John: My brain wants to draw parallels between the Mike Vrabel – Dianna Russini story and SPLC’s federal indictment. Besides the gossipy story of two public people canoodling in a private resort (Vrabel and Russini are each married to others), the more important aspect is journalistic credibility. How can we trust a reporter who is literally in bed with one of her sources and subjects? Similarly, the SPLC’s credibility will be shot if they were truly encouraging (and paying for) the very racist behavior they were supposedly fighting. Will these stories and themes have legs beyond the current news cycle?
Well, I will try to keep from speculating too much on the WHCD incident, as I am asking this question on a Sunday, and I know you won't post your answer until Friday.
But so far the simplest explanation seems to be the case; the shooter was a loon whose rants about the Trump Administration and the complicity of anyone even allowing Trump to breathe same air, could come straight out of Bluesky, where he actually may have had an account, but turned out to actually be serious. He saw Trump the same way Mangione likely saw Thompson, that he was morally, even if not legally, culpable for people suffering and dying, and so deserved capital punishment.
I suppose though that it's a good sign that most Bluesky Libs aren't endorsing what to me is the obvious logical conclusion of the "Trump is an Evil Pedophilic Dictator and anyone who doesn't actively oppose literally everything he does, they are Complicit" rhetoric.
Instead, they are immediately going into an "It Was Obviously Staged By Trump To Court Sympathy And Boost His Poll Numbers" conspiracy theory. (Team Trump, to be fair, has certainly fed into that by using the incident to shill for Trump's ballroom project.)
But what also disturbs me, is that compared to the earlier Trump assassination attempt in 2024, or even the assassination of Charlie Kirk last year, there really hasn't been any loud calls to rethink where we're going or for all sides to eschew political violence.
So far, the vibe seems to be, "This is what we are now, a country in which political violence is just something that happens, and we just have to live with it. Might as well just take advantage of these events and use them as ammunition against our political enemies."
Or maybe I am being too cynical?
PS: I know I rambled a bit, feel free to edit my question when you post the answer!
John: My brain wants to draw parallels between the Mike Vrabel – Dianna Russini story and SPLC’s federal indictment. Besides the gossipy story of two public people canoodling in a private resort (Vrabel and Russini are each married to others), the more important aspect is journalistic credibility. How can we trust a reporter who is literally in bed with one of her sources and subjects? Similarly, the SPLC’s credibility will be shot if they were truly encouraging (and paying for) the very racist behavior they were supposedly fighting. Will these stories and themes have legs beyond the current news cycle?
Well, I will try to keep from speculating too much on the WHCD incident, as I am asking this question on a Sunday, and I know you won't post your answer until Friday.
But so far the simplest explanation seems to be the case; the shooter was a loon whose rants about the Trump Administration and the complicity of anyone even allowing Trump to breathe same air, could come straight out of Bluesky, where he actually may have had an account, but turned out to actually be serious. He saw Trump the same way Mangione likely saw Thompson, that he was morally, even if not legally, culpable for people suffering and dying, and so deserved capital punishment.
I suppose though that it's a good sign that most Bluesky Libs aren't endorsing what to me is the obvious logical conclusion of the "Trump is an Evil Pedophilic Dictator and anyone who doesn't actively oppose literally everything he does, they are Complicit" rhetoric.
Instead, they are immediately going into an "It Was Obviously Staged By Trump To Court Sympathy And Boost His Poll Numbers" conspiracy theory. (Team Trump, to be fair, has certainly fed into that by using the incident to shill for Trump's ballroom project.)
But what also disturbs me, is that compared to the earlier Trump assassination attempt in 2024, or even the assassination of Charlie Kirk last year, there really hasn't been any loud calls to rethink where we're going or for all sides to eschew political violence.
So far, the vibe seems to be, "This is what we are now, a country in which political violence is just something that happens, and we just have to live with it. Might as well just take advantage of these events and use them as ammunition against our political enemies."
Or maybe I am being too cynical?
PS: I know I rambled a bit, feel free to edit my question when you post the answer!
John, you’ve mellowed.
I've always been mellow, Conrad.
Sir John—-if you were yellow, would Donovan call you—-“Mello Yellow”
😝😝😝😝😝😘😝😝😝😝😝