Political Violence, Trump Assassination, Very Popular on the Left

A new study reveals left wing authoritarianism is back – and literally, with a vengeance.  

By Graham J Noble Apr 9, 2025 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags:  Articles, Opinion, Politics

The term “assassination culture” isn’t thrown around at cocktail parties or mentioned on TV news programs, but it does pop up several times in a 16-page study released on April 7 by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI). In association with the Rutgers University Social Perception Lab, NCRI surveyed 1,264 American citizens to gauge their attitudes toward political violence. Shockingly – or perhaps not so much – 41% of Democrats said they believed killing a “powerful political leader” is “at least somewhat justified.” But when a less generic question was asked, one that mentioned two very prominent political figures by name, the numbers went even higher.

According to this detailed and data-rich study, 31% of respondents said murdering Elon Musk would be at least somewhat justified, and 38% said the same for President Trump. But among only those who identified as being somewhere left of center on the political spectrum, those numbers rose to 48% and 55%, respectively.

Political Violence and Left-Wing Authoritarianism

The study highlights the growth – or maybe the resurgence, to be more accurate – of left-wing authoritarianism. This appears to have been fueled by social media, particularly the BlueSky platform. BlueSky is rife with posts normalizing political violence against President Trump, his supporters, conservatives and Republicans in general, Christians, and, basically, anyone who believes in individual liberty and who reveres the Constitution.

There was also a significant correlation between those who felt they could justify the murders of Trump and Musk and those who approved of the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione. The study notes, referring specifically to BlueSky, “Users are increasingly associating the memeification of Luigi Mangione with calls for political violence against Musk, Trump, and others, reflecting the growing cyber-social presence of assassination culture.”

Reddit is also a chief culprit. Efforts to moderate the extremism (predominantly from the left because conservatives are generally unwelcome) are thus far proving unsuccessful. One example included in the NCRI study is a screenshot of an exchange between two Reddit users. One posted the comment, “Rumor is muck [Musk] always has his kid on his shoulders to deter grassy knoll enthusiasts.” Another redditor responds, “If you ask me 1 potential future Musk is a worthy sacrifice for the betterment of the world.”

No one should be shrugging off this kind of thinking. It is worth remembering that, for every 100 or so basement-dwelling tough guy wannabes discussing on social media acts of violence they are neither willing nor able to carry out, there’s one unstable enough to act. Mangione was one. He had etched “deny, defend, depose” – a mantra of the extreme left – on the casing of the round that killed Brian Thompson. Ryan Routh and Thomas Crooks, the two leftists who attempted to assassinate Trump, were also examples of that one unstable enough individual.

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This Is Not a Drill

The normalization, and even glorification, of political violence isn’t a mere fad confined to an extremist minority on the left. Rather, it has come to be accepted by a large percentage of left-wingers. As the study observes:

“The data reveal a structured endorsement of political violence targeting figures like Donald Trump and Elon Musk. These attitudes are not fringe — they reflect an emergent assassination culture, grounded in far-left authoritarianism and increasingly normalized in digital discourse.”

Is the penchant for political violence found only on the left? That’s a question not easily answered. Few serious acts of violence motivated purely by political ideology have been carried out by right-wingers in the US in at least the last two decades. The January 6 riot on Capitol Hill that saw calls for then-Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged, was a rare and notable exception.

Still, this study found that 29% of respondents who identified as Republican agreed that killing a “powerful political leader” was at least somewhat justified. By contrast, 70.89% of Republicans and 58.84% of Democrats felt it was “not at all justified.”

The NCRI study concludes with an ominous warning about political violence, which the powerbrokers, influencers, pundits, political operators, and activists on both sides of the divide should heed: “Unless political and cultural leadership explicitly confronts and condemns this trend, NCRI assesses a growing probability of real-world escalation. Given the current economic volatility and institutional distrust, the online normalization of political violence may increasingly translate into offline action.”

