Time and place. From this point forward.

Live updates: Shooting at Trump rally is being investigated as assassination attempt, AP sources say

It says a lot about Donald Trump with his proven reputation for staging fake occurrences to emotionally manipulate media coverage... that so many people have taken to social media to ask the above question right now. One of his aides smudges a little blood on his ear– done. Someone dies in the process? Needed broken eggs to make your media manipulating agenda omelet... really cook. All narcissist-victim-timed perfectly vs Biden's recent comeback.

(I'd be lying if I said.. I wasn't wondering if he might try something like the above admitted evidence-free pure conjecture, if Donald Trump felt threatened enough by losing his own hero narrative. Try to put Biden in a position to cater to him rather than call him out. Tempt the media's irresistible urge to refocus on King-wanna-be Trump, once again, as in the past, exploiting his opposing political party's propensity to staunchly believe in giving benefit of the doubt, so thusly, running agenda-rampant with this propensity. Duly thwarting Biden's momentum that was just firmly re-asserted, almost unbeatably over the past couple of days. Not to mention, the biggest elephant in the room, finally taking the spotlight off of, and giving the media a... sort of... plausible "oh, that? we must've forgotten" excuse for their being terrifyingly, repulsively culpable in deflecting away from a presidential nominee's having been implicated in committing... so... many... child... rapes. Trump's once again perfectly executed medium manipulation paired with a classic narcissism-timed-victim-staging playbook 101.)

So... what do we believe? We live in a society where the answer to this question about the unfolding of actual events versus manipulated ones, is becoming ever more elusive. Instead, a point aside from it is ever more in play as the only motivation to be assessed: It's less determinant what events are to be believed the harder it gets to determine their credential... versus... what we can compel people to believe.. in order to serve our agenda.

Thus... what positions do we even take in light of this AI-reprocessed or staged and arranged "sort of looks like whatever reality you need it to look like?" brave new world?

Perhaps, we're left with only one availably conclusive position, which is this: We're not always as sure which events can be trusted as they are seen and/or presented to be believed as free of manipulative intent... So... what starts to matter more and more, in light of this elusiveness... is that which we can still be sure of.

Whose agenda... whose mission...

we do.. versus do not.. believe in.

So, what do we do? We can't ignore the fact that we're not only dealing with someone unacceptably acting out of violence which in and of itself is just another threatened dissent into social disarray if we don't prevent and condemn it with every fiber of our being.

But we're also contemplating this over a man (almost? slightly?) shot... who, himself, has enacted violence towards children. Rape towards children. Who's incited violence against the United States of America. Who's revitalized a movement of racism and hatred, lauding and echoing the words of Adolf Hitler. Who is part of a force that's trying to intimidate us into the end of America, civil rights, and safety for citizens... at their openly stated threat of violence towards us all​​. Which of course only makes many of us all the more enraged at their threats of violence towards us and our children. We cannot let any of this, their threats of violence, our understandably incited rage at their threats of violence, their willingness to incite their own followers as well, leading, with some, to lethal consequence, also slip under the rug in our moral assessment properly maintained through any would-be media and/or political narrative agendas.

And this is a man who has probably one of the most prolific reputations of manipulating the media and staging events, even though the danger and assuming when actual violence happens, that it must all be fake, is a clear one to just blindly always lean into.

It seems there are more victims to the effect of 'the boy who cried wolf'... than merely the boy. Remember how that morality fable ended about the dangers of losing credibility for the eventual time when you may actually tell the truth, if you've already lied too much? The boy not only suffered a profound loss of all his credibility forever more... but the villagers perished when his final attempt to tell the truth was not believed... and the wolf came.

Not saying this was an instance of Donald Trump having suddenly become a truthful person. But it merely adds to the complexity of everything we must factor into our efforts to maintain our morality.

