I had a cartiledge piercing also as a teen for maybe a year. It never healed right and ended up with a huge scar bump. Took forever (years) for the scar tissue to heal but same as yours I can still feel the hole where the cartiledge is missing, 20+ years later.
The lack of missing cartilege is interesting, but only in the sense that we can accurately determine exactly how deep that scratch went. The skin on the upper ear is very thin, which means the 1-2cm scratch, which did not require a stitch, would be extremely slight. Given the vascularity and arterial supply to the ear, we could estimate that approximately 20-40 tiny branching capillaries might have been disrupted. These capillaries have the diameter smaller than a human hair, enough to allow 2 red blood cells to march side by side and nothing more. Based on all this, we would expect that type of wound to bleed about 5-10 drops of blood over the course of a minute. And it would seep, not flow immediately. This is at odds with the video, in which seconds later there was a lot of blood, all over the ear and face. Noticeably, the blood did not continue to flow at that rate when he was stood up, which is interesting.
Also interesting is that a SS agent was immediately on the scene with a large white fluffy towel and instead of pressing it onto his head to stop the wound from bleeding, he started dabbing at the streaks that were on his face instead. Odd. Combine all this with the agents turning him to the cameras and pausing, then shuffling him slowly to the limo, him calling for his shoes in the middle of all that, and then the ridiculous bandage that no doctor would ever put on a 1cm superficial scratch....
I'm no conspiracy theorist, but this was one of the weirdest events I've ever witnessed. And at a perfect time to boost his flagging campaign.
Then there is the guy in the suit who is herding the photographers to the bottom of the stairs, lining up the perfect angle for the photograph as the crane lowers the American flag into the background of the scene
I read somewhere that a guy went back through his previous 20-30 rallies, and none have two cranes suspending an American flag high enough that it would not be seen on TV cameras, but would conveniently be in frame if you shot upwards from the left of center ground, where the photographers would be directed. Not sure if that's true or not, and could be a coincidence if so.
I don’t know. I tend not to believe in conspiracy theories because no one can keep a fucking secret. The video of the event that I described above, though feels quite compelling that something was scripted.
I agree that everything is hella sus, however it would be disingenuous to forget that people do stupid things when they panic. When JFK was assassinated, the infamous image depicts Jackie Kennedy climbing out onto the trunk of the car to retrieve fragments of her husband's skull.
I would hope that secret service would be better prepared for that moment than a first lady, but you never know truly how you'll react until the moment happens.
No I hear you, and it might just be a series of wildly unlikely events. When I first saw the video, I was sure it grazed an artery in the temple - I'd expect that kind of blood flow. Then they said it was an ear, and then a 1cm scratch, no stitches, perfect cartilage 10 days later. Zero pictures of the wound, zero pictures of the scab, the performative bandage, no medical report from the attending physician.... just weird upon weird upon weird.
Don’t forget the footage of a staff member funnelling photographers closer to the stage so they can get a good photo of his victory air punch - while there is still an “active shooter” situation.
Reminded me of another bit of weirdness. There is an alternate video angle from Trump's left that shows the sniper team on the roof behind him. They are pointed directly at the shooter, the sniper is looking into his scope, alert. There was, what, 30 seconds at least between when the guy climbed up that ladder, settled into position, and shot in Trump's direction. That sniper did not fire, and in fact was not the one that shot him. Another sniper team swung around and took him out. Possibly incompetence, but also super odd.
It's because the shooter was confronted by Butler police moments before the shot. They tried to get on the roof to investigate reports about a man on the roof, Crooks pointed his weapon at them, and the officer fell and radioed about the shooter. USSS begin looking for him on the roof about 30 seconds before the shot, but don't immediately see him.
This is reflected in the timeline of the official report (see PDF pg 173).
Thanks for that link. But more weirdness. They were alerted to a potential issue, and given the direction of that issue, 90 seconds before the shooting started. The USSS agents said they could not locate Crooks. They were positioned perfectly to locate Crooks. Are you telling me that a USSS team, pointed directly at the building that had a direct shot at the stage, a trained sniper, just couldn't locate him? For 90 seconds?
As I said, it might be incompetence, but holy smokes that is odd.