~

Liberty Nation does not endorse candidates, campaigns, or legislation, and this presentation is no endorsement.

Read More From Graham J Noble Chief Political Correspondent & Satirist

Another Trump Assassination Attempt and More Shame for the Media

Left-wing reporters trot out the same awful narrative they used last time. 

By Graham J Noble | Sep 17, 2024@ Sultan Knish Blog Tags: Articles, Media, Opinion

File this one under “Not the Media’s Finest Hour” – and, at this point, it’s a thick file. Left-leaning news outlets are once again attempting to play down and/or deflect the blame for another attempted assassination targeting former president and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump. Once again, and rather tragically, we are reminded that some left-wing reporters and political pundits are willing to practically brush off an attempted murder because the target was a man whose political agenda they don’t like.

After the first attempt on Trump’s life at a July 13 rally in Butler, PA – which resulted in the former president being struck in the ear by a bullet – the evolving narrative from the left was both fascinating to follow and unsettling for its tone. It went something like this: Trump was not really shot at, but, if he was, he wasn’t hit by a bullet and, if he was, it may have been orchestrated. If it wasn’t, there’s no evidence that the assassination attempt was politically motivated – and if there is, well, Trump probably had it coming because of his “divisive” and “dangerous” rhetoric.

The Assassination of Media Integrity

This time around, the scenario was different, as was the outcome. Thus, the current narrative is not exactly the same, but it still plays like a broken record. Media sources were fairly quick to acknowledge that this was most definitely a real assassination attempt. Some establishment media outlets still tried initially to play down or trivialize that someone had attempted to kill the 2024 GOP presidential nominee. NBC, for example, reported that a man was in custody after the “Trump golf club incident.”

On this occasion, Sept. 15, the would-be shooter did not get off a round at Trump. He fled the scene after being spotted and fired upon by Secret Service agents. Thus, there could be no debates about whether Trump was struck – no silly reports that he was only hit by shrapnel and not by an actual bullet, as we saw after the previous assassination attempt.

Beyond that, the extreme voices in the media are back to their old tricks, echoing the July shooting. Ryan Routh, the alleged gunman who conducted this latest attempt, is on record as having donated money to ActBlue, a Democrat-associated fundraising operation. His social media posts make clear his disdain for Trump. So, while he claims to have voted for Trump in 2016, Routh has also described on social media how he quickly became disillusioned with the then-president – and there seems to be little doubt today where his political loyalties lie.

Still, Time magazine decided to identify this wannabe killer as “Ryan Routh — a 58-year-old with unclear political ideology … “ It is rather interesting to note that whenever someone on the political right is alleged to have committed a crime, the media’s background research is often incredibly efficient. Yet, it seemingly comes up short when somebody from the left is similarly accused.

Victim-Shaming at Its Worst

Which brings us to the “It’s his own fault anyway” argument. Anti-Trump media outlets are now in full deflection mode as they try to come up with ways to practically excuse a second attempted assassination, on the grounds that Trump’s rhetoric is to blame. Conservative – and what the left bizarrely describes as “alt-right” – media are bringing the receipts by reporting on the multiple examples of left-wing journalists and pundits alluding to Trump’s past comments and statements as an incitement to violence against him. “Today’s apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail,” said NBC’s Lester Holt on Sept. 15. “Mr. Trump, his running mate J.D. Vance continue to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio.”

As if the situation in Springfield, OH, now overrun by illegal aliens – or anything Trump or Vance has said about it – has any bearing at all on this latest act of political violence.

This was just one of a multitude of examples of anti-Trump journalists attempting to make the case that Trump himself is making people want to kill him. Victim-blaming at its very worst – because the victim is politically undesirable to them.

Something else right-leaning media outlets are bringing attention to, however, is the many, many examples of Democrat politicians and left-leaning journalists, pundits, and celebrities calling, in no uncertain terms, for violence against Trump, his allies, and supporters. So unambiguous are some of their comments, in fact, that one can no longer seriously claim a link between the left’s extreme rhetoric and left-wing political violence is a matter of debate.

