The Shot We All Saw Coming

Photos and brief commentary on the tragedy of July 13 in Butler, PA.

Just two days ago, I wrote that “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes”. Yesterday, July 13, in Butler, PA, the following happened:

*There was a gunman on a roof
*There was a shot to the head
*The gunman ended up dead himself quickly afterward
*The target was a man who had something of a playboy past—but also a demonstrated desire to contain the Deep State, particularly its zeal for lucrative foreign wars. A man who, whatever his personal shortcomings were, had millions of people praying for him.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.

If you’re a regular follower of Corned Beef Catholicism, you know that we’re unfortunately not surprised by what happened yesterday. Less than three weeks ago, I said the foremost consideration in Trump’s VP deliberations should be to find someone the Deep State feared at least as much, if not more, than him—lest he be taken out like JFK was and Reagan nearly was.  

And back in November, I drew a direct line between the circumstances that led to JFK’s murder and the issues at stake in the Trump’s classified documents trial. Nor was I alone. Tucker Carlson has been warning about this for at least a year. Rich Baris, our favorite pollster at Inside the Numbers, has been as well. On a directly related note, Rich just released a poll that had Trump ahead about six points nationally—a margin that, for today’s divided climate, is in landslide territory. My initial plans today were to talk a little bit about that poll. We’ll have to put that off for now—but you can check out his Friday show here. It’s tragically relevant to what happened yesterday in Butler. The Establishment is seeing the same numbers he is—and has followed the mantra, of “if you can’t beat him, kill him.”

Here is a timeline of tweets and photos that capture what led to, and then happened yesterday. It’s long, but an easy scroll-and-read. You can click through all of them to watch any videos that are referred to:

SETTING THE TONE

Note the date on this one. Was this the wink-and-nod of a mafia don? Hey, they’ve told us that every time Trump says something like “let’s fight” that it’s an incitement to violence. Biden’s rhetoric (or whomeover wrote it for him) is far blunter than that:

Biden might want to recognize that he’s a major liability to a lot of powerful people right now. In light of yesterday’s failed attempt on Trump’s life, Biden is an even bigger liability. Whom the Mob elevates, they also take down. We’ll see what happens.

There was this comment by Nancy Pelosi, only a week ago, as Democratic desperation over Biden’s public standing grew:

Joy Ann Reid, the MSNBC host popular with Democrats, had this to say, calling Trump “straight up fascism.”

But Joy was measured compared to a former sitting Senator who said this:

Or nearly two years ago, when Biden, in a creepy background set up to look like the bowels of Hell, decided he would demonize all Trump supporters.

Were these words of big donor Reid Hoffman just reckless? Or were they another little wink-and-nod to say “it’s time”? Probably the former. But the possibility of the latter needs to be investigated—at least as thoroughly as everyone who walked through the Capitol on 1/6/21 taking selfies and peacefully leaving has been investigated:

THE SECURITY

I’m not a believer in the “lone gunman theory”, whether it’s JFK, Reagan, or now Trump. If it were that easy to shoot a president, they would all have a bullet in them. Even if there is only one person shooting, I believe there has to be at least a couple of people who conveniently look the other way at the right time. What happened yesterday in Butler was just blatant. Here’s the rundown:

Democrats started planning for this moment weeks ago:

The Secret Service ignored recent requests:

And while we’re at it, Bobby Kennedy still doesn’t have Secret Service protection, even though it was the murder of his own father that prompted Secret Service protection to be given to candidates. I’m sure the fact that recent polling suggests RFK pulls a little more from Biden than he does from Trump has nothing to do with it:

John Cardillo is a former New York police officer. And, not that it should matter, he was a rabid Trump-hater during the GOP primaries. It didn’t stop him from noticing the obvious:

Joe Kent is a decorated Green Beret who spent most of his adult life serving in the Middle East. He had his own pointed thoughts on the “security”:

But who needs to speculate when we have an eyewitness who saw the shooter, tried to warn Secret Service and was ignored. Even BBC was willing to air this incredibly damning interview:

THE RESULT

How about we start with an ordinary person who went to a political rally, and never made it home. I don’t yet know this person’s name. We’ll find out. Because they are a martyr:

This blood-soaked doctor did his best. And this link is the authorized GoFundMe account raising support for the victims and their families:

And then the target himself…

This stunning photo shows how close the bullet came. That’s how close America was to major civil unrest yesterday:

He fell:

Then he rose:

Future generations will visit a statue built to replicate this:

CONCLUSION

I just want to take you back to November and December of 2020. I was one of many people who wrote letters to state legislators, U.S. House members, and Senators, asking them to revisit the votes of the presidential election. Here’s what we wanted, and here’s what Trump asked of Mike Pence:

*To send disputed electoral votes back the relevant states
*To take 10 days and review them and determine if the number of uncertifiable ballots exceeded the margin of victory.
*For both sides to live with whatever the results of that review were and to figure it out together, in accord with the measures prescribed by the U.S. Constitution.

For that, Trump (and all of us) were branded as insurrectionists, traitors, you name it. It led to a dramatic increase of all the rhetoric, of which we chronicled the most recent displays above. The inability to live with ten days to review a disputed vote brought us to July 13 in Butler, PA.

Was it worth it?

Right now, we’re hearing the predictable calls to “tone down the rhetoric”, with the implication that “both sides” need to tone it down.

Sorry, but we’re the ones who have seen our media voices thrown in jail, people who think like us about the election tarred, smeared and imprisoned, and now our political leader nearly murdered. This is on top of a recent past where our sympathetic Senators (Rand Paul) have been viciously assaulted and even normal Establishment Republicans like Steve Scalise shot while practicing for a congressional baseball game (2017).

So how about we not tone it down? Instead, let’s more boldly say the truth—that the only thing Donald John Trump is a threat to is “politics as usual”. And that’s quite threatening to powerful people. And that the early evidence strongly suggests that the same institutions who murdered JFK are involved with the near-death of Trump. And that the same people who instigated January 6 are likely responsible for July 13 in Butler.

And the divide between voters is only superficially between liberals and conservatives. The real divide is those who appreciate one man trying to give us control of our government back—particulary in regards to foreign wars—and others who choose to believe every lie that gets told about the man. That’s America today. That’s why 7/13/24 happened. And that’s the only message left that matters.

“One hand fired the shot. Another hand guided it.”

—Pope St. John Paul II, after he miraculously survived an asssassination attempt on May 13, 1981, less than six weeks after Reagan barely survived the attempt on his life.