Trump Invites Reporters to Start Demanding His Medical Records
More media outlets are beginning to report on the FBI’s uncertainty regarding whether a bullet or shrapnel wounded Donald Trump’s ear.
NBC quotes the FBI describing that their Shooting Reconstruction Team continues to investigate (though most of that story has turned into Republican flopsweat).
In a statement Thursday, the FBI said, “Since the day of the attack, the FBI has been consistent and clear that the shooting was an attempted assassination of former President Trump which resulted in his injury, as well as the death of a heroic father and the injuries of several other victims.”
“The FBI’s Shooting Reconstruction Team continues to examine evidence from the scene, including bullet fragments, and the investigation remains ongoing,” the statement added.
The NYT describes that the FBI seems to be focused on whether metal fragments, not glass from the teleprompters, hit Trump.
In a social media post Thursday night, Mr. Trump lashed out at Mr. Wray, saying: “No wonder the once storied F.B.I. has lost the confidence of America!”
Mr. Trump said there was no glass and no shrapnel. “No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard.”
The F.B.I. said in a statement that the bureau “has been consistent and clear that the shooting was an attempted assassination of former President Trump, which resulted in his injury, as well as the death of a heroic father and the injuries of several other victims.”
It is not unusual for the type of bullet that Mr. Crooks fired from his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle to tumble end over end and break apart after hitting even a small solid object. Gun experts say a fragment might, for instance, have hit a metal stanchion.
Still, a bullet could have grazed Mr. Trump’s ear, and the F.B.I. has not ruled that out. Investigators found eight rifle casings on the roof where the shooter was positioned.
It is not clear if investigators have eliminated other potential sources of debris. But bureau analysts appear to be focused on metal fragments, as opposed to glass from the teleprompters onstage. Photos of the teleprompters next to Mr. Trump show they were intact after the bullets were fired.
Much higher in the story, though, NYT reveals something funny: after not subpoenaing Trump in the Mueller inquiry, blowing off Trump’s efforts to extort campaign help from Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after needing a search of his home to retrieve some subset of the classified documents Trump stole, the FBI has finally asked Donald Trump for an interview.
The bureau has asked to interview Mr. Trump as part of its broader investigation, hoping to provide insights into the shooting and possibly a more complete record of his injury, the official said,
This is going to be like the Feds getting Al Capone on taxes, isn’t it?
As noted by NYT, in response to all the attention, Trump has posted on the social media site he has propped up by influence laundering, insisting he was hit by a bullet (though mentioning only glass as an alternative), and then making a claim about his hospital diagnosis.
If Trump is going to make claims about what the hospital report says, then by all means he can ask them to release his records, including the CT scan results, and give a press conference.
Perhaps now — almost two weeks after the attack — journalists will start asking him for those records?
Update: Just above the story quoting an FBI source about the possibility that metal shards injured Trump, NYT posts a visual investigations piece suggesting those (like the FBI) still considering explanations other than the bullet are speculating.
The only reason people have revisited this is because of Wray’s testimony.
Today’s visual analysis does not factor in Michael Harrigan’s comment, made about the Doug Mills photo showing something flying by Trump. Harrigan suggested the angle of the bullet was too low to hit Trump’s ear.
That is the assessment of Michael Harrigan, a retired F.B.I. special agent who spent 22 years in the bureau.
“It absolutely could be showing the displacement of air due to a projectile,” Mr. Harrigan said in an interview on Saturday night after reviewing the high-resolution images that Mr. Mills filed from the rally. “The angle seems a bit low to have passed through his ear, but not impossible if the gunman fired multiple rounds.”
[snip]
In Mr. Harrigan’s last assignment, he led the bureau’s firearms training unit and currently works as a consultant in the firearms industry.
“Given the circumstances, if that’s not showing the bullet’s path through the air, I don’t know what else it would be,” he said.
Update: Trump’s Candy Man Ronny Jackson has rolled out another propaganda report.
Note that he says Trump was “evaluated and treated for a “Gunshot Wound to the Right Ear.”
But he doesn’t say that they concluded it was a gunshot wound.
Nor does he add to the description of Trump’s treatment from his last propaganda vehicle. It’s time for a practicing physician to tell us what happened with Trump’s injury.
I wonder if Savage Librarian or anyone else wants to craft lyrics about Jackson’s propaganda set to the Candy Man.
Update: The FBI has released a statement clarifying that if Trump was hit by shrapnel, it was shrapnel from the bullet.
What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle.
Other coverage
As I’ve noted repeatedly in my posts on this, I’m pushing this issue largely for normative reasons. It is inexcusable that Trump’s failure to share his medical records has been largely ignored, even as the same press scrum was chasing conspiracy theories that Biden was hiding a Parkinson’s diagnosis. Here are my past posts on this.
Ronny Jackson Memory Holes His Nephew’s Injury
Since Leaving Butler, Trump Has Foregone the Best Medical Care and Is Withholding CT Scan Results
Will Alex Jones Accuse Donald Trump of Being a Crisis Actor?
Thanks, and keep pushing. Adding: “normative reasons” are precisely the necessary and sufficient reasons to keep pushing. Basically, to steal from football coach Bill Belichick, “do your job”.
“Your” in this case refers to reporters and editors. What have you and your predecessors done in similar situations (i.e., attempted or successful assassination of a presidential candidate/president)? Do that, here, now. Demand the official medical report. Talk to the doctors. Find sources in the FBI, Secret Service, PA State Police, Trump campaign. If you get stonewalled, make the coverup the story.
The late, great Molly Ivins used to tell the story of her first editor at the Houston Chronicle (iirc) losing patience with her desire to tell “the whole truth” about (the Vietnam War, COINTELPRO, corruption in Texas politics, etc.). He finally exploded at her (paraphrasing), “We *can’t* tell the whole truth today. We’re a daily newspaper. First, the whole truth wouldn’t fit. Second, we have to put out a paper tomorrow and the day after and the day after that. Your job, Ivins, is to go out there and get a piece of the truth and write about it before deadline so we can publish that tomorrow. And then keep coming back every day with a little more truth that we can publish without getting sued into oblivion. Even then, it won’t be “the whole truth”, but it’ll be pretty good, and it’s the best we can do.”
Pioneer independent reporter George Seldes ends his memoirs with a conversation he once had with William Allen White, editor of the Emporia Gazette of Kansas:
“As his final word, Mr White said: ‘The facts, fairly and honestly presented,’ and I added, more in the nature of a question than a statement, the words: ‘and truth will take care of itself?’
“White leaped at these words. ‘That’s it,’ he said, ‘that is our formula: “The facts fairly and honestly presented; truth will take care of itself.”‘
“I have thought of these words for more than forty years. I know of no better rule for all newspapers of the world.”
More at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/11/19/663606/-
Man, I miss Molly Ivins; she was a fun read.
For a guy who loves to show off and pushes victimhood for sympathy whenever he can, I find it highly conspicuous that he didn’t personally release pictures of his ear.
It’s not like him to ignore the opportunity to make more money. Unless of course it only looks worse with a maxi pad on his ear, not the actual wound.
Clearly his medical records look better when they can’t be seen.
When I saw the first pic from Milwaukee I found great comfort that none of his grift was bright enough to bring Shilling in for the RNC. Simply touch up the nappy and chant ‘reverse the curse’. Losers.