Case in point, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) who, on Nov. 21, 2023, told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki, “It is just unquestionable at this point that that man [Trump] cannot see public office again. He is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy, and he has to be, he has to be eliminated.” Goldman pleaded the following day that it was “a poor choice of words.” Many would say that excuse is simply not good enough. Who uses the word “eliminated” on national television when talking about a political opponent? He could have said “eliminated from the presidential race,” “defeated,” “beaten,” or “prevented from taking office ever again.”

Ditch the Diatribe – Try This!

Cooler heads would claim that, of course, Goldman wasn’t calling for Trump’s assassination – but what about less cool heads? What about a mentally unstable individual who has already been convinced that Trump is an evil man and a threat to America? How would such a person interpret “eliminated” — which is a pretty clear and definitive term?

Goldman’s comment, however, is just one of so many examples that it would be impossible to catalog them all here – and several other media outlets have already done so. The number of times since 2016 that influential media types, celebrities, and even elected politicians have made comments that certainly seem to imply they are inciting violence against Trump are hard to count, at this point.

Again, it is worth observing that rational people do not take this kind of rhetoric too seriously. They are not going to act upon such comments, believing that they are being given some kind of tacit approval to carry out a political assassination. The point, however, is that left-wing talking heads are ever quick to suggest Trump’s statements incite violence, while not applying the same standard of interpretation to incendiary comments – often far more incendiary – made by people on their side of the political divide.

When two attempts in as many months are made on the life of a former and possibly future president, the media have an obligation to report the facts responsibly and objectively – and keep that reporting quite separate from any opinion or editorializing in which they may want to indulge. It is an obligation a disturbing number of journalists appear to have deliberately abandoned.

~

Liberty Nation does not endorse candidates, campaigns, or legislation, and this presentation is no endorsement.

Read More From Graham J Noble

Lucy, You Got Some Splaining To Do?

By Rich Kozlovich

Well, in all six seasons of I love Lucy, Ricky never really exactly said that to Lucy, but, does it matter?  It's become another one of those legendary misquoted catchphrases that fits the bill for so many situations....soooo....."Kimberly, you got some splaining to do!!"

I initially thought it was ironic hackers can break into the most secure sites on the planet, but the FBI couldn't break into Crook's phone.  Well, they finally did, but it took "advanced, unreleased technology from digital intelligence company Cellebrite to access the phone".  Where in the world did Thomas Matthew Crooks get that kind of technology to protect his phone.  He certainly didn't get it from Verizon.  As Shakespeare said, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark". 

 

The efforts to prevent discovery are in place as Senator Hawley recently discovered when he tried to visit the site and the FBI told him to leave they didn't want him there.   Not the usual treatment of a sitting Senator who chairs investigative committees.    

 

Hawley: Briefing with Secret Service Director ‘Did Not Go Well’ — ‘She Was Not Well-Prepared’ Neil, what we know about this is that there were 62 minutes, 62, between the time that the Secret Service identified the shooter as a person of interest, somebody acting suspiciously, and the time he started firing shots at the president...........How did they allow this to happen? Why did they allow a good American to be killed? Why did they allow Trump to go on stage knowing they had a potential shooter? It’s outrageous......Here's what we know....maybe.... since yesterday's facts become today's falsehood.  The lies are everywhere and at every level.  That's one of the things we know that's not a maybe, so let's start with this fact that's indisputable.  The left is at war with America, and Donald Trump is in the way.  All of the lawfare attempts to destroy Trump have failed or are failing, therefore:

 

"many correctly anticipated that an assassination attempt would occur. While some people believe in coincidences,...... I think that it was all too convenient for the presumed nominee to die just two days before the party convention, leaving the Republican Party in disarray and paving the way for Biden to secure a second term. A great deal of circumstantial evidence indicates that the Democrats were yearning for his demise. 

