Free Republic

If you secretly admire Trump, now’s the time to admit it. Shock your coworkers. Scandalise the wife. Today a grace period descends over politics in which even people who’ve labelled him Hitler and called for him to be removed must grit their teeth and say, “I-guess-he’s-kind-of-admirable.” Try awesome. Like Moby Dick or the Terminator, Trump is a force of nature. Think of all this man has gone through in eight years. He’s been been impeached (twice), accused of rape, arrested, condemned in court, labelled a traitor, survived Covid and now shot in the ear. Who can doubt he will win...

So 2024 could be the new 1968, a watershed political year characterized by malefactors attacking iconic political leaders. That’s the fear of a full 67% of Americans polled in the wake of a sniper attack on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa., Saturday evening. Two out of every three of the 4,339 Americans YouGov surveyed believe political violence is more likely — suggesting the shots fired at the presumptive GOP presidential nominee in his last campaign stop before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee are a preamble to further violence.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has faced calls to resign in the aftermath of an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally on Saturday. Cheatle, who previously worked as the senior director in Global Security for PepsiCo, has been the current director of the U.S. Secret Service since September 2022, according to the agency’s website. While working at PepsiCo, Cheatle reportedly was “responsible for directing and implementing security protocols for the company’s facilities in North America.” The website also notes that before working at PepsiCo, Cheatle had served “for 27 years in the U.S. Secret Service”: Before...

As we head into Milwaukee for the convention, and we recover from an attempted assassination of former President Trump, I ask all to please remember Bernell Trammell. He was an outspoken African American Trump supporter who was executed in broad daylight in front of his Milwaukee sign shop on July 23, 2020 by a gunman who fired several bullets into his back. The murderer was never apprehended but the police believe the killing was premeditated and very likely related to Trammell’s widely known support of Trump.

CHICAGO — Two pizzeria employees were tied up during an after-hours armed robbery in the Loop overnight. An employee at Lou Malnati’s, 805 South State, called 911 after freeing themselves around 1:45 a.m. Without identifying the business by name, Chicago police said a man and woman confronted a male employee as he exited a back door near a garbage area. The male robber grabbed the employee, put a knife to his throat, and forced him back into the restaurant, police said.

Terrence is hitting the roof over crap the left is saying about Trump.

The top political adviser to Democratic mega-donor Reid Hoffman suggested that the attack on Donald Trump could have been “staged,” even as Hoffman was criticized for joking before Saturday’s attack about Trump becoming a “martyr.” Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, whose net worth is reportedly $2.5 billion, joked at last week’s billionaire confab in Sun Valley that he wished he had made Trump “an actual martyr.” Sunday, he said on X that he was referring to “accountability to the rule of law” and that he’s “horrified and saddened” by the attack. The scale of Hoffman’s political donations isn’t public but...

The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump came about through Joe Biden’s enfeebled administration creating “the atmosphere” that enabled the shooter to undertake his failed mission, Russia claimed in the wake of the attack. The Kremlin laid the blame squarely at the doorstep of the White House, the Daily Telegraph reports. “We do not believe that the attempt to eliminate and assassinate Trump was organised by the current authorities,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, told reporters, suggesting even in the denial that it was a possibility.

Robert D. Philpot spoke to NBC News' Tom Llamas about what he saw at former President Trump's rally before the assassination attempt and what he believed was a "noticeable" difference in security compared to a previous rally he attended with his daughter.

Innocent rallygoers were shot, and one was brutally murdered. The callous media is oblivious. We don’t have the people’s names yet, but it’s very heartbreaking. They went to enjoy themselves and show support. Now, one is deceased, murdered and two are critically injured. We are so sorry for the victims and their families. The witness had been speaking to the deceased man, who was with his family. He died in front of his family. The man was shot in the head. It reminded the witness of the Zapruder film of the shooting of JFK. If CNN really wants to rebuild...

The war in Ukraine has long become one of attrition and endurance, where the status of the competing forces is arguably more important than individual pieces of terrain changing hands. In this piece, leveraging the work of various people and sources, we look at what we can determine about the status of Russian equipment stocks and active vehicle fleets in 2024, and try to project potential paths forward and establish a baseline for comparing against Ukrainian forces in a coming episode.

[cut] The pictures and film of Trump rallying the crowd will likely be the enduring image of this election and perhaps his entire political career. Even before President Biden’s catastrophic debate last month, Trump had run on a platform of strength, portraying himself as a politically muscular figure against a weak and aging incumbent president. Next week’s Republican nominating convention will deliver Trump a hero’s welcome and an audience to match, befitting a party leader who had a brush with death. “The raised fist will become the iconic symbol of the convention,” predicted longtime GOP strategist Mike Murphy. Convention planners...

President Biden just spoke about the assassination attempt, said many of the right words--full review, whatever security Trump needs, reassess security at Republican convention.

FWIW : A 'Brian Crooks', may or may not be related to shooter Thomas M Crooks, of Oakmont PA (about 20 miles from Bethel Park, PA, home of shooter) donated repeatedly to Nikki Haley for the 2024 campaign - per OpenSecrets. Not implying anything. Just reporting what I found. https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/

In the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Brexit leader Nigel Farage announced that he is going make an emergency trip to the United States to show solidarity with his longtime friend and political ally. The newly-elected Reform UK Member of Parliament said that he will fly to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention this week to “stand shoulder to shoulder with President Trump and the US to stand up for democracy.” Writing in The Telegraph the morning following the attempt on Donald Trump’s life by a gunman, Mr Farage said: “I do so to support my friend,...

ABC host Martha Raddatz said Sunday on “This Week” that former President Donald Trump’s “first instinct” was to say “fight” after an attempted assassination. Co-host George Stephanopoulos said, “You’ve traveled around the country talking to voters in this deeply divided nation. In some ways, this is a horrific symptom of the underlying division in this country.” Raddatz said, “It certainly is, George. I’m sure that will probably continue. We saw President Trump raise his right hand, as Jon just described, and we’ve seen those pictures. But we could also see him say, ‘Fight, fight.’ That was his first instinct.”

ABC host George Stephanopoulos said Sunday on “This Week” that Donald Trump and his supporters have contributed to “violent rhetoric” while discussing yesterday’s assassination attempt on the former president. Stephanopoulos said, “Of course, President Trump and his supporters have contributed to this violent rhetoric as well.” Co-host Martha Raddatz said, “Absolutely, George. We were just looking back this morning at some of the things that former President Trump has said. He warned last March of potential death and destruction if he were charged by the Manhattan district attorney. ‘Our country is being destroyed as they tell us to be peaceful.’...

No indication who the guests will be. Usually folks with military intel and special ops backgrounds. Live stream kick off is 12pm PST / 3pm EST.

That was quick, Tom MacDonald just put this out - "You Missed". I'm no rap fan but Tom does have a way with words. It may be a bit exploitative but is on point...they missed, now they should be terrified. No way this was only 'simply a deranged Antifa goon'.

Earlier this year, I read Gionathan Lo Mascolo’s edited collection The Christain Right in Europe: Movements, Networks, and Denominations. I’d initially intended on skimming a couple of chapters but ended up reading it cover-to-cover. The book is an essential resource for anyone trying to understand the global reach of Christian nationalism and connections between the United States and Europe.* Gionathan was kind enough to give an interview in which he discusses several of the essays and issues discussed in the volume. Wondering how the Nashville Statement influenced Dutch churches? Trying to understand what’s going on in Hungary, or with Putin,...