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[Starver]

The 1st shooting was in a whisker of succeeding.

To play the tin-foil-hat game (not without some substantiation), for a shot ear it seems to have healed remarkably.

If it was a political thriller, there's any number of movie plots (and in-universe plots) that a decent screenwriter could invoke that have the same in-universe appearance as this real life one looks to have.

The late June fallout from his reaction to the Jan-6th reports do sort of beg a staged distraction (depending upon who is orchestrating it, it could be indeed as ruthless as it turned out to be), with or without advanced complicity on his behalf. But that's Conspiracy Theory Central, mostly.

Having had one shot at that (pun not entirely intended), it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to organise another, post debate 'incident' (or, slightly more of a "sane" theory, the first being real they decided to gain a similar boost by their own hands). The main evidence against this is that this (alleged) perp was taken alive, unlike the first.

Balance of probability, though, things were just crazy enough to be real. Should another apparently unimaginative 'echo' of the same sort of theme happen (not that guns aren't probably the 'default' go to, by the suitably disaffected, in the US, which skews that element of probability), we can probably start to look at the Bayesian analyses with actual seriousness.

[McTraveller]

I just realized the right response to the situation in Springfield isn't "deport them!" but "Even if that were true, why don't they have sufficient access to groceries? How can we help them out?"

[wobbly]

Plenty of easier/cheaper/more effective cons to pull off then a fake assassination.

[Starver]

How can we help them out?"

"That's Socialism, boy... Now you wouldn't want to be a darn tootin' Red Commie sympathizer, would ya...?"

[McTraveller]

I know you're playing the part....  that's the sad thing though, isn't it? It devolves into an argument like "No, that's not Socialism, do you even know what Socialism is?" and "No that is socialism, I saw it on TV!"

Funny thing is, many "conservatives" love their explicitly socialist programs like social security and medicare/medicaid.

[Frumple]

Eh... say they do, anyway, and then vote in politicians trying to undermine or outright destroy those programs. "Love" might be a bit strong of a term.

... though, then again, considering what they're also broadly on board with doing to children, spouses, and pets, I'unno. Maybe the stateside conservative heuristic for love is profoundly fucked up and the sentiment's sincere, it's just a sincerity that's okay with abuse and murder

[McTraveller]

I think it's because people like being the recipient of social programs, but want someone else to pay for it. It's like they don't understand what the 'social' part of it means.

Basically they just want the Rich Person They Don't Like to pay for it, and they're fine with the Rich Person They Do Like to use their power to force the former to do so.

It's the kind of cognitive dissonance I just can't comprehend...I don't even know how to get there since it belies a complete lack of inability to grasp cause and effect... although maybe that is indeed the root of it; an inability to understand cause and effect seems to be the root of most hot-button topics...  /thinking

EDIT: I've been reading general public reactions to the debate (and after) from both Trump-leaning and Harris-leaning sites.  It's interesting to me how sure each group is of their assessment of the situation.  One notable observation is that no group seems to be willing to acknowledge any fault in their own side, but only ever accuses the other side of having a fault.

[Eschar]

The 1st shooting was in a whisker of succeeding.

To play the tin-foil-hat game (not without some substantiation), for a shot ear it seems to have healed remarkably.

IIRC, either the FBI or Secret Service has said their investigation suggests it was a bit of shrapnel that injured his ear, not the bullet itself.

[Ziusudra]

Nope, that was speculation in congressional testimony, but 2 days later...

On Friday, July 26, the FBI released a statement addressing Trump's ear injury.

“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said, per the Washington Post.

[Eschar]

Ah, thanks for the correction.

[anewaname]

A press release by Arizona Secretary of State, "Arizona officials discuss recently identified voter registration error"... roughly, there was 20 year old code handling information exchange between motor vehicle department and voter registration system that allowed 98k voters to be eligible when they were not.

[Doomblade187]

https://www.propublica.org/article/georgia-abortion-ban-amber-thurman-death

Brian Kemp has signed a law directly resulting in the deaths and medical complications of Georgians.

The otherwise healthy 28-year-old medical assistant, who had her sights set on nursing school, should not have died, an official state committee recently concluded.

Tasked with examining pregnancy-related deaths to improve maternal health, the experts, including 10 doctors, deemed hers “preventable” and said the hospital’s delay in performing the critical procedure had a “large” impact on her fatal outcome.

Their reviews of individual patient cases are not made public. But ProPublica obtained reports that confirm that at least two women have already died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state.

[hector13]

Who saw this coming? Totally unpredictable outcome that hasn’t happened the world over where abortion is illegal.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/poland-violated-womens-rights-unduly-restricting-access-abortion-un

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/malta-abortion-restrictions-eased-american-woman-died/story?id=93480249

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/woman-died-ireland-abortion-ban-warning-americans-roe-v-wade-rcna35431

[McTraveller]

This feels like it should be in a humor thread...

What do you see as the biggest threat to manufacturing jobs, and what will you do to address it?

To me, we have one really major threat. That's called nuclear weapons.

Uh.. I guess that's true, but I don't think that's a particularly immediate concern for the plight of people facing manufacturing job loss.

Incidentally at the same Trump town hall he still thinks that energy and food imports are the cause of inflation. Somehow protectionism for American famers is going to reduce prices, and so will stopping windmills (because windmills harm whales). Nothing about improving supply chain, helping people find new jobs if their job is eliminated due to market or industry shifts, or enforcing anti-trust and discouraging rent-seeking.

[hector13]

It was on late night comedy shows, certainly.