I think that the idea that it was faked is so outlandish that it would require a good amount of evidence before the prospect could even be considered in serious conversation. There is zero evidence that it was faked. By far the most likely explanation is that someone who had a bone to pick with Donald Trump, and who was not particularly skilled at making shots 150 yards away climbed up onto a roof and grabbed the opportunity that lax security provided.

You start throwing in conspiracies about how it was an inside job, and everything becomes so much more complicated, logistics-wise. Complicated plots do happen, but to suggest that was the case here with zero evidence is laughable.

I mean, sure. There were plenty of both.

Yeah; the FBI were doing undercover operations with them for 15 months before arresting them. I don't know any more details of the case than the wikipedia article highlights, but surely you'd have enough evidence to arrest people trying to build a death ray at some point prior to 15 months. Maybe our gov't just thought that their innovation was useful and figured they'd wait and see where they went with it.

I hate that this is the new narrative, like violence against political opponents is a new thing in this country. Obama survived MULTIPLE assassination attempts. Bill Clinton and George Bush both survived multiple assassination attempts. Sectarian violence has been a thing in this country since its inception. The fact that the secret service failed to do their due diligence at policing the buildings surrounding Trump's latest rallies doesn't somehow mean that sectarian violence has reached some momentous peak. It simply means that people didn't do their jobs properly. Maybe because, like, why would they? I know that if I was a secret service agent assigned to the duty of watching after Trump, I wouldn't be particularly committed to the task. Maybe they felt the same way.

Edit: Here's the NY Times image of the vicinity surrounding the Trump rally. Why the fuck wasn't that place watched by the Secret Service? Any competent agency looking to protect someone would have 100% had agents watching that building.

So walk me through how that conversation goes in your head. Trump is just this side of senile, so he definitely couldn't have come up with a convoluted plot involving his attempted assassination, so it 100% would have had to be a suggestion of someone else. So let's walk through the conversation that must have happened for this to have been a fake assassination attempt.

"So Mr. Trump, I think that the best thing to do to ensure you're going to win the next election is to have someone shoot very near you. Maybe the bullet will graze you, maybe it'll hit the teleprompter and send shards of glass your way. But either way, it'll be a very close thing, and you'll suffer a minor injury along the way."

Do you honestly think that Donald Trump, the guy who got out of the draft because of bone spurs, the guy who gets queasy at the sight of blood, the guy who has spent the last 2 months talking about how he'd cling to a battery to get electrocuted instead of taking his chances with a shark, would be ok with being shot at? Seriously?

Because if that's what you think, you and I don't occupy the same universe.

It's really sad to think that the highlight of this guy's career was that he DIDN'T choose to commit treason. He was one of the very few Republican senators to actually certify the election results in 2020.

I’m pledging to withhold my vote now, and if I don’t follow through with my threat then it’s hollow

It's not hollow. It's completely meaningless.

Do you not understand how threats work?

That's very funny coming from you, because you so clearly do not. In order for a threat to work, people have to actually realize that you're making a threat. Do you have a public presence? Any significant pull with anybody? A large and committed fanbase? Or are you just some idiotic nobody that nobody gives a fuck about yelling into the wind, like the rest of us? I very much suspect it's the last of these, which means that you're basically doing the equivalent of whispering your christmas list into a corner and then getting mad when Santa doesn't deliver you what you asked for.

Maybe that's it - queermunist is just a wh40k ork.

I'm still unconvinced that any actual thinking at all, magic or otherwise, was applied here.

Do you really not understand how cause and effect work? Is that the problem? How in the name of fuck would you withholding your vote in November in any way affect the DNC's decision in August? Do you believe that posting your ultimatum on lemmy will move the needle in the minds of the convention-goers??

I do want him to be replaced, actually. I think it's ludicrous that he decided to run again, and that the party is going along with it. But withholding my vote in the general election when they inevitably line up behind him as a way of showing my dissatisfaction with their decision would be the dumbest thing I could possibly do.

You said it yourself: Republicans in power very well could be disastrous for you. The solution, then, is to vote blue, regardless of who they pick. Your plan to not vote in protest is sheer lunacy.