Several Americans will see this picture and vote based on it. A defiant candidate, bloodied but not bowed, in front of the American flag, standing high among his personal shields as if taunting the next shot. This picture alone is political fucking gold. All a Republican has to do is show Biden tripping up the stairs to Air Force One, and your image-is-worth-a-thousand-words voter will see one candidate standing after being shot, and one tripping on stairs with no outside influence. Project 2025, “Day One dictator”," I will use my office for revenge". None of these things matter in the face of the picture for a voter who votes based on image.
Yeah, congrats to the americans for their very own Reichtagsbrand. :-/
If I’m an EU leader, I’m looking at my defense spending very seriously and looking at whether I can continue to support my country with any needed global imports because the USA is done. Russia can steamroll Ukraine. China can become global hegemon. The US will continue to project its waning power for a bit longer, but the global order will succumb to authoritarian strongmen.
Without the US playing world police, global trade gets much more difficult. With Europe’s anti-immigrant sentiment ramping up, I’d expect Europe to become more isolationist. You’re going to be losing your trans-atlantic trading partner to an authoritarian regime that will now support other regimes that actively work against the liberal world order upon which the existence of the EU/Schengen zone depend.
I know you probably didn’t mean it that way, but this is not just a problem for Americans.
Exactly. Optics are everything in American politics. Always have been. This has bothered me for a long time. Dukakis looked goofy with a tank driver’s helmet: political career over. Howard Dean made a weird cheering noise: political career over. Marco Rubio took an awkward sip of water: the MSM talked about it for days. The list goes on.
It’s not that every American voter is an uninformed, superficial idiot. It’s just that there’s enough of those types to make the difference in elections. Our elections for POTUS–arguably one of the most important political events in the world–are essentially a reality TV show.
The only people who are disqualified based on that are people with little to no originality of personality. People don’t care about them, so they don’t care to not throw them away over random minor things.
Counterpoint: Trump likes well-done steak, yet somehow won. I’m not sure how Republicans let that fly.
I like how the flag is upside-down. Very poignant.
It’s not. When hanged vertically, the union stars must always be on top.
In the picture it’s upside down.
People really be struggling to understand how it looks in the picture.
It be like that sometimes 🤷
It is not. It is hanged vertically. The US flag code states the stars must always be on top.
When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the union should be uppermost and to the flag’s own right, that is, to the observer’s left. When displayed in a window, the flag should be displayed in the same way, with the union or blue field to the left of the observer in the street.
It is displayed vertically, with the union stars on top, to the left of the observers (the crowd).
Do you happen to know the name of this venue? I was kind of curious to look at it on Google earth.
Butler Farm Show, Butler, PA
what convenient framing. Complete with an upside down flag, even.
There is video why upside down USA flag can’t exist.
I hate feeling conspiratorial but feds had eyes on a roof dude with a rifle, multiple people in the crowd told cops there’s a guy with a rifle climbing a building and they did nothing, this fucking asshole GETS SHOT then strikes a pose like he’s fucking Madonna. Pretty hard to not feel like it was staged.
Seems like anytime anything violent happens now there’s always 10+ cops/feds/officials standing by slackjawed with their dicks in their hands, so which it, ALL these LEOs are in on it, or ate they proving time and time again they’re fucking useless?
Does no one else think the idea of a false flag where you get your conspirator to shoot you in the ear, the slightest of shakes or a gust of wind away from fucking blowing your brains out, makes absolutely no sense?
The fact that bystanders were killed/injured kind of makes me doubt it was staged, as much as Trump would stage something like that, I am doubtful they did in this case.
Supposedly they literally caught the bullet that struck him on camera:
Which is wild, but not outside the realm of possibility. This photo was being reported on by NPR this morning, they had an interview with the photographer.
Shoot somebody in the crowd and add a separate convenient ear injury becomes a miraculous near miss
You can see a chunk missing from the ear. Takes some Mike Tyson levels of effort to remove ear cartilage.
100% this is fishy not to mention the people behind him weren’t injured.
One spectator was killed, and two others were critically wounded.
That’s not what I seen in the video. This is the twin towers all over again.
It’s not staged, trump almost died. It was a total failure of security.