 

They tried to withhold the Secret Service protection from Trump, and gave him inadequate security, at best. Joe Biden suggested that “It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” In addition, the Democrats directed an immense campaign of demagoguery and lies against Trump, shamelessly insinuating that his comeback would result in economic chaos, inflation, and an existential threat to “democracy.” The mainstream media, whose opposition to Trump is a permanent part of the current political landscape, featured images of Trump resembling Hitler on the cover of magazines."

 

Is that part of a Deep State Conspiracy?  I'll tell you what, we'll come back to that, but let's start with the assassin. 

 

Thomas Matthew Crooks

 

Initially everything we thought we knew about him has not been entirely accurate. First, initially I didn't give any credence to this being bigger than Thomas Matthew Crooks, a troubled young person, but that's changing rapidly.  Initially it was claimed he had no mental issues, but now it's being reported he had mental issues and may have been on medication.   

 

The FBI’s Initial Call on “No Mental Health Issues” Appears to be Wrong It was just 48 hours ago that the FBI assured the American public that the would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, did not have any mental illness problems. This, of course, is odd because most of the recent shooters had mental illness problems and were being seriously medicated with prescribed psychiatric mind-altering drugs. Today, however, an “Exclusive” by the Daily Mail reports that family friends find that mental illness may have been in play. For example, according to unnamed family friends, he (crooks) was “increasingly disturbed young man who grew his hair long, isolated himself from friends and became plagued by mental health disturbances that led some to believe he was either bi-polar or schizophrenic.”

 

It's now being reported he did not like Donald Trump, and he threatened to shoot up his school, freshman year, and if that's true how could he not be on someone's watch list.

• The societal forces creating people like the Butler, PA, shooter -  We have created a generation of deeply damaged young men.
• There Was Plenty of Warning About the Trump Assassin - The shots did not come out of nowhere.
• There Was Plenty of Warning About the Trump Assassin - Did the shots fired at President Trump and rally attendees by Thomas Matthew Crooks come out of nowhere? No.

As the story unfolds there's a lot of disturbing facts emerging indicating planning, technology, and potential connections, and unexplained security reactions.  

First he was spotted behaving suspiciously early on, and nothing was done, even after his parents called police about him. He flew a drone over the site earlier, here, and here.  The Secret Service flew no drones over the site on the day of the shooting.   He hid his rifle in advance.  He had two cell phones and and 3 encrypted accounts overseas.   As I've already discussed, the encryption of his cell phone was so advanced the FBI couldn't crack it and had to get help from a tech company with unreleased new technology.  

How did he get such advanced technology?  Bombs were found in his car.  Where did the bombs come from?  And now it's being claimed there were least three different weapons fired during Trump shooting.  One by Crooks, one by the Secret Service sniper, and, another by an unknown shooter.  Furthermore there are serious doubts any investigation conducted by the FBI or the Secret Service can be trusted.

Strange Security Measures and Reactions 

 In this article, Dealey Plaza 2.0? Ray DiLorenzo comments:

Evil and incompetence are sometimes indistinguishable. But the people are in no mood for obfuscation or lies.  

He goes on to ask these questions, all of which need answering under oath.

If authorities identified a man with a rifle on that roof, why did they allow Trump to go out there and speak? They knew at least 7 minutes prior to the shooting that a suspicious person was on a roof, with a rifle just 150 yards away.

If the SS says they are shorthanded........It's been reported that many of the 'agents' were not Secret Service at all, but Homeland Security, not familiar with Secret Service protocols. As Trump was being rushed to his car after the shooting, about a dozen men in SWAT garb appeared out of nowhere. Where were they prior to the shooting?.....You can reasonably take away three elements: Unless the Secret Service is utterly incompetent,

1. The shooter was allowed to be on the roof.
2. He was allowed to take the shot(s)
3. He was killed, so he couldn't talk.

