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FBI Has 'Gained Access' To the Trump Rally Shooter's Phone [UPDATE] (theverge.com) 948
UPDATE 7/15/24 3:05 p.m. EDT: In a press release published this afternoon, the FBI said they "successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks' phone, and they continue to analyze his electronic devices." The bureau added that it has completed its search of the subject's residence and vehicle, and "conducted nearly 100 interviews of law enforcement personnel, event attendees, and other witnesses."
Original Story: July 15, 16:45 UTC: Investigators are working to break into the phone of the man who shot at former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday. The Verge: The FBI said in a statement that it had obtained the shooter's phone "for examination." Officials told reporters in a conference call on Sunday, as reported by The New York Times, that agents in Pennsylvania were unable to break into the phone. It's been shipped to the FBI's lab in Quantico, Virginia, where the FBI hopes to get past the phone's password protection, the Times reported.
Investigators are still looking for insight into the motives of Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who they identified as the gunman. Kevin Rojek, the FBI special agent in charge in Pittsburgh, told the Times and other outlets that the agency has access to some of Crooks' text messages, but they haven't shed much light on his beliefs.
Original Story: July 15, 16:45 UTC: Investigators are working to break into the phone of the man who shot at former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday. The Verge: The FBI said in a statement that it had obtained the shooter's phone "for examination." Officials told reporters in a conference call on Sunday, as reported by The New York Times, that agents in Pennsylvania were unable to break into the phone. It's been shipped to the FBI's lab in Quantico, Virginia, where the FBI hopes to get past the phone's password protection, the Times reported.
Investigators are still looking for insight into the motives of Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who they identified as the gunman. Kevin Rojek, the FBI special agent in charge in Pittsburgh, told the Times and other outlets that the agency has access to some of Crooks' text messages, but they haven't shed much light on his beliefs.
Expect (Score:5, Insightful)
Expect the FBI to again make calls to have backdoors into encrypted systems.
Re:Expect (Score:5, Insightful)
Thay may still have them. This "delay" may well be just a ploy to make people believe they cannot break in easily. And what they found after having broken in may well tell them that there is no real urgency now. Remember, a backdoor is a "source" and hence needs to be protected.
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They will probably eventually be able to crack it via brute force, but at an expense that isn't practical for every day crimes. But if phone makers make it easy to crack for everyday crimes, then everyday hackers will also likely be able to break in. The 3rd world has lots of cheap labor to throw into hacking.
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Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't really care much about his motive. There are left wing nut jobs, right wing nut jobs, and free range nut jobs. How he was a few millimeters away from success is the important question. I think Trump is an existential threat to our democracy, but he isn't as dangerous as what could happen if political violence on the scale of presidential assassination becomes as easy as this 20 year old kid made it seem. The secret service has a lot to answer for.
Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this for decades.
Re:Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:4, Insightful)
Conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this for decades.
Indeed. One thing we know however: He did not miss on purpose. Nobody is that precise.
Re:Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:5, Funny)
Indeed. One thing we know however: He did not miss on purpose. Nobody is that precise.
Are you sure? He might have taken chemtrail antidote before shooting in order to lift the fog and increase his prowess. That's what was really hidden in the vaxxines and where there is a concerted extradeep state effort to scare you into not taking them.
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:5, Insightful)
Iâ(TM)m by no means a fan of Trump. Heâ(TM)s narcissistic at a level unmatched by any other, and has been extremely dishonest throughout his career. But to call the leading presidential candidate âoean existential threat to democracyâ is absurd. You lived through the last Trump presidency- youâ(TM)ll live through the next (if there is one).
Unhinged rhetoric like this is likely what inspired the shooter to begin with. After all, if Trump were really H*tler- wouldnâ(TM)t there be a moral obligation to stop him however possible?
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:4, Informative)
Sure, Democrats have said questionable things in the past, but there's no comparison to the ongoing tirade and call to violence you see again and again and again out of Trump's mouth.
So, tell me again: whose rhetoric is to blame?
Or maybe there is nothing to blame instead of the shooter themselves?
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DEMOCRACY: a civilized system which allows for civil revolutions; it can be messy and even somewhat violent but it's better than everything else.
Biden speaks like he's reminding people but most people don't grasp the concepts or even know what he's thinking about:
Like a super-hero, you are limited by the principles of democracy even if you have great power, your responsibility self-limits you while the villain does not and mocks your restraint as weakness. It is not democracy to kill opponents. This isn't y
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm by no means a fan of Trump. He's narcissistic at a level unmatched by any other, and has been extremely dishonest throughout his career. But to call the leading presidential candidate "an existential threat to democracy" is absurd.
