[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

NEW – Shots fired at Trump rally while the former president was speaking:

Donald Trump was whisked off the stage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania after apparent gunshots rang through the crowd.

The former president and presumptive Republican nominee was showing off a chart of border crossing numbers during his last rally before the Republican National Convention opens Monday when bangs started ringing through the crowd. Trump could be seen reaching with his right hand toward his neck. There appeared to be blood on his face.

He quickly ducked behind the riser as agents from his protective detail rushed the stage and screams were heard in the crowd of several thousand people. The bangs continued as agents tended to him on stage.

The crowd cheered as he got back up and pumped his fist.

His motorcade has since left the venue. His condition was not immediately known.

BREAKING: 🇺🇸 Former President Donald Trump shot at rally. pic.twitter.com/SnQe62Vu4d

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) July 13, 2024

First news item

If you recall, I posted about “Pastor” Robert Morris of Gateway Church in Southland, Texas and his confession about “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” sexually assaulting a 12-year old girl when he was a young pastor. Now, Lawrence Swicegood, executive director of Gateway Media, has released this statement:

The inappropriate relationship Robert had with Cindy took place…more than a decade before Gateway Church was started. Questions regarding Robert and Cindy should be addressed to them.

Clearly, Gateway Church has learned nothing through this debacle. A 12-year old girl and an adult male sexually assaulting her are not in any kind of relationship other than one of predator and victim. Referring to the crime committed against the 12-year old as a “relationship” is a pathetic attempt to minimize the vile behavior of a man who stood at a pulpit for decades instructing others how to live while covering up his own heinous behavior.

Second news item

Problematic but unsurprising move by Trump lawyers in hush-money case:

Lawyers for Donald Trump are urging a judge in New York to overturn his conviction and dismiss the hush-money case against the former president, arguing some evidence “tainted” the trial and should not have been allowed under the supreme court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity. According to the New York Post, among the “tainted” evidence is a conversation between Trump and then-Communications Director Hope Hicks, where Trump tells Hicks that “it was better” if the story surrounding his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels came out after the 2016 election. “The use of official-acts evidence was a structural error under the federal Constitution,” lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in a court filing dated July 10 but released on Thursday, according to The Guardian. “The jury’s verdicts must be vacated.”

Third news item

Following in her husband’s footsteps:

Russian authorities on Thursday put the widow of deceased Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on a list of “terrorists and extremists,” continuing a sweeping Kremlin crackdown on the opposition.

Earlier this week, a Moscow court ordered the arrest of Yulia Navalnaya, who lives abroad, on charges of alleged involvement in an extremist group. The ruling means that Navalnaya would face arrest if and when she returns to Russia.

On Thursday, Russia’s Federal Service for Financial Monitoring followed up by adding Navalnaya to its list of “terrorists and extremists,” a designation that implies restrictions on bank transactions that has been widely used against opposition members.

It makes me happy that Putin views Yulia Navalnaya as a threat. Freedom, and those who advocate for it really scares the Kremlin thugs.

Fourth news item

Oh:

Adults in some U.S. states can now buy gun ammunition out of AI-powered vending machines right at their local grocery store.

The company that makes them argues it’s a safer way to sell ammo than online or off the shelf. But experts have raised concerns about increasing its availability in a country where gun violence is already widespread.

American Rounds LLC currently stocks its “automated ammo retail machines” in eight supermarkets across Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas (at least one was removed earlier this month from an Alabama location, per local news reports). They are launching another this week in Colorado and say many more are on the way.

Fifth news item

President Zelensky expresses his frustration while speaking at NATO:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continued his push for President Biden to lift restrictions on Ukraine using American-provided weapons to strike up to 300 miles inside Russia, bolstered by the U.K.’s decision this week to lift similar limits on its long-distance Storm Shadow missiles.

While the Biden administration has given Ukraine the greenlight to strike beyond Russia’s border near the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Zelensky is pushing for the U.S. to relent on its broader ban on striking military targets deep inside Russia, in place over concerns of provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin.

…

“We understand from what military base they attack us, and if they attacked us and killed our children in the hospital, that is crazy question why we can’t answer and attack this person, this military base, where from these guided bombs from jets, or missile came, targeted us, killed our children,” Zelensky said.

Sixth news item

I can’t criticize President Biden’s gaffes and flub-ups without pointing out that Donald Trump struggles with the same problem:

3 minutes straight of Donald Trump confusing and forgetting people's names, the names of cities he is in and more via @MeidasTouch.
pic.twitter.com/zckq8KNmWV

— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) July 11, 2024

Have a good weekend.

–Dana