And so... we'll simply do the big lift... and carry... all of this. Not ignore any of it. In all its complexity, its moral decay, it's imperative that we navigate through and out of it. As well as knowing that today represented a sobering reminder of the propensity for our society to both be manipulated and to descend into violence, confusion, loss of perspective on ensuring moral culpability as a result of so many years of violence, hatred, gaslighting... and a man who champions all of these things... has perpetrated all of these things... who has maintained open... wanton... vicious wishes to destroy our country, who hows how much she's already Left so many to die, hundreds of thousands up to over a million, with wanton neglect of pandemic victims... because... they didn't makem him.... look good... who's hurt and forever damaged our children, in our schools, in his bedroom, on our entire climate dependent planet... and one who has been given the ultimate power by a team of corruption who shows that they do not care about the well-being, survivability, nor scrap of psychological health/emotional well-being... of any of the entire population of American people in any sense whatsoever... such that they would maliciously seek to destroy them all by enabling a man with omnipotence to potentially bring about a Fourth Reich in The United States of America... and literally... destroy us all. A man who, today, is so profoundly compromised in his reputation of deception and manipulation for our entire nation... and when he survives a grazed ear... one who then instantly capitalizes on the opportunity... for a photo op media power play... none of us even know what to believe even happened... and whether or not it was just Donald Trump manipulating us once more through the use of his resources, both financial and through alliances, not to mention his complicity from millions of people... who would see our nations, the rights of our citizens, the safety of our women and children, be sacrificed for a malignant narcissist with 34 felonies, a reputation for betraying nearly everyone in his circle, with leagues of people warning us that this man is the gravest threat to our nation and to the world that humanity has seen in quite some time, and not to mention, has a history of sexual assault and implications in several child rapes.

We'll consider... all of this. All of it.

And meantime, as we all contemplate the risk of our own potential for, merely being victims once again to manipulation that we didn't see coming, or aren't sure it's safe or moral to assume might have come, as well as our concerns for becoming just another part of all of this sickness of moral decay in our own reactions, ourselves... with our morality, and our humanity, possible casualties of atrocity's potentially horrific society-wide trend of enabling this man... I guess in the meantime... many of us... will also hope... his ear is okay.

Whatever is true about what actually did happen today... we shall also all pay very... close... attention... from here... as to whose agenda will now be further revealed... in response to what was presented, however completely truthfully so or not... as happening.

This demonstrated and, thus, revealed agenda and mission as presented by those before us now... will be our steadfast continuing window into the true character of those exhibiting it. Actions truly do speak louder than words. Especially words that do not truthfully tell, but rather, deceive to carry out action.

The media, I can feel fairly confident, will show their agenda almost instantaneously with this exactly-what-they-might-have-wanted-to-run-with sensational morsel. But maybe they'll surprise us. Don't ask me to hold my breath. But maybe.

I believe in an agenda whose actions have demonstrated and continue to demonstrate an unmistakably steadfast position of opposing violence.

That includes opposing the incitement of violence.

As well as assassination attempts.

As well as child abuse and rape.

That Donald Trump currently wants immunity... for doing all three of the above... is an aspect whose accompaniment with his potentially being on the receiving end of one of the above... the very thing that he believes in spreading... serves as a sad and disheartening irony.

Nevertheless, now we watch... over the next several days and weeks... as the agendas in response to today's incident at Donald Trump's rally... are further revealed.

We've still got a country to save from imminent potential collapse. The house is on fire. And one of the arsonists was just injured. One who has made a campaign out of expressing just how much he wants the house to continue... to burn. One whose supporters' perhaps now rallying around his injury... still, at his openly attested to urging, want the house to burn down to the ground and destroy everyone except themselves in it.

With many lives at stake... our perceptiveness... will be even more crucial... from this point forward.

We'll all watch closely. For, no matter what reality has just led us in to where we go next...

this... from here... from this point forward... is where the real presentational sleight-of-hand... will... or will not take place.

Stay frosty.

Thoughts & prayers.

07/13/2024 • 10:06 pm UPDATE: So, in a twist of karmic irony, the shooter has been identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks with, as yet, at least rumored, if not confirmed reports of him being... wait for it... a registered Republican.

Needless to say, Twitter/X is ablaze right now with a narrative tug-of-war between what's true, what's conspiracy, and whether or not one side gets to claim the fiercely coveted all-previous-acts-of-violence-and-hatred-absolving "victim narrative"... based on who gets to say which is which. Time might never actually tell. At least not to everyone's satisfaction, if some, or even most. And if it doesn't for most, right or wrong, true or false, earnest or gaslighting, the agenda with the loudest most persistent voice... will tell which is which. And will demand we brand the telling as truth regardless of what we see in their telling, accurately, or not.