This is not the same column I started yesterday morning.
A 20-year-old killer at a Trump Rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, tried to change history. Based on what we know now, his first shot nicked Donald Trump’s right ear. Fortunately, Trump had turned his head facing in the general direction of the shooter. If he had been facing the audience… we would likely be noting July 13, 2024 as the date former President and 2024 Republican candidate Donald Trump was assassinated.
The killer apparently fired 3 more shots, killing Cory Comperatore, and severely injuring two other men. Those shots were aimed at Trump, missed him, and hit these three who were unfortunately sitting in the line of fire.
The top leaders of the Secret Service are being blamed for not recognizing the potential for an assassin to shoot from the roof of a building only 160 yards away. And a local police officer climbed a ladder to the roof, engaged with the man, but retreated back to the ground.
Question: have we reached the point in this country where a police officer refuses to shoot a man, who is obviously intending to kill someone, because of public backlash for “killing a guy who had done nothing wrong?” Also, the two Secret Service snipers appear to be looking in the direction of the killer before he shot Trump. Were they waiting for orders that would allow them to “shoot first?”
With the Republican National Convention starting tomorrow in Milwaukee, let’s look back 100 years.
Will Rogers attended the 1924 Republican Convention in Cleveland. He wrote five “Convention Articles,” June 9-13. President Coolidge was the obvious choice to continue as their candidate. The intrigue was in selecting a V-P. Two prominent Republicans turned it down (Senator Borah of Idaho and Illinois Governor Frank Lowden). On the third ballot, Charles Dawes won the nomination.
Here are a few quotes from Will’s Republican Convention Articles, 1924:
“(Republicans) preach Economy, and here are hundreds of thousands of dollars being wasted to ship all these Delegates to a place to announce something that everybody in the United States knew six months ago. He could have been nominated by post card.”
“Mr. Mondell in his Chairmanship keynote speech (repeated) the same gag that Mr. Burton finished his with yesterday: ‘We want Republicans that will stick together, not Republicans in name only.’” [probably the first use of RINO]
“Why at the last Republican Convention [1920] they were days nominating Mr. Harding and just as they were putting on their hats to leave, someone happened to think, ‘Why, we haven’t nominated a Vice President.’ So someone who happened to have read of the Boston police strike suggested Mr. Coolidge, so they nominated him that minute, and the others went home to read the next day who he was.”
“Mr. Coolidge has gained well deserved fame by being our first public official to know when not to say anything.”
Will’s five columns, in their entirety, have more humor (and maybe more valuable information) than anything you will read this week from Milwaukee. I’m tempted to print one a day on Facebook.