Secret Service did a spectacular job of getting Trump under cover. Why was there not a cop on top of the AGR building? The Secret Service boss rejected multiple requests for a larger detail to protect Trump or any protection detail for RFK Jr.

Four hours gone by and no statement from FBI or SS.

Republicans will not cancel or delay convention.

Was this inspired by the nonsense claims that Trump is a threat to democracy?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 12:19 am: Edit

The press conference finally came six hours after the shooting.

The assassin fired an "AR style rifle" from 130 yards.

The assassin had no ID on his body and the police are not 100% sure yet who he was so they won't release a name. One report said he was 20 years old and lived in Pennsylvania.

Three spectators were hit; one died and two are in very serious or critical condition. No police were hit. Names have not been released.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 01:29 am: Edit

Several witnesses say they saw the gunman climbing the AGR building and pointed him out to police, but whatever response resulted didn't happen fast enough to stop the shooting.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 03:12 am: Edit

The "Battalion a day" thing is reporting that they lose about that many men per day killed and wounded. Battalions range from 500 to 1000 people.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 01:27 pm: Edit

At this juncture, no motive has been identified. The shooter was indeed 20 years old and resided in Bethel Park, a suburb to the south of Pittsburgh.

A video went up that claimed to be the shooter making various declarations ("I hate Trump and Republicans," etc.), and was widely circulated on the social media service formerly known as Twitter, as well as by a number of sketchy web sites. It turned out to be a fake video by a troll, who was caught when he continued posting after the shooter was dead.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 02:30 pm: Edit

MSM site is reporting the weapon used was a AR-15.

Several sites are claiming the individual was able to fire 6 shots before the Secret Service Agent on another roof top shot and reportedly killed the shooter.

A foreign news site reported that the range from the roof top to the podium was 149 yards.

News reports are claiming the shooters car has been found and searched, and that “explosives” were inside the vehicle. No description of type or quantity.

Shooter home is being searched, but no reports yet as to if any other weapons or explosives being found.

Just a comment: it seems there are more details being revealed by overseas news media than being revealed by domestic MSM.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 02:44 pm: Edit

I think it's always a good idea to read multiple news sources, so you can cross reference and be better informed.

--Mike

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 03:08 pm: Edit

In other news, a MSM site has reported that Belarus has withdrawn its troops from the Ukraine-Russia War…

It took some looking, but the facts of the story is different from the headline.

Turns out that some time ago, as a apparent reaction to a Ukrainian “incursion” (aka a violation of Belarusian airspace that Ukrainian Government denied actually happened…) Belarus called up reservists and reinforced the border troop strength.

The so called “Recall” of deployed troops appears to be the border reinforcements deployed to the borders of Belarus and Ukraine, and not of any troops actually engaged in the fighting in Ukraine.

No reaction from the Russian media or government.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 03:17 pm: Edit

"A Battalion a day."

Five hundred to a thousand people dead or wounded sufficiently to be taken out of action each day.

The war has been going on for what... Three years now? We're up over a thousand days. Are we looking at half a million to a million casualties now on the Russian side?

Even with "Wounded enough to be withdrawn for treatment and returning to The Front," how many maimed or killed are the Russian people looking at, and how many young lives lost or ruined are they willing to accept in the name of Putin's war?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 05:20 pm: Edit

The Ukrainian Army reported that there were enough Russian Army deserters who were also willing to fight for Ukraine (regular pay, rations and other “considerations” being mentioned in the reports dating back to over a year ago) that Ukraine organized two battalions of expatriate soldiers.

Haven’t seen or heard any recent news of those unit’s lately, but there is video available on you tube.

The half million casualties number was being reported more than a year ago, along with reports of Russia mobilizing more soldiers to replace the missing, wounded and dead.

A lot of sources have claimed that Russian losses are significantly more than the losses Ukraine have received, but as to what the actual numbers are, it may be years before we find out.

