symbol for the progressive struggle of this day.

              Actually, as a personality, he is in no sense a fighter for human betterment in a world of realities. Rather he represents the final reduction of the religious man. (If one asks what I mean by the reduction of the religious man, let him remember with what indulgence the more self-conscious neo-Catholics and neo-Anglicans of Europe looked upon fascism in its earlier stages.)”

    3. Kouros

      People like George Beebe, who are among the more reasonable ones in Washington DC – still invited for debates and interviews by MSM, would never argue against somebody like Jeffrey Sachs…

      he doesn’t seem to remember his own statements from March 2022:
      ““The choice that we faced in Ukraine — and I’m using the past tense there intentionally — was whether Russia exercised a veto over NATO involvement in Ukraine on the negotiating table or on the battlefield,” said George Beebe, a former director of Russia analysis at the CIA and special adviser on Russia to former Vice President Dick Cheney. “And we elected to make sure that the veto was exercised on the battlefield, hoping that either Putin would stay his hand or that the military operation would fail.””

      https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/russia-s-ukraine-invasion-may-have-been-preventable-n1290831

      His present article is all about how Russia is soo much weaker than NATO in military strength and troops. Didn’t see any mention of AD systems or drones, or missiles, or tanks, or trained troops…

    4. rudi from butte

      Why Fix? Should change name to “Irresponsible Bullshit.”

      Pure Nonsense about why Putin is playing things cautiously…….

      “And there is a very understandable reason for this caution. As my colleagues Anatol Lieven and Mark Episkopos and I point out in a new Quincy Institute brief, one does not have to delve very deeply into the conventional military balance between Russia and NATO to realize that the Russian military would be badly outmatched in any war with NATO and would have good reason to believe that an attack on any individual NATO member would quickly turn into a conflict with the alliance as a whole.”

      1. jobs

        “outmatched”? That didn’t make sense to me either.

        The West has been scraping the bottom of the weapons barrel for a while now, and if nothing else, is being outmatched by Russian weapons production capacity. Not to mention Russia’s new agreements with North Korea.

        The West’s biggest enemy seems to be its own failing economic ideology…

  3. timbers

    Trump Shooting

    Brian Berletic has some very interesting observations regarding Trump shooting. He starts with basic Secret Service procedure would never allow a flag to fly next to a candidate’s head who is under protection, because that provides a would be sniper information on wind direction and strength to be compensated for a direct hit. He covers examples of how it’s been confirmed government agencies like FBI sponsor terrorist events, bombings, shoots, and why they do. He closes by asking to consider what might be the purpose of sponsoring a shooting like this, who benefits?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6-z0PqTKeU&t=8s

    1. Louis Fyne

      Incompetence often looks the same as malice.(understaffed Secret Service detail plus local authorities who are absolutely not regularly-trained for counter-sniper tactics)

      One junior high drone afcionado would have caught the shooter, who would be caught on the roof.

      Given how RFK *still* has no Sec. Service detail, I can concede there is malice at the head of DHS/White House.

      Shooting visuals = biggest GOP turnout for a looong time….particularly among the lapsed “I hate them both”, “lower-case c” conservatives.-‐-aka one plank of the Bernie core. in my opinion

        1. mrsyk

          Are they trying for a trifecta of assassinated Kennedys? I’d wager yes indeed. We are living “Game of Thrones”.

        2. flora

          Apparently the T campaign has been asking for beefed up Secret Service protection at his rallies. Requests have been denied by B’s DHS head A. Mayorkas. (Even if the Dems win this fall it’s time for Mayorkas to go, imo, for his many failures.)

          1. ArvidMartensen

            I want Trump to win, not because I like him or admire him, but because he is, astonishingly, the symbol of the class war being waged in the US.

            There is no doubt that the machinery of government are all falling over themselves to prove that they despise Trump and all Trump’s supporters.

            Clinton’s “deplorables” was a dog whistle to all the edjacated people who live in fear of being cast out of the middle caste. Of being shunned and being sent to coventry by their peers if they so much as voice a single doubt that Russiagate existed, or that Trump is the devil incarnate.

            This is not a rational national discussion. It is driven by the fear of the middle classes that they might lose their jobs and become homeless, might lose their friends and family and become persona non grata. Being accused of being a Trump supporter really means being accused of being a lower class, boorish, stoopid moron, not fit for civilised company.

            The Democrats are a class act, just not in the way their PR wants us to believe.

            The economic landscape in the US is one of fear, and for good reason. The predators have taken charge and are rampaging through what is left of the US society. But the predators are so successful because they paint themselves as the champions of diversity and youth and the rest.

            Look at the Trump supporters. There are a lot of regular working people, who are not sitting in offices in towers somewhere hatching PR or strategic plans or writing AI code.
            They are the plumbers and electricians and construction workers or the fire volunteers.

            Unfortunately, I think that Trump in power will likely scr*w these people, but at least they will have chosen a president. But in the process, I hope he clips the wings of the out of control hydra of which the FBI, CIA, etc are such willing handmaidens.

      2. ilsm

        BBC reporter interviewed a man who saw the sniper moving on the roof, the response to his warning was inadequate!

          1. Apeman

            We are talking a 150 yards. From the sound klip it took seconds for the return fire. From the interviews the man was seen crawling for minutes. 150 yards is point and shoot for a rifle. You don’t need to estimate wind or bullet drop until you get out to 300 yards.

    2. The Rev Kev

      That’s a good point about the presence of that flag, What I want to know is why those other building were uncovered by the SS detail. The counter-sniper fire shows two shooters. So why wasn’t one of them on the roof top that that sniper was on. That Crook character probably couldn’t believe his luck when he saw that that roof top was clear with nobody guarding them.

      1. Louis Fyne

        not enough bodies in the Sec. Service detail. those two police snipers are regularly trained to take out hostage takers, not do active counter-sniper work. two totally different beasts.

        Given how seemingly no one (of any polticial persuasion) accepts that negligence/incompetence looks just like malice….some on the Left are going to keep thinkingt was staged/a psy-op with a teleprompter

        If Trump was shot dead yesterday, we would be at 1860 Fort Sumter levels of crisis.

        Good thing that the perp did not ponder that a 78 y.o. shot in the chest (multiple times) would likely bleed out in the car ride to the hospital and/or die after hours of intensive surgery,. perp. had to plan his shooting just like the movies!

        1. Carolinian

          Just like the movies–exactly. One doesn’t have to blame Biden’s “bullseye” remark (made to some donors) or Trump as Hitler on the cover of New Republic since young men shooting people to make themselves posthumously famous is a common enough event these days.

          But there’s little doubt that lots on the Dem side wanted him dead and have said so. Tarentino’s Dirty Rotten Basterds is their level of self identification. If you could kill Hitler wouldn’t you? It’s all just a movie after all.

          Not that Trump’s bizarre costume party rallies don’t also seem unserious with thousands of non Americans dying overseas at the whim of our leaders. Obama’s flip remark-“turns out I’m very good at killling people”–sums us up. Time for a change of heart at the top.

          1. Wukchumni

            You’ll shoot your ear out, kid.

            All I really heard at Biden’s comeback presser @ NATO was a neo-Joseph Goebbels pressing for Total War, except for that one bit where he greatly raised his voice in talking about children killed by bullets, the horror.

            He could in no way, shape or form, compare little bullets to 155mm bullets.

          2. Carolinian

            Turley already has his talking points teed up (he has a new book) but he’s not wrong.

            https://jonathanturley.org/2024/07/14/the-attempted-assassination-of-trump-is-not-nearly-as-surprising-as-it-should-be/

            People like Maddow are utterly irresponsible in their rhetoric and their only defense is that the Republicans have never been shy about ad hominem either with 1990s Gingrich accusing the Dems for the nation’s crime and any bad event. But even Gingrich was not as unhinged as Maddow or Hillary’s Russiagate and now the supposedly respectable media are all too willing to pile on. They must be worried to be so extreme. Some might go so far as to say that the DEI movement is a desperate attempt by these overprivileged to seem virtuous.

            1. Katniss Everdeen

              Lots of examples of loose dem lips in that piece.

              Pretty interesting coming out of the mouths of those who relentlessly characterize Trump’s call to his J6 supporters to “peacefully and patriotically” march on the capitol as a call for violent insurrection, government overthrow, and destruction of “democracy.”

              It’s being “reported” this morning that the biden campaign has pulled some of its ads down. Hmm…wonder what they were about and why they’re suddenly unacceptable.

            2. flora

              Thanks for the link. Here’s a short clip X-twtr Rogan and Dore about the US MSM:

              We’re pitted against each other now by the media like never before. No matter what the story is, they have their minions in the press reporting in a way that makes you hate your neighbor and blame your neighbor and not the guys doing it.

              So the oligarchy keeps us fighting amongst each other and that’s real, that’s not made up…”

              https://x.com/newstart_2024/status/1812085555372384576

            3. hk

              I worry that the Right will put the various legal theories concocted by the Left (self claimed) supposedly to combat “right wing extremism” to practice, against the Left (self-claimed) in general.

              No one should lawfare against fundamental rights. In that vein, I’d be gleeful at the way self-righteous have self-pwned, except that the way forward seems so grim.

              1. Dr. John Carpenter

                One correction; the effort will be bipartisan. The Dems don’t like the left any more than the Republicans do. They’re already tossing around “antifa” so it will be easy for both sides to come together on this.

                1. Wukchumni

                  Kinda how Herschel Grynszpan killing a German diplomat in Paris gave the Nazis the green light to do Kristallnacht?

        2. Joker

          It seem like that they don’t even make perps the way they used to. The guy that tried to assasinate Fico fired mulitple shots while standing next to him.

        3. flora

          Sorry, your last para sounds like giving instructions. Maybe it was satire and I missed the joke.

          1. Louis Fyne

            the dark humour “joke” is that our political system survived by the skin of its teeth only because the system is robust, or the adults are in charge….but because (1) the perp. was even a bigger dope than the security theatre around Trump (by thinking assassinations are like a Jason Bourne movie), (2)sheer randomness of a Trump gesticulation, and (3) the bullet traveled within its expected path but landed on the gaze half of the bullseye and not the fatal half

        4. Kouros

          I tend to consider incompetence and de-professionalization as main culprits. It is evre so pervasive at all levels and in all fields.

          Remember that discussion on NC on the high % of fail 3rd year medical students at a key examination at some California medical school? Aurelaien keeps harping on it and his last essay was also about that.

          As I asked before: Ou sont les assassin d’antan?!

      2. JW

        How did he know the roof was empty before he climbed up with a rifle? Given the proximity to the arena etc it would not have been unreasonable to assume there would be a cop on the roof.
        Sounds like a ‘conspiracy theory’, like the ones that seem to become fact with alarming regularity recently.

        2. Screwball

          How did he get on the roof? I read somewhere there was a ladder. If so, where did the ladder come from and who put it there? Guy was kind of busy with ladders and a rifle and nobody saw him?

          If nothing else at this point, and epic failure of the SS.

      3. Ben Joseph

        An aerial view on map makes it obvious that entire compound should have been secured. It’s freaking adjacent! With a view and an angle.

      1. flora

        adding: I still remember the moment when I knew the orange KOS-ey thing wasn’t worth the commenting effort. Ah well.

    4. ilsm

      The Secret Service anti sniper operation utterly failed in front of the entire world!

      We must find the reason!

      1. flora

        Lot of claims made about B’s supposed dog whistle in a speech last week. I think B was just doing his usual wtf speechifying. Note to B’s handlers: take the phrase “put the bullseye on Trump” out of B’s speeches. Ya know ? / ;)

      2. Adam Eran

        TSA couldn’t find 19 of 20 test bombs sent through airports. It’s like Adam Connolly says, we don’t have security, we have security theater.