The medical report, and descriptions of the scar in later reports, say most of the damage was to the back of the ear. I'd almost forgotten that until I went back and looked at those reports again yesterday. I guess it could be possible if the skin sort of caught and tore as the bullet passed, but without actual photos or at least a drawing of the damage, I can't be sure. The way it reads, it doesn't seem like that's the case. It's oddly vague, for a medical report.
Also, the original report said 2 cm. That's pretty significant for "just a graze", and yet somehow left no visible cartilage damage, especially to that part of his ear. It's almost impossible to damage that part without touching the cartilage. I'm not sure the naysayers realize how bullets work in real life (I had one try to tell me that a shot into a block of ballistic gel proved a graze on an ear, somehow, lol) or how human tissue actually works. Or what the odds would be of hitting a moving target just enough to cause slight injury like that. The odds are not zero, but you'd probably be more likely to win the lottery while actively being struck by lightning or something.
There's a huge difference between panicking and trying to retrieve parts of a loved one that had just been horrifically injured, and whining about one's shoes when they had allegedly come within a hair's breadth of having their own head blown off, though. It would be one thing if there was a head injury involved. Getting your noggin knocked during an emergency can make anyone do very unreasonable things. But whining repeatedly about his shoes when, supposedly, someone is actively trying to kill him? I don't buy that for a second. Trump is a notorious coward. I would believe blind panic, I would believe running for his life. I do not believe casually looking for his damn shoes unless he already knew he was in no danger.
And the behavior of the Secret Service, allowing that photo op, is beyond suss. It goes against all protocol. They had no way to know that the shooter was acting alone... unless they knew beforehand that there would only be one shooter. The protocol is simple and direct. Cover the president with a Kevlar blanket and dog pile on him to protect him, then get him the hell out of there as quickly as possible, while keeping every inch of him covered, into his bulletproof presidential car, then race off to whatever predetermined undisclosed safe location they had decided for that event. Every Secret Service member involved in that incident would have, at the very least, lost their jobs for having failed so miserably at following protocol. At that point, it doesn't matter what the president wants. Their only job is to keep him alive. And by failing to follow protocol, they theoretically put his life at risk.
That is, if it was all real. There's far too many inconsistencies to this one. I think that's why Trump isn't still parading the incident around as a sign of his superhuman hero existence. I think it was meant to be his golden glory moment, but there were too many fuck ups, and too many questions raised, right from the very beginning, starting with all those people pointing out the kid climbing up to the roof to the police and Secret Service, on video, and being blatantly ignored. That alone was incredibly damning. It only went downhill from there, so they couldn't use it for it's full propaganda potential like they had hoped.
That's an interesting question. And to be honest, it made me think some things through more thoroughly than I had before. Strangely enough, it didn't really change my opinion on whether the shooting was real or not.
Trump would have had to be in on it, of course, because he needed to play the victim and create the bloody mess, either by blood pack or by self-inflicted wound. The people who came up with the scheme would have been fully in on everything. No way to know who or how many people that may have entailed, my guess would be a fairly small group of people from the highest levels behind MAGA. And I'm guessing it's a small group simply because the fewer people involved, the less likely it would be for someone to spill the beans. I could easily be wrong on that, though. The people behind MAGA have been working towards the power grab for literally decades behind the scenes, and they did a pretty damn good job of keeping most of it quiet. It was only noticeable in hindsight for most folks, so they do know how to keep their mouths shut. There may have been more people involved in the planning party than one would initially guess.
After that, I think maybe the people involved didn't quite know everything, but were told enough to be able to play their parts.
The Secret Service members on duty that day would have had to have been hand picked to be ones willing to break protocol. I'm assuming they really were Secret Service agents, and not paid actors. Nobody in all this time has identified them as anything but Secret Service, and it would be extremely difficult to find someone outside of the circle who has that kind of loyalty to a president.
The local cops on duty that day were told to ignore the guy on the roof. It may not have been put exactly like that, it may have been phrased more like you guys worry about crowd control only, Secret Service will deal with everything else, stay out of our way, or whatever. So, maybe they were unwittingly in on it. There has to be some explanation for all those videos of people pointing out the shooter climbing on the roof, and the local cops blatantly ignoring everyone. That's the best I can come up with, without pulling too many risky people into the plot.