I don't know. He rallied people to try to topple Congress so that he wouldn't have to step down. His high-level officials had regular contact with known agents of a hostile foreign government. He kept substantial state secrets in locations where they were not under suitable control, and agents of hostile foreign governments could very easily have accessed them with or without his knowledge. Threats to democracy don't get a lot more existential than someone with a history of trying to overthrow the government who many suspect of selling nuclear submarine secrets to Russia.
So yeah, I think "existential threat to democracy in the United States" is pretty much on point. When he first got elected, I said that he would be a true test of the separation of powers. Now that he has packed the courts with people whose recent decision could potentially be interpreted to quite literally grant him immunity for political assassinations on U.S. soil, I would argue that the separation of powers has failed, and if he becomes president again, we can't be certain that democracy will survive. Anyone who isn't an absolute rabid Trump supporter should be downright terrified right now.
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone who isn't an absolute rabid Trump supporter should be downright terrified right now.
Luckily for the safety of our democracy, the Democrats have chosen the most capable and vigorous man in the country to oppose him.</sarcasm>
(To be clear, I'd rather have a complete nullity in office than Donald Trump, for the same reason I'd rather have a net worth of $0 than -$1M. And I think Biden has had a surprisingly productive first term. But I think he's lost a lot and continues to decline rapidly.)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:4, Informative)
"recent decision could potentially be interpreted to quite literally grant him immunity for political assassinations on U.S. soil"
I think you can drop the "potentially" and perhaps the "could be" from that sentence, considering that three supreme court justices used exactly that example in their dissenting opinion.
Did you ever think you'd read
in an actual ruling from a western supreme court?
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You so conveniently ignored what I asked. VIDEO evidence. Thousands of people were there with mobiles, you only need one video evidence.
None of it was hearsay. There's loads of video evidence that Trump said the things that he said. People were arrested, tried, and put in jail for their actions on January 6th, and those actions were a direct consequence of Trump repeatedly lying to the American public and making false claims that he lost because of election fraud, then encouraging the crowd to fight in his speech at the ellipse.
Actions have consequences, and telling people that the election was rigged over and over until they believe it a
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget all the MAGA republicans who laughed at Trump's ideas of the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband being a sexual encounter gone wrong, or that he deserved it; dismissing violent rhetoric coming from the right, then immediately denouncing it now when we don't even know the motivations of the shooter.
Yes, there is a potential threat to traditional democracy going on now - many red states have been actively gerrymandering to hold onto their state legislatures despite changing demographics, and Trump is very clear on his authoritarian viewpoints. Trump and many MAGA Republicans and pundits have a love affair with Orban who has been dismantling democracy in Hungary; Trump and many are praising Putin, an out-and-out dictator (who'd have thought GOP would be pro-Russia ten years ago??). Trump while in office was quite chummy with many dictators and authoritarians. Yes, it is a threat to traditional democracy. This is not violent political rhetoric to say so, it's a warning sign for decent people to get out and vote.
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:5, Insightful)
But to call the leading presidential candidate an existential threat to democracy is absurd.
Does democracy still exist when the results of a fair democratic election are ignored? And there's no threat of that again?
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:4, Interesting)
Does democracy still exist when the results of a fair democratic election are ignored?
The results of the election weren't ignored. Say what you mean.
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:4, Insightful)
But to call the leading presidential candidate âoean existential threat to democracyâ is absurd. You lived through the last Trump presidency- youâ(TM)ll live through the next (if there is one).
And if our current form of government crumbles to an unrecognizable state, I will probably survive that as well. Just living through the Trump presidency is not a very high bar. Germany's population went from 66 million people before Hitler to 65 million people after, so most people would survive fascism in the US as well.
Our republic is only limping along at this point, and we are in a situation where a felon who at minimum praised rioters in our capital (and at worst instigated it) is very likely to become president again. Project 2025 is a laundry list of things which would be far more damaging than the significant damage Trump did in his first presidency.
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Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
You haven't sat down with project 2025 (Score:3, Insightful)
That's supreme Court ruling around immunity just gave Trump immunity. It didn't give him authority. He still needs people willing to do his bidding. Project 2025 gets him the authority and the immunity. It's a detailed plan to replace virtually everyone in the federal government with loyalists so that when Trump gives an order that order is obeyed unquestionably. J
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Since you think Presidents did not already have immunity explain how obama was about to target and kill a US citizen with no court order?
This whole thing reads like a giant conspiracy theory based on lack of
Re:You haven't sat down with project 2025 (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not Trump or his behaviour which is the threat to America. It's that people believe the kind of unfettered nonsense that you just wrote and are prepared to vote based on that.
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:5, Insightful)
Iâ(TM)m by no means a fan of Trump. Heâ(TM)s narcissistic at a level unmatched by any other, and has been extremely dishonest throughout his career. But to call the leading presidential candidate âoean existential threat to democracyâ is absurd. You lived through the last Trump presidency- youâ(TM)ll live through the next (if there is one).
