QuoteIt pretty much guarantees a Trump victory in the election.
Yes, inches away from infamy. Crooks misses. Life is stranger than fiction, and Crooks dies a failure. I wonder if the thought went through his head before it was exploded by the secret service just how much he fucked up. I doubt it.
The thing is, Trump is not worth taking out. Trump is not the problem. American voters are the problem. With Trump gone you still have the MAGA army of ignorance who will soon enough find a new leader eager to do their thinking for them.
Twilight of empire is what it is. The Zeitgeist of a necrotic society will not cultivate civic or social responsibility. For every saint the troubles of collapse may cultivate, a hundred broken men and women are made by the same troubles. This ensures chaos will rule. The century of the self now cultivates a century of death.
QuoteWhy does the Secret Service find it necessary to kill him on the spot when he almost surely could have been non-fatally wounded?
Fascism rules by brute force. Taking a shooter OUT is TOP priority. It sends the appropriate message and if any bystanders are taken out that is totally acceptable and will result in ZERO disciplinary action regardless of how reckless and unnecessary taking Crooks out may have been. Taking the shooter out is the standing order. You can be sure of it. Murder by police is NOT a crime in America.
Crooks was taken out because everybody knows, that is how it goes.
I'm lucky I wasn't taken out when I flipped George Bush the bird. Would I do it again?
No, the risk/reward is not worth it.
With Trump gone the FSOA is still the FSOA. With Trump gone the FSOA still collapses. So the shooting was a stupid thing for Crook's to do. Blow-back makes Crook's effort worse than counterproductive. But what does a 20 year old know?
The William McKinley assassination was done by an 'anarchist' 1901. In the aftermath fear of anarchists led to surveillance programs which were eventually consolidated in 1908 as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Anti-anarchist laws passed in the wake of the McKinley assassination lay dormant for some years before being used during and after World War I, against non-citizens whose views were deemed a threat.
Down the road Crook's failure may result in the Diner getting put out of business. The Secret Service is our largest fan. That is not my imagination. I really did give George Bush the finger, and I was standing in front of our car when I did it. Next to our front license plate. They knew who I was before I got home.
The thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. Neither which Crooks knows. Because he no longer exists.
"I'm trapped dealing with the outside, let me out
I'm trapped on the inside, let me out
Hope dying slowly
You wonder that Crooks was taken out. In the old days Crooks would have been disemboweled, and while still alive, he would enjoy watching his intestines being burnt in a fire. When that happens I suppose you figure out you are driving down a one way street. Cul-de-sac ahead. You just want it over. Which happens after you were hung, but not hung until you were dead. As you were cut into four pieces after four horses tried to pull you apart you expired. My description may not have all the steps in the right order. I do not care. It was unpleasant.
Modernity does away with the drawing and quartering. The public cruelty of the old days had a serious drawback. It sent a message of terror well enough, it kept people in line. It quashed the rebellious spirit. But it also fostered discontent and made martyrs of people.
Modernity knows the better approach is to blow the brains out. End the story. Then a would-be hero becomes nothing. Not even a legend in their own mind. A forgotten footnote of history. Soon enough to be erased for all time after the FSOA falls and all the digital footnotes vanish.
Leon Czolgosz's his name is in books. Leon was taken alive after shooting McKinley. After his execution Leon's body was dissolved in acid, but it will take centuries before his name is gone from all the books it is printed in. Crooks does not get his name in a book. His memory will last as only as long as the power stays on. I do not think encyclopedias are printed any more.