    5. Arkady Bogdanov

      I will watch the Berletic video, but I stopped watching him a while back when he drifted away from strictly technical analysis and into analysis where he used political/ideological arguments, that I felt he did not really understand (or maybe chose not to due to his own biases).
      I will say this. No way was the shooter antifa, as I have seen claimed repeatedly. Not sure of Berletic touches on this, but they shooter had a shirt with a US flag on the sleeve, and no-way would an anti-fascist ever touch a US flag, unless they were in the process of desecrating it. I also will try to post links, hopefully successfully using explicit instructions that Lambert was kind enough to provide me with. The first one shows a screenshot of voter registration data, which could have been doctored, I suppose, but it did not show any signs of editing to my eye. This shows that Crooks was registered as a Republican (also fits with the flag on the shirt).

      Voter registration screenshot sourced from Twitter

      1. Arkady Bogdanov

        I could not figure out how to put the second link into the previous post, so here is the second link which is to video of the counter-sniper team that killed the shooter. They would not have seen him until he popped his head over the roof line, but they appear to have been alerted and were looking for the shooter, and instinctively ducked when incoming fire occurred. They looked like they were quickly getting back to sighting on their target, but the video cuts out before they send the actual shot. I have also since watched Berletic’s video. He is misunderstanding a couple of things. The people that saw the shooter climbing the roof were not part of the spectator crowd- they were OUTSIDE the perimeter of the venue basically having something like a tailgate party, and were thus behind the building roof the shooter was climbing, and had a different vantage than the counter sniper team, who again, would not have seen the shooter until he popped over the roof line, and he would have presented a very small target cross section- likely only his head and shoulders. I’m personally kind of stunned that security did not have a drone up for aerial coverage, given how cheap drones are.

        Counter sniper team video sourced from Twitter

        1. Wukchumni

          Indeed!

          I’ll venture to say that ‘Lot Cop’ in the parking lot @ Wal*Mart is a more effective system than the secret service had deployed yesterday.

        1. Ben Panga

          I believe that may actually be a guy who looks like the shooter, who them posted this video as a joke.

          I feel more stupid for typing that sentence.

          1. djrichard

            I feel stupid for getting snookered by it myself and linking to his Twitter as a counterfactual in yesterday’s thread.

            That said, can still appreciate the chutzpah

    6. Useless Eater

      This gives us at least 3 separate, independent data points of (at best) utter and total incompetence on the part of the SS 1. The flag 2. The unsecured roof 3. Ignoring warning from bystanders

      At some point, it becomes too much incompetence to swallow.

  4. Vandemonian

    Is it just me, or is today’s antidote a totally transparent creature in front of a totally transparent background?

    1. The Rev Kev

      Can’t you see it? It’s plain and clear. It’s a polar bear hiding behind a snow bank in the middle of a snow storm.

        1. Samuel Conner

          This would appear to be a NC first, an “anti-Cheshire kitten.”

          I didn’t watch closely; did the facial expression appear first?

  5. none

    I guess it’s not super important but has anyone seen official confirmation that Trump was struck by a bullet? If yes he is very lucky. Some interwebs are saying the bullet actually hit Trump’s teleprompter and sent shattered glass flying and that’s what injured Trump. It would explain since things but for now it’s just rumor. Either way, I’m glad Trump is ok despite politics.

    1. Louis Fyne

      Watch an uncut video of the scene….that (imo) is clearly the reaction of a man who got shot.

      and the mic picked up everything, except the sound of shattering teleprompter. Hospital made a statement asto Trump’s wound.

      and here is a picture taken by a photog. journalist ofthe 1st bullet missing trump’s head with the contrail of the bullet caught in the frame…

      Trump literally is alive due tothe random statistical nature of a bullet in flight and the randomness of the wind/weather conditions.

      https://x.com/HarazGhanbari/status/1812280749745410196

        1. The Rev Kev

          Ha. I was just thinking about Frederick Forsyth’s book “The Day of the Jackal” where an assassin is hired to kill Charles De Gaulle. De Gaulle is at a parade and the assassin readies his shot. Just as he has his headshot lined up and is pulling his trigger, De Gaulle snaps his head forward to kiss the soldier on each cheek causing the exploding bullet, to the assassin’s disbelief, to miss by inches-

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Jackal

      2. Henry Moon Pie

        “Trump literally is alive due to the random statistical nature of a bullet in flight and the randomness of the wind/weather conditions.”

        That’s not the way it’s being played on Fox, or more generally by Republicans, and especially by Trump. God has saved him via a miracle. I fully expect at some point in the Republican Convention to see a spotlight from above, and an appropriate voice (Tom Selleck?) to intone, “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.”

        He’s been promoted from Cyrus.

        Lots of fun ahead.

        1. Wukchumni

          Could divine inspiration be saving Trump, while at the same time be telling Joe its time to go?

        1. Lou Anton

          I guess “potentially” is doing a lot of work for me (and Klip) there, but not intending to downplay anything. Trump said bullet, maybe it was just that, maybe it was both

      2. johnnyme

        I’ve heard multiple people on CBS making that same assertion but I have yet to see any footage or images of a damaged teleprompter — they all look completely intact.

  6. Steve H.

    Wildfire: We’ve Already Normalized Assassination

    >> It wasn’t long before a part of me was saying, “It was just an assassination attempt.”

    >> Everyone keeps talking about our mental health crisis, but they want to blame phones. They don’t want to admit that feeling sad, angry, lost, hopeless, or abandoned is a healthy, appropriate emotion given the current state of things. Those aren’t economically productive emotions.

    Nippersdad:

    >> You give Obama and Pelosi far too little credit for having legalized and normalized all of Bush’s depredations. He could have been an object lesson, but instead he was made the norm.

    ‘Normalized’ today is dependent upon what is absent, the Uncomformity, unburdened by what has been. In absentia.

    1. furnace

      Turns out it is in fact true that what comes around goes around. When spooks get used to the political expediency of assassination in the Third World, it then becomes a consideration to use at home as well: the genie is well out of the bottle now.

      1. 123

        It’s been out of the bottle longer than you suggest, think of all the assassinations that occurred in the sixties, including Fred Hampton. Most of those killings seemed to target liberal politicians, or leftist individuals. It would be somewhat of a change if the killings become nonpartisan. And I don’t think that spooks were behind yesterday’s events. As of this moment, I believe that the individual shooter acted alone, and in a way that professional assassins do not. As to candidates receiving increased federal security through the civil service, that’s another question. But if someone has the ability, and the intent to murder someone, then no person is completely safe. And if the murderer has no hesitation to spare the lives of those close to the target, then that safety is that much reduced. Not to be gross, really, but if the perpetrator had used something much more lethal, like a bomb, the outcome would certainly have been worse.

        1. Useless Eater

          Bombs are unreliable as an assassination method. See Hitler/Von Stauffenberg as one famous example.

          2. gk

            Or Hitler/Elser or Thatcher/IRA. In both cases the bomb worked perfectly, but the target wasn’t where they expected.

            1. Wukchumni

              I’ve mentioned this before, my mom worked for United Air Lines in Denver in the 1950’s out of the Brown Palace Hotel, and a fellow agent sold this fellow the ticket for his mom’s flight, and my mom said she never got over it~

              United Air Lines Flight 629, registration N37559 and dubbed Mainliner Denver, was a Douglas DC-6B aircraft that was blown up on November 1, 1955, by a dynamite bomb placed in the checked luggage. The explosion occurred over Weld County, Colorado, 8 miles east of Longmont, Colorado, United States, at 7:03 p.m. local time, while the airplane was en route from Denver to Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. All 39 passengers and 5 crew members on board were killed in the explosion and crash.

              Investigators determined that John Gilbert Graham was responsible for bombing the airplane in a bid to kill his mother as revenge for his childhood and to obtain a large life insurance payout. Within fifteen months of the explosion, Graham—who already had an extensive criminal record—was tried, convicted, and executed for the crime.

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Air_Lines_Flight_629

              1. gk

                And then there was the explosion in Bremerhaven in 1875, probably from an accident while loading the bomb onto the ship. The ship was supposed to sing in the mid-Atlantic, pre-radio, enabling massive insurance fraud.

          3. hk

            Assassination by bomb changed Russian history at least twice, I think. First, there’s Alexander II–enough said. Then, there was the assassination attempt on Alexander III that failed at that time, but, the Czar injured himself badly while trying to rescue his children (including the future Nicholas II) and that led to his early demise. Alexander III, being a far better politician with a stronger personality, had a much better chance of keeping the empire afloat.

          4. Steven A

            Also Archduke Ferdinand and Duchess Sophie. The initial attempt on their lives by Serb nationalists was a bomb thrown at the Archduke’s car that missed the mark. It was only by chance that the assassin Gavril Princip was nearby when the motorcade stopped to turn around, giving him the opening to shoot his victims at point blank range. The rest, as they say, is history.

    2. Mikel

      “Everyone keeps talking about our mental health crisis, but they want to blame phones. They don’t want to admit that feeling sad, angry, lost, hopeless, or abandoned is a healthy, appropriate emotion given the current state of things. Those aren’t economically productive emotions.”

      It’s all about being unburdened by what has been. :) :)

          1. ambrit

            We forgive you. It was a coping mechanism for the “quality” of the Politicos ‘on offer’ this cycle.
            And, what do you have against Konrad Hilton, his granddaughters? /s

      2. griffen

        Being unburdened by what has been. For whatever reason it brings to mind a quirky but memorable and funny video, from back in the day. Late 80s maybe?

        I couldn’t tell you much of anything about this band. Was Not Was. Plus, those dancing girls might’ve caught my attention as a teenage boy I confess. No cell phone or any social media to follow…does feel a bit pre-historic.

        https://youtu.be/zYKupOsaJmk?si=4lGsi_RcsMZnOixS

    3. spud

      obama and pelosi did not legalize what bush did. that was done by bill clinton and al gore.

      bill clinton and al gore made it legal for obama to.

      to get to bush, you have to go after the two that made what bush did, legal.

      https://listverse.com/2014/02/05/10-reasons-bill-clinton-was-secretly-a-terrible-president/

      “Extraordinary rendition” is when shady government operatives stuff a bag over your head and fly you off to some foreign country where they can legally torture you. It sounds like something Alex Jones might dream up in a paranoid frenzy, but it’s a well-documented phenomenon under both Bush, Jr. and Obama—and Bill Clinton was the guy who started it all.

      Clinton and Gore signed off on the first rendition back in the ’90s, despite being aware that it breached international law. Until recently, rendered people frequently wound up in the prison cells of places like Mubarak’s Egypt or Gaddafi’s Libya, where they were tortured with electric shocks, rape, beatings, and even crucifixion. It can sometimes go hideously wrong: In 2003, the CIA snatched a terrorist off the streets and beat, tortured, and sodomized him, only to discover they’d accidentally grabbed the wrong man. The victim just happened to share a name with a wanted criminal. His suffering came care of the Clinton/Gore dream team.”

      “In the aftermath of the 1990s’ Gulf War prequel, the UN Security Council imposed strong economic sanctions on a belligerent Iraq. Strongly championed by the US and UK and fully supported by Bill Clinton, the sanctions were meant to break Saddam and keep him from indulging in any more war crimes. Instead, they killed over half a million children and hundreds of thousands of adults.

      The trouble was twofold. Firstly, the economic embargo was the strictest in modern history. Secondly, Saddam responded by hoarding wealth, allowing his own lifestyle to continue while his people starved. The sanctions were directly responsible for the deaths of 4,000 children a month. The UN itself linked the economic blockade to devastatingly high rates of malnutrition, starvation, and disease. Medicines were restricted, so children were left to die in agony of leukemia on cancer wards in Baghdad’s hospitals. Instead of morphine, all they had was aspirin—if they were lucky. Thousands of meningitis patients died because the country lacked basic antibiotics.