Unhinged rhetoric like this is likely what inspired the shooter to begin with. After all, if Trump were really H*tler- wouldnâ(TM)t there be a moral obligation to stop him however possible?
He literally tried to overturn the result of the election, the only reason a coup or civil war didn't happen is the vast majority of Republicans in positions of power ignored his rhetoric and certified the election as legitimate. And in response to that he riled up a crowd, sent them to congress, and stood back as they stormed the capitol.
Since then the Republicans who stood up to him have largely been driven from the party.
What do you think is going to happen if the election is close again? Do you think those new secretaries of state who campaigned on the idea the election was stolen will certify Biden victories? What if Trump gets in? What do you think will happen in 2028 when he's either trying to orchestrate a 3rd term or hand off power to his hand chosen successor?
It's just like Sept 10th, 2001, sometimes the unthinkable happens and the world changes.
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:5, Insightful)
So it's not entirely accurate to say that a candidate for President might be a threat to democracy when he still refuses to accept the results of the last election, after litigating it over 60 times and having zero evidence of any election fraud that would have made any meaningful change to anything at all? And after several partisan "audits" looking for any scrap or shred of evidence to even point to in order to keep the ridiculous conspiracy of lies alive, they found what? Absolutely nothing. In fact, the "cyber ninjas" audit in Arizona ended up adjusting the vote count a little more to Biden.
And then that same guy conspired to plan and execute a violent uprising against the legislative branch when they were set to certify that election that he still can't bring himself to accept?
And if elected, he'll be de facto legally immune from accountability for any illegal actions he takes because a puppet Supreme Court invented some doctrine of Presidential Immunity that never even remotely existed before, and the other 45 presidents going back to George Washington never thought they had, and only one other president ever needed and was denied by the Supreme Court in directly relevant precedent (US v Nixon)? And that president promptly resigned because he was a lawyer and knew that he was about to discover the length, width, and breadth of the shaft courtesy of the United States Congress impeaching him?
None of this adds up to an existential threat to democracy? What guarantee do you have that he'll leave office still breathing if he wins, when he's basically immune to prosecution and has a friendly court that he's going to put 40-year old appointees onto that will be politically right of the last 20 GOP nominees and beholden to him due to pledging loyalty to even get the nomination nod?
If you aren't paying attention to how the table is getting set, then you need to open your fucking eyes.
Re: Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:5, Insightful)
But to call the leading presidential candidate âoean existential threat to democracyâ is absurd.
Why? Outside of a coup this is how all democracies fail. Putin was once a leading presidential candidate, and everyone saw exactly where it would head. Erdogan, Orban, and Lukashenko were all leading presidential candidates in their most recent elections. They all showed that existential threats to democracy are real.
The question is, what evidence do we have to back it up? Does the candidate have a history of siding with dictators and despots? Does the candidate have a history of subverting media? Does the candidate have a history of denying democratic results? Does the candidate have a history of attempting to sway outcomes of elections in ways not laid out in the normal functioning of transition of power?
If you answer yes to even one of those it's a cause for concern. If you answer yes to all of them then it may be worth digging out your bible and hoping divine intervention keeps your democracy safe, since that's all you have to fall back on.
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Ok...you got me.
I have absolutely no fucking idea what you are trying to say here...?
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He's one of those who bought into the "wood = inferior" myth.
It's like when people think we need to replace our "paper" money with plastic (polymer). What they don't realize is that our paper money is actually cotton, and not just cotton scraps like most countries used for their "paper" (actually more cloth) money, but made from the good stuff because we grow imperial tons* of the stuff in our country and can get it reasonably cheap. Thus, our paper money is actually as tough in most measurements as their
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Or, wait, do you mean Fauci? He's been called Hitler numerous times (see, for example: https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]).
Wait, wait...you must mean Obama (https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/why-do-the-super-rich-keep-comparing-obama-to-hitler/283404/)?
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You should care. There are more impressionable little leftie nutters out there, now eager to stop the next "Hitler."
It doesn't matter because it doesn't impact the clear message that political violence is not how we should prevent fascism. If anything it helps let fascism thrive. Whether this was a false flag operation or a misguided left wing nut job, this type of activity makes more violence by both sides more likely.
I do believe Trump is no different than Mussolini or Hitler. He is a fascist through and through. But if we try stopping fascism with violence it will only breed more violence, which will only make the pro
Re:Conspiracy Theorist's Wet Dream (Score:4, Informative)
The evidence is overwhelming that he was a liberal. But I guess this is the latest rationalization by people who will do anything not to admit their own culpability in political violence.
What evidence? You didn't even read the fucking article. His classmates said he was always conservative. Here:
“The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith said. “That’s still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other.”
