September 16, 2024

“AGAIN?!” That was how my college-aged kid reacted in finding out that another person had made an attempt to shoot former President Donald Trump. This time around, the suspected assailant, Ryan Wesley Routh, was quickly apprehended — alive. A Secret Service agent who was sweeping the golf course where Trump was playing on Sunday afternoon noticed Routh’s gun poking out from a fence. The agent fired at the gunman, who is said to have been within 500 yards of Trump. The gunman himself didn’t fire his weapon before fleeing, but didn’t get far. Ironically, it might be difficult to charge the man with a crime against Trump specifically, given that the distance might be too far for a court to be certain he was aiming at the former president. It should also be noted that while Routh voted for Trump in 2016, his opinion of the man seems to have dropped considerably since. LINK

“…Did I Do That?” While quite a few memes and videos have made a lot of hay over Trump’s and running mate Senator J.D. Vance’s false claims that undocumented Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, there’s a darker truth to the whole thing. Erika Lee, a Springfield resident, reposted a picture from a neighbor about a missing cat, and the “a friend of my neighbor’s told me…” post took on a life of its own. And word is now that local officials are dealing with regular bomb threats and boiling-over tensions amongst the community. All this goes to show all of us just how careful we should be about posting or re-posting stories on social media. No matter how innocently something may start out, it can have devastating consequences if it catches fire in the wrong way. Social media has great power, and anyone who uses it has a greater responsibility on how they use it. LINK

The Job Interview: Vice President Kamala Harris is due to meet with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters some time today to try to squeeze in one more endorsement prior to the November 5 election. Historically, the Teamsters have often gone for the Democratic candidate, but Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien threw the process into a bit of a turmoil this year, after being the first of their leaders to make an address at the Republican National Convention. O’Brien requested a slot at the Democrats’ convention the following month, but after his appearance at the RNC seemed quite complimentary towards GOP lawmakers, he was turned down. Most other major unions have endorsed Harris (or initially President Joe Biden, then quickly shifting to Harris after the former dropped out of the race), including the AFL-CIO and United Auto Workers, and in fact, the Teamsters National Black Caucus, a smaller cohort of the larger group, endorsed Harris last month, just before the DNC. Despite all the drama leading up to it, though, I expect the Teamsters to affirm their support of the blue team. LINK