According to NBC News, the replacement campaign has lost steam not because Democrats think the president can seize a moment of unity, but because they think the race is now over.

Mehlhorn went on to characterize the attack as “a classic Putin play,” and claimed that this theory is “more plausible” than the notion that a deranged individual actually tried to murder Trump.

But wait, it gets even more bizarre. Mehlhorn then expresses outrage that major media outlets and influencers are not peddling this narrative. “I skimmed a few headlines just now. NOT ONE NEWSPAPER OR OPINION LEADER IN AMERICA IS WILLING TO OPENLY CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY THAT TRUMP ANND PUTIN STAGED THIS ON PURPOSE,” he wrote: //

The other possibility – which feels horrific and alien and absurd in America, but is quite common globally – is that this “shooting” was encouraged and maybe even staged so Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash. //

I don’t believe for a second that folks like Mehlhorn actually believe that Saturday’s shooting was somehow staged. The entire theory makes no sense.

One person actually died in the attack. Two others were wounded. Moreover, the shooter missed his mark, only grazing Trump’s ear. Anyone who believes that some 20-year-old could pull that off on purpose has been watching far too many movies.

At this point, it makes no sense to pretend the assassination attempt was a false flag – and folks on the left know it. They are entertaining this fantasy for two reasons: They don’t want to admit there are people in their camp that could carry out such an act and they know the failed attempt to murder Trump will only help his campaign. These people are motivated purely by politics.

The effort to replace President Biden as the Democratic Party's 2024 nominee has lost all momentum and is essentially "over" following the assassination attempt against former President Trump, allies of the president say, according to a new report. //

As I wrote shortly after the event, this is the image that changed everything. This couldn't be more powerful if it had been deliberate, planned, and posed: Trump, bloodied but defiant, fist raised, calling out to the crowd. The American flag behind him, seemingly upside-down, which is a sign of a nation in distress. The Secret Service agents formed a wall of bodies around the former president to take a bullet for him if necessary. This, folks, is Pulitzer Prize-level photography. And this image, an image of defiance in the face of an attempted assassination, couldn't present a more stark contrast when set alongside tired, pale, befuddled old Joe Biden. //

They should concentrate on team-building, on finding candidates that have appeal beyond the urban cohorts, the coastal elites, and the radical left "progressives."

Maybe they could even take their party back to something Harry Truman would recognize. //

Steprock
9 hours ago
Look at your president, now look at mine.
Your president is a befuddled old man.
Mine is a heroic champion.
If it looks posed, that's because lesser people wish they had the power and nerve of my president. //

tanner
10 hours ago
I thought it was incredibly heroic of Trump to signal to the crowd that he was ok, like a father to a child. Then I realized he was being a father, husband first, letting his family know he was ok. //

Jennifer Van Laar tanner
9 hours ago
Same. I was watching the coverage with RedState writer Brittany Sheehan and we had tears in our eyes, thinking that. How selfless, and in a moment like that it was an instinctive reaction and not scripted. It showed who he is. //

Steve351C
10 hours ago
I don't mean any disrespect to our WW II veterans, but that picture at the top has a "Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima" feel. It's definitely an iconic image that I would like to have on a T-shirt. No words, just the picture.

Steve Guest @SteveGuest
·
Joe Biden on 7.8.2024: "We’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye."
6:43 PM · Jul 13, 2024 //

Jeremy Kauffman 🦔 @jeremykauffman
·
FLASHBACK: when Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot in 2011, it was a widespread and mainstream story that Sarah Palin was to blame because she put crosshairs on a map
8:39 PM · Jul 13, 2024 //

Yet, here's USA Today's take when it applies to the language of Joe Biden. They even used the classic "Republicans pounced."

Republicans pounced on Biden's remarks after the shooting, even though there is no evidence tying those comments to the attack on Trump or the shooter's motivation. //

The bullseye comment is not just "one (bad night) comment' -- the problem is how Biden and the left have continually targeted Trump as the devil, Hitler, not worthy of respect or being treated like a normal opponent, dehumanizing him, calling him an existential "threat to democracy." //

anon-055q
6 hours ago
"It's time to put Trump in a bullseye." - Joe Biden

"Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?"