I get why you feel this way. Mistakes were made. Huge mistakes. I’d say some people are gonna be in big trouble.
That many people can’t keep quiet. Local cops can’t possibly be in on some conspiracy. Just imagine the conversation. “Ok guys. We’re gonna need you to ignore the dude on the roof with a gun.”
It’s just not happening. Someone would talk.
Now if you show me a document that says three local cops in Pa. died under mysterious circumstances a week before, 10 new people were hired immediately and the regulars didn’t meet them, all of them were at the rally, shit like that… I’d go batshit crazy about it being a conspiracy.
The simplest answer is usually the one though.
Some dude either thought he was saving the country or wanted to go down in history like Oswald and Booth. It’s that simple.
It has to be. Really. Think about all the conspiracy theories around those two you’ve laughed at over the years. Don’t fall into that hole.
Not everyone needs to be told everything, you just need to tell people enough to get the job done.
I do get that, but A- plenty of funky shit actually DOES go down, its just boring and nobody cares when its real (gestures broadly at half the declassified FBI files) and B- We’re not dealing with normal run of the mill political dinguses.
Also, in instances involving cops/military/whatever, you don’t need EVERYONE clued in. Just one asshole in charge who is compromised in one way or another to say “yeah, we know, stand down” when someone brings up the issue.
I’m not saying I’m all in on it being planned, I’m just saying these things always sound crazy until it turns out to be true lol.
This. People think conspiracies are impossible because they assume “EVERYONE WOULD HAVE TO BE IN ON IT!111”
You have to remember, not everyone is told everything. Some people play their role because they’re told all they need to know to get the job done and nothing more. Some people really are “just following orders”
I’ll give you that haha. I try to stay level headed and assume the best before the worst, but yeah. It is a mad world and crazier things have happened.
I look forward to seeing the results of the investigation. I do find it a bit odd that in 2024 the internet isn’t lit up with information on the shooter. Barely anything about him is being said. That strikes me as very odd.
If I ever saw a False Flag, this was it.
Also, how did he miss that badly? Did you see how far the person in the crowd was from Trump? It’s like the attempted assassin was a storm trooper previously.
Did you see how far the person in the crowd was from Trump?
Where can we see this?
I would say missing someone by an inch or two is not “badly.”. Trump’s brains almost ended up splattered across the stage for the world to see. Kind of glad it didn’t, I cannot imagine the back last from that.
If this was a false flag, the shooter wouldn’t have aimed this close to the target. You can’t plan to hit someone’s ear from that distance.
With the things you named it sounds more like the secret service hoped to have Trump eliminated…
Britain once got years more Tories because a man looked awkward while eating a bacon sandwich
Propaganda is a powerful thing, and that picture will absolutely add a few percent of voters to his tally. In America, that’s all you need.
We (the US) got four more years of George W. Bush because his opponent John Kerry ordered his Philly cheesesteak with provolone instead of Cheez Whiz. I can’t say if that’s better or worse than the bacon sandwich thing, but they’re certainly comparable.
Counterpoint: Obama was reelected despite using Dijon mustard on his burger instead of ketchup.
Personally, I only go for ketchup if I don’t have tomatoes, but I never put Dijon on much of anything unless I don’t have any other choice. I can see spicy brown, whole grain, or hot mustard, but Dijon and Grey Poupon are just un-American. How he got reelected for his condiment choice I’ll never understand.
That said, I’m with John Kerry, provolone is way better than cheese whiz or American cheese, both of which I can’t stand.
What really bothers me is how Trump got elected despite people finding out he likes well-done steak. That’s just a crime against nature, and no failed assassination should hold a candle to that atrocity.
I stand with John Kerry on this.
Wha? Could you explain what you’re referring to? That sounds so wild, I have to know more about it
Points image of a thick-thick burger, “I wanna eat that one, and vote for the guy on the poster while at it”.
Why is everyone so weird and extreme?! I just wanna dance and eat the good drugs and touch pretty girls yo.
Dancing is gay.
Drug use makes you a far-left psycho Communist who hates America
Touching pretty girls means you have cooties.
I’m willing to undergo all three of those sacrifices.
Kk, them I’m gay cootie communist.
