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Yes. And there are also some possible good explanations for the actions besides just reactions that they don’t control.

It doesn’t seem silly to me for people to wonder what the explanation is.

I presume she’s a Trump supporter. As such, she wouldn’t want people to just overlook something that could be suspicious. I think it would be helpful for her to help people understand what was going through her mind. I’ve heard someone in a different situation describe how she impulsively started recording on her cellphone without regard for her own danger; she laughed about it later at how taken she was by some small detail that it clouded everything else. I just think a human answer would be helpful.

I think that we as a nation need to understand why there is so much skepticism - on both sides of the political aisle. It’s because real questions about potential fraud or crime are not actually addressed when there is a political element to it. And even when crimes are found out in our agencies, they go unpunished while whistleblowers are punished. That breeds the very distrust we’re seeing all over right now. And as long as genuinely suspicious things are blown off as “conspiracy theories” - or even if it’s just that one side or the other has questions that THEY think are suspicious - as long as the evidence is not heard and actually sorted out with integrity and cross-examination, there is just cause for distrust.

This is what we get for ignoring election fraud, falsified records for FISA warrants, etc. I’m sure the left has their things they think are suspicious too. What I’m saying is that if we don’t want distrust then we need to do what it takes to actually CREATE trust. That hasn’t happened in a very, very, very long time. And it is the only way that this nation will ever unite. We can’t just let bygones be bygones. We have to find the truth, sort out what happened that kept us from finding it out before, and do what it takes to keep that from happening again.

I think that we as a nation need to understand why there is so much skepticism - on both sides of the political aisle.

I want to answer your very important question - please bear with me, and no this is NOT a Russia-Ukraine debate.

I believe Putin and the Russian leadership give snakepits a bad name. I believe Ukraine is a sovereign nation was invaded wrongly, and that Russia is the Bad Guy.

Aside from the immorality of the invasion, I don’t have a horse in this race, and don’t want one dime going to Ukraine or ANY foreign nation. People can Venmo Zelinsky a few bucks from their checking account.

Perhaps 20-30 years ago, most conservatives would see the R-UK war, yawn and go back to work. To wit: nobody got worked up over the Soviet-Afghanistan war. Even during the annexation of the Crimea, people were relatively chill.

But Manischewitz, it boggles the mind to see the quantum of bandwidth wasted on the back and forth between “Zeepers” and “Putinistas.” I mean, I get calling out the hypocrisy of Putin et al and his faux morality. That sombich has the Cross in his hand and the devil in his heart. But for a conflict and a people thousands of miles away, you’d think the R-UK war is right down the street from the posters.

And it CONSUMES them. Why?

I think between the pandemic, the 2020 riots and election, Big Media censorship and lying that anything was happening, the OSHA mandate, and more things than I can list here, a lot of people just lost their touch with reality. I don’t mean they’re clinically insane. They’re functional nutters. In essence, truths and norms and things held dear got dashed to bits.

Into that vacuum ran “alternative media” and the like. I see more people going all-in with sensational news, often pushed by the likes of Gateway Pundit and Slay News, that often fails the most basic of fact checking. But people’s faith in the bedrock elements of America - the rule of law, honesty, integrity - has been replaced with bedrock faith in “the enemy of my enemy.”

I also believe these folks “gave up” on America, and many of them have fallen for the Prince of Lies. That’s why many hoist Putin or Zelinsky on their shoulders….they sort of bypass America.

And if you do any fact-checking, you’re called a deep stater by some low-information troll.

That is my explanation for the behavior in our camp. Over there, it is pretty simple: they think they are The Resistance and Trump is Hitler. There is a popular theoretical question - "would you have killed Hitler in the 1930s if you knew what was to come?" Many people answer "yes."

True, we haven't perfected time travel. But then 2020 came along.

I believe many on the left feel the same way about Trump - AND have a hyper (and delusional) elevated sense of their self. Lacking a time machine, the 2020-equivalent question was "would you steal the election by whatever means, to remove Trump from office? Because, ya know, he's Hitler."

We are seeing their "yes" right now with the assassination attempt. Indeed, we have seen it for years. 2020 was a de facto going back in time to kill Hitler. They high-fived each other and BELIEVED they were The Resistance incarnate.

That’s why we see maniacal pursuit of silencing Trump and anyone to the right of NPR.

Now, for a brief 8-day period, from the assassination attempt on Trump to Biden bowing out of the 2024 race, I saw glimmers of hope. We had legit MSM articles pointing out how awful was the Secret Service - actual acts of journalism. The truth about Biden’s failing faculties was out in the open, no longer being guarded by a complicit media. There was some basic civility. And for a brief, 24-hour period from Sunday into Monday, hatred of Biden was replaced (in part) by concern for this guy’s welfare.

The moment may be lost. I hope not. Ultimately, Clarence Thomas got it right, when he wrote about the protests (threats?) from the Roe leak: "We are becoming addicted to wanting particular outcomes, not living with the outcomes we don't like."