Corey Comperatore, 50, who served as the fire chief for Buffalo Township, was shot and killed by Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, at the rally, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Sunday. //

He was the best dad a girl could ever ask for. My sister and I never needed for anything. You call, he would answer, and he would do whatever it is you needed, and if he didn't know he would figure out how. He could talk and make friends with anyone, which he was doing all day yesterday and loved every minute of it. //

Allyson also wrote about her dad's faith: "He was a man of God, loved Jesus, and also looked after our church and members as family." //

The media will not tell you that he died a real-life super hero. They are not going to tell you how quickly he threw mom and I to the ground. They are not going to tell you that he shielded my body from the bullet that came at us.

He loved his family. He truly loved us enough to take a real bullet for us. And I want nothing more than to cry on him and tell him thank you. I want nothing more than to wake up and for this to not be reality for me and my family.

GBenton
5 hours ago edited
Why do we assume they screwed up? Far as I'm concerned, an error like that should be considered planned until proven otherwise. No one is that stupid, no operation is that sloppy. The roof was left unguarded and the shooter knew that would be the case or he wouldn't have been there.

Occam's Razor, this was intentional.

Online leftists are saying the screw up was the shooter missed.

Believe them.

Not giving these monsters the benefit of the doubt with "incompetence" when the week before Biden said it was time to put a a bullseye on Trump.

When they tell you who they are, believe them. //

JWAmerican Snowblind
5 hours ago
Leaving an elevated platform within easy rifle range is willful malice, not stupidity. Like he said, when they tell you who they are, believe them. //

The Original John Doe Snowblind
4 hours ago
"Never assume malice where simple stupidity will suffice."

NO! When dealing with evil always assume to worst most twisted thing you can think of. Then reality will reveal it was even more twisted.

Most conservatives, are too loving, caring and moral to comprehend pure evil that has zero ounces of love, care or morality at any time. Not even simply stupidity explains how a gunman got inside the secret service perimeter which should have extended well BEYOND the building the shooter was on top of. //

GBenton BeeInMyBonnet
5 hours ago
I have no idea but that's what it looks like. The top of the USS denied requested increases in protection. Biden said put a bullseye on him. The counter sniper was looking in the exact direction of the shooter and didn't have to move to fire. So it's possible the roof was left open, the counter sniper was looking somewhere else and ignored the obvious elevated position, and the police decided an eye witness pointing to a man on the roof wasn't worth exploring all by coincidence, but I think that sounds unbelievable.

How would that shooter have known the roof would be unguarded? Why would USS leadership be more incompetent than a toddler and not post anyone on that rooftop or at least scan it constantly with the counter sniper team?

I don't know. Is it possible a large collection of people were all that incompetent OR it was a plan to take Trump out and take out the shooter so he couldn't talk.

Which is more believable? //

GBenton BeeInMyBonnet
4 hours ago
My guess is the plan came from the top and those at the ground level were deceived or mislead somehow. I too don't believe everyone on the ground was involved. But if the security plan had a hole and the regime had a patsy, then maybe that's how this happened.

I don't believe everyone there was corrupt. I also don't believe the ones who drew up the security plan were all incompetent and stupid.

This window of opportunity was filled with a disposable shooter and to quote Biden, the idea that was an accident is hard to believe. Too many people had to be absolute morons for that to be true.

smagar
2 hours ago
I am seeing, in today's coverage on TV and online, this theme emerging that "both sides do it, so both sides need to tone down their language."

Did any crazy Republican shoot up the Democrat Congressional baseball team?

Did any crazy Republican tackle a Democrat Senator and break his ribs?

Did any Republican Senate leader threaten SCOTUS justices, as Chuck Schumer did?

Did any Republican Congressional leader urge his/her supporters to find Democrat legislators in public and harass them, as Maxine Waters did.

Did any Republican lead political operative volunteer to do "wetwork" (rhetorically, of course) against Joe Biden, as James Carville offered to do against Donald Trump?

Did any Republican-run cities allow Antifa and anti-Israel protesters to run wild?

If Republican leaders, by their silence, acquiesce as the left builds a public perception that both sides do it, then the public will conclude that both sides really do do it, so both sides are equally guilty.

Based on what I know so far, I reject that. IMO we should, too.

With unwavering love for her husband and her country, Melania Trump set a shining example of strength, resolve, and love with these powerful words:

I am thinking of you, now, my fellow Americans.

We have always been a unique union. America, the fabric of our gentle nation is tattered, but our courage and common sense must ascend and bring us back together as one.

When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life, and Barron’s life were on the brink of devastating change. I am grateful to the brave secret service agents and law enforcement officials who risked their own lives to protect my husband.