Gay cootie commie gang gang
How do you feel about robots and space?
I loooove space!
Consensually, I hope.
Those good drugs deserved it for acting like little sluts
Yeah, I can be as visually impressive as I want but still be hanging around like Tantalus in a world where it seems like every girl just wants money for sex. I don’t cross any lines. I just want.
it’s less fun if they’re not into it
It’s like zero fun.
I’ve personally withheld judgement until I can see some polls, probably won’t change much from the Trump advantage it’s been at for months.
I’m sorry the rest of the world.
First Past The Post voting artificially limits the number of viable political parties. This reduces competition in the electoral process. Legacy political parties get to run incredibly weak candidates, and mainstream media can run their bread and circuses about stuff that doesn’t impact the 1%s bank accounts.
The media is owned by Trump supporters.
*Some media. You have to understand, that media is just political propaganda (from one or the other side). Why else would anyone even fund them (they are sponsored by ads and promoted content)?
Why else would anyone even fund them (they are sponsored by ads and promoted content)?
Apparently you’ve never heard of marketing and don’t understand it’s value.
No it’s literally all of them in the US at least.
We don’t know yet why the shooter tried to kill Trump.
We do know how the Republicans will spin this.
Trump can’t be intimidated.
Trump is a soldier and a warrior and a survivor.
They tried to silence him.
Trump’s opponents are desperate and violent.
Guns aren’t that dangerous.
And more bullshit like that.
This assassination attempt will energize GOP voters and blunt Democratic attacks. It makes it easier for Trump to promote himself and criticize Biden, while Biden has to defend himself without endorsing a madman, and cannot attack Trump without starting with, “I do not condone violence, but…”
You forgot what they’re already saying; God sent his angels to move the bullet.
Don’t want to make any Americans feel bad, but that’s where your country is at right now. No one’s going to think less of you if you’d like to come join us elsewhere.
Aside from the NBN I’d love to live in OZ. Wanna get married to make immigration easier?
I’m getting closer every fucking day, proportional to how increasingly little I feel like I belong here.
God protected him?
Know who else claimed that? Hitler. And most who asserted the divine right of kings.
But we all know God didn’t step in to prevent the deaths of Jews, mentally disabled (and otherwise institutionalized), political opponents, former political party members who threatened power, LGBTQ+, Rowandans, Armenians, Palestinians, Uyghurs, etc.
That’s why I say if there is super natural intervention, it ain’t God. It’s the devil himself.
Well, except for your country’s immigration office, who would deny most average Americans the ability to join you.
Yeah, for all the shit people give US immigration laws. They’re some of the lowest requirements of any modern country.
Most everywhere you need a college degree in a sought after field.
That right there is the part that burns my britches every time a European gives us shit - we take in pretty much anyone, but god forbid any of us want to emigrate to your country!
Not to mention, the vast majority of Americans can’t even dream of having enough money to afford the move to begin with. The American dream is reasonable rent and affordable debt repayments now.
This is where I am at… Looks like around $20k to move elsewhere in the world, and I’ve got $0 atm.
Cut out the avocado toast and Starbucks! /s
Personally, I’m just using this as another point to bring up whenever I start talking to my religious family about how he’s the antichrist.
I don’t believe in such things, but it’s a little funny to me just how many parallels can be drawn from “the biclical things we know about the antichrist” to trump, his businesses, and history.
This is just another log on the bonfire. “survived assassination attempt”
It really takes a lot of wind off their sails, because now they have to try and justify their religious views while also justifying why their religious views are wrong.
Or they just go full cognitive dissonance and hold many simultaneously conflicting beliefs.
Or they just go full cognitive dissonance and hold many simultaneously conflicting beliefs.
It’s this one. Always. They cannot be reasoned with in my first hand experience.
No one’s going to think less of you if you’d like to come join us elsewhere.
Appreciate the offer, but I’d think less of me. Call it silly or sentimental, but I’ve called this damaged country my home all my life. Not just where I live, my home, my nation, my country and countrymen. I love it still, as broken and dysfunctional as it is, and I have to love it with my heart, not just my mouth. I have to fight for it, in the few ways that I can.