No bloody sock? It never happened. /s
He won’t give up his bullet. I can highlight the pill mill Doc while mocking the marketing man himself.
Mr. Coverup covering up again.
“We’ve all seen the video, we’ve seen the analysis, we’ve heard it from multiple sources in different angles that a bullet went through his ear. I’m not sure it matters that much,” Johnson told NBC Thursday, adding that Wray “was not forthcoming with some of the information that we would expect.”
Mike Johnson
Doesn’t matter much?
Things that make one go Hmmm… :-)
I know, right? That caught my attention too, and I note that the quote above has some built-in wiggle room, too.
Indeed, the “what’s the difference?” is interesting. As in ‘the FBI should just drop the investigative bits we’d rather not have’. It does not and should not work like that.
Of course the media is slow on the pick up with regards to Trump’s medical record of this incident. Quite the opposite when it comes to Biden.
Republicans, media, what are they afraid of?
If it’s a bullet, and if it’s not. :-)
Who appointed that dastardly Wray to head the FBI?
Doesn’t matter who appointed him then. What matters is what lessons a would-be autocratic has learned, right up to today, to take forward.
Children push boundaries, it’s how they learn.
What the USA has, is boys in Trump and Vance, not men. These boys are pushing boundaries, adolescents that need to be reigned in.
Harris, a fully actualized adult, needs to point this out.
These boys in adult armor are not men.
At this rate, Trump will have to hire Bill Barr as his personal attorney to try and hush up alternatives to his single bullet theory.
I’m still working on writing up the Roger Stone IG Report and then working on the Luzerne one, which also showed Bill Barr did things no other AG would have done.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24999405-240725-luzerne-ig
But I’m wondering if we’ll get another one today. There is still at least one more IG Report reflecting on Barr’s actions.
The problem is that Peter Baker’s job is to sell advertising space, not to tell the truth. The appeal needs to be made to Bergdorf-Goodman and Fortunoff’s, not to journalists themselves. One must convince the advertising firms it is good for business. (Get Fortunoff to sell a line of ear shrapnel jewelry, perhaps. I kid.)
While I understand your point, Baker self identifies as “Chief White House Correspondent for The New York Times”, i.e., a journalist.
Journalists are bound by the SPJ Code of Ethics. Like the Code of Ethics for SCOTUS, however, there is no enforcement mechanism (at this time), other than public ridicule.
The lack of any enforcement mechanism, and the rewards for violating the standards, somewhat shreds the binding character of the standards.
Not unlike the Supreme Cult. As noted.
I have not seen any reporting about whether it is even possible for a teevee camera to pick up a 5.52 bullet crossing its lens. Does anyone know of any?
I am skeptical that it is possible.
NYT photographer, Doug Mills, seems to have.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/14/us/politics/photo-path-trump-assassination.html
It is more likely he was not using a TV camera but a Sony digital SLR. Sony reports his usual camera is an A9 which has shutter speed up to 1/32000 of a second. Convenient that AR 15 round at about 32000 ft per second means if the camera was operating at it’s fastest shutter speed the bullet would travel about 1 ft while the camera recorded the image. The bullet would travel somewhat farther at a slower shutter setting. Completely consistent with the photo.
Sony source:https://www.reddit.com/r/SonyAlpha/comments/1e3kmaf/photo_showing_apparent_bullet_that_hit_trump_sony/
Depending on the manufacturer, propellant and weight of the bullet, a .223 fired from an AR-15 would be traveling at about 2700’/sec. at 150 yds., if that has any impact on your calculation.
There are a lot more photographic variables than may be apparent — which is why I’m happy to wait for the FBI to put it all together and let us know about that photo.
Thus…The Sony a9 and a9II have mechanical (up to 1/8,000 sec., 5 or 10 fps) and electronic (up to 1/32,000 sec., 20 fps) shutters. The a9III has the global electronic shutter (up to 1/80,000 sec., 120 fps) This is important because mechanical and electronic shutters get the image to the sensor differently. In this situation, I would not expect needing to shoot faster than the mechanical shutter’s top speed if using the a9 or a9II. Where in the whole frame was that streak? What was the angular difference between the bullet/streak’s path and the optical path between the camera’s sensor and the location of the streak.
There is a lot of data captured with the image and I would expect that data has been provided to the FBI. In addition to the camera data above, it could include the model of the lens, focus distance, type of focus method, the focal length and aperture of the lens.
When you are on assignment and are sending photos back from the scene almost as they happen, the more frames you have to look at, the longer it takes to decide what to send. “Machine-gunning” frames has a cost — I (re)learned this shooting professional and international women’s soccer. I may have had the camera’s in “continuous” shooting mode, but I generally squeezed off singles based on composition and the run of play.
Patience.
Phantom v2512 used for assault rifle bullets.
Not the average TV camera, but ultra-high-speed camera.
This is not possible unless the camera was capable of such a high speed capture and set to that shutter speed which makes no sense for coverage of this event. It would be an enormous waste of media space and batteries, unless one was trying to capture a bullet traveling at 1/32000 of a second. Not a conspiracy just a fact. Can any DPs weigh in?
I photograph birds of prey. I use as fast of a shutter speed as possible and often hold the shutter release down to take pics as fast as possible. The difference between one picture and the next can be a lousy, uninteresting picture or something of value.
Another aspect of the photo which is not mentioned is that the image of the projectile, or it’s trail, is fairly well in focus. It would not be at all visible if it were not. With high shutter speeds exposure must be compensated for with wide apertures which greatly decreases depth of field, meaning the focus must be fairly accurate and the projectile was near the same distance from the camera as TFG’s head
The frame rate for 4k video is either 24 or 48 FPS:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4K_resolution
The piece I don’t have is the muzzle velocity of the bullet. Anyone?
Metadata on the image will contain all relevant info (like fps) to place the object’s speed in space.
I don’t have that data.
Harry, you’re referring to a 5.56mm NATO round, not a 5.52. It’s nearly identical to the cheaper, more popular and common, and less powerful .223 caliber, which is what the shooter here seems to have used.
Unlike a bolt-action hunting rifle or semi-automatic pistol, an AR-15 can fire hundreds of rounds in ten minutes, so cost is relevant to most civilian shooters. Apart from price, the 5.56 produces higher pressures, which requires a higher quality receiver and barrel to withstand them, so, a more expensive rifle.
Rest assured, any invitation from Trump is his effort to sell the invitee something Trump needs to sell or believes he needs to sell, be it BS, lousy steaks, a Trump University degree, or his running for president to save the country from communism and Marxism.
The only way the FBI should interview Trump is interviewing Trump by himself—no attorneys present, no one else present to speak for him, give him advice or act as an ornament or prop for him.
Base Plants
Trump’s father in his underpants
came down to dinner in a trance
Donald’s like him with his rants
and how he treats his sycophants
Now he’s sick of JD Vance
He fell for wiles or song and dance
Picked the wrong circumstance
Haley seeks a second glance
We, the people, look askance
We’d rather think of Paris, France
We’re tired of hate, we want romance
With Trump we only get base plants
I’m betting Trump has been speaking to Haley about her replacing Vance as VP and she has accepted Trump’s offer.
Look for Trump to announce Haley replacing Vance immediately after the Harris VP selection is announced.
And Harris has been interviewing candidates who have a wealth of skills, intelligence, and talents. I’m hoping that those who don’t become VP do find a place in the Cabinet, or elsewhere. But I’m still holding out for a Harris-Whitmer ticket. I hear we’ll find out by 8/7/24.
