Cheatle needs to go

The New Neo Posted on by

Seems to me there was a time when people respected the Secret Service. Then again, memory deceives me, because even back in 1963 when Kennedy was assassinated, many of the conspiracy theories – which involved just about every possible government agency – implicated the Secret Service as well.

So it’s no surprise that the assassination attempt on Trump is not only already rife with conspiracy theories galore, but that some of them involve the cooperation of the Secret Service.

I’ve already said my piece many times over about the JFK conspiracy theories, and so I’ll repeat my position only briefly here: the conspiracy theories are garbage – sometimes merely ignorant garbage, and sometimes malevolent self-serving garbage by grifters out to make a buck. Read Bugliosi’s book Reclaiming History, especially the first 500 pages or so, if you want to learn the facts. That sounds like a lot of reading, but it’s all riveting. You can access a great deal of the book online, here.

I also don’t ascribe to conspiracy theories about Saturday’s attempt on Trump; I’ve seen nothing to indicate conspiracy, and Crooks would be the last person conspirators would choose. But incompetence of the worst order on the part of the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies? That I can get behind. There’s no question in my mind that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has got to go. Get a load of this:

The Secret Service director said the security agency did not station snipers on top of the Pennsylvania roof from which a gunman shot former President Donald Trump last weekend because it was “sloped.”

Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service chief refusing calls to step down after Trump was shot in the head, told ABC News that federal officials opted to forgo snipers on the rooftop that was identified as a security threat days before the event.

“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she said. “And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”

Three counter-snipers were positioned in the building underneath the roof from which Saturday’s gunman fired multiple shots killing one rallygoer and injuring three others, including Trump. The event’s security “command center” was even notified of the shooter moments before the would-be assassin began firing into the crowd.

This makes zero sense unless there was a policy of zero tolerance for any injuries to Secret Service agents, however remote the possibility. It makes even less sense when you consider how slight the roof slope was – and besides, weren’t Secret Service snipers positioned on a roof with a similar slope right behind where Trump spoke? And I’d love to hear the rationale for positioning snipers inside a building, where their sightlines would probably be highly limited.

I’ve also read that there were sightings of the shooter Crooks as early as 30 minutes before the incident, and that local law enforcement was trying to figure out if he was dangerous. Did they confront him? Apparently he kept appearing and disappearing. Did an important alert go out, or did he look so innocuous they dismissed him as not worth much concern?

It seems to me that complacency as well as sheer stupidity were the reasons this happened the way it did, and sheer luck enabled Trump to survive. But not securing the high places is unconscionable. I’m no security expert, but how about at least a drone?

More on would-be-assassin Crooks

The New Neo Posted on by

[NOTE: To be technical, Crooks is a murderer but only an attempted assassin. I haven’t seen a thing explaining where his victims at the rally were seated at the time they were hit, or the order of the shots. I assume we’ll find out in a while, but I wonder how much correct information we’ll ever get on this.]

Here’s the first article I’ve seen that attempts to track Crooks’ movements for the 24 hours prior to the shootings. It’s about what one would expect:

On Friday, Thomas Matthew Crooks visited the Clairton Sportsmen’s Club and practiced firing shots, a law enforcement official told CNN. …

Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, was also a member of the club, and the pair enjoyed going shooting there together, law enforcement said.

The club’s rifle range is about 200 yards long …

On Saturday morning, Crooks bought 50 rounds of ammunition at Allegheny Arms and Gun Works in Bethel Park. …

After his stop at the gun shop, Crooks went to a Home Depot, where he purchased a five-foot ladder. A receipt for the ladder was later found in his pocket. …

He used an AR-style rifle that was registered to his father. The weapon — as well as the over 20 other guns registered to Matthew Crooks — was purchased legally.

Investigators found an explosive device in Crooks’ car and a transmitter on his body, suggesting that he may have intended to stage a distraction during the shooting.

Crooks’ parents seem rather clueless about this – which makes sense if Crooks was the sort of quiet person who kept his mouth shut about what might be going on inside him, but apparently showed few signs of disturbance except social isolation.

As for motive, I don’t think it’s so puzzling at all. The motive was most likely notoriety. Crooks seems to have been a total nonentity, smart but making little to no mark on the world or anyone in it. Trump is probably the world’s most famous person. Whether Crooks hated Trump or not will never be known, although it’s probable that he did. But even without such hatred, the desire to go down in history as a mastermind assassin would be plenty enough motive to do this and to be willing to die in the attempt.