      Worst of all, the sanctions patently failed. Saddam still enjoyed the high life. His party still wielded unimaginably brutal power. The only ones who suffered were the poor, the young, and the sick. We can’t imagine having to make that decision, but it can’t have seemed intelligent to call the bluff of a crazy dictator.”

      https://theintercept.com/empire-politician/biden-iraq-liberation-act/

      “In 1996, when President Bill Clinton expanded the no-fly zone bombings in Iraq, Joe Biden was an enthusiastic backer. Biden acknowledged that the U.S. had a “big stick” in the form of military power and said, “I think we should swing it hard enough to make sure we maintain the expanded fly zone, no-fly zone.” ”

      “In January 1998, the neoconservative Project for the New American Century sent a letter to President Bill Clinton calling on him to overthrow the Iraqi government and making that goal an official “aim of American foreign policy.”

      The letter — signed by leading Washington hawks such as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol, John Bolton, and Elliott Abrams — charged that U.S. policy was being “crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.”

      Less than a year later, that letter would form the basis for the Iraq Liberation Act, which codified changing the Iraqi regime as a goal of U.S. foreign policy and helped lay the groundwork for the eventual invasion. It also authorized increased support for Iraqi exiles, some of whom worked with the CIA.

      Joe Biden voted in favor of the act, which was signed into law by Clinton in October 1998. In touting his support for the law, Biden said, “So it seems to me that we have a big problem. Saddam is the problem. Saddam is in place. Saddam is not going anywhere unless we do something relatively drastic. It is clear our allies are not prepared to do anything drastic.” “

  7. Jackiebass63

    At the distance Trump was shot the wind wasn’t a factor. Too many people write about things without knowledge about what they write. I make this statement as a hunter for over 60 years. If it were 300 or more yards the wind would be a factor. His security people need to be fired.

    1. RookieEMT

      There’s still confusion on the location of the shooter vs Trump’s position. I keep hearing news commentators and bloggers saying the shot was ‘several hundred meters’ when it’s about 150 or even less.

      They are making the same mistake I did and assumed Trump was between the two covered stands in the Butler Farm Show arena. Trump was actually speaking in-front of three red barns closer to the shooter.

      The shooter appears to have been on a one story warehouse with yellow metal siding where he was shot dead. There’s a distinct white eave and ventilation fan seen on the twitter video and photographs of the supposed dead shooter’s body so it can be geolocated. If Trump had been standing between the two covered stands, it would of been a 300 meter / 1,000 foot shot from the warehouse.

      So yeah. The shooter was actually pretty close. The security failure is spectacular. How hard of a shot would that be with a scoped rifle? Of course we don’t know if it was scoped.

      1. griffen

        Seeing this discussed on ABC this morning, their news reporter Rachel Scott ( I think that’s right ) says the shooter was roughly 400 feet from where Trump was speaking. So a serious lapse in securing a perimeter. And she was like everyone else attending, hunker down and get low to the ground.

        I have heard a second Secret Service agent interview this morning. And he commented about the apparent failure, his response was instructive. The goal is to reduce, limit and mitigate the risks; eliminating all risk is the perfect or deal target but conceivably humans can fail.

        1. Katniss Everdeen

          I refuse to believe that neither the secret service nor local law enforcement have ever heard of drones.

          They could probably have borrowed a couple from a local real estate agent.

          1. The Rev Kev

            I was thinking about that today and could guess at the answer. So at the briefing between the Secret Service and local law enforcement, somebody asks how many drones will be flying. The Secret Service says none as they do not have the budget for it. One of the cops probably said that their brother had a drone that he could borrow for the day. But then the Secret Service nixes that idea right away. When asked why, they said that it might fall on somebody’s head and they are not insured for something like that in case it happens. You can bet that it would be something stupid like that.

          2. timbers

            They could have borrowed a drone from the guy who did an estimate for me on installing solar panels on my house, and his office address is a mail box #.

          3. Screwball

            Biden was in Michigan the other day for a campaign stop. A guy I know lives not far away from where he was. He said there were drones all over. I don’t know who’s drones they were, but they had them.

            The spin on this is already off the charts, and details are few. I’m guessing, like so many other things, we will never know the truth.

        2. Wukchumni

          Pre 9/11, W came to Sequoia NP in 2001, and they pretty much shut down the NP for a day in his dog & pony show appearance, the highlight of which was walking up to the top of Moro Rock, here, have a look.

          https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/05/images/20010530-1.html

          So in the days before his visit, secret service agents startled a trail crew about 2 miles away from Moro Rock. that’s how diligent they were in preparation for the President’s visit.

    2. Polar Socialist

      As a 19 year old in basic training I earned a 48 hour pass by putting 8 out of 10 rounds in the 8 inch center of the target from 164 yards, assault rifle with iron sights. First we aligned the sights (3 + 3 rounds; figured out the adjustment our selves, the trainer accepted), then 10 rounds semiautomatic for marksmanship test.

      Can’t remember anybody mentioning wind at any point of the training, though.

  8. Wukchumni

    Our runners-up, North Cascades, Wash., and Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Calif., scored high for plenty of diversions and small crowds—though you can access both, unlike our winner, easily by car. In North Cascades, around 400 miles of hiking routes lead up glaciated peaks and to electric-blue lakes, while at Sequoia & Kings Canyon, campers can choose from 1,213 sites, including dreamy spots near the Giant Forest shaded by mighty ponderosa pines.

    These Are the Best U.S. National Parks—and They’re Not Even That Crowded WSJ
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I’m overly biased being on the front porch of the back of beyond, but SEKI is one hellova National Park in that its almost all backcountry, ya gotta walk.

    Tourists dutifully do the things they do in the 1% of the NP that 99% of them frequent-such as going to the Sherman Tree, but they seem to never visit any of the thousands of other Brobdingnagians in their midst. My favorite looking Sequoia in the Giant Forest is named Chief Sequoyah and is only a few hundred yards away from the Sherman Tree and gets almost no visitation.

    Until AirBnB et al showed up a decade ago, Three Rivers was an interesting entrance town to a NP compared to most all others, in that we didn’t really try all that hard for the tourist $, no fast food, no IMAX theater, really no nothing compared to the monstrosities you’ll see in entrance towns to Grand Canyon, Smoky Mountain, Zion, etc. To put things in perspective, the only fast food place ever here was a Subway that lasted a few years and then went out of biz.

    1. griffen

      Blech…not throwing cold water on the article itself or the great outdoors. I’m still planning a few visits in the coming years to see the places I’ve not been, like Yosemite or the like; several are ones you mention often, like Sequoia. I’ve heard that Yellowstone can be a kind of dull experience, comparative to other choices.

      I will however toss a cold bucket of high quality H2O on the “Moneyball” approach being applied analytically to measure the National Parks. Thanks a lot, Michael Lewis!

      1. Wukchumni

        By all means go to Yosemite NP, it makes quite a spectacle out of itself!

        We went last year in early June after an epic winter and I was mesmerized by the sheer quantities of H20, water, water everywhere, resplendent columns of white free falling, amazing.

        Timing is important, its often 100 degrees in Yosemite Valley in the heat of the summer when there’s a gazillion tourists gawking up at ho-hum waterfalls, compared to what they were a few months earlier.

        One thing that makes Yosemite NP an interesting place, is the idea you can ride a bike all over Yosemite Valley, as its kinda flat.

        And whatever you do, don’t miss going to the Ahwahnee for a meal, or at least a snappy cocktail drank out on the patio with a gobsmacking view.

        I think it’s the grande dame of parkitecture~

      2. Carolinian

        The parks are really supposed to be about conservation with entertainment value secondary. Before Yosemite became a national park the valley had been taken over by ersatz hucksters with rustic tourist hotels, sheep farms etc.It became an national park in order to save it.

        So it’s the idea of a national park that matters. I’ve been to a lot of them and some are a lot more worth visiting than others.

      3. Janie

        Yellowstone is great and is one of a kind. Yosemite is my favorite of the many parks I have been lucky enough to visit. We went often when living in So Cal. Go in the shoulder or off season. Get up and out early before the hordes. Spend a few days at Tuolomne Meadows and/or the High Sierra camps; Vogelsang is spectacular, as is Waterwheel Falls.

        1. Carolinian

          Grand Canyon is no slouch either. The three biggies probably garner most of the NPS entrance fees. Each is different and worthwhile but to see Yellowstone you’ll have to do a lot more driving than the others. Then you can head south to the next door Grand Tetons.

          1. Janie

            Family took a week long raft trip down the Grand Canyon from Harper’s Ferry. Highly recommended. There’s not a lot to do at the rims, though. Hike a little, drive to the overlooks, check out the lodges. We went to the south rim one night at sunset; it was a party – lots of wine and picture taking. At sunrise the next day, everyone was just quiet. A little girl asked her mother something and the response was “lower your voice; this is like church”.

        2. Wukchumni

          We backpacked the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne a few years back and the river waterfalls were stunning in a whole different way from the ones in Yosemite Valley. Waterwheel was quite something and Glen Aulin Falls no slouch.

        3. griffen

          I would add after some additional caffeine, Yellowstone would be on my list of places to go as I reach or near any potential retirement. I would want to be choosing to go as you suggest, during something that isn’t peak tourism. So being upright and living, in another 10 or so years as the proverbial crow flies

          Last year’s trip, went to South Dakota. Seeing the buffalo up close at Wind Cave was something to experience. Safely far away, I’ll add but close as we wished to get! Plenty of prairie dogs too numerous to count, at Devil’s Tower.

    2. Stephen V

      Love your ringing endorsement Wuk! But, if memory serves, is there still an automobile welcoming committee made up of marmots at King’s?
      Reason I ask: I was feeding squirrels back of my office until one chewed the fuel line of La Boss’ big a$$ truck. Ouch.

      1. Wukchumni

        Marmot Cong have been active this summer, with 4 confirmed cartalities in the 2 trailhead parking lots in Mineral King Valley, requiring a tow back down the 25 miles and 698 significant turns on Mineral King road.

        Marms like to stand up while sitting on their arse on top of a boulder, and I could swear I saw a couple of them high-fiving one another after a successful hit & waddle mission.

    3. Michael Fiorillo

      Had a transcendent backpacking trip to Mineral King many years ago. You don’t exaggerate; if anything, you understate the majesty and remoteness of the place.

      1. Wukchumni

        Its a very special place, and I have welt marks all over from pinching myself, in being so close to the action.

    4. mary jensen

      hey hey Wukchumni, why mention only N. Cascades at Washington State? You never been to the extraordinarily wondrous Olympic National Park? Never? Well then, go west young man. After the long trek through the rainforest you come out to … the wild, cold, Pacific coast and its tide pools, its spectacular and poetic rock formations. The perfumes of the rainforest become the salty brace of ocean breezes. There is nothing else like it – forget California. Olympic Rainforest is also home to one of the most silent places on earth, or was, the so-called “one square inch”. Or if you’re afraid of the ocean you can traverse the heights, the Bailey Traverse. Me? Missing it all now here in Europe, nothing like it here. Nothing.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_National_Park

      1. Wukchumni

        I was only quoting from the WSJ article, and yes Olympic NP is quite something, I’ve only been there once and really need to go back.

        One the longtime mule packers for Sequoia NP moved up there to do the same thing in the backcountry, and she marveled about it when we ran into each other by chance @ Saline hot springs a few years ago.

        1. mary jensen

          Oh yes Wukchumni, you really must go back again if you can. I have a question: Why aren’t US mineral hot springs exploited for the public health benefit the way they are in Europe?
          An aside: my last visit through the Rainforest out on to the Pacific coast was with an older brother and a younger sister, a compass, a tidal chart and a ‘psychedelic’ drug – no iphones, GPS etc.
          I suppose we were made of sterner stuff ‘in those days’. Also, hang the food high and far away from your sleeping area…

          1. Wukchumni

            Most hot springs in the USA (they pretty much end in Arkansas for those headed eastwards) tend to be in out of way places and relatively few are developed because they’re out in the boonies, and soaking in hot springs isn’t a cultural thing in the USA as it is in say the Czech Republic, where its quite normal to take in the waters.