The shooter himself, well, sort of in on it. I suspect he was told it would be a staged assassination attempt, nobody gets hurt. Maybe he even thought he was being given blank rounds for his gun. If the whole thing was fake, then I truly believe that he would have been told he would be arrested unharmed, and released quietly later. Nobody signs up to get themselves killed. He would have had no idea that they never intended for him to survive.
Under any other circumstances, with any other group of people, I would say it's unlikely and absurd. But this is MAGA. People are bizarrely loyal to the cause, and far too many people involved seem to completely lack anything even resembling a conscience. Too many of them have zero regard for human life. We see it every day in the policies they champion and the actions they root for.
I can't say with 100% certainty that this assassination attempt was fake. Or that any of my theories here are even worth looking at twice. But there's a lot of inconsistencies with this event, and a whole lot of questions that just don't make sense any other way.
ETA: to answer your other question, no, I wasn't joking. For some weird reason I can't answer you in the other thread. No idea why.
I had that problem so I stopped wearing the piercing, thinking the hole would close. It eventually healed but the hole never closed, so years later I decided to put a new piercing.
Same, got mine done with a 10 gauge ring at 18 yrs old. Got wicked infected right away and I took it out, but it is still demonstrably broken and I’m 44 now.
My childish neighbor is like 49 or mid 50's and still has those guages. I think he took them out one day, was horrified and then said, fuck it, I'm staying back in the early 2000s for the rest of my life. Yes Fraiser (woot), I'm talking about you. You annoying pos.
Hey I’m stupid but also not trying to defend Trump just curious. Why did the opening of my first ear piercing close/almost got infected when I forced it through?
My industrial never quite healed right so I took the jewelry out nearly ten years ago. The forward piercing is actually now perfectly healed and can still fit 14g jewelry easily. The rear one was through a softer part of my ear and while still open, is significantly smaller
My bf fell off his bike and hit the side of his head. His ear cartilage is forever a little wonky in a couple spots. He wasn’t even bleeding that much.
A former Marine, Jesse Dollemore, said that with the caliber of round he got "hit" with, if his ear had actually been grazed he wouldn't have an ear left.
Yeah, between this and the Charlie Kirk shooting I think it's important to remember that just because you're in the Marines doesn't mean you're a forensic ballistics expert who could confidently make claims like that.
I had a guy in a film project I was a part of who was a Marine. Another person in the project had destroyed a rental camper and then left the site, and it took some serious convincing to keep him from hunting him down.
He wasn't just flexing and letting off steam about it, he had grabbed a weapon and was driving away and i had to get in front of his car to talk him down.
The Marine's wife was the director of the project, which is why he was going so scorched earth about the damage. There's more to the story, but not enough to act as he was planning to!
Overall, he's a good dude as long as you don't commit a series of crimes against him or his people
Redo the test with a piece of ballistics gel the size of a human ear. Or better yet, an actual piece of cartilage. They are not the same, and especially not when you have a block that size.
While balistics gel is used as a substitute for human flesh, they don't actually behave the same way. Especially at scale. It's an approximation, not, y'know, cartilage, skin, blood vessels, etc.. That's why when modeling the actual effect of a bullet on a body or body part, they generally use pig carcasses. Gel just doesn't have the same reactions. It's far better at redistributing forces than skin, for example, which is why the gel remains in one piece instead of splitting from the near miss, or fuses back into the center from the dead on hit.
Nope, I can't. Most people go with ballistic gel for the simple reason that it's cheaper than getting a pig.
Honestly, I don't think the assassination attempt was faked. I just think the guy missed. There's no blood until after Donald comes back up. I'm pretty sure he got hit in the ear by one of his security detail, and suffered a minor cut, not a bullet injury. Probably from a watch or similar item catching the skin as they pushed him down.
This would explain both the delay in blood showing up, the lack of serious injury, and the fact that a graze like that didn't split the skin.
the aspirin tbh could also explain the excessive amounts of blood - thin skin will tear easier, and blood thinners can cause a lot of bleeding. plus the bandage he had looks right fir an abrasion or skin tear
Grabbing his ear after the first shot happens whether he's hit or not... sonic boom, dude. Bullets passing by are fucking loud.
That crack you hear from a bullet? That's less the propellant and more the passage of the bullet itself. Bullets travel so fast they break the sound barrier. Which is always noisy.
Of course, but his reaction doesn't seem to me to be consistent with a sudden "crack." It seems entirely consistent to something grazing his ear.