Given who we’ve heard Harris’s shortlist is, I imagine most of those who don’t become VP will stay right where they are, as it was one senator and a whole lot of governors.
Point taken, SotekPrime.
Shortly after Kamala became the presumptive candidate redditors on r/minnesota posted a photo of her and Tim Walz and the title “Is she gonna steal our man?”
I grew up in MN and live close enough to the border that my public radio station is Minnesota Public Radio. Every so often I’ll catch a Tim Walz press conference and am always impressed. But they want to keep him, thank you very much.
i’ve been telling friends for months that I thought that Trump would pick Haley as his running mate in order To bring in the Haley voters. On the other hand, Trump has always said he didn’t want them. But we shall see. Trump does not admit his mistakes so he may not jettison Vance out of pride.
If Trump wants to do it, he might find a way to convince Vance it was Vance’s idea to drop out. So, no embarrassment for Trump.
IF he jettisons JD Wentworth (sic), then the Tech Bros/Peter Thiel money goes with it. Moreover, Vance is the choice of the Heritage Foundation since he wrote the forward to their leader’s book. Chaos will ensue if he’s replaced. Also, all the white supremacist types and racists will not be enamored with Nimrata replacing him. It would force the malignant narcissist to admit a mistake. He’s never admitted a single mistake and he’s not going to start.
Does anyone besides me remember back when a favored decoration at the RNC was a band-aid with a purple heart on it?
I don’t get why it makes much difference if TFG was hit by a bullet or a fragment of such or a piece of glass or whatever. The danger was the same.
My guess is that they are desperate to claim “heroism” in some sense, and are aware that at the time they were mocking purple hearts the Kerry actually had three of them and actual shrapnel in his body. So this is an issue. In their minds, at least.
There is simply no level of pathetic to which these people will not descend.
Re: the “difference if TFG was hit by a bullet or a fragment,” Marcy noted elsewhere that a bullet passing that close could cause concussive injury to Trump’s brain, whereas a fragment wouldn’t. She also argues that it’s a matter of transparency and norms — that the media should demand as much medical info from Trump as they got from Biden / chased about Biden.
Absolutely. It’s no more than demanding that they do their job properly. There’s now just one old guy running, one with signs of incipient dementia, yet from virtually all the media there is nothing but deafening silence. Quite a contrast from their hounding of Biden, who has always had to tussle with a speech impediment, even when in his prime.
Further, the media has not only failed to demand more information from Trump, but it also hasn’t engaged in conspiracy theories a la Peter Baker and Parkinson’s. You’d think Trump’s lack of transparency would trigger this kind of reporting but it hasn’t.
To my mind and my experience there are only two things which prevent adequate journalistic effort: news management choice which may be shaped by bias, and/or threats by the candidate and campaign.
And future financial/job opportunities, too.
Threats, tho.
Reply to bgThenNow
July 26, 2024 9:35 pm
Yes, threats. I was a managing editor during the 2008 election cycle; one of my team was assigned to cover John McCain. They met him and campaign staff; they asked about his health at the end of their interview. The interview ended abruptly and the campaign team swarmed the journalist demanding to know whether they were going to write about his health, what they were going to say, and threatened to ensure they had no access to any GOP candidate including McCain. They tried to contact all management personnel to ensure nothing was written without their permission.
After much discussion we opted not to run anything on his health because it would have been too speculative and not worth the possible access loss to the rest of the team covering the GOP field. But it was an educational experience — and we know Team Trump has and will threaten worse than what McCain’s team threatened.
But at some point the big media outlets can and should cover Trump’s health because they can afford it, unlike a tiny nonprofit news outlet operating on a shoe string. Trump needs them far more than he’d like to admit because they’ve given him non-stop free campaigning published as if it’s news.
Let me point out, too, that if Biden had done to any journalist what Team McCain did to my journalist, you would have read about it on the front page of every news outlet. Biden handled his health disclosures the same way he handled the discovery of classified documents in his records — openly and cooperatively.
Trump dodged the draft in the Vietnam War by having his personal medical doctor declare in writing he suffered from a bone spur.
Now Trump desperately covets a wound military medal—a Purple Heart—to soothe his ego and also help his campaign over the next three plus months.
Trump is such a psycho I think he equates his experience in Butler, PA to being in combat in Vietnam.
Therefore, he wants a Purple Heart; in fact, I’m betting he thinks he actually deserves the MOH, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEgEmTgAEUk
Fantastic song!
Just in –
Trump drops Vance seeking to replace him with Evander Hollifield.
Haven’t forgotten the 2012’s teabaggers hanging onto their tea since Kochs rolled out that attack during the ACA debates.
Morons clinging to their symbols as affirmation of dogmatic faith in authoritarianism.
source: https://www.glamour.com/story/the-wildest-styles-spotted-on
A fragment of glass or shrapnel doesn’t sell like a bullet does. And, no, the danger isn’t the same. A bullet would should have done a lot more damage to the ear than what we’ve seen.
And Trump can hardly backpedal now and admit it wasn’t a bullet. He’s never wrong, remember/
Trmp can’t release the medical report because his ear is still under IRS audit.
I’m so glad we can still laugh.
I mentioned it on Fakebook as soon as people started with wearing the Maxi Pads.
Since we seem in so many respects these days to be repeating the 1930’s, my first reaction on hearing the news about the shooting was that now we may have our very own Marinus van der Lubbe. But it quickly became apparent that this was just another ‘normal’ mass shooting. (Normal, that is, only for America.) But the FBI does seem to remain interested. Pure speculation on my part, but they would be, would they not, if their interviews with the alleged shooter gave them some reason to suspect he was part of a setup…?
FBI couldn’t interview the alleged shooter because he’s dead.
This site doesn’t do CT.
Oh, embarrass! But thanks, a not-so-small detail that somehow passed me by until now. But sadly, I’m not too surprised, since that’s often the way of it. So if there are any grounds for continued suspicion, they’re from a wider scope.
“pure speculation” is of absolutely zero value. Maybe it was aliens from outer space.
The FBI still has a duty to investigate the details of the shooting, even with the shooter dead.
Recycling a comment from the other thread— there is no blood on his hand at that moment EW has grabbed for us above. I bet you he either caught the podium on the way down or got inadvertently kicked or clonked in the scrum on the ground. He’s got to be on some sort of blood thinning meds given his age, diet, habitual amount of exercise, etc. which could absolutely explain the paltry (for a gunshot wound) amount of blood.
I’ll defer to the gun pedants on the details but there is no way he was “hit hard” by a bullet in the head. Full stop.
That was BEFORE he put his hand up.
In the video, I don’t see any blood on his hand when he lowers it either: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pop-pop-pop-then-bloodied-trump-rushed-election-rally-2024-07-14/
Correction: this NYT article has a photo showing a small amount of blood on his hand as he’s lowering it: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/26/us/politics/trump-shooter-bullet-trajectory-ear.html
Marcy refers to this article above.
Having spent 39yrs of my working life in and around operating rooms; my observation is that superficial wounds in tissue with only capillary perfusion tend to take a second or two to show appreciable bleeding. If trump’s ear has normal anatomy, I doubt the projectile, whatever it is, would hit a larger vein or artery based on the assumption that the grazing wound was on the top of his ear. Not seeing any blood in the second or two while trump remained standing behind the podium would be consistent with my experience.