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Trumps OWN WORDS are enough to condemn him. There is no need to exaggerate at all. He sounds like a whiny insecure cartoon villain if you listen to his words and not the tone of his voice. Are people smarter than dogs? Biden sounds OLD but usually says something while Trump sounds tough but his message is of a whiny victim and rambling nonsense.
No expert but⦠(Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You think? Hmm. Very speculative "far-out" theory, obviously, but not completely impossible.
Re:No expert but*** (Score:5, Interesting)
I would suspect, that this may be, just maybe, politically motivated Again, potentially
Yes, that's an obvious first guess. But other explanations are possible:
- he was impatient for his 15 minutes of fame
- he wanted to do the suicide by cop thing, but school shootings are passe'
- he wanted to impress a girl (as the guy who shot John Lennon)
- he was a loony cult member (as the chick who shot Ronald Reagan)
- a voice in his head told him to do it
- he was brainwashed, as in Manchurian Candidate (is that even possible?)
- he was manipulated by others into doing it
- he was possessed by a demon
- drugs or a toxic toenail fungus caused him to hallucinate that he was protecting little boys from priests, or his own arse from alien "investigators"
OK, a few jokes thrown in, but the rest are totally plausible.
I still suspect political motives, but there are other possibilities. Probably several I haven't thought of. We live in a crazy world.
Authoritarian (Score:2)
CNN reporting they have access (Score:3)
Investigators are about 70% done with their analysis of Trump rally shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks’ cell phone, according to a law enforcement official.
So far, they haven’t come across anything that has given them a hint as to why the shooter tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump, the official said. Investigators are also expected to work on the shooter’s laptop in hopes that reveals clues, according to the official.
The shooter’s parents, who have been cooperating with law enforcement since the assassination attempt, have said Crooks did not appear to have friends and did not appear to have any political leanings, the official said.
Re: (Score:3)
FBI technical specialists successfully gained access to Thomas Matthew Crooks’ phone, and they continue to analyze his electronic devices.
Re:Use the corpse (Score:5, Interesting)
Not everyone uses biometrics to unlock their phone.
LIkely there's still a rather significant number of folks out here like myself that use a long password/passcode.
It's a bit more secure IMHO, even when still alive.
Re:Use the corpse [for reality TV?] (Score:2, Interesting)
Rare case when I don't regret being sucked into looking at AC. It had something to say and even used a reasonable subject.
However my take on this story is thinking differently (again). I think American politics has become a tragedy, even the proverbial sh!t show. Now reality TV is actually good training for political campaigning. Reality TV is all about creating fake situations filled with strong emotions and using lots of cameras to capture it when someone snaps. Can't snap harder than this shooter...
The "
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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That's IMHO a terrible definition of fascism, despite how widely used it is.
The Fascist movement, at least in its original incarnation, was a reactionary movement that, while drawing support from many places, had its greatest support (numerically) from the upper middle class. These people were motivated out of intense fear of the left (and in particular, Bolschevism), and commonly internationalism and immigrants or minorities that were seen as left-supportive. The fascists were, in the greatest number, pe
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Use the corpse [for reality TV?] (Score:5, Informative)
Successful:
John Wilkes Booth (Abraham Lincoln): Know-Nothings (and a Confederate sympathizer)
Charles J. Guiteau (James Garfield): Stalwart Republican
Leon Czolgosz (William McKinley): Anarchist
Lee Harvey Oswald (John F. Kennedy): Marxist
Sirhan Sirhan (Robert F. Kennedy): Palestinian nationalist
Failed:
Richard Lawrence (Andrew Jackson): Mentally ill, no clear affiliation
John Schrank (Teddy Roosevelt): Mentally ill, no clear affiliation
Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola (Harry Truman): Puerto Rican nationalists
Arthur Bremer (George Wallace): No clear political affiliation, motive was personal attention
Sara Jane Moore (Gerald Ford): Radical leftist
Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme (Gerald Ford): Member of the Manson Family
John Hinckley Jr. (Ronald Reagan): No clear political affiliation, motive was to impress actress Jodie Foster
Francisco Martin Duran (Bill Clinton): Anti-government extremist
Jared Lee Loughner (Gabrielle Giffords): No clear political affiliation, mentally ill
To sum up:
Most assassins (or would-be assassins) are either from fringe extremist parties, or no party
Most are also mentally ill and/ or have personal motivations.
In terms of clear left-right balance, I'd say 3 right, 4 left, 3 foreign-nationalists, and 5 middle, ambiguous, or unknown.
Re: 78 year old (Score:3)
Relatively healthy? Relative to what? His diet is cheeseburgers and diet coke, doesn't exercise because he believes our bodies are like non-rechargeable batteries, and the only "sport" he plays is golf, not known for its athleticism. He is lucky he hasn't had a stroke or heart attack.
"Golf requires goofy pants and a fat ass!"
Re: (Score:3)
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Can't get a fingerprint or face scan off the body?