I have a trivial question about J. D. Vance

The New Neo Posted on by

A couple of days ago I looked up J. D. Vance’s height online, and it said he was 5’7″. I was thinking that he and Trump would look rather Mutt-and-Jeffish next to each other. Then last night I was watching clips of the convention, and Vance looked plenty tall to me – not just next to Trump, but next to Trump’s sons and just about everybody else.

So, what’s the scoop? Is he actually tall? What’s this 5’7″ business?

New Jersey’s Menendez found guilty

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve not followed the details, but Menendez was found guilty of corruption and says he will appeal:

Menendez pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he accepted an array of bribes in exchange for helping foreign governments. Jurors deliberated for three days. The conviction on all 16 counts against him exposes Menendez to a sentence of more than 200 years in prison, though such a heavy sentence is unlikely.

The judge scheduled the senator’s sentencing date for Oct. 29.

Menendez condemned the decision in a statement outside the courtroom, so far refusing to resign despite overwhelming calls to do so. His attorneys say they plan to appeal the verdict.

“I am deeply disappointed in the decision,” Menendez said, claiming that he “never violated a public oath,” and that he had “never been a foreign agent.”

The Democrats may force him out, because there is no risk of his seat not staying in Democrat hands:

Shortly after a jury read off the verdict that he was guilty on all counts, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ended months of resistance and called on Menendez to resign, joining more than half of Senate Democrats who have already done so.

More than a dozen of Menendez’s Senate colleagues had resisted calling for him to step down, with many resolved to allow the New Jerseyan his due process. Now that he’s convicted, even the most reserved Senate Democrats are hardly eager to serve aside a convicted felon, even if it’s only for the remainder of the term.

That’s garbage. They could not care less about “convicted felon.” They care about getting a better and more viable Democrat in there:

If Menendez did step down, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D), whose wife also briefly ran for Menendez’s seat, would be tasked with appointing a successor. He could appoint Kim [who is already the Democrats’ nominee for the seat; Menendez has been planning to run as an Independent], allowing the congressman to then run as an incumbent, or he could choose another placeholder. In a statement following the verdict, Murphy said he would make “a temporary appointment” for the Senate seat if Menendez’s seat became vacant.

Menendez may try to cling to power, but I think he’s doomed. And that is true even if his appeal were to be ultimately successful.

Why was Trump still on the stage?

The New Neo Posted on by

[Hat tip: commenter “Brian E.”]

Dan Bongino claims to have some very disturbing information about Saturday’s assassination attempt. Is this true? If so, it reflects very very poorly on the Secret Service:

Are they now more afraid of delaying things than of a leading candidate being shot? Are they also afraid of shooting a possibly innocent bystander – even when that bystander is crawling on a nearby roof with a rifle?

Judge Cannon throws out the classified documents case

The New Neo Posted on by

More good news for Trump, more bad news for the left.

Here’s the reasoning:

The bottom line is this: The Appointments Clause is a critical constitutional restriction stemming from the separation of powers, and it gives to Congress a considered role in determining the propriety of vesting appointment power for inferior officers. The Special Counsel’s position effectively usurps that important legislative authority, transferring it to a Head of Department, and in the process threatening the structural liberty inherent in the separation of powers. If the political branches wish to grant the Attorney General power to appoint Special Counsel Smith to investigate and prosecute this action with the full powers of a United States Attorney, there is a valid means by which to do so. He can be appointed and confirmed through the default method prescribed in the Appointments Clause, as Congress has directed for United States Attorneys throughout American history, see 28 U.S.C. § 541, or Congress can authorize his appointment through enactment of positive statutory law consistent with the Appointments Clause.

Haste makes waste, and Garland thought he could bypass the usual process. I think it would have worked just fine in DC or New York, but not in Florida.

The ruling will be appealed, of course.

Here’s what Justice Thomas wrote in the immunity case:

In this case, the Attorney General purported to appoint a private citizen as Special Counsel to prosecute a former President on behalf of the United States. But, I am not sure that any office for the Special Counsel has been “established by Law,” as the Constitution requires. Art. II, §2, cl. 2. By requiring that Congress create federal offices “by Law,” the Constitution imposes an important check against the President—he cannot create offices at his pleasure. If there is no law establishing the office that the Special Counsel occupies, then he cannot proceed with this prosecution. A private citizen cannot criminally prosecute anyone, let alone a former President.

The left considers this a mere trifling detail – when they are doing the appointing, that is.

Judge Cannon has been the target of relentless criticism by the Democrats. It will now increase.