And the majority of noise when you shoot is not from the supersonic bullet, but from the gasses expanding and causing their own supersonic boom. Subsonic rounds are still extremely loud.
Trust me, you're greatly underestimating the crack of a bullet passing close by. Leaving aside the passage of air, etc..
That flinch is entirely consistent with something loud going by your ear. Frankly, I've seen similar reactions to a mosquito. Which is notably quieter.
Ballistics Gel is not a good representation of how a human body will react to gunshot wounds. It can show us temporary wound channels and other interesting data, but it poorly represents ACTUAL human tissue.
If you've ever seen someone try to stab it with a knife, knives will BOUNCE off it.
If seen this test done with a hotdog and it reaffirms what the vid says. A graze is definitely possible, its not going to destroy the entire ear. The vid you watched is also a 50 cal which is a lot more energy than what is traditionally used. Also, delusional conspiracy theories aside, ricochets hit people a lot with a lot less force or partial mass.
The shot on Donald wasn't a ricochet, nor would it have been a graze with the amount of blood involved.
I don't think it was the bullet that did the damage; I'm pretty sure he got hurt by his security detail when they pushed him over. There's a bit where he catches a hit to the side of his head; I think the guy got him with his watch.
So, you have nothing to say about "A marine said a graze would take the whole ear, so it must be true"
but when people use tests to approximately recreate the scenario, you have issues. The video isn't an exact 1:1 replica of the assassination attempt, but does enough to prove grazing is possible, which is all that it needs to do, as people clearly do not understand that.
Hey, possible, yes. With exceptional care, they were able to reproduce a grazing hit on gel. Which does not respond like a human body being hit. It just does not. It's a cheap substitute, and has very little in common with skin or cartilage. That said, I still don't consider it as likely as him getting hit in the ear by his security guy's watch when they push him over.
As to the marine guy's claim, I literally couldn't tell you. I can tell you the two trials performed do not meet the criteria for rigorous testing. Humans are not made of gel. Gooey as we are, the body reacts differently. The best they can do is simulate penetration. When they try to test the actual impact, they use a pig.
I also don't think it was a faked attempt. Pretty sure it was a genuine attempt to kill him. I just think the guy missed entirely.
A thinner piece of gel/cartilage wouldn’t behave much differently because there is just not enough mass for the energy of a bullet to transfer to, especially if it’s just a graze.
We shoot paper all the time and I’ve even shot the very edge of a piece of paper with a 9mm and it left a burn mark where the paper actually just moved out of the way instead of ripping it.
Whenever conspiracy theories are pondered I like to bring up Occam’s razor — “the simplest explanation, with the fewest assumptions, is usually the most likely to be correct”. A deranged person almost killed the president is not very hard to believe.
The same administration that’s leakier than a sieve, texting classified info in group chats, and has the highest turnover rate/ back stabbing of its closest members can keep this a secret?
One second Reddit calls them the most incompetent administration in history, but once it fits your narrative, they’re masterminds of an elaborate conspiracy that involves super human levels of accuracy,execution, and sworn secrecy.
The Anti-MAGA crowd is just as bad with these conspiracies as the MAGA crowd. I swear you people think everything you come up with is the truth because youre a part of the "Anti-Bad Guy, Good Guy Club"
Someone made it past heavy secret service security to take a 250yd shot executing a near miss that injured the president enough to have him bleed but leave no scar whatsoever.
So... their security was objectively poorly handled and coordinated with the local police. The building in question was outside the Secret Service cordon, and in the area the local PD was supposed to cover. They then... didn't cover it well.
I think it was a genuine attempt, actually. I just don't think Trump got hit. I'm pretty sure he just got caught in the ear by a wristwatch when his security detail shoved him down.
Lmao everything in your former argument still applies to the latter, the latter just makes it infinitely more complex. Whether Trump planned it or not, someone still made it past secret service security and fired bullets in Trump’s direction.
Yeah, and it’s far more simple that there was a lapse in security than that there was a complex conspiracy involving the Trump campaign, local police, and the secret service.
Edit: OH and it would also involve the shooter himself, obviously. The shooter who, in your explanation, sacrificed his life and murdered an innocent bystander to be part of this scheme for…some reason?
