SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2026
Also, Gotham crime runs rampant: This very morning, we were surprised to learn what Mayor Mamdani has done.
How will his term as mayor turn out? We have no idea! And of course, he's only been mayor since January 1. How much could he have done?
How will his tenure turn out? We plan to wait and see! But he has already let crime "sort of run rampant" in New York City—or so Rachel Campos-Duffy, the genial co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend, told Fox viewers this very morning, early in the 7 o'clock hour.
Right at 7:08 a.m., Campos-Duffy delivered that newsflash, referring to "the crime that Mamdani has allowed to, you know, sort of run rampant in the city because he doesn't care about that."
Moments later, she turned to extremely familiar ground, saying that "his instincts are Communist. They're Bolshevik."
At 7:11, she said that one of Mamdani's policies is "very Communist." But so it goes on this Fox News Channel program, which we would be willing to classify as an imitation of life.
How will the Bolshevik mayor's term turn out? We're willing to wait and see! We can show you what we found when we checked the surprising assertion that the mayor has been letting crime ("sort of") run rampant in New York City's streets.
When we googled the surprising claim, an infallible news source—"AI Overview"—instantly told us this:
"As of April 2026, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration reported record-low crime stats in his first 100 days, including significant drops in murders and shootings."
So said AI Overview! When we clicked to the source for the Overview's claim. we found this transcript of an April 2 press event about this important topic:
Transcript: Mayor Mamdani and NYPD Announces Fewest Murders, Shooting Incidents in Recorded History for First Three Months of the Year
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani: Good morning, everyone. It is a pleasure to be here with you at 1 Police Plaza and to be joined by so many committed public servants. Thank you to Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch for your leadership and your partnership. I also want to extend my gratitude to Chief of Department Mike LiPetri and the members of the NYPD executive staff.
[...]
The data we are releasing today should be encouraging to every New Yorker. The numbers tell a clear, indisputable story: our approach to public safety is working. Crime continues to decrease in New York City.
In the first three months of the year, New York City has recorded the fewest murders and shooting incidents since we began tracking these numbers, decades ago. This quarter, we saw 54 murders across the five boroughs, a drop from the previous record low of 60, set in 2018. When you compare these figures to last year, which had already set historic lows for gun violence, murders fell by a significant 28 percent. Year-to-date, the murder rate is down by more than 57 percent in Brooklyn, [and] more than 44 percent in Manhattan, and there have been no murders on Staten Island in 2026. In fact, it has now been 178 days since the last murder on Staten Island, the second-longest period in recorded history.
Additionally, overall crime in public housing fell 7.2 percent year-to-date and reached record lows for murders, shooting incidents, shooting victims and robberies. None of that is accidental. It is a direct result of the hard work and commitment of so many in this room...There is always more work to be done, as we can see in the 11.7 percent rise in hate crimes across our city, with the largest increase being of anti-Muslim hate crimes, a 140 percent increase, as antisemitic hate crimes continue to comprise more than half of the total number.
Major crime is down in nearly every category, however, across our five boroughs. The Bronx leads the city in overall major crime declines, with a 9.4 percent decrease. And I want to thank every member of the NYPD for all that they do to keep every corner of our city safe from violence.
You can read the full transcript yourself. When we googled, we saw no reports challenging the accuracy of those data. As you can see, this editorial by the anti-Mamdani New York Post accepted the numbers as accurate.
Our conclusions go something like this:
If you read the anti-Mamdani New York Post, "The first quarter of the year saw the fewest murders and shooting incidents in recorded history, plus excellent news on subway crime, retail theft and even record lows in murders and robberies in public housing."
That's what readers have been told by the anti-Mamdani New York Post. But if you watched this morning's Fox & Friends Weekend, you were told that the city's very Communist, Bolshevik mayor is letting crime run rampant, driving tourism away!
Can a modern nation function this way? You're asking a major question. But she always knows where the Bolsheviks are, and her two co-hosts play along!
"We plan to wait and see!"
ReplyDeleteMe too. I don't live in NY, but Mamdani is a very exciting figure for those of us on the left. A jolt to the status quo, perhaps. But like all leftists in the Democratic party, he's sure to continue to be sniped not just by Republicans (a given) but by Democrats who wish above all else to maintain the status quo, even, or maybe especially, if he proves to be an effective leader.
Leroy
Short sample, but he already has.
DeleteBTW, when do the wealthy start fleeing (LOL).
Leroy makes a good point. I would say that a problem for Democrats is that they have to appeal to a large group of voters with diverse political views ever since the GOP shrank to an extremist ideology. And I think this makes Democrats nervous to give full support to politicians who succeed in New york but seem out of the mainstream in, say, Mississippi.
DeleteMamdani’s pragmatism may produce results that speak for themselves in stats, transcending ideology.
DeleteA major aim of communism is to diminish inequalities, which then inherently would lower crime rates.
ReplyDeleteSo Fox News gets it right in that respect, although they seem confused about what bolshevism is.
Mamdani is a pragmatist, a centrist progressive, a reformist, not a Leftist.
