CNN has published an article summarizing the testimony of the Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner to a congressional committee on the almost-successful killing of The Donald. The testimony, if accurately reported, seems to contradict several other reports. While we cannot (and may never) know which are honest and which are mistakes or outright lies, what is revealed is a series of serious “rookie” or even “amateur” mistakes and examples of poor communication, poor planning, and poor coordination.

To us here at TPOL, highly biased and increasingly frustrated, this is just another entry in an encyclopedia entitled Why Governments Can’t Be Trusted.

Should we attribute it to arrogance, stupidity, or inability to reason? Or to malice, vicious intent, or Machiavellian conspiracy? We can’t read their minds. And frankly, we don’t think our stomachs would tolerate it if we could. It is the result we rail at. This time, mistakes (or intentional malicious acts and failure to act) only resulted in one father dead and three wounded. But add that spilled blood to the tens of millions dead, maimed, and wounded (or dead of war-related and government-caused illness) over 6,000+ years? The evidence is indeed damning. For we know that few of those at whose feet the blame for these things can be laid ever have or will repent of what they did and ordered.

So we will say that evil is involved: the evil of those who prey on their own kind as well as everything else that catches their eyes. But is that evil infected by stupidity? By arrogance? We think so – just don’t know how much. A little or a lot makes a big difference.

The fact that the various items of testimony and the (initial, at least) conclusions contradict each other is normal, and no surprise. Any incident or accident or crime investigator will tell you that is par for the course. (Read a typical Hercule Poirot or Cadfael novel.) No, it is the way the testimony and conclusions fit together. They smell of “Cover Your A**” tactics: the cops are forming ranks to stand up for the blue brotherhood – even if not all of them wear cop uniforms. The feebes, the successors to the Pinkertons, the jack-booted troopers of Pennsylvania, and the local cops all both come across as Keystone Kops and their own version of omerta.

All of which just promotes the wildest of the conspiracy theorists – especially given the bizarre nature of Uncle Joe’s throwing in the towel over the weekend. And the weird nature of the entire Democratic leadership’s actions and words.

And even us who believe in both the “accidental theory” of history and the “conspiracy theory” of history have to scratch our heads. Third – or fourth? – dimensional press? Or just two sneaky old checkers players in front of a general store? Or what? Madness or sub-sub-sub-basement deep games?

The typical criminal mind, we are told, is optimistic: they just know they can get away with it: theft, burglary, mugging, con art, killing. And sadly, they often do. Many people still believe that both Obummer’s first victory and Biden’s win in 2020 were the result of criminal – and certainly immoral – acts. Just as decades later we know that the Kennedy-Johnson ticket of 1960 stole the election. And that LBJ stole the 1948 Senate election in Texas.

But sometimes they outsmart themselves.

Consider some what-if scenarios.

If the killer had offed Donald J Trump a few days back, splattering his brains on live national television, what would the Democrats have done? Maybe play the conspiracy ticket and ask “What did they plan to do?”

But what if the assassin was supposed to miss and instead came close to succeeding? Did the SS sniper have orders to ensure that the kid would not talk? What if the autopsy results are … tampered with?

Is Uncle Joe’s current absence from anything and his cryptic and odd “I quit” letter (on X, no less!) something planned before the Pennsylvania attempt? Or Plan B? Or just sheer panic and funk? Rumors abound: he’s dead (and who would vote for her after 3 months of having her in office?). He’s too aged to be allowed to be seen in public. He’s confined because he was forced to sign. Except maybe that isn’t his signature. (Notice, no “Jr.” on that signature, and that odd line.) Or it is his signature under duress. Maybe (despite claims that Ms. Nancy threatened the 25th Amendment) his senility has progressed much further under the current stresses and he really is not able to be in public.

To parrot Dr. Suess, “Oh, the fun you’ll have” trying to second-guess the next political moves. Which checker gets crowned next? Which one gets captured? What if they are really Oreos and get eaten after capture?

Stay tuned.