• A Major Lie From the Secret Service About the Trump Assassination Attempt Just Got Busted  
• Secret Service follies or something more sinister?  
• And We Have Another Brutal Development on the Trump Assassination Attempt  - The latest development shows a gross allocation of resources regarding local law enforcement. Plenty were deployed, though not stationed at the most critical points. This allowed shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, to move unmolested outside the perimeter........Yet, the predominant question right now is why the rooftop where Crooks was perched, less than 200 yards from the stage, was left unguarded despite being flagged as a security vulnerability. .............Cheatle explained that the absence of a team on the rooftop where Crooks was perched was due to security concerns for the physical safety of the agents because the roof was sloped. Whoever signed off on that being made public should be fire—no one believes it because its facially untrue. 

And the story keeps getting more sordid by the day:

1. Getting to Ground Zero in the assassination attempt investigation 
2. Secret Service threat standards 
3.  Wayne Allyn Root: DEI dumb: Something smells rotten at the Secret Service
4. There's *ANOTHER* Disturbing Update on the Trump Assassination Attempt
5. Nine Secret Service Failures that Nearly Led to Donald Trump Being Assassinated Multiple
6. Just the Facts: The Latest News on the Trump Rally Shooting Just the details, none of the spin. 
7. Colossal Secret Service Failure Almost Cost Trump His Life There are almost no words to describe how badly this once revered agency dropped the ball.
8. What a Week!
9. Secret Service failure

The question that must be asked and answered is this.  When the Secret Service sniper saw him on the roof with a rifle why didn't they shoot?  We now know there were a full 26 minutes to prevent the assassin from shooting at Trump.  It's also reported "at least one sniper/spotter team had the assassin in their sights for some three minutes but were denied clearance to shoot".  If that's true, then who refused permission to shoot, and why?  Is this failure by the Secret Service just blatant incompetence on the part of the Secret Service, or was it more?  

 

Did the Secret Service look like highly trained  competent professionals, or did they look like the Keystone Kops as a result of their embrace of DEI?   More here, and here.  

 

Truthfully, while I despise this whole corrupt embrace of DEI by both government and industry, and while it may have been a component in this mess, I don't consider that a critical factor.  Yeah, saying that shocks me too.  The real question is, Who green-lit the Trump shooting?:

 

Now ask yourself, cui bono? Who benefits most from Trump being removed from the picture? The entire Democrat Party, sure, but who would have the power to authorize such a nefarious scheme? A Deep State operative in one of the alphabet agencies? One of the puppet masters pulling decrepit Joe Biden’s strings? What about the Biden crime family itself? Who would benefit more than Trump’s corrupt, floundering opponent Joe? Or perhaps wife Jill, who is determined to keep her husband in the Oval Office no matter what? Perhaps even their convicted-felon son Hunter, whose fortunes (and a presidential pardon) are directly tied to Dad’s?

• Insurrections and the Leviathan State John F. Di Leo Why does the government of the United States no longer serve the American people or follow the clear dictates of the Constitution? .........
• Clapper and the Spooks – Enemies Foreign and Domestic Brian C. Joondeph The deep state insurrectionists are now fearful since they may be held to account. 

Is There An Iran Connection?

Iran has been promoting terrorism, and assassinations all over the world, in this article of July 18, 2024, Reflections on the 30th Anniversary of the AIMA Bombing, by Alejo Vidal-Quadras wherein he states:

Thursday marks the 30^th anniversary of one of the deadliest terrorist attacks to be carried out in the Western hemisphere. The bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association building on July 18, 1994, claimed 85 lives and left a trail of scandal in its wake which is still having repercussions to this day. No one has ever been held legally accountable for the incident, though it has become increasingly apparent over the past three decades that the attack was planned by the Iranian regime and carried out by its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah.