ReplyDeleteThe Right wants to portray him as a wild eyed commie in an attempt to move the Overton window towards the right.
This effort will likely backfire, although not spectacularly so.
Americans have largely moved on from Red Scares, it’s no longer particularly relevant, regardless of how much Fox News clings to it.
"centrist progressive"
DeleteThat's some jargon: it that like "reasonable conservative"?
The term progressive doesn't refer to left or right but to a specific political philosophy about the use of government to reduce income inequality, provide healthcare and improve people's lives. Modern progressive platforms prioritize using government to address climate change, racial justice, income inequality, LGBTQ+ rights, and strengthening labor unions.
DeleteIn contrast, liberalism is a political philosophy centered on individual rights, liberty, consent of the governed, and equality before the law. It promotes democracy, secularism, freedom of speech, and market economies.
There are both liberals and progressives within the Democratic party. Leftists are more radical. According to AI, "Leftists often advocate for radical change, structural reform, and increased government intervention to achieve economic and social equality, frequently opposing capitalism, traditional elites, and private property in favor of worker-focused, collective, or socialist solutions."
Words do have meanings.
FOX preaches to the converted.
ReplyDelete"Can a modern nation function this way? You're asking a major question."
ReplyDeleteWE are not asking that question. Somerby asks it.
We are living in a modern nation that considers itself a democracy in which people of various views get to express themselves freely and where differences of opinion are resolved through voting in elections. In other words, our nation is designed specifically to tolerate different ideas and lack of agreement. So, we Democrats who value democracy don't get all hysterical, the way Somerby does, just because Fox and its various hosts and guests express views different than our own. And yes, they tell lies. Our system allows truth to emerge from such diversity of statements. Somerby has never appreciated that.
We do not want to be run by an authoritarian news monitoring arm of govt that screens out what someone somewhere believes to be lies. That would be the only way to prevent Fox from doing what it does. But we can and should trust that if we point out the lies, others will rethink their devotion to Fox and stop watching it. Not Somerby, of course.
And yes, a modern nation can be run our way. The problems we face today are because Russia funded interference in our election system and put a puppet into the presidency, breaking laws in the process. We need to figure out how to get rid of an illegally elected charlatan like Trump. I trust that once he is removed from office, we will go back and close the loopholes and charge the criminals who allowed this to happen.
If your child came home from school daily with misinformation from the authorities in his/her classroom you would perhaps at first spend the time correcting them but not for long. Would you consider that marketplace of ideas an appropriate avenue from which democracy would flourish? Spreading easily debunked lies about, for example, politicians, might be acceptable in the ideal world that you posit in which the audience members seek out alternative sources to fact check the propaganda they tune into daily. That is not this world. There is no simple answer here; Somerby rails against the MSM for not pushing back enough. But when that media is more and more controlled by a handful of elite billionaires that have their own agendas, good luck with that. Individuals spewing dangerous lies should, along the lines of Alex Jones, be heavily targeted by those affected by them and made to feel significant economic pain that would serve as an example to anyone contemplating being the next in line on that soapbox, in my opinion. This is the approach that is taken on the right now, by Patel, most recently, and the courts are free to toss the claim or not. These are dangerous times fueled by people like Campos-Duffy who with enough of her bullshit will set up the mayo of New York as a prime target for some nutcase. In your marketplace of ideas.
DeleteWhen's your book coming out?
Delete12:34: probably before Somerby’s.
Delete@12:34 thinks he is mocking others for using "too many words", but I for one do have a published book and many articles. I'm sure there are others here with published books too.
DeleteThere is no reason why comments must be brief. On right wing blogs they tend to be a series of one or two-liners and there is very little dissent from right wing dogma. Moderation ensures that. There is no moderation at this blog and representation by right and left and middle perspectives, so lots of things to be discussed. A quip-fight is largely name calling or unfunny insults. The people who come here for that are welcome to skip longer comments if they want.
I find it odd that someone would come to a written medium and expect people not to write on it. Even Somerby is long and overly repetitive and often digresses and quotes irrelevant material when it pleases him to do that. Why shouldn't his commenters do the same?
Buried in those stats is the fact that anti-Muslim hate crimes have increased in NYC. Is it a coincidence that Mamdani is Muslim and that the right is attacking him in the press this way? Perhaps the very people decrying Mamdani's effectiveness are the cause of the only identified increase in NYC crime.
ReplyDeletePrecisely.
DeleteBREAKING The illustrious Mary Trump, Daily Howler's most esteemed expert on mental illness, says the WHCA shooting was staged.
ReplyDeleteCite please.
DeleteNot that I disagree.
Joke
DeleteThe anti-Trump fuss seems to have inspired another assassination attempt on the President.
ReplyDeleteThat bed Republicans made comfy, David?
DeleteI may not agree with people who try to kill the President, but I fully support their use of the 2nd Amendment to fight government tyranny, as our Founding Fathers intended.
DeleteSpewing hate on a daily basis may work for Trump’s followers, like DiC, but it riles up other groups and has consequences.The Haitians may not have come after him when he said that they were eating their neighbor’s pets, but others, similarly targeted by him , may not be as law abiding. FAFO on Truth Social.