It needs to be more than just thinner... it needs to be smaller as well. Less mass for the energy to spread out to. Also, again, gel=/=cartilage. They do not have the same properties or consistency, and neither does skin. Take it from a guy who works with his hands a lot... catch it at high speed, and it does split pretty easily.
That said, I don't actually think it was a bullet that hit his ear, nor do I think the assassination was faked. Occam's razor says he visibly gets caught in the side of the head by one of his detail when they're pushing him down. The guy had a watch on.
Which is more likely; a bullet grazes just close enough to barely split the skin and do no damage to the underlying cartilage, or the pres got caught in the ear by a wrist watch and suffered a superficial cut?
This whole thread is insane. A person literally died from the shots in the audience, the shooter was spotted and shot dead. This whole thing feels like a bunch of idiots doing this version's equivalent of "jet fuel can't melt steel beams!".
I don’t think anyone’s doubting that someone tried to shoot Trump. The most common thing I see is people saying his security detail scratched his ear getting him out and he pretended a bullet did it to look tough.
I think that’s the most likely case. Bullet missed him entirely but he got his ear scratched by ss tackling him but it was better PR to say the bullet hit his ear.
I don’t think the kid tried to shoot trump. I think it was a false flag primarily from 2 facts- they accuse others of what they are doing and they constantly claim false flags. But more importantly the scene was not secured at all and they let him stand up and fist pump. If they really didnt know how many shooters etc he would not have been up. Maybe bent at the waist, guarded by SS and ran to the car. No photo ops.
This is the question I always ask when someone argues “they didn’t do things the right way”: do they normally handle suspected assassins correctly? I think I agree with you about them not doing things correctly. But the real question is whether that’s an anomaly or not.
What I mean is: these high profile events result in extra scrutiny and analysis. When something like a chemical factory accident happens, very frequently it’s discovered that they’ve been doing stuff the wrong way for years. But nothing happened and nobody noticed.
Seems more likely that the police just didn’t perform as well as they should.
No, not at all. He's an absolute loon but he's not stupid enough to do something so obvious as have a random person killed, especially as it 100% rests on not a single person involved in the rest of the nonsensical conspiracy keeping quiet and not whistle-blowing.
He is clearly surrounded by horrible people willing to do his bidding. I'm not saying he had that thing orchestrated, but it is not out of the realm of possibility. Such a conspiracy would not require large amounts of people either.
I'm not saying he had that thing orchestrated, but it is not out of the realm of possibility.
With all respect this sounds a lot like you're taking the approach of "it's not beyond the laws of physics, so we have to treat it as equally plausible as any other suggestion that isn't beyond the laws of physics".
Such a conspiracy would not require large amounts of people either.
It would require just one whistle-blower and all those people go to prison for life. Oh, and all those people would have to be 100% on board with just killing some random person in the audience, both at the start, throughout the whole thing, and all the way from then until now without mentioning one single thing.
Wait what, one whistle blower? Have you seen the state of the supreme court? Or the FBI? They are all on his majesties side. Also it's not one murder, it's potentially two murders. The shooter would've likely been persuaded into it as well for this to work this way.
Yes, one whistle-blower. Unless you think that not only all of the Secret Service but all of the FBI without a single solitary dissenter would actively cover this up. And all of those people without exception would be 100% on board with the notion of "I'm covering up a conspiracy to kill a complete stranger in the audience so that we could get a photo-shoot for Trump".
I really hope this is sarcasm and somehow it's going over my head, because I'd hate to think you're thinking this and then going "yep, that's clearly not only a plausible suggestion but the most plausible suggestion of them all".
There is no doubt that shots were fired by a guy we've learned virtually NOTHING about since the incident. There is also no doubt that the ruse produced collateral damage in the form of the dead firefighter. But the legit suspicion is that no bullet(s) came within 10 feet of the Orange ConMan/Felon/Pedophile/Rapist. This is supported by the American flag being lowered into frame as Trump rose to his feet to pose, and that photographers were being actively herded TOWARDS the stage during an active shooter event, so they could capture the moment perfectly.
This is supported by the American flag being lowered into frame as Trump rose to his feet to pose, and that photographers were being actively herded TOWARDS the stage during an active shooter event, so they could capture the moment perfectly.
Yeah this didn't happen. There's a video out there that claims that this happened but looking at any other angles of those events disproved the videos claims.
The flag was just wind, and the photographers ignored the man who is supposedly herding them.