China is still disputing the casualty numbers from the Korean War (1950-3).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 11:04 pm: Edit

TRUMP SHOOTING: What I think happened

1. Trump begins his speech.
2. Mr Thomas Matthew Crooks climbs a ladder on the side of the AGR building with a rifle slung across his back.
3. People see him climbing and summon the police and try to signal the counter-sniper team.
4. A local cop starts climbing the ladder. One of the counter-snipers sees Crooks but cannot be sure he has a weapon and waits for the police officer to radio in.
5. The police officer reaches the top of the ladder and find himself facing Crooks and his rifle. The officer drops down a few steps.
6. Crooks, hurried by the officer gets of three (four?) shots, hitting Trump in the ear.
7. Trump drops and agents swarm to protect him. Crooks fires four more shots, hitting fire chief Corey Comparatore. Two others were hit by the first or second series of shots.
8. The counter-sniper kills Crooks. Police on the ground are seen holding pistols pointed at the sniper and are mistakenly reported as firing at him but they did not.
9. A defiant Trump poses for an Iwo Jima photo on the way off of the stage.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 14, 2024 - 11:06 pm: Edit

Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20 years old, was 17 when Biden was elected and donated $15 to a left-wing political action committee. When he reached 18 he registered to vote as a Republican at a time when local Democrats were trying to get new voters to register as Republicans to disrupt the Republican primary. Crooks voted in 2022 but of course we do not know which way.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 08:19 am: Edit

To their considerable credit, both President Biden and former President Trump have urged calm and national unity in the wake of Saturday's assassination attempt.

To their considerable discredit, various politicians and pundits have spun up an assortment of conspiracy theories, ranging from the extreme of "Biden ordered a hit" to the opposite extreme of "Trump ordered a false flag".

At this juncture, we do not know the shooter's motives. We may never know his motives, inasmuch as he was relatively inactive on social media and left neither note nor manifesto. While the FBI is trying to break into his cell phone, there is no certainty whatsoever that any further information on motive may be found therein. Endeavoring to claim motives at this juncture does a disservice to both presidents and to the nation as a whole.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 11:47 am: Edit

If Biden ordered a hit, he would have hired a better gunman. I doubt anyone would sign up for a false flag that involved a bullet hitting his ear. One twitch and the result is fatal. I remember that goofy Hawaii-50 (Jack Lord) episode that involved someone getting wounded by a sniper with a really really really really accurate rifle and it was laughable.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 12:12 pm: Edit

Just knowing what I know about shooting, I don't believe either theory.

130 yards is point blank range for a trained sniper. A trained sniper would not have missed, Trump turning his head at opportune moment or not. Lends credence to the theory that the murderer was just what he appears to be - a young man who made the decision to shoot Trump (and shooting several other people being d**ned), thinking he could hit his target at that range without actually knowing how to shoot.

Note that the trained counter-sniper did not miss at (rough and dirty) a similar range.

Given that, without more evidence, I believe neither the "Biden-ordered hit" nor the "false flag" crackpot theories.

What *does* interest me is the accusations being floated that Trump was denied adequate Secret Service protection (e.g., why didn't they have another trained sniper on the roof the murderer climbed?} I imagine that sort of thing will get sorted as the days and weeks drag on.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 12:47 pm: Edit

Quote: 130 yards is point blank range for a trained sniper.

Yeah. It's average distance for anyone shooting at US military basic training. Look, I am at best an okay shot with an M-16, and I have knocked down the 300-meter targets with iron sights. Hitting a man-sized target at 150 meters requires minimum training, as in "point that end somewhere down range."

So, all the loons on TV / online claiming they guy had "extensive training" have no idea what they're talking about.


Garth L. Getgen

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 01:23 pm: Edit

The issue, which will slow down is Rhetoric...
Though don't believe it will stay cool for very long.....

Statement from insider that Biden said,
"We need to put Trump in the Bullseye"
Hard to believe that anything he says was his idea, but it just adds to the fire... We know how some pick the context they want for words like that....