Trump, fate, and his convention speech

The New Neo Posted on by

This is why I put up that clip from The Day of the Jackal yesterday:

Former President Donald Trump can’t stop thinking about the way he moved his head in the split second before a gunman, intent on assassinating him, pulled the trigger during his speech in Pennsylvania Saturday evening. Trump was standing at the podium and began to refer to a large screen, hanging to his right, that showed statistics about immigration. To better see the screen, Trump turned his head to the right and a little up, and at the millisecond in which his head was at just the right angle for the bullet to graze his ear but not enter his skull — at that moment, the bullet whizzed by. Trump suffered a bloody wound to his ear, but no other injuries. It seemed like a miracle.

“The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,” Trump said Sunday afternoon in a talk aboard his 757 as he flew to Milwaukee for the start of the Republican National Convention. “If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [the skull]. And because the sign was high, I’m looking up. The chances of my making a perfect turn are probably one tenth of one percent, so I’m not supposed to be here.”

“I had to be at the exact right angle,” Trump said at another point in the conversation, which included the New York Post’s Michael Goodwin. “Because the thing was an eighth of an inch away. That I would turn exactly at that second, where he [the gunman] wouldn’t stop the shot is pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. I’m really not supposed to be here.”

You can’t have such a thing happen to you and not be at least somewhat changed by it. Does Trump think it was merely good luck, or divine intervention, or fate?

The relevant part of the Jackal clip is here:

In the movie, the would-be assassin gains access to a cleared building by masquerading as an elderly war veteran on crutches, but the audience knows that he has a high-powered weapon disguised as one of the crutches. The moment in which DeGaulle moves his head out of the way of the shot is preceded by a scene much earlier in the movie when the Jackal tests out the same weapon by firing it at a watermelon, which explodes and is a stand-in for DeGaulle’s head. At the time the movie was first released, the frame of the Zapruder film that showed something similar happening to JFK had not yet been shown to the public, but anyone who was familiar with the Warren Commission report knew that something similar must have happened to JFK. So the horror was quite fresh.

Here’s the movie scene with the watermelon. Although it only involves a watermelon, it’s incredibly horrifying:

Trump says he’s changed his speech as a result of his experience on Saturday:

Trump explained that before Saturday night, he had finished the speech he planned to give later this week at the Republican convention. “I basically had a speech that was an unbelievable rip-roarer,” he said. “It was brutal — really good, really tough. [Last night] I threw it out. I think it would be very bad if I got up and started going wild about how horrible everybody is and how corrupt and crooked, even if it’s true. Had this not happened, we had a speech that was pretty well set that was extremely tough. Now, we have a speech that is more unifying.”

Good luck with that.

The Republican convention has started in Milwaukee. Trump plans to announce his VP today, rumored to be J. D. Vance.

The Trump assassination attempt: a few answers but mostly questions

The New Neo Posted on by

Details are slowly emerging. One of the better sources is the NY Post.

The shooter was 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, reported to have been a “bullied loner” in high school Of course, that was also the initial report on the Columbine shooters and it turns out to have been wrong in their case. My guess is that few people were friendly with Crooks and therefore few knew him. I’ve also read that the gun was purchased by his father, and that Crooks was registered as a Republican but contributed to a far left cause at around the time of Biden’s inauguration.

The shooter’s car is reported to have contained explosives, which I would assume were meant to injure or kill the law enforcement officials who found it.

Various witnesses saw the shooter on the roof – which was about 130 yards from where Trump was speaking – and reported a man crawling there with a rifle, but authorities were slow to respond. Here’s one interview:

One of my first thoughts on hearing of the shooting was “how did someone get a firearm into the rally?” I quickly learned that was not the case, and that the shooter was outside the venue on a nearby rooftop. This prompted my next thought, “Why weren’t all the rooftops cleared?” I’ve read enough about security to know that’s standard, especially because this wasn’t a city with many rooftops, but an outdoor area with just a few. Many people are asking the same question, because this seems like a clear screwup. And of course, conspiracy theories abound.

One spectator was killed; 50-year-old ex-volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore:

[His daughter] Allyson said that when the gunshots rang out, Comperatore quickly threw her and her mother to the ground to try to protect them after Trump was shot.

“He truly loved us enough to take a real bullet for us,” Allyson wrote on Facebook.

“And I want nothing more than to cry on him and tell him thank you.”

Terrible. RIP. Two others were badly wounded; I haven’t seen anything about their identities except that they were adult men.

Biden and other Democrats have mouthed words deploring the violence. And yet there is no question in my mind that their rhetoric set the scene for this type of attempt, whether it actually motivated Crooks himself or not. I have heard Democrats casually talk about wanting Trump assassinated; the idea has been normed (see this).

Many people have remarked on Trump’s heroic defiance just a moment after coming within a inch of death, and there are the photos and videos to prove it. I’ll just say it doesn’t surprise me; he’s a tough guy. He’d better be.