I dunno what the shooter had. I don't know if it's iphone or android.
But, I can tell you with iphone you need a living finger, or face. A corpse won't do, a severed finger won't do, holding up their dead face (what's left of it) wont' do.. if it's an iphone.
If it's that Samsung riffraff, who knows.. weren't those spoofable by a photo of the owner at some point?
Re: (Score:3)
But, I can tell you with iphone you need a living finger [...]
This isn't true at all, so long as the finger has the right moisture content to allow evanescent optical coupling to the sensor face. There's nothing else magical about living tissue which is sensed by the iPhone fingerprint reader. Now, there are many more advanced sensors which may also require certain biosignals to operate, but those aren't what you're talking about.
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Can't get a fingerprint or face scan off the body?
they already own the phone (i would bet). "break into a phone" is just the "technical aspect" that "allows" slashdot to tap into the latest morbid gossip and collect 100+ comments in a couple of hours.
Re: (Score:2)
Not enough brain cells to figure out how to turn off Apple SmartQuote on their iPhone
Ah yes, the Slashdot troll's equivalent to Apple's "don't hold it like that".
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: One interesting thing... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: One interesting thing... (Score:4, Insightful)
Extremists are all one kind. They may differ in details, but never in mind-set. That is why it is always a bad idea to let them run anything.
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I find it interesting that all the speculation is to explain why he isn't really a republican. He is a registered republican. He also gave $15 to a democratic PAC before that. Yes, it is possible he registered to screw with the republican primary, but it is just as likely he lost a bet to donate to the democratic PAC. There are plenty of never-Trump republicans would could be on this train. But the GOP is putting on a full court press to try and show he wasn't a "true republican" no matter what the facts sh
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Lost a bet? Considering he just gave up his life to assassinate Trump, it sounds like he is squarely on the "Trump is Hitler" camp.
Either way, he's clearly of the very, very impressionable type.
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He could just be a generic mass shooter that chose a different target. Quite a few assassins and would be assassins of prominent political figures in the past had severe mental issues.
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Slander comes out of the MAGA camp constantly. Even now, the story is that the left is doing this because they keep saying "save democracy" is violent speech while ignoring their own inflammatory comments. Today's Trump "truth" post is all about"we can bring the country together if you all vote for him and accept that all his legal troubles were hoaxes from evil democrats. Many times Trump has posted or spoke of his desire to get retribution and revenge against the justice department and democrats.
Trump i
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An arch Conservative with a wicked sense of humor might say he was hunting RINOs.
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There are Republicans who hate Trump.
That'd be pretty much any down ballot Republican who lost their race because hate for Trump motivated Democrats to show up at the polls and vote against them. I'd also imagine rivals on the same side of the aisle such as DeSantis aren't exactly thrilled that they can't move beyond Trump's shadow.
Re:One interesting thing... (Score:4, Insightful)
So your theory is that, after years, he suddenly decided to kill Trump because he really hated pedophiles, and he'd heard some fringe leftists insisting he was a pedophile?
But not that he "is Hitler" and an "existential threat to democracaaayyyy" espoused by the echo chambers and mainstream politicians (including the president) for the last eight years?
This assassination attempt was inevitable. It was the next step. If Hitler's about to be elected, you kill him.
I don't have a theory because I don't have all the facts yet. But it is hilarious that on the one hand conservatives like yourself insist that January 6th was a guided tour and Trump didn't incite anything despite the myriad of inappropriate things he's said over the years, while on the other hand insisting that rhetoric from the left totally drove this guy to attempt to shoot Trump despite all of the evidence released so far that strongly suggests he really was a Republican. And the only explanation conservatives keep coming up with to handwave it away and insist that he was really a secret liberal is a bunch of conspiratorial nonsense.
Additionally, people were comparing George W. Bush to Hitler way back in 2001 yet no one tried to assassinate him. It is a very weak argument without any evidence presented so far to support it.
Re:One interesting thing... (Score:4)
I dislike so many of Trumps policies, but I think it'll be worth voting for him to hear the wailing and sky-crying that'll follow his win.
You could've saved yourself a few keystrokes by just saying "I'll be voting for Trump because fuck you, I got mine."
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Just as likely?
"Come on man", he tried to assassinate the parties presumptive nominee. Could he have had some motive like being a never-trump-extreamist, while otherwise broadly subscribing the GOP platform, of course that is possible; but to suggest it is 'just as likely' is kinda silly.
But the other possibility, that he is in fact a deranged leftist - his parents are both Democrats, its a way more reasonably to start from they he probably was trying to mess with the GOP primary, to explain his voter regis
Re:One interesting thing... (Score:5, Insightful)
Nutjobs can have all sorts of political affiliations. We really don't have good evidence of his political beliefs yet, but early reports that he had made a token donation to act blue are now in question (he would have only been 17 at the time and it may have been someone else who shares his name). All we really know is that he wanted to achieve some sort of political action through violence.