To the families of the innocent victims who are now suffering from this heinous act, I humbly offer my sincerest sympathy. Your need to summon your strength for such a terrible reason saddens me.
...
We are all humans, and fundamentally, instinctively, we want to help one another. American politics are only one vehicle that can uplift our communities. Love, compassion, kindness and empathy are necessities.

And let us remember that when the time comes to look beyond the left and the right, beyond the red and the blue, we all come from families with the passion to fight for a better life together, while we are here, in this earthly realm.

Dawn is here again. Let us reunite. Now.

This morning, ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence. We all want to world where respect is paramount, family is first, and love transcends. We can realize this world again. Each of us must demand to get it back. We must insist that respect fills the cornerstone of our relationships, again.

I am thinking of you, my fellow Americans.

The winds of change have arrived. For those of you who cry in support, I thank you. I commend those of you who have reached out beyond the political divide – thank you for remembering that every single politician is a man or woman with a loving family.

jester6
a few seconds ago
To me, the most disguising feature of people on the left is that they do not understand human nature, especially when it comes to violence and reciprocity.

They think violence is just an antiseptic theoretical concept. They treat it like an idea or theory you would toss around in a classroom or dope-infused bull session in a dorm room. They seem to believe violence is something you can experiment with and then turn off with just a few words.

They also never consider the fact that humans are hardwired to be reciprocal. If someone gives us a gift, we are more likely to give a gift in return. If someone wrongs us, we are more likely to wrong them back.

If you read the history of any major conflict, you will find that almost everyone starts with one or both sides, making fundamental mistakes when assessing their opponents.

I am certain if we ever stumble into a civil war, the left's poor understanding of human nature will be a major cause.

Sean Davis @seanmdav
·
BREAKING: A source familiar with Trump’s security detail tells @FDRLST that the former and future president’s detail has been asking for beefed up protection and resources for weeks, but has been rebuffed time and again by Biden’s DHS.

DHS, which oversees Secret Service… Show more
8:10 PM · Jul 13, 2024

The first chapter of Kevin Costner’s new Western epic has a lot more to offer than its critical and financial woes suggest.

On Saturday, legal scholar and writer Jonathan Turley laid out the details of a House Judiciary report detailing the efforts of several shadowy organizations to censor right-leaning content on various social media platforms, and those efforts are an affront to anyone who understands the concept of free speech.

Few Americans have ever heard of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, let alone understand how it shapes what they read and hear in news and commentary. That may soon change.

An alarming new report of the House Judiciary Committee details this organization’s work to censor conservative and opposing viewpoints in the media by targeting figures such as Joe Rogan and entire social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter).

It is part of a massive censorship system that a federal court recently described as “Orwellian.” The sophistication of this system makes authoritarian regimes like China’s and Iran’s look like mere amateurs in censorship and blacklisting. //

One of the most insidious efforts has been to strangle the financial life out of conservative or libertarian sites by targeting their donors and advertisers. This is where the left has excelled beyond anything that has come before in speech crackdowns.

This is dangerous. This is using the weight of government to suppress free speech. This isn't about policies made in a vacuum by these social media companies. This is about government actors, as Mr. Turley notes, including the president down to unnamed members of his administration and, we feel certain, members of Congress in effect using these organizations to lean on the social media companies. They are targeting the platform's income streams - advertising - and they are succeeding at it. //

Dutch Letter
3 hours ago
“To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness, without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical (imaginary) idea.” - James Madison

We are no longer a virtuous people and we no longer elect virtuous representatives. We vote for who is the lesser of two evils in every contest, and we do not protest but on assigned days when voting is allowed. We have become complicit actors in our own doom.
Of course, we commiserate, and complain to each other, yet closer to the abyss we creep.

The CEO of Germany's leading defense industry corporation escaped assassination by Russian operatives earlier this year thanks to the timely cooperation and information sharing between the United States and Germany. Armin Papperger, the head of the massive Rheinmetall conglomerate, was targeted for death by Russia because of his company's central role in arming and supplying Ukraine.

According to reports, US intelligence uncovered the plot and enabled German counterintelligence and security forces to put Papperger under close protection. The missing part of this story is the German GSG9 hauling the Russian assets off to prison. The assassination operatives and planners are still at large.

This episode is not a one-off. It is part of a campaign of hybrid warfare that is being actively waged against the West by Russia as part of its campaign to eradicate Ukraine.