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 01:48 pm: Edit

We unfortunately live in an age of extreme hyperbole, where political candidates air advertisements showing them firing guns of various sorts (and in a recent case in Missouri, a grenade launcher) at the "other side", be it a policy manual or stack of books they don't like or a cardboard cutout target of a particular individual. We live in an age where both sides have used terminology best reserved for actual warfare to describe how to deal with the "other side". And sadly, we live in an age where both sides have trotted out reference to putting the "other side" in the crosshairs (including a number of adverts where images of "other side" candidates have literally been overlaid with crosshair markings).

It's a level of hyperbole that has help push the nation to the largest partisan divide since 1861.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 02:14 pm: Edit

Young Mister Crooks had been a hunter and a member of the high school rifle marksmanship team. I have no doubt he could have hit the target had he not been rushed. I think he was rushed by something (the FBI disputes the local cop story) and fired three or four quick shots, meaning that all but the first were un-aimed general direction things. He seems to have been a bullied loner who thought he could do something worthwhile with his life by shooting "Adolf Hitler".

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 02:26 pm: Edit

Minor correction: Crooks had tried to join his high school rifle marksmanship team, but was turned way due in part to poor marksmanship.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 02:55 pm: Edit

Well, stranger things do happen.

Henry II and his famous overheard line "who will rid me of this man" (or perhaps that was Shakespears quote on it) and Thomas Beckett???

But, I think on this occasion - it almost certainly is just one (being polite) confused 20 year old.

As others have said - any other reason just doesn't make sense.

By Ted Fay (Catwhoeatsphoto) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 03:05 pm: Edit

@Paul Howard: No one really knows exactly what King Henry II said. If you're referring to the 1964 film, I believe the quote you may be looking for is:

"Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"* (The 1964 film, "Becket.")


*Some sources say "turbulent priest" instead of "meddlesome priest."

The popular version of the phrase was first used in 1740 by the author and bookseller Robert Dodsley, in his Chronicle of the Kings of England, where he described Henry II’s words as follows:

“O wretched Man that I am, who shall deliver me from this turbulent Priest?”

https://englishhistory.net/middle-ages/will-no-one-rid-me-of-this-meddlesome-priest/

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 03:29 pm: Edit

Gentlebeings,

Former President Trump and President Biden speaking on the campaign trail are not germane to Real World Military. This is also true of a shooter who is not part of the military.

Move this discussion elsewhere, please. And when you do, there needs to be not one word of a political nature, or there will be no need for me to ask, "Who will rid me of ...," for I shall be deleting posts that disobey, "Thou shalt not post political stuff on this BBS."

Jean
WebMom

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, July 15, 2024 - 11:58 pm: Edit

Forbes media site posted a report “by a Forbes military analist”.

The gist of it claims that nearly half (1,400) t-62 tanks now make up the majority of the Russian tank force now fighting in Ukraine.

There are smaller numbers of mor modern tanks, but virtualy all of the more modern t-72, t-80 and t-90 models have been damaged in battle, then repaired and returned to duty.

Russia apparently started the war with 3,000 modern tanks with new production of modern tanks making up between 500 to 600 units per year.

Russia media claims that they are producing 1,500 tanks per year, but sources indicate the most modern types are dependent on technology that has to be imported, and sadly for Russia, the most modern computer chips are not available from China or north Korea.

The report also stated that there are approximately 1,000 to 1,500 t-72 and t-72a model tanks still in storage that have not been moved to repair depot yet, the war being in its second year. The excuse for not using those tanks seems to be the auto loader systems.

I know the auto loaders have been discussed here previously, and it has been reported that Russia has updated some T-72 tanks…

If the war with Ukraine continues for much longer, Russia may have to start using even older tank designs.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Tuesday, July 16, 2024 - 07:27 am: Edit

I believe I have seen reports of T55 being used by Russia.