Better to wait for some facts to come out before spreading theories. People are really eager to spread a narrative that boosts their preferred worldview. The actual facts about the shooter may not fit neatly into any political box.
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The timing of when he did it makes total sense for that, yes. Sounds like he was in on every nutty fringe leftie thing he heard, especially from the "mainstream" Democratic Party. I haven't heard a single QAnon nutter going after Trump, though, so I find it very hard to believe that's what motivated him.
He did give money to fringe leftists and tried to kill their #1 enemy, so it's not at all hard to work out why he did it, unless you desperately want to pretend he wasn't trying to kill the man the left ha
Re:One interesting thing... (Score:5, Insightful)
and who every elected Democrat has been claiming would end democracy if elected.
Well, here's a fucking crazy idea: Perhaps if you don't want nutters shooting at you because they believe you'll "end democracy", don't rile up your supporters to the point they actually attempt to do it. [wikipedia.org]
This is precisely why it's a bad idea to incite violence in the first place. To paraphrase that line from the latest Halo season, "That's the funny thing about violence, it doesn't tend to stay where you put it."
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Thanks for making my point.
Yeah, you've said that several times already in this thread. I think the point you've inadvertently made in actuality is that humans really haven't changed much since the time when they'd settle their disputes in the town square at high noon, with guns.
He was a Republican (Score:5, Informative)
Max R. Smith recalled taking an American history course with Crooks as a sophomore... "He definitely was conservative," he said. "It makes me wonder why he would carry out an assassination attempt on the conservative candidate."
Smith recalled a mock debate in which their history professor posed government policy questions and asked students to stand on one side of the classroom or the other to signal their support or opposition for a given proposal. "The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side," Smith said. "That's still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other."
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Several of his classmates have reported that he wasn't political at all but did wear a Covid mask long after it was required.
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His classmates maintained he was "conservative" and his peers were liberal. He continued to debate from a conservative perspective in alignment with his beliefs.
Re:Bullshit propaganda (Score:4, Informative)
Link for your fabricated story? His classmate says he was always conservative. https://www.theguardian.com/us... [theguardian.com]
“The majority of the class were on the liberal side, but Tom, no matter what, always stood his ground on the conservative side,” Smith said. “That’s still the picture I have of him. Just standing alone on one side while the rest of the class was on the other.”
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, except for that ActBlue donation. You know, that sterling republican organization. Wait, no... that explicitly Democrat organization.
Re:Deep state deep actor (Score:4, Informative)
FALSE
He did not donate $15 to Act Blue. That was a 69-year-old registered Democrat from Pittsburgh, PA with the same first and last name.
You are a lying scumbag.
I've heard this a few times but the news orgs weren't touching it so I looked into a bit.
The fact check is a bit confusing [yahoo.com] but here's the key bit:
The full address associated with the donation appears within a February 2021 FEC document (page 189,746) listing all of Act Blue's donations during the previous month. That street address and ZIP code match the home of the shooter, according to a public records search and photos of police searching the home..
So the donation didn't just match his name but his address, is doesn't make sense that the other Matthew Crooks would donate and give the shooter's address.
Re: (Score:2)
And Japanese culture has pretty much fuck-all to do with how we do and view things in the US, right?
Seems a fact
Re: (Score:2)
And Japanese culture has pretty much fuck-all to do with how we do and view things in the US, right?
Here in the US, I know of people who did that before and after CoVID as they have sensitive immune systems. So when I see someone wear one here in the US, my first impression is that it is a medical issue as opposed to a political one. Somehow, some people think that wearing a mask in public now means they are trying to make a statement.
Re: (Score:3)
Your first sentence if reasonable, but...
Sorry, but EVERYONE holds particular beliefs. What those beliefs are often isn't obvious, but hey do hold them. Many aren't held very firmly, but they're still held.
FWIIW, I consider myself conservative, but I sure don't consider the Republicans conservative. They're even less conservative than the Democrats, if in a different direction.
A conservative is one who wishes to conserve what is good about the current system, and is more interested in that conservation t
Re: (Score:2)
And they say QAnon is conspiratorial...
Re:False flag in progress (Score:4, Funny)
Mod parent attempted Funny? My earlier comment is not so intended, but given the badness of the moderation these years...
Already leaning towards another vacation from Slashdot. The last one lasted over a year, until a replacement website went down. Time for another search?
My conspiracy theory is that there must be a much better website than Slashdot. I haven't been able to find it, and the good people who went there aren't visiting Slashdot to tell us where they went. I'm not saying that Slashdot only has the dregs now, but it seems to be getting too close.