DeleteTrump's spectacular presser at 11 pm at age 80 notwithstanding, Mary Trump, this blog's leading expert on mental illness, (why she's a "licensed clinical psychologist!") assures us that the latest assassination attempt and the one in Butler PA were "staged."
DeleteWe have only Todd Blanche's word that the gunman was trying to shoot Trump. Others are saying that his target was a White House official. That could be anyone who was there.
DeleteDavid the only thing I care about is better training. If Republicans want everyone in this country to carry a gun, they should at least pay to train them how to properly aim it at the target. I don't approve of personal gun ownership as clearly stated in the 2nd Amendment.
DeleteYes, criticism of the president: never happened before in the history of our country. How dare those Democrats, and 67% of poll respondents criticize this great man.
Delete@10:01 accuses me of "Spewing hate on a daily basis." This is strikingly odd, because I don't think I spew hate. On the contrary, I make an effort to be polite to those who disagree with me. Meanwhile some (not all) Anonymous commenters on the other side do often spew hate.
DeleteWhy did @10:01 focus on my supposed daily hate-filled" comments an ignore the truly hate-filled ones? What does this tell us?
Your party spews hatred, every day, DiC.
DeleteYou called Obama evil in a comment not that long ago, DiC.
DeleteYour emperor frequently accuses his critics of treason, calling for the death penalty.
DeleteI find David's racist comments hateful.
Delete"I don't think I spew hate."
DeleteYour perception has always been at odds with reality.
To be clear, I (10:01) was referring to DiC and his ilk's reception of hate filed messaging, and 11:49 corroborates how well that works.
DeleteIf you were going to seriously target the president at an event, would you do it by running at a security checkpoint and firing at one of the security staff there?
ReplyDeleteThis could be "suicide by cop" that failed, but it doesn't sound like a serious attempt to attack the president or any of his staff. Look at its failure. Not only was no one injured, much less killed, but not even the security staff were hit. A man running through the halls while being chased by security guards is not an assassin, even if armed. He is more of a protester, which sounds more consistent with this guy's profile. That may be why so many online are calling this a staged attempt.
You shouldn't try so hard to square the circle with your deranged and unhinged party of mental illness.
DeleteYes, why try to understand anything about our world?
DeleteHow does a slight difference in self-reported well-being or happiness on the right equate to "unhinged party of mental illness"? After all, right wingers have 18% higher incomes and income does correlate with having fewer problems. But that doesn't erase the facts that most of these shootings are by right wingers, and absolutely none are sanctioned by any "party" (right or left). @11:03 needs to think a bit more, not advise others to think less.
"You shouldn't try so hard to square the circle."
DeleteIn this instance, it's a piece of cake.
The man who was arrested was apparently a guest in the hotel. They are showing photos of him on the ground, without any shirt on. They are saying he had a shotgun and multiple other guns and knives. Where was he carrying them?
ReplyDeleteTrump is talking about security in his ballroom that would protect someone outside from getting in, but this guy bought a room and thus had the right to be in the building already, if not attend the dinner in the downstairs ballroom. He did not go downstairs or anywhere near Trump. I am wondering how they stopped and arrested the gunman without him being injured or anyone else. Is the secret service unable to shoot an attacker at close range? Or did he comply with their orders at the checkpoint?
This incident, as reported, makes very little sense.
It makes sense when one considers how badly Trump is polling and how he was sinking in the polls during the 2024 campaign when he received his ear injury, with his polling (and t-shirt sales) immediately rebounding afterward.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxc1yYEetMg
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Beast Executive Editor is criticizing the level of security at the dinner. This is consistent with the chorus of other Republicans calling for a fortress like the proposed ballroom, even though Trump (and any president) gives speeches and attends events all over the place:
ReplyDelete"Security at the White House Correspondents' Dinner has been criticized by an attendee who says more could have been done to prevent the shooting."
How was security a failure when (1) no one was injured, (2) the shooter was apprehended before ever reaching the dinner venue, (3) security staff were effective in preventing any tragedy beyond the life of the shooter himself, who does not seem to fit any profile that could have identified him ahead of time?
It makes no sense to claim that having a ballroom would have prevented anything about this event, but Trump's announcement of his revenge remarks may have inspired or contributed to what happened. If there is any target for prevention, I think it rests with Trump himself and the silliness of his planned attack on journalism.
I have sympathy for those who think this non-attack may have been staged, given that Trump's intention was clearly meant to disrupt the proceedings, just not by making a mean-spirited speech. This event could have been cooked up by Trump's people to get even with the press.
Trump is a blithering idiot who has no intentions. He is dragged and drugged along by his handlers who continue to stuff billions of taxpayer money into their pockets. It's the corruption you deranged Trump cultists:
Delete"The National Park Service wanted to repair two ornamental fountains in Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. The Biden administration in 2022 had estimated the work would cost $3.3 million. But Mr. Trump’s government agreed to pay Clark $11.9 million to do it, and later added tasks that increased the contract to $17.4 million, the documents show.