For people who live here, who are citizens but don’t think of this as their nation, who don’t believe in nations, or who have come to despise this nation? I think no less of them for leaving. I don’t blame them in the least. But it’s not me.
My favorite so far was my friend calling the shooter a storm trooper. Might as well laugh when you have no control anyways eh? 😆
I don’t think you’re really making any Americans feel bad, we’re pretty good at doing that all by ourselves. Also I’m sure plenty of people would like to leave, they just can’t for a variety of reasons. Money and very strict immigration rules (of other countries) being the top two but they’ve already been mentioned. It’s also very difficult to leave your family and move somewhere where you know virtually no one for a lot of people, even if they meet the previous requirements.
We do know how the Republicans will spin this.
Indeed we do. In fact, there’s already merch.
Please tell me this is fake. Pretty please
I really wish it was 😮💨
You know those will be the talking points because each of them is demonstrably false.
If they had to be honest, they’d never win another election.
You don’t understand how surviving assassination attempts energizes your voter base? I feel like there’s a lot of history here you could pull from.
Can you name a single elected European leader that people tried to assassinate?
Pim Fortuyn ( not an elected leader at that point, but his party won the election in a landslide afterward) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pim_Fortuyn
Hitler.
It feels like the only parallel left is that soon we’re going to find out Trump University was created because no other school would let him into their art program
Homie really forgot about Hitler . . .
Homie knows his history, actually.
Homie doesn’t get that the distinction is meaningless, especially when most European countries don’t elect their heads of government to begin with, and America’s elections are pretty much built to favor the right, because they’re never popular enough to win the popular vote
My point here is that the USA is basically a warlord state dressed up in “first-world” clothes. You all seem to take assassinations in stride while being blissfully unaware of how anomalous this is compared to other countries.
How many burgers after yours?
He was not elected head of state.
I must have missed the ‘elected’ first time I read it, lol
Jo Cox? Unless by “leader”, you specifically mean “head of state”.
Olof Palme, tried and succeeded… This has JFK-level conspiracy theories flourishing in Sweden
Forget about Mussolini too or . . . ?
He was elected but then abolished elections, so I’m not sure that really counts — the only way to “vote him out” was to kill him. You’re technically right, though.
And of course miss Maggy Thatcher, longest serving in her position too.
Totally forgot about that one, great counterexample!
Geez, why do the worst people survive assassination
If it’s a “voter base”, wouldn’t they already have voted for him?
Not all the voter base show up to every election, and in US politics traditionally the more people who vote the better Democrats do. Now they have to also overcome a more energized Trump base which means less people on the right suffering from election fatigue from our years long election cycles. A nice big boos of martyrdom with a few months left can go a long way.
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Europeans need to understand that winning elections in the US really just means convincing 10,000-20,000 people in about 5 states who to vote for a couple days before the election.
If this news plants a small seed of sympathy for Trump in the minds of those undecided voters it will swing the election.
Our democracy is really pretty terribly implemented.
Yes OK but the part we don’t understand is how getting shot at is raising sympathy levels. The natural reaction would be even less get the person involved in politics because he attracts or directly causes extremism, chaos, and violence.
You want a steady hand, not a drama queen as your leader, no?
You really can’t understand how people are “being killed for being right”? Like if someone said the monarchy in Europe is bad and kings shouldn’t exist, and then the king does have them killed, that wouldn’t raise sympathy for the cause of the guy being killed, that kings shouldn’t exist?
This is exactly how resistance spreads. People got killed for their beliefs. Other people saw that and thought “if they’re getting killed they are a threat to those in power, and thus likely right”. You don’t think “oh well this guy got killed for his beliefs, that must mean that his opinions are wrong”
Obviously this is not what’s really happening with Trump, but it’s going to be spun like that by his propaganda team, and people are going to believe it.
These are people who are making a decision about something very important with less than 72 hours to go. Do not assume they are acting rationally.
It’s not really a democracy. Public opinion has absolutely no impact on whether something is made law or changed. The overwhelming majority of Americans support legalizing weed and medicare for all but neither goes anywhere.
The US is an oligarchy that pretends to be a democracy to get people fighting culture wars instead of class wars.
Right, it’s a Republic with piss poor representation by rich white guys who answer to the billionaire class.