Did you know that?  No?  Well, don't feel bad, I didn't either.  Why?  Simple, that's not a song the media wanted to sing.  He goes on to list more attacks over the years, and after they attempted to assassinate him he stated:

After I’d undergone surgery to remove the bullet and repair my shattered jaw, I have no other enemy but the Iranian regime. In fact, I have the distinction of being among the first European politicians to be included on that regime’s formal enemies list, on account of my long standing support for the coalition of pro-democracy opposition groups known as the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). As head of the International Committee In Search of Justice, I have been heavily involved in efforts to bring to justice the Iranian officials involved in the mass execution of political prisoners in 1988, which primarily targeted members of the NCRI’s main constituent group, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

Iran has according to this author a secret multinational network of terrorists and murderers under the control of Iran, and Iran is plotting to assassinate Donald Trump, and  'You don't get off that [kill] list. You're marked for death'.  Iranian leader's 'revenge' threat against Trump comes into sharp focus

Democrat Hate Fest  

• When Democrats Incite an Assassination J.B. Shurk Democrats have made political assassination look like some twisted form of civil ‘justice.’ ............
• When will Democrats be held responsible for their Trump-hating rhetoric? July 20, 2024By Eric Utter - The unhinged young man who tried to take Donald Trump’s life at a recent campaign rally may well have been acting on his own. But, even if that proves to be the case, he likely thought his actions were an effort to “save our democracy.” How could he not, after the Democrat-Media Complex has, for the past several years, incessantly stated that Trump must be stopped -- by any means necessary — to “save our democracy”? Trump has countless times been referred to as “Hitler,” a villain, an extremist, and, of course, “a threat to democracy. Our democracy
• 76 Years of the Left’s Hitlers Robert Spencer - From the little man on the wedding cake to Donald Trump.
• Biden: These Violent Republicans are the Real Threat By Daniel Greenfield • July 15, 2024 Spot what all the other examples besides the attempted assassination of Trump have in common.  
  

Media Corruption

• MSNBC Pulls Morning Joe, Fearing Unhinged Reaction to Trump Shooting. MSNBC’s flagship Morning Joe show is not airing on Monday. Executives at NBCUniversal News Group are fearful the hosts or their regular guests could say something “inappropriate” about the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
• Nolte: Politico Spins Trump Assassination Attempt to Shots Fired at ‘Rally’ 
  
• Just the Facts: The Latest News on the Trump Rally Shooting Just the details, none of the spin.
• Stephanopoulos: Trump and His Supporters Have Contributed to this Violent Rhetoric’
• Don Jr. Slams ‘Vile’ CNN for Attacking His Father’s ‘Fight!’ Message After Assassination Attempt. Donald Trump Jr. slammed CNN after correspondent Jamie Gangel scolded his father for his "rhetoric" after he was shot on Saturday. "I do want to say there was one thing that when I watched the tape, I found odd, because of all of the heated rhetoric," she said. "And that is after he was hit, former President.....

Consequences

 

I think it can easily be said America dodged a major bullet, and other than a successful assassination of Donald Trump, I can't imagine anything that would outrage America more. Now the Failed Trump Assassination Attempt Did Two Things for Dems, None of Them Good, and Senior House Dem: ‘We’ve All Resigned Ourselves to a Second Trump Presidency’.   Finally, this whole thing embarrassed the White House so badly they've final agreed to give RFK Jr. Secret Service protection he merited and deserved from the beginning. 

 

Apparently Kimberly is going to testify before Congress today, well, "Kimberly, you got some splaining to do!"  And given her propensity to lie, this should be interesting.  

• Update: Here's the First report on ‘preliminary findings’ of Trump assassination attempt published by Ron Johnson’s office by Olivia Murray with some interesting observations, and questions regarding the potential of an accomplish, and "Lastly, just some food for thought: Someone in the comments stated that CNN had never live streamed a Trump rally until Butler—whether or not this is true I’m not sure, but I couldn’t find any evidence to the contrary."