The agency did so without considering offers from other firms, citing a rarely used “urgency” exception to normal open-bidding procedures usually meant for emergencies like war or natural disasters. By law, federal agencies are generally supposed to seek competing bids to find the vendor that provides the best deal."
Fuckers, the whole lot of them.
The shooter's manifesto makes it clear that Trump was the target and that exaggerated criticism of Trump motivated him. A brief excerpt
Delete"And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes...Administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest."
Here's the link
Deletehttps://nypost.com/2026/04/26/us-news/read-whcd-gunman-cole-allens-full-anti-trump-manifesto/
He is a rapist, and most likely a pedophile, DiC. Sorry if the truth is now considered anti-Trump.
DeleteBeing anti-Trump doesn't make someone a Democrat. Look at Hinckley, a right winger, who shot Reagan, a right wing president. Trump has a lot of former supporters made at him now.
DeleteThe news (Daily Post) is calling the shooter's manifesto "crazed". It doesn't really enumerate reasons given that everyone already understands how bad Trump is. It apologizes to all he came into contact with and mourns his loss of future, but says it is necessary to remove Trump and the officials who enable him, as if that were obvious. Here is evidence the gunman is not crazed:
"In order to minimize casualties I will also be using buckshot rather than slugs (less penetration through walls)"
He also lists those he was not intending to harm. There is nothing crazed about that. So what is gained by misportraying both the intentions and mental status of the shooter?
mad at him, not "made"
DeleteHere is an analysis of the security at the Correspondent's Dinner, by someone who knows what he is talking about, Garrett Graff:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/a-quick-analysis-of-last-night-s-shooting
He has two comments about things that surprised him:
1. The shots on audio were more numerous than have been accounted for in the interaction between the shooter and security staff, as reported in the press.
2. Instead of removing Trump from the venue entirely, Trump waited in his car for about an hour before leaving. Why?
To check on his polling.
DeleteHere is Robt Reich's take on the shooting, as a former government official who attended previous dinners (but not this one). He concludes:
ReplyDelete"There is a close relationship between Trump and violence — not just the attempts on his life but also the violence he’s unleashed on the world, the violence his ICE and Border Patrol agents have caused inside America, the violence he has incited among his followers. (A few of last night’s attendees were in Congress on January 6, 2021 when Trump’s thugs attacked the U.S. Capitol.)
Trump’s violence has resulted in thousands of deaths and injuries. That is no justification for last night’s attack, of course, but it is part of what he has wrought in America. He has changed the script in Washington.
It is no longer the hard slog I remember. The drama in Washington is now a chaotic tragedy, most of whose actors — those who make the news and those who report it — live in continuous uncertainty and turmoil."
I think Trump missed reading the part of the Bible where it says you reap what you sow:
"Galatians 6:7-9 (NIV) states: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Auric Goldfinger said to James Bond, "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action."
ReplyDeleteYesterday was the third attempt to assassinate Trump. Adding in the related assassinations of Charlie Kirk and Brian Thompson makes 5 in just a couple of years. This does indeed look like enemy action. Trump and his supporters are literally being hunted down.
As I see it, many liberals are not unhappy about the situation. Thompson's killer is a national hero to some. Hundreds of thousands of respectable people publicly endorsed Kirk's murder. Many people are not expressing horror at this attempted murder. Instead, they ignore the elephant in the room and discuss side issues like types of weapons or Secret Service techniques.
DiC, we live in a violent society, where unfettered access to high powered weapons is vociferously supported by your party. And your party engages in hate speech every day.
DeleteDo you honestly believe the shooters in the three incidents you cited were connected in some way? The likelihood is that they were mentally unstable. But you, like the rest of the right wing, want to portray these unconnected actions as part of some coordinated leftist assault, which serves as a convenient excuse for you to carry out totalitarian suppression of liberal voices. You shouldn’t go down that path.
I mean, I could point out that Kirk, as was pointed out to you recently, said that gun violence was an inevitable and ultimately acceptable consequence of having a maximum 2nd amendment right. Most liberals want to restrict that amendment, and fund mental health. Funny how republicans always block those things.
@12:13 asserts that my party "engages in hate speech every day." My impression is that the left engages in hate speech much more than the right, and much more than they used to.
DeleteThis should be a factual, objective matter. How much hate speech does each side engage it? So, why do @12:13 and I see the answer so differently?
I have two hypotheses
1. For many, the accusation that the right engages in hate speech is not intended as an evidence-based statement of fact. It's simply the current left wing narrative.
2. Many on the left do not appreciate that calling Trump evil, a murderer, a Nazi, etc. IS hate speech.
YOU called Obama evil, DiC, in a recent post. Trump and the gop call Democrats traitors, evil, communists, all the time. Vance called Trump Hitler. You don’t get to wriggle out of the argument by claiming your party doesn’t engage in this type of rhetoric. They do. And i didn’t say that Democrats/liberals never use this type of rhetoric.
