39 Comments

If there was any intervention going on the day of the shooting it was Satan’s. As dark magic does indeed have power. Look how many people fall inline behind Trump.

Satan’s gift is deception, with Trump as one of Satan’s head lieutenants, he’s been empowered with this gift also.

It will be those with light in their hearts who will be voting for Biden making sure evil does not enter the Oval Office again.

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Per CBS, the doctor who treated Trump said he didn't even need stitches.

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With a "2 cm" gunshot wound to the ear, defining information must be made available. If not, the ear wound joins "bone spurs" as Trump Medical Mysteries.

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my feeling precisely.

and one thing that will always gladden my heart is precision in the use of our language. this one feels like an anthology piece waiting for the right anthologist.

I've read the whole thing (hurting my ancient voice a little, but who cares?) a couple of times to friends. there was a LOT of ROFL.

brilliant. just fucking brilliant.

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Interesting how Comperatore’s name is misspelled on (supposedly) his own uniform.

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This was his actual uniform and his name was misspelled when he wore it also, apparently. The story I read noted that he knew it was misspelled (maybe from when he was first hired) but he didn't care. It certainly sounds like a mistake Trump's people would make, but not this time. (I do wonder how his widow truly feels about everything Trump has said - and kissing his jacket - basically saying, "hey, carey, thanks for dying instead of me".)

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I heard his firehouse confirmed the misspelling on his uniform, not that it matters

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Given orange stains insanity my personal opinion is there is some careful plastic surgery under that awful bandage - he may have had a permanent notch cut into the top of his ear so he can prove his wound from now on. We'll see. There was an attack. From the instant he realized that he went into super asshole mode to maximize all that happened to usher himself into the Whitehouse and very well may have succeeded. The AP had a single frame of that famous film that at most showed something touched the top, back corner of his ear - no bruising, his hair wasn't mussed and if we believe the medical info presented no blood vessels inside or outside his head were affected, no way it was a .223 round that close.

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A related story reported by Rick Earle on WPXI Pittsburgh six days ago has been virtually ignored not only be major media but by independent sources. To my knowledge it was picked up only by Josh Marshall at TPM and Ursula Faw at Politizoom. And this was that four motorcycle officers standing near Trump were slightly injured by flying debris, the implication being that they may well have been the real cause of Trump's very minor injury.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/one-other-detail

https://politizoom.com/this-is-huge-4-cops-in-butler-pa-suffered-injuries-from-flying-debris-trump-was-probably-not-shot/

It was also linked on a few other sites but seems to have gone almost unnoticed.

https://www.threads.net/@professorjaytee/post/C9bIAiSyoSC

https://democraticunderground.com/100219157634

The only update to the story was that two of the officers were subsequently removed (transferred) from the mtorcycle unit for reasons that are unclear. Supposedly because they had not been assigned to the Trump rally (were there without permission), but they disputed that.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/pittsburgh-motorycle-officers-injured-trumps-rally-forced-transfer/

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Correction: "they may well have been" should read "this may well have been" — JW

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As one who liked to ricochet bullets off water during a misspent youth, let me just say that they slap HARD. Even an ear graze should have rocked his head.

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Considering that a ballistic projectile will break the sound barrier, even a small one would move enough air explosively enough that it should have gouged quite a chunk of skin, hair, and probably muscle off his skull. Watch a slow-motion video of an apple being shot through the center. The whole apple collapses around the projectile and then flies apart. The physics would insist that what hit his ear was a shard or splinter of something, or conceivably a ricochet, but definitely not a straight shot.

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Psycho Don. No wonder he talks about Hannibal Lecter; Hannibal Lector could represent Donald's frustration at not being able to literally "shoot someone on 5th Ave" (certain people in his life whom he has hated). Donnie dangerously destroys in other ways, like serial lying, which is why Project 2025 GOP keeps him as their leader. Donald is the GOP's authoritarian Big Lie Teller and their non-thinking leader with "enough working digits to handle a pen" to sign whatever they want, like Project2025, to kill America, Americans, and democracy..