Without in any way seeking to dispute what you have to say about the onset of blood flow from an injury to the ear, I wonder whether you are able to comment on the extent of damage to the structure of the ear by a bullet graze or through shot, taking into account the cavitation effect.
I have seen an experiment set up by some gung ho Trump gun bros, who set out to disprove some internet myths about the incident. But even they are surprised by the cavitation effects on the structure of the ear.
https://youtu.be/FsvJzfXZI18 the experiment using a ballistic dummy head and a ballistic speed camera is from 05:18 —09:44
Of course I would perfectly understand if you didn’t wish to comment.
But it occurs to me that the photos showing damage to Trump’s ear are wholly inconsistent with a through shot, and even a graze by a high speed bullet has cavitation effects which may not be consistent with the injury.
Thanks either way.
Interesting video, thanks. I notice the ballistic bubbas neatly avoided discussing the rippling of the gelatin as the bullet hit the ear.
Trump should likely have had quite a bit of shock-borne swelling and bruising along with that graze to the ear, not to mention what the shock might have done to his brain.
Trump’s ear wound appears superficial, with damage to the skin, but not much to the underlying cartilage. The bigger concern from a bullet traveling at twice the speed of sound would be the possibility of concussive damage to his hearing or brain.
Ronny Jackson categorically dismissed the possibility of such damage, which I take to be confirmation that the wound was not caused by a supersonic bullet, but by shrapnel dislodged by a bullet, which would travel more slowly and create little to no concussive damage.
But we shouldn’t be guessing. Whether Trump is a candidate or president, the public should know what’s what. And, yet, this is as transparent as Trump will ever be.
I can’t comment one way or the other about how the cavitation/shockwave would affect the wound, not being a forensic pathologist, or even a physician.
Rayne
July 26, 2024 at 12:41 pm
And EoH at 1:03
Indeed the percussion effect of the through shot was quite remarkable, though not remarked upon
What the experiment didn’t cover was injury by near miss, where there is no contact by the bullet with the ear, but the cavitation effect crossed the surface.
They also didn’t in any way seek to replicate anything approaching the angle of fire, though they purported to draw conclusions about how Trump’s head position, and his head turn mad a difference.
The videos of the event show Trumps head was turned over his right shoulder for some time (many rather than a few seconds) before the shot
SteveBev
July 26, 2024 at 12:20 pm
“ But it occurs to me that the photos showing damage to Trump’s ear are wholly inconsistent with a through shot, and even a graze by a high speed bullet has cavitation effects which may not be consistent with the injury.”
Couple of problems with their reenactment. First is ballistic gel is not the same as living (or dead) tissue. They would have gotten a closer approximation if they had used a pig’s ear. Second is the cavitation in the air is a combination of the disruption of air molecules light refraction in combination with particles of the ballistic gel. Which gives an idea of some of the kinetic energy involved but not all.
Shadowalker
July 27, 2024 at 5:16 pm
Interesting observations.
Which reinforces the general points
1 experimental forensic science requires multi-disciplinary input into experiment/research design and methodology.
2 Expertise in one aspect of the problem (ballistic delivery
systems and measurement) does not equate to expertise in a seemingly related, but in actuality a different analysis (wound analysis)
3. lay-people such as myself can easily fall into the trap of not recognising when an expert in one aspect falls into the temptation of opining on matters which stray beyond the limits of their expertise and the design of their experiment.
Thank you.
This is neither here nor there really but this is a rare occasion where I have unique expertise. While skin is a little bit different than other tissues, volumes as small as 0.5 mm^3 in humans will contain several different classes of microvessels including arterioles and venules. In skin, capillary loops run perpendicular to the skin surface, and supplying arterioles will be found < ~300 micrometers from any capillary. Given the amount of blood in the picture, I would say that it is impossible for the wound to be superficial enough to have only damaged capillary perfused tissue.
I agree with your point though that it was likely a very superficial wound, but if only capillaries were damaged there would be next to no bleeding at all.
Bear in mind that a great deal of blood moves through the head area since the brain is such an important organ for our survival. A lot of professional wrestlers would use razors or other sharp implements to slice the skin on the face, because of the large amount of blood flow, though the injury itself is minor.
Thomas_H
July 26, 2024 at 2:35 pm
Thank you for the reply.
I really appreciate it. I recognise how important it is for people with experience and expertise to recognise the proper limits of their expertise, and avoid being tempted to comment on matters which stray beyond them.
Thank you again.
It seems that no one here has spent any time in the target ‘butts’, and have never heard a high-velocity bullet passing. A 5.56mm, traveling at supersonic speed, creates a loud ‘snap’, which is actually it breaking the sound barrier.
He may or may not have been struck by the actual bullet, or maybe by fragments, but he certainly would have been aware of the loud pop of the round passing by his right ear. I wonder if he’s had a hearing test as part of his medical exam.
Then you should read here more often. The ballistics of what was likely a .223 round has been discussed in comments to several posts.
Ronny Jackson mentioned proposed hearing tests, apparently not yet administered, in his CYA letter for Trump several days ago. No update from Trump on whether he had the testing or its results.
You’re correct about the shockwave that is created by a high velocity round from an AR-15 type semiautomatic rifle! I once experienced being in the line of fire from a deer hunter who didn’t know I was standing on my porch enjoying the sunrise when he bagged a deer a hundred yards in front of me. The sonic boom from the bullet arrives in front of the report of the rifle…and it’s loud. As loud as the bang from the gun. Needless to say, he lost his hunting license and was cited for discharging a firearm towards a house.
When I saw the blood on T,s Face I thought that the blood looked different, but something was weird. And then it came to my mind that when my blood sugar is high, and I do a blood sugar test, my blood looks like the blood on the side of Trump’s face. It’s different than normal, looking blood it’s not as red kind of translucent like it has a type of fluid in it, which is probably sugar. And I thought well that’s probably what it is because of the Food he chooses to eat and his size that he may be diabetic like myself. I’m surprised no one else noticed that.
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There are many factors which affect individual’s blood; we don’t have enough medical history on Trump to make informed assessments, not to mention most of the persons in this community aren’t MDs.
We also can’t be certain based on what little hard evidence we have — including the FBI director’s testimony to Congress — to even be certain it was Trump’s blood we saw and not spatter from another victim.
It would certainly take the wind out of the sails if Trump had been injured by shrapnel instead of a bullet. However Trump was injured, he was very fortunate to come away with a scrape. Ex-Fire Chief Comperatore was not so lucky.
Has a timeline for the Secret Service’s actions at the podium been developed and published? Was Trump’s raising his fist and head above the virtual foxhole created by the agents before or after the Secret Service had determined that there was further threat from other possible shooters? Was Trump foolhardy?
But Dr. Wheeler’s normative point is apt. The news media is rather politely noting the absence of medical records rather than banging the drum for them. Along those lines, I quote from today’s editorial in the NYTimes: “The former President has barely been pressed on important policy questions…”. The use of the passive voice suggests an obliviousness as to their journalistic failure.
The difference in their reaction to a neurologist visiting the White House and Trump actually getting shot is not explainable except if one acknowledges strong biases on the part of the publishers.
