Shoots and Ladders

Steyn Online ^ | 15 July 2024 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

Let's cut to the chase - the US Secret Service: In on it? Or just totally crap?

Well, I've thought the Secret Service were rubbish not just since we learned of the Cartagena hookers but for at least another decade before that. And increasingly, when it comes to American officialdom - from Kabul to Uvalde - to modify Henry Ford, you can get it in any colour as long as it's bloated, lavishly over-funded and entirely dysfunctional.

And yet and yet... it's hard to believe even these guys (plus their bevy of five-foot-two-eyes-of-blue Keystone chorus girls) could be this crap. Assuming for the purposes of argument that the body on the roof is actually that of the perp, a goofball barely out of high school hatched a plan to have Donald Trump's head explode in close-up on live TV - and, wittingly or otherwise, the world's most flush money-no-object security state did their best to help him pull it off.

In any accountable "public service", the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secret Service gal would already be gone. By this point after the Argentine invasion of the Falklands, Lord Carrington (Foreign Secretary), Sir Humphrey Atkins (Lord Privy Seal) and Richard Luce (Minister for Latin-American Affairs) had already resigned: see my column of September 17th 2001 expressing in my naïve Canadian way mystification as to why, six days later, all the 9/11 flopperoos had not been similarly dispatched.

Because that's how it goes in the Republic of Non-Accountability, and, if he's harbouring any doubts about his fitness for the job, Mayorkas figures it can wait till someone takes out RFK Jr. This is a depraved political culture.

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TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: noaccountability

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Yep. Blackrock has plenty of dough to recruit and cover up.”

We need to hear the recordings between the government shooter and his supervisor. If it all goes according to book, the sharpshooter would have said, “I have the sniper sighted, can I take the shot?” And the supervisor on site gives “engage” order. That alone is the key to this entire op.

[Deaf Smith]

> The SS dei director may have changed the ROE.

[TTFlyer]

This country is a ******* joke.

[bert]

Rolling heads is business as usual. Filling trump enemy graves is what is needed

[Leaning Right]

> The heads which should roll - won’t. <

Let’s say a plumber working for a plumbing company completely wrecks a job. I don’t mean he just did substandard work. He completely wrecked the job. That plumber is fired, gone.

Steyn is, of course, right. Government officials who completely wreck a job these days suffer no consequences. So why bother doing even 1% more than the absolute minimum?

Let’s hope that Trump 2.0 can change this culture. To say the least, he’s now ultra-motivated to do so.

[Enterprise]

This incident was disgraceful. Does anyone think that the Biden team wants these goof off’s and pony tail girls to guard Biden? If this incident happened to Biden the press would go volcanic and heads would roll by the dozen.

[SaveFerris]

The mere fact that an unidentified, unmarked (not “Police” nor otherwise) person is crawling into position, WITH A WEAPON, facing President Trump, is a shoot-to-kill situation.

There is no time to hesitate and now we have what, 1 dead and 2 wounded besides President Trump? Ridiculous and inexcusable.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

And the Secret Service is authorized to do ... nothing? You have to wait until the bad guy starts shooting before you can attempt to neutralize the threat in any way??

Or before you get the President the hell out of the way?

[RainMan]

The guy could clearly be seen from the ground. Why didnt the cop yell at him from the ground with gun drawn. If he started to turn the gun towards the cop, the cop could have shot first. No need to go up the ladder.

[jeffc]

That really is the question. The SS was in on it or are incompetent.

[avital2]

how did perp know to go to that uncovered perch ?? if it had already been identified before rally as a vulnerable spot, but covering site was left to locals, did he have access to police planning?

[SaveFerris]

Rooftop picture again - at 800 pixels width

[Labyrinthos]

I believe there are reports that the Secret Service sniper had the kid in his sights for something like three minutes.

I've been saying this since I saw the video of the two SS counter-snipers on the roof behind Trump as he speaks. The sniper rifles are on tri-pods that are apparently aimed at Crooks and the SS counter-snipers appear to be looking in the direction of the roof-top where Crooks was positioned. When Crooks opens fire, the SS counter-snipers flinch for a second and then open fire on Crooks -- WITHOUT RE-AIMING THEIR TRIPOD MOUNTED RIFLES. The SS had Crooks in their sights but did nothing until Crooks opened fire.

[sunny bonobo]

The only thing wrong with your reckless, defammatory statement is that the dead shooter on the roof is NOT Maxwell Yearick. Yearick clearly has those ugly, floppy ear lobes with holes for plates or whatever you call em

[Herakles]

No one goes to jail in the federal government unless his name is Trump

[sunny bonobo]

I take my comment back. I now notice you mention the ears. Will have to look again. Sorry

[SMARTY]

AND ... SS dashed there tout suite to deliver the coup de gras, just IN CASE the shooter was still alive

[Max_850]

Except for him advocating for a unified federal police force. That is the last thing we need.

[grobdriver]

Jeeez - who was running that camera? A fricking 7 year old?

People are so stupid.

[heartwood]

Even if countersniper wasn’t authorized to fire, SS are authorized to swarm the protectee and haul him out.

SS . Unfortunate abbreviation.