Pay attention to what they do, not what they say.

Or put another way: Follow the money.

To wit:

"Two employees of RT, the Russian state media network, were indicted in a US court for allegedly being part of a scheme that funneled nearly $10 million to set up and direct a Tennessee-based front company to produce online content aimed at sowing divisions among Americans, according to the Justice Department.

Taken together, the actions represent the Biden administration's most significant public response yet to alleged Russian influence operations targeting American voters.

After the US accused Iran of trying to hack both the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns last month, Wednesday's expected actions are a reminder that US officials continue to see Russia as a prominent foreign influence threat to November's election, the sources said."

Where did the shooter get the gun? Was it one of the guns his father said he used for hunting and which he said Colt didn't have unsupervised access too?

If we want to start pointing fingers, in addition to the shooter himself, we can blame the father, the school, the county sheriff, local, state and federal politicians as well as that part of our society that glorifies gun culture. My 2 cents.

"Once again our intel agencies failed at their jobs. The school failed to take action and deemed the threat unworthy of following up on, but somehow passing legislation to ban certain firearms is going to fix this."

The FBI did its job by contacting the local police:

The FBI said its National Threat Operations Center had alerted local law enforcement in May 2023 after receiving anonymous tips about "online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time".

The agency said that within 24 hours investigators had determined that the threats originated in Georgia.

Sheriff's deputies interviewed the boy and his father, who "stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them", the FBI said.

The suspect, who was 13 years old at the time, denied making the online threats and officials "alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject".

"At the time, there was no probable cause for an arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels," added the FBI statement.

Is that an AR-15 he is touting around and firing at the end?:

Blue Georgia
@BlueATLGeorgia
Mike Collins represents GA-10 where Apalachee High School is located. Here's the commercial he made when he first ran for congress.

Yep:

Amanda Carpenter
@amandacarpenter
It says a lot that during the 2016 election Russia had to manufacture MAGA sock puppets and in 2024, they just had to throw big money at real-life MAGA puppets.

Have no fear, America, Trump will heal the world:

Aaron Rupar
@atrupar
Trump responds to Hannity bringing up the school shooting in Georgia by saying, "it's a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons. And we're gonna make it better and we're gonna heal our world."

Trump then touts his endorsement from Orban.

Brandon Van Grack
@BVanGrack
This election interference operation represents a significant escalation from 2016. In 2016, Russia created social media groups; in 2023, it created a media company.

Secrets and Laws
@secretsandlaws
Trump appeared on Tim Pool's podcast in May. They discussed whether the war in Ukraine would lead to World War III, and Trump pledged to give "serious consideration" to pardoning Julian Assange -- two favorite themes of Russian propaganda efforts.

WTG FBI - The FBI has confirmed that the alleged shooter who killed two students and two teachers and wounded nine others at a Georgia high school Wednesday has been on its radar as a possible threat since last year.
#74 | Posted by gracieamazed

It looks like the FBI turned the information over to local law enforcement and they were the ones who dropped the ball:

FTA:

The Louisiana Illuminator spoke with several doctors across the state that voiced extreme concern about how the rescheduling of misoprostol as a controlled dangerous substance will impact inpatient care at hospitals. Misoprostol is prescribed in a number of medical scenarios--it's an essential part of reproductive health care that can be used during emergencies, as well as for miscarriage treatment, labor induction, or intrauterine device (IUD) insertion.

But because it is used for abortion, misoprostol has been targeted by conservatives in Louisiana--an unprecedented move for a medication that routinely saves lives. A controlled dangerous substance has extra barriers for access, which can delay care.

Harris has been talking about her "platform planks" during her rallies. Next up:

Kamala Harris to Unveil Bold Plan to Jump-Start Small Businesses in America

Vice President Kamala Harris will announce a bold new proposal aimed at revitalizing small businesses, with tax cuts and red tape reduction as key pillars of her economic agenda.

Just a reminder of another accused wifebeater whose prison sentence Trump communted:

Police Arrest Loan Shark Whose Sentence Was Commuted By Donald Trump

A convicted loan shark and drug smuggler whose sentence was commuted by Donald Trump has been arrested for assaulting his wife and father-in-law.

The father of 41-year-old Jonathan Braun had hired Trump's impeachment lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, for legal advice on commutation.

In January 2021, just before leaving the White House, Trump issued 143 pardons and commutations, including a commutation for Braun.

Braun was released after serving five years of a 13-year-sentence for drug importation and money laundering.

Trump talks about doing it and Democrats actually do it.
#3 | Posted by BellRinger

You didn't read the article, did you?:

Conclusion: "Weaponization," Real and Imagined

When Trump's allies accuse the Justice Department of "weaponization," they generally are not referring to the examples during his presidency. Our list does not even include Trump's pressure on the Justice Department to stop criminal investigations into himself or his associates, nor does it include pressure on U.S. attorneys that led to at least three ousters: two in the Southern District of New York and one in the Northern District of Georgia.

This deeper understanding of the past events is not simply about Trump himself. It is also a lesson in how political leaders then and now choose to overlook or excuse it. How some of the best fact checkers don't account for it. And how American institutions have not fully reckoned with it.

Additional background info:

All Trump's Recidivists

It may have taken no more than ten days for Trump's pardon recipients to start criming again. That's unsurprising: For the people close to Trump (including Bernie Kerik, who played a key role in Rudy Giuliani's cultivation of the Big Lie), he often pardoned them so that they could put their skills to work for him.