            When I was a kid we’d go out to the palm desert where hot springs were, and it became a normal thing for me to do, on account of my heritage and whatnot. You wouldn’t believe how many people i’ve taken to natural hot springs for their first soak ever, quite common.

            I’ve never had my food pinched by a bear, but one time our entire supply of coffee for 3 days was made off with by a squirrel, a tragedy that.

            1. mary jensen

              Oh dear the coffee? OUCH.

              As for “curative waters” in their myriad droplets ie sulphurous, iron etc. All over Europe since the/before the Romans who LOVED their waters, people and perhaps even animals know the spa. The spa. Hey USA, wake up and learn about your waters!!! Get out of your cars and into your waters!

              1. Wukchumni

                A complete gimme of a hot springs and one I like to direct people new to the game of aqua caliente to the Keough hot ditch a few minutes drive from Hwy 395, 10 miles south of Bishop.

                It’s a bit otherworldly in that massive electric towers are in the vicinity and the lines pass right over the hot ditch, with lots of freaky sounds from the wires overhead, crackling and whatnot.

                1. Janie

                  For decades the smallest national park in the system was Platt NP (less than a square mile) in south central Oklahoma, noted for its hot mineral springs. It was downgraded to a recreation area in a fit of cost cutting.

  9. Matteo

    One inch difference and trump would be dead. I’m not a fan of the man/his politics but this horrifying. I’m glad he’s ok.

    Tump saying it’s incredible that this could happen is mind boggling. Every day when I drop my daughter off at elementary school, I hope she comes home alive. This is the US. Unless you love guns, violence, poor healthcare, subpar education (I can go on)…if you have the means, get out.

    1. griffen

      Watching an interview just completed with a former Secret Service agent, he called it much the same way as you suggest. I don’t immediately recall the instances of people paying unexpected visits to the White House during the Obama terms, but this agent said it finally curtailed with increased barriers and raising the fences. One would think a current or former President has the best service and security detail imaginable,with the possible exception to be those who travel annually to Davos or a comparable locale for global confabs by super rich execs and the like.

      I get antsy when flying, honestly, and grow wary of fellow drivers on simple trips to get food and groceries. It’s like an Autobahn mentality is beginning to grow with fervor, at least near me in the southeastern US.

    2. i just don't like the gravy

      Get out and go to where? If you have the wealth to leave, America is the place to be.

      1. Matteo

        Well, Canada would be my first choice. Better healthcare, fewer guns (used to kill other humans at least), better healthcare. All my humble opinion of course.

        A very small town somewhere in Europe would be my second choice. The food alone will extend your lifespan. The food in the US is horrible.

          2. Kouros

            That is an exageration. I happen to send scorching emails to the office of the PM and I am fine.

            Disturbing public peace on the other hand, like the truck drivers, is a different thing.

        2. mary jensen

          caro Matteo, learn Italian or find yourself a damn good, wily notaire and purchase an entire village for a few Euros somewhere in Calabria or Apulia. Needless to say you must commit. Enlist some like-minded friends…

          1. Matteo

            My parents are from Abruzzo and Campagna….I have Italian (and Canadian) citizenship… We need to get our child through school and my hope is to university outside of the US. Then hopefully we have more flexibility.

            I just pray we get through the next 8 years of school without anything happening. The fact that she needs to experience active shooter drills is bad enough .

        4. i just don't like the gravy

          1. If you think Canada is a good choice, you are delusional and misinformed. The healthcare is not nearly as good as the propaganda makes it out to be. Combine that with outrageous costs, including property, and the fact that you’re still neighbors with an unstable state.

          2. If fascism is your fear, Europe will descend into it before America does, guaranteed. The entire EU bloc is an American colony.

          I hope you leave, and find out that nowhere is safe. You can’t run from what is coming.

      2. Wukchumni

        New Zealand would be my choice of places to abscond to, were I not in love with my surroundings as it were in nature’s realm.

        It comes with a heavy duty housing bubble that looks beyond toppy, and when it busts out, wow-the carnage asada possibilities.

        That said, what a place, its as if Tahiti ran into volcanoes en route to Ireland and then cross Cook Strait to the Swiss Alps and then eventually the fjords of Norway, all in a country the size of Colorado.

        One time when we were there a few months, my wife and I had a contest to find the first disagreeable Kiwi in our midst, and it took 5 weeks to find him, really great people.

        1. Matteo

          Never been but have heard great things.

          Elderly parents and in laws, tenured university position (my partner) and general difficulty in uprooting the family (we have 10 year old who is just getting back in the swing of things socially after COVID interruptions) deems it impossible for now. I do feel blessed to live in MA (high cost of living but many benefits….). We keep our social interactions to a minimum and enjoy nature as much as we can. A new golden retriever puppy is in our imminent future as well. A dog is the antidote to many of our societal ills.

          1. Wukchumni

            A dog is the antidote to many of our societal ills.

            Isn’t that the truth! (Blondie being one hellova exception)

            My buddy from Tucson shows up today with Dusty the Adventure Dog, who everybody he ever meets falls in love with him (there have been 37 unsolicited offers to take him off my friend’s hands, i’m # 1 on the long list, so there’s hope) and is the best ambassador, get rid of Blinken and put Dusty in there!

        3. ChrisPacific

          Sadly the current government has a bad case of hero worship for the US and is trying hard to make us more like them. I thought of asking whether they’ve actually looked at the US recently, but they’re mostly white middle-aged affluent males, so it probably looks just fine to them.

          Our new PM and ex-airline CEO, Christopher Luxon, had a lovely time at the NATO summit, met with Biden, Newsom and other luminaries, had a lot of nice meals, forged many connections, and generally returned rich in the kind of currency that men of his social class treasure. He’s not golf buddies with Obama yet like his predecessor though, so there’s room to aspire still.

          On his legislative agenda is to relax the rules around land purchase for foreigners, so that his mates can buy up all the best housing stock and leave it empty for 51 weeks out of the year, like they’ve done in London and New York.

    3. Dr. John Carpenter

      His shock is justified. This kind of thing doesn’t happen in this country to people in his financial and influence strata.

      2. mary jensen

        “his financial and influence strata.”

        You talking about The Donald? The guy’s a HUCKSTER. He’s lucky only his ear was bloodied after all these years of him spewing his unbelievable trash. I simply cannot understand why “the media” keep asking “Why?”. For chrissakes, “Why Not?” Just how long did you think you would get away with it all Donald?!!
        Am I the only person who isn’t asking the question “why?”. Are you kidding?

        1. griffen

          Regarding the comment about being a huckster, as termed above,. Let’s stretch this application of fair play for known and possibly offensive individual to it’s ultimate, and totally hypothetical, conclusion.

          Bill and Hillary Clinton.
          George W. Bush.
          Barack Obama.
          Bill and Melinda Gates.
          Elon Musk.
          Jeff Bezos.
          Hollywood Celeb of choice, who thinks their opinion matters since they are erudite and more intelligent.

          You do realize where that leads…to a very dark place. I just don’t accept this precept of Trump being so uniquely and distinguished in his ability to be a horrible human. It’s a long list. That’s only a starter kit, and it is not a suggestion damn it.

  10. Trees&Trunks

    Re: Russian tax raise for wealthy. No wonder they hate Putin so much.

    „The changes are aimed at building a fair and balanced tax system,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said when the proposed changes were laid out in May.

    He said the extra funds would bolster Russia’s “economic well-being” and go towards a series of public investment projects.“

    Here is the real reason. It has nothing to do with the Ukraine. The Russian government is planning on… hold on to your hats now, Westerners, because you haven‘t heard this phrase in a long time… making life better for people in Russia.

    http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/73986

    1. Polar Socialist

      He actually promised to raise taxes for the filthy rich in his “campaign speech” in February. That and other “old school social democratic” social security related changes. I wasn’t going to hold my breath waiting for those to happen, but here we are.

      1. jsn

        Yup.

        Putin & Xi both appeared to have studied the prewar years of The New Deal, which deliberately and over a decade made the US “the arsenal of democracy”, and as close to an actual democracy as it’s ever been.

        Wasted time on Romance languages in my misspent youth, too late now!

        1. Revenant

          Romance languages are an OK preparation for Russian and having German is useful too. Russian uses a lot of prepositional prefixes and inflects with suffixes but that actually makes Russian vocab relatively straightforward to guess/ generate if you can learn the root words, as does its general Indo-Europeanness.

          A strong grasp of conjugation and declension in a language with minimal use of pronouns is helpful, such as Latin.
          Russian is pronounced as it is “written” (with certain rules about letter sounds in different positions and stresses, which are not written in daily life but are in language teaching).

          A surprising amount of Russian vocab is imported from English, French and German so with a grasp of the prefixes, roots and grammar, you can get quite far quite quickly.

          Notorious tarpits are the verbs of motion (all those prefixes plus all those roots and in all the tenses) and IIRC some adjectival forms crossed with relative pronouns.

          Chinese is totally different. Very little to hang it onto for an Indo-European speaker. The fluid and minimalist grammar is your friend, the vocab and tonal pronunciation is your enemy.

          The Penguin Russian Course is an excellent old school small book of materials and exercises to teach yourself Russian, if you have Indo-European foreign language chops.
          Be warned, the book is deceptively small and looks lightweight in every sense but it us a mighty instructional time if you read it properly. Buckle up!

          https://www.amazon.com/New-Penguin-Russian-Course-Beginners/dp/0140120416

          1. jsn

            I picked up SerboCroatian about 15 years ago, sort of and phrase booky, and it was a bit like you describe Russian, but the old noodle isn’t as al dente as it was then.

          2. Zhulik

            All true and don’t get me started, but maybe the best overall reason to learn Russian is the sheer brilliance, the ingenuity of the language. It’s like learning how to use a more advanced camera. Higher resolution and new, very useful distinctions appear.

            Where difficulty lies is deceptive. Script and character-set seem impenetrable, but are easy, predictable and phonetic. They are learned in no time, and got used to quickly thereafter. Then grammar appears monstrous, whereas its concrete strictness is your friend, like some high level programming language. But you will never nail idioms, semantics and stress – as in any language for the first two of those.

            One curious and charming quality for English speakers (who have the added handicap of having no grammar to speak of) is how Russian harks back to Shakespearean English, most obviously in retaining “whence” and “whither” (impossible to avoid, to use “where” +some sort of proposition).

            The cosmopolitanism of loan words is mentioned: surely the 18th-century love affair with French should be singled out. The difference in pronunciation shows French to have long and lordly vowels, while Russian has such endearingly blunted sounds, I can come down with a fit of the giggles. Patronising or what. Maybe just love. Sorry.

            I recommend Derek Offord’s Modern Russian and a free android dictionary that conjugates and declines all entries including changing stress. Search for Jean-Marc Desprez, its developer. Generally, for writing prefer Android with its multilingual swipeable keyboards.

            1. Revenant

              Zhulik, I loved Russian for its information density. As you say, it is like learning a new high level programming language. Or possibly, like moving from RISC to CISC assembly language.

              English’s great power is its vocabulary and its idioms. No other language comes close in terms of vocab, partly because English just ingests the successful competitors. As a result, endless shades of meaning are possible. English is also well provided with modal verbs for modifying tenses and meaning. Russian has fewer words but a more analytical, muscular and supple grammar and just as many idioms.

              (And of course, the black speech….)

            3. ДжММ

              All that, plus there is objectively no more satisfying language than Russian when it is time for cursing. It has simplicity, flexibility, depth, and precision unlike anything else.

              Classic example: хуячить and хуярить both can refer roughly to similar activities, but the second would be something done with a hammer or rock or outside of a fist, while the second a screwdriver, steering wheel, inside of a hand, or otherwise applying torque.