Alternatives. Hope these help you. (Score:3)
Re:False flag in progress (Score:5, Insightful)
The whole thing reads like a screenwrititer trying to make something that would drive everybody batty. The Republican registration, the Democratic donation, the hunting obsession, happens in pretty purple PA so it's not like it's a red or blue state crowd, seems to be enamored with guns but also some testimony that he was a very bad shot. Rumors swirling that the Secret Service may have thought he was a police sniper, another than an officer confronted him but then retreated right before the shots. Top it all off with the fact is seems like the kid was in the 0.05% of 20 year-olds with no social media presense. It's tailor made to feed the social and every other media machine.
I have a feeling this is gonna end up like the Las Vegas shooter where we're just not gonna get anything close to satisfying answer to the "why". And then in two weeks this will actually die down in the news cycle.
Re:Not sure why you were modded down (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
No, it boils down to "stop blaming the tool and blame the murderer"
Stupid conspiracy theories [Re:False flag in p...] (Score:2)
Clearly this was a false flag event designed to boost the convicted felon's credentials. This kid lives in a redneck area of PA and couldn't hit a target 150 yards away?
He suddenly turned to the side right after the would-be assassin pulled the trigger
Bullets don't travel at infinite speed. You have to place the shot where the target will be, not where it is. If the target moves unpredictably, you'll miss.
Come on. That's peanuts for any deer hunter.
. You know what? Deer hunters miss all the time. And the target is bigger.
Add in the kid was out in the open even though there are wooded areas nearby and this whole thing doesn't smell right.
How did you expect him to lure Trump into a wooded area, exactly?
Here's the actual facts. America is awash in guns. Sometimes crazy people have them. Sometimes crazy people do crazy things, even
Re:False flag in progress (Score:5, Funny)
Re:False flag in progress (Score:4, Interesting)
but NATO has a lot more energy than the .223.
Not really. The wikipedia pages make it seem like 5.56 is like 50% more powerful until you realize that .223 has foot-pounds as the primary measurement, while 5.56 has Joules. .223 Remington [wikipedia.org] .223: 1300 1715 1796 1814 1764 AVG: 1678 .223, it's less than a percent difference. .223 to be just as powerful as 5.56, up to the pressure limits of the rifle.
5.56 NATO [wikipedia.org]
Just averaging out the typical rounds:
5.56: 1755 1797 1859 1796 1679 AVG: 1777
Difference: 6% more for 5.56, which is indeed more energy, but without the oddball 1300J 36 grain JHP for
Conclusion: The total energy depends more on the round and rifle setup (longer barrel = more power on average), than it does on the differences between the two calibers. You can certainly load up
You can buy AR-15 look-alikes that shoot the low-power .22 Long Rifle. These bullets are subsonic at 150 yds and give a wizz when thay pass you. This seem more consistent with the witness reports. You can survive at .22 at that range (although a hit in the head can be lethal as the unlucky victim saw, and the shooter seemed to be aiming at Mr T's head)). I do not see any conspiracy theory here, but I am puzzled that the FBI say .556 NATO.
Because at this point that's probably the caliber he was shooting. The round (.223 or 5.56) is much less powerful than 7.62 NATO. Plus, you probably needed hearing protection on the range more from the rifle cracks than the rounds flying. With just one gun going, and the positioning, it could have insulated the crowd from most of the rifle report.
BTW, you consistently messed up the decimal in your metric calibers - it isn't .556 or .762, it's 5.56 and 7.62. US calibers are in fractions of an inch - IE 0.500, while metric calibers are in millimeters like 12.7.
There aren't just "AR-15 look-alikes" that fire .22LR, you can buy adapters that let you fire it out of an actual one.
Re:False flag in progress (Score:4, Insightful)
This seem more consisten with the witness reports.
Ever spend time near a gun range? Not on the line but, say, in the parking lot or across the street from one? They sound very different there. Best I can describe it is hanging a sheet of plywood up and hitting it with a hammer. It's not what most people would expect if they have never been in that spot.
Also bullets don't make a "deafining supersonic crack" as they go by down range. It's a tiny bullet, not a jet. In this case the size really does matter.
but I am puzzled that the FBI say .556 NATO.
Just a hunch, but I'm going to say it's because they have the actual rifle, ammo, and spent casings in their possession.
Re:The left does NOT want Trump dead (Score:5, Insightful)
People need to calm the heck down and stop inflaming passions.
Perhaps you should suggest that to the person who called others "vermin".
Perhaps you should suggest that to the person who told his followers he is their "retribution".
Perhaps you should suggest that to the person who encouraged a violent insurrection on our nation's capital when he lost the 2020 election.
Perhaps you should suggest that to the person who already said he wants to be a dictator on day one.
This is not the same election we had in 2016, or in 2020. Nor is it the same election we had during the US Civil War. When Lincoln - who would clearly not be accepted in today's GOP - was elected he wanted to bring the country back together. Trump has not once expressed the slightest interest in unification. Trump's campaign embraces demonization of people they don't agree with.