The Attempted Assassination — Part 2

This is a good time for some critical thinking 

John Droz jr. Jul 17, 2024 @ Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues

By now there are likely a thousand articles written about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. For those who missed it, this was my initial commentary — and it still remains rather original in tone and perspective. Many of the others are quite good and I cited several examples as references (see the end of my prior post).

One that deserves special attention is the commentary by Dr. Robert Malone. Although it is too long and covers too many topics, the gist of it is important: it discusses evil. We tend to think of evil people as those who have corrupted standards (immorality, greed, etc.). Also, Thomas Crooks doesn’t really look like an evil person…

Dr. Malone’s point is that much of the evil we see is actually due to banality. This means rather than being a bad person, such an individual is “devoid of qualities that make for spirit and character.” There is a difference!

As a sideline, this is a significant part of what is missing in K-12 public education. Instead of teaching students to have Judeo-Christian values, they are taught Social Emotional Learning (SEL).

Another major consideration is about the qualifications of federal employees — like Secret Service personnel. Which is more important: to have such people be qualified, Critical Thinkers, or to have them be hired because of DEI criteria? Based on multiple reports of inexplicable behavior by various law enforcement personnel in this situation, the answer should be obvious.

Note: the only mention I could find on the Homeland Security site about Critical Thinking is that it is a part of the UDEE exam. Kudos for that being there. It’s too bad that it doesn’t get the emphasis that DEI, etc. do.

Back to Dr. Malone, who goes on to cite Hannah Arendt from her 1963 book “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil”. Some salient parts for my readers are:

“Arendt’s intention was to highlight the fact that evil is not necessarily driven by a desire for destruction or chaos, but rather by a lack of thought and consideration for the consequences of one’s actions.

“The banality of evil refers to the fact that evil can be committed by ordinary, unremarkable people who are not driven by a desire for evil, but rather by a lack of moral imagination and a failure to think critically about the consequences of their actions.

“This concept highlights the importance of critical thinking and moral imagination in preventing evil. It suggests that individuals must be able to think critically about the consequences of their actions and consider the potential impact on others in order to avoid committing evil.”

Once again the takeaway is the profound importance of Critical Thinking, in almost every aspect of life. We simply MUST start properly teaching this in K-12 schools, quickly.

Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

Check out the Archives of this Critical Thinking substack.

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the Science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine Science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not do, on issues from COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2024 Archives. Please send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?

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Trump Assassination Attempt Is the Tip of the Iceberg

By Rich Kozlovich 

Let me see if I got this right. A man with a gun climbs up on a roof of a building less than 500 feet away from Trump, and no one from the Secret Service noticed. And when a civilian notices and tells someone, he was ignored. Did I get that right?   And people find that suspicious, imagine that.  With all the ludicrous insanity I see going on I just can't help channeling Captain Renault: 

"I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!" 

This would qualify for Ripley's Believe it or Not.  There are those claiming this was all staged.  After all, on a regular basis don't we see politicians all over the world setting up fake assassinations with a bullet passing micrometers from a kill shot to their heads, all in order just to get sympathy from the public, and who knows, maybe this was staged in order to appeal to black voters.    

Now, who could possibly find fault with that kind of reasoning?  Nah, get real, that's nuts, and while the rest of the world was calling it gunfire, the Pravda media was saying wasn't really gun shots, it was just "loud noises", and it was Trump's fault anyway.   Are you shocked yet? 

This couldn't be considered anything less than a national tragedy, unless you're a bona fide certifiable lunatic.  The left's first reaction was to try an claim this was "staged", this is Trump's Reichstag Fire” moment, and tried to get America's Pravda cabal, AKA Main Stream Media, to support the position this was all staged.  

This was not an entirely unsuccessful, or at the very least this was a shared view and goal by the media cabal to claim it was Trump's fault!   Naturally, there's always a RINO who just can't help themself.  Never Trumper Blames Trump for Own Attempted Assassination.  Ya just can't fix stupid.

Then, all of a sudden, there's elation on the left!  It turns out the shooter was a registered Republican, except he supported far left positions.  So, I think this is a valid question.  Does it really matter how a leftist lunatic is registered to vote? 