          3. Maxwell Johnston

            The main problems I have with speaking Russian are the verbs of motion (after 30 years I still muck these up hopelessly) and pronouncing the letter “ы” (no exact equivalent in English, not quite “eeee” and not quite “uiee”). The Russian word for “cheese” is “сыр” (again, that pesky “ы”), so when we’re at a restaurant in Moscow and our offspring want to have a quick laugh, they ask me to order something with cheese in it. Dad garbles the word, the waiter giggles, and great mirth unfolds around the table. I’m a perpetual source of humor in this regard.

            Russian has 6 grammatical cases vs 4 in German, and the genitive in particular is quite complex to master.

            On the plus side, though, Russian has its advantages. Word order in a sentence really isn’t very important (unlike German, where it’s paramount). Pronunciation is straightforward (except for “ы”), unlike English or French. There are 3 genders (same as in German) but no definite articles, which simplifies things immensely. Most important of all, as Russia has long been a multi-ethnic empire, the locals are accustomed to hearing non-native speakers butcher their language and they are as a rule tolerant and understanding towards us.

          4. Steven A

            In addition to high school Latin, I studied German, French and Chinese (Mandarin). Of the three, the easiest spoken language for me was Chinese. No syntax, no morphology and sentence structure that is close that of English. The tones were challenging at first, but were almost imperceptible by the time I got to the intermediate level. The written component, however, can drive one to distress and despair.

    3. JW

      There is no doubt about it, Putin is incredibly talented, combining seemingly limitless energy with a cold clear mind. Its relatively easy by reading the Kremlin english website to see how he spends his time. 90% is on internal economic and social issues, providing the direction for many initiatives to , as you say. make life better for people in the whole of Russia with particular emphasis on the less wealthy areas.
      But he still has time to coral the whole of Eurasia to start acting together in their own interests.
      He is the antithesis of the caricature painted by most western politicians and the media. That is not to say he doesn’t carry a big stick which can and often is used to support what he believes is in the best interests of his country.

    4. Maxwell Johnston

      These tax changes have been under discussion for many months now. According to Russian Finance Ministry estimates, around 2 million people–a whopping 3.2% of Russia’s working population–will see their taxes go up. Not a drastic change, and the highest tax bracket (22% for those earning over 50m rubles, about $500k) remains astonishingly low by EU standards.

      Given that France is facing a difficult fiscal situation (while Russia’s macroeconomic situation is actually quite solid), I find it amusing that France24 published this article and made it sound as if Russia is struggling. Not quite the case.

  11. furnace

    So, the shooting pretty much guarantees what seemed to be cemented, which is to say, that Trump is going to win. The difference is that I cannot fathom any candidate (even a no-starter like Sanders) that can beat him anymore, whereas before I suspect outside Clinton and Biden pretty much any half-decent candidate would have a chance of beating him (by pure rejection factor if nothing else). If this was really spook-directed, this was a terrible political miscalculation (even if it had actually killed him).

    1. JTMcPhee

      Assumes spook direction and motivation, if any, would have any currently recognizable sense or goal behind it.

      US spooks, as noted by many with immediate past experience, are dominated by the “action” part of the letter agencies — the intel collection and analysis part is sidelined and also perverted by the bias toward chaos-generating “activism,” since careful honest analysts are driven out by the preferences and demands of the violent ones, “shaping the intelligence [and kinetic activity] to fit the policy.”

      Would speculate that if spook-driven, it’s not a “political miscalculation” any more than the many attempts to kill Castro or at least get his beard to fall out. Just another example of turning up the FUD generator to 11.

      And how many Americans have any reason to believe whatever Narrative emerges from the fog of shite generated by the people who feel just fine about admitting proudly to lying, cheating, stealing and killing, all on the path to “We will know our program of disinformation is complete when nothing the American public believes is true”?

  12. The Rev Kev

    “Extreme weather halts container traffic at Cape of Good Hope”

    I guess that all those shipping companies are seeing what it was like in the days before the Suez Canal was built. Or when it was was closed due to war from 1967 to 1975. Shipping must be getting more expensive with all these delays. People forget that the Cape of Good Hope was originally named the Cape of Storms.

    1. furnace

      Have we data about the effects of the Yemeni blockade on consumer costs? Shipping costs are pretty clearly massively up, but when does this start to get felt by the general populace, if it hasn’t already?

  13. Wukchumni

    Trump narrowly avoided being killed by a gun, does this change his attitude towards the 2nd Amendment or is it just more of the same with him, catering to evangs & gun nuts, often in the guise of the same person?

    1. furnace

      Well, once he gets back into office he’ll have legal immunity to do whatever, so at that point amendment or not is merely a formality. I suspect his take (if there is such a thing) is 2nd Amendment to his friends and allies, no guns for his enemies.

      1. flora

        Doesn’t that mean B now has legal immunity to do whatever he wants? Wonder what B might want? wink, wink, nudge, nudge… / ;)

        (And no, the SC did not give open freedom to any president to just do whatever they want while in office.)

        1. The Rev Kev

          I remember one comedy film where the President was explaining to another character that as President that you get to order three murders – but if you do not use them in office, you lose them.

          1. Wukchumni

            Pre-code movie plug…

            Gabriel Over The White House is an interesting film from 1933, where an auto accident turns a corrupt & easily bribeable President into something else…

            Stars Walter Huston~

            1. hk

              Into a fascist power-mongering monster, if you ask me…but opinions vary. I believe the movie is in public domain watchable for free on the internets.

              1. Wukchumni

                If we give away endings, why would they bother to watch the whole thing?

                Curiously though, in 1933 Mussolini was thought to be the epitome of a 20th century leader, with his air fleet flying into Chicago for the Worlds Fair there.

                Italy was cutting edge in airplanes that could fly vast distances, and that meant an awful lot to the airplane crazy world of way back when.

                1. Joker

                  Fashist planes and Nazi zeppelins were all the rage back in the day when USA was great. Nowdays you get Zelensky & Azovites in a Boeing, which is not that much different now that I think about it.

    2. The Rev Kev

      After Reagan was shot, didn’t he come out in support of the 2nd Amendment? I guess that, if so, he did not want to cross the NRA.

      1. Wukchumni

        Not sure…

        The most interesting thing I remember about the day Reagan was shot, was the rather wild gyrations in the spot price of all that glitters as his condition was unknown and I want to say it went up $125 an oz, and by the time he was out of the woods the spot price was about the same as the day before~

        His Press Secretary James Brady getting shot, was more indicative of pre turn of the century USA, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was really the last effort to stop gun mayhem, and then the ‘Originalists’ in the Supremes did their thing and all guns did was win every battle legally against them, an army of 1.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Handgun_Violence_Prevention_Act

      2. hk

        Reagan had an interesting experience with gun control when he was a governor of CA, iirc. The Black Panthers decided to invoke their rights to bear arms and showed up at government buildings (state legislature, I think) with guns. That changed a lot of minds, if I remember correctly.

    3. islm

      I am a casual gun owner: long guns only for hunting or shooting paper targets.

      Last night notched by perspective toward 2d amendment.

      The secret service failed, we need to protect ourselves in the last resort.

      Stop Biden’s whispering!

    4. Katniss Everdeen

      I’d say he’ll remain firmly in the the-only-way-to-stop-a-bad-guy-with-a-gun-is-a-good-guy-with-a-gun camp.

      Under current circumstances, I think it’s a perspective held by more than just “evangs & gun nuts.”

      2. Wukchumni

        The left went out and got armed and dangerous alright, and i’ll hazard a guess in a place I know best, and speculate that the majority of guns purchased in LA the past decade have either been fired a few times or not at all, the nearest free shooting range being many hours away by driving, and handfuls of expensive indoor shooting ranges are here and there, too.

        It’d be tantamount to somebody buying a car and never learning how to drive, and just leaving it in the garage until an emergency happens.

        1. chris

          I keep saying that the biggest surprise for myself and my friends who study martial arts was how quickly the liberal aligned left got religion and turned violent in 2016. I think a second Trump administration will result in even more violence coming from the left and their hangers on.

        2. mrsyk

          That’s the story of my emergency generator. I really need to get that thing out of the box and figure out how to fire it up

          2. wendigo

            2nd tip.
            After you fire it up to see it works, shut off the gas petcock and let it stall by running dry of gas. Not good to let gas sit in the carburetor for long periods of time.
            3 Rd tip.
            Use gas stabilizer and drain the gas every year and put in fresh gas/stabilizer.
            4 th tip.
            If it has a battery, charge the battery 3 or 4 times a year

    5. Chris Cosmos

      The Second Amendment is, as it should be, sacrosanct. I sympathize with those who would like serious firearms to be banned but I’m glad to be living in gun country despite the danger. I believe it makes violent people think twice before car-jacking us and, more importantly, keeps the authorities from easily imposing draconian repressive measures on us which many in positions of power would like to do.

      1. mrsyk

        Maybe. The second amendment is certainly here to stay. I’m concerned that delta risk assessment and tolerance are confounders to your reasoning.

      2. Not Qualified to Comment

        Does it make violent people with guns think twice before car-jacking you? And doesn’t the citizenry having guns merely encourage, and justify, the authorities having bigger and better ones?

        1. Chris Cosmos

          A general distribution of guns acts as a deterrence to whatever, so apply that to both questions.

  14. doug

    Butterflies. We always leave some parsley plants for the swallowtails. They have always come, eat, lay eggs, hatch out. Until this year and none so far. zero. nada. zed.

    1. Samuel Conner

      I’ve seen only one Monarch and one Swallowtail (Tiger) all year. Both were attracted to a substantial cluster of Echinacea in bloom. My backyard is overrun with Milkweed, which is a great nectar source as well as Monarch host plant, but I’ve seen no butterflies or caterpillars on that so far this year (and many fewer Milkweed beetles than in prior years).

      The Cabbage White butterflies still seem to be doing fine.

      1. Amfortas the Hippie

        ive been overrun, as usual, by all the mud butterflies…several species that like to hang out in the pathways where the sprinklers and driplines leave mud.
        also lots of those yellow and black swallowtails.
        havent seen monarchs or viceroys in years…and we used to be in their path on their way to mexican cloud forests.

        1. lyman alpha blob

          Plenty of swallowtails at my folks’ house in VT this summer.

          Went many many years without seeing a monarch, then started spotting them again a few years ago. Saw caterpillars and adults in MA, then later saw them in my neighborhood in ME, and then last year in my own back yard. Encouraging! So far this year though, no monarch sitings yet.

          1. mrsyk

            Ditto. I’m in southern VT. Lots of swallowtails. No monarchs yet, but it’s early to write them off.

    2. Lunker Walleye

      Monarchs used to have a trail here by one of our oaks but their numbers have dropped. I have not seen one this year. It’s delightful to see a few white butterflies zipping through our magenta, scarlet and fuscia Sunpatiens. They are rare.

    2. Useless Eater

      Maybe half a century ago, but industrialized no longer applies to the west. I might substitute Indignant. I wouldn’t say Immoral. Ignorant is probably even better, following after Educated as it does, which helps illustrate a point.

        1. jsn

          Okay, all in:
          Western, Entitled, Immoral, Rich, Deluded.

          The late Ottoman phase of The Empire, but I was initially responding to the Symbolic Capitalism link.

  16. The Rev Kev

    “Trump rally shooting: Chinese online retailers quick off the mark with souvenir T-shirts”

    The Top Gun vibe with those bars under that image are not bad. In the old days, that image would make the front covers of magazines like “Time” or maybe “Life.” These days? I am not sure if any main stream publisher will use it on their covers. But without doubt, it is now iconic and will quickly enter American mythos. Scrolling through YouTube, I have seen it used a coupla times already.

    1. Wukchumni

      I was thinking up a great story about Li Harvey something or another, when initially the shooter was identified as being Chinese.