Excuse me, that’s a representative oligarchy
if its not from the bribery region of france then its just sparkling corruption
slowclap.gif
The overwhelming majority of Americans support legalizing weed and medicare for all but neither goes anywhere.
-
Legalizing weed has made massive strides in the past decade, after some 50 years of drug war.
The only reason the first one is true because it’s something the states can actually do. Not sure if any states have been trying to make a healthcare plan but I imagine that’s a lot harder to do then just saying weed is legal now. Basically right now stuff only gets done at a state level in America anymore with how divided and unproductive Congress is.
Massachusetts has had a very effective single payer healthcare system for decades.
MA is basically the equivalent of a northern European country hiding in the US. Honestly, it’d pretty much be an oasis, save for the fact nobody can actually afford to live there.
Hawaii has actually succeeded on both fronts. Also, almost no guns.
Good on Hawaii! Not sarcastic or bitter, legit, good for them. The rest of the states would do well to follow Hawaii’s example.
Unfortunately, I suspect that’s not going to be overnight.
“A majority of Americans continue to say the federal government has a responsibility to make sure all Americans have health care coverage.”
Your own source says so
But let’s add more:
https://www.citizen.org/article/public-support-for-medicare-for-all/
Recent polls indicate that six in ten Americans support Medicare-for-All. In addition, more than 60 percent believe that government is responsible for ensuring health coverage for all Americans. And nearly 70 percent of all voters, including battleground voters, identify health care as an important issue in upcoming elections.
I think they were responding to the “neither goes anywhere” part, not the support part
Federally, neither has gone anywhere though.
-
Never seen truer words on the internet.
It absolutely is a democracy, just an extremely flawed democracy. If democracy were a scale from direct democracy to North Korea, then the USA would sit somewhere in the top third of countries.
Duopoly. Where both big businesses collude to maintain the market shares between them. DNC & RNC.
Ranked. Choice. Voting.
We needs it.
And democrats keep killing grass roots implementation of state wide implementation
Got my primary pamphlet recently, I was so disappointed to see the non-partisan rcv supportive candidate wasn’t running this year. They nearly won last election, too 😭
There’s tons of things we could do to improve it. But it will take a huge amount of political will that Americans just don’t have.
Yeah. My option is a baindaid but helps clear the murkiness out a bit. Gotta start somewhere as it’ll take a decade or so to get us back to being anything resembling a great nation. Right now we are a fear mongering hegemony war profiteering oligarchy.
Vote of no confidence. If both fish suck throw em back and find some new ones.
That hasn’t worked with the First Past the Post voting system.
The ability of the populous to reject what is offered is necessary to maintain a balanced system. I’m not exactly certain what you are expressing there but I stand by this belief.
Literally does nothing in the US system and is the fastest way for the fascist party to complete their takeover.
Anyone advocating for this I’m assuming is either a troll or a paid shill.
Agree to disagree. Even a two party system could see improvement when there is a possibility of failure behind falling in line with ‘least bad choice.’
It’s not a silver bullet - to be sure. but we’re talking about a patient on life support with multiple systems failing. There is no simple fix. We need to deal with each rot and disease locally as aggressively as possible… and be willing to excise anything that is a lost cause. This is triage.
Not once has it worked in modern history.
Care to cite some sources?
To my eye the easiest way to exploit a two party system is to provide both candidates. The act of tossing them aside can give teeth to the vote and demand better quality. I fail to see any obvious drawbacks to this.
If implemented correctly it would not impact good elections and would drastically affect bad ones. Is that not ideal?
Modern history being anything that has happened in the lives of even the oldest person alive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States
https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/
Where are the third party presidents?
Everyone needs to hear this. But most people don’t even know about it.
Didn’t Canadians explicitly reject it?
As much as I think a ranked choice system would be an improvement, I don’t think it solves the underlying problems of Capital’s dominance of all of society’s decision-making institutions and it’s really just something for politics nerds to fixate on that regular people don’t understand or care about.
Or if.more media attention and coverage of trump pushes a few people to vote rather than stay home he loses.
These people never really think about politics and vote because it’s good.
Yeah. I’m really jealous of them. I can’t imagine how nice it must be not to care about this shit.