DeleteYou did not address the principal point, which was that the attacks you cited were uncoordinated. You pretend that they were. And you want us to think that only leftist speech causes violent attacks. That is a precursor to suppression of speech, but you’d rather whine about who says what more.
You pretend the attacks were not uncoordinated, which I meant to say in my previous comment.
Delete@12:34 - Yes, I acknowledge that the right also uses provocative language. My contention is that the left does so a great deal more.
DeleteOf course, leftist speech has not been the only source of violence. Racist speech led to the assassination of MLK. But, right at the moment, leftist violence is the problem. Today's prominent assassination victims are leftist targets. And, all three were endorsed publicly by many leftists. OTOH We didn't see any assassination attempts aimed at Obama or Biden or Harris.
@12:38 - the attacks are not coordinated, in the sense that the same group planned them. But, IMO the current culture contributes to all these attacks.
“ the current culture contributes to all these attacks.”
DeleteAnd the current culture includes the rhetoric and the policies coming from your side, including gun fetishism.
David forgot to include the shooting of Gabby Gifford and those politicians in MN in his list. Republicans did those too. And why not include Hinckley's shooting, since it happened at the same hotel and was aimed at a Republican president?
Delete"No, John Hinckley Jr. was not a Democrat, nor was he motivated by Democratic politics. In 1978, he joined the National Socialist Party of America (a neo-Nazi group) and was linked to the far-right paramilitary group Posse Comitatus. His 1981 attempted assassination of Republican President Ronald Reagan was driven by mental illness and an obsession with actress Jodie Foster, not political ideology."
Republicans are more likely to shoot Republicans than Democrats are. That's because of the Republican relationship with guns and violence -- it is manly to be violent according to the right wing. That's why Hinckley thought shooting Reagan would increase his attractiveness to Jodie Foster.
It you take toxic masculinity out of the equation you are left with right wingers who are still angry but confine themselves to rolling coal at EVs. I hear that's no longer illegal.
“Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, was involved in multiple security incidents, including several assassination threats and plots, beginning when he became a presidential candidate in 2007. Secret Service protection for Obama began after he received a death threat in 2007, while serving as the junior United States senator from Illinois and running for president. This marked the earliest time a candidate received such protection before being nominated.”
DeleteOh ho hum, eh DiC? Grow up.
"Hundreds of thousands of respectable people publicly endorsed Kirk's murder."
DeleteThere are currently 348 million people in the USA. Only half (about 45%) identify as Democrats or left leaning. That's still a huge number compared to those you say endorsed Kirk's murder. And how do you know which ones were respectable? I would think that endorsing murder makes them not very respectable. But you want to generalize from them to all Democrats? That's pretty stupid, in my opinion.
Uh, 1:05, death threats are not the same as actual attempts. But, if you want to look at threats, Trump wins bigly
DeleteThere’s no single public count of every death threat received by Donald Trump; reports and officials say he’s received multiple threats per day at times, dozens to hundreds [per day] during certain periods
David, you’re just playing a stupid game, avoiding the larger issue. But anyway:
Delete“ According to reports and a book by Ronald Kessler, In the President's Secret Service, Barack Obama was the target of more than 30 potential death threats a day.”
Did they tell you that over at Fox?
According to Wikipedia, Obama received four times the number of death threats as previous presidential candidates. Threats against Obama increased recently after Trump called him a traitor.
DeleteThreats against Trump were the same as for G.W. Bush during his first term, and for Obama. Threats have remained high during his second term but have not increased.
Following security breaches and assassination attempts, there have been major criticisms of the effectiveness of Trump's Secret Service.
Trump claims he is not a basket case due to these various attempts, but he also wants to build an expensive bunker (masquerading as a ballroom) with hospital and bullet-proof glass and everything needed to let him ride out an attack. That exhibits fear and suggests he has plans to remain in the White House after his term ends, in which case he would need a military-proof bunker.
As long as Trump is willing to visit public gold courses frequently and attends fund-raisers all over the country, it is hard to see how he needs such a secure hideout adjacent to the White House. Is he planning to do something that might lead to a civil insurrection or foreign invasion? It does not appear these building projects are needed to avoid lone gunmen, nor does he avoid going to places where he is vulnerable to that kind of attack.
gold courses
Deletegolf courses
DeleteFuck you you Nazi piece of shit David. You cocksuckers embedded hate speech into every conversation about Democrats since Newt Gingrich introduced 100 words to use against Dems when talking about Dems since the mid nineties. Hate speech is your credo, it's in your DNA jaggoff.
DeleteTrump is the only President threatened like this. Or maybe not in this stupid fucking country.
Delete"Here’s a list of the presidents who have been the target of assassins and would-be assassins:
Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy, of course, were actually killed. Reagan, and Teddy Roosevelt were seriously wounded.
But assassinations were attempted or plotted against the following presidents:
Lincoln had several attempts against him before the one that succeeded as did Kennedy. Jackson, Taft, Hoover, FDR, Truman, Nixon and Ford all were targeted for assassination, most of them more than once. A would be assassin was stopped at the White House while Obama was away but the family was there."
By the way, we don’t yet know who was being targeted.
