The Head Shot
Life and politics is about keeping your head
Ever since the bullet clipped Trump’s ear instead of killing him, a chorus of voices has risen attempting to make sense of it. Especially since a calamitous, world changing event was foretold for that weekend by two groups of people: serious astrologers and one strange old guy who also predicted 9/11. Naomi Wolf dared to give him an interview and it cost her some followers, I believe. Since I pay attention to such things, I wrote about it in a previous post promising that ‘all will be revealed’ on Monday, July 15, 2024. The prophets were only two days off; pretty good for such things. They did not foretell the shooting but they did put us on notice that a world change was in the offing. They also had nothing to say about what it might mean. Well, here is what I think: This was a lesson in the importance of ‘keeping your head’. Trump did that, in the literal as well as metaphorical sense. And it turned him, practically overnight, from an old clapped out strange orange beast into an unstoppable force. In the instant Trump got up, waving his fist and shouting ‘fight fight’ he became an American Superhero, flawed of course, but a hero nonetheless.
Trump, like Napoleon and Hitler, seems immune to bullets meant to kill him, and this headshot elevates him into the realm of those whom Fate, or God, has chosen. His reaction also demonstrated that he is by nature a fighter, a true warrior. He stayed calm and immediately realized what he needed to do. Like him or loathe him, that was a remarkable show of grit under extreme pressure. And that is a trait deeply admired in America; the warrior spirit is in its DNA along with a sense that divine powers are with them. Trump himself has said that he believes God protected him, and if he actually does believe that, he may be able to move mountains. It remains to be seen what kind of mountains. However, belief is a far more powerful force than the left brain intellects of our materialistic society give it credit for.
Even if you have trouble believing in Fate or God, the sea change after that shot was immediate and palpable. Something momentous had happened to the country, the world even. It did change everything. Trump himself looked different; humbled and uncharacteristically serious during his first appearance at the Republican Convention in Milwaukee. His son Eric and some of my friends commented on it as well. He also demonstrated a new sense of restraint at that equally fateful ‘debate’ with Biden. Finally, when Trump nominated Vance as his running mate and the case about the state papers at Mar-a-Lago was dismissed, everyone knew the tide had turned. You needed no polls to tell you that Trump’s path to his second coming was now clear. There was no way the doddery, corrupt Biden could compete. What would the stunned Left do?
At first, there was a general recognition that the political rhetoric had to be damped down. The fire of the culture war was getting too hot. It was causing actual violence. That didn’t last if the enraged and defensive lefty commentators are any indication. They all insisted that it wasn’t their fault, they never did or said anything vile, etc etc. It was rather eerie to watch the British TV presenter Piers Morgan, who had invited some well known lefties to his popular show, try to get a few comments in while they literally frothed at the mouth. Only three days prior, Biden had said that it was ‘time to put Donald Trump into a bullseye’, but they refused to concede that was a problematic thought. Clearly, someone took Biden at his word and did just that. Who Thomas Matthew Crooks was is not being discussed much; all we know is that he was young, worked as an aide in a care home and was a Republican. He couldn’t shoot straight though he practiced that very day at a shooting range. And he was carrying explosives in his car.
Above all, he heard the endemic call to violence. And while there was a kind of verbal cease fire for the next 48 hours; it didn’t last. The name calling, the insistence that the other side would kill democracy if elected, started up again. And not just on the left; some of the speakers at the Republican Convention were shameless rabble rousers. So it wasn’t only the British intellectual Konstantin Kisin who noted that he ‘wasn’t surprised’ that the shooting had happened. Anyone paying attention knows that the deep divisions in the USA have been deliberately stoked into a lethal battle over fundamental values. Over race, gender and personal identity. That is a recipe for a long and bitter war fought not just with words but actual bullets. It feels like we just heard the first shot ricocheting around the world. Fortunately, there are people who know that we’re playing with fire and about to lose our heads.
This is where the thirty nine year old Vance, Trump’s chosen running mate, comes in. To his credit, Vance delivered a message largely free of the usual hate rhetoric. His speech insisted that ‘America is a Nation’, and he appealed to the patriotic-not nationalistic-leanings of that crowd. That was a relief. Vance is the very embodiment of the American Dream, someone who came up from a hardscrabble background via determination and yes, grit. He shares that with Trump; they are both tough characters who know how to fight. He is also a man who appeals to people who normally disdain Trump: the Silicon Valley bros because at one time he was a day trader or something like that. Chief among them, Elon Musk declared his support within minutes of the shooting along with a few other heavyweights, like Bill Acker, who used to be staunchly Democrat. Both pledged huge amounts of money to the Trump cause. Sealing the deal is Vance’s beautiful wife of Indian descent who, without benefit of makeup, introduced her husband to the crowd with genuine charm and a dazzling smile. In choosing Vance Trump demonstrated that he knows what he is doing, that he needs a young, smart and inspirational figure on his team. Someone who could carry the entire Trump legacy into the future. Together, they look practically invincible. The Bidens must be seriously worried now. Even First Lady Jill, who has been notably tone deaf so far, must be hearing the bell tolling the end of the Biden regime. He is about to lose his head.
The people who didn’t ‘keep their heads’ in all this is the Secrect Service. Crooks was able to get on that handy roof because, as the head of the FBI explained, her people couldn’t go there because it was ‘sloped’ and therefore, dangerous! Too dangerous for her DEI crew. Even people on the Left have been rather nervous about how that looks, never mind what it says about the safety of the officials they are supposed to protect. This shot didn’t hit Trump but it found the bullseye of the DEI cult, a shot to the heart of that insane project. A clean hit. Maybe this was another indicator that we’re now into a period of serious blowback against the Woke Cult in all its manifestations. Maybe the ‘civil war’ that has been talked up and widely expected has already begun. Keeping our heads in that conflict is going to be crucial.
Both sides have been shrilly accusing each other of spewing words calling for violence. They are absolutely correct; they both did, the Left calling Trump Hitler and a Dictator, the Right opining that invading Congress and threatening sitting politicians was just a little fun, nothing serious. They didn’t mean to scare anyone. However you want to slice this, whipping up anger and resentment is a hallmark of modern American politics. Everyone does it. And it is the path to Civil War. So becoming aware of the lethal consequences of loose talk of communists, fascists and other undesirables, is the first, and perhaps the most positive result of that headshot.
But there is another way to frame this dark dilemma. What if there are people who are neither patriots nor nationalists but simply in the game for their own advancement? For power, for a warped ideology of total control —the original Fascist Fantasy—that gives them license to foment public disorder, and then come swooping in to restore ‘order’ on their terms? Whether you want to call them globalists, toadies of the WEF, a cabal of super billionaires or Traitors or whatever; these corrupt people do exist. Some within government. The BBC shows us how they operate in a terrifying episode of their brilliant series, Spooks, freely available on YouTube. Be warned: this is a seriously disturbing episode, the second of three that demonstrate in excruciating detail how a coup d’etat can be organized from within a corrupt government. If it leaves you shaken; it should. Like the almost murder of Trump, foretold as an event that would change the world. I believe we’re in for the most momentous half year of our lives. Never a dull moment in this, the greatest show on earth. And what we—everyone low and high— have to do is keep our heads as history is sweeping us up, over, and away.