Hybrid warfare involves blending kinetic and non-kinetic actions to exploit an enemy's weaknesses without crossing the line between peace and war. //

In the current case, Russia wants to keep NATO off balance and damage critical assets, but it doesn't want to tickle that fine line between painful annoyance and an Article 5 consultation.

There are two main characteristics of hybrid warfare. First, the level of violence must fall below the threshold the adversary would consider an attack requiring military response. Second, the source of the attack must remain ambiguous and difficult to definitively attribute to a foreign actor. These two factors make it difficult for a state to develop a coherent response to various lines of attack.

For the past months, the Russian OPTEMPO of hybrid operations in Germany has accelerated: //

Natasha Bertrand @NatashaBertrand
·
A senior NATO official said today that Russia's sabotage campaign across Europe is a "more concerted, more aggressive effort, than what we’ve seen certainly since the Cold War...we’re seeing sabotage, assassination plots, arson — real things that have cost human lives.”
1:46 PM · Jul 9, 2024. //

Per-Erik Schulze @PerErikSchulze
·
Nothing to see here. Just perfectly normal russian bottom trawling back and forth repeatedly just on top of the main fiber optic internet cable between Svalbard and the Norwegian mainland. From NRK.

4:29 PM · May 26, 2024. //

All of these are examples of hostile action from Russia becoming gradually normalised because nobody is willing or able to deal with it. In this way, Russia pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable, or at least accepted, by doing something that should be outrageous, and then doing it more when there is no response from the West. //

Russia is engaged in a very aggressive hybrid war against Europe that includes propaganda, economic attacks, cyberwarfare, and kinetic operations on the ground. That war's objectives are to increase internal divisions in European countries, damage their economies, and weaken their resolve to resist Russian demands.

In the case of Estonia, Russia is amplifying a border dispute so that it can become a plausible potential casus belli. As I've pointed out before, Estonia is a particularly tempting target for Putin because it is about 24 percent ethnic Russian. If Putin can successfully encroach on Estonia without consequences, NATO will become very unstable. See How Putin Dismembers NATO Without Firing A Shot: A Scenario From the Cold War for more details.

Europe is treating these attacks as individual data points and not as a coherent Russian destabilization campaign. As long as that goes on, Russia is winning this hybrid war, and it has no reason to stop.

Perseid meteors will streak through Earth’s atmosphere starting in mid-July. A first quarter moon won’t interfere with the shower’s peak on the mornings of August 11, 12 and 13.

The Falcon 9 is grounded pending an investigation, possibly delaying upcoming crew flights. //

"Upper stage restart to raise perigee resulted in an engine RUD for reasons currently unknown," Musk wrote in an update two hours after the launch. RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly) is a term of art in rocketry that usually signifies a catastrophic or explosive failure. //

Going into Thursday's mission, the current version of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, known as the Falcon 9 Block 5, was indisputably the most reliable launch vehicle in history. Since debuting in May 2018, the Falcon 9 Block 5, which NASA has certified for astronaut flights, never had a mission failure in all of its 297 launches before the ill-fated Starlink 9-3 mission. //

The Falcon 9's only total in-flight launch failure occurred on its 19th flight on June 28, 2015, when the upper stage's liquid oxygen tank burst a couple of minutes after launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The rocket disintegrated in the upper atmosphere, dooming a Dragon cargo capsule en route to the space station.

SpaceX resumed Falcon 9 launches six months later in December 2015. On that flight, SpaceX landed the Falcon 9's first stage booster back at Cape Canaveral for the first time, a historic achievement and a harbinger of the company's later success in reusing rockets. //

SpaceX's Falcon family of rockets, which counted 335 consecutive successful launches since the on-pad explosion in 2016, or 344 flights since an in-flight failure. Both numbers are all-time industry records.

Today, twenty years ago, the lights were turned on at RedState.

When it started, it was anything but a commercial project. Four guys — Ben Domenech, Mike Krempasky, Josh Trevino, and one other who is no longer involved in politics — had the idea of trying to energize the online right toward activism in the same way that DailyKos was inspiring the anti-American left.

You're never going to keep me out //

So I'm swapping the M and N keys on all the Beancounter keyboards in the early morning when I notice that the Head Beancounter's top drawer is locked. A quick check reveals that his second in command also has a locked top drawer. This is rather unusual as several years ago the PFY and I snapped keys off in their locks to prevent this happening. It's unlikely they had the keys removed as we had the foresight to smear the keys in epoxy resin before inserting them...

"What do you mean by routing flapping?"