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Seth, thanks much for your insights. I continue to believe PROOF offers the best journalistic value, and I regularly share your work with my associates...many are now subscribers.

1) I was an 11 year-old Texan when John Kennedy was killed in 1963. I vividly remember most of my schoolmates jumping with glee when our teacher told us the President had been killed. Frankly, I think I became a man that day. At least I know I changed in a permanent, more humane way.

2) In retrospect, when I heard of the shooting during Trump's rally, I'm somewhat puzzled that my immediate mental response was ''someone became a hero today". Since then, I have not experienced any sense of sorrow related to Trump's situation as a fellow human being. In fact, my brain remains stuck on, "what goes around comes around", in contrast to my previous reactions to all other shootings of public political figures over the past 55 years.

3) As an former Army medic and Level 1 trauma nurse, the technical aspects of Trump's wound cause considerable cognitive dissonance. Ronny "He Has Never Told a Lie" Jackson describes Trump's wound as "2 cm" (.8 inches) long, but "not requiring stiches". Until we hear to the contrary, there is a level of probability that Trump was struck by flying debris, vs a bullet.

4) Once again, a parent played a key role in a 20 year-old shooter's wayward life. The AR-15 was purchased by his father when the young man was 11 years old. His classmates stated he wore hunting clothes to school. Not at all dissimilar to the Sandy Hook massacre. (BTW, Trump's VP candidate once called Alex Jones a truth-teller)

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Yep, I hear you. And agree with your comment entirely, for similar reasons. I was never a medical professional, but I fixed up brothers and many many animals over the years. I'm a little ashamed of myself, but I wished immediately that the aim had been better. Never reacted so before. Probably never will again.

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Its odd, that there has been no accounting of the number of actual shots fired. My initial assumption was that Thomas Crooks used a Bump stock & that sniper rifles are single shot weapons, not designed to fire a 3 round burst.

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First thought that came into my mind was that he had choreographed this whole scenario - to get sympathy and gain votes. He is capable of anything to win!

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That was my first thought as well after I had a few details about what happened. But I’m trying to maintain my own humanity in telling myself that even the Trump campaign would not have gone so far as to stage an event like this where a man lost his life. I want to believe that with every fiber of my being. It is very difficult when so many of the things about this incident strike me as so strange or implausible.

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I'm still somewhat with you on this. but after all the movies we've all seen, it feels not at all impossible that it'd be easy to sacrifice a fan or two for their Great Cause. y'know, like, "they'll raise millions of bucks more than they had, so yeah, let's do it."

I DO know that life isn't a movie, but...

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I too have been asking the question about medical report and pointing out how unusual to the extent never happened before in the history of any candidate or seated president. I received a bunch of opinionated responses and replied, but we really do not know because there is not statement from those who treated him. Therefore all we know is what Tramp has said. So I choose to believe it was a piece of glass off the teleprompter. And defend this position by saying I am free to believe what I choose because We have no medical report. Also, without that report, we do not know if he still needs or ever needed the maxi pad on his ear that normal looking people are in turn taping to their own ears as a sign of their extreme and possibly need for treatment for their lost grasp on reality. But I love them for it. As an Iowan, I dealt with it (the shooting) and dismissed it just like Tramp had instructed me to do when kids were shot and killed at Perry High School. So it goes…

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Well stated...thanks! I'm already "over it"

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Both this post and the Debate Lies post are jaw-dropping examples of research and presentation. Simply amazing work!!! (I was wondering if you would do his RNC speech, but I figured that would be too much work! This proves that it would have been a month-long project of 15-hour days!)

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From day one, even before, of course, he lies about things that don’t matter and are easily disproven. It’s like his own form of a tic.

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Thanks. I learned a lot from this post that I’ve been curious about. I wish we knew more.

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Thank you Seth, as usual, for this in-depth investigative reporting.

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That statement about no greater love than laying down one's life for others is another biblical reference, trying to fool evangelicals who are by now completely deceived and ready to be further deceived.

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Or a nod to the white evangelicals that he hears them and is with them. Tramp people are titillated when acknowledged.

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