swung and missed

I woke up late again, and the news was buzzing with only one thing: the attempted assassination of President Donald J. Trump who, from what I can tell, got nicked in the ear by an assassin's bullet (see statement below) during a rally in Pennsylvania. Trump apparently moved his head just enough to save his own life (was it his infamous head-waggle?). I don't expect such an attempt to calm the left's "he's a Nazi!" rhetoric against Trump, nor do I think there won't be more assassination attempts because this is, after all, where all this rhetoric has gotten us. The left still will never admit that it's the side that more readily chooses violence, again and again. Despite Biden's titanic incompetence, no rightie has come out to try to take Creepy Joe down. Partially, this is because it's the right's nature to be flabby, passive, and milquetoast even in the face of life-threatening circumstances.

The shooter is dead, from what I hear ("he's Chinese! he's white!"—initially conflicting reports), but one person at the rally is also dead, which to me sounds as though the shooter took multiple shots. Angry rightie commentary is surfacing about how people have been trying for weeks to get the Secret Service to increase its level of protection for Trump, to no avail as the Service has refused such requests. A witness to the assassination attempt says he saw a man climbing up the side of a building, but when he told authorities, the authorities did nothing. All of this leaves one with the impression that, yes, it's not a conspiracy theory: the system really does want Donald Trump dead.

If anything good has come out of this—aside from the obvious fact that Trump survived—it's that fence-sitters like Elon Musk are now giving Trump their full-throated endorsement, and regular citizens will be doubly motivated to vote for Trump come November. This isn't something, like the debate, that will be easily forgotten by the stupidly bovine public over the next few months. Assassination attempts against huge public figures tend to burn themselves into the public consciousness. People will be angry, and they'll vote from their anger.

All of this is being covered quite well by Instapundit, so I'm not going to bother sitting at my desk all day just to be able to post updates. The former president is fine; he made a victory-fist at the rally as he was being taken away. Let the man rest with his family and ponder his future, and whether all of this effort is really worth for a country that seems to want to prove itself unworthy. I'll be curious to see how the plot will thicken as we find out more information. In the meantime, I've got a ton of cooking to do today, and I suggest the rest of you carry on and continue to live your best lives. Don't worry overly about what you can't control.

ADDENDUM: I neglected to cover a lot of issues above, chief among them being how this assassination attempt pushes the nation even closer to open civil war. None of this is a surprise, of course: with intensifying rhetoric on both sides, tensions are obviously near the breaking point, and when that dam finally breaks, well, keep your powder dry.

ADDENDUM 2: now is the time to ramp up election-integrity efforts.

ADDENDUM 3: Trump's statement, which I feel obliged to pass along:

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

I wouldn't be so quick to thank organizations with elements that wanted me dead.