They will never admit their role. They will only continue to manipulate the data and polls. They know their base is not smart enough to figure out they are lying. As long as it touches their “feelings” they have succeeded.
Cole Allen's mirror selfie, taken 27 minutes before he rushed a Secret Service checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a .38, multiple knives, and a loaded ammunition bag, is being treated primarily as evidence of premeditation. It is that. But it's also something more psychologically revealing.
The selfie wasn't taken for anyone present. He had already scheduled his "Apology and Explanation" emails to go out at 8:30 p.m., timed to coincide with the attack. The photo was for posterity, or more precisely, for the version of himself he wanted preserved. Dressed in black with a red tie, weapons visible, smirking into a hotel mirror: it's a self-portrait of someone performing their own mythology.
This is a recognizable pattern. Across the spectrum of radicalized actors, regardless of ideology, there is a recurring compulsion to document the moment before, to establish that the act was real, that the actor was serious, that they were the genuine article. It mirrors the behavior you see in online spaces where sincerity is performed rather than demonstrated: the person who posts the most extreme take, wears the most conspicuous symbol, or in review culture, can only conceive of a rating of one star or five. Nuance is the enemy of identity when identity is built on intensity.
Whether Allen genuinely believed he could reach Trump is almost secondary. The DOJ's own framing suggests this was less a tactically rational plan and more a calculated act of political violence where the outcome mattered less than the attempt. He tracked the president's live movements on his phone while walking to the checkpoint. He knew the security posture. The selfie suggests he had already accepted what would happen to him. The emails were his goodbye; the photo was his monument.
What the image exposes is not incompetence but a particular kind of ideological narcissism: the belief that the gesture itself is the point. That posture, earnest, humorless, costumed, documented, is the hallmark of someone who has collapsed the distance between conviction and performance entirely.
I widen my lens when I think of political violence. Trying to run over an NICE agent doing his job, carrying a firearm to a "peaceful protest," burning down Tesla dealerships and Teslas, camping out on Kavanagh's front lawn to kidnap them, burning down police stations while cops are still inside with the doors barred, some fat slob of a guy shoving a female reporter to the ground because he doesn't like what she's asking…
I feel like this guy was LARPing, the difference between cosplay and real life colliding in an incompetent attempt at assassination that had zero chance of success.
Like he really believed life is a simulation and he'd become a hero in fantasy play circles.
Hopefully life in prison will help him return to reality.
👏👏👏 Thank you, Batya! Political violence to be sure is committed by both sides. But it’s more prevalent on the left for sure. It’s absolutely abhorrent that six percent of right-wingers think political violence is sometimes justified. But what of the twenty-five percent of left-wingers? This just proves that the left has a bigger problem than the right with this. It’s no surprise also that “educated” people are more likely to justify political violence. Luigi Mangione, Elihu Rodriquez and Cole Allen are all great examples of this. As to Mr. Allen, he is a psychopath and a narcissist who tried to gun down and stab the President and members of his cabinet. What that picture shows is that Mr. Allen is a loser and a wannabe Che Guevara. Hey, Cole! Just so you know, Che Guevara was no romantic revolutionary or man of the people. He was a psychopathic killer who had thousands executed and dreamed of firing nuclear missiles at New York City, a bad soldier, a coward, a dandy who lived in luxury while the Cuban people starved, and a foaming at the mouth bigoted who hated black people, Mexicans and gay people.
Cole Allen, Elihu Rodriquez, Luigi Mangione, Thomas Crooks, Ryan Routh, and Antifa represent what the left has become. This isn’t the “peace, love and understanding” left of the 1960s anymore. These folks believe in using violence and achieving their goals by any means necessary. These folks don’t take after the Hippies and the Yippies but rather the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army. Groups like Antifa, BLM, the John Brown Club, Redneck Revolt, and Jane’s Revenge are their modern-day descendants. As to the Democratic Party. This is NOT your grandfather’s Democratic Party! This is not the reasonable Democratic Party of the 1930s to the 2000s. The Democratic Party of today is a hard-left party dominated by progressives and leftists. They don’t care about unions, workers or minorities anymore and they don’t even have a real policy platform. Their sole purpose is taking down Trump and anyone who agrees with him by any means necessary and that includes violent rhetoric. They couldn’t care less about the American people. They serve the upper class, trust fund socialists and the Washington establishment NOT their base!