Terribly implemented, terribly run, terribly staffed, terrible users…
“Bleach blonde, bad built butch body” I think sums up my country as well as any description.
USA! USA! USA! 🦅🍔🇺🇸
Oh here we go…
FUUHCKKK YEAH!!!
[shoots up at the sky repeatedly with tactical bear arms]
If this is actually true, the only possible explanation has to be that the average potential voter in the United States seems to find that an entire apparatus of government nerds running the government is BO-rinnnggg! Yawn.
It can only be because they demand their reality television drama everywhere, with its’ gaudy characters and situations. They want to be mesmerized or they won’t lift their lazy asses from the screen, with their car chases, and explosions.
It’s the Emporer Palpatine gambit.
Reichstag fire.
Such an unnecessary scene. The scaring and decrepitness of Palpatine didn’t need explanation. Just say that using the dark side of the force is corrosive, and slowly kills the body.
The same with Vader. It shouldn’t have been due to burns and lightsaber injuries, it should have been due to that same corrosiveness.
No, I disagree. The sith are inherently toxic and self destructive. If they were to only depict the dark side as being a corrosive energy force then it would marginalize the self destructive behavior. Remember the sith were in charge but ultimately destroyed themselves through toxic behavior.
What could be more self destructive than literally ripping the life out of your own body to fuel your power?
Choking your girl
Like trump being convicted of felonies and all his buddies serving time in federal prison
As far as i am aware, outside of a handful of jedi and some of his inner council, nobody knows palpatine is a force user, let alone a sith
It doesn’t matter. He was a Sith and a force user, and after the Jedi were purged, he didn’t have to hide it anymore. He would, at least from the general public, but he was served by Vader, who was openly a Sith. Well, not openly Sith, Vader likely never used the word Sith, but he would use the force to choke a bitch.
But prequels are often hamfisted in their treatment of character growth over a time skip. As in, they can’t have any growth or change at all from the end of the prequel to the start of the first movie, even if there’s 20+ years in between the two.
Such an unnecessary scene
Man this applies to like half the scenes in that movie. George wanted every single piece in the exact place they were at the start of ANH, despite the 20-year gap.
That’s the problem with prequels. They have to set things up, but cannot have any change or character growth, because then they’d fail at being a prequel.
So you have pointless, this is how the thing happened scenes, when no one asked for them.
Okay. rarely you’ll get a prequel that’s good, but those are story driven and often have no effect either way on the later stories except to add a layer of depth.
The Star Wars Prequels, every single one of them, were not that. There was no coherent story in any of them. Just a bunch of “look at the thing” scenes.
I’m thoroughly in the “there are good ideas here, but they were let down by the poor writing and direction” camp with the Star Wars prequels. Telling a story about an idealistic young space wizard turning into an SS officer while the Republic he serves turns into a dictatorship could have been great.
I think Filoni’s The Clone Wars does explore a lot more of those themes, and offers a more compelling, gradual fall for an Anakin who struggles to control his emotions. Unfortunately, it also has entire episodes centered around Jar-Jar Binks, so it can be hard to get into.
It also gives us Darth Maul and Mandalore
Yea… yea.
In America, getting shot gives one “street cred”, which is invaluable when winning over the confidence of young voters.
How much is one street cred in channel points?
Finally, all those 18 yr olds in American high schools can say “Hey he got shot at just like me!”
Lol j/k they didn’t survive
I choose to believe this 😄
He wasn’t actually a conservative. He was “party raiding”. You can see that because we know he donated money to progressive Democrats.
Where can you see his donations?
News articles have been reporting it.
It was a different person with the same name. The kids own classmates said he was heavily
fascistconservative.That’s information that wasn’t out there 17 hours ago. Which is why we don’t rush to things like this. How many times do we have to do this before people stop trying to play teams in the aftermath of shooters?
We don’t know that. There seems to be the possibility that there was another person with the same name that did the donation, so at the least it isn’t confirmed yet.
But you run with this breathlessly?
My theory is, that someone framed him (or he is just stupid, how the hell should I know).
They were scared. Now they’re scared shitless. They’re going to have to triple their propaganda bullshit and the trolls are going to have to put in more hours.