Re: (Score:3)
Agreed, I think that anybody who watches the Republican Convention will see just how committed they are to reducing rhetoric and calls for violence
Re:The left does NOT want Trump dead (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes we have had a taste of what Trump has done to democracy and we know what he'll do in his next term, and it's truly scary. In the first four years he actively worked to undermine the institutions of democracy, attacking the other parts of his own executive, including the FBI and the department of justice. He actively undermined both of these agencies with his words and actions, promoting the deep state conspiracy all the while he was obstensibly running the state. Because of his words and actions, a significant part of American society is now even more anti-government than ever before (truly ironic given he's runnign for president to be a part of this government). Now he and his followers are talking about using the DOJ to pursue Trump's enemies. Obviously DOJ attorneys initially will resist anything illegal (or barely legal) but they'll be pushed out and replaced with true believers. At the same time Congress, particularly the GOP, as essentially abdicated most of their responsibilities in governing and law-making, content to merely fight each other. I have no doubt Trump will take even more power to the presidency, and that trend was already worrying with previous presidents going back to Bush and Obama.
So, is it hyperbole? I don't think so. There was damage done to democracy during Trumps presidency and the GOP seems closer than ever to actually calling for a king. I find it frightening how many Americans, particularly in the GOP, are now willing to abandon democracy if it means their guy is king.
In case you think you can pigeon-hole me here, I don't have any faith in the Dems either. Seems like they'd be quite content to have a progressive king.
The danger always is in the self-fulfillment of prophecy, something all sides are guilty of.
Re:The left does NOT want Trump dead (Score:5, Interesting)
In case you think you can pigeon-hole me here, I don't have any faith in the Dems either. Seems like they'd be quite content to have a progressive king.
Democrats already proposed an amendment to ban the presidential immunity. In general, Democrats know that the time is on their side. In the last 5 out of 6 elections, they won the public vote quite convincingly. Bush and Trump won only because of the undemocratic US election system. But this advantage is temporary, and within a decade Texas is likely to become a swing state purely due to demographics.
This might not have been a problem in the past, because people get more economically conservative as they age, but Republicans uniquely don't have ANY good economic policy proposals. Look at the RNC, it's 100% culture war messaging rather than constructive policies. Heck, Trump picked up a blowhard Vance for his VP, who thinks that there should be no abortion exceptions for incest or rape, or that women should be compelled to stay in abusive relationships.
Or you can look at the current Congress, that passed just 30 laws this year. And it's supposed now to do all the work of the regulatory agencies.
Re:The left does NOT want Trump dead (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, we do. He's already told us he'll be a dictator on day one, he'll take revenge on a multitude of people because they didn't support him, he'll force the Justice Department to open criminal investigations on a multitude of people [nymag.com] including President Biden and his family, any of the attorneys and judges in New York who were on his legal cases, as well as anyone involved in investigating his theft of classified documents, and go by the Project 2025 playbook [bbc.co.uk] which will remove protections and freedoms from a whole swath of the population. In fact, the convicted felon has openly stated he'll do a bunch of things [politifact.com] to remove people's freedoms and hamper democracy from this country, including investigating and trying to remove air rights [forbes.com] from any media outlet which reported his own words. And let's not forget he'll throw Ukraine to Russia [reuters.com] to appease his Russian master.
So yes, we do know exactly what he will do.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
OH NOES!!!!!
Some desperate kid does something truly awful and now everybody in America loses the right to Free Speech?
And they like to say Leftists are the ones who practice Cancel Culture
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
However at the same time I recognize his right to say terrible things. While he has been granted protections that allow him to say in public things that many other people would not be allowed to say, he still is entitled to be able to say them. Silencing him wo
Re: (Score:3)
Notably only one side in this election has made efforts to impede free speech. I think Trump is a terrible leader, a terrible politician, a terrible father, a terrible husband, and overall a terrible human being who says and does terrible things. However at the same time I recognize his right to say terrible things. While he has been granted protections that allow him to say in public things that many other people would not be allowed to say, he still is entitled to be able to say them. Silencing him would not be useful.
Correct. You want to encourage terrible people to say what they think, so you know exactly what you're getting. And if a brazenly narcissist/pathological liar/sociopath isn't trivial to defeat politically, then Trump is a symptom, not the disease. May future generations learn something from this. Because we're f*cking this up bad.
Re:Why Do They Need to Break Into His Phone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
He may have been recruited to do it. And we would want to know who recruited him. And also find out who else they've recruited.
Trump or someone on his team recruited him. An assassination, even an attempt, cements his self-proclaimed position as a martyr. Obviously, he didn't think it through. :-)
Trump could shoot himself on fifth avenue on live TV and his base would be clamoring to get the liberal that did it.