The fiery and violent rhetoric of folks like Barack Obama, Joe Biden, AOC, Maxine Waters, Tim Walz, and others is commonplace in the party. They attack America, denounce capitalism, call white working class folks racist, push victimhood and identity politics to racial minorities, don’t actually stand for anything, don’t have a consistent message, and obsess over Trump. The days of having Democrats the caliber of FDR, Harry Truman, Henry Wallace, Cordell Hull, Justice Jackson, Paul Douglas, LBJ, JFK, RFK, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Thomas Eagleton, Sargent Shriver, Mike Mansfield, Robert Byrd, Barbara Jordan, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bob Graham, John Kerry, Wesley Clark, Dick Gephardt, John Lewis, Pat Schroeder, Patsy Mink, Bill Clay, Tom Daschle, Barbara Boxer, Lawton Chiles, Mel Carnahan, and Paul Wellstone are over. Don’t get me wrong, I have my criticisms of the right too. But in this case, the guilt here is not evenly distributed.
The Academic left encourages activism with no moral guardrails. Ditch the 10 Commandments and the Pledge of Allegiance and then find your truth amidst words are also violently victimizing you.
Hmm....IRG "U Can't CMe" is back with their emotional ranting and name calling again. Actually sort of fits the profile of the other liberal "intellectuals" mentined here---few people would think of PolPot. NO mention fo the scewed, maniulated studies that are easy to show as one-sided..just name calling and snark. So clever. NOT.
And what if they don’t care to do anything about political violence? What if political violence is part of their plan to dominate America? Of course, along with gerrymandering and propaganda (or as they used to call it, “lying”)? What about that, Batya?
Thank you Batya! All politician must denounce and condemn the political indoctrination going on in our schools. If not, we must never vote for any of them.
The anarchists of 100 years ago had some similarities. Arafat was an engineer. Che was a doctor. Collins was an accountant.
They will never admit their role. They will only continue to manipulate the data and polls. They know their base is not smart enough to figure out they are lying. As long as it touches their “feelings” they have succeeded.
Cole Allen's mirror selfie, taken 27 minutes before he rushed a Secret Service checkpoint armed with a shotgun, a .38, multiple knives, and a loaded ammunition bag, is being treated primarily as evidence of premeditation. It is that. But it's also something more psychologically revealing.
The selfie wasn't taken for anyone present. He had already scheduled his "Apology and Explanation" emails to go out at 8:30 p.m., timed to coincide with the attack. The photo was for posterity, or more precisely, for the version of himself he wanted preserved. Dressed in black with a red tie, weapons visible, smirking into a hotel mirror: it's a self-portrait of someone performing their own mythology.
This is a recognizable pattern. Across the spectrum of radicalized actors, regardless of ideology, there is a recurring compulsion to document the moment before, to establish that the act was real, that the actor was serious, that they were the genuine article. It mirrors the behavior you see in online spaces where sincerity is performed rather than demonstrated: the person who posts the most extreme take, wears the most conspicuous symbol, or in review culture, can only conceive of a rating of one star or five. Nuance is the enemy of identity when identity is built on intensity.
Whether Allen genuinely believed he could reach Trump is almost secondary. The DOJ's own framing suggests this was less a tactically rational plan and more a calculated act of political violence where the outcome mattered less than the attempt. He tracked the president's live movements on his phone while walking to the checkpoint. He knew the security posture. The selfie suggests he had already accepted what would happen to him. The emails were his goodbye; the photo was his monument.
What the image exposes is not incompetence but a particular kind of ideological narcissism: the belief that the gesture itself is the point. That posture, earnest, humorless, costumed, documented, is the hallmark of someone who has collapsed the distance between conviction and performance entirely.
Excellent analysis ----yes..the "educated" perpetrators of violence are also extremely narcissistic.
I widen my lens when I think of political violence. Trying to run over an NICE agent doing his job, carrying a firearm to a "peaceful protest," burning down Tesla dealerships and Teslas, camping out on Kavanagh's front lawn to kidnap them, burning down police stations while cops are still inside with the doors barred, some fat slob of a guy shoving a female reporter to the ground because he doesn't like what she's asking…
All political violence as far as I'm concerned.
I feel like this guy was LARPing, the difference between cosplay and real life colliding in an incompetent attempt at assassination that had zero chance of success.
Like he really believed life is a simulation and he'd become a hero in fantasy play circles.
Hopefully life in prison will help him return to reality.