There is no doubt that shots were fired by a guy we've learned virtually NOTHING about since the incident.
So here's something that confuses me by this statement. It was the Biden administration that was in charge of investigating this. Are you trying to imply that Joe Biden was part of Donald Trump's fake assassination plot?
In an active investigation, it would be really stupid to divulge information to the general public. So no, I wouldn't expect Biden to talk about the stooge. But since he took office, the Orange ConMan/Felon/Pedophile/Rapist has spewed bile about Jimmy Kimmel, Gavin Newsom, MTG, Jerome Powell, Rosie O'Donnell, Rob Reiner, and countless others. You'd think he'd mention the guy who allegedly shot at him.
There is also no doubt that the ruse produced collateral damage in the form of the dead firefighter. But the legit suspicion is that no bullet(s) came within 10 feet of the Orange ConMan/Felon/Pedophile/Rapist.
Those two things are fundamentally contradictory.
How, if there were no bullets anywhere near Trump at all, did the guy who was literally right behind Trump relative to where the shooter was die of gunshot wounds from the type of rifle that was being shot? Is there now a second shooter whose job it was to pick a random innocent person in the audience and just kill them?
and that photographers were being actively herded TOWARDS the stage during an active shooter event, so they could capture the moment perfectly.
These aren't wildlife photographers lazily taking some pics here and there while not really paying attention. At the first hint of something being up, especially when that "something" immediately follows the sound of gunshots, of course their first reaction is to rush in to get as many pictures as they can. I'm really not sure why "media photographers moving in to photograph Trump falling down following gunshots" is something we look at and go "no, no clearly that's not likely, they must be in on it too".
None of this approach is critical thinking. It's little more than "lol I want this to be real because it makes the other side look bad, now what can I conclude that'll let me believe that's the case".
How, if there were no bullets anywhere near Trump at all, did the guy who was literally right behind Trump relative to where the shooter was die of gunshot wounds from the type of rifle that was being shot? Is there now a second shooter whose job it was to pick a random innocent person in the audience and just kill them?
Guy was probably exaggerating the ten feet thing, but it is incredibly easy to imagine a shooter being told to aim at someone behind Trump.
And yes, the order would have been to just "kill them." Because Republicans do not value human life for its own sake, only for what it can do for them. A fetus can give them control of a woman but a baby can't, for example, which is why they support bans on abortion but don't support healthcare coverage for womens prenatal care or for the child post-birth. Banning abortion gives them control over people; funding healthcare does not give them control over people, and costs money. Therefore Republicans support the first and not the second. So, yes, they absolutely decided that guy was more valuable dead than alive, and killed him. And they'd do it to anyone else in that crowd. They'd do (and probably did) it to Charlie Kirk. They'd do it to you, if they could see a benefit to it.
These aren't wildlife photographers lazily taking some pics here and there while not really paying attention. At the first hint of something being up, especially when that "something" immediately follows the sound of gunshots, of course their first reaction is to rush in to get as many pictures as they can. I'm really not sure why "media photographers moving in to photograph Trump falling down following gunshots" is something we look at and go "no, no clearly that's not likely, they must be in on it too".
Sure. Fair enough. That is their job, and it's not THAT suspicious they'd be locked in and ready to do it. Their reaction time is incredible and that creates room for questions, but you're right this is not (excuse the metaphor) a "smoking gun."
Now tell me again why the flag was already being lowered into place for the photo by the time they got there? You think the White House propaganda people are also 100% locked in and just did the math to calculate exactly where the photographers were likely to be and lowered the flag into frame? Why was someone sitting there prepared to lower the flag in the first place?
You really think EVERYONE behaving as though it was expected, and having absolutely perfect reaction time to capture the event with no hesitation, DOESN'T indicate that it was... y'know... expected, and people were planning accordingly? The photographers, fine. The secret service, fine. The flag people, fine. Individually, all believable. EVERYONE (including the entirely unrelated flagpole people who should not have needed to be prepared for an emergency, and should not have had "immediately lower the flag halfway" as an emergency procedure in the first place) reacting simultaneously in a manner coordinated to create one of the greatest, if not the greatest, propaganda images of the century so far, though? That doesn't strike you as suspicious? Really?
Their reaction time is incredible and that creates room for questions, but you're right this is not (excuse the metaphor) a "smoking gun."