ReplyDeleteThere is a manifesto now stating who his targets were and were not. If someone is as reluctant to shoot those who don't deserve it as stated in his manifesto, it is no wonder he didn't get past the first checkpoint and no one was seriously injured. It seems likely that will be taken into consideration during his trial.
DeleteAlthough he did shoot someone who didn't deserve it. He shot a Secret Serviceman in the chest. Fortunately, his bullet proof vest saved him.
DeleteDavid, of course the secret service person was wearing a bullet proof vest. It is part of their standard equipment on the job. He could have been expected to be wearing one. The shooter deliberately used ammo in his shotgun that would do minimal, if any, damage to someone wearing such a vest. It is part of the evidence that he did not intend to hurt anyone. That makes this unlikely to have been a serious attempt to hurt anyone at the event, and thus not an assassination attempt.
DeleteVery soon after the shooting, the secret service person assured everyone that he was fine and feeling good. So, this was not a matter of "fortunately" but of planning on the shooter's part.
He seems to be trying to shame Congress into action by putting his own life on the line.
Delete" ... Many on the left do not appreciate that calling Trump evil, a murderer, a Nazi, etc. IS hate speech."
ReplyDeleteSo stating a fact is now hate speech to you MAGA pearl-clutching fanatics?
It is irresponsible for Somerby to imply/hint that the would-be shooter at the Correspondents Dinner might have been a Bolshevik.
ReplyDeletea lie
DeleteIt appears that the crazy California teacher who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump and members of his administration at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday might have donated to Kamala Harris‘s presidential campaign in 2024.
ReplyDeleteThe Federal Election Commission (FEC) individual contributor database shows that an individual identified as “ALLEN, COLE” who lived in Torrance, California, donated $25 through ActBlue in October 2024, “EARMARKED FOR HARRIS FOR PRESIDENT.” I confirmed the donation data on the FEC site. It is important to note that we do not have official confirmation this is the same Cole Thomas living in Torrance, California, who attempted to shoot up the dinner in Washington, D.C., April 25, but we can say that the contributor’s name and place of residence, not to mention his employment as a teacher, match up with the shooter’s name, place of residence, and job. The UK Telegraph also reported the donation as coming from the shooter.
https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2026/04/26/did-dc-dinner-shooter-donate-to-kamala-harris-n4952210
Go take a flying fuck, you fascist ghoul
DeleteSo what, DiC?
DeleteThat $25 no doubt came from that fucking Jewwy, Jew, Jew Soros.
DeleteHe was not a teacher in public or private school, but was a tutor and test-prep instructor.
DeleteYour point being what? Explain yourself after you pull up the your posts about each and every participant in January 6 and who they donated to.
DeleteThe point seems to be that if we'd elected Harris, the shooting last night would never have happened.
DeleteMy point was to provide some factual background for the shooter. I find it upsetting that the shooter appeared to be a normal person, not an obvious nut
DeleteThere is a question about the shooter's current occupation compared to his educational background. He does not seem to have been able to get a job in his field. The letter he wrote is sane, as is his concern for not hurting innocent people, but the religiosity and odd lack of ideology makes me think he was perhaps depressed and seeking to end his life, or perhaps he just needed the money and someone paid him to do this "video game" style act, perhaps with assurances of a pardon down the line.
DeleteWell at least there is no question about David in Cal; he is obviously a fucking nut job and nasty azshole.
Delete“ the shooter appeared to be a normal person,”
DeleteWhat normal person attempts such a thing?
He explains himself coherently in his manifesto. Read it. There are now a collection of young men who want to shoot at Trump. Digby describes the one from last February:
Deletehttps://digbysblog.net/2026/04/26/it-all-depends-on-where-and-who/
Another young man from a Trump-supporting conservative family. He was upset about Trump's pedophile history described in the Epstein files and the cover up by those he had trusted. True believers do not take disillusionment well. All and all the way out when the truth is revealed. Young people can be idealistic compared to those of us who are more cynical about the world and less likely to go on a shooting spree after finding out the truth about this obvious grifters, conmen and evil doers.
I know I prefer to believe that there is not such evil in the world, but this kid's family lied to him and what is left after all that you believe in is shown to be lies? And they shot him when he was nowhere near being able to hurt Trump or anyone else, on a golf course with a shotgun.
I consider these young men to be Trump's victims. I pity them, not the monster(s) they are aiming at.
DeleteThere's no pedophilic behavior by Trump described in the Epstein files. There's no pedophilic behavior by anyone described it in them. ("Pedophilia' meaning prepubescent.)
DeleteWow. The attempted shooter did mention pedophilia in his manifesto, which speaks to the poor reporting and subsequent mass hysteria around Epstein - who was never accused of or engaged in pedophilia. (And who was never formally accused or found guilty of trafficking minors to anyone but himself. ) The attempted shooter seems to be a Christian zealot who unfortunately was exposed to the insane, irresponsible reporting about Epstein and Trump and non-existent "pedophilia". History will not look very kindly on this particular episode.
