• zephyreks@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    Video (BBC) - content warning

    Statement by the Secret Service:

    An incident occurred the evening of July 13 at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has implemented protective measures and the former President is safe. This is now an active Secret Service investigation and further information will be released when available.

    Statement by the Trump campaign:

    President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act. He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility.

    Live Coverage: ABC CBS NBC FOX

    Sources: shooter is dead, one attendee is dead, blood on bleachers, blood on t-shirts, medical helicopters on the scene

    • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Yup they’re going to try to rally around this. His stupid little fist thing he was doing while the secret service was around him is scary. It’s plays right into the fascist playbook and his narrative as a victim/brave knight enduring arrows for his common people. I’m sad to say this, but it probably would’ve been better for democracy if they had succeeded. I think he would be easier to handle as a martyr than this tough guy act he’s going to assume after this 😩

      • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        It may bring MAGA nuts a few steps closer to the violence they’re eager for an excuse to unleash. If they believe they’re under immediate attack they will feel entitled to attack back. That said, I’m not sure how much difference this will make in the end. Eventually they’ll get violent anyway because they’re fascists.

        • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          Then where was the gunfire during their attempted coup at the senate building?

          I think the level of threat has been greatly exaggerated by those who stand to profit from the chaos and division.

    • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Part of me wishes they didn’t, part of me wonders who would use his martyrdom to do even worse.

      • ZC3rr0r@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        That last part is the terrifying bit, honestly. Trump is an egomaniac with the attention span of a toddler. He’s an unguided projectile of spite and vanity.

        Imagine someone competent filling his shoes with the unprecedented powers that were recently granted by the supreme court and the rabid MAGA fanbase behind them.

        The potential for lasting damage goes (even further) off the scale. I shudder to think what that might actually look like.

        Honestly, in the event Biden loses, the best hope the US has is Trump’s general incompetence.

        • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Imagine someone competent filling his shoes with the unprecedented powers that were recently granted by the supreme court and the rabid MAGA fanbase behind them.

          During the early pandemic, I was 100% convinced he was going to declare a national state of emergency as a pretense for a kind of coup. It would have been easy to have disproportionate military occupation of population centers like NYC, enforcing curfews, enforcing distancing and masking, while generally fomenting unrest through non-military groups. Throw in some old-fashioned resource scarcity by restricting shipping in the name of quarantine and, baby, you have a stew going. Once people are incited to riot, martial law is easy to justify.

          Instead, the Republican party doubled-down on the dumbest plan possible - literally betting on the stupidity of their base - to secure political power. The sheer greed, ego, and narcissism in the upper echelon of their leadership has them stepping on their own feet half the time, and I’m convinced we’re lucky for that.

          • ZC3rr0r@lemmy.ca
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            4 months ago

            It’s a good thing the Republican leadership is as incompetent as they are morally bankrupt, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t managed to stumble their way into pushing the US to the brink of a dictatorship. As the KGB used to say, a lot of them are “useful idiots” which can be orchestrated by careful external manipulation.

        • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          This is the same line of reasoning that created the “Allies actually didn’t try very hard to assassinate Hitler, because they realized he was a really bad tactician” conspiracy theories. Basically, the reasoning is that while Hitler was charismatic and had a massive cult following, he wasn’t actually that good at making tactical decisions in war. So the allied powers didn’t really try very hard to assassinate him, because they feared an actual competent ruler who would potentially take his place.

          Basically, “never interrupt your enemy when they’re making a mistake.”

          • ZC3rr0r@lemmy.ca
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            4 months ago

            I’m not onboard with that conspiracy, as there were certainly attempts on his life throughout his reign. But I do agree with the relevancy of that Sun Tzu quote.

            By 1943 Hitler was making such poor decisions it would’ve actually benefited the Nazi war effort if he had been removed from power.

    • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I’m a flaming liberal, but I’m honestly revolted that, as I write this, your comment has a bunch of upvotes and no downvotes.

      • CreativeShotgun@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        This man wants to do things that will make me and many people i love dead or suffering. How do you not understand how we could feel this way?

        • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          How you could hate him? I understand. I have a nonbinary kid, and I’m against what he stands for. But advocating for political assassination is just wrong. We don’t punish people for crimes they haven’t yet committed, and we don’t support vigilantism.

          We need to vote out fascist Republicans, not kill them.

        • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          This man wants to do things that will make me and many people i love dead or suffering.

          I keep seeing this repeated. What stopped him his first term and where are the corpses of the dead he is responsible for? Legitimately, link me to shit.

          Likewise, if his side really were going for an overthrow of the government with the invasion of the senate building, why were there not more instances of gun violence? The republicans are more likely to own guns right? If they really wanted to overthrow shit, why didn’t they come strapped? If they came strapped, why was the only police death from a thrown fire extinguisher causing a brain bleed that killed the victim later that night?

          There’s shit that doesn’t add up all over the place, and it bothers me that no one discusses it because they seem afraid to touch anything that might challenge the narrative of Trump’s terribleness and Biden needing to be infallible to win. Trump is more than reprehensible enough without hyperbole.

          • pingveno@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            If they really wanted to overthrow shit, why didn’t they come strapped?

            Multiple people had firearms at the 1/6 coup attempt, this is well documented. I’m not sure why they never shot anyone, but it wasn’t for lack of firearms.

      • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        Do you not realize how terrible it is that he missed? You of all people as a “flaming liberal” should be the most angry. This essentially secures trumps presidency, its the best thing that could have happened to his campaign.

        • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          First of all, that’s bullshit. As I said in another thread:

          The electorate is viscerally polarized, and very few people are on the fence about who to vote for - maybe some undecided about whether they’ll vote at all. I can’t imagine there are many people who are going to switch from Biden to Trump because of this, or who will even go from undecided to Trump. It makes no sense.

          Second, my political activism stops short of murder. Apparently that doesn’t go far enough for you. That doesn’t make me a troll.

          • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            Dont get me wrong, assassinations are stupid and rarely accomplish much of value. No single human is responsible for the state of our society, it is much more institutional than that. Only a dismantling of the current systems could actually inact change. HOWEVER, if trump was murdered I would gloat and I feel no shame in that.

            Also them missing is gonna make MAGA people really annoying for a while

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        You libs drone all the time in every media how the guy is an enemy of democracy, second coming of Hitler and needs to be stopped for any price. Yet you are “revolted” when someone taken it seriously.

  • resin85@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Seems appropriate to drop this here:

    https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-reichstag-fire

    On February 27, 1933, the German parliament (Reichstag) building burned down. The Nazi leadership and its coalition partners used the fire to claim that Communists were planning a violent uprising. They claimed that emergency legislation was needed to prevent this. The resulting act, commonly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, abolished a number of constitutional protections and paved the way for Nazi dictatorship.

    • 4vr@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      Not from the voters. This picture will get used to sway votes.

    • akakunai@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      It’s not like the Japanese Prime Minister (and former Prime Ministers) don’t have security, but the disparity of security compared to US Secret Service protected individuals is huge.

      The fact that the killer managed to get so close to Abe without being screened is indicative of the fact that such an attack was so unexpected in Japan.

        • akakunai@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          True, I’m just saying that if someone wants to assassinate a current or former American President, that would be a massively more difficult hit.

          The Abe killer was unscreened (like everyone else in attendance), and managed to walk directly up to Abe from behind and fire shots from 7, then only 5 metres away.

          Regardless, meme funny.

  • Birch@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    There are moments in history that completely change the course of events for decades to come. We just witnessed literal inches between two possibly extremely different futures. Very strange feeling.

    • roscoe@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      As much as I loathe the guy, I think we all dodged a bullet.

      If he died of natural causes last month I don’t think the MAGAts would have rallied behind Desantis, or whomever got the nomination. I’m not saying they wouldn’t have voted for them, just that the excitement wouldn’t be there.

      If this has succeeded, the supporters would have transferred and been even more pumped up. And sympathy from those weird fuck undecideds could make the difference, not just in the presidency, but both chambers of Congress, and for their policy goals too.

      Riding the wake of an assassination the draconian shit they would push through could have been far worse than anything Trump would have been able to accomplish in a second term.

      Take civil rights legislation in the 60s; a lot of what LBJ accomplished was credited to the national feeling after the Kennedy assassination. Would JFK have been able to accomplish all that if he had served eight years with public sentiment toward civil rights being divided?

      It sucks that this is boosting his chances in November. But a martyr, a new figurehead, and a more energized base could have been far worse.

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Take civil rights legislation in the 60s; a lot of what LBJ accomplished was credited to the national feeling after the Kennedy assassination. Would JFK have been able to accomplish all that if he had served eight years with public sentiment toward civil rights being divided?

        I think the same thing about the Apollo program. Kennedy gave that speech and then died, and now not only did we have to beat the Russians we had to do it for a beloved slain president.

        There’s also an episode of Red Dwarf where they go back in time and convince Kennedy to be the second shooter on the grassy knoll, because his survival would have started WWIII.

  • someacnt_@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I was freaking scared when I saw lots of people in my country was cheering Trump’s ralley. It’s not even the old people, they were in their 20s-30s. If Trump succeeds, I don’t see it going well in my country as well… How do I survive in a fascist country? Sad.

    • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      Yep, the person who did this is an idiot. They don’t realize all they did was help his cause and give him that much stronger of a chance of winning presidency.

      I mean, they probably don’t realize anything anymore given that they had bullets actually go through them.

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          4 months ago

          Sure but his replacement wouldn’t be him, so at least some harm would have been avoided that way, but you’re right. It would have been much better if this never happened.

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          4 months ago

          Not if he didn’t miss.

          Actually, I guess the democrats would lose either way. It would have only prevented Trump from winning (which many people would probably say is a good thing, but for many it would still not be enough of course), not ensuring the democrats win. So yeah, you’re right.

    • supertrucker@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      Are you kidding? The only things in this universe capable of superluminal speeds are a good rumor and merchandising opportunities

        • supertrucker@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          That’s probably why being a crown prince in medieval times was more hazardous than a bering strait crab fisherman running for president of the United States

          • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            Actually it was very very safe, if you compare it with peasants or burghers with occupational hazard being very low. Well, unless you were an Ottoman prince.

    • DickFiasco@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Hard to tell because it’s a recording, but yeah I was thinking something very small like a 22 short or a high powered BB gun.

      • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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        4 months ago

        Apparently the shooter was in the crowd, which means it wasn’t a long gun of any kind. Probably a pistol, something small enough to conceal. 22 makes sense.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      also libs: I stand with trump after this appalling act

      Hard disagree. From what I’m reading, politicians are condemning an attempt at homicide, nothing more. Voters are following suit.

      • ThePac@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        I seriously do not understand the “My idealogical rival got shot at, I now endorse my idealogical rival.” take. Nobody that isn’t already voting for Trump LIKES Trump.

        • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          I now endorse my idealogical rival.

          I’m confused. Who is endorsing Trump? Clearly you don’t mean wishing the man well or condemning this attempt on his life?