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I am totally lost on this story and this matter.

I don’t have any knowledge of any kind on this matter that doesn’t come from some media source. There is no media source that I trust completely.

Considering myself reasonably intelligent, I’ll choose to wait around and see if more certainty might emerge later. It’s not as if I have a role in the underlying events. The shooting and the arrest have already happened. I’m not an investigator in this case. I’m not an attorney in this case.

Why am I running into all this aimless commentary?

Lots of crazy people in the world. Lots of kinky subcultures, too. Trying to pick out one set of weirdos as especially risky is f fools errand in my view.

Go for Conspirators and Organizations. Don’t be distracted by how offbeat someone seems.

You aren’t alone in confusion about this piece.

Game Theory works to explain many things. Mamet is not really a master of that branch of mathematics.

In game theory, you must be able to define relative goods. National Prosperity for example. Ethnic Pride for another. Role of Islam vs. Westernism might be another important good for some.

Trump chose peace as the dominant good. An optimal strategy solution became possible.

Mamet has that part correct. The rest of the long piece is gibberish. Poker games have simple goods. The Mideast does not.

You are so right about “sitting.”

Trump got out to the rallies, again and again, as often as it took to create a campaign and a strong public image.

Virginia needs a group of serious, get in the car and go, Republican organizers and advisors. Then, when there is enough local support, there need to be 200 campaign events (candidate there in person) in the election year.

Ads DO NOT take the place of face-to-face hard work by the campaign and public visibility and vitality by the candidate.

I don’t think you can effectively “respond to attack ads.”

You get out ahead of attack ads with clips of your candidate in pleasant family surroundings saying sensible things in a pleasant tone that is welcoming to all.

Dark ads. Negative ads about the Democrats. Scowling Republican candidates. This is the stuff for which Republicans have been spending millions of dollars—for election after election. No wonder Democrats think Republicans have bad attitudes. Republican ads make the Democrat case for them.

Candidate image has to be projected before the attack ads. Response is too late.

Earle-Sears should have been projected as the loving mother of all the Commonwealth People, heir to responsible and capable Glen Youngkin. From the first of January 2025, that should have been the first round of ads. Attack and party conflict comes after Labor Day. Image comes first

I’m thinking that Republican Campaign consultants in Virginia are a serious problem. I have watched, for years, the most counterproductive and poorly produced ads in the political world.

There is something seriously wrong with the Virginia Republican party and their marketing and image advisors. The party governance system that has continually supported this disfunction needs to be replaced.

I have no idea who I am blaming here, but somebody is badly mistaken or seriously corrupt.

I’m guessing that the culprit is somebody who has put too much faith in academic political science PhD types. I’m a social science pro myself, and I think I can smell my kind at work here.

Youngkin got past all that by personal charm and activity. Earle-Sears could have done the same with decent advice and support.

I am a no-thinging here, but....

Surely this is exactly the feedback that was expected from the officers affected by the service policy changes.

In other words.

Exactly what Trump and Hegseth were looking for.

Go for it. Clean up the typos maybe.

I’m some older. 70 was pretty good, though.

My street protesting days are probably over.

Now that you have brought it up, maybe “No Kings” is just another old age death denial meme.

Psychologists (me) can explain anything away if you give them enough time.

I’ll sleep better now that I’ve got TDS all figured out.

The D.A. was probably out there to protect the very old from falls and such.

Yeah, really...

Let’s have more street theater from the Democrat Theater Troop. We can give Schumer, Jeffries, Clinton, everybody performance awards.

The whole progressive bunch aren’t really politicians amymore. We should give them trophies as consolation prizes.

The rallies are not a good look for progressives.

Some activism can be a gathering point for sympathetic voters. Continual, issue after issue, old-white-woman streets theater is just old and tired.

The entire Democrat/Resistance political base seems like a Joe Biden old age home.

I was polled yesterday about the VA races. Basic “who you gonna vote for” to start with.

Then a long list of “issues”.

I didn’t realize how manipulative an issues list can be.

The Virginia race is mostly about competence and general party preference. Economy is fine. Immigration is not a big thing in VA. Governor don’t figure in the “Preserving Democracy” craziness. Abortion isn’t a current legal issue.

Whoever was funding the poll wanted to make this about issues that could be “messaged” in ads a news spots.

Spanberger isn’t very impressive as a person. That’s her problem, or it was until she found herself on the ballot with a sicko running for AG.

Conservative Democrat here. (I vote Republican, pretty much every time.)

I stay this way in hopes of a wide conservative electorate. I want a big bunch of Democrat fiscal hawks siding with the Republicans to bring down our budget deficit.

Central cautions that I will get the wrong campaign mailings. That is certainly true. I think I can discard junk mail successfully without much risk of corruption. I kind of like to keep abreast of what the Democrats are up to.

There definitely are conservative Democrats. I’m still registered Democrat although I haven’t voted for a Democrat in 25 years.

There are lots of us on Free Republic who don’t trust Republicans to get us where we want to go.

We need two parties that haven’t lost their minds. Right now I’m not even entirely sure we have one.

Trump is doing good. We need a lot more to get us into a good future. Be nice to have some Democrats helping out.

I’ll stay with the party to try for conservatives in the primaries.

I don’t think the Democrats are really paying attention to their nationwide brand right now.

They are in so much pain from the 2024 election losses. Crazy- looking protesters are on the TV every day. Their party leaders look both weak and foolish at the same time.

Democrats think that they have a dependable base that will come through in the end if they can stand tall and act tough.

They want and need a win so bad that they can’t do anything that might damage even one candidate in one AG election.

It all rests on Spanberger. If she wavers, personally or because of consultant pressure, Jones goes. Otherwise, he stays.

A lot depends on whether Spanberger thinks Winsome-Sears can score points in the upcoming debate. Spanberger was planning to seal the deal there. Spanberger may decide that Winsome-Sears isn’t a real threat, and Jones can hang on.

Trump gets in the face of liberals. He shouldn’t expect them to be happy about it.

Let them do their liberal thing. That probably doesn’t include a Nobel prize, however well-deserved

Try to keep in mind that shooters are crazy (psychotic).

What part of the current political discourse sticks in their messed up minds isn’t really what we ought to be paying attention to.

Liberals are often crazy in other situations and other ways, but that doesn’t make them shooters. Crazy liberal talk is bad, but it takes a lot more to make somebody pick up a weapon and kill.

With all these shooters we need to be looking at what meds they are taking, what psychoactive drugs they are using.

Even cannabis can kick off an episode sometimes for heavy users. For some people even a little of almost any drug can mess them up.

I’m not a big fan of looking at political affiliation as the first important fact.

Yeah...Exactly...He cries and lies...Audiences see it... I can go watch something else.