Trump wants to fearmonger about the very small percentage of migrants who turn to crime.

But there's a far higher percentage of people whom Trump plucked from prisons (or spared from prison entirely) who turned back to crime.

Which is not surprising. These are Trump's people, after all.

Everyone knows Trump wouldn't have gone if he couldn't have used the event for campaign purposes. Too bad it wasn't pouring down rain that day because everyone knows he wouldn't have gone then either.

Army blasts Trump trip to Arlington cemetery for violating decorum

The Republican Party nominee for president took part in a wreath laying ceremony at the cemetery, then visited Section 60 of the cemetery, where many troops killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are buried. Shots of Trump smiling and giving a thumbs-up sign alongside service members' tombstones were later used in campaign spots.

It is an indisputable fact that Trump was endorsing himself during the TikTok video:

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY
ARMY NATIONAL MILITARY CEMETERIES
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
ARLINGTON, VA 22211-5003
SAAC-PAO 18 April 2022

MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD
SUBJECT: Media Policy for Army National Military Cemeteries

(8) Filming or photographing will not be permitted if it conveys the impression that
cemetery officials or any visitor or family member is endorsing any product, service or
organization. Additionally, ANC will not authorize any filming for partisan, political or
fundraising purposes, in accordance with the Hatch Act, 32 CFR 553, and AR 360-1.

FTA:

Trump reposted an unhinged batch of Truth Social replies calling for his political opponents to be prosecuted, judged, and locked up in prison. Trump and his close associates have signaled for a campaign of retribution if they return to the White House.

Trump reposted images of 27 individuals including Barack Obama along with the word, "coup d'etat." Trump believes these individual have done him wrong and has marked them for retribution.

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
I wonder how much different this election would look if local media in swing states would actually report some of the most vile and insane things Trump posts daily on Truth Social and says at his rallies?

Trump unleashed a new round of threats on Truth Social today, reposting Kamala Harris in an orange jumpsuit, a list of 27 people including Obama who should be prosecuted for treason, and a call to prosecute members of the J6 Committee.

Won't this count as lying for political gain? Yes, I believe it would:

There was an 18-month stretch that saw no combat, or "hostile," deaths in Afghanistan: from early February 2020 to August 2021.

There were two combat deaths reported in early February 2020, when Trump was president, and none reported again until late August 2021, when an attack killed 13 U.S. troops amid the exit from Afghanistan, during Biden's presidency. There were also several "non-hostile" deaths among U.S. service members in Afghanistan during that time frame, specifically in 2020.

Looking at other periods of Trump's presidency also tells a different story than the one he offered.

During the last, full 18 months before Trump left office in January 2021--from July 2019 to December 2020 --there were 12 combat deaths reported.

Further, the parents of those 13 who were killed approved in advance a photographer and videographer.
You can see it here:
x.com
#17 | Posted by BellRinger

It looks like the families of 2, not 13? 2 or 13, it doesn't matter:

A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent U.S. casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.

"with overlaid captions claiming Trump didn't lose a single soldier in 18 month"

Trump misleads on Afghanistan casualties

CLAIM: When former President Donald Trump was in charge, 18 months went by in Afghanistan when "we didn't lose one American soldier."

AP'S ASSESSMENT: False. There is no year-and-half time frame under Trump's presidency alone that no combat deaths among U.S. service members were reported. That occurred during the 18 months preceding the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which included months under the Biden administration as well.

During Trump's presidency, which ran from January 20, 2017, to January 20, 2021, there were 45 combat deaths among U.S. service members reported in Afghanistan, as well as 18 "non-hostile" deaths, according to the Defense Casualty Analysis System.

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski

First half of clip is JD Vance today saying he doesn't need a teleprompter like Kamala Harris because he's smart. Second half of clip is him minutes later calling Abbey Gate in Afghanistan "Abbey Road," which is a Beatles album.

Lawyer who drafted special counsel regulations predicts fate of Judge Cannon's deeply dangerous' dismissal of Trump's Mar-a-Lago indictment

A Supreme Court lawyer and former acting U.S. solicitor general who drafted the special counsel regulations in the late 1990s blasted U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's dismissal of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago indictment as "cuckoo" and all but certain to be overturned on appeal.

Noting that challenges of special counsels' authority have repeatedly flopped in the courts, perhaps most memorably during special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, Katyal recounted some legal history.

"I think the most important point about this . .is eight different judges over the last many years have rejected this exact argument," Katyal said, including the Trump-appointed judge who presided over the felony gun trial of President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden. "And the special counsel regulations that Jack Smith is appointed under, I should say by way of disclosure to all of our viewers, I drafted those back in 1999 when I was a young Justice Department staffer in connection with the entire Justice Department."

Katyal said that when he and then U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno went to Capitol Hill and briefed the House and the Senate on the regulations, there was no pushback of the kind seen in Cannon's dismissal order.

"Not a single person from either political party [in Congress] said a word about this kind of idea that the special counsel wasn't authorized and that's so because we've had special counsels for over a century, since the time of President Ulysses Grant," Katyal said. "And now this judge comes along, and with the stroke of her pen tries to undo these very serious accusations against Donald Trump."

Trump was invited but that doesn't change the fact that photographs and videos were forbidden.

Oops, here's the link: