Bullet the Blue Sky
Assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
In the locust wind
Comes a rattle and hum
Jacob wrestled the angel
And the angel was overcome
You plant a demon seed
You raise a flower of fire
We see them burnin' crosses
See the flames, higher and higher
Bullet the blue sky
Bullet the blue sky
The indelible images, the soundtrack of America. Guns, assassinations, where-were-you-when moments attached to tragedy.
MLK - a shot rings out in the Memphis sky. JFK - Dallas 1pm, his brother RFK shot too. John Lennon, taken so senselessly - my first memory of a major world event. I remember too the attempt on Reagan, the shock, the suspension of politics, the prayers of a nation that a leader would live.
Yet somehow, for all that history, all the guns, the violence, and the insanity of present day American politics, the shooting came as a shock. I didn’t believe it to begin with. Not due to conspiratorial delusion, but it just seemed so, well… unbelievable.
I saw a post about shots having being fired at Trump on a page I follow, someone had just heard it from a friend in the UK. I was dubious. Scanning the major sites, CNN, the Guardian, the BBC - absolutely nothing. Then I remembered - this is what Twitter’s for. Nothing spreads news, real or otherwise, like X. Sure enough, updates were coming in by the minute. Was it actually true?
I posted, “Trump shot at a rally? I don't know how real this is, but you can certainly hear cracking like gun fire on the video from CNN on Twitter. Whether the blood on his ear is real remains to be seen but the crazy just went up a notch!”
From a complete absence, in a short time, the internet was flooded with information on all the news sites. About five minutes later the first of the poor taste memes and mocking messages arrived, way too soon. You’ve probably seen some of them, I’m not going to repeat them here. To be honest I’m not sure people actually believed it was real at first, it didn’t seem like reality.
Soon after that I got a rather formal email from someone wanting me to cancel their subscription, with “Immediate Effect”. I was a bit mystified. The email came as a reply to Saturday’s newsletter, Women in Space. I figured it must’ve caused offence.
I explained how to unsubscribe and apologised saying it perhaps hadn’t been my best work and I didn’t always get it right, suggesting they might read yesterday’s one on God.
Turns out it wasn’t about a newsletter, rather a comment I’d made on Facebook following the shooting. The follow up email said, “I have found your opinions good in the past however the torrents of ridicule against Trump seem disproportionate to owning a good soul.”
So there you go then.
As it happens I stand by everything I’ve said about Trump. I’m a little less sure on some of the things I’ve said about Biden, that’s less black and white.
So what was the comment? Well G News had posted - “Word Association - What words spring to mind when you see this image?”
My response, an immediate reaction was:
“Fake blood capsule”, “Professional wrestling”, “stolen election”, “shoulda been a better shot”, “America loves a gun hero”.
An instinctive response with memories of Trump, prior to politics, appearing in the theatrics of pro wrestling brought to mind. I’m not saying I’m proud of it, simply that those were my thoughts of the moment.
How many of us would want our souls measured by what our initial thoughts were on hearing that news?
My gut reaction was that it was somehow fake. Such is the cone of un-reality that envelopes Trump it was hard to imagine a story pertaining to him actually being true. The boy who cried conspiracy, or something.
The reality of course is it would’ve been horrendous if Trump had been killed. Whatever his comments or views, the hatred and division inflamed, the very meaning of truth he has extinguished on a large scale, he does not deserve that. I would never wish harm upon him in any seriousness, of course.
We say things with humour, even very dark humour, that we don’t necessarily mean. I recently wrote a piece in which I suggested a certain National Party MP ought to be catapulted directly into the surface of the sun. It didn’t mean I wanted that to literally happen. Sure I dislike their views, but I wouldn’t wish actual harm on them.
The same is true of Trump. Yes the things he has said, and may well act on, against minorities, women, immigrants, and his political opponents are abhorrent - but he doesn’t deserve to be shot for them. Besides which, can you imagine what the streets of America would’ve looked like last night if he had been killed by an assassin’s bullet?
We raise concerns over Fascist style behaviour from Trump. Whether he will respect the result of the election, what he might do to move America away from being a democracy should he regain the White House. But no act could be more authoritarian and grotesque, to all decent people, than someone being shot and killed standing on a political platform campaigning - whatever they were saying.
I am glad that Trump was not killed. Tragically one spectator was, and others were badly injured by the gunman who was shooting from an elevated position outside of the venue.
Secret Services have confirmed they killed the gunman, and you’d have to say they looked very quick to respond. Short of having bullet proof protection whenever Trump is in public there seems little more they could do if someone with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle can get that close. Not that such protective glass wouldn’t have helped the spectators.
The FBI have named the shooter as a local man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20 years old - just a kid. He would’ve been 12 when Trump became president the first time.
As of yet I haven’t seen an indication of his motivation. What, if any, political allegiances or views he held. He was registered as a Republican but I wouldn’t necessarily read much into that. Clearly there will be weeks of investigation ahead.
Mind you a lack of facts wasn’t stopping some from making unwise and false allegations. Representative Mike Collins (R-Ga.) said: “Joe Biden sent the orders,” on X, formerly Twitter.
Senator J.D. Vance, a possible running mate of Trump, said on social media that the shooting was “not just some isolated incident”.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
Of course this is where we are.
You, or I, or anyone sane, might ask whether access to guns was perhaps part of the problem? But is anyone even mentioning gun control? Don’t be silly the right to bear arms trumps (sorry) the right to stand in public and not get shot.
Or go to school safely, or church, or all the other things that many of Trump’s supporters think are less important than being able to walk around with guns. Just in case they, you know… they need to use one.
For the record I don’t think there’s any conspiracy here. No second shooter on a grassy knoll, no attempt to silence the official killer, no fake blood, no deep plot to make a fake shooting look real by killing a spectator for effect. The pathetic reality looks like it’s some mixed up kid, with access to a rapid killing machine to help him work out his problems.
Where politics come in though is that this may well win Trump the election.
Not because of any set up, but I imagine it will reinvigorate his base and generate sympathy, possibly even admiration in some quarters, for Trump. That would’ve been unthinkable before yesterday morning. Just as a, more serious, failed assassination attempt cast Reagan in a new light.
A lot of people, already concerned, felt this may well tip things over the edge. Perhaps understandably there were many angry comments from Trump supporters. To be fair that’s not exactly new, and you certainly have to wonder what the heck would be happening if Trump had been killed.
Leaders around the world have naturally been quick to condemn the attempt on Trump’s life.
Including our own Prime Minister:
Other voices were more circumspect in the moment:
Trump posted, “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening.
I want to thank the United States Secret Service, and all of law enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person who was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country. Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead.”
You’d have to say he, or whoever wrote that on his behalf, sounded genuine. I don’t know what happens in the next few weeks, I certainly hope there won’t be further violence.
As for the election, on a day that could’ve been his last I suspect, in terms of his chances of re-election, yesterday won’t end up being such a bad day for Trump.
And this guy comes up to me
His face red like a rose on a thorn bush
Like all the colours of a royal flush
And he's peelin' off those dollar bills, slappin' 'em down
One hundred, two hundred
Outside, it's America
Outside, it's America
You still get my subscription Nick. Guns and shootings are an every day reality in the US. I hate guns. You live by that kind of force you eventually die by it. This man has inflamed so much fear and hatred frankly what does he expect.
“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country”
It’s really not, it happens daily.