    2. griffen

      Souvenir t-shirts makes me remember fondly about all those infamous souvenir shirts printed & primed for a brisk sales period following the completion of the NFL playoffs after the 2007 regular season. I’m too lazy right now to find the proper numeral associated with the Super Bowl. Okay that was easy after all. Super Bowl XLII.

      19 – 0. Oops sorry about that? The pesky NY football Giants had other plans. Not very sad for Bill, Tom and those Patriots football fans (!).

  17. Martin Oline

    I saw this interview with Mike Benz yesterday after watching a shorter version the day before. He worked for a number of years at the State Department and has some very interesting things to say about how things work in that bubble. Winston Marshall, the interviewer, says this of the nearly 2 hour 24 minute piece: “What is the real history of US foreign policy that they’re not telling us? We look at the Ukraine war and the role the US played in the 2014 Maidan Coup. Are we on the verge of World War 3? What are the establishment doing to snuff out the populist movement which threatens it? All this and much more.
    It is divided at the bottom into about 12 sections with headings for finding specific topics. Mike Benz interview.

    2. pjay

      I’ve seen this recommended by several people and I think an excerpt was posted here at NC, so I plan to watch it. I haven’t had a chance yet, but can I ask a question? I assume by the index and the clips I’ve seen that Benz is framing this as “Trump vs. the Deep State Blob.” So does he explain how it was that Trump’s first administration foreign policy team was packed with pro-empire generals and some of the most despicable neocons on earth (Bolton, Pompeo, Abrams, etc.)? Does Benz provide any evidence that Trump is more an anti-war “populist” or would appoint decent people to decision-making positions this time?

      I’m guessing I might agree with a lot of Benz’ history here. But is there any reason to believe Trump understands this or would act to reverse it once in office? Does Benz address the actual nature of his first administration in this regard?

      1. Martin Oline

        I don’t think that is quite accurate as it is not about Trump. He wrote some (one anyway) speeches for Trump but does not seem to be a MAGA guy. I do not think he was ever a member of that administration but a wonk who was tapped for rhetoric or policy color. The discussion does not get into the Trump administration at all as far as I remember. It is more concerned with his perspective from being part of the State Department and the American foreign policy establishment – how foreign countries are coerced into following our desires rather than their own interests. The interviewer is a British liberal who shows his bias quite openly. For the most part he allows the guest to ‘free range’ on the questions asked, much like Nima of Dialogue Works. In fact this person (Winston Marshall) might be worth following, although he seems to follow the Russell Brand style of having an unbuttoned shirt exposing his chest hair. First time I’ve seen him and it’s kind of funny and sad at the same time.
        I see Mike Benz has also been on Judge Napolitano’s show some months back but this is the only thing of his I have watched. He is the executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online whatever that is. It is worth the time to check out, maybe using the trick of speeding up the audio to make it shorter. It’s Sunday, what else are you going to do? Mow the lawn? I already have.
        A disclaimer here. my touch pad has been touchy lately, not working, so cruising the Internet is a real chore using the TAB key. Therefore many of my comments and links are more truncated than they should be. I cannot easily ‘cut & paste’ from other sources or navigate through web pages easily. Spending more time reading source material than following click bait because I cannot click.

        1. pjay

          Thanks for the information. I do plan on watching it. According to their website, “Foundation For Freedom Online (FFO) is a free speech watchdog dedicated to restoring the promise of a free and open Internet.”

          https://foundationforfreedomonline.com/about/

          Fortunately I mowed my lawn yesterday, so I’m free.

          1. Amfortas the Hippie

            lol. i mow maybe twice a year…and then, only the “native” sunflowers and other assorted woody weeds that nobody eats.
            geese do all the grass mowing.*

            and yeah…the Benz thing is worth a watch…even the overlong version.
            (im not a pod person, and read faster than these talking heads can jabber)

            Benz seems sincere in his Bill of Rights concerns…but it feels like he leans to the right.
            fwiw(said the rabid anarch lefty farmer guy who also listens to Oren and Sohrab and even Deneen.)

            (*—now that i finally have my very own pos stock trailer, if i could only figger out how to easily coax the geese into and out of it, i might have a bidness idea,lol.
            but its hard enough to get sheep into the thing…geese…being very conservative and leery of enclosed spaces(something to do with vision, perhaps)…nah, jess aint gonna work)

      2. jsn

        DT was the dog that caught the car in 2016.

        At that point, everything he’d ever done he’d aced heuristicly. His unique combination of cleverness, connections and class (in the Marxist sense, not the stylistic one) just made everything work out.

        He’s had 4 years now to think, and apparently think he has: he’s running a disciplined, professional operation this time. While I’m terrified of what he’ll do with our rotten administrative systems and already frayed to nonexistent social bonds, I find with him in prospect I’m less afraid of suddenly finding myself radioactive ash.

    3. Kouros

      It is really worth the watch. Just a very few faux-pas, we are all humans after all, but otherwise, very well spoken and summarized. Sometimes almost channels Jeffrey Sachs… Also, nice tid bits of details on how the STate Department functions, and the amorality of CIA and State Dept employees.

  18. Geo

    South Floridians see surge in COVID-19: “It just blew up”

    Atallah said prevention should help keep those numbers down.

    “So you know, hand hygiene cover your mouth when you have to cough, cough or sneeze, you know, stay away from others if you’re sick, those are things that are going to keep everyone healthy and prevent the spread of infection,” he said.

    Wash your hands? They’ve learned nothing.

    2. Geo

      Browsing the stories about him and even though he was named at least six hours ago there’s very little info online about him. Usually by this time a shooter’s full online history (social media and forum posts) have found their way into the news stories. Nothing on him. Just voter registration, high school graduation, and a donation to Act Blue. Maybe the only 20 year old in the country to not have an online trail?

      It’s still early on so not gonna go full tinfoil hat yet but curious why so little has come out about this guy yet.

      2. Wukchumni

        There have been a number of mass murders as of late, and i’ve noticed the main stream media has really downplayed them, in particular to the usual pablum of detailing the assassin’s past, glorifying them in the process.

        But those gunned down were just average Joe’s & Jane’s, not the candidate for the Presidency.

      3. Paradan

        I can’t verify this but I saw a tweet that showed his name spiked in Google search history at 5 a.m. yesterday morning.

        There’s a lot of photoshopped crap going around right now, but still..

    3. J

      23andMe? Some of the other geneology
      collections companies? By now, they
      probably have about enough data to
      easily narrow down most DNA samples
      to a very narrow handful of people,
      maybe even to one, if this guy had no
      male siblings, even if no immediate
      family members ever submitted a
      sample.

    4. Juneau

      Arrest with DNA swab, 23andme, etc…I don’t think it is a stretch these days to think they have access to many people’s DNA profile, or at least part of it. If I am in error I hope to be corrected.

      1. Louis Fyne

        correct…

        but a 23andMe sweep would only yield a cousin/parent…. unless we have the one 20 y.o. who loves genealogy and submitted a sample, lol. (of course with political assassins, we are dealing with outliers in every respect)

        12 hours on a weekend in July to get a sample, sweep 23andMe…and confirm the perp. wowsers!

        Another cottage theory-making industry (catering to all political persuasions) has just been born!

        1. J

          Louis,

          It’s likely to return several matches
          of people that are at a genetic
          distance of second and third cousins,
          both maternal and paternal families.
          If accurate genealogy is available, …
          how many people have that same
          genetic distance to each of the
          group of hits as you do?

          The whole thing with DNA sampling
          and databases is a frightening
          betrayal of the future, in my view.
          By submitting a sample, people
          potentially endanger themselves
          and their own descendants, but also
          all of their relatives and their
          descendants, as long as the data
          submitted exists.

          Then again, I sort of think that the
          precautionary principle is a good idea,
          so what do I know? Maybe people will
          change for the better, and the future
          will be a utopia forever, and the data
          will never be misused for any reason.

          1. Yves Smith

            They guy they famously identified in CA through second cousins took a very long time. So either he or both his parents were in the system. Perhaps the parents did 23 and me?

        2. griffen

          We’ve seen this in the movies of course. Now I’m recalling the entertaining science fiction movie with Tom Cruise…Minority Report. Maybe the law and authorities have access to some pre cog technology and “forecasted” a future crime. Based on a PK Dick novel,I believe, which looks more predictive than fictional all else equal.

          Not intentional to be funny or even mild sarcasm, but these scenarios are becoming of a sort where it is somewhat difficult to immediately grasp that they’ve honed into the perpetrator and attempted ( yes deceased ) assassin very quickly and post haste. Okay maybe he kept a cell phone on his person,even if he supposedly lacked any social media accounts of substance.

          And getting back to the movie, it’s worth watching to see Cruise excel at his role as being accused of pre-crime. Spoiler alert, the pre-crime creator and overseeing director for the pre-crime agency has a dirty bit of history.

      2. Katniss Everdeen

        Millions got swabbed several years ago “testing” for covid. I never did, but I think they were asked for their name, rank and serial number to tag the results.

    5. Wukchumni

      When I flew for only my 4th time domestically since 9/11 last month, they take a head photo of you before you go through security.

    6. Useless Eater

      Not far fetched. Get DNA sample from corpse, run it through the system, see if you get a match.

    7. Vandemonian

      The whole idea of rapid “on the fly” DNA analysis is very suspicious.

      These are the steps involved, according to “A Simplified Guide To DNA Evidence”, at

      https://www.forensicsciencesimplified.org/dna/how.html

      Most DNA samples submitted to a laboratory undergo the following process:

      1. Extraction is the process of releasing the DNA from the cell.
      2. Quantitation is the process of determining how much DNA you have.
      3. Amplification is the process of producing multiple copies of the DNA in order to characterize it.
      4. Separation is the process of separating amplified DNA product to permit subsequent identification.
      5. Analysis & Interpretation is the process of quantitatively and qualitatively comparing DNA evidence samples to known DNA profiles.
      6. Quality Assurance is the process of reviewing analyst reports for technical accuracy.

      Try doing all of that in a few hours.

    8. Xihuitl

      Well, they determined that the gun was bought by his father. Maybe that helped with the identification.

  20. The Rev Kev

    “Footage Shows Palestinian Militia Take Out Israeli Merkava Tank at Zero Range”

    I’ve seen this happening a coupla times now. Though I have never been in the military, aren’t infantry supposed to support tanks so that this does not happen? That tanks and infantry support each other as a part of a team? Could it be that Hamas snipers and IEDs are keeping the infantry back forcing tanks to go in alone? Still, that was a gutsy move by those Hamas guys.

    1. Emma

      Electronic Intifata has been noting the absence of infantry cover for tanks from the start. Of course, if they were around they could get picked off by snipers or friendly fire, since IOF demonstrated that they have zero fire control.

      The IOF has shown itself to be a complete disgrace as a ground fighting unit. They can loot homes and brutalize/kill civilians and that’s it. The resistance has noted their crimes and incompetence for future actions.

    2. MT_Wild

      Reactive armor prohibits dismounted infantry near the tanks. Those explosive plates throw off all kinds of shrapnel when they are hit.

    3. Polar Socialist

      That was the case almost 4 decades ago, when yours truly was learning the fine art of mechanized infantry (heavy weapons company) of an armored brigade.

      The thing with modern tanks is that they tend to have active protection systems that are extremely dangerous to close infantry when they do go off. So it’s possible that IDF has trained their troops to stay clear of these behemots to both prevent accidental blue-on-blue and also giving the tank more freedom of movement in restricted space – as in not having to care whom they roll over.

      A good rule of thumb is not to take your tanks to an urban environment, if you care about them at all.

      1. mary jensen

        “A good rule of thumb is not to take your tanks to an urban environment, if you care about them at all.”

        Good God, what is Gaza if not an urban environment? A Hyper-Urban environment? Tanks firing in the West Village NYC. Tanks tearing up the streets in the Upper West Side. Tanks firing rounds at parked cars up and down Broadway.