"Well, say you're catching the tube home to Slough."

"I don't live in Slough."

"Don't you? Well let's say you do. So your plan is to walk to Tottenham Court Road and ride the Central line to Ealing Broadway, change to Elizabeth Line and ride that to Slough."

"I.."

"But on the way up Oxford Street you encounter a group of Vegan Crossfit enthusiasts who are in a piano accordion ensemble. After consulting the internet and not being able to find a local gun shop you're going to avoid the hippies and maybe leg it to Farringdon where you can ride the Elizabeth line direct. On the way there you encounter an old school mate who convinces you to have a quiet pint, which turns into eight quiet pints, a curry and another pint - at which point you find yourself, inexplicably, at Snaresbrook with a road cone under your arm. And it's late. You jump on a central line train not caring WHERE you're going to change at, so long as you're heading in the general direction of Slough."

"I don't live in Slough."

"Yeah, but say you did – and you need to get home. You're back on the Central line, you rest your eyes for a second and wake up at West Ruislip. You quickly consult the tube map and think maybe you could stumble to Ickenham and ride the Picadilly to maybe North Ealing and maybe run to Ealing Broadway and maybe get on the Elizabeth line. You manage to get to Ickenham, rest your eyes and wake up in Cockfosters and find the tube is no longer running. You try and find an Uber driver, but for some reason there isn't anyone remotely local so you walk for an hour and eventually find a minicab company that's still open who take you on a sightseeing tour of unfamiliar roads, dropping you halfway home because that's when your cash runs out. You see a night bus, only you're a bit turned around and get on the wrong one, rest your eyes for a moment, then wake up at St Paul's Cathedral at 4 in the morning. You walk to work, sneak past security and sleep in your office."

"And... that's what's happening to our network?"

"No, that's what happened to the PFY three nights ago."

"What's this got to do with the network? Do we need new network switches with better routing to stop this happening? Is that what you're saying?"

Mornington Crescent?
I'm surprised that while visiting all those stations, the PFY never arrived at Mornington Crescent.

KorevSilver badge
Reply Icon
FAIL
Re: Mornington Crescent?
Well, that's clearly not allowed under the Ealing Broadway South Swap rules, had we been playing the North Swap then you'd have been fine

Chloe CresswellSilver badge
Reply Icon
Re: Mornington Crescent?
If we'd been playing with the North Swap rules though, you would have been in nidd for at least 2 moves.

Barry S
Reply Icon
Facepalm
Re: Mornington Crescent?
At least he didn't get stuck at Dollis Hill.

Bugger. //

Ol'Peculier
Reply Icon
Re: Mornington Crescent?
And at this point... we've lost the Yanks!

eldel
Reply Icon
Re: Mornington Crescent?
My dear (chap/lady/being of unspecified type) we lost them all the way back at Mornington Crescent //

Dave314159ggggdffsddsSilver badge
"So your plan is to walk to Tottenham Court Road and ride the Central line to Ealing Broadway, change to Elizabeth Line and ride that to Slough.""

This is one of the more subtle digs at the boss's intelligence. For non-London-based readers, it should be pointed out that the Elizabeth Line also calls at Tottenham Court Road and takes about 15 mins less to get to Ealing Broadway than the Central Line... //

Tom 38
Reply Icon
Headmaster
This is utter pedantry however:

your plan is to walk to Tottenham Court Road and ride the Central line to Ealing Broadway, change to Elizabeth Line and ride that to Slough."

[..]

"But on the way up Oxford Street you encounter [...] you're going to avoid the hippies and maybe leg it to Farringdon where you can ride the Elizabeth line direct.

If you're on Oxford Street and walking towards TCR, you're walking East. To get to Farringdon from Oxford Street, you go down Oxford Street, New Oxford Street, High Holborn and then Farringdon. So you cannot go to Farringdon and avoid the hippies without diverting off Oxford Street, and if you're doing that, you might as well go to TCR.

Besides which, you're on Oxford Street walking to TCR, and blocked by hippies so you walk to Farringdon? When Oxford Circus or Bond Street is .. right there.
...

Or just a major road. From my house I can get to a nearby location by turning right and then left, in about 3 minutes. Google notoriously would send you to the left for a half mile or so, and right again, and along the slip road onto the three lane ring road, along to the next rather slow and busy exit, bring you off and turn right (roughly a 12 minute, one mile journey) which brings you to a point less than quarter of a mile from where I left home.

Update Blu-Ray divers to handle UHD video