Conspiracy theories and all that, but it's actually worse if this really was the product of extensive, institutional failure. It'd be better if there was a plot! This indicates the complete failure of all of our institutions... er, as did the Afghanistan situation, the "pier" to Gaza, the border situation, oh good gracious. The whole thing needs to be torn down and replaced, or not replaced where it's not helpful.
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As Prof Althouse put it in the survey she did on the subject, it's a right hand-left hand thing. I think it was mostly petty political stuff coupled with institutional rot that created the laxity in Trump's security. Somebody noticed but the identity of that somebody is still in the realm of speculation.
Add to your list of failures, the defeat of the Eisenhower strike group by the Houthis. They previously defeated French and British naval forces in the region.
I just posted at Ricochet:
I think it is most likely incompetence, but a particular kind of incompetence which is bred by the thinking of our present-day ‘progressive’ Left grafted on to general bureaucratic mindlessness. . A few of stores…
–In the UK in 2010, a woman was left at the bottom of an abandoned mineshaft for six hours, despite the fact that the human and technical capabilities to rescue her were available. Apparently, safety rules banned firefighters from saving her.
A senior fire officer at the scene admitted that crews could only listen to her cries for help, after she fell down the 60ft shaft, because regulations said their lifting equipment could not be used on the public. A memo had been circulated in Strathclyde Fire and Rescue stations months previously stating that it was for use by firefighters only.
The woman, who had two children, died as she was (finally) being rescued.
–This from Minnesota in 2017. When the fire alarm went off at Como Park High School, a 14-year-old girl was rousted out of the swimming pool, and–dripping wet and wearing only a swimsuit–directed to go stand outside were the temperature was sub-zero and the wind chill made it much worse. Then, she was not allowed to take refuge in one of the many cars in the parking lot because of a school policy forbidding students from sitting in a faculty member’s car. As the blogger Bookworm notes: Even the lowest intelligence can figure out that the rule’s purpose is to prevent teachers from engaging sexually with children. The likelihood of a covert sexual contact happening between Kayona and a teacherunder the actual circumstances is ludicrous. The faculty cars were in full view of the entire school. There was no chance of illicit sexual congress. But the whole nature of bureaucratic rules, of course, is to forbid human judgment based on actual context. Fortunately for Kayona, her fellow students hadn’t had human decency ground out of them by rules: “…fellow students, however, demonstrated a grasp of civilized behavior. Students huddled around her and some frigid classmates [sic], giving her a sweatshirt to put around her feet. A teacher coughed up a jacket.”
As the children were keeping Kayona alive, the teachers were working their way through the bureaucracy. After a freezing ten minutes, an administrator finally gave permission for the soaking wet, freezing Kayla to set in a car in full view of everybody. So I have no difficulty believing that they *really did* make a ‘safety’ decision based on the slope of the roof.
There was an Washington Post story citing other such examples, back when that newspaper still had some value. I'll try to excerpt and post some of them today.
See also the incisive comments of a Spanish naval administrator in 1797, on the subject of organizational cultures that succeed in war and those that don't.
https://ricochet.com/290284/organizational-culture-improvisation-success-and-failure/
From RealClearPolitics this morning, a summary of allegations:
"A Secret Service special agent or officer was assigned to the building rooftop where Thomas Matthew Crooks fired off the shots but never showed up for work that day.
"The explanation Cheatle provided for the unmanned rooftop – that she had placed agents and/or officers inside the building because the “slope” of the roof posted a physical danger – was nonsensical because there was a similar rooftop nearby where two counter snipers were positioned.
"Four Secret Service snipers were present at the Pennsylvania rally, but only two of them were from the highly trained Secret Service ranks. The other two, who were responsible for firing the shots that killed Crooks, were local law enforcement officers."
The third one caught my eye. It sounds as though the feds were paralyzed, and some local LEO took his career if not his life in his hands and took the shot. He'll probably spend the rest of his life regretting that he didn't take it sooner. The locals must be beside themselves.
https://archive.is/q0hyy#selection-881.19-881.161 Like all the MSM coverage I've seen so far, this NYT article (not behind a paywall) completely evades the hardest question: Why was the protectee not removed from the stage as soon as reports came in that there was someone crawling around on a roof within rifle shot? (This article claims, by the way, that a Secret Service operative on the "south barn" took the kill shot, while an LEO got off a round but may or may not have missed.) The NYT summary implies that the confirmation of a weapon came too late for a reaction on stage, which may possibly be true--apparently the cop who got hoisted up far enough to see onto the roof and see the gun, then fell back, barely had time to radio in what he'd seen before Crooks began shooting. But that was a couple of minutes after the crowd began alerting law enforcement that there was a guy crawling on the roof. It's hard to see how that's not enough of a threat to pull Trump off the stage, even if no one wanted to start shooting at a member of the public yet. It's several steps beyond "there's a guy walking around whose looks we don't quite like, but we're not up for killing him just yet."
Next Step: The government wanted to take out Trump, but couldn't due to incompetence. Realizing this, they set this shooter up to advertise how incompetent they are in order to attract competent hitters to future events.
The thing is, it was a reverse-DEI hire on this occasion; so even when they set aside their preference for diversity hires, they still can't get it done.
You know, it's so difficult to accept both the "incompetence" narratives AND the "conspiracy" narratives that the claim of "Divine Intervention" starts looking like the most plausible explanation on offer.
I should have said, EITHER not BOTH narratives of incompetence and conspiracy. Though incompetent conspirators are almost as easy to believe in as Holy Guardian Angels.
...the claim of "Divine Intervention" starts looking like the most plausible explanation on offer.
Yes, that was the subject of the Pulp Fiction post. It's hard to look at this and not think that God has chosen a side.
Which is t.e.r.r.i.f.y.i.n.g.
I have been to war three times. I’ve been mortared, rocketed, machine-gunned and shot at with Kalashnikovs. I once stood a bear off its kill to force him to let us pass on a trail. I ride motorcycles almost every day.
The clear footstep of God is the scariest thing I have ever seen.
I admit my terror. God is involved, and none of us are adequate.
Not a complete failure
They are still drawing compensation from the taxpayer tit, they are government men after all and sheep must be shorn!!!!!!
And what is better than shitting on the taxpayer while enriching oneself!
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