      2. vao

        I suspect that the Israelis, in love with high-tech, rely on very manoeuverable small drones instead of dismounted infantry to get “battlefield awareness” (or whatever the fashionable term is).

        Or at least they believe they can rely upon such drones to detect what is going around the tanks/APC/IFV, without risking their riflemen to get shot at by snipers or to trigger an IED when entering a building.

        I have seen a couple of videos of Israeli drones flying around, inspecting buildings (from the inside, flying from one room to another), all the while filming everything. It is clear that videos streams are transmitted to some field units, as one video showed a drone following and filming another drone chasing a Palestinian through Gaza streets, and another one two drones monitoring shackled Palestinians forced to enter ruined buildings to detect IED.

        1. mary jensen

          Israeli drones. If you ever, ever watch Al Jazeera English, which I heartily suggest you do, then you will know already that one can barely hear the few reporters left alive in Gaza (please look up Hani Mahmoud) due to the incessant, sickening buzzing of drones overhead. Who wouldn’t go completely fu..ing crazy with that hideous threat constantly gliding above one’s head?
          https://www.tiktok.com/@beatrizbarajas444/video/7314715193198628138
          Sorry about Tik Tok link but he doesn’t seem to exist on youtube

          1. Amfortas the Hippie

            like the leafblower guys on sunday morning at far too many appartments i couch crashed in, back when.
            i worked at night, and would often yell at them for being too thorough,lol…and they were, to a man, like “meh…stupid gringo…”

    4. Kouros

      July 19 is the announced day when ICJ will publish its legal opinion on the occupation and behavior of Israel in Gaza and West Bank, in response to the request from UNGA. The submissions were awsome. Canada, acting on behalf of Israel, made a closed submission, so as to not show its true face to the world.

      Extremely high levels of hypocrisy in Canada. As my Canadian wife tells me, “we badmouth people only behind their backs”. The art of smiling in Canada, especially women, is something close to perfection. Friendly, luminous, innocent… The flip side is the art of backstabbing…

  21. griffen

    Speculation on the eventual VP selection by Trump in the coming days, quite likely at the convention or shortly thereafter, just grew exponentially. I still moderate on the choice being between North Dakota governor Burgum or the junior senator from South Carolina, Tim Scott. Rubio doesn’t help you much outside of Florida, to be honest.

    The office may be nothing more than a warm bucket of spit or other fluids, but it’s important to get a good choice this year I think.

    1. Useless Eater

      There is legitimate reason to hold off until they know for sure who they are running against. I don’t think there’s any legal requirement that the VP be named at the convention.

      1. Big River Bandido

        Party rules require it, but even that’s a ridiculous point. The entire purpose of the convention, besides the platform, is the nomination of candidates. The convention will not adjourn without a vice-presidential nominee.

  22. Wukchumni

    There was just a handful of prisoners in the Bastille that day, 235 years ago.

    A book I enjoyed was Days of the French Revolution by Christopher Hibbert. A great primer for those that don’t really know much about how the deal went down.

  23. Steve H.

    > The Science Behind the Emotions in Inside Out 2 Kottke.org

    from the linked source article:

    >> [Psychologist] Paul Ekman studied six emotions: anger, sadness, fear, disgust, joy — which is Inside Out — and then surprise, which didn’t make Inside Out.

    Ekman: Reflections on Inside Out 2

    Ekman was a consultant on the first Inside Out movie.

    His book 1975: Unmasking the Face: A Guide to Recognizing Emotions from Facial Clues was published in 1975. But he wasn’t named a Time 100 most influential people until 2009. This was the year his book Telling Lies was re-released, and he was a consultant on the series Lie To Me (2009..2011).

    His rise came with the shift from understanding emotions cross-culturally, to the use of microexpressions in detecting untruth. However,

    >> After testing a total of 20,000 people from all walks of life, he found only 50 people who had the ability to spot deception without any formal training. These naturals are also known as “Truth Wizards”

    No hope for the common man. Brandolini’s Law was formulated in 2013, and in 2016 Trump Gish Galloped his way into the White House and Oxford Dictionaries declared “Post-truth” the word of the year.

    The first Inside Out movie was released in 2015. There is an arc, the attempt to disprove untruth in real time failed, and a focus on understanding and handling one’s internal state taking precedent. One the one hand, this is deep wisdom, the calmness to accept what one can’t change. On the other hand, it’s hard to distinguish from assigning agency where there is none. This is a technique used from voting interests to Yves’ Tax On Time.

    This has complex outcomes. Once is a diffractioning of individualism in identity politics (LGBTQ+ not Trans?). Another is the advancement from Upton Sinclair to Gleichshaltlutng. As the man said:

    >> The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.

    1. Art_DogCT

      A point of clarification. The ‘T’ in ‘LGBT’ stands for Trans. It came into general use in the late ’70s. The addition of the alphabet soup variants began, iirc, sometime in the ’90s, with the addition of ‘Q’, for Queer, which represents those who find LGBT too restrictive and/or not representative of their lived experience. In the context of the identity politics-inspired naval gazing of the ’00s, et. seq., a range of other additions came into circulation, occasioning considerable confusion. The ‘+’ of ‘LGBTQ+’ has come into use as a CYA catchall for anyone who can’t remember or doesn’t know the current iteration. I find that ‘LGBTQIA+’ is gaining currency in social services contexts. This represents Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer or Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and the CYA ‘+’.

      [I’m old. Old enough to recall the debates of whether it should be Gay & Lesbian Liberation Front or Lesbian & Gay Liberation Front (post-Stonewall period). I know younger people, under 40 for the most part, who very much embrace ‘Queer’ as the descriptive of choice. I respect the choice, but will never use it personally or be comfortable with it in conversation. The word’s baggage, my baggage, roots the term to my past in ways I have no desire to revisit.]

      1. mary jensen

        Lived in San Francisco during the pre AIDS liberation period. Worked at a popular watering hole and café on The Miracle Mile (Folsom Street). My favorites were and always have been: fag and dike. Queer is British. I have no problem with gay but I don’t use it. My all time favorite is Gore Vidal’s “homosexualist”, ie being an adverb describing a sex act not a person, but then Gore loved his Latin. If I remember correctly William S. Burroughs was partial to ‘queer’ but he was an anglophile whereas Allan Ginsberg preferred ‘fag’. “Sapphic” is also good for the ladies.

      2. Martin Oline

        I remember seeing graffiti on a bridge support in SF southwest of downtown towards the Mission district that read “queers against gays”. It made me laugh but I can’t say I had any understanding of the meaning behind it. I had the impression it was a punk thing at the time but perhaps it was generational.

        1. mary jensen

          “I had the impression it was a punk thing at the time but perhaps it was generational.”

          Perhaps both Martin. A lot of queers resented gays demanding legal marriage which made gays just like mom and dad which queers did not want to be. Punk had a great sense of humour in the Bay Area so perhaps it was that… The Dead Kennedys, The Pink Section, Flipper etc

      3. vao

        In Canada they have LGBTQIA2S+ with 2S meaning “two spirits” — I think it is a nod to some indigenous non-exclusive gender classification.

          1. Ana

            Thank you for this resource. I will share it with a 2Spirit Shaman I know.
            Ana in Sacramento

      4. Amfortas the Hippie

        i’ll stick with “sex fiend”, thank you…with perhaps a “Dionysian” tacked on front.
        and thats only if someone asks…and nobody asks out here except the odd identitarian that sometimes wander through.

  24. The Rev Kev

    “NATO’s bad boys: Turkey and Hungary play their own game”

    I’m surprised that they did not include Slovakia’s Robert Fico into this mix. But Politico has their own agenda and that is protecting Project Ukraine. But here is the thing. The Ukraine is floundering – sinking actually. And most of the leaders of NATO like Macron, Starmer, Scholz have tied themselves to the masts and are determined to go down with this ship if it sinks – and taking their own countries with them. Not only that, but these leaders are also demanding that every other leader ties themselves to the masts as well to prove their loyalty or some such. The ones that disagree such as Orban, Erdogan and Fico are actually realists and are not besotted ideologues. They can see the writing on the wall and are trying to protect their own countries from the wreckage that will ensue after Project Ukraine collapses. They know that sooner or later there will have to be negotiations with the Russian Federation but Orban’s ‘shuttle diplomacy’ has proven that those other leaders are refusing to consider such a thing. They would prefer to keep their delusions alive, probably because Project Ukraine is so lucrative for them.

  25. antidlc

    Axelrod:

    “Is the DNC still planning an early, virtual vote of the delegates, weeks before the convention, to officially designate the nominees?
    OH moved it’s filing date to after the convention, so what would the purpose be of an early nominating vote?”

    The answer is in the Politico link above:
    https://archive.ph/YOQbM
    Can Biden run out the clock?

    Democratic National Committee members are expected to meet next Friday to determine a date to nominate Biden in a virtual roll call, which could come as soon as the end of this month, weeks before the party’s convention in Chicago, which begins on Aug. 19.

    Officially giving Biden the nomination would effectively blunt some calls for him to drop out and would send a clear message to wavering party members that it was time to put aside their concerns and get in line.

  26. CA

    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/13/us/politics/donald-trump-rally-shooting-2024-campaign.html

    July 13, 2024

    Amid the Mayhem, Trump Pumped His Fist and Revealed His Instincts
    A bloodied Donald J. Trump made Secret Service agents wait while he expressed his defiance. The moment epitomized his visceral connection with his supporters, and his mastery of the modern media age.
    By Shawn McCreesh

    Donald J. Trump was back on his feet. He had just been shot at, his white shirt was undone and his red hat was no longer on his head. Blood streaked across his face as riflemen patrolled the perimeter of the stage. A pack of Secret Service agents pressed their bodies against his. “We’ve got to move, we’ve got to move,” one pleaded.

    “Wait, wait, wait, wait,” the former president instructed, his voice a harried — but startlingly clear — command. Reluctantly, they halted. He peered out into the crowd.

    And then his arm reached toward the sky, and he began punching the air.

    The crowd started to chant — “U-S-A! U-S-A!” — as the agents inched Mr. Trump toward the stairs. When they reached the top step, they paused once more, so Mr. Trump could lift his arm a little higher, and pump his fist a little faster. The crowd roared a little louder.

    It’s difficult to imagine a moment that more fully epitomizes Mr. Trump’s visceral connection with his supporters, and his mastery of the modern media age.

    Mr. Trump would not leave the stage without signaling to his fans that he was OK — even as some were still wailing in fear. And he did not just wave or nod, he raised his fist in defiance above his bloodied face — making an image history will not forget…

    1. Wukchumni

      The photo op was just amazing, shades of the Iwo Jima flagraisers, that is if one of them had a raised fist while moving old glory into place.

      The upside down American flag plays in perfectly into the tableau, too.

    2. marym

      With no way of knowing whether there was still a danger, his “instinct” to continue making himself a target potentially endangered everyone else in the crowd.

      1. pjay

        I’m sorry marym, but even though you have a point I’m going to have to give you the “MSNBC spin of the day” award for providing the most Rachel Maddow-like comment on Trump’s fist-pump.

        1. Dr. John Carpenter

          Agreed and I would add to consider if Trump had been led off stage bleeding and condition unknown how absolutely bananas things would be getting now. Spin it however you want, but his stop to fist pump probably defused the situation as much as it could have been. Dislike the style if you must, but I think it was the right thing to do in the moment.

        2. britzklieg

          I saw two different former Secret service dudes interviewed. The first said they should have moved him out immediately, the second said no, waiting until the situation was more clear was apprpriate. Who knows? Confused but to-be-expected ass covering all around…

        3. marym

          That his instinctive action, whether brave or foolhardy or a little of both, wouldn’t be followed by more shots by another shooter who wasn’t down is something we only know in retrospect.

          1. Bill

            Agree. And, I’d think self-preservation would’ve ruled in this case. There was no reason not to stay down as much as possible while you get the hell off the stage ASAP, unless you have a death wish.