What should shock everyone is this hasn't happened before now.   Leftism and violence go hand in hand.  The left promoted violence against House Republicans, a conservative justice and now a President, not to mention all the attacks against Israel and American Jews on our college campuses. Considering the vile rhetorical rantings of the left, there was a grim inevitability to yesterday’s shooting.  Joe Biden called Trump a genuine threat to America. How can anyone believe this kind of rhetoric isn't responsible for this attempt on Trump's life?

After the Supreme Court struck down the Roe v. Wade decision:

"Senate Majority Leader Schumer all but invited wannabe assassins to come to D.C. and shoot justices responsible for that result. Although there is a federal law requiring protection for all the justices, Attorney General Garland has allowed violent protestors to make threats to them outside of their homes. Behind the safety of his security detail, Joe Biden did nothing to discourage these violent assemblies."  

And of course the Nitwit Brigade in Hollywood had to jump. Bette Midler Suggested Biden Have FBI Use Deadly Force on Trump.  As time goes by we may find there may be something to this.   In 2015 the hate producing Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson,  wanted the "donor class" to "put a bullet in Donald Trump."  Did he mean that literally, or was that merely a Freudian slip?  And is there anyone nuttier than Maxine Waters?  Not everyone in Hollywood is part of the Nitwit Brigade.   James Woods states these lunatics "who joked" about killing Trump now have blood on their hands.  

Democrat Hypocrisy

While the media is I'm sure receiving some public back lash, and want the Trump-Is-Hitler toned down, and leading Democrats like Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders, and Gavin Newsom have publicly condemned this attack, do we really believe that?  

One J6 committee  staffer says not to miss next time.  She was fired, but is that what the left really thinks.  Are we really expected to believe the man they vilified for all these years as a modern Adolph Hitler, a KKK member, a fascist, a wanna be dictator, and a threat to America democracy are relieved he's now safe?   Ya gotta be kidden me.  

The left has been assassinating him at so many levels for years, this is just another attempt to prevent Trump from being re-elected.   There was even an attempt to entirely strip Trump of Secret Service protection.  If that had happened, what did they think would happen next?  Given all that's occurred why would anyone believe they don't want him dead?  When someone says they hate you, and they want you dead, you should believe them.

Secret Service 

Which of course must now bring us to the real question.  How did this happen?

Here was man who was less than 500 feet away from Trump on top of a roof with a gun and no one noticed?  Well, that was the initial story at any rate, but time and truth are on the same side, and it appears there are two things we now know.  Someone reported seeing him to law enforcement, and was ignored, and allegedly a sniper saw him, had him in his sights requesting authorization to fire and that authorization was denied.

We also know repeated requests for added security was denied by Director Kim Cheatle, a  corporate stooge for Pepsi. 

In a nation with the finest military, special forces, and security services the world has ever know, Biden appoints a female DEI hire from PepsiCo as the director of our Secret Service. Not a former Army Ranger, not a Navy SEAL, not even a longtime SS agent with decades of experience… a woman who did corporate security for PepsiCo.....

• Warning Signs About Secret Service Emerged Months Before Trump Assassination Attempt  
• Secret Service Under Scrutiny ‘Catastrophic Failure’  
•  Secret Service Director Faces Questions After Attempted Assassination of Trump  
• Director Faces Calls to Resign

Does anyone really believe this is a "one off" event, and there will be no more attempts on Trump's life?  Given the Democrats history of violence incitement, and their efforts to eliminate Trump's SS protection, along with the administrations deliberate failure to provide adequate SS protection for Trump forcing them to use local police forces, and their absolute refusal to provide SS protection to RFK, Jr., does anyone really believe in the Biden administration's integrity? 

Short of an actual assassination, I can't imagine anything that would outrage the American public more.  It's my view this finalizes Trump's re-election, and I think this will play heavily on the down card for Congress.