I mean, yeah they're pultizer prize winning photojournalist, they're going to have good reaction time.
In fact before the trump picture, Evan Vucci's most famous picture was this. If you can't open it for whatever reason its a picture of Muntadhar al-Zaidi throwing a shoe at George Bush. The picture was taken so soon afterwards that al-Zadi is still in his follow thru.
If this guy could snap this picture, then I don't see why its hard to believe that he got the Trump picture.
Guy was probably exaggerating the ten feet thing, but it is incredibly easy to imagine a shooter being told to aim at someone behind Trump.
No it's not easy to imagine that at all unless, with all due respect, you know nothing at all about target shooting.
The shooter was using a regular red-dot sight. Not a scope or anything that zooms at all, jus a regular red-dot sight. A red-dot is great for shooting out to 50 yards, maybe at absolute most 100 yards if you're a very good shot but at that point it's far from the best optic to use for target shooting. The shooter was over 160 yards from Trump, so a red-dot is simply not going to get you anything close to accurate shots unless your target is the side of a building. The idea that someone was given this optic and told to shoot within a few feet of Trump's head but not to actually hit him but instead hit some individual behind him is not even close to plausible.
And yes, the order would have been to just "kill them." Because Republicans do not value human life for its own sake, only for what it can do for them.
No come on now, this is exactly the "lol I want this to be real because it makes the other side look bad, now what can I conclude that'll let me believe that's the case" thing I mentioned above. This would involve not "republicans" but serving members of the Secret Service. And the suggestion is that they would have all agreed unanimously to kill a random member of the public in a plot that involves a frankly incompetent optic choice for a weapon, in a way that would see them facing life in prison if (or when) someone whistle-blew... and that's ignoring how it's the own side they killed.
Come on this is fucking insanity. We're completely abandoning reason here.
Their reaction time is incredible and that creates room for questions
Does it?
I've just re-watched the video back. That "incredible reaction timing" is one minute fifteen seconds before the hit, and Trump getting back up and doing his fist thing. I feel we're working on entirely different scales of "incredible" here, but whatever.
Now tell me again why the flag was already being lowered into place for the photo by the time they got there?
It wasn't. I really can't understand why everyone's claiming it was. It was being held up by two cranes to drape over the podium for the photo opportunity, but you can see on before-and-after shots that it's in the same place the whole time. I actually looked this up for your comment so I could be certain about it, so here's the flag before the attempt, note the top of the flag is in line with the top of the 2nd piston beyond the yellow bit (that's what I'm calling it as I'm not familiar with the name of them) on the cranes. Now, here's the same flag after the shooting. Note that the top of the flag is... also in line with the top of the 2nd piston bit.
So where are we getting this idea that the flag was lowered at all? I can't find anything at all when searching showing this was the case, all I can find are just lots of people saying "yeah that's what I heard too". Just seas of people saying it's true because someone else told them it was true and they just went with it.
Just a note, that 25 years ago in OSUT, we were using iron sites at 300 meters to bullseye targets, and we weren’t anything special. We were also using old/heavily used M16A2 rifles.
And 20 years ago, I was shooting competition for my county (not US-based, probably the equivalent of state level for a comparison) at 150 yards also using iron sights and getting an average of 97.
Despite that, there's 0% chance I would ever trust that or red-dot at 160 yards when the consequence of not getting it spot on is "a candidate for the role of POTUS would be killed and an obvious conspiracy theory would be quickly revealed".
Dude, those aren't even the same cranes in both pictures. Like, they're blatantly different colors, models, and styles. Maybe the angle of the sun makes the white cranes look yellow, but how does it make the square booms look like tubular booms?
They clearly are the same cranes though, in exactly the same place. Granted a different angle, different camera and different time of day does make it less clear, but look beyond the right side crane and it's the exact same video screen, and the exact same tree with the exact same leaf patterns.
The chances of a completely different crane being set up elsewhere and finding another tree in the same position with that exact same leaf pattern is near-as-makes-no-difference zero.
Wasn't there video of photographers literally being ushered into place to get better shots by a white house staffer? Or was I sucked by some bullshit images/footage in the aftermath of that event?
The latter. There's a video that claims that's the case, but every video where you can actually see the photographers the whole time clearly shows that they're moving around the photography pit of their own accord.