            1. Bill

              But, I get that he wanted to show the crowd he was OK, and express defiance, but he might’ve gotten himself killed if there had been another shooter. What would the crowd have done then?

      4. Young

        After hearing so much about ” But he/she is Trump appointed judge/prosecutor” talking point, I am waiting for “But, the shooter was a registered Republican voter and his father owned the AR-15” comment.

        It would be interesting to know when he was registered to vote as Rebublican after donating $15 to Democrats.

  27. LawnDart

    Trump had the presence of mind to make that fist-pump after nearly being shot, and one must note that this was pretty quick-thinking on his part– many of us might have kept kissing the dirt or ran like hell after this.

    A headshot was the smart shot to take, especially under this scenario.

    I wore body armor concealed under my shirt for years as part of the job. The logic behind that is that if your assailant sees the body armor they’ll likely aim for the head instead. And it is pretty well-known (at least, I thought it was) that many high-profile political figures wear body armor during public appearances.

    After the first shot, after the first few bangs, a shooter will no longer have a stationary target, so does it not make sense to aim for a clearly unprotected area that offers good odds for a kill-shot while you have the opportunity to do so? Sure, the torso is of greater-mass, offers better odds of a hit, but good is a bullet that is slowed, stopped, by armor?

    I am damn glad Trump wasn’t killed. The tension and threats of violence just skyrocketed, but his death (especially like that) would guarantee violence, “revenge.”

    A fragile state we’re in, all the same.

    1. Wukchumni

      The Proud Tower, by Barbara Tuchman could well be called The Assassination Bureau, as so many world leaders were dispatched from 1890 to 1914.

    2. hemeantwell

      “Trump had the presence of mind to make that fist-pump after nearly being shot”

      My guess is that Trump had worked out a bravado response to an attempt, probably modeling from Reagan. Might also draw on Martin Sheen’s performance in the film The Dead Zone as a negative example, Sheen completely falls apart, holding up a child as a shield after Walken tries to shoot him, .

      1. jsn

        While in this campaign Trump has proven he can think in Kahneman’s “slow” sense, all his prior success, or nearly all of it has come in the “fast” thinking heuristic mode.

        The fist pump was second nature for a latter day vaudevillian like DT IMHO.

    3. VTDigger

      Just FYI the shooter was using an AR15 pattern weapon which uses 5.56 Nato, civilian .223 caliber.
      Probably the smallest rife round but there is no kevlar vest that exists that would even slow that round down.
      You would have to be wearing heavy ceramic plate to stop that round, which no civilian would ever put up with.

  29. Revenant

    Ukraine’s F16 ambitions link goes to a completely different article.

    Unless this bait and switch is dry commentary.

  30. caucus99percenter

    German internet star, comedian, and TV gag writer “El Hotzo” (Sebastian Hotz) expresses regret that Trump assassination didn’t succeed. Sh*tstorm ensues.

    Hotz posted the phrase “leider knapp verpasst” (≈ “alas, just missed”) followed by “Ich finde es absolut fantastisch, wenn Faschisten sterben” (≈ “I think it’s absolutely fantastic when fascists die”).

    https://www.tag24.de/nachrichten/politik/international/politiker-international/donald-trump/donald-trump-leider-knapp-verpasst-internet-star-el-hotzo-schockiert-mit-anschlags-aeusserungen-3244893

    https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/panorama/geschmackloser-tweet-nach-trump-attentat-petition-fordert-boehmermanns-gag-schreiber-el-hotzo-zu-entlassen-li.2234945

  31. The Rev Kev

    “NATO Is Helping Ukraine to Fight—but Not to Win”

    Foreign Policy is wagging their finger at the western powers for not supporting Zelensky enough but maybe they should wake up and smell the coffee. At the NATO summit in Washington, Zelensky was making no friends as he was constantly demanding money and weapons. But those countries have already wrecked their budget by giving untold billions to the Ukraine and their own populace is starting to scream about the money shortfalls. As for weapons, most countries have emptied their armouries to send them to the Ukraine and have no more to send. As it is, it will take years if not decades to replenish those stocks.

    1. Kouros

      I am with Zelensky here. He was promised the whole sky in March 2022. He is just reminding the west and the US of their commitments. But ultimately it is on him, because he should have studied the West/US better to internalize the known fact that the West and especially the US are not agreement capable. He speaks Russian and the term was in use well before February 2022: недоговороспособны

  32. Orlon Depitts

    Kind of strange. I just finished reading “JFK and the Unspeakable” by James W. Douglass.

  33. Chris Cosmos

    Quite a few people saw the sniper. There is a photo of the dude on the roof before he shot at Trump. There’s also a video of SS snipers, apparently facing the shooter and firing at him. There were people in the crowd who also saw the assassin. There were people in the field behind the venue who were trying to alert the authorities of a man with a rifle on the roof and were ignored.

    We have to see that this smells a little fishy as more details come out–or it could just be a comedy of errors and, in that case, SS heads need to roll (which will never happen).

  34. petal

    Listen to oldies station in radio in car and they have CBS Radio news at the top of the hour. Coming home from garden 20 minutes ago their lead story was the big fear of retaliation against Democrat party people. That this incident will lead to MAGA people going after (and killing) Democrats. smh. My first through was “They’re always the victim”.

      1. TomW

        Thanks for the reply. It looked to me like the shadow at the top of Trump’s ear was the bullet hole. Especially when I read this in the story: “The angle seems a bit low to have passed through his ear, but not impossible if the gunman fired multiple rounds.” Which implies that the commenting ballistics guy was thinking the bullet passed through the left ear in the picture. That’s initially what I was focusing on. the trajectory of the bullet.
        I was expecting to see a mangled ear, and his left ear does look a bit odd.

  37. Wukchumni

    About 15 new lightning strike fires, with the potential for more of the sleeper variety in the tall timber of the higher climes…

    There is 3 south of us, the Trout, Packsaddle and White Fires, the latter looks ominous, 2,700 acres scorched in a day and only 5% containment.

    Too far away to be a concern to us aside from all the smoke headed northwards in our general direction.

    https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2024/7/13/white-fire

  39. Lee

    Long Covid

    From WHO: Post COVID-19 condition (Long COVID)

    Dr. Daniel Griffin discusses WHO’s informational website starting at minute 12 in his Weekly Update on This Week in virology.

    It took many years for the medical community to take ME/CFS seriously as a physical rather than a psychiatric condition. But then, there were relatively few of us. Mass disabling events have a way of concentrating minds.

    1. Amfortas the Hippie

      aye. it was the same with Fibro…which, in addition to my pretty much global arthritis, is a diagnosis that fits me to a T(especially the various “pressure points”).
      bruxist tenacity, and lots of weed and beer, and keepin on movin are what seems to work the best.

      add in Weatherpain as a mythical diagnosis,lol.
      feels pretty real to me.
      Beryl knocked me down for 2.5 days.
      no known mechanism of action(it aint pressure, since my local barometer didnt move)…i suspect perturbations in the gravity field that my numerous skeletal injuries somehow make me aware of.
      years ago, Ligo sent me their trash data(thunderstorms, etc), but i didnt have the computer and data savvy to make heads or tails of it.

      1. Lee

        Have you checked out Ventusky for air pressure and other weather info?

        I’m finding that an old variety, Grape Ape, helps me with low back, and leg pain caused by spinal stenosis. The arthritic narrowing of the spinal canal continues apace, however, and measures more invasive might be called for so that I might remain continent, ambulatory, and otherwise functional. In the meantime, I’m still wackin’ at weeds, growing this and that, and promenading around the hood pushing my granddaughter in her stroller. Keep on keepin’ on until you can’t, is what I say. Oh, and don’t run for president. Better to take a nap or go fishing.

  40. Young

    Maybe, just maybe, we would finally get to see JFK files if DJT decides to issue an executive order to release them as his first action after this assassination attempt.

    1. Useless Eater

      I’m willing to bet there’s not a file folder at Langley that says “Yep, we did it”

  41. Kouros

    The industrialized US is coat-tailing Canada and Finland for ice-breakers?

    I wonder how are they planning to patrol the long Russian Arctic coast with only 27 icebreakers (20 Canadians and 7 Finnish), when the Russians at over 40 don’t feel they have enough and are building bigger and bigger ones, including nuclear powered ones?

    So much magic thinking, it hurts. What happens at limit with the “assume a can opener”…

    1. Polar Socialist

      Finland actually has 8 icebreakers, but they are all made for Baltic sea where the max. ice thickness is 1/4 of that of the polar sea. So they won’t be patrolling on Arctic coast unless it’s a warm summer…

  42. Wukchumni

    There’s a Billionaire who’s sure all that his trail will go cold
    And he’s boarding a jetway to a haven

    When he gets there he knows, as long as entry ways are all closed
    With a bunker he can get what he came for

    Ooh, ooh, and he’s boarding a jetway to a haven

    There’s signs all’s not well, but he wants to be sure
    ‘Cause you know sometimes mainstream media words have two meanings

    In a tree by the brook, there’s a security guard sniper who waits
    Sometimes all of our mere mortal thoughts are misgiven

    Ooh, it makes me wonder
    Ooh, makes me wonder

    There’s a feeling I get when I look @ the West
    And he’s getting ready for leaving

    In my thoughts I have seen lots of smoke through the cities
    And the voices of those troglodytes who stand looking

    Ooh, it makes me wonder
    Ooh, really makes me wonder

    And it’s whispered that soon if we all vote opportune
    Then the Orange pied piper will lead us to reason

    And a new day will dawn for those who couldn’t stand them long
    And the left behinds will echo with laughter

    Oh-oh-oh-oh-whoa

    If there’s a bustle in your NZ bunker, don’t be alarmed now
    It’s just a spring clean for the tall poppies
    Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
    There’s still time to change the road you’re on

    And it makes me wonder
    Ohh, whoa

    Your head is humming, and it won’t go, in case you don’t know
    The pied piper’s never calling you to join him

    Dear Illionaire, can you hear the wind blow? And did you know
    Your plan relies on the whispering wind?

    How did we wind on down this road
    Doomstown shadows taller than our soul
    There walks a mogul we all know
    Who shines white light and wants to show
    How everything still turns to gold
    And if you listen very hard
    The tune will come to you at last
    When all are one, and one is all
    Until his Praetorian Guard says ‘Lets Roll!’

    And he’s boarding a jetway to a haven

    Stairway to Heaven, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys0hBEEM2Lo

    1. Harold

      It occurred to me, only because assassination was such an important element of the Bandera playbook, which embraced violence as a political tool. Stepan Bandera himself, propaganda minister of the OUN, spent years in a Polish prison for “organizing the assassination of the Polish minister of the Interior Bronisław Pieracki.” (wiki) If you look on wikipedia, the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) racked up an impressive number of assassinations.

        1. Harold

          Well, the embrace of violence was a basic ideological component of fascism during the twenties and thirties, and also the practice had long been extremely common among nationalist groups throughout the 19th c. and into the early twentieth, as witness the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that set off WW1.

  44. griffen

    In other news to maybe just maybe change the timeline from dread and fear and reprisals. Wimbledon completed earlier today, a young lad named Alvarez is emerging as a force to be reckoned with in the coming years. I don’t follow tennis like I used to, but it broke up the morning quite nicely for a brief moment.

    2nd place was a handsome appearing silver platter, awarded to Novak Djokovic. The joker had to smile, if he could, in defeat, and was surprisingly glib, and seemingly gracious in his post match interview.

    1. Amfortas the Hippie

      Late wife Tam loved tennis…and not only went to State in high school, but was a tennis coach at that same high school.
      i got a whole shelf of her and the boys’ trophies and medallions.

      i was open and honest about my feelings:
      i like the skirts…especially anna kornikova’s.(sp-2)
      rest of it feels rather tedious and boring to me.
      but ive never cared for sports one bit.
      makes me think of Brownian Motion.
      supported their efforts regardless and throughout.

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