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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   37994 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 8, 2024

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I've generally felt that the election is too early to call, because there's so much room for people on both sides to do very stupid things. I think now the idiot ball is in Trump's court, and it's his race to lose, if he or a follower picks it up.

Given that the shooter is dead, I predict an uptick in the popularity of the movie "Bob Roberts" and its associated conspiracy theory (fake assassination attempt, blamed on a plausible person of the opposition party). Thoughts?

Is the shooter dead?

Yes, an agent(?) said the shooter was dead before they left the stage. As far as I can tell, there still hasn't been official confirmation, but anonymous officials are repeating it.

EDIT: adding more

video link, just before the shots

6:50-6:58, 7:07 Shots fired

7:32 "he's down", "Shooter's down."

I'm curious if the agents shot the would-be-assassin with that last shot. It sounded the same as the rest, but I don't think gunshots are that distinct based on angle and caliber.

My guess would be the second-to-last shot is the Secret Service sniper shooting the would-be assassin, and the last shot after several seconds delay is them putting a very carefully-aimed second round into him to confirm the kill.

video link, just before the shots

The woman in the right corner at just after 9 minutes who transitions from shouting "USA! USA! USA!" to "FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" is a perfect ecapsulation of the ugliness of the current American body politic.

That was the USs response to Pearl Harbor also. And 9/11.

The immediate aftermath of 9-11 in the US (and this is my memory, so take that fwiw) was one of self-sacrifice and attending the victims, as well as giving accolades to the first responders. Most attention was on the NYFD and NYPD (in the what seems like a bizarro world now, when Rudy Giuliani was seen as heroic). It was an interesting time, when a lot of people in the US showed their very best qualities. I can clearly remember the backlash from my good ol boy acquaintances to Bush's comments that the terrorists were "cowards."

Of course soon enough this all gave way to a more palpable desire for justice, revenge, etc. But that wasn't the first reaction.

The immediate aftermath of 9-11 in the US (and this is my memory, so take that fwiw) was one of self-sacrifice and attending the victims, as well as giving accolades to the first responders.

My personal, immediate reaction was "we're going to bomb the shit out of whoever did this."

My personal, immediate reaction was "we're going to bomb the shit out of whoever did this."

I remember my dad's first words in response to seeing the news: "Well, we're going to war with somebody now."

Or to put it another way, it was "common-sense country control".

(It was certainly as successful in the long term as everything else common sense demands we control.)

That seems like an appropriate response to a prospective assassin. It's not like the crowd is attacking the dignity and respect that he should have.

Pro work. Good job whoever downed him.

Yes - as well as one attendee

Really? I need to update my news feed. Who killed the shooter? I didn't see any law enforcement fire a weapon.

My understanding is that the secret service SOP is to have snipers on-site for public events like this one. I'd assume the snipers got him.

More information on the shooter.

Apparently the shooter was seen on a rooftop prior to being taken down.

Annd here it is.. (Edit: Dead guy on a rooftop with beer drinkers in foreground, taken with a camera with very good zoom.)

Makes sense. I was reading speculation about two shooters but one of those could have been a secret service sniper. Hopefully there is a lot more forthcoming video just from people with their phones out that will bring more clarity to what happened (assuming that footage is not immediately suppressed.)

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