man for a country that loves its guns the lot of you cant aim for shit

trump almost got fatally shot in the head a little over a month ago and it's already totally flushed out of the news cycle. nothing happened as a direct result and nobody cares. it's so funny to me

the funniest part of the whole situation was republicans clearly banking on him being a martyr and then a week later biden dropped out and everyone just completely forgot trump got shot at. people talked abt it for like 4 days and then it left the zeitgeist

i can't stand him he's so funny

[VD: a Tiktok of Lil Nas X watching his own music video for "Panini". The audio and subtitles for the music have been edited so it says, "aye panini dont u be a meanie / in 2024 there will be an assassination attempt on trump and joe biden will drop out of the race and kamala harris will run for president iii--" He shakes his head in disbelief as he watches it. The caption reads, "crazy how i predicted all of this back in 2019 and all of yall called me dumb and gay". End VD]

I FELL ASLEEP AND TOOK A NAP A COUPLE YEARS AGO AND SLEPT THROUGH JAN 6TH. I FELL ASLEEP A COUPLE DAYS AGO AND MISSED TRUMP GETTING SHOT. I JUST TOOK MY FIRST AFTERNOON NAP IN A BIT AND NOW THIS?

built in time-skip to the next story event i guess

Jumping on the meme trend

Jamelle Bouie made a couple of points on TikTok about US presidential elections recently that I thought were interesting. He argues it's kind of a myth that turnout rather than persuasion drives victories. The last couple of presidential elections have depended really on how undecided voters break, and in 2016 and 2020 how the so-called "double haters" who dislike both Biden and Trump voted when it came down to the wire. That pool of voters is quite small: in a highly polarized political environment, you just don't see the big swings in elections that you used to, and even now Biden is within a normal polling error of beating Trump. That polarization also puts a pretty low ceiling--and a pretty high floor--on any given candidate's approval ratings.

The 2020 election was in the end a very close re-run of the 2016 election--if you knew nothing about the 2020 campaign or election cycle other than who voted where and for who in 2016, you already have something like 95% of the results in 2020 figured out. This strongly contributes to my sense that the polls in 2024 are absolutely fucked: the idea we are going to see the single biggest race- and age-related realignment in voter behavior in November, when there have been no hints of it in actual election outcomes at any point in the last 18 months, and the swinginess of elections is at an all time low just doesn't seem tenable.

The other major point was that political events in a campaign have always had very short half-lives. This is one reason why people point out debates very rarely matter to the outcome of campaigns. Stuff like debates, major campaign gaffes, even campaign advertising, has a very short half-life in polls and seemingly in voters' minds as well. And since undecided voters are very different in their political behavior than people who care enough about politics to be following the presidential race in, like, June, they tend to only start paying attention to the race in the fall, and to make their final decision at the last minute.

All of this is to say the Trump assassination attempt is very unlikely to have any influence on the outcome of the election. Hell, neither is Biden's atrocious debate performance. People should make peace with the fact that the election as it stands is very uncertain: even if you rely on the polling data (which IMO you shouldn't), it is very difficult to predict with confidence who will win at this juncture.

For anyone who is still using sticker mule:

DON’T!!

What did Sticker Mule do:

They are supporting Trump vocally and loud since 2016, and are paying for his campaign.

Insulted Black artists on Twitter and refused to print BLM stickers/merch

Insulted queer artists

Wrote insults on the back of the order from queer and nsfw artists, such as “degenerate” or “gross”

They just posted this on Twitter and sent out a similar mass email to everyone still subscribed

Here's the email they sent out and used it to promote their sale:

A quick view on their social media will actually tell you everything you need to know

You do you, but just know what kind of company you are supporting and where the money they earn from you will go to

"Anyone who said bad things about Trump has blood on their hands."

So you agree? Saying bad things about people can actually have a harmful effect? It's much more than just hurt feelings?

Remember that when someone says "lgbt people are pedophiles" or "homeless people are lazy moochers" or "abortion is murder". It doesn't just "hurt feelings". It leads to shootings at lgbt events, random acts of violence against homeless people, or bombings at abortion clinics.

Already seeing people say that Trump's assassination attempt was staged. Remember: no evidence, no conspiracy.

Believing this was staged requires believing trump said "I need you to shoot me in the ear close enough to draw blood but not enough to kill me."

All right ear me big sniper guy, it's going to be an attempted assassination, the biggest ever, you are going to shoot me close, like danger close but don't worry I'm the best president, really I'm the best and you are the best sniper, the best sniper in the whole country. So you shoot me near the ear, near enough that blood comes out, I know scary stuff, but we are tough guys, the toughest so you do it and I resist and together we make the best attempted staged assassination ever

ok but fr why is trump coming to my town to speak directly outside where i work. ur literally in the farmland area of town

im going to end up on a watchlist

ur never gonna believe this

THEY WERE ON TOP OF MY OFFICE

Imagining the alternate timeline where it succeeded. The entire dashboard is just "I have died. Badly."

Good news for American minorities: shooter was white

He was registered Republican, but apparently also made a 15$ donation to the Biden campaign at one point. Average American swing voter.

It appears that the shooter (Thomas Matthew Crooks) donated to the Democratic donation website ActBlue on January 20, 2021 (at age 17) but then switched to the Republican side sometime in the subsequent eight months. By September of 2021, shortly after his 18th birthday, he had registered as a Republican. Just in time for the 2022 midterm elections. (The NYT provides links with the dates).

He also appeared to be wearing a fandom T-shirt for the Youtube channel Demolition Ranch, a gun enthusiast channel. Perhaps his relatively quick political conversion came about through Youtube? A lot of research (e.g., Lewis, 2018; see below) indicates that Youtube is a pretty fertile recruiting ground for the far right, with relatively quick paths from ordinary to extreme right-wing politics.

But yeah, if the shooter had been brown, we could've probably expected multiple lynchings in the next week.

i went out for milk and ended up making like 6 new friends, marching in a parade, reuniting with one of my childhood friends, watched a drag queen eviserate a piñata and also forgot to buy the milk

im such a sitcom C plot character tbh

what do you mean they shot trump

some doctor out there has a chance to do the funniest case of medical malpractice yet

Me, dressed in ill fitting scrubs with a name tag that says “J. Imhotep” and a playskool toy stethoscope:

@ that person