It’s also explainable by elected Republicans’ loudly pushing a cognitive decline narrative about Biden for at least the past twelve months. Between the shooting and Wray’s testimony, how many elected Democrats did you see going on TV, writing op-eds, or issuing press releases claiming that something seemed fishy about Trump’s bullet to the ear story and that we needed to see evidence, medical records, etc.? Republicans are far more willing to be liars and assholes in public, and that shamelessness allows them to drive news coverage.
I get the journalistic reasons for pursuing this story. But is it a really good idea to follow Trump’s lead of trying to resurrect it? He gets back on the front page.
What will get proved? Trump exaggerated/lied once again. Nobody seems to care about whether there is one more lie.
The media forces both-sidesing all the damned time. This is a critically important occasion when both-sidesing is absolutely necessary.
Why should the media turn a blind eye to the GOP candidate only when it comes to the possibility of impaired cognitive function, in this case from a possible concussion due to a bullet or other projectile? This is NOT just one more lie.
A CT of the head, would, of course, show images of the brain. And apart from acute changes related to the projectile, the CT may show chronic changes to the brain related to aging and/or disease process. If such changes were present, an MRI would perhaps have been done as well.
Precisely why Trump would never willingly disclose his brain scan.
“The only reason people have revisited this is because of Wray’s testimony.”
To add to the persistent ironic tone the showrunners employ, and in violation of the legal dictum to not ask a question you don’t know the answer to, Wray’s testimony was elicited by a query from Gym Jordan.
I think we are all looking in the wrong direction. My guess is that DJT doesn’t want to release his medical records because of the results of his CT brain scan. I’m guessing that it shows evidence of significant pathology.
Well yeah. But if Trump has been unwilling to provide legitimate medical records in a reasonable period of time during his term in office, the effects of an assassination attempt on a candidate are certainly the time when Trump should be expected to cooperate.
I mean, you’d think a showman of a candidate would want to show just how close he came to death, but nope…so why is that? Journalists should chase that.
I should have made clear that I meant preexisting pathology….not the result of the “bullet”. The reason for his clear mental deterioration over the last few years.
But we’re not going to get the pre-existing pathology evident in CT scans if we can’t get the CT scan from the ER which treated him after the assassination attempt.
Yes, it’s his longstanding condition that The Other Old Guy is desperate to hide from the electorate (in effective collusion with an extraordinarily supine media). His eagerness to castigate Biden for assumed “infirmity” just another example of projection. Every accusation a confession.
So, Trump won’t release the CT scan because it would show signs of Alzheimer’s.
That sounds realistic.
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With all due respect you cannot diagnose Alzheimer’s disease from a CT scan. CT scans show structure (hardware) while Alzheimer’s may be a software problem. The CT could show significant atrophy or a structural issue such as low pressure hydrocephalus..
Your comment about a Trump brain scan reminds me of an old comic strip I remember, in which one person says to another, “So-and-so went to a doctor to see about those headaches he’s been having. They X-rayed his head and found nothing.” And in the next panel, the other person just sits there and looks out at us; no words needed.
That’s actually a Dizzy Dean story from the ‘30s. He was hit by a line drive and taken to the hospital, resulting in the headline, “X-Rays of Dean’s Head Show Nothing.”
Well yeah. What do you suppose EW is wondering about? Why withhold the medical record in an assination attempt?
Let me say it again- in An Assination Attempt.
But the media’s heads exploded because Biden, an elder man, is an elder man? No one shot him in the head area. Trump apparantely shot in the head area. No one is demanding health records from that incident.
I think that’s likely.
Hey, can I just post a link to a wiki page? I think before we spill too many pixels on image analysis, that we remind ourselves of the term “pareidolia”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia
To be honest, it doesn’t matter whether it was a bullet, a fragment of glass (which Trump mentions in a real red herring) or ant-man, what matters is that it sure looks like Trump is lying about it. And we know he’s going to double down on it if things start getting hot about it. It’s already starting to heat up.
It was obvs. Jack Smith on the Grassy Knoll.🤷♂️
Biden should order the release of the incident medical records. I mean the Supremes have already said that if the president does it, it must be legal.
They didn’t say that it’s legal. They said that he cannot be prosecuted for illegal acts within his for actions within his constitutional authority. Which does not imply that others cannot be prosecuted for carrying out an illegal order.
Sorry, bad editing. Should read “for illegal acts within his constitutional authority.”
This whole thing is so Trumpy I can barely stand it.
Consider an alternate politician in the same situation who said something like, “I don’t know what hit me, they can figure it out, but wow, it took a piece out of my ear, for sure.”
The whole thing would make that politician look good. But not Trumpy. He wants “I was hit by a bullet” to be the story, facts be damned. I’m not sure if we should even get caught up in this story, honestly. Let’s talk more about Kamala…
7/14/24 TRUMP also said: “It felt like the world’s largest mosquito.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/16/us/politics/rfk-trump-call.html
Sure, that’s what bullets coming within a quarter inch of your ear, traveling twice the speed of sound always seem like, amirite Donny? The poor man is straddling the imaginary gulf between having survived the Battle of the Bulge and swatting a fly.
Fact is he was hit by a bullet. One also flew by the left side of his face. Pray for the family of the innocent bystander shot and killed.
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How do you know with certainty what you see in this photo is a wound from a bullet and not a wound from a fragment, or biological matter sprayed from another victim’s body — you know, that innocent bystander you insist we pray for.
source: https://apnews.com/article/trump-shooting-transparency-db2f4437237ad03d3b04b0b5f1573977
That right upper ear sure looks intact to me: swollen and red, but nothing gone, flopping, or disfigured. The placement of the apparent wound also doesn’t seem to match the placement of the My Pillow Guy bandage Trump wore for days, like a Purple Heart.
Well…this probably doesn’t help very much, but I took the above photo, enlarged it to 3x of the original size, cropped it to just show the ear and applied a sharpening filter to that (using Gimp). Have a look:
https://www.truby.com/xzq/trumpear.png
Reply to Matt___B
July 26, 2024 at 7:15 pm
Sure looks to me like he should have had stitches.
Matt__B’s blow-up shows a graze, front-to-back of the upper outer right ear that seems to have cut the leading and trailing edges of the outer loop, with little apparent damage in between. Surgical glue or tape might have been used, rather than sutures. He’s a lucky sod.
The photo does not seem to match Ronny Jackson’s description of a single 20 cm/0.8 in. “wide” wound.
https://www.audiologyresearch.org/ear-anatomy/
If that wound was made by an intact .223 traveling at twice the speed of sound, it’s hard to imagine why Ronny Jackson would have dismissed concerns about concussive damage to Trump’s hearing and brain.
Matt___Bsays: @ July 26, 2024 at 7:15 pm
looks earie. /g
If you had a credible source for those two conclusions, fact is, you’d have given it.
Karl_26JUL2024_1525h
July 26, 2024 at 3:25 pm
What’s the evidence that a bullet passed the left side of his face?
It is absolutely terrible that there were bullets flying at all.
However the evidence from videos as to the position of the man who was killed is as follows:
Behind Trump there were 3 sets of bleacher stands
Centre : directly behind him
Right behind him to his Right ( shooters far left)
Left behind him to his Left (shooters far right)
Video shows that a man in the upper far right corner of the right bleacher was shot and seen to be given CPR and subsequently carried away followed by 2 female attendees smeared with blood
This is posited to be the man who died covering family members
https://youtu.be/3hsJEvW598E
Per HIPAA the Privacy Rule allows certain limited medical information to be released by the covered entity (hospital, etc) to law enforcement, with or without the victim’s permission. In most states this includes name and address, date and place of birth, social security number, ABO blood type and rh factor, type of injury, date and time of treatment, date and time of death (if applicable) and a description of distinguishing physical characteristics. Law enforcement is also allowed to see the patient and their injuries as long as treatment is not impeded.