DeleteTrump is accused of raping a 13 year old. His DOJ is refusing to investigate or release sworn victim statements and FBI files. You don’t get to suppress evidence and then claim Trump is innocent. He has already been adjudicated a rapist and confessed to assaulting women (grabbing by the pussy). The same applies to Epstein and his clients. These men are guilty but Trump hides the evidence to protect them. He also pardons convicted sex abusers and criminals. You don’t have to be Christian to find this unacceptable.
DeletePedophile does not mean prepubescent. This is a hair pedophiles love to split. These 12-13 and below age of consent girls are children, legally, physically and psychologically. Take your child rape excuses somewhere else.
DeleteThere are reports that Ivanka was involved in teen modeling scams that were part of grooming young girls for sex trafficking. Trump openly lusted after his daughter. Trump is scum.
DeleteThese creepy trolls show up later at night here because it is the start of shift in Russia and Eastern Europe.
DeleteIt’s a good thing Somerby urges us to pity Trump, else DiC might think his constant harping on Trump’s sociopathy might have contributed to yesterday’s shooter.
ReplyDeleteDavid, it’s not a competition as to who gets more death threats. In this country, every politician faces death threats, including local officials. That’s the shithole country we are. Would you modify your stance if Democrats got more?
ReplyDeleteWhat will the GOP’s overreaction be this time? Outlawing liberals?
ReplyDeleteFaggot had he-him in his bio.
ReplyDeleteGlad he ruined his life and helped Republicans in the process.
Sorry at this point, there is no helping Republicans. The brand is dead. Trump kills everything he touches.
DeletePeople shooting at Trump doesn't help him this year, as it did in 2024. The people who were ouraged before the election now sympathize with those who want him gone. He will be perceived as having provoked that shooter, especially after telling everyone he was going to torpedo the dinner and then leave before the awards and entertainment.
DeleteI blame Congress. We wouldn't have these do-it-yourself assassins if our Congress members would do their job and impeach, convict and remove Trump. Any citizen can see that Trump is a criminal and needs to be removed from the presidency. The frustration is not only about Trump but also about our elected representatives and about the many corrupt individuals serving in Trump's administration, grifting off the public and enriching themselves and their families. That is what the shooter's manifesto says too. He was planning to shoot Trump officials, from the top down. That's why this shooting is going to gain Trump no advantages. He is not a victim but a perpetrator of abuses of office and against the American people. He needs to go.
ReplyDeleteHe's not going anywhere. Years left in his term and he's in excellent health.
Delete".and he's in excellent health." Tell that to his cankles.
DeleteTrump is so afraid of being impeached that he is building a bunker, with a hospital (because he is in such good health).
DeleteTrump wants a bulletproof drinking room for his buddies and cabinet because Republicans are driven by fear, while required to posture as fearless macho men. I hope Trump is very afraid all the time that his abuse of women and girls in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring will be revealed soon. He should suffer for his crimes.
DeleteTrump Has the Answer to Our Problems
ReplyDeleteTrump took to social media Sunday morning to insist that the shooting “would never have happened” at the new White House ballroom he’s constructing in place of the demolished East Wing, adding, “It cannot be built fast enough!”
This makes it sound like Trump is planning to rent the facility out to local organizations (weddings, bar mitzvahs, golden anniversaries, debutante balls). Will he never stop grifting? Is the president planning to become a hermit once the ballroom is built, attending no events unless they are held in his ballroom? I wouldn't be surprised.
DeleteTrump pointed out that the Ballroom will be safer in at least two ways.
Delete1. The shooter would not have been able to enter. He COULD enter the Hotel because he had a room there.
2. Bulletproof glass will protect the speakers.
Go fuck yourself, dickhead, you fascist ghoul
Delete1. The shooter was unable to enter in the Hilton either. He was stopped at the checkpoint.
Delete2. If the shooter is unable to enter, you don't need glass to protect the speakers.
Presence of the president at a public event should not be so disruptive that the entire Hilton hotel must be shut down simply because Trump uses one of the ballrooms to give a speech. This particular shooter got nowhere near the president, who was on a different floor and was evacuated within seconds once the threat was identified (at a checkpoint for that purpose).
People are saying this shooting was staged because Trump and Republicans are trying so desperately to use it to justify building the ballroom, now stalled by a court which has rightly pointed out that Trump has not followed procedures for modifying the people's White House (and other historic buildings that belong to the people, not the president).
King Chickenshit says “fuck proper procedures”
DeleteFor once I agree with David, by the time the ballroom is built Trump will be out of office or dead, so the nutzos won't be shooting at the nasty ass piece of shit.
DeleteThe ballroom construction is not stalled. It was briefly by a corrupt Democrat but DC Court of Appeals stayed. The ballroom will be built under budget and ahead of schedule. Democrats wanted something along the lines of the Obama library but everyone in the room vomited when they saw the plans.
DeleteWell thank god the gold ballroom is back on track, fuckface. What we ever do without a golden ballroom
Delete4:19: “Construction of the proposed 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom is currently in a state of partial suspension due to ongoing legal disputes. While an appellate court has allowed some work to continue, aboveground construction remains largely restricted.”