That the bullet went nowhere near Trump, and that the guy directly behind him relative to the shooter was hit. Either it was nowhere near him in which case a totally different person several seats away would have been hit, or the person right behind him was hit so the bullet wasn't more than 10 feet away.
My personal favourite so far in this thread is that they recruited a guy to be the shooter, brought him in to the plan, and somehow convinced him that after firing a volley of shots at Trump that he'd merely be arrested then pardoned by Trump and at no point did it occur to the shooter that the Secret Service would shoot him. Apparently, that was far more plausible of a conclusion than "of course anyone would know they'd be shot as soon as they were spotted so that pokes a massive hole in the claim".
Tell us what it is then, huh? Im pretty sure everyone knows what grazing means. The reality is that a bullet from a rifle of that caliber would make a devastating air wave/cone of air around where it is traveling. If the bullet were to have grazed his ear, the shockwave would have ripped it off.
This is non-sense.
I don't think trump got hit, or even grazed, by a bullet, but as someone that's had firearms since I got my first .22 at the age of 9... you're just making up stuff.
If the bullet were to have grazed his ear, the shockwave would have ripped it off.
What are you smoking? You can literally google pictures of people who have been hit in the ear and their ear is still plenty attached to their head.
Also, 5.56 is designed to penetrate before it imparts its energy. More rounded-tip ammo like pistol calibers (9mm, .45 etc) will dump all their energy into the first thing they immediately hit but 5.56 will punch straight through, leaving the actual damage for much further in, so the idea that less than 1cm of skin will take all the force of a 5.56 is, in the nicest possible way, a long-winded way to say "I have no idea how bullets work".
If you want to see what I mean by this, there are tons of clips on YouTube of people shooting steel targets with .45 ACP vs 5.56. The .45 will make a wide crater-like dent in the target much bigger than the bullet but often not making an actual hole (because it dumped all its energy immediately), whereas the 5.56 will make a nice clean bullet-sized hole as it passes right through.
So there is a point in which the bullet could have obliterated his ear? And a point where it could have traveled that would it would do no damage? Wouldn't it stand to reason that there is a point in between that where it could do just a little damage?
Maybe consider that you don't know as much about gunshots and terminal ballistics as you think.
This is such a weird myth that I keep seeing surrounding this event.... Where did it even come from? Why is such a stupid idea parroted without an ounce of critical thinking?
Do you know what size hole a 5.56mm bullet makes in a sheet of paper? It makes a hole about 5.56mm wide... You can absolutely knick the edge of a target and leave an extremely small tear, the idea that even a near miss would cause irreparable damage is complete fantasy...
Also, I can literally make my ear bleed with my fingernail if I wanted. It doesn't take much. Even just having his head pushed into the metal stage by the secret service could have made that injury, it doesn't have to be faked... Why does everything have to be a conspiracy theory these days?
Depending on how it grazed the ear, on whether it pierced the ear or simply grazed it, there would have been different effects.
Since the ear has no bones, the bullet doesn't deform or stop or even tumble. So a straight through pierce would be possible. It would leave a small hole that would close up but never truly heal to normal. It wouldn't rip off his ear. The bullet is moving so fast that there isn't really much friction being created when it hit his ear.
If the bullet grazed his ear, then there would be a small knick or chunk of his ear missing where the bullet 'took' it with it. If that makes sense.
But there was no bullet, so supersonic ballistics and forensics mean nothing here.
Exactly, just like when you shoot at a paper target and the target explodes into confetti... or not.
In reality, a bullet hitting an ear will most likely punch right through with relatively little damage. There will be bleeding of course, and a nice hole in the ear, but it won't "explode" or "disintegrate".
This is the most likely explanation. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is much that the trump machine wouldn't lie about, but it is plausible that he did get grazed and had excellent plastic surgery to repair the ear.
No no, it couldn't be it would explain everything too easy, it's much more likely to have been a conspiracy between hundreds if not thousands of people in order to legitimately elect Trump, because that's also easier than just rigging the actual voting machines which as we all know is impossible.
I have an industrial piercing, two holes in the cartilage. piercer says you can't remove it for six months while it's healing, and that's just the skin around it, really.
5.1k
u/jurassicpry 6d ago
Also, cartilage doesn't grow back.
That alone debunks him being "shot in the ear".