The exception to HIPAA was written to allow the hospital to comply with state laws which typically require the reporting of suspected gunshot wounds on any patient to police. Pennsylvania has mandatory reporting of gunshot wounds. If Trump insists on the injury being from a bullet, the staff are required to release the limited information when asked and law enforcement is allowed to personally observe it.
Each medical facility will write policies for its own staff. They often push back on any law enforcement requests just for CYA. It is up to law enforcement to exert its legal authority. In my experience, police have no problem doing that.
In case you wonder, I worked with attorneys to write such policies for both nurses and law enforcement.
https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/faq/505/what-does-the-privacy-rule-allow-covered-entities-to-disclose-to-law-enforcement-officials/index.html
https://victimrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/WTSToolkit-Mandatory-Reporting-of-Non-Accidental-Injury-Statutes-by-State.pdf
Patient can wave privacy, approve disclosure. At one time, I was walking encyclopedia on everything HIPAA. I am certain of this. Just look at Joe’s disclosures.
Absolutely. The story is about Trump withholding essential information about himself, which he could disclose at any time. Same story with his taxes. He chooses to keep it from voters and other stakeholders, falsely imagining that it would be like playing poker with his cards facing the other players.
The press was apoplectic over conspiracy theories that Joe Biden might be doing that. About the reality of Trump doing it? Crickets.
TRUMP: Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
[CAUTION: I’m NOT SURE what to do about this link] https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/26/us/harris-trump-biden-election?smid=url-share#e797ff37-c7ae-5722-8cec-49083eab37fe
Michael Gold July 26, 2024, 12:46 p.m. ET
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/26/us/harris-trump-biden-election#b64ab899-364c-5f3b-a842-3f7739a37b9e
Neil Vigdor July 26, 2024, 1:24 p.m. ET
MILLER: Important update on the health of President Donald J. Trump
from Dr. @RonnyJacksonTX: [screenshot]
JACKSON: July 26, 2024
MEMORANDUM FOR CONCERNED CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES
Michael Gold answers a question not asked: Can Trump point to his ear?
NYT now reporting that their “Visual Investigation” shows it was a bullet. Because why ask to see medical records, amirite?
And why wait for FBI forensic analysis, when the NYT can try to read a photo, as if it were assessing bomb damage over Hanoi or Baghdad?
Jason MILLER Xeets Ronny JACKSON’s opinion:
https://x.com/JasonMillerinDC/status/1816865694912291052
11:58 AM · Jul 26, 2024
Isn’t it fairly common for there to be a statement ftom the attending physician? Who was the attending physician?
For public figures and senior politicians, yes, it’s common, but only if the patient authorizes the release of information. Trump never allows that. It’s a lifelong meme that applies to all his personal information, like his taxes and his school and college grades.
It was a mostly peaceful rally. Time for Tucker to release the hours of video showing peaceful rally goers.
Time for Alex Jones to claim this shooting was a hoax, and the grieving family of those killed were just actors.
Oh, I see Marcy posted that letter from JACKSON that I’ve been trying to comment on.
[Two comments in the pokey]
Jason MILLER tweeted that out:
https://x.com/JasonMillerinDC/status/1816865694912291052
11:58 AM · Jul 26, 2024
Marcy: Note that he says Trump was “evaluated and treated for a “Gunshot Wound to the Right Ear.”
Those CAPS are so…familiar looking….
I’m sure that’s exactly how the physicians at Butler Hospital wrote that…IF they wrote it. / s
JACKSON:
He’s concurring with what he says the “initial assessment” was.
Yeah, funny how a former physician and White House doctor manipulated a purportedly informative public statement into a self-referential, pseudo-medical piece of propaganda. It’s not even clear he saw a report from the treating physicians, or that anyone is working from information beyond what Trump told them. It’s how Trump has been treating physicians since he obtained his bone spur letter, keeping him out of Vietnam.
“As I’ve noted repeatedly in my posts on this, I’m pushing this issue largely for normative reasons.” (EW)
The reason that this reporting goes on and on is because Trump gets so much attention and mileage out of it. That’s the whole point of the “mysteries” of what hit his ear. Going down the usual Trump rat hole and losing sight of what is really important: what comes out of his mouth regarding governance and intentions for his “second term.”
While it’s good to know the actual facts of what the projectile was, the obsession with its constitution is much less important than the fact Trump is bordering, if not over the border, insane. Either that, or he is a 4th rate “actor.”
I don’t give a damn what hit his ear. An innocent man died. Two people were shot, and an unfortunate, deluded young perpetrator looking for glory died. Doesn’t death have any meaning in the grand scheme of things? Proportion, please!
Marcy has taken pains to point out that her concern is not with the precise facts about the apparent assassination attempt on Trump or its health consequences. It’s on reporters doing their job – and Trump doing his job as the would be American chief executive. Both have global consequences.
Americans should know about Trump’s health before they decide whether to vote him into the Presidency. The world would like to know the same, in case American voters foist him on them once more. Americans should know how badly the USSS screwed up – or not – and what it and the government will do to help prevent it happening again.
That Trump is hiding and hoarding his personal information, to prevent voters and others from knowing about his frailties, is itself an undercovered story about his aggressive and threatening self-promotion.
To paraphrase Nixon, Americans have a right to know whether their convicted felon is healthy.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/07/26/us/harris-trump-biden-election/efe267a3-0a3e-5186-8409-bff60613b216 Simon J. Levien July 26, 2024, 4:32 p.m. ET
Why not have it in the same field. It can become a pilgrimage site for the new religion.
I’ll wait for the site of his Ascension, and praise the Lord She took him when She most needed him, rather than when he was ready.
It will be all about Donnie’s ear, after the obligatory statement about Comperatore.
I hope it’s cancelled by the USSS and the local cops.
Ashli Babbitt took a bullet for him. Did he even pay for her funeral?
Aaron Rupar:
https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.bsky.social/post/3ky7mmjhrd42n
Jul 26, 2024 at 4:49 PM
Nancy Mace rivals a park bench for brains. The director of an agency charged with the forensic analysis of an armed attack isn’t allowed to make stuff up, like her beloved Donald Trump. If he doesn’t know, he has to say that. But nussink must be allowed to get in the way of her Leader’s victimhood.
I assumed from Wray’s statements that at the time he testified, the FBI hadn’t definitively concluded that it definitely was a bullet.
Maybe they were still trying to rule out certain other things, maybe they have some evidence that seems to conflict with the idea it was the actual bullet, maybe they were waiting for some test results? Who knows. But Wray wouldn’t want to state something as fact and then find out later he misled Congress.
From the first time I saw the video of the shooting I knew something was off about it. You hear the shot , then trump grabs his ear. It should have been grab ear first. then hear report. Even at 150 yards, you should be hit before the sound catches up with the bullet. Secondary shrapnel explains what my eyes were seeing and my ears were hearing.
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According to Bret Baier (who I don’t particularly trust):
https://x.com/BretBaier/status/1816937869132595335
But I haven’t been able to find confirmation of this from any other news source (though there are other places sourcing it to Baier) nor a statement on the FBI’s website.