👏👏👏 Thank you, Batya! Political violence to be sure is committed by both sides. But it’s more prevalent on the left for sure. It’s absolutely abhorrent that six percent of right-wingers think political violence is sometimes justified. But what of the twenty-five percent of left-wingers? This just proves that the left has a bigger problem than the right with this. It’s no surprise also that “educated” people are more likely to justify political violence. Luigi Mangione, Elihu Rodriquez and Cole Allen are all great examples of this. As to Mr. Allen, he is a psychopath and a narcissist who tried to gun down and stab the President and members of his cabinet. What that picture shows is that Mr. Allen is a loser and a wannabe Che Guevara. Hey, Cole! Just so you know, Che Guevara was no romantic revolutionary or man of the people. He was a psychopathic killer who had thousands executed and dreamed of firing nuclear missiles at New York City, a bad soldier, a coward, a dandy who lived in luxury while the Cuban people starved, and a foaming at the mouth bigoted who hated black people, Mexicans and gay people.
Cole Allen, Elihu Rodriquez, Luigi Mangione, Thomas Crooks, Ryan Routh, and Antifa represent what the left has become. This isn’t the “peace, love and understanding” left of the 1960s anymore. These folks believe in using violence and achieving their goals by any means necessary. These folks don’t take after the Hippies and the Yippies but rather the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army. Groups like Antifa, BLM, the John Brown Club, Redneck Revolt, and Jane’s Revenge are their modern-day descendants. As to the Democratic Party. This is NOT your grandfather’s Democratic Party! This is not the reasonable Democratic Party of the 1930s to the 2000s. The Democratic Party of today is a hard-left party dominated by progressives and leftists. They don’t care about unions, workers or minorities anymore and they don’t even have a real policy platform. Their sole purpose is taking down Trump and anyone who agrees with him by any means necessary and that includes violent rhetoric. They couldn’t care less about the American people. They serve the upper class, trust fund socialists and the Washington establishment NOT their base!
The fiery and violent rhetoric of folks like Barack Obama, Joe Biden, AOC, Maxine Waters, Tim Walz, and others is commonplace in the party. They attack America, denounce capitalism, call white working class folks racist, push victimhood and identity politics to racial minorities, don’t actually stand for anything, don’t have a consistent message, and obsess over Trump. The days of having Democrats the caliber of FDR, Harry Truman, Henry Wallace, Cordell Hull, Justice Jackson, Paul Douglas, LBJ, JFK, RFK, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, Thomas Eagleton, Sargent Shriver, Mike Mansfield, Robert Byrd, Barbara Jordan, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bob Graham, John Kerry, Wesley Clark, Dick Gephardt, John Lewis, Pat Schroeder, Patsy Mink, Bill Clay, Tom Daschle, Barbara Boxer, Lawton Chiles, Mel Carnahan, and Paul Wellstone are over. Don’t get me wrong, I have my criticisms of the right too. But in this case, the guilt here is not evenly distributed.
The Academic left encourages activism with no moral guardrails. Ditch the 10 Commandments and the Pledge of Allegiance and then find your truth amidst words are also violently victimizing you.
Hmmm.....Batya has a problem with...."the intellectuals."
Very Pol Pot of her.
Hmm....IRG "U Can't CMe" is back with their emotional ranting and name calling again. Actually sort of fits the profile of the other liberal "intellectuals" mentined here---few people would think of PolPot. NO mention fo the scewed, maniulated studies that are easy to show as one-sided..just name calling and snark. So clever. NOT.
Hmmm.....someone needs to look up the meaning of "emotional ranting."
I recommend Webster's Dictionary.
Yeah....there's a Georgetown Law School professor who kinda proves your premise wrong.
https://substack.com/@a1ssa/note/c-251243609?r=70wljy&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
And what if they don’t care to do anything about political violence? What if political violence is part of their plan to dominate America? Of course, along with gerrymandering and propaganda (or as they used to call it, “lying”)? What about that, Batya?
Same topic, different take: "Use this One Simple Trick to Avoid Serving 30 Years in Prison!"
https://directorblue.substack.com/p/try-this-one-simple-trick-to-avoid
Propose a new category: Blue Sky Assassin
Thank you Batya! All politician must denounce and condemn the political indoctrination going on in our schools. If not, we must never vote for any of them.
Yes---Education should be at the top of the--"This must be fixed immediately.." list.