DeleteGet your facts straight.
"Everyone in the room vomited." Glad to hear that. Hope they all emptied their guts all over each others rotten faces. Creeps and weirdos, the whole lot of them.
DeleteTrump and his people are incompetent:
ReplyDelete"President Donald Trump's administration has been criticized for a mistake made over King Charles III's visit to the United States.
Black lampposts outside of the White House were adorned with flags representing Australia, not the United Kingdom.
Political analysts were left astonished by the mix-up, which Trump's admin apologized for at the time. "
‘Ashley St. Clair: “All of MAGA is paid and they coordinate their messaging in lockstep via groupchats. All of these people came to the conclusion that after what they saw at the WHCD, their first thought was ‘Trump needs his ballroom.’ One of the main groupchats in which they coordinate this messaging is literally called ‘Fight, Fight, Fight!’ after the ‘attempt’ on Trump’s life in Butler”’
ReplyDelete“U.S. FARM BANKRUPTCIES SPIKE 46% IN 2025, MIDWEST CASES SURGE 70%”
ReplyDeleteYes, it’s definitely the hand of God protecting Trump.
The majority of these can be assumed to be multimillionaires based upon their ownership of land and hard assets, and of course the majority of these voted for Trump. FAFO.
DeleteSpeaking of that Trump job performance:
ReplyDeleteUS food & beverage inflation surging +7.9% YoY in March
• Tomatoes: +102%
• Vegetables: +90%
• Diesel: +88%
👍
MAGA cultists like DiC would rather go after the SPLC, who pays informants to infiltrate the racist, antisemitic KKK, and then reports their findings to the FBI, than to go after the actual racist antisemitic hate group. You can’t make this stuff up.
ReplyDeleteHere is Rude Pundit's take on the shooting. I agree with 99% of it:
ReplyDeletehttps://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2026/04/random-observations-on-another-weird.html
Rude Pundit is the anti-Somerby. Pundit says exactly what he thinks, clearly and with repetition or weird quotes from conservative poets. No hinting and no guessing and no pity. Pundit is a breath of fresh air while Somerby approximates a fever swamp in his literary wanderings. And no, I don't think that is what "musing" means.
DeleteHere is Item 5 on Rude Pundit's list:
Delete"As Will Bunch wrote, this is our country now. We are so numb to gun violence that we roll our eyes at someone even getting somewhat close to being able to make an assassination attempt. We are numb to the constant barrage of hatefulness. We are so bereft of anything approaching a unifying leader that the media is willing to treat Trump with kid gloves if he pretends for a few minutes to not be an inflamed asshole. In the two days prior to last night's events, Trump made racist attacks on Hakeem Jeffries and Candace Owen, reposted calls for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to be arrested, celebrated committing more war crimes, and that's just to start. We don't have to pretend that a motherfucker isn't a motherfucker just because someone wanted to kill him. "
Amen to that.
Heather Cox Richardson explains the purpose of the WHCD and Trump’s adversarial disregard for the press, abrogating the rights of a free press, including scheduling of their own dinner:
ReplyDelete“While at first the reporters simply wanted access to the president, as the WHCA became an established force it came to work for transparency more generally, recognizing that journalists are the main eyes and voice of the people. It protected press passes for journalists who regularly covered the White House, and assigned seats in the briefing room.
But all that changed in February 2025, after Trump took office for the second time. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the administration would no longer recognize the role of the WHCA in managing the White House press pool. Instead, she said the “White House press team” would control access to the White House. At the time, then–WHCA president Eugene Daniels said the change “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States” and “suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president.”
“In a free country,” Daniels said, “leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”
Trump repeated tonight that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner will be rescheduled.”
Actually Trump is unusually open to the press. But, people like Richardson don't actually care about his openness to the press. The point of being open to the press is that the press is able to report what the President says. If Richardson cared about openness to the press, she'd watch all his pressers to learn what he had to say.
ReplyDeleteBTW the WHPA doesn't have a problem attending Trump's pressers. He invites them. The WHPA problem is that they have lost the power to exclude non-members from the pressers. They're an in-group that wants to maintain its status as an in-group.
What a fucking dumbass DiC.
DeleteTrump will take any opportunity to self-glaze, sparring with the press in any venue available for him to spew his bullshit, and when called out on his lies and misstatements becomes as belligerent as a toddler deprived of a favorite toy. This, of course, includes name calling and openly misogynistic behaviors. The MAGA dead enders like DiC consider these interactions evidence of transparency whereas they are in fact opportunities for Trump to preen and denigrate anyone who questions his bullshit.
DeleteFanny Love-Butts was here.
ReplyDeleteReagan said that cutting taxes would decrease deficits. GOP has been into fantasy for a long time.
ReplyDeleteAfter the 2008 recession
Delete, one of the original architects of Reaganomics, Bruce Bartlett, stated that upon review of the empiric evidence since its implementation it was time to call that approach a failure. The Republicans of course did not get the memo or ignored it, continuing the policy most responsible for the ballooning national debt.