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Today

A Day of Loco Foco Glory

Echoes of political events past:

Second Declaration of Independence, Or Grand Loco Foco Federal Glorification! To Come Off at the Court House, in the Village of Syracuse, on Saturday, the 18th Day of July, A.D. 1840.

A “Loco Foco” event in New York, five years after an advertisement for a new form of matchstick, the “Loco Foco” (see image above). The “Loco-​Focos” is what the establishment press of New York derisively dubbed members of the Equal Rights Party in 1835, after the insiders turned off the gas, sending Tammany Hall into darkness, and the upstart libertarians lit candles with their new Loco Foco matches and proceeded with electing a new slate of Democratic Party officers.
Categories
Accountability crime and punishment national politics & policies

The Slope of Service

“Heads should roll at Secret Service,” I declared on Monday.

That was before I stumbled upon Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle explaining to ABC News the strategic situational thinking employed by the agency in determining not to place agents on top of the roof of a building where the assassin fired multiple rounds, hitting former President Trump in the ear, killing a man attending the rally with his family and seriously wounding two others. 

Director Cheatle offered that “the Secret Service was aware of the security vulnerabilities presented by the building Crooks took a sniper’s position on to aim at Trump,” Fox News reported. “However, a decision was made not to place any personnel on the roof.” 

So much for “awareness.” And why was this decision made?

“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point,” she pointed out. “And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof. And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”

Competing safety factors, eh? The former president’s and that of novice roof-​climbers in the Secret Service.

Instead, three local law enforcement sharpshooters were stationed inside the building as the shooter easily climbed up onto that ever-​so-​dangerously slanted roof and opened fire.

The finger-​pointing at local police by Secret Service officials, who claimed that securing that building was a local law enforcement responsibility, is simply passing the buck.

Cheatle acknowledged that her agency “is responsible for the protection of the former president,” adding “the buck stops with me.”

Good, I’m looking for immediate change.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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Dave Smith

He’s either “literally Hitler” or you wish him a speedy recovery. Ya gotta pick one of those two. You don’t wish Hitler a speedy recovery.… If “democracy’s on the ballot” and this is “the end of America” (as Hillary Clinton has said) … well then, OK: but then political violence is justified.

Comedian Dave Smith, on his “Part of the Problem” podcast, July 16, 2024, discussing illustrious Democrats’ pieties about non-​violence immediately following the assassination attempt of their most hated opponent, and after years of calling Donald Trump the very worst things imaginable.

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Today

Wrong Way?

On July 17, 1938, pioneer aviator Donald Corrigan took off from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn — New York City’s first municipal airport — with a flight plan for a return trip to his previous disembarkation point, Long Beach, California. His official story was that he got confused after ten (or 26) hours in flight, and wound up the next day in Ireland. Most folks judged his “error” as deliberate, but he never publicly admitted to anything but error. He was nicknamed “‘Wrong Way’ Corrigan,” an affectionate moniker, and received a 14-​day suspension of his pilot’s license as punishment for his breaking of many, many regulations.

One occasionally hears the epithet “Wrong Way Corrigan” applied to anyone who similarly takes a slight liberty, skirting official rules or practices — or simply goes the wrong direction.


July 17, 1975, had a very different kind of aviation event, one well-​planned: Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 made the first US/​USSR linkup in space.

Categories
crime and punishment general freedom national politics & policies

A Cool Ninety Million

“Some major Democratic donors have told the largest pro-​Biden super PAC, Future Forward, that pledges worth roughly $90 million are now on hold if President Biden remains atop the ticket,” a New York Times article explained on Friday.

A daring bit of pressure from insiders whom Biden now calls, without hint of irony, “the elites.”

“A leaked poll from a group closely linked with Future Forward after the debate showed that the super PAC had tested the strength of potential Biden alternatives, including Ms. Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary,” The Times elaborated. “The poll showed that Mr. Biden had a worse overall favorability rating than all the alternatives.”

Forbes identified the skeptical billionaires as including Mark Pincus, Christy Walton, Michael Novogratz, Reed Hastings and Mark Cuban. Biden, refusing to bow out, “has attempted to undo the debate damage by rallying his allies in Congress, sitting for a series of media interviews and holding his first post-​debate press conference Thursday. The interviews and Thursday’s presser are widely viewed to have gone better than the debate, but not well enough to reverse the backlash.”

“Everything is frozen because no one knows what’s going to happen,” explained one Democratic strategist to CNN. “Everyone is in wait-​and-​see mode.”

Well, that mode did not last long. 

On Saturday their bête noir Donald Trump was shot. The whole question of winning the race got infinitely harder, for the still-​alive former president looked heroic after the bullet, especially contrasted with a feeble Biden. Used to plying an insider advantage, “the elites” now have almost no advantage to ply. They might as well unfreeze their $90 million. 

Or keep it, instead. 

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.

In America, we resolve our differences at the battle box.

President Joe Biden, reassuring Americans after the failed assassination attempt upon his rival, former President Donald John Trump, on the previous day. Moments later he almost said “Make America Great Again.” July 14, 2024.