Seems to me that “fragmented into smaller pieces” is a subset of “shrapnel,” so this would confirm Wray’s statement while ruling out other sources of shrapnel.
Edit: I now see other news sources reporting the quoted statement as well.
While some rounds use frangible bullets, designed to break into parts – after hitting the target – a normal bullet is designed to do the opposite. If Trump was grazed by a bullet fragment, the bullet would have struck something before it grazed Trump’s ear, which would have changed its trajectory.
The fragment, by definition, would be only part of an already small bullet, and be traveling slower than an intact round would at that range, accounting for less concussive force.
It looks like my assumption was incorrect. They didn’t find all the rounds (at least one), though they seem to be sure it was a bullet or part of one, and not a fragment from another object struck up range.
Ronny Jackson’s second letter is laugh out loud funny. In four paragraphs, with gravitas, he spends one and a half touting his credentials, without mentioning he’s no longer a practicing physician, and was demoted a full rank by the Navy, in part, for “highly unusual” medical practices while Trump’s WH physician. How is he allowed to treat a former president, assess his condition and treatment, and forecast his brilliant, superb, fantastic recovery? Or is he really a PR flack?
Jackson spends a full paragraph telling the FBI director his investigation is wrong, and that the congressional record should be amended to reflect Jackson’s personal judgment. The FBI, of course, will have seen the same medical records Jackson claims to have seen and much more. Meanwhile, Jackson will have seen none of the forensic analysis by the FBI of the actual bullets fired and estimated their trajectories. His claim that Director Wray’s investigation is wrong has little foundation and a lot of bias behind it.
Will we all remember when we heard Biden was out? I really feel done w the media at this point except to attempt what we read here and try to understand what we are told versus what seems otherwise plain. But that nevertheless remains somewhat speculative.
I feel revived this week while I hated the way Biden was hounded. Marcy’s point is so well made. I am so sick of it.
Fighting it off might seem especially hopeful in the moment. I’m a door knocker, as I’ve said. I think I am going to enjoy doing the work. I hope we all will do the work. We have to.
I think he was in Milwaukee. I don’t know where he was Sunday, but apparently he went to Milwaukee by way of NJ. Donnie probably likes him.
Don’t investigate it is the message from Trump, Republicans, to the FBI and of course to their supporters.
Which means – absolutely investigate it – and that includes medical records and speaking to Mr Trump himself. (and all witnesses around him). The family of those injured and killed should seek no less.
Since when is an Assination attempt treated as some foregone conclusion?
Never. Such incidents smack of whole conspiracy theories over decades, before tech, before advances in medicine, before the diagnostics that exist today. We don’t have the “mystery” anymore- so let’s not pretend we do. The entire picture is not complete without the medical record of this incident.
It exists, let’s have it, the CT scan and all.
And so, it’s up to you Media – to speak on our behalf, because that’s apparantely what you do. I could ask for those records myself but you know better than me where that will go.
Do your job, and if you can’t, get the fuck out of the way of those who can – step aside, and admit, your day is over.
Have a nice day 🙂
I think if TRUMP doesn’t show US these medical records,
we will just have to Assume The Worst.
And we should SAY that out loud.
I, for one, would like to know WHY in the world he didn’t have his shoes on.
Or could he not find the right word for what he needed?
Good question, Harpie! who takes their shoes off for public speaking?
I know you all aren’t in to not reliably verified facts around here, so forgive me, but the word on the street is that he has lifts in his shoes to make him taller. It’s why he cants forward when he’s standing.
This probably makes him unstable (like when walking down ramps, say) and when he ducked, or in the scuffle of SS agents, his feet easily came out of them.
This also explains why he insisted on his shoes even during the fraught moment; he wanted to make sure no one else had a chance to get a good look at them.
(probably where DeSantis got the idea)
At TPUSA [Charlie KIRK etal] last night,
TRUMP says if he’s elected this time, he will “fix it so good” that we won’t have to vote again in 2028.
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1817007890496102490
Last edited 9:23 PM · Jul 26, 2024
The HARRIS campaign on these TRUMP remarks:
[There’s a screenshot here]
[There are links throughout, but I don’t know what they link to]:
https://bsky.app/profile/mollyknight.bsky.social/post/3kyabljznsi2z
Jul 26, 2024 at 11:04 PM
“Bitter, bizarre, and backward looking delusions” is really good!
According to Heather Cox Richardson,
this is the link about words Trump mispronounced:
[Maybe he just couldn’t think of the right word…do you think he even noticed?]
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1816993825929461860
8:27 PM · Jul 26, 2024 [VIDEO]
Also, TRUMP is deliberately mispronouncing her name.
Mispronouncing names of opponents has a pedigree. Not that Trump and Churchill have anything in common, except perhaps their age, but Churchill, a stickler for words, did it to key German words during WWII. It’s intentionally dismissive and derogatory.
Trump is immensely ignorant and a poor thinker. He often mangles words and substitutes sounds that seem similar to his addled brain. But “KaMAla,” is a campaign slogan that intentionally emphasizes her immigrant background. I’d love to hear what Trump does with J.D. Vance’s spouse’s name.
It also resonates with
MAlignant, MAlefactor and MAleficent (as in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty)
Brought to you by the same people who cooked up DemocRAT as the adjectival form of Democrat.
Mispronouncing brown peoples’ names on the regular is just plain racist othering.
Mispronouncing Harris’s given name instead of using her surname is both othering AND misogyny.
The pedigree is bigotry embedded in patriarchal white supremacy.
I hear many MAGAs pronounce it “Mare a Lago”. Including fake-smart Alina Habba.
Seemed pretty clear to me he said “I’m not a Christian”
For that matter, how come he’s never said “that Jesus Christ, you know. . . . what a guy. Did you know his mother was Mary and she was Immaculate? Imagine that, they say she was immaculate.”
great headline. What has happened more recently, aka Kamala Harris becomes nominee for Democrats, has pushed DJT out of the headlines, so this may be his weak attempt to draw the media to him and away from Kamala.
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I’m waiting for the NYT chant…”but, Trump’s ear!!!!” And the very solemn editorials, asking, “Will we ever know what happened to his ear.” “The mystery surrounding Trump’s ear.” “The vast ‘ear cover-up’ conspiracy.” “Who is responsible for Trump’s ear?” “Did Ronnie Jackson lie?” “How will Harris confront the truth about Trump’s ear?” “Did Biden order the Trump ear cover-up?” Ad nauseum.
Oh my. This Mastodon post and replies.
Further down in the replies someone shared an AP watermarked photo of Trump at a Bitcoin event — but there’s newer photos of Trump at a campaign rally today.
This one. Oof.
source: AP Newsroom
His stigmata have healed already. It’s a miracle! Mike Johnson should nominate him for sainthood!
If he gets any closer to that mike they’re going to have to rate his stuff R, if not X.
Can someone help me out with the times this photo was posted and the when Souza was suspended? I can’t figure it out from the above. Thanks!
Have you all seen this?
Elon Musk shares a manipulated video of Harris, in seeming violation of his platform’s policies. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/27/us/politics/elon-musk-kamala-harris-deepfake.html July 27, 2024, 8:00 p.m. ET Ken Bensinger
harpie — note the AP Newsroom link at the bottom of my comment. It is a search for “election 2024 Trump.” That photo Souza shared appears to have been taken about 1:58 pm July 27.
Probably worth following that feed because there are some informative if scary images in that timeline — like Trump and Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, and Jill fucking Stein at some appearance by herself which which was filed under “Trump” (why??).
Many photos of Trump’s “injured” ear. In this one he is still wearing a flesh-colored bandage on July 24:
https://mapi.associatedpress.com/v2/items/ac3321295b954c54a1515a22ea4218e2/preview/AP24207021321574.jpg?tag=app_id=1,user_id=undefined,org_id=undefined
ADDER: can’t help you with the removal of Souza’s X account. Hope some else can.
Thanks, Rayne! I’ll try to keep an eye on the AP Newsroom link.
From the NYT article:
Links to this Xeet:
https://x.com/digiphile/status/1817154040070799584
7:04 AM · Jul 27, 2024 [< Eastern TZ]
[There’s a comment in the pokey here ^^^]
7/27/24 12:14 PM < Is this the timestamp on Souza’s screenshot of the photo? [TZ?]
July 27, 2024 11:01 AM < Is this the timestamp of Rayne’s ss of Souza’s Xeet? [TZ?]
[Thanks for freeing that comment, Rayne]
I THINK I see now that the July 27, 2024 11:01 AM is the timestamp of
Paranoid Factoid’s ss of Souza’s Xeet [Still don’t know TZ]
I’m going to stop posting about this now…sorry to take it so far.
I really would like to know when Souza’s account was suspended
and how that relates to other stuff Musk/Others were doing on the Xitter.
Interesting that that bandage only covers the rear edge and not also the front. Another photo showed apparent damage to both the front and trailing edges. Trump must have Wolverine-like healing powers.
That photo also gives a glimpse into how the top of Trump’s head is really a cueball, with an overgrown monk-like fringe. Trump never lets his various bandages interfere with that fringe.
Seth Masket reposted by lolgop [Jason Slatter]:
https://bsky.app/profile/smotus.bsky.social/post/3kydr2mpa3j2r
Jul 28, 2024 at 8:19 AM
Links to:
Elon Musk shares AI-faked video of Kamala Harris on X without disclaimer
The Decoder Jul 28, 2024
That link:
https://x.com/MrReaganUSA/status/1817437457971126542
1:50 AM · Jul 28, 2024 [< Eastern, I'm pretty sure]
At 7/28/24 1:48 AM [Eastern] Seth Cotlar posted this:
https://bsky.app/profile/sethcotlar.bsky.social/post/3kyd3ac3v7z2d
Jul 28, 2024 at 1:48 AM
The screenshots say 7/27/24 1:45 PM [I don’t know that TZ]
As free speech absolutist Musk tells us, just post your own fake video and let the people decide which lie is true. What’s wrong with that? Don’t you believe in democracy? /s
Justin Hendrix:
https://bsky.app/profile/justinhendrix.bsky.social/post/3kychb7fdq62r
Jul 27, 2024 at 7:51 PM
Links to:
The AI Dangers of a Second Trump Presidency
ALONDRA NELSON, AMI FIELDS-MEYER / JUL 22, 2024
[Alondra Nelson and Ami Fields-Meyer both served in the White House as technology policy advisers to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.]
Souza says that he deactivated the account himself: https://www.instagram.com/p/C-A3yZiObH6/
What pity, after all this time. Another indicator of the dead bird app’s state of fail.
I was trying to search “trump concussive injuries” and stumbled on this from Jan 22, 2020 after the missile strike (abc report)
‘President Donald Trump appeared to brush off the traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and concussion-like injuries sustained by U.S. service members after Iran’s missile strike on a military base in Iraq, saying he did not consider them to be “very serious injuries.”
‘ “I heard that they had headaches. And a couple of other things,” Trump said Wednesday at a news conference in Davos, Switzerland. “But I would say and I can report it is not very serious.” ‘
Even after 11 were flown to Germany for observation he said:
“I have seen what Iran has done with roadside bombs to their troops. I have seen people with no legs and with no arms. I have seen people that were horribly, horribly injured in that area, that war. And in fact many cases put those bombs … put there by Soleimani who is no longer with us. And I consider them to be really bad injuries.” Trump said. “No, I do not consider that to be bad injuries. No.”
But anyway. . . with regard to cavitation and concussive injuries, I would like to hear from someone who really knows the physics and physiology here. He wasn’t near the gun when it was fired, the bullet was just passing. Assuming it did–barely–nick his ear, would the force (given the surrounding air to absorb energy) have been sufficient to cause bruising and swelling to the outer ear? Put another way, if it had hit his ear, wouldn’t that actually be expected? I have doubts about concussion and brushed off a friend who brought that up until Dr. Gupta raised the issue, but how come we don’t hear from someone with real expertise about this?
NEW:
Gunman at Trump Rally Was Often a Step Ahead of the Secret Service
Text messages, obtained exclusively by The Times, indicate that some law enforcement officers were aware of Thomas Crooks earlier than previously known. And he was aware of them.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/28/us/politics/trump-shooting-thomas-crooks-secret-service.html July 28, 2024 Updated 3:33 p.m. ET
Excellent diagram and photo in the article. Together with video provided previously by SteveBev and recent photo Rayne provided about lack of any serious damage to the ear, maybe someone can provide a better analysis of what may have happened. I have drawn my own conclusions.
It would be helpful if we knew where each injured person was sitting. That would include Corey Comperatore, David Dutch, James Copenhaver, Ronny Jackson’s nephew, and the off duty officers.
And Grassley’s office got them, how? Because no one from Iowa was involved, AFAIK.
OT, however this article is spot on.
British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read
Apr. 24th, 2020 at 11:38 AM
https://coming42.livejournal.com/479179.html
Thanks, Jenny. That’s fantastic. Couldn’t be more insightful.
It’s certainly on point. (Off topic, but on point.)
Just wondering if there are any photos of Trump entering or exiting the hospital in Butler.
You could scroll through the AP Newsroom photo feed yourself.
https://newsroom.ap.org/editorial-photos-videos/search?query=election%202024%20trump&mediaType=photo&st=keyword
Change the search terms as needed.
“Trump agrees to FBI interview after assassination attempt
Donald Trump has agreed to participate in a victim interview with the FBI as part of an investigation into his attempted assassination, an agency official said.
The interview is part of the FBI’s standard protocol to speak with victims of federal crimes during the course of their investigations.
Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, told reporters:
“We want to get his perspective on what he observed.”
The Guardian
10:57 EDT
July 29, 2024
Anthony Davis of the Meidas Touch Network, in one of his “5 Minute News” segments, almost from the get-go, speculated on the possibility Trump was wounded not by a bullet but by scattered fragments (You Tube is not being cooperative with me for finding the exact clip). He didn’t give a source for his speculation, but it was the first I had heard of it, long before Wray brought up the possibility. It does somewhat blow up his martyrdom (“took a bullet for the country”) or the narrative he was saved by divine intervention (had he not moved his head a fraction of an inch he would be a gonner). So it’s understandable Trump is fighting it. He is pushing the “Single Bullet Theory” (Good one, Marcy) as opposed to the fractional bullet or no bullet theory. He is going for maximum political exploitation of the unfortunate event.
That being said, their are legitimate reasons for demanding the medical records of a presidential candidate. Brain trauma caused by a near miss high speed projectile